Turn 3 -- The Battle

After the initial shock of the ambush wears off the quiet country road becomes complete chaos. With curses, threats, and battle-cries to patron deities most of the group storms into the woods after the bandits. The most surprising of all being the stream of curses and insults flowing from the mouth of Gnore WitherCourage as he draws his sword and heads into the woods. It appears that the quietest and most withdrawn member of the group comes out of his shell in combat! The insults fly in Dwarven, Orcish and Common alike.

From Zir'zool there is a flash and whirl as both her swords are drawn and she spins them in front of her before charging into combat in the woods. With a shout of praise to Mielikki, Kersath follows her.

"By the right hand of Tyr, you shall face justice!" shouts Randor as he charges into the woods, his warhammer swinging over his head.

"Glory to Ironrock!" shouts Ortho as he draws battle-axe and charges forward.

"Wait you fools! You've left us outnumbered and the chest in the open!" shouts Talimar as the men who you thought were simple farmers attack the remaining party members. The only members that stayed with the chest are Talimar, Beleg, Rasmussen, Dain, and Druckner.

"To me!" shouts Beleg as he draws his great bastard sword, lowers the face guard on his helm and sets his shield to place himself between the closing farmers and the pack horse. The biggest 'farmer' who appears to be the leader points to Dain and Talimar and yells, "Get those two!". The other 'farmers' close to surround the party and attack.

Dain jumps to the side and takes a glancing blow from a club of one of the farmers (1hp) but more importantly he drops the cured piece of leather to complete his spell and interrupts his casting. Dain makes an attempt to attack the man with his staff but is ineffective. The leader of the group attacks Kre with a large club as Kre had stepped in to protect Dain's back but his attack is foiled by the quickness of the thief.

You hear a sickening crunch and see blood fly as Beleg's sword comes crashing down on the collarbone of one of the farmers and continues on down into his chest. The man's eyes bulge as the realisation hits that he has now drawn his last breath on this earth.

In the woods, Gnore encounters the first of the archers as he has dropped his bow and taken out a longsword to attack the party. "Stand still and die like the whimpering, frightened asses that you are!" shouts Gnore as the bandit avoids his attack. The bandit comes back with a vicious blow from his longsword catching Gnore on his right leg and dealing him a serious blow (7hp). Kersath meets the second archer and tries to cut him down with his longsword but the man nimbly steps aside and tries to return the blow but is blocked by Kersath's short sword in his left hand. Ortho comes out of the woods and with a cry of "Pestkiller!" , swings his axe at the bandit engaged with Kersath but the startled archer falls to the ground to avoid the blow. The last archer meets Brother Randor as he comes crashing into the woods but he misses the holy man with his longsword. Randor returns the blow but misses as Zir'zool comes around a tree and attacks the archer with her sword but also misses.

Kre tries to return the attack of the leader with his dagger but is unsuccessful as another of the farmers makes a feeble attempt to attack Beleg. Druckner shouts a war-cry and swings a mighty blow at the third farmer who was trying to come up behind Beleg but he misses the man. Druckner sees the mans mouth open and blow flow from his mouth as he reaches back to feel the dagger in him. When the man falls Druckner sees the smiling face of Rasmussen as he removes his dagger from the mans back and cleans it. You hear a loud "clang!" as the last farmer to arrive meets Beleg's great shield with his club.

The group around the chest begin to hear a few words of chanting and see a little dust fly in the air from the hand of Talimar and then the remaining 3 'farmers' attacking them fall to the ground asleep.
"Quick, disarm them and bind them before they awaken," says Talimar as he kicks one of the clubs away from the man that attacked Dain. Beleg, Dain, and Druckner each tie the men up and look to the trees to see if any other attackers come out. Kre eyes the captives warily and contemplates slitting their throats right now.

The sounds of combat from the trees increase as the remaining bandits now become desperate and look to escape. With another insult at the archers great-great-grandfather and all after him, Gnore lands a mighty blow from his axe to the mans chest, causing him to clutch at it feebly in the hopes of keeping his innards from falling out. He falls to the ground unsuccessful. Randor and Zir'zool finish off their assailant, Zir'zool crying "Wait! We should take him alive!" , right before Randor lands the death blow saying with no apparent emotion "Tyr has judged you and your punishment is death." After watching his other companions fall the last archer drops his sword and pleads for mercy from Kersath and Ortho. After some debate they decide to let him live and march him back to the main group.

The battle has ended, lasting only a few minutes, and as you all return to the road and gather round you have a feeling of triumph for faring so well in your first combat together. That feeling is short lived!
"You impetuous fools!" cries Talimar, "I would have expected such rash behaviour from the humans but I expected my Elven brethren and even you Dwarves to show more intelligence than to run off into the woods leaving the rest of us outnumbered with potential enemies in our midst!"

"Mind what you say Elf," says Gnore, "Gnore WitherCourage will not cower in the road while there are enemies in the woods shooting him with arrows!"
"Take it easy you fool," says Brother Randor as he tries to bandage Gnore's wounds, "If you get all excited and break open this wound you will surely bleed to death!"
"No one here is doubting your courage my friend, only that in this situation that bravery could have cost some of us our lives," replies Beleg. "I believe the point that friend Talimar is trying to make is that we need some type of leader to instruct us on tactical situations as well as others at times. I believe that since Talimar brought forth this discussion he should lead the group if he is willing. What say you all?"

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