In this scenario The Party is returning from a successful tomb robbery through the Forest of the Bandit King.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Man we got so much piety from that. All those orphans dying so near the catacombs we just cleared out? Jackpot!
GM: I can’t help but feel you are missing the spirit of the piety for burial concept.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): “Out with the old, in with the new” also applies to reusing grave sites.
GM: Anyway, you set off with dusk’s last light to cut through the Bandit King’s forest and return to town, a full night’s journey through the untamed wilderness.
Tom (Jack): Why aren’t we just going along the king’s road again?
Chuck (Abraham): Ancient pagan tomb or not, those are still the graves of the Duke’s direct ancestors we just ransacked
Tom (Jack): He doesn’t even admit he had pagan ancestors
Chuck (Abraham): That is before he knew they were loaded with gold. I am sure he would admit his ancestry if it came with this much inheritance.
Guy (Sir Vancierge): This still seems like a bad idea, we are kinda beat up
Kim (Thaugo): I agree, the Duke might want to rob us, but the bandits definitely will
Julia (Brother Cadmus): But we can kill the bandits if they ask for our loot
Guy (Sir Vancierge): Can we?
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Fuck yeah we can. They are outlaws.
Guy (Sir Vancierge): That's not.. Fuck it, lets just go.
GM: First off, does anyone have a light source to keep you from getting lost?
Kim (Thaugo): I guess I have a torch
GM: Ok, so next is travel procedure. You can all do two actions and since no one has a horse one of them needs to be taking a move action. Are you all just going to move and defend yourselves again?
Most of the group nods
Kim (Thaugo): I have Parkour, so I defend myself for free as I move. That gives me one extra action. I could keep watch, but I suck being size 2, so I’ll use my Herbalism skill to forage as my second action.
GM: No one is going to keep watch?
The GM is confirming this because he knows a bunch of bandits have planned an ambush based on the effects of hirelings that fled the tomb. He feels a bit bad and is hoping someone will step up.
Chuck (Abraham): No, whoever does that is just going to get peppered with arrows when they point out the enemy to everyone else
GM: Sir Vancierge has Guard, he could take a block action to protect someone while they keep watch and move
Chuck (Abraham): That is just asking for a fuckup with initiative at a key moment.
GM: Ok, you head off into the forest then
The GM rolls a d8, d6, and d4 to generate an encounter: 4-4-1. Trees with little undergrowth, no adversaries, and a berry patch. The GM: then adds the mob of 30 bandit archers to the encounter. Because no one is keeping watch, they can get as close as they want. They start 3 areas away since they are archers and that would be most tactically effective. They do need to actually hide behind something to be hidden, so they choose the berry patch as a terrain feature. Being archers trying to hide, they set up in a loose formation.
GM: Ok, so you all are midway through the night and hiking through the forest, an area of tall pines and only a handful of small bushes. Thaugo recognizes one unusually large patch in the distance as raspberry bushes. Roll initiative?
Tom (Jack): Are we in combat?
GM: Maybe, maybe not.
Tom (Jack): 4
Chuck (Abraham): 1
Kim (Thaugo): 2
Guy (Sir Vancierge): 3
Julia (Brother Cadmus): 2
GM: Ok, they have a 5. So you all are going to keep your standard travel actions before they go.
Tom (Jack): So combat?
GM: Oh yeah. You are walking along and reflexively keeping to cover, Thaugo inspecting the odd plant… when volleys of arrows fly out. They all target Thaugo since he has the torch. The attacks are at 8. Four sets.
Kim (Thaugo): No rolls?
GM: They are calm, but you guys are all still reckless from the fights in the tomb.
Kim (Thaugo): oof, 5, 18, 1 and 12
GM: Ok, Thaugo is struck by a flurry of arrows. This is a mob, so you are taking multiple dice of damage. For the first hit, the three arrows roll a 3,2, and 6. The six is repeating, the second die is a 4.
Kim (Thaugo): I am size 2, so I divide all the damages by 2. This becomes a 1,1 and 5. I also have light armour, so I then lower them all by 1. I only take the 1 hit for 4.
GM: How many luck points do you have
Kim (Thaugo): Currently?
GM: Yes
Kim (Thaugo): One, which I will spend. Giving me three damage.
GM: Then we come to the critical hit, which being a mob, is 4 dice. 1, 4, 5, and 5.
Kim (Thaugo): Using the same math as above, I ignore the 1 and 4 damage, and take 1 point for the two fives. I have now suffered five damage total.
GM: At the end of the round you all finish you move and it's the next round.
Guy (Sir Vancierge): Which direction did the arrows come from?
GM: From your right side
Guy (Sir Vancierge): So we didn’t actually move any closer to them?
GM: No, you are about the same distance, just on a different angle.. Anyway, The archers are on a 6
The party calls out their initiatives, all are under 6.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Man, we just can’t catch a break
GM: So what are you doing?
Tom (Jack): Can I shoot at them?
GM: You don’t know where they are exactly, they are still hidden.
Tom (Jack): I try to spot them then, in the direction the shots came from. I roll a 14 total on my Detection Roll.
GM: There is also a penalty for darkness, -5 as the arrows are coming from the dark. Also likely a distance penalty since you are just staring into the dark. You don’t see squat.
The GM: notes to themself the archers have had to spend an action to defend themselves
Chuck (Abraham): I take a block action to take cover behind a tree, and defend myself
Guy (Sir Vancierge): I try to spot them too, I roll a 16.
GM: You see nothing
Guy (Sir Vancierge): Really? How the hell did they see us if its so difficult
Julia (Brother Cadmus): We were walking along with a light source, you can’t hide with one.
Kim (Thaugo): Good point, I throw my torch in their general direction.
The GM rolls to see if it goes out, it does not.
GM: The torch arcs through the sky and lands an area closer towards them.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Oh! These guys need to spend an action to reload! I move two areas ..
Chuck (Abraham): wait don’t!
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Play your own character! I am screaming “Leeroy!...”
GM: Ok you are hit with 4 batches of arrows
Julia (Brother Cadmus): How?
Kim (Thaugo): They didn’t have to defend themselves last round, they fired and reloaded.
GM: Pretty much, yeah
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Ok, I can deal with this. I have providence and I am back to full luck. Got more than a few fates.
GM: Well all 4 are critical hits, so that's 16d6 repeating. You don’t have any armour so I’ll just roll them as one batch.
Tom (Jack): Do you have a bingo roller?
The GM: rolls a pile of dice, and rerolls the sixes
GM: 61 damage
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Well, I have full luck and 9 fates, if I roll really well I might be able to escape death.. Hell if I roll very very well I might avoid injury at all
Julia rolls 9d6, tallies the numbers and looks up
Julia (Brother Cadmus): I did not roll well.
Julia begins crumpling up the character sheet
Guy (Sir Vancierge): You still have 500 piety right? So you are in a state of grace?
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Feel free to carve my bones into relics
Guy (Sir Vancierge): No, I mean any priest could use your own piety to resurrect you.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): and my body won’t decay, so we don’t have a ticking clock
Julia uncrinkles her sheet and starts to smooth it out.
GM: Next round. Initiative.
The archers go on 2, Sir Vancierge on 1, Jack on 5, Abraham on 6, and Thaugo on 3.
Guy (Sir Vancierge): I move an area forward and defend myself.
Tom (Jack): Don’t we need to spot them first?
Guy (Sir Vancierge): They have to actually be hiding somewhere, if I physically search it I'll uncover them no matter what. It's too dark to spot them at a distance.
GM: Ok, they go next, they reload and fire
Tom (Jack): So they aren’t defending themselves?
GM: Probably not, unless they have the fast firing combat trick
Tom (Jack): Chuck and Kim, you should both try to detect and I can take a shot if you spot them.
GM: You all interrupting?
Kim (Thaugo): Naw, too many for one shot to matter
GM: Ok, 3 volleys go after Sir Vancierge and 1 after Thaugo. The volleys at Guy are at 9, the one at Thaugo is a 6 due to the change in light.
Kim (Thaugo): oh if I am being targeted I am interrupting
GM: Ok, make a detection roll
Kim (Thaugo): I am not going to spot them, I am going to throw an orb of fire. In their general direction and let area effect take care of it. I figure they are somewhere in the berry patch.
GM: Ok, roll to cast
Kim (Thaugo): Ok, I cast it at power level 3 and succeed in doing so. I do 6 damage to 3 targets, or 6 if they are clustered together
GM: Well they have no milestones, so no saving throws. You see a couple people stream out of the berry bushes on fire before collapsing.
Tom (Jack): So we’ve spotted them?
GM: Well you know where they are, but you still can’t see any specific targets. You could blindfire at -10 or keep making detection rolls to find their exact location. Though not right now since now we need to figure out their attacks… though the casualties reduce the mob scale so they get fewer attacks. One to three on a d4 and its one of the attacks on Sir Vancierge, 4 its the attack on Thaugo. 3, there is one less attack on Sir Vancierge.
Guy (Sir Vancierge): 8 and 23, looks like I took a hit. I have pretty good armour though so hopefully I’ll be fine.
GM: Ok you take 3, 1, and 6. The six repeats to… oh, another 6.
Guy (Sir Vancierge): Oof
GM: And another one
Guy (Sir Vancierge): Oh come on
GM: Oh fuck, ANOTHER 6
Guy (Sir Vancierge): I aint even mad at this point.
GM: and a 5. For a total of 29.
Guy (Sir Vancierge): and my armour absorbs 3. I only have 7 luck left, and 2 fates. I roll them and get 7 more luck. Allowing me to absorb 14 of the remaining 29 damage. I have 12 strength so I am dead.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Do you also have 500 piety?
Guy flips off Julia
GM: Then the arrows on Thaugo
Kim (Thaugo): I think we may be in some trouble.
GM: Did they hit?
Kim (Thaugo): Oh right sorry. I got a 10 on my defense, so no.
GM: Did you count the penalty for damage you’ve taken?
Kim (Thaugo): shit, no..so a 5. They did hit.
GM: They get a 5, a 4, and a 6.
Kim (Thaugo): Oh for fucks sake
GM: Which then repeats to a 4.
Kim (Thaugo): Using the size math that is another 6 damage, which is 11 total so I am incapacitated.
Tom (Jack): I use an action to try to spot those assholes in the Berry patch.
GM: Ok its three areas away and dark
Kim (Thaugo): I just set fire to three bodies
GM: Oh that's right! So no darkness penalties.
Tom (Jack): I rolled an 8, -3 for range and +2 for stealth for a total of 7. I don’t have a helmet and they aren’t defending themselves so that is a critical hit. Can I use my archery skill on the suspicion?
GM: How?
Tom (Jack): Being adept with bows, I am limiting my search to the places someone could hide will still loading and firing a bow.
GM: Makes sense, sure
Tom (Jack): Ok, I roll a 5, +1 for the skill, and double the result to 12 suspicion.
The GM notes they have 12 agility, so that spots them
GM: You see a group of just shy of thirty bandits hiding among the berry patch and nearby trees.
Chuck (Abraham): Oh fuck
Tom (Jack): Well, let this be a legend of when two stood against many, let it be known that when danger reared its ugly head
Chuck (Abraham): They used their actions to turn their tail and fled?
Tom (Jack): Correct. I still have one action left and they have gone so I am fleeing
Kim (Thaugo): Seriously?
Chuck (Abraham): They will probably take you alive
Kim (Thaugo): Why?
Chuck (Abraham): So their boss can get 25% of your XP for capturing you. By the way, I use my action to hide and then move. In a different direction than Tom.
Guy (Sir Vancierge): Who should my next Character be?