"The Party awoke to the sound of bells and the smell of smoke on the wind. A sense of dread washed over Will - he knew only too well what it meant, it had once been him setting the fires. Was this fate laughing at him?
The trail of refugees coming within the dubious protection of Winterborne's pallisades filled in the details. A border raid by forces of the Black Baron from the north, burning homesteads and looting.
There was only one thing to do. Harness up and go out to see what they could do to help"
(Turn 8 started out simply enough, the party had undertaken their various village actions, having a polite conversation with a merchant, gaining some rations).
Along the way they encountered a Monk tending to refugees who, seeing they were seeking to help, and not soldiers or looters out to capitalise on others misery, spoke kindly with them and gave them his blessings.
However it wasn't long before they encountered the enemy - a group of soldiers looting the toll house next to a bridge. They were sufficiently distracted by their efforts breaking down the toll house's door that our heroes were able to get close (10" before being spotted). grabbing their weapons, they left two to break in a loot, while the rest dealt with whoever these fools were who thought they could interfere.
(this was a combat travel encounter, against a 'border' threat consisting of 7 raiders. Two were archers (I treated them as crossbows to match available models), one was a 'Heavy Hitter' (+1 vs toughness and armour), one was 'craven' and one was a 'wimp'. The adventurers objective was to 'disrupt the job of the other group'. I interpreted this as stopping them looting - I decided the two worst raiders (the wimp and craven ones) would be doing the looting, and would roll a die per raider per turn. On a 4+ they had found some decent loot and, once 4 successful rolls had been made, the raiders would try to leave over the bridge).
The raiders battering down the Toll House Door (one archer guards the bridge, just off to the right)
"Main the walls!"
Will and Jocelyn took cover behind a dry stone wall by the roadside and engaged in an entirely unproductive archery duel with the crossbowman in the courtyard, with neither side achieving much despite the short range due to the stone walls between them. Thomas took Oswald and Finan towards the bridge on the right, to cut off the looters escape (and deal with the other crossbowman), keeping to the shelter of the roadside wall. Meanwhile Robert, Gregory and Guy went left to hook around the far side of the raiders.
Robert, Oswald and Finan go right...
...and Robert, Gregory and Guy go left.
As Thomas' band closed on the archer on the bridge, forcing him to retreat behind the bridge parapet, Jocelyn finally manged to drop the crossbowman in the courtyard with a well aimed bolt. Will seemed unable to find a mark at all, perhaps too distracted by memories of being on the other side in the past.
Grrr, we're fierce! Back away!
Meanwhile Robert vaulted the wall into the courtyard (next to the privy), only to be met by the heavy hitter and another raider. Faced with a two on one combat he started by fighting defensively while Gregory and Guy caught up (Robert had a 'fast' action, while the other two were slow). A well timed counter blow (a natural six rolled while fighting defensively) allowed him to regain the initiative and, whilst he couldn't land a telling blow on either opponent, he was able to force them back, where Gregory was able to fell one of the raiders with his hammer.
"I'll take you both on at once, you scoundrels! (but what is that smell?)"
Robert immediately followed up and struck down the raider's heavy hitter in single combat. Meanwhile the two raiders inside had finished their looting and emerged back into the courtyard. Faced with the chaos they formed up with the other remaining soldier, planning to break out over the bridge with their ill-gotten gains.
"Just you and me now!"
However it was not to be. Despite Oswald taking, and shrugging off, a crossbow bolt at close range, he and Finan were able to drive off the remaining crossbowman, who decided he was not being paid enough for this sort of thing and fled back across the bridge. The 'craven' raider also decided he had an important reason to be elsewhere and fled, leaving his two comrades to face Robert and Gregory with their bloodied weapons, backed up by Thomas and Guy.
