Thom turns to angle his bow in the direction of the hooded man, ready to sight and fire should the need arise.
As Luciu casts, Thom remains still, only the bead of sweat running down side of his neck indicating his tension.
[Initiative 8, Awareness 3]
Edwin tries to clamber over the tree trunk in front of them.
Nobody minds Edwin who simply proceed innocently down the road to climb over the fallen tree.
The raven crows again when Luciu makes his incantations, which are quick and effective. You can hear how the axe man starts to stumble, and bash into the branches and bushes. The hooded man makes less noise as he disappears from sight. Then there is whisper and confusion. «Cuddie! What happened? Wake up!» says a voice¹.
The grogs are alert, and the specialists look questioningly around as Edwin crosses the trunk.
You have a new round of action.
¹ Awareness+Per 6+ to make out the words, and 9+ for the precise name with confidence.
² Awareness+Perception 9+ to see the sleeping bowman swaying on his brnch; 12+ to see anyone else .
Luciu goes to make a speech, then realizes these people can't understand him. Hoping for a miracle, he looks up at the raven, and says in Latin, "Listen. If these are the servants of a covenant, you ought to know that I am Luciu of House Guernicus. You haven't done anything I'd need to report yet, but I'd suggest you stop now, before things go further. People know where I am, so a disappearance will be noticed and followed up."
When Luciu speaks, the raven almost stops in the air, crows loudly, and suddenly darts off to the North West.
The two specialists look at each other, and sneak behind the cart to follow Edwin's example.
Confused voices between the trees continue to discuss what is going on, without reaching a conclusion until the sleeping archer tips over and comes crashing down through. Then they shout their conclusion.
«Magic!»
«They are wizards!»
«The Devil is coming after us.»
«Kill the demons! Now!»
Two arrows are shot at Luciu from between the trees¹, but only hit the shield of the grog.
You need to keep your head down, master Luciu,
The grogs regroup and prepare for the next round, now paying attention to the forest.
You quickly glimpse another hooded figure by the trunk ahead. He quickly bends down, and it sounds as if he is trying to wake up his friend. You also hear somebody stirring in the branches, closer to the trunk behind. Up in the trees, somebody says in a commanding voice,
prepare your bows. We fire together.
The words are Saxon of course.
New round. I'll take actions concurrently, but resolve them in initiative order.
Awareness+Per: 3+ one archer who fired; 6+ both; 9+ archers who did not fire; 12+ the axeman; 15+ the fallen archer.
¹ Attack rolls 12 and 13. Defence 14 and 13.
Edwin, having clambered over a fallen tree, runs to find a tree to hide behind so he doesn't get hit by arrows.
Getting over the tree, Edwin finds himself only a few paces from the two hooded figures, one trying to wake up the other who has fallen at the side of the road. They take little notice of him, so he can hurry past to find a tree for himself.
Hearing the twang of bowstrings and the thunk of arrows striking, Thom doesn't hesitate to defend his new friends, even as the acrid taste of fear rises into his mouth.
He sights at the archer who fired [Awareness 4 vs 3 for firing archer], softly speaks a word, and lets fly an arrow from the Marksman's Bow.
[The Marksman's Bow: "When activated by command word arrows can travel as far as the bowman can see, and cannot miss, but are also resisted by MR. When activated the arrows inflict +10 damage.]
Thom swiftly knocks another arrow.
Luciu looks around, trying to spot the bandits who are still hidden from him, and he casts his spell again, targeting the men he sees that are still awake or waking up.
[Awareness 13
Call to Slumber, Pen 4, 13, 7]
The archers in the trees shoot first; four of them at once. Both of the grogs are hit twice, and grunt, but they have good armour and the wounds do not look deep.
Thomas shot next, hitting one of the four archers in the shoulder. Not as well armoured as the shield grogs, he screams.
Luciu is quick to think, and manages to target the remaining three archers who start waggling on their branches.
Luciu can also see the axeman stirring in a bush; possibly about to wake up but not awake yet. The two hooded men, you hear are starting to pull into the woods, but keeping their head down behind the fallen tree. «What happens?» they whisper. «Are you alright?»
To summarise, you see four perched archers, one wounded and three asleep, and you know of a fifth one who has fallen behind a bush. Luciu can see the axeman, and you know of the two hooded men who have full cover.
New round.
Having grown up around Roman soldiers, listening to their stories, hearing of their military ethos, Thom's reaction to his first experience of combat is expressed best by the way he grits his teeth, narrows his eyes, and sends another whispered arrow at the perched archer struck by his first arrow.
"Maybe we should run?"
The young Merinita knocks another arrow.
"Well fu*$!" grunts the six and half foot soldier whose stands beside Luciu. The giant of a man finally gets his heater shield around after taking arrows from the archers.
Jack Burton steps in front of Luciu, shield up, longsword gripped expertly.
"You wants me to rush 'em, sir?" he says in Latin though whether he is speaking to Luciu or Iago it is unclear.
... and by the way the two specialist have joined Edwin under the trees ...
Edwin prays silently, trying to keep his breathing under control so he can hide more effectively. He looks relieved when the specialists join him.
Luciu points to where he knows the two hooded men are. "Two are back there, either knock them out, or get them to where I can see them."
Then he readies himself to put them to sleep, too, when they come into view, standing up himself to get a better field of view.
The grogs can rush over to find the hoodmen quickly and get a good view. Other action would be next round. Do they both go?
The one bowman who was never cursed to sleep has notched an arrow ready to shoot.
Any other actions this round?
When he realizes the hooded figures will be more evasive than he thought, Luciu puts the axeman to sleep.
[call to slumber with 0 pen, takes 1 fatigue]
Jack nods to Luciu and "rushes over to find he hoodmen."
The large shield grog brandishes his sword toward the two hooded fellows.
"Put your hands up, ye nobs, and step out here where we can see you. Or you get the pointy end." He gestures toward an open space within view of Luciu.
The remaining bowman shouts, «Shoot! What happened to you? Focus!» Then he shoots. The shield grogs sent for the hoodmen, the arrow aims for Luciu (attack roll 10; please roll defence). Then the bowman is hit by the arrow from Thomas' magic bow, and grunts as he starts moving away, trying to climb to the next tree. (On an awareness+per 6+ you can see that he has a bad arm from the first hit.)
Luciu, has to roll the defence; if it fails he also needs to roll Concentration+Int 15+ for the spell. If either one succeeds, the fleeing bowman falls to sleep.
The other three bowmen are snoring. One crashes down into the bushes, but two of them get stuck between forking branches. One of them looses their bow.
The axeman is grunting, half asleep in his bush.
The grogs, and also Edwin, can see the hoodmen withdrawing into the forest, shouting to their comrades to wake up and get cover. When Jack arrives with his command, they snort. «Just to let you hand us over to the wizard? Do you think we are mad?» says one. «You can take our lives, but you won't get our souls,» says the other. «Save your own!»
The forest is dense where the hoodmen escape. Jack can reach them next round, but actions are at -3 because of the branches and bushes. Iago is behind, unsure how he can best help Jack.
Jack growls out a profanity and then moves over to disarm the axeman.
Thomas holds his bow knocked, looking over as Luciu attempts to cast again.