Dargrimm falls in line a pace behind Gerdeth and two to her flank.

Daphne paused as the others walked towards the noises and cast her defensive spell.

OOC:  Cast Mage Armor

As the drumming and chanting grow louder, the party advances toward the open gate. When they reach the gate, they spot a band of about 20 kobolds dragging two catapults with them. Upon spotting the party, the kobolds let loose a volley of arrows and quicken their pace.

Gerdeth raises her shield as the kobolds loosed their volley of arrows.

"Well, I guess diplomacy is out." Gerdeth grumbled through clenched teeth.

"Indeed," Qamar sighs as she takes cover behind the palisade. "Do you think we can get this gate closed?"

"Yes, let's Absolutely close these gates! "
Daphne went to help.with that
This message was last edited by the player at 18:37, Sun 12 Mar 2023.

Gascon takes a peek out around the gate and quickly pulls his head back as a volley of arrows flies towards him. As he looks back at the others, he makes his rebuttal calmly. "First, I'm going to point out that even with the gates closed we cannot defend the entire perimeter by ourselves. Second, if we only close the gate most of the way the kobolds will probably just try to force their way through the gate. It might let us take them on in a more manageable fashion." He joins in the effort to help close the gates regardless.

Daphne, feeling nervous about the kobold mob outside, sighed with frustration as she helped fasten the gates, which she hoped would at least slow the kobolds.
"You're probably right, but what would you suggest?  I mean, this isn't out town, so I guess we can just try to leave out the back or something, if there's a back, that is.  Or we can fall back to a building and make our stand.  And where IS everyone?  There's no way that the kobolds could have kidnapped them.  Did they just abandon the town in fear and leave us here?  None of this makes sense!!"
She realized that she was babbling a bit in fear, but she couldn't help it.

Gerdeth readied her axe. It would take some time at least for the kobolds to defeat their defenses and as the first kobolds entered through the gate, Gerdeth would be ready...

Dargrimm moves to help the others with the gate.  He's ready to drop the task if the kobolds get to them.

Straining against the gate, Gascon still has time for quips. "We'll make a fighting retreat of it. Don't worry, I've been in far more dangerous situations."

In reply to Gascon (msg # 936):

Daphne shrugged.
"I'm no expert on war, but I'm guess that even if we close the gate, the kobolds will try to breach the walls there.  I'm presuming that we don't have to leave the gate partially open for them to want to go through that part of the wall, right?"

"They wouldn't have brought that catapult if they didn't mean to come in anyway.  We may actually get them to come in a smaller hole by leaving the gate cracked.  I'd bet we could take out a hundred goblins if they can only come in one or two at a time."

Dargrimm glanced back out as he pushed the gate.

Gerdeth stood ready with her axe, there we too many variables to account for, the skill of the unit, the proficiency of the commander, so she didn't. She was only sure of two things, her skill and the lethality of her axe.

The party closes the gate as the kobolds fire another volley of arrows and continue their approach.

Once the gates are closed, the heroes can still hear the kobolds chanting and drumming on the other side.

Daphne looked at her Traveling Companions.
"Okay, I think that Gascon's plan of 'run away like smarp people' might now be a good option"

Gascon raises a finger to make a point. "Fighting retreat. Also, we need to find out what's going on."

Her basic fire spell was fairly long range, so Daphne joined the others in retreating, but checked back every so often to see if a spell attack might be warranted

The heroes hear one of the catapults fire, then a large cage flies over the palisade wall and lands in the courtyard in front of the inn, breaking open. Most of the occupants of the cage--rats--died upon impact, but six of them emerge from the mess and rush toward the heroes.

Begin combat. There are six rats.

Gerdeth Thunderfoot rolled 4 using 1d20+2 ((2)).Initiative
Bonus Action: I would like to Rage. :)
Gerdeth moves to interpose herself between the group and the rats.
Gerdeth attacks the rat nearest to her.
Gerdeth Thunderfoot rolled 5 using 1d20+3.  Attack with axe(Miss. No damage rolled)

Gascon calls out to the group: "We had better see to our back line! Qamar, hit them with something nasty!" Then he joins Gerdeth in charging into melee with the rats. Green fire lights along the halfling's blade, but his first blow fails to make contact with the agile rodents.

Move: Engage the rats.
Bonus Action: Bardic Inspiration (d6) for Qamar.
Action: Cast Green Flame Blade (miss).

Gascon rolled 12 using 1d20+2.  Initiative.
Gascon rolled 8 using 1d20+5.  Rapier attack.

Daphne was horrified by the assault of the rats.  She was angry at rats being abused so badly, but also the idea of being eaten by rats was a literal nightmare.

Trying to move back, she used her fire spell on the rats, though she might have miscalculated the distance

OOC :  Move = Retreat as much as possible
Action=  Fire bolt
17:20, Today: Daphne Peatmonger rolled 8 using 1d20+5.  Fire bolt

Rats? I was not expecting that...

Qamar moves behind the warriors and fires a shot from her crossbow but misses badly.

12:43, Today: Qamar Silesa rolled 8 using 1d20+4.  Attack.
12:43, Today: Qamar Silesa rolled 19 using 1d20+2.  Initiative.

Dargrimm is surprised by the onset of the rats.  He attacks one with his warhammer but misses - badly.

13:30, Today: Dargrimm Ironbeard rolled 6 using 1d20+2.  Attack.

13:29, Today: Dargrimm Ironbeard rolled 11 using 1d20.  Initiative.

Gerdeth growled? as her axe missed the rats and she turns hefting her axe out of the ground. "Nimble little buggers..."