You've come up with the perfect signal there. Let's do that.

...that is a tremendous signal.

Let's see if you get to use it

So yeah, a quick stretch and meditation in the shed, and Mal has prepared his maneuvers and such. I may make a comical post about this. Or not.

You'll have to wait and see.

Maneuvers Readied:
Sapphire Nightmare Blade
Counter Charge
Clinging Shadow Strike
Blistering Flourish

Stances:
Stance of Clarity
Child of Shadow

I'll begin in Child of Shadow.

The gritty numbers.

Of the four searching the hut, I assumed the three lower bonuses would "aid another" for Calopee, with her whopping +9 to search. All three succeeded, giving Calopee +15 in addition to her roll of 8, resulting in a search roll of 23.

Mal managed to almost do that himself, rolling a 16 along with his +3 bonus for a 19 to search the shed.

Everyone was assumed to take 20 on the hide check as there was sufficient time, save Mal, who only needed to succeed on a DC 10 to avoid revealing himself through cracks in the door. This resulted in rolls of 16 for Relos, 20 for Tristan, 22 for Sehanine and 35 for Calopee. Fun fact, Calopee could have been on fire and probably hidden in that wheat field, though there are other implications of that.

The rider came up and did some spotting, rolling a mighty 2! Coupled with his bonus (WHICH REMAINS A MYSTERY, BUM BUM BUM) he didn't spot anyone. His horse on the other hand, rolled a 12, which coupled by a horses +4 to spot resulted in a 16, and in the event of a tie the higher modifier wins it and +4 beats -4 so a horse...actually spotted Relos. Good thing horses can't offer much in the way of information, as even the +circumstance bonus the rider got against Relos from his horse's interest in the area was nowhere near enough to make up for his roll of 2.

Important to note though, Jozan was totally spotted by a horse. Goddamnit Jozan.

In a moment I will post up an updated map with locations of everyone and everything. For the purpose of acting you guys currently have a surprise round. So you each have one action before the riders are aware of you. Initiative for the surprise round is as follows.

Tristan 26
Malachi 16 (wins tiebreaker)
Relos 16
Calopee 7
Sehanine 3

Yes, Tristan rolled a 20 and Sehanine rolled a 1 for initiative. Such is the law of averages I guess. Map coming up, get to thinking team!

For reference:
Again, each square is a 5' square normal for D&D.
Each character is denoted by the first letter of their name.
The red dots are the riders in studded leather armour.
The black dot is the "leader" in the chainshirt.
Each group of red dots has a lit torch between them, no one has any weapons drawn.

The door to the hut is closed by two riders went in there.
The door to the shed is closed, and opens both ways.
The wheat obscures view if you're looking through 10' of it or more, currently not affecting anyone.
The horses are grazing in the grass to the west of the hut, they are not tethered to anything.
The party has a surprise round, one standard action each.
For the purpose of your lying in wait in ambush, you may each have one weapon of your choice out and ready to attack.

Questions?

Is tonight's post qualification to use lethal force? We certainly need to know more, but only really need to capture one or two for that.

well relos will give a chance to yield first, if not and they draw blades then all gloves are off.

How many gloves is Relos wearing?

I'm all for giving them a fair chance to surrender, but, as far as I've seen they have proven their evil intent, and they outnumber us. A pack of dogs will always attack when they feel they have the numbers. This will end one way. I'm hoping Tristan and Sele keep our position secreted, but either way, with a surprise round at hand, I'm throwing stones.

Mal is going to make some noise in the shed. That ought to get them distracted.

All this giving them a chance to surrender sounds like a mighty fine way to get something set ablaze in an attempt to subdue us or escape. Thay have already stated that intention, they would just be moving up the timetable.

*evaporates*

So, giving them the chance to surrender would be the honorable thing. Let's not do that. I agree with Philo and Chessic, their intentions are pretty clear. Let's take them out. Leave one of them alive for Sehanine to charm and question.

Save the honcho kill the rest?

works for me

Tristan will most likely go after the one nearest him, with intent to kill, unless Sehanine (being the only one within discreet communication distance) has a better idea. He hopes that Calopee will stone the leader, whom she has line of sight on, but freely admits he's no stone expert, and bows to her wisdom in the matter.

But seriously, thats what I'm thinking atm.

*evaporates*