When the presumed bandits came out of the wood around the cart and demanded that they halt the group moved, slowly, into action.  D’Harum seemed to take the lead, stepping up to the head of the horse and declaring herself a monk of Helm while turning a demand for identification of the strangers.  While the others turned their attention to the monk the party used the opportunity to move up.  Those in back were still under Uthal’s Pass Without a Trace spell and they crept up on the back set of archers.  As far as they could tell, they remained unnoticed. 

               Soledad was the one who would trigger the action.  After moving up 30’ she targeted a Stinking Cloud spell just a bit over 20’ in front of the horse and cart.  Suddenly a billowing cloud of stinking, nauseating, yellow fumes burst forth.  The man in the middle of the road, the two archers behind him, and the man who had been speaking from atop the rock were all caught in its grip.  Because of the putrid, yellow cloud you couldn’t see what impact it had on those within, but even at a distance the sound of retching was audible.  At least a couple of those within seemed unhappy with the contents of their stomachs.  But the exact results were unknown. 

               Seeing the cloud appear and knowing the fight was on Uthal cast and flung an ice knife at the back archer on the left.  (Those in front of the cart are too far away and not visible.  The lady by the cart would require hitting your horse and D’Harum when the blade shatters, so a back archer is the logical choice based on your description.)  The blade struck the man (human) through his studded leather armor and then exploded sending bits of sharp ice around him.  Nobody else was within range to be hit by the ice, but man seemed in a lot of pain afterwards.  (-4hp on the initial hit, -10 for the exploding dagger for -14 total.) 

               Thaoran, also seeing action all around him also lined up his shot at the bandit archer in back on the left.  He was disgusted to see his first shot fly wildly astray as he hurried the shot.  (Natural 1 on the roll, you might have hit a random squirrel!)  But a deep, calming breath before his second shot planed the arrow right in the middle of the bandits chest  (-8hp)  Even as the man reached to pluck some ice from his wounds he suddenly toppled back into the woods, dead.  The other archer in back looked towards the group in back with wide eyes. 

               D’Harum, her comments made saw the group attack and launched into attack mode.  She spun around the front of the cart horse (narrowly missing the gas) and swung her staff at the woman holding the horses bridle.  Her staff tuck with a solid thunk.  (-8hp)  spinning quickly she struck again with her staff but the woman was able to dodge the blow, just barely.  But not yet done, the monk then kicked out with her foot and caught the woman in the thigh (-7hp) for a staggering blow.  She might have gone down (injured, not dead) from the below but managed to keep her grip on the horse’s bridle and used it to keep her feet.  (Monks get 2 attacks plus an unarmed attack each round.  No ki point usage was indicated.) 

               Gerdar and Fenris grabbed their weapons and prepared to enter the fray.

Overview of the situation

The battle has commenced and the strangers will get a chance to respond this next turn.  Also, one of the awkward things about play-by-post is that you have to tell me what you want to do for the round before finding out what those with a higher initiative roll have done for the turn.  With this in mind I want to remind you about the held action.  This means that you describe a potential event and say “if x happens, I will do Y.”  For example, with part of the enemy now hidden behind a stinking cloud Gerdar might say, “If someone appears out of the cloud, I will attack them.”  In that case, if someone appears – he attacks.  If nobody does, he does nothing.  Also, most (All?  Gotta check) of you now have two attacks per round.  You can make them on different targets if you wish.  The more specific you are the more closely I can follow your wishes.

Right now the situation looks a follows:

In the cloud – 4 figures.  ½ orc in the road, the speaker and two forward archers.

D’harum and the injured woman by the horse.

Gerdar by the cart

Fenris in the cart

50’ back of the cart – one archer on the right side of the road.  (Other dead)

20’ back of the archer – Uthal, Soledad and Thaoran.

D’Harum seemed at ease as she waited for a response from the arrogant leader, though inside she was posed to spring.   Whether she would get a response or not, she wouldn’t know as her traveling companions sprang into action.  She only hoped her words did at least offer some distraction for their adversaries.

At once she sprang into action, maintaining her grip on the other side of the reins, she ducked quickly under the cart horse’s head, she came up swinging her staff at the woman standing on the other side.  her staff struck true the first time but the return stroke only grazed the woman’s clothing, she finished up with a sweep to her opponents legs, striking her thigh.  The woman stumbled but didn’t go down thanks to her own grip on the horse’s reins.

D’Harum would settle that in short order; keeping her grip on the horse’s reins, she brought her staff in a hard upstroke towards the woman hoping to take her out quickly.  While attacking with her staff, she tugged on the reins to keep the horse under control so it wouldn’t wander into the dangerous cloud of gas.  

(She will attack the woman with her normal full attacks until she is down unless she is attacked by someone else.  If any arrows come her way, she will defend herself with her ‘deflect missiles’, but her main focus is the woman.) 

"Don't kill them if ye don't have to!", Gerdar shouted to the group, then turned towards the bandits, holding his axe to the side:

"Aight me lads and lasses, I'massuming  ye dinnae like the monsters that roam these lands nowadays aye? I'm 'ere to solve that issue - me axe is called Gobber Chopper fer a reason. Would ye really bicker with a man who could make yer homeland safer?"

(I would like to persuade.)

Beneath the cover of her ally's spell, Soledad drew primal power up through the land. Intoning a wordless incantation the witch spun the threads of all that lay hidden beneath the dirt–rotting plants and bodies, excrement and stagnation, remnants of venom–into a horrendous curse. Uttering a final note, she snapped her golden fingers and a putrescent yellow cloud of noxious fumes swallowed the lead bandits. Although they were obscured by the billowing fumes, the sounds of wretching were clearly audible bringing a cruel smile to the witch's lips.

Not waiting for a response, Soledad summoned another spell. This time she drew upon the ancient fey magic that ran through her veins to lay a web of slumber upon the two nearest archers.

((OOC: Back post for the Stinking Cloud. This round she cast Sleep using a level 2 slot to target the archers at the back of the caravan.))

Uthal starts a run toward the last remaining archer. He moves quicker than usual as his body transforms. His feet meld into large claw like talons, and his face protrudes, elongated with ferocious, sharp teeth visible as he snarls as he shape-shifts into a polar claw foot raptor. Thick, snow-white feathers cover its body. He sprints past the archer (like a large ostrich), stopping 35’ back from the cart. He snorts and snarls aggressively, shaking his head back and forth while his eyes dart around as if searching for prey.

Ooc: counting on your sleep spell, Soledad.

When the group launched their sudden assault on the presumed bandits it was obvious that the strangers were not used to people fighting back.  The young woman holding the horse and being battered by D’Harum stayed on her feet thanks to her grip on the horse’s bridle.  Getting her bearings, she quickly let go of the horse and moved 30’ backwards into the woods, being careful to avoid Soledad’s Stinking Cloud.  (Disengage as an action so no attack but also not provoking an attack of opportunity.) 

               D’Harum seeing her foe retreat wasted no time following after.  The monk quickly moved through the trees and caught her fleeing foe.  One solid smack on the back sent the woman sprawling on the ground – unconscious.  Quickly looking around she saw another archer in the woods about 15’ away from her, previously unseen in the woods.  She prepared to defend herself if needed.

               Uthal, meanwhile, transformed into a Polar Raptor (Imagine a raptor dinosaur but suited to the cold areas that were Uthal’s home.) and ran towards the action up front passing the last archer in the rear with a snarl.

               Towards the back of the group one archer still stood.  Surprised by the large white raptor sprinting past him he nevertheless spun, spotted Soledad (Despite the Pass Without a Trace spell, making an attack such as casting a spell does make you much more notable.) and fired an arrow.  It struck its target but a quick dodge to the side at the last moment saved the elf from significant damage.  (-3hp but made the concentration save to keep Stinking Cloud.)  But she did not look pleased.  Perhaps it was the look on Soledad’s face that made the archer turn and move quickly 30’ away into the woods.

               Indeed the witch was not pleased and looked after the fleeing archer and cast sleep.  Even from a distance it was not hard to see the archer fall to the ground, presumably asleep.                

               Thaoran, seeing the opponents at the back fall, moved forward on the heels of the snow white rapter.

               In the woods not far from the Stinking Cloud another bandit with a bow stared at D’Harum where she stood over the body of the unconscious woman.  He pulled back the string of his bow and fired a shot at the monk.  The arrow shot true and would have struck the monk in the chest but such a thing is not easy to do to a monk.  With a flick of her hand she knocked the arrow aside a moment before it would have skewered her.  Her look of calm seemed to unnerve the archer as he turned and moved deeper 30’ into the woods. 

               Suddenly out of the woods near the front of the party a bright streak flashes out of the wood and hits the road about ½ way between the Uthal-Raptor and the cart.  When it hit it burst into a giant ball of flame that expanded into a 40’ diameter blast – catching Uthal, Fenris, Gerdar and much of the cart (but not the horse) in its blast.  (Fireball spell.  -34 HP each, but all three (!) made their saves and only took -17hp. Uthal has 2 Raptor HP left.)  The cart itself was damaged and was in danger of catching fire.  Some of the undergrowth to the side of the road was burning.   All three victims of the blast tracked the spell backwards and saw the spell-caster 15’ back in the woods.  He turned and moved away quickly.  Fenris sent a firebolt chasing after him, but he was quickly concealed by the woods and the bolt smashed into the undergrowth harmlessly. 

               Gerdar stepped through the blast of the fireball and called out to all those around them.  "Aight me lads and lasses, I'massuming  ye dinnae like the monsters that roam these lands nowadays aye? I'm 'ere to solve that issue - me axe is called Gobber Chopper fer a reason. Would ye really bicker with a man who could make yer homeland safer?"   It was hard to tell if the bandits listened as those they were either fleeing or concealed by the Stinking Cloud.

               Of those in the Stinking Cloud it was impossible to tell exactly what was happening.  The sound of a painful retching could be heard, but how many of them were impacted it was impossible to know. 

Overview

(Map Coming)

There is no enemy currently engaged in combat that you can see.

Towards the front both the spell caster and archer that shot at D’Harum have moved away into the woods.  Neither can be seen but you have a sense of about where they are.  The woods are pretty thick.

There is a sleeping archer 30’ into the woods at the back and another unconscious woman at D’Harum’s feet. 

When you cast the Stinking Cloud 4 people (The speaker, the ½ orc in the middle of the road, and 2 archers behind him) were in its are of effect.  You can hear puking from probably at least 2 sources within, but it is impossible to know exactly what is happening.

 D’Harum is the only party member not currently on the road.

The road is about 15' wide.  

On both sides of the road there is dense forest - at the bottom of the map it is a short distance to the river.

The locations noted in the Stinking Cloud are where people were when the spell was cast.  Current locations uncertain.

D'Harum is fairly certain on the approximate location of the fleeing archer.  (Archer with an arrow at the top, middle of the map.)

Nobody is sure where the mage is - that is an approximate based on the assumption that he continued moving that direction after being lost behind the foliage.  

Bzzzz to the left is asleep.  Circled U by D'H is the unconscious woman at D'Harum's feet.  

Ask if something is not clear.  

"Git singed my beard", Gerdar grunted as he watched the archer and the mage disappear into the forest, "Nobody singes a dwarven beard. If they come back I take back what I said... How long's that cloud gonna be there?"

The paladin moved closer to the stinking cloud, ready to take on those still inside it should the need arise.

(Get me right next to the cloud but not into it, ready an attack when I can see an enemy that I can reach.)

D’Harum stood over the body of the woman she had pursued  into the woods.  Knocking the woman down, and apparently unconscious, she looked up and saw an archer drawing his bow upon her.  

Taking her defensive stance and concentrating on the bow and arrow, she slowed her heart and narrowed her focus upon the arrow.  The ‘thrum’ of the bow, and time seemed to slow for her, the arrow speeding towards her heart. Her hand whipped out and slapped the arrow just inches from her chest, sending it harmlessly to the ground.  

She gave the archer a calm and peaceful expression, tilting her head slightly to the side.  The archer’s eyes widened and he turned and fled quickly into the woods rather than fire another bolt.  

The monk glanced around quickly for other threats, seeing none (if there are dangers, her actions could change), she turned back to the unconscious woman at her feet.  Hearing sounds of shouts and combat, she knew here companions were busily engaged with opponents of their own.  

Looking down at the woman, she knelt over the woman, planting her knee in the woman’s back, and quickly removed one of her cloth wraps from her forearms, and bound the woman’s hands behind her back, and then quickly bound her feet as well.  

(OOC: She will bind this prisoner, keeping alert for any noises or sight of enemy coming into the area where she is currently.  If someone emerges, like the archer, she will forgo binding the woman, and take up her staff and enter a defensive stance once again, ready to defend herself.)