An Update From The Wilds

Since I've been working on other writing projects I thought I'd share an excerpt from my play-by-mail campaign, a Labyrinth Lord game I'm running for nine of my friends. This is two rounds of action from the group's current encounter. They're... having some difficulty.

Round 17 - party initiative

Faced with a hulking fur-thing, Rawon's nerve breaks and he bolts from cover, headed toward the exit. "Run away!" It's surprising how fast an elf can move with proper incentive. He dodges past Durego and Dagmarten, stumbles a bit over kobold corpses and blood, ducks past Gorvil and Jonquil, and rounds the sharp bend in the entry tunnel. As the elf disappears from the room, Raúguey takes a shot at the hulking thing in the door with his purloined crossbow [a solid miss], drops it, and swaps weapons. Grit moves up beside him, ducking under the table to Raúguey's left. Seeing the dwarf and human preparing to fight, Urúvion takes a shot with his longbow [another palpable miss], and drops back a few steps. Locky starts spinning his sling, anticipating a charge toward the dwarf and human. Ingvild slides forward along the wall, quiet as a mouse, or so he thinks.

In the other room Durego shifts out of the doorway and calls for Gorvil. Ohwatoo orders Jonquil to keep watch on the entrance, and shifts in that direction while keeping a nervous eye on the door. Nissa shifts back a bit, attention divided between the new threat and the still-quiet side cave. Her brother Maro moves forward and into the next room while Dagmarten flanks the door. Saurabh continues to loot bodies.

The beast — now that it's moving it's clearly a bear — charges into the room, hot on Rawon's heels. When it sees Raúguey and Grit it changes direction, and closes with them, sliding to a stop in front of Raúguey as he fumbles to pull his sword. With a fierce growl it rises on its hind legs and bats at the big man with clawed paws hitting twice [1 and 3 damage].

Locky chooses this moment to unleash his sling, a hit! [4 damage], and Ingvild uses his near perfect position to stab the creature in the back, another hit! [2 damage]

Round 18 - tied initiative

Maro begins casting sleep.

Raúguey and Grit engage the beast striking with sword and... sword. Both miss, Grit almost wedging his blade in a chair back on the backswing. Locky debates tossing his lantern and decides not to — too great a chance of a splash hit. He fires his sling instead. Another hit (never mess with a sling-toting halfing seems to be the moral of this combat). [4 damage] Ingvild stabs at the creature again, but it knows he's there and the blow slides off thick fur as it dodges. Urúvion follows Locky's lead and fires his longbow — wiff! The beast fights back, and seems to take an instant dislike to Grit, attacking with claws and fangs [triple wiff]

"Be ready to shut that door!" calls Nissa to Durego, as she maintains her watch on the back room. The priest nods.

Dagmarten calls to those in the inner cave, "You guys should really think about pulling back!"

"Someone should shut this inner door!" yells Grit.

The others in the outer room continue with their previous activities and Rawon slows down, pulls out his flask of brandy, and takes a nip.

Maro casts his spell [this could be ugly]. Ingvild, Raúguey, and Grit all drop to the ground, fast asleep. Luckily the bear does too. "Oh @^#&," says the elf, peering at the downed group.

The pause brought on by the entire group at the front going down is short-lived. Urúvion shouts a warning as his sharp elven eyes catch movement beyond the inner doorway once again. A bellow from the darkness confirms his fears, there's something else coming!

OOC: the bear is down and asleep, but so are Ingvild, Grit, and Raúguey. There's definitely someone/something else coming but it's not yet in sight.

• Visit the game index.