As the front of the bandit attack closes in and all three of the rear guard expend their weapons, Runt finds that there are still far too many foes for an even fight.  Making up his mind in a trice, Runt lobs his lighted stick towards the center of the fray and turns on his heel, sprinting towards the cave entrance and thinking to take a bandit or two with him.

Sunlight washes over Runt as he breaks out into the midday sun.  To his left, the small footpath snakes down the canyon wall, ahead and to the right are only the steep, rocky slope.

Runt turns, checking to see if any of the bandits have followed him out, though for the moment, it seems like no one is behind him.

Instead, massive shadows shift and dance within the cave ahead.  Runt wonders if he mightn't have placed the stick differently.  For he can see only the backside of whoever stands there ahead and he's unsure now if it's friend or foe.  The daylight too, seems to play tricks on his vision, making the silhouettes merge with the darkness around.

The closest man was on his knees though...  that must be the man with the spear who had charged Rolf just next to him, Runt thinks, prepping his arm to hurl one of his stones forward.

From the cavern he hears the sound of an echoing scream, then a gurgle...  as if someone is choking on their own voice.

OOC:  This thread is for Runt only.  Unfortunately, you lost a lot of your awareness when you turned your back and ran.  That combined with the fact that most of the people you see now are between you and the light source makes it really difficult to tell who they are (though you would imagine they are mostly bad guys?)  The closest of them is about 3 yards away and appears to be kneeling or crouching, that man has a few others to his left.

You have two stones in your right hand.

His idea of getting a bandit or two to chase him didn't seem to have worked.  And throwing a rock to get one's attention wasn't much of an option since he couldn't tell friend from foe.  But at least he was out of the fight, that was probably better than nothing since no one would have to worry about trying to protect him.  About the only thing he could do at the moment was wait and see if the situation cleared up enough to make sense.

OOC - Just wait and see if things clear up.

Runt pauses at the mouth of the cave, the afternoon sun shining down upon his face.

For several moments, Runt waits, his arm cocked back for a throw, though the shadows ahead dance and confuse the scene as much as the various nosies that are emitted from the cave.  Sajaa's shrill laughter, Magnus's deep baritone shouting, "Commin up!"

Ahead of him, darkened silhouettes rise and fall with slashing and thrusting weapons.  Then, another voice that Runt doesn't recognize...  "Fuck this!"

And then one of the shadows breaks towards Runt in a run!

The man's features break into sharp relief.  He's holding a bow in his left hand and a long-bladed knife in his right and sprinting at full speed towards Runt, his face hardened in a scowl!

OOC:  I've given you essentially a free action here, assuming you are taking a 'wait' maneuver.  The next turn, you'll likely have the foe directly on top of you if he keeps going in the same direction.  Give me 2 seconds worth of action, and please include whether you want to try and prevent the thug from getting past you, run from him (and which way), or if you want to just let him go as he wishes.  Note that there are a few ways out from here:  You can go down the path on the right side of the cave, straight down the slope, up the slope, or any other way you can think of.

It didn't look like this guy was trying to chase Runt, it had been too long for that to work.  Instead, it looked like the bowman was running away from the fight, probably running from Sir Magnus which was not a dumb thing to do.  Runt would run as fast as he could if the Bullman was coming at him.

If he let the bandit go by, he would probably get away, and worse take the horses to make sure he couldn't be chased easily.  Plus, then they would all have to walk back to Three Corners.  Not that he minded walking that far, after all he had done it yesterday.  But he wasn't sure that some of the group was really used to walking that far.

He quickly decided his action.  he would wait until the man was almost on him and then throw himself at the man's lower legs, trying to trip him and hopefully send him over the edge of the cliff.

OOC - Not sure what rolls and modifiers you would want here so I will leave it to you.
 But he will go All Out Attack - Determined for a +4 I think.

Runt's most obvious feature, his small stature and rather scrawny frame, was often a weakness.  It was the attribute that attracted people like Deng who would try and take advantage of him, it was why people thought they you just run right over him without fear of reprisal...  But at times, Runt's size could be rather a weakness of his enemies as well.  Just like with Deng it was precisely because he was so small that this man with a bow and knife figured he could just run right over Runt without much of a fuss.

Deng took his punishment too.

For as Runt waited and watched the man lower his shoulder like he was going to plow straight through him, he knew that the man expected either for Runt to jump clear or to be smashed over the side of the cliff, not to really fight back.

Waiting for the last moment, Runt dives down low, grabbing at the man's foot mid-stride while slamming his shoulder straight into the man's shin.  It wasn't a fancy move... just a bit of wrestling that Runt had learned from always being the smallest.  It was actually pretty easy to knock a man off balance, even a grownup, by putting some good pressure on their shin while gripping their heel and preventing them from stepping back.  The fact that the man was trying to run just made the whole thing absurdly easy.

"Shit!  The man shrieks as Runt feels the thud of the boot connect just under his chest.  Runt can only hold on for a moment, but that moment is plenty at the speed things are moving, carrying the bandit's upper body hurtling forward even as he struggles to keep his feet under him.  He slams onto the ground at the edge of the path but his momentum carries him forward, and he tumbles down and out of sight, screaming as Runt can hear the repetition of thuds from his body crashing and rolling over the rocky edge.

OOC:  Nice series of rolls for you there!  Not only did the bad guy miss his slam (which no doubt would have been bad for you), but you made your grapple and then he badly failed his DX check.  Things pretty much went exactly as you wanted.  You've made it back up to a kneeling position, though you still have no good view either inside the cave, nor down the slope until you reposition yourself to see either.

Two more seconds please.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:59, Mon 09 May 2022.

It worked! flashed through Runt's mind, and much better than he had hoped.  He stood up and sucked in a good breath, having expected to have been kicked much worse.  He glanced back into the cave entrance to make sure that no more of the bandits were coming out and then looked over the edge to see what had happened to the bowman.

OOC - Yeah, that was a bit of a risk there and a lot could have gone wrong, but he is a kid and doesn't always consider all the consequences.  I was counting on you thinking about how many times your kids had done something similar to you.  ;-)  Depending on what the bowman is doing, Runt will probably head down the path to finish up with him.  Hopefully the guy is unconscious or incapacitated.  If possible, he'll try to find the sword (from Runt's point of view) and the bow.  Just depends of course.

Runt stands and peers back into the cave, where bodies are now falling this way and that.

Crunch!

A man is blasted back, landing on the ground ten feet or so from where Runt stands, though he does not so much as move once his body comes to a rest.  Briefly, Runt thinks he can see the shadowy figure of Magnus, horns climbing from atop his steel helm, retreat from where the man was felled.

He hears Sajaa let loose a joyous scream of glee...

"Oh fuck this!"

With a budding sense of deja vu, Runt watches as another shadow turns and runs, and the face of another bandit breaks out from the shadows of the tunnel.  This one too grips a knife, and his eyes shine wild with terror!

OOC:  Give me two seconds please.  You have not yet turned to look for the knife/bow.

Even though he had managed to send the first fleeing bandit over the edge by tripping him, he didn't think that would work again.  But he still needed to try and stop this second one also.  This one looked to be even more in panic, Sir Magnus must really be something in a fight.  He briefly entertained a fantasy of the knight going back to Crain with him and having a talk with Deng.  That would be a sight to see!

Having nothing in hand to fight with, Runt moved slightly out of the man's way, waiting until he tried to make the turn down the path and then throwing himself at the man's side, hoping to make the man misstep and go down or perhaps even be shoved over the edge.


OOC - Again, not sure what to roll against, several possibilities, but Determined Attack at +4.  Hopefully the guy is in such a panic he'll ignore a non-threat.  It must be a real massacre in there, LOL.

Runt has but a moment before the man is upon him, which he uses to make himself as small and unassuming as possible.  The tactic seems to work, for the man takes the moment of straight running to turn his head behind him and look to see if he is being followed.

Just as he returns his head back, Runt makes his attack.

He leaps forward, keeping his body low again, though this time targeting the side of the man's leg to inflict as much damage as he can with his own body.  The man flails his arms as he attempts to sidestep out of the way, and though he isn't successful at avoiding Runt's tiny frame, his knife does scrape down the side of Runt's shirt just as he makes a hard contact with the side of his knee.

Thunk!

The limb bends unnaturally, and as Runt's body crashes to the ground the bandit's continues with its forward momentum, flailing legs and arms akimbo as he goes.

"Aaaagh!"  The man screams as he wobbles midstep.  He shoves his hands out to break his momentum in any way he can, his knife dropping to the ground.  However, he's still going too fast and too far and he can't seem to turn or stop without the use of his right leg.

his body tumbles over the edge of the path, smashing his head on the stone as he topples down, rolling and falling in a haphazard jumble of limbs.

Runt pushes himself up to a stand, taking a moment to glance at the bloody tear going down his filthy shirt.  The wound isn't bad, not much more than a scratch anyway.  He had been lucky, and the bandit decidedly not so.

"Beltik!"

The voice carries from the bottom of the slope.  The first bandit has now made his way to his feet, momentarily looking over to the unconscious form that just landed a few steps away.  The man looks briefly up at Runt, though does not tarry, instead, turning and running towards the shallow river and all the shrub.

A few steps away from Runt, the second man's knife glimmers on the ground.

"Runt! RUNT! COME HITHER, LITTLE ONE!"  Sajaa's voice carries from inside the cave.

OOC:  Good and bad news - on the original roll, things actually were much worse for you.  You actually still did decent damage, though you took just as much from the flying tackle (that's the way I interpreted your action) and ended up falling while the bandit kept his feet.  The end of the turn put you at 1 HP with a pissed off bandit standing over you.

I noticed your holiday mystery box as I was editing your character sheet and decided to use it.  It resulted in a critical success to your slam, with drastically different results.  The bandit dropped his knife a few hexes away from you before taking heavy injuries on his fall down the canyon.

It doesn't seem like the first bandit was nearly so badly hurt though, and he's running away towards the middle of the canyon.

Go ahead and give me a normal round - about a minute worth of your intentions.

Runt watched as the bowman fled the area in haste.  He gave thought to chasing the man, serious thought, but decided against it.  The man had too much of a head start and didn't look to be badly injured from his fall.  The second bandit wasn't moving at all.  He considered going down to make sure that one didn't get away when Princess Mitra called for him.  He could probably get away with ignoring her, pretending that he didn't hear her, but she would probably see right through the lie, and he wasn't sure what she might do.  As it was, she would probably fuss over the scratch in his side.  So, he scooped up a handful of dirt and smeared it over the area, making sure that the newest stain on his shirt was well concealed and headed into the cave, picking up his stick and the knife as he went.  He tried to tuck the knife into his rope belt and cover it with his shirt.  If the others didn't see it, maybe he could keep it.

Runt has the brief urge to follow after the first bandit, though he doesn't imagine he'll have much success, seeing as the other guy had a pretty big head start and much longer legs, not to mention the fact that trying to go the fast way down only seemed to have about even odds of being able to stand up afterwords.

Instead, Runt stoops down picks up a handful of dry dirt off the path, rubbing it down the length of the tear in his shirt and wincing slightly as some of the dirt clings to the wound.  The blood seems to mix with the dirt alright though, making it harder to tell what exactly is going on, and he imagines the general dirtiness of the cloth does a pretty decent job of keeping the wound from standing out much.

He picks up the knife too, along with the small stick and turns to head back into the cave just as Sajaa's voice calls out again, a little more panicked this time.

”The boy is gone!  Runt! RUNT! Where in Allah's name ARE you, Little One!”

Runt rejoins the main thread CH:27 An Equal Share of the Bone