Week 1 (08/03): Attack of the Ent!

GM: Ciaran

Players:
 * Constanzia/Quentin
 * Perun/John
 * Felix/Starky
 * Rene(Sp?)/Ian
 * Allnorus/Thomas
 * B/?

Report from Constanzia (Quentin):
Myself and five other new recruits were sent to a mine to the West of Teira, which was being targeted by an Ent, who collapsed several tunnels, leading to injury, death, and loss of profit (the last of which I believe to be the only reason the rather unscrupulous mine foreman called in the Granite Citadel).

The journey there took around two weeks. On the way I encountered a woman who had lived in the village I grew up in, who had worked at the mine until recently. She lost one of her legs in a mining accident some time ago, and was denied her severance pay (this is the sum of money the mine is required to pay to any worker who can no longer work due to the severing of a limb. Yes, it is required to be paid by law. Look it up).

I intend to return to the issue of the foreman's highly illegal managerial practices at a future date, but at the time it was more important to prevent the Ent from causing further injury or loss of life.

We requisitioned some oil and rags from the mine's supply stores, and set out to wait for the Ent to show itself so that we could assess its intentions and, if necessary, kill it.

When the Ent appeared the wizard Rene, who is the world's leading expert on Ents, attempted to communicate with it, but we found that it was unwilling to reach a peaceful solution, and had in fact taken a hostage from the mine.

We managed to rescue the hostage and take down the Ent successfully, with only minor injury to ourselves. The woman who was taken hostage will recover fully.

After resting for a night, we began the return journey home.

Please note that the foreman of the mine was in breach of several employment and health and safety laws (see the report I submitted on his activities to the Sentinels for further details), and I fully intend to make sure he faces justice for his blatant disregard for the lives and wellbeing of his workers.

Bandits in the foothills of the Spine of Yojg
Approximatly five days after we left Teira we encountered a group of Bandits. They had set themselves up to ambush anyone traveling to the mine on foot.The leader and a couple goons were waiting on the main path with a secondary group of bow-wieldng goons providing cover. We spotted the ambush before walking into it and got our own cover into position before approaching,

Constanzia attempted diplomacy, but when that failed we slew the leader and three of the goons. Two fled but the decision was made (not by me although I chose to abide by it to not create conflict within the party) to neither shoot them in the back nor pursue them back to their hideout. While the two survivours are unlikely to pose a threat on their own, their still exists the possibility of more bandits opperating in the area.

Advice on fighting Ents
Our tactics involved several archers on a cliff firing flaming arrows into the Ent while a couple melee fighters kept it occupied on the ground. (NOTE: the lighting of flaming arrows is trickier than you think it would be especially in the heat of combat. I suggest bringing an academic along to light your arrows for you so that you can focus on shooting the Ent).

This was moderatly effective. Despite being a living tree, the Ent was not that flamible. Much more effective was having the melee combatents coat the Ent in oil and then lighting the oil. Be aware that the Ent has excellent fire saftey skills and will attempt to 'stop, drop, and roll' as soon as it actually catches on fire. If you are able to keep the Ent on fire for a reasonable amount of time, the fire should eat away at its thick outer bark making further attacks more effective.

As stated above, while Ents may be inteligent thinking creatures once they begin preying on humanoids their is no negotiation with them. It then becomes a predator/prey situation and no matter how distatseful it may be the Ent needs to be put down. It was either the Ent or the civilians we had sworn to protect.