Returning for Forty Flings
Our ambush on the tieflings went a bit wrong. It's our own fault, we should have realised a mysterious benefactor was going to leave us a present of gold to bring us up to our current expected wealth level, so we can buy some appropriate equipment to help with the encounter. We've apparently been rather poor for 3rd level characters so far.
Afutavere the ranger ponders what to do with his windfall, to make him more effective. 'Should I buy a mighty composite longbow, or splash out and buy a magical bow?'
'Well, a magical bow will give you modifiers to help you hit your target, whereas you'll see no difference using a mighty bow in combat.' He sees my point, but buys the mighty bow anyway, as it leaves him some spare gold to buy a scroll of darkvision for combat against the tieflings. If only we'd thought about that the first time, we may have done more than get injured and run away.
The whole party goes shopping for nifty upgrades to weapons and armour, as well as buying a scroll of darkvision each. Our new plan is to assault the base of operations of the tieflings directly, as we probably won't catch them by surprise a second time.
We get back to the decrepit part of town, abandoned by all but tramps and bandits, and make our way to the tieflings' base. Our mage tries to blind the guard in the belltower, and even though the spell doesn't affect him we realise that a blind tiefling could still ring the bell in warning. So much for trying to get an advantage.
Entering the building is easier than expected. We have a crowbar just in case the door is locked or barred, but despite the paladin's protestations that breaking down a barred door will be nearly impossible all it takes to open this door is turning the handle. That was easy. Standing in the doorway, bard Brennan sees that our opponents don't care for a locked door because being alerted has let them get ready to shoot whoever opens it. 'What's inside?', we ask, not able to see.
'Four tieflings', he tells us, as a couple of crossbow bolts thud in to his chest.
'Forty what?' But we did the fire giants joke only recently, so we ignore that and leap in to combat.