All squares that contain a small triangle in the bottom right hand corner are marked as difficult terrain and cost two squares worth of movement to enter.

Illumination: Daylight. Visibility shown on map.

This scene was originally written within Google Wave. The scene has been transcribed here for completeness, and has been edited where required.

The original Wave was first used as a test bed to allow the players to get to grips with the mechanisms of Google Wave, including any usage of maps, as well as getting used to the rules for the game. Goblins and a Guard Drake were used as simple enemies, with no real plot ot storyline surrounding them. However, we quickly decided to use this as a launching pad for the rest of the story and in our minds changed the goblins to bandits and the drake to a guard dog. The transcription here takes quite an artistic licence in re-representing this Wave, using the same actions, but with different enemies.

This scene has been split into two, with the combat transcribed here. The previous storyline is in the preceeding scene.

The original Wave is now lost with the demise of Google Wave, but the PDF extract of that original scene is provided here.

Sighting the bandit leader, Zero whipped out his crossbow, stepped forth and loosed off a bolt. If he was lucky, the leader might just think one of his cohorts had jabbed him and jab them back.

‘Oops,’ he said, embarrassed.

As Zero staggered backwards from the force of the blast, Kireth placed a hand momentarily on his shoulder to steady him. Then he looked over at the leader of this band. The leader, smiling as a result of his show of power, met Kireth’s gaze and his smile faltered slightly, perhaps realising that the hooded figure smiling right back at him was one of his own kind.

‘Kaima!’ whispered Kireth. A small smoky cloud appeared above the campfire before, literally, going ‘puff’ and dispersing outwards.

Zero grinned, impressed. ‘Wow,’ he exclaimed.

Until this point Celestia had remained unnoticed at the back of the pack, but now her eyes began to widen and a wry smile crept across her face that hardened as she waded forwards. Now that Kireth had bombarded the group surrounding the fire, it seemed logical to begin working on the two that were a little closer.

Celestia began to run towards the bandit to her right, she would have appeared graceful apart fromt he fact that she began to scream as she flew towards him. She was conscious that she should not leave herself exposed to a blow from his accomplice and so she remained out of range as best she could.

As she closed upon her foes she gave a loud yell, which clearly indicated the amount of effort that she was employing and then with assuredness she struck, swiftly and cleanly.

Tradden had stood and watched in awe as firstly the bandit leader, then Kireth, and then Celestia had utilised various magical powers. Suddenly, realizing that Celestia and Zero were now at the forefront of this battle, the young fighter sensed that the opportunity to follow up with a fast and hard strike with good old steel should not be lost.

Meeting the stern looks of the two halberdiers straight on he charged across the clearing, his two blades dragging behind him in the air, but full of poise, ready to strike.

As he arrived at the two bandits he deftly stepped around their ponderous halberd swings and drove his two swords together in a cleaving strike!

Despite the pounding that the first guard had taken in particular, the two halberdiers remained staunch, and there was even a look of confident cockiness about them. However, Tradden was not worried at all because he knew something that they didn’t, and as if on cue he heard the start of a dwarven warcry behind him.

‘Save some for me!’ yelled Khalin as he charged into the fray with shield raised against the first halberdier and warhammer swinging into action. ‘Can you read the fine print on me runehammer? T’says ‘Nighty night!’’

Zero dashed wide of the group and took a bead on the farthest bandit to the right.

His teeth felt like tin and his hands still shook slightly from the jolt of the lightning. A rage began to swell deep within him ‘How dare he?’ was the emotion bubbling inside.

He raised his arm slowly until it was outstretched in front of him, his palm facing upwards as if cupping a ball. ‘Then it is you and I, sorceror,’ he called directly at this leader.

‘Runya Morgil!’ whispered the mage. A ball of fire, about the size of a mans head, came in to being directly infront of the leader. The flames licked at his body and face, as though purposely attacking him.

Celestia was reeling from the blow inflicted by her opponent, blood was now pouring from the open wound across her face; she wiped her face with the sleeve of her now filtly gown.

She shook her head rather stupidly and the stars before her eyes disappeared briefly. A blue hot rage flashed throughout her body as she considered her foe once again; she felt somewhat humiliated by the hit that she had just taken. With another mighty arc of her weapon she swung with all her might towards the guard. As she cried aloud on the descent of the morningstar she thought she saw the guard cower a little.

One minute Tradden had been dealing blows left, right and centre against the two halberdiers, the next he was lying on his back watching the cumulonimbus clouds high above the forest drifting out towards the sea. He had never seen the halberd blow coming, but he could now certainly feel where it had been - ouch!

Springing to his feet he rounded on the first Halberdier, determined to take him out of the fight and give some respite to himself and his companions, pressed as they now were.

All the halberdier could see was a flurry of blades in front of him.

Khalin glanced at the two bloodied companions alongside him: ‘Take heart, Mistress Elf, we will prevail!’

...before swiftly marshalling his own energies.

The dwarven warlord then turned his attention to the second guard, striking in a whirlwind of fury.

‘If you don’t work this time, I’m chucking you in the next lake I see,’ Zero cursed at his crossbow.

He scurried around the side of the bandit group and loosed off a shot.

Pushed back slightly by the force of the bolt, Kireth lowered his staff and stared in defiance at the bandit leader. This magic was quite powerful, more so than his own current ability. This, however, was not something to be fearful of, this was something to aspire to and crush.

He kept his concentration, sustaining the ball of fire.

With his free arm still outstretched, he thrust the fire further forward. The sphere responded to this action, its flames pressing further forward against the man.

From the sidelines, Zero observed the blazing wizard duel with apprehension. Did he really want to shoot a man who could blast him into nothing with a simple gesture?

Celestia did not need to move, the second bandit was close at hand. She wasted no time before she chose to strike; she was now growing in confidence buoyed by her recent attack. She was too quick for the bandit, who was ill prepared for her movement. She drew out her symbol and recanted the sacred words of invocation that she had learned as a child.

Sensing that the tide was turning, Tradden’s brow constricted as he visibly focused. The enemy in front of him were still many, but clearly the halberdier was the main threat.

Had he known how cliched the battle cry he was about to exclaim was he probably wouldn’t have used it, but he had seen it in a play when he was young, and it had always stuck with him.

‘Have at thee, cur!’, he snarled, as he again cleaved his weapons through the air.

Khalin checked over his shoulder at Kireth, checking the wizard was coping with the energies being thrown at him: ‘Steel yourself, Master Kireth, we have nearly broken them!’

The dwarven warlord then turned his attention back to the second guard, smashing with his hammer.

Sensing his opportunity, Zero let fly with a bolt at the distracted guard.

Zero hastily loosed off another bolt at the injured bandit guard.

As the halberd descended towards the dazed Tradden’s neck, Khalin uttered another challenge to the bandit.

‘Not while I stand, vermin!’ he shouted, thrusting the shaft of his warhammer against the descending blade, somewhat lessening the blow, and then bringing up the business end of his weapon into the surprised guard’s face.

Clearly this sorceror was becoming increasingly concerned by the diminishing amount of backup he had. This was, of course, a real danger for him but to break off from Kireth in order to deal with it, bah, that was either arrogant or foolish. Either way it would be among his last actions in this world.

Kireth focused all the more and, rounding his hands once again around the imaginary ball, he thrust forward with all he had.

It had not escaped her attention that Tradden was in bad shape; he had taken serious damage, which was an inevitable result of his flambouyant attacking strategy. Although Celestia had been successful thus far in her own attacking forays she decided that now was the time for temperence.

She turned slightly towards her left and sought to heal the ailing warrior. Almost instantly she realised that she could do a little more than merely help Tradden, she could also affect the two enemies within close proximity to the group. If only it would work...

She drew her Holy Symbol that lay around her neck, suspended by a glistening golden chain. The symbol itself was triangular in shape, but no one side was the same length, it was jagged and sharp. She held the token within her hands and held it aloft, in plain sight of the assembled troop. As she did this it began to emit silver sparks that rose high into the air, forming one uniform beam as they did so. As they coalesced andreached the very top of their apogee they began to arc and fall back to the earth at an increasing speed eventually plummeting towards the rabble.

Groggily, Tradden stood, one sword-bearing hand resting on a bended knee as his armoured form rose from the floor of the clearing.

He shook his head, trying to get back some focus, the edges of his vision hazy and the trees on all around him swaying like the sequence dancers Tradden had seen in The Bashful Bear only the night before.

The events of the last few moments had been a blur - bright light after bright light hitting him again and again, some painful, some blissful. His innate and first instinct was to run - to flee to the safety of the forest’s edge, but he choked back the cold, creeping fear that threatened to overwhelm him.

‘Snap out of it Aversward!’ he ordered himself, trying to get back to a semblance of clarity.

The clearing did indeed snap back into view. This was a bit of a shock to Tradden, as he suddenly realised he was stood in the middle of much scorched earth, and many bodies. ‘Ah.’ was all he could manage.

With the third bandit now firmly in the land of nod, Khalin considered making a play at the leader, but with Tradden still looking one doubloon short of a bag, the more prudent option appeared to be to leave the glory to Kireth and Zero (if the prickly mage could finally get his fire started and the quirky yet affable rogue could sort his aim) and finish the remaining bandit first.

The warlord quickly decided he could perhaps do both...

Khalin stepped quickly past the defeated bandit guard and swung his hammer at one of the ruffians, letting go the grip on impact and deftly whipped out his dagger, which he hurled at the leader. If Kireth’s fireball caused enough of a distraction, maybe the dagger would sneak past the magic-user’s guard.

He growled at the unsuccessful throw, quickly ducking to avoid any return blows and picking up the hammer in front of him.

‘Ohhh, I know I’m going to regret this,’ Zero grumbled anxiously as he opened fire on the bandit wizard.

He had twice now failed to affect the leader of this rabble, this was not acceptable. On the other hand, said leader had also failed to make an impact on Kireth, his staff, his ‘beloved’ staff coming to his aid once again.

‘It is time we ended this charade, sorceror.’ Kireth thurst both his free hand and that clenching the staff in the air, the sphere of fire responded, burning brighter yet, and plunged once more for the leader. Anyone watching closely enough may have noticed Kireth’s eyes themselves seemed to flicker like flames as the mage marveled at the ferocity of his own attack.

The duel was over and he would give this failed mage no more thought. He turned his attention to the remaining man, currently laying prone. ‘You,’ he called pointing a bony finger directly at him, ‘would do well not to move a muscle’. The flaming sphere shot backwards and hovered less than half a yard away, its flames licking and cracking in anticipation.

[...Combat Encounter Completed...]

Healing Surges

Healing Surges are applied.

[Celestia spends ? healing surges (? left) to get to 26/26 hit points]

[Khalin spends ? healing surges (? left) to get to 26/26 hit points]

[Kireth spends ? healing surges (? left) to get to 23/23 hit points]

[Tradden spends ? healing surges (? left) to get to 26/26 hit points]

[Zero spends ? healing surges (? left) to get to 25/25 hit points]

Encounter Powers

All encounter powers are recharged.

Milestones

No Milestones achieved.

Experience

Experience awarded.

[Celestia gains ? xp to reach ? xp]

[Khalin gains ? xp to reach ? xp]

[Kireth gains ? xp to reach ? xp]

[Tradden gains ? xp to reach ? xp]

[Zero gains ? xp to reach ? xp]

Levelling

No characters ready to level up.

[...continued in Book #01, Prelude, Scene #08...]