As soon as her face was visible, a third flight of arrows flew across the path, all targeted at her. Her eyes grew wide and she ducked back with a squeak. Luckily, they all passed by.
“What about my stupid ring?” she complained.
“Must be level fours.” TJ shrugged. “Just keep ducking.”
Stu, who had gotten his bow out, fired an arrow of his own toward the bushes. “Magic arrow, seven points, accuracy skill mark two!” he shouted.
The arrow got caught in the bushes and hung their limply. Nonetheless, a figure stepped out from them on the other side and called, “Accuracy hit, seven damage, dead.” He then proceeded to stagger back and forth several times before falling to the ground with a dramatic groan.
Stu grinned wolfishly. “Cool, huh? A new skill I picked up with my last rank. I’m only able to do it twice a day, though, and I’d rather not blow my second one now in a lame ambush encounter. Not that they necessarily know that, do they?” Then he shouted, “Go ahead, do that again. Lemme see where you’re hiding.”
There were several moments of tense silence before the sound of voices in grunted conversation drifted across the distance. Suddenly, four bodies charged from the bushes and toward the trees where the friends crouched. Their foes were dressed all in brown and wore wolf masks. Having left their bows behind, the wolf men brandished short padded weapons that looked to be either clubs or swords, though Allison couldn’t be sure which. Given her newness at the game and how fragile her character was, she figured it didn’t really matter which. Whether she got stabbed or beaten to death, the end result was the same.
Stu released another arrow, again calling out, “Magic arrow, seven points,” this time without the accuracy skill.
The arrow flew true, and the monster struck in the chest said, “Arrow hit, seven damage, dead.” Then he fell over like his friend, mimicking the over-the-top death sequence.
Jimmy, knowing that his enormous sword was of no use among the trees, leapt out to meet them on open ground before they could close the full distance. Swinging his blade wildly over his head, he roared, “Magic flamberge, ten points!”
The three remaining enemies, seeing his berserker headband, immediately converged upon him and tried to dodge within the radius of his swings. Clearly concerned about Stu’s archery, they kept to the far side of the path in the hope that Jimmy would provide them cover from arrows.
Each of the wolf men announced, “Club, two damage,” and began swinging their weapons at Jimmy, but none were able to get close enough to score on him. Allison suddenly realized why the other boys had been so happy about the giant sword. It seemed unlikely that any enemies would be able to get close enough to strike him so long as he was paying attention. The only way they’d be able to bring him down would be if they gang rushed him. Two would certainly die, but the third might be able to do some damage.
Stu let loose a third arrow, which passed dangerously close to Jimmy.
“Cut that out!” Jimmy shouted, and Stu dropped his bow with a sigh.
Unfortunately, Stu had spent so many skill points on archery, his melee and armor skills were next to useless. Because of this, rather than charging into the fray with the sword he had drawn, he hung back in the hope that Jimmy would mop them up alone.
Chuck, on the other hand, was eager to put his new skill point in daggers to use and stepped out of the woods with his weapon drawn. Jimmy’s weapon was still whistling back and forth, keeping the wolf men’s attention, so Chuck circled around to engage their enemies from behind. He planned to set up a flanking position and end the battle quickly.
TJ turned to Allison. “Stay put. You’re no good to us dead.” Then he stepped out from the trees. “Magic missile!” he shouted, narrowly missing one of their enemies with a thrown beanbag.
Simon joined, threw a beanbag of his own at Jimmy’s feet, and called out, “Curse enemy. Minus two to all damage.” The wolf men looked dismayed, and Jimmy pressed the attack. If their clubs could do only two damage points in the first place, and they all suffered a minus two on each hit, then now their strikes would be ineffectual. They turned to run, but by that time Chuck had circled around them, and the two boys made quick work of their foes.
When the NPCs had removed their masks and donned their judge armbands, Chuck again told them his search skill rank, and he was given a card indicating that they had found some small coins but nothing else of real value. Not even the weapons were worth keeping—it turned out those clubs were just the leg bones of some unfortunate past dinners and the bows were equally junky. Meanwhile, Stu retrieved the arrows he had fired and placed them back in his quiver.
Allison flashed Simon a smile and said, “That was a nice trick there, though kinda anticlimactic. How come there’s nothing to show for it but those coins?”
“That, my friend, is what we call an Obligatory Thug Attack, and there’s usually something along these lines in each adventure. It’s not important to the plot, and there’s no real life-threatening danger, but the hope is that it makes the party use up some of its resources early, so when we run into something more challenging we aren’t at full power. For instance, both TJ and I blew a spell, and though I don’t disagree with Stu’s use of his accuracy ability, that’s the sort of thing that could really come in handy later. We took a little damage, but that’s really not a big deal, particularly with a healer handy.”
TJ interjected, “Though if we hadn’t had Stu and his bow, we might have found ourselves in a very different situation. If I’d been setting this up, I’d have had another group ready to come at us from behind in the event that we hid behind the trees. For all we know, they’re still out there, but when they saw what we did to their friends, they melted back into the forest. I agree that this was mostly just a nuisance, but it could very easily have turned into something worse.”
Simon nodded and continued. “As for loot, don’t get spoiled by that ring we found. Most encounters don’t give much of anything. I mean, think about it. These wolf men jumped a bunch of armed adventurers. They were probably pretty desperate.”
“Well, one thing’s for sure,” said Jimmy. “This isn’t an ordinary weekend adventure. Between Allison’s ring and the fact that they jumped us so quickly after the first encounter, this looks like it’s going to be way more intense than usual. I expected to have a good half hour of traveling before we ran into a fight. We’re going to have to keep a much closer eye out for more ambushes as we go. It may even be worth moving off the path and into the woods as we march. It’ll be a bit slower going, but much safer.”
Stu nodded. “I agree. I like walking in the woods anyway. It’s peaceful.”
There were no objections, so the group set off once again. As predicted, they weren’t able to move as quickly as when they were on the path. Low bushes, while not dense, still grabbed at them, and fallen branches and logs provided obstacles for them to go around or climb over.
“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all,” Chuck panted as he straddled yet another of the fallen logs.
“Yeah, this may have been a mistake,” agreed Simon. “Garby may be a nature sprite, but I for one would much rather be running across an open field.”
“Even pounded by linebackers?” quipped TJ.
Simon barked a laugh. “No, definitely not. This is way more fun and less painful. I run track in the spring, though. No tackles then.”
“Two-season athlete?” Stu asked, impressed. “I never really got the hang of organized sports.”
“Three, actually,” Simon replied. “Dad’s got me in basketball in the winter. Says athletics are a year-round pursuit nowadays. Summers I’m off to camps too.”
“Wow.” Allison put a hand on Simon’s shoulder. “Sounds like your dad is just as wound up now as he was coaching us way back when.”