Session 4 – April 30, 2025

Sir Rulean tries her best to perceive the invisible Marauder Captain, spotting him ducking behind a tree. She moves to cleave two of the Marauders, critting one and hitting on the other! One is hit for 21 damage—killing him!—and the other takes 9 damage. Otherwise, she stays in place amidst the chaos.

Caleroy Cruller leaps into action as well, hitting the remaining Marauder that Sir Rulean just damaged, doing 11+? more damage to it! He then disengages from it, moving into position to physically block anyone from reaching King Caneius.

Sir Toby runs up toward the carriage with Cherry and Queen Caramella inside, checking on them. Queen Caramella’s like, we’re good, don’t draw any attention to us please and go help King Caneius. As he rushes forward, two archers pop out and take aim, but luckily their shots are blocked by his thick plate armor.

Sue Sheffield darts into the King’s carriage—she’s not a fighter—but she does administer a health elixir to King Caneius for 10 HP.

Queen Caramella peers into the Marauder Captain’s mind, and can tell that he doesn’t care if he dies, this mission will be carried out. The way that the Captain is barking out commands, it goes beyond simply ordering them around—he is giving them a boost to his troops. She takes aim with an Eldritch Blast at the Captain, but with a 13 it doesn’t hit.

Two archers take aim at King Caneius, but the jell-o Sanctuary prevents them from attacking, and so they go for some stabs at the Tart Guard. Two more are able to take aim at King Caneius, but they both miss! One archer makes a critical hit on one of the Tart Guard, killing one. :(

Chancellor Lapin tries to hit a Marauder, but it ducks out of the way.

Forrest Black makes an Arcana check on the Marauder Captain—nat 20! But there’s nothing magical going on, he’s just a bandit, a mercenary hired to do a job. He can tell that just by existing, the Captain is giving boosts to the Marauders’ attacks. Forrest reaches into the kitchen carriage, grabbing two burnt Jucy Lucys to fling at the Marauder Captain with a Ray Of Sickness. A 16 just misses unfortunately. He then takes a look at the nearby house—it’s an empty Candian farmhouse, with freshly chopped wood out front, but no Candians to be seen. Weird.

The Tart Guard takes some swings, nice job.

Two Marauders shove Sir Rulean and Sir Toby aside. The Marauder Captain, finding a hole in the defense, dashes toward King Caneius, dealing 17 damage—knocking him down. !

Sir Rulean with a Sentinel attack, critically hits the Marauder Captain for 14 damage, but it’s not enough to take him out.

As King Caneius falls onto his back, a memory flows through his mind:
To his left, he sees Sir Rulean valiantly defending what has already come to pass. There’s no anger, but sadness and pride seeing her give her all to this. He remembers the last night that he saw Sir Rulean’s father before he disappeared. It’s a quick memory, seeing the back of him as he walked out of the throne room. The memory passes, as Caneius’ vision is flooded with the pink Candian sky.

Limon Long Halls screams, letting everyone know what has happened. His sword is shaking in his hand as he stands next to Sir Rulean, ready to put his life on the line for his king.

Princess Cherry is freaking out, how can I think my way out of this? But as she sees her uncle go down, she goes for double daggers on the Marauder Captain, throwing them both as she pops out of her carriage. She rolls a 1, but with a point of luck, she hits on a natural 20! With 21 of damage, the Captain is still up but badly damaged. ANOTHER 1 and ANOTHER 20 AFTER LUCK!!! WOW! 7 more damage, he's alive but with only 1 HP left!! She then speaks Laccharine saying, “you’re too early. They will be displeased.” She’s hoping that she’ll trick them into revealing who sent them. She’s also hoping that Queen Caramella is reading their thoughts at this moment.
Luckily, she is—and she sees him look off into the distance, hearing a battle horn from down the road, with marching coming in from the distance.

Commander Grissini, commander of the Imperial Army has arrived, flanked by a legion of troops. Reinforcements have arrived, and not a moment too soon (sarcastic).

Sir Rulean yells out, calling for a medic. She then goes for a cleave at the Marauder Captain and one other Marauder. Both attacks hit, both for 16 damage. She kills both the Marauder, and the Marauder Captain. She’s not pleased with herself. She failed the mission, she’s upset. Still filled with adrenaline, her Action Surge carries her forward to attack two more Marauders—hitting both for 19 damage, they’re still up, but barely.

Caleroy Cruller yells out, “keep one of them alive for interrogations!” He rushes over to King Caneius, giving him advantage on his next death saving throw, unfortunately true healing is way beyond his capabilities.

Sir Toby rushes up to the archers, hitting one as he yells, “nice one, Rue!”

Sue Sheffield fumbles around with the empty vials in her hands, as if she could magically refill them, but she obviously can’t.

Queen Caramella recalls that Commander Grissini was supposed to meet them at the end of the Sucrosi Road as their escort into Comida. His troops have just arrived on the scene, not actively helping yet. She taps into her brother’s thoughts, trying to communicate that help is on the way, please hold on. She sends Cookie toward Caneius, like an emotional support dog. Trying to find a target for taking prisoner, she reorients her Hex on one of the Marauders now that the Captain has fallen. She then dives back into the carriage, hoping to avoid the incoming archers’ arrows.

One Archer misses one of the Tart Guard, the other hits, bringing him down. They then move to flee the scene, seeing the King dead and their Captain dead also. Two more Archers aim at King Caneius’ lifeless body, one of them bailing at the last moment, the other missing entirely. The one who bailed takes aim at Queen Caramella, hitting her for 8 damage.

Lapin casts another Sanctuary onto King Caneius. He had a better option available to him, but it would have required cooperation with Forrest Black, so that’s not happening.

Forrest Black runs toward King Caneius, sliding next to him to administer a special dish—Shawarma Mendes. The first meal that he ever served to Caneius, with an extra dose of healing hot sauce to bring him back up! Queen Caramella yells but also subtly for Caneius to not just pop right back up, because some of the Marauders might stick around to fight again.

One of the Tart Guard kills a Marauder. “I got one!”

There’s one last Marauder, and he starts to aim at King Caneius, but must change tact to hit Limon Long Halls for a bit.

King Caneius returns to life, knowing exactly what just happened with the hot sauce. It brings him back to their youth. He says what he always says after eating this meal: “There’s nothing holding me back now.” And he gets up, and rushes the final Marauder with a Divine Smite—hitting him for 10 (nearly enough to kill) + the last bit of damage to kill. As Caneius kills the Marauder, he recites the patriotic hymn, “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back”—his Old-Fashioned Rock Candy swings in, and while embedded it turns to cotton candy, the expansion exploding the Marauder.

The King lives!

Limon Long Halls, having taken the tiniest scratch on his cheek, goes blood lust on the dead Marauder, stabbing its corpse.

As we fall out of initiative order, Princess Cherry takes aim with a dagger at one of the remaining Archers, missing with Now, and critically missing with Later. Tough look for the kid, maybe she’s a little cocky after her last success.

Sir Toby finally manages to clip one of the Archers in the tree, completely knocking him to the ground.

Commander Grissini runs forward, looks at King Caneius—”my king, are you well?”

“How do I look?”

“I’m sure you’ve seen better days.”

“You should see the other guy. Actually, you can—they’re there, and there, and there...”

Queen Caramella is intrigued by the farmhouse, she heads toward it and sends two of the Tart Guard inside. She hears people calling out for help from inside.

One more Archer flees, the Tart Guard surrounds another to take prisoner, and Sir Toby spin attacks to knock down the tree and kill the remaining one in the tree.

And with that, we’ve survived the Ambush on the Sucrosi Road!