Rollohi-chapter4-episode04

--/-- Welcome to SoloBickering, the podcast where I—an aging Kiwi with too many dice and not enough players—explore solo TTRPGs, variant rules, and the occasional philosophical meltdown. Today, we journey into the world of Rollohi: a PG-rated realm of fantasy, where a party of eight attempts to survive the wilds. I hope it becomes a full drama, with discovery, treasure, and arguments I lose with myself. Whether you’re here for the rules, the roleplay, or just the bickering—there’s always something brewing in SoloBickering.

--/-- Surprise! An exchange of arrows escalates, and Kylie faces a level 4 fighter!

Script: https://larrymannplayssolobickering.blogspot.com/2026/05/rollohi-ch404-script.html

--/--Background sounds attribution: Joel Steudler: www.joelsteudlermusic.com

SFX attributions:

Arrows Krzysztof Szymanski, and Dennis, both from Pixabay;

Random clobbering freesound_community from Pixabay

Special mention goes to DragonStudio on Pixabay for various swordfight sounds, buy them a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/dragonstudio

May 2026, includes a specific warning about mature content.

Intro music acknowledgment: Thanks to ADMFreeMusic: https://pixabay.com/users/admfreemusic-34079374/

April2026 plug for SRPN

https://larrymannplayssolobickering.blogspot.com

Transcript

Speaker 0:01

Welcome back to Part 2 of Villafight in the World of Rollohi. Our heroes have elected to intervene directly to safeguard the villagers from the fury who have all fled to the mana house, which is in effect a fortified villa, belonging to the senior and his manifest. Defending the villa. And I can't even find it. And then finally attackers. And after that, it's the other side of the town. It may take some time before the Buccaneers realize that their northern tip of their siege is under attack. And that's all to the good for our party, for they have walked fairly quietly close to the northern group of buccaneers, and have managed to reach shortbow range, from where they let drive. Jack's shortbow, Seed and Pod's shortbows, Kylie's longbow, and Xantu's crossbow. Pod maxes off, but all four buccaneers in that particular clump of buccaneers fall at the first stroke. From what Aaron can see, everything has gone according to plan. Her move will be to advance to where the buccaneers had been positioned and check that they are all dead, and then swing west so that she's facing along the line against any further buccaneers approaching. Generally speaking, the characters will attempt to pick off new targets. Engel and Umbert are simply keeping in support. Engel does wave up to the battlements, such as they are, to let the defenders know that help has arrived. Moreover, Engel will pray for that protection from evil, as there's no doubt that there are a lot of buccaneers to come. Now, as it happens, the runner assigned to that particular level four fighter is just returning from the command station situated towards the center, and they make a five on their wisdom perception check and notice what has happened and they shout that warning to their boss. So now that the jig is up, it's time for initiative. Characters 4, Buccaneers 3. In terms of combat strategy, there really is no time for that, but in terms of tactics, as it happens, Jack had been looping lakeward and is quite distant from the next group of Buccaneers. SeedPod, on the other hand, are quite close, so they will be simply loosened from cover. I'm going to ask a question about Jack's tactics. Does Jack decide to stalk and backstab? 3. No, but he will keep that option open if the chance presents itself. He will simply move, keeping to cover as much as he can, and then loose during this run. There's no reason for Kylie to move at all, she will simply adjust her aim and loose. Umbert will stay exactly where he is under cover, while Ingel will attempt to adjust his position to gain a better vantage for what's coming round to their right. Remember the characters are coming in from the north of the manor house, which is on the west of the lake, on a bit of a height, but with in effect no land access from the lakeside, which as an aside must be why the Senior's mistress was walking so far away along the lake view. Xantu will reload his crossbow. Eren, however, will swing her shield around and sidle across to make sure that Ambert and Engel have plenty of cover from her, and no Buccaneer can get to them. I'm afraid that tends to make Eren the main target for any missiles or spells from the Buccaneers, but she's certainly not trying to stand out. She's trying to use cover where it is available. Since I don't have terrain set up and only the barest of sketches for the layout, I'm going to use 2d6 to express how far through someone's full move they have managed to move while keeping to cover. This is Erin. I roll 6 out of 12, which means that she has half moved while crabbing across towards the right of the party and tending to be out in front. Here is Jack. He too has rolled a six, so he is now equivalent to the middle of the original party's layout. Here is Engel's move. He moves fairly rapidly over, uh slightly more than half his available move, so that he has got a good sight line for what comes next. And last of all, Xantu who is moving slightly and loading. He moves one third of his available move while loading his crossbow. Next round he will be ready to fire. Now I'm sure that you're interested to know what their targets are. And in fact, as I've rolled the sketch layout, the next targets are in fact the runner and the fourth level fighter. The fourth level fighter will not be heavily armoured. These are buccaneers and they are used to jumping from ship to shore and from ship to ship. However, unlike his other buccaneers who are plying missile weapons, he may not be using a missile weapon. He's an oracle. Is the level 4 fighter flying a missile weapon? Yes, and it's his main weapon, so he is using a longbow. I have four characters losing missiles, and I'm going to use a sub-oracle by saying that if the number is even, then the arrow is aimed at the runner. Here we go. And I roll three fives and a one, the one coming from Jack. Obviously, Jack's arrow takes effect, it's a Nick. The fives will bounce off the chain armor, but both Seed and Pod can adjust that five down to a four. They're at normal range for a short bow. And so the level four fighter has taken four, four, and one damage. I haven't rolled for the crit confirm. No, I rolled a three. Jack is not critted. The level four fighter started with 15 hit points and has dropped to six if my math is right. Ingel casts protection from evil on himself. Finally, there is no melee this round, and we move to the Buccaneers bound. Now there were 14 Buccaneers under this fighter's command, and he has already lost four. A fact that he may have only just realized. And so it's time for a morale check. 6. His feelings are, as far as he can see, there are but three or four interlopers, probably some of the seigneur's men who were outside the walls when the fuss began. So he confidently urges his buccaneers to swing their bows around and advance while firing. He himself will not advance because he is playing a long bow which has plenty of range. And he sends a runner back to the central command to let them know that he's in action outside the walls. The nearest buccaneer to the characters moves just over half their movement, hopping from cover to cover, and so ends up in short range vis-a-vis C pod and Jack. Next it's missile firing. Here's the longbow. It's a good hit on Eren is one or two, Kylie three, Santu four, and Engel or someone else five six Oh dear. So it's going to be either Ingle or Umbert, Jack or the hidden seed pod. He has targeted Umbert, realizing that that cloth robed person must be a magic user. He strikes home with a two and Umbert takes a wound. Umbert curses to himself, wishing he had cast invisibility, despite Ingel's plea. Archery from the other buccaneers? Well there are five who have managed to move up into range. Three of those loose at Eren. Here are their results. All three arrows bounce off Eren's shield or slam into it, sticking. The other two buccaneers, for whatever reason, not quite picking up Kylie, loose at Xantu, who's squatted down, readying his crossbow. And here are their results. Xantu takes an arrow through the shoulder with a crit. Six damage. The final three buccaneers in that particular group have run just about as far as they can, fairly careless of making themselves a target, and are still not in range. Has this attracted the attention of the defenders? Five. Yes. Alright, I have been dealing with damage from the defenders in a very arbitrary and unscientific way, but now I might need to roll a different oracle. Did any of the buccaneers get hit during their turn? Yes and two of them got hit. A hit on a buccaneer from a normal arrow is normally a kill, so I'll just roll one further oracle. Are both of them dead? No. So one buccaneer is wounded with a nick and the other buccaneer is down. The Buccaneers have no spellcasting capability on this wing, and of course, none of them got to melee. And so we head on to declarations for the next round. Here's a whiz check from Engel. A very nice six, very comfortably under his excellent wisdom. So he has been able to keep an eye on his comrades and is aware that first of all Xantu may need some healing. So he's going to call. Eren herself is going to close on Xantu so that there is a decent three-person front line. As for the Buccaneers, the level 4 fighter has committed his people, so he is going to rush towards the front line as well. He's slightly behind the lead now. And those available to charge into melee are going to drop their bows and rush to melee. Here's initiative. Buccaneers 4, characters 3. Let's see if the level 4 fighter can gain the front line. Yes he can. There is a full move available to him, and he canters across the ground to charge into Kylie, who does not have a shield ready and has not yet, at this particular point, caught up to Eren. The Buccaneer fighter cunningly cuts high and low at Kylie, taking her slightly off guard, and does pierce past her heavy armor since she has no shield, giving her two damage. Taking away the half-wounded Buccaneer, who obviously will not want to rush into combat with one remaining hit point. It seems reasonable to suppose that two of them head to Xantu, two to Eren, and two to Kylie. Is that correct? No, and going back to our spray pattern before, a roll of one, they predominantly go towards Eren. Well, I guess she's probably aggro. Eren has three spare hit dice that she can use to guard against stray cuts, but not crits. They are all attacking her at disadvantage. They haven't managed to circle her this round, and there's a lot of dice rolling, so I'll take that away from the mic. Right. There is an unconfirmed crit for one damage and a cut for two damage. Eren in total takes three damage. That leaves Xantu, perhaps because he was crouched down, available to pick and choose where he heads. So speaking of heading, it's now the character's bound, and we're going to find out movements. So Jack, seed pod two-thirds. Xantu a little over half. Okay, that confirms what I was thinking. Jack has actually circled round. He is now in a position to backstab the level 4 next round, if he's needed. We'll see how Kylie handles herself. And Xantu has simply joined Eren. In the meantime, we can imagine Ingle closing up to Xantu, ready to heal. Faced with six foes, Eren feels it's probably time to pull out a hit dice, but we'll see how it goes. Here's her longsword attack. That's going to bounce, and she will use a hit dice. She rolls a one, potentially a crit, and confirms it with another one. So that's two hit dice spent, but well spent. She has annihilated two buccaneers as they are looks. Here's Xantu's wine. He shatters the knees of a buccaneer, felling him. Now Kylie has no ability to change the odds with hit dice, but she can use strength if she does manage to hit home. Ooh, she rolls a two. So yes, she gets past his chainmail, and her strength makes that a three. I haven't really stopped to double-check my math, but I believe the level 4 fighter was on six hit points. That will drop him to three hit points, and he will definitely be thinking of fleeing. Well, should I say, retreating manfully, or keeping up a brave face in front of his troops. That I believe will be the end of the round, and so we move to initiative for the third round of this close-in fighting. I don't think there are any major maneuvers to note. Seedpod will snipe at opportune targets, none of which currently exist. Umbert will cast invisibility if he believes no Buccaneer can see him at present. Ingle will heal Xantu if Xantu needs healing, while Kylie intends to crab sideways to Eren since she didn't quite make it over there last round. If the Buccaneer allows that, in other words, she plans a fighting withdrawal towards Eren. That's fairly crucial because as we noted last round, Jack is now perfectly placed to slide a short sword into the level 4 fighters' kidneys. Characters 2, Buccaneers 5. Other than noting that the runner reaches the central group this round, we just need to note that the Buccaneers currently have one very wounded level 4 fighter, three unwounded, and one very heavily wounded Buccaneer. And so it's a morale check. I roll an 8, which means, not surprisingly, they are going to try to withdraw. Fighting retreat. Now it's the turn of the level for fighter to slightly regret that he does not have spare hit dice to match against the person he's defending against, but he pulls back slowly. And by doing that, he will run into Jack's backstab. But I'll deal with that in Jack's turn. The other three conduct their fighting retreat, up to half their movement. Uh no, in fact, that would be one quarter of their movement, so half of a half. Now's the time for Kylie to rather gratefully move cautiously to Eren's side, checking with her comrades that they are still fine. So grumps. And for very tiny movements from all the others just to adjust their position. That brings us to any missiles for the characters, and yes, this is what Seed Pod have been waiting for. Seed maxes off, uh Pod drops a buccaneer, and Jack's backstab. Yep, that's a crit. Jack lances his short sword through the man's back as he tries to pull away from Kylie.

unknown 21:59

Okay.

Speaker 22:00

Yes, that leaves us with Eren and Xantu heading forwards, striking at the retreating couple. Xantu maxes off. Eren kills one Buccaneer. The final point of that run can be said to be a question, an oracle question. Do any further buccaneers get shot at from the wall? Five, yes. Does that kill them both? No. Does that wound either of them? Yes. The buccaneer with only a hit point left is now dead. Umbert does not trigger his invisibility. The buccaneers are all facing him as they are doing a fighting withdrawal. I have some acknowledgments, belated acknowledgements, to make of comments. These in many cases come from long ago. It is only in the last week that the Solo RolePlayers Network has realized that individual Spotify episodes can be commented on. In January 2026, Ty Moore says of episode 1 The use of music as a transition cue serves as a sort of empathic vehicle that really sets the mood. Well thank you, Ty. That's incredibly generous of you, considering that was my very first episode. And I was still not too sure what I was doing with music. From February 2026, Kane Ramos says, It's more fast-paced and mechanical than most solo podcasts I've heard, but it's pretty entertaining so far. You're absolutely right, Kane Ramos. In those early days I was working off a script, and I didn't understand that it's good to have the equivalent of white space in podcasts. And I wouldn't say I was gabbling, but I was certainly moving at a faster clip than what I would normally do in conversation. Kane Remus had a few further comments. He was following the action very closely, in fact, in episode two. He was as impressed as I was that the entire caravan saved except for one NPC on the Deadfall Trap, and for episode three echoed my own feeling about Jack having to kill the charmed enemy. And finally for episode four he notes that the party's employer, a jiwe, may prove to be a problem. Well, yes, I would have to agree it. It is a little awkward when the employer thinks that he's employed you for a task and you think that you've been employed for a slightly different task or set of tasks. And finally he says in episode five, Jack is pulling main character energy here. In that episode, Jack not only picked up Yawnsley's lie, but he made a great charisma check on the Vompt. So yes, Jack really was uh coming through in the clutch in a couple of occasions there. Thanks again, Kane Romus. I hope I haven't lost your attention by ignoring you for this amount of time.