Not Meaning to be Critical
Our paladin, apparently intent on the plan to rescue the leader of the resistance group by waiting until he's executed and then raise him as a zombie, wasn't paying much attention when we were told of the group's inherently peaceful attitude. 'Try not to kill anyone', we remind him, as we wait to launch an ambush on the wagon holding Arael, captured leader of the group.
'How am I supposed to do that?', he wails, keen to spill guts as all paladins are. We try to assuage his bloodlust, telling him that we can fight but we aren't here to massacre our opponents, but still he struggles to grasp the concept of suppressive combat. I suppose that's just his lawful-good alignment kicking in.
It's not only our paladin who's having trouble. Our elven ranger is trying to work out how he can pull his blows so that he deals less damage. But hang on a minute, how do you pull a blow with an arrow?
'You could walk up to your target and hit him gently with it', Brennan suggests.
'No', I say, 'if you want to do less damage with an arrow just nock and fire it normally. That method's worked so far in dealing no damage'.
Whatever methods we employ to bring the enemy down without killing them, just don't go for the jugular. But it's too late, as the wagon holding Arael is in front of us, our decoy riders have done their job in drawing away some mounted guards, and the paladin is running to engage the guards on the wagon. He targets the leader, declared his chosen enemy, and slices through his jugular. Blood spews everywhere as the critical hit cuts the Hellknight down in a single blow.
Our Ranger is next, and his arrow flies true, as difficult as that is to believe. The arrow strikes hard in to the neck of another guard, a second critical hit dropping a second target to the ground in one blow, amidst another fountain of blood.
Ganelon looks back and asks Afutavere, 'Didn't you pull your blow?', somewhat sarcastically. Personally, I think he fired a warning shot and characteristically missed by miles.