[IC] Into Barovia

[GM Marvel]

Rhodric moves to one corner of the Burgomaster and prepares to lower him 8n the hole, and grab a shovel to cover him with dirt rapidly.

[No one is saying anything but I assume you all help...]

The Bishop begins the funeral prayers.  There's no time to speak about the Burgomaster's life or his loving family.  The howling draws closer.  The Bishop ends the prayer with a quick sign to the Morninglord then he swiftly moves to place himself between the church and the party.  He strains to peer into the fog for any sign of the creatures of darkness.  "HURRY!  I MEAN IT!"

Ismark shovels as fast as he can to the point where he thinks he's going to pass out.  Ireena leans against the doorway for support.  Her heart pounding out of her chest.  "Hurry," she whispers under her breath as her eyes search the black forest that now in the dark, seems to lay frighteningly close to the broken fence surrounding the graveyard.

[Rhodric]

Rhodric grabs his shovel and starts to hurl dirt into the grave as quickly as possible.

[Sumayl al-Akhir]

Sumayl makes sure his scimitar and shield are close at hand, but immediately starts shovelling as quickly as he can.

[Eloric Aetherion]

Eloric shovels dirt for all he's worth.

[Reion Hallowbrook]

The halfling tries not to get buried while trying to keep up with the big folk. They seem to be getting frantic as the sun starts to set. Which is understandable of course.  Then when he heard wolves howling he got a bit nervous himself and picked up the speed even more.  "Howling!? Oh boy... I think that's our que!"

[GM Marvel]

Pairs of glowing yellow light begin appearing and glaring out from the edge of the trees toward the party.  Loud growling rises above the sounds of the wind and even your shoveling.  You can't help but feel like you could be attacked at any second.  

"Get inside!"  Donavich yells!  

Suddenly large fiendish-looking wolves bound out of the forest toward the party.

[[Initiatives please!]]

[Reion Hallowbrook]

Reion scrambles away from the grave and onto even ground as quickly as possible.  

Initiative: 1d10 = 8

[Eloric Aetherion]

Eloric follows suit with Reion, he knows very well what that howling means. 

Initiative: 1d10 = 1

[Rhodric]

Iniative=[1d10]=3+ or - ?
What should Rhodric's initiative mod be?

[GM Marvel]

In 2nd edition AD&D there are a few different ways to roll initiative.  We can either just roll a 1d10 with no modifiers and whomever rolls the lowest starts first.  Or we roll a 1d10 and add speed factors/casting times which seems more realistic.  It doesn't seem fair if a warrior using a Two-handed sword were fighting a rogue with a dagger that the warrior could strike as quickly as the rogue.  In Rhodric's case, he has a Longsword of Quickness +2.  This means he gets to strike first in any round.  But normally a Longsword has a speed factor of 5.  It's a +2 magic weapon so it lowers the SF by 2 so it becomes +3.  You then roll d10 and add +3.  Lowest roll wins.

Movement: Movement rate is based on encumbrance.  Base movement is 12 if you're human sized and 6 if you're dwarf size or smaller.  You can move x10 your movement in a round.  If you want to attack and move your movement is halved as well as your attacks.  If you are trying to withdraw from combat then your movement is 1/3rd.  

May I ask why Reion and Eloric gave themselves -2 modifiers?  Speed factors adjusted by magic have a minimum of 0.