7. Return to the Halls

Seeing as we've apparently chosen violence, Ella will prepare to cast sleep. I hope the attack was not triggered by my late reply. Ella was ready to accept the stupid deal. It seemed like a good compromise, justified until we knew more about these halflings and their boss and could take them out. If somehow I have misread the situation, Ella will cease casting the spell.

Not complaining, I saw the majority voted for a fight. I was just concerned with the timing: had I posted a few hours earlier, accepting the offer, would Jacky have initiated combat anyway? In any case, I hope this turns out good for us all!

Not the best odds (and thank you @Burbage for offering the option of a takeback) but let's dice.

Casting sleep on the tightly packed group of halflings, centering toward the back of the group so as to hopefully hit any additional hidden halflings behind the gate.

I might be confusing Ad&d 1st ed with OSRIC rules but I’m not sure I understand how actions are going to transpire here. Am I to understand that all actions of all characters are going to start and finish within segment 4, whereas the sleep spell being cast will only take effect in segment 5?

In my recollection of how initiative ties work in ad&d, all actions were initiated simultaneously, but did not all finish at the same time: in melee your dexterous rogue wielding his dagger (speed factor 2) would act before the hulking warrior swinging his two handed-sword (speed factor 10), even though blows on both side would land even if said rogue’s attack had slain the warrior.

More importantly in the present case, if a spell-caster could take out a number of foes with a spell, you had to consider whether the melee attackers could get to the spell-caster and attack him before the spell went off. But movement, and swinging weapons consumed time too. For instance, my chainmail clad character with a 9" base movement could move at most 9feet per segment (18 ft if charging), so that the distance separating the melee types from the spell-casters and archers bought the latter some time to act…

Whatever you rule is fine with me Burbage, but I’d like to understand the underlying reasoning so I can plan my actions accordingly in the future, assuming there will be one for Ella… :-P

I stated above that I was closing into combat. I will target Roskelly. You are the DM, so you decide EVERYTHING, but the OSRIC rules (2.2) do say say on pg. 127 that "When faced with more than one opponent, it is not possible to pick which opponent will be the one receiving the attack; in the rapid give and take of melee, any one of the opponents might be the one to let down his guard for a moment.
When a character is in melee with multiple opponents, the target of an attack roll must be determined randomly, but note that characters or creatures with multiple attacks that are part of the same routine (such as a bear with a claw/claw/bite attack or a character wielding a sword and dagger) must make all attacks against the same opponent unless otherwise specified in the relevant monster’s entry."

Also subject completely to your discretion, Zach has bastard sword double specialization, which means he gets multiple attacks, now 3/2 (unless he is fighting creatures of < 1 HD, in which case he gets one attack per fighter level or 2/1) so every odd round he attacks twice, which, according to the rules on p. 14, means he attacks BEFORE everyone and AFTER everyone on odd rounds and in his initiative slot on even round.

Of course, as DM, if you tell me Zach attacks last in every round, that is what will happen :D :D

So, all else equal, Zach intends to close with Roskelly and wallop him as often as he can with the sharp edge of his big, pointy, metal stick.

Ah, I remembered we're following this Unearthed Arcana table for rate of attacks, so Jacky should get a second shot. If I'm in error, feel free to ignore the 2nd.