Sometimes You've Just Got To Laugh
I had it all planned. Three giant Trolls ambush the party using a tied up human as bait. Here was the set up: The PC's and the merchant caravan they were travelling with came to a small area of road in the forest that went in a circle around four large trees. To one of these trees was tied a gagged man in a state of great distress attempting to scream something to them. They couldn't make out what he was saying, but like most curious PC's they decided to go check him out. Preparing for danger they readied their weapons and moved toward him. The Cleric approached the man, he had a look of complete terror in his eyes. She removed his gag... Then he yelled "They're using me as bait", as a great black shadow killed a horse and the two expendable npc's at the merchants caravan. Combat was joined and dice were rolled. It was at this point I got out my trusty whiteboard and drew a simple map of the area for everyone to reference. This is what I saw as I was