Forrester's Against the Elves Campaign

Forrester’s Against the Elves Campaign

Chronicled by Morrow



Cast of Characters

Thar (Goblin) Cleric of Maglibuyet 7
Rhuun (Goblin) Rogue 2, Fighter 3 – Thar’s cohort
Atarax (Goblin) Bard 7
Krikara (Darkcreeper) Rogue 5, Scout 1
Foleful (Xvart) Sorcerer 7
Kriggle (Kobald) Paladin of Kurtulmak 8




What Has Gone Before

Some time ago the elves of the east, for unknown reasons, decided to invade lands traditionally held by the humanoid tribes. Among the humanoid communities that the elves mercilessly crushed was Old Blarkarg. Refugees from Old Blarkarg founded New Blarkarg, a hidden community of goblins and kobalds displaced by elven aggression.

A group of the most skilled humanoids who found shelter in New Blarkarg banded together to protect their fellows and battle the elven menace. That group overcame many hardships- harrying elven patrols, raiding elven supply caravans, escaping elven ambushes. They were always on the run, always fighting and hiding and fighting again. Several of their number fell to the hated elves.

Eventually, guided by the goblin god Maglibuyet, the band of heroes found a route to escape to the Underdark. They lead more than two hundred goblin and kobald refugees across elven controlled territories to the cave leading to the Underdark. Along the way they defeated many elven forces, even managing to kill the elven commander, Aelielael.

Safe, at least for the moment, the heroes found a relatively safe place for the refugees of New Blarkarg to live while they looked for something better. Thus was founded Blarkarg Camp. The cleric of Maglibuyet, Thar, stayed to care for the people of Blarkarg Camp and advise their leaders. The other heroes of New Blarkarg journeyed further into the wilds of the Underdark in search of a better home for their people. That was three months ago.

Against the Elves – Prologue

The first vision was hazy. It wasn’t a vision at all really, just the feeling that had accompanied the previous visions from Maglibuyet, nothing more. The second vision, several days later, revealed the fuzzy outline of a humanoid. A goblin? It was impossible to tell. Thar could tell that it was hugely important that he understand. Then it cut off abruptly.

The third vision was crystal clear. A goblin - young, ten years old, maybe less. He wears rags around his torso and dried blood on his hands, feet, and knees. He’s covered with dirt and grime. His hands are callused – hard. He stares at Thar, or past him, with a blank expression. He is somewhere in the caverns south of the bugbear-run trade city of Gulg. Thar must find him.

Thar awoke abruptly. He immediately rolled off his pallet and began praying for his daily complement of spells. He would need help to do Maglibuyet’s will. He had only recently learned sending, a spell that would allow him to communicate with others far away.

The goblin cleric sent his first spell to Ive. Although a kobald, the necromancer was a kindred spirit. Thar felt the spell stretch away from him, and then abruptly cut off. Likely, that meant Ive was dead.

Thar paused briefly to consider the implications of his companion’s death, and then cast another spell, this time targeting Krikara, the darkcreeper. Krikara had disapeared in the Underdark before the others had found the site of Blarkarg Camp. Again, the spell reached out, and again it was cut off. Krikara was dead as well? That was unexpected. The rogue had a respectable, almost goblin-like sense of self preservation.

Thar cast one more spell. He did not even consider contacting Hedkarakk, the orc barbarian. Instead he chose Atarax, the goblin bard. This time he felt the spell make a connection.

Maglubiyet has sent a vision. Leaving soon from Blarkarg camp. I need your help. Can you meet me in Gulg? If possible bring the others.

Atarax’s reply, and sendings they exchanged the next day revealed that Atarax’s companions were dead. He was in Gulg, but no one else was being allowed in because the leaders of Gulg feared that the recent assassination of an important bugbear merchant named Smedley signaled that the drow were taking a renewed interest in Gulg. Atarax suggested that they meet in Freetown, a particularly rough humanoid community south of Gulg. The goblin that Thar sought may even be in Freetown.

Thar called for Filbin and Skip, his two most gifted acolytes. "I have received a vision from Maglibuyet. He has instructed me to search out a young goblin, somewhere south of Gulg."

Filbin grinned, "When do we leave boss?"

"You’ll have to stay here. Someone has to care for the people of Blarkarg Camp. While I’m gone, that someone is you. Fishbone is a good leader, but he needs the guidance of Maglibuyet."

Thar gave Filbin and Skip instructions for his absence, and then dismissed them and called for Rhuun.

Rhuun came from a clan of goblins who had been slaves in the drow city of Sivenni for generations. Several months ago she had killed her master, stolen everything she could carry and escaped the city. Among the things she stole was a ring of sustenance, which sustained her with no food or water and very little sleep, allowing her to survive alone in the Underdark. She had wandered into Blarkarg camp a month ago, wounded and confused after an encounter with an Umber Hulk.

In their time as slaves, Rhuun’s people had sustained themselves by cultivating a fierce faith in the goblin god, Maglibuyet. Rhuun was particularly fanatical. After she was healed, Rhuun had immediately pledged herself to Thar’s service.

"Maglibuyet is sending us on a quest. We are leaving immediately. Prepare our things."

Thar went to consult with Fishbone, the leader of the goblins of Blarkarg Camp. When he left Fishbone’s cave, carrying a bag of gold that Fishbone had given him, Rhuun was waiting. Wordlessly she handed over Thar’s pack and together they walked out of Blarkarg Camp.

Against the Elves – Prologue

Some time later Thar and Rhuun came to a broad pool of water, blocking the tunnel. They knew that the pool blocked the entrance to a system of caves which had until recently been the home of a tribe of goblins. Shortly before the people of Blarkarg came to the area the tribe had been attacked by slavers. The entire goblin tribe was killed or taken prisoner . The cave system would have made a perfect home for the people of Blarkarg, but they feared that the slavers would return.

The pool was too deep to safely wade across and was a perfect place for an ambush. In fact, Thar and Rhuun could see bits of flesh and bone strewn around the area and floating in the pool. Several months ago, Thar’s former companion, Hedkarakk, had run afoul of a group of ogre barbarians in this very spot. Unfortunately, to Thar’s way of thinking, his companions had been able to retrieve enough of Hedkarakk’s body to have the arrogant orc returned from the dead. However, Atarax reported that the orc had since met his final end.

The pair also found fresh spoor. Rhuun examined it carefully, stroking her prized throwing axe as she thought. Rhuun claimed that the fine weapon was dwarven make, but no one could explain how it might have gotten into the hands of the drow who she stole it from. Rhuun always wore the axe tucked prominently in her belt. "Ogres." She reported, "they’ve been here within the last day."

Thar was prepared to circumvent the pool. He cast spells turning both Rhuun and himself invisible. Then he cast a spell on Rhuun that made her able to walk on the air. Rhuun was very strong for a goblin, and was able to heft Thar onto her shoulders. She then walked, as if on stairs, up into the empty air, and then across the cavern, well above the pool. Thar regretted the undignified manner that he was forced to travel, but reflected that at least no one could see his unfortunate position.

The two entered the cavern system formerly occupied by the goblin tribe. Rhuun still carried Thar on her shoulders, walking on air near the cavern ceiling. They explored the caves, wondering if it would be a safe place to camp for the night. Thar briefly considered animating some of the bodies left behind by the drow slavers, but decided that stealth, rather than numbers, would be the safer course on their journey to Freetown.

Soon the pair heard the sounds of voices talking in what sounded like the dialect of the giants. The two silently followed the voices and soon found themselves hanging in the air above a pair of ogres who seemed to have made themselves at home in the goblin caves.

Thar, wishing to avoid conflict, tugged on Rhuun’s invisible sleeve. Rhuun, not knowing how to interpret this gesture began walking down toward the floor. Thar, aghast, stopped pulling on her sleeve. They couldn’t see each other, of course, and talking was dangerous so near the ogres. Rhuun, not knowing what Thar wanted, simply waited.

Thar finally, impatient, hissed. "Get us out of here!"

One of the ogres immediately looked up and spoke. Thar did not speak Giant, but knew, that they had been heard. Rhuun continued to move quietly out of the cave. She must have made some small noise, because the ogres jumped to their feet and began moving toward the mouth of the cave. Rhuun took to her heels and, still carrying Thar across her shoulders, ran from the former goblin caves, soon leaving the ogres, who could not see what they were chasing, far behind.

A couple hours later the pair found a small cave to make camp. They ate, then Thar stood watch while Rhuun got a couple hours sleep, all she needed. Then Thar slept the rest of the night, with Rhuun watching over him.

The next days travel was entirely uneventful, and that night when it was Rhuun’s turn to stand watch she requested that Thar cast the air walk spell on her again so that she could practice the tricky business of walking on air. As Thar fell asleep Rhuun was walking up invisible stairs in the air over his head.

The next day Rhuun and Thar reached the first of two bugbear ‘toll booths’ on the way to Freetown and Gulg. The bugbears in the region had discovered that if they set up camp on a main thoroughfare through the Underdark, others would pay them to pass. This pastime, which promised substantial rewards for very little work, appealed to the bugbears.

Thar and Rhuun used their combination of invisibility and airwalk to avoid the bugbears. They discovered the bugbear camp in disarray. Several of the large, hairy humanoids were repairing a crude portcullis which normally blocked the way, and another was cowering in a corner, shuddering in fear.

Listening to the bugbears talk, Thar and Rhuun discovered that a small band of drow had come this way. One of the band had killed many bugbears with fiery magic, and another had ripped the portcullis from its place with his bare hands.

Rhuun carried Thar over the heads of the bugbears, past the broken portcullis, and down the tunnel.

At the end of a long day, Thar and Rhuun once more camped safely, and after they had slept continued on their way.

Some time later the pair heard orcish voices coming toward them. Again they turned invisible and walked through the air over the head of their enemies. Thar, who spoke orcish, could understand the orcs complaining about the heavy tolls they had been forced to pay the bugbears outside of Gulg.



[Game Note: At this point Forrester started grumbling about the characters avoiding all the fights. We tried to explained that as goblins we weren’t inclined to fight larger, more numerous foes, but he would hear none of it. So as soon as the invisibility spells and airwalk wore off, we heard voices up ahead...]

Against the Elves – Prologue

Once more Thar and Rhuun heard voices ahead. The unmistakable tones of bugbears- from the noise Rhuun could tell that there were ten, maybe twelve of them. "Damn," muttered Thar. He was out of invisibility spells and the tunnel had been straight and unbranching for some time now. There was nowhere to go.

"No place to hide," remarked Rhuun.

Thar and Rhuun scampered back down the tunnel ahead of the bugbears. When they were far enough ahead, Thar began casting spells, endurance for himself and several spells for Rhuun: bull’s strength, endurance, magic vestment on her chain shirt, greater magic weapon on her axe. If the bugbears wanted a fight, they would get one. Thar passed a pouch of fifty gold coins to Rhuun. Without much conviction he said, "Here, maybe we can convince them that’s all we have and avoid a fight."

Rhuun looked at him disbelieving, but accepted the pouch without a word.

By the time Thar was finished, the bugbears were nearly on top of them. Thar and Rhuun put their backs to the cavern wall. "Hello," called Thar.

"What’s this?" responded the largest bugbear as they came into sight. "What are goblins doing way out here?" The large bugbear didn’t say ‘goblins’ of course, he used the particular bugbear term for smaller humanoids. It could be translated as either food or slaves.

Thar bowed his head. "We’re refugees, from the… Ugh tribe. We’re going to Gulg."

The bugbears surrounded the two goblins, pressing in close to see the ‘food’ that came into bugbear territory all alone. The largest bugbear, clearly the leader, stood in front of Rhuun, eyeing her, but continued to talk to Thar. "It costs gold to get into Gulg. Can you pay?" and after a brief pause he ran his finger along the shoulder of Rhuun’s fine chain shirt. "You are well equipped for refugees."

Inwardly Thar groaned. Refugees? What was I thinking? I’ve gotten soft in the head living with the tribe.

The largest bugbear reached down for Rhuun’s axe. Rhuun slapped his hand away. With Thar’s magic in effect Rhuun was very strong, perhaps stronger than the bugbear. He stepped back, surprised. His companions began reaching for their weapons. The began to grumble to one another, remarking that, "The food was getting uppity."

The bugbear locked eyes with Rhuun. "I’ll take that."

In an eye blink Rhuun’s weapons were in her hands. Her dagger darted forward, coming up below the bugbears chain shirt and burying itself deep into his gut. The bugbear’s eyes went wide and he doubled over with pain. That brought his head within Rhuun’s reach. She swung her axe in smooth arc. His head separated from his shoulders and fell to the ground, immediately followed by his body.

The other bugbears gasped in unison. Rhuun gazed coldly at them.

"You’re right. We’re not refugees."

The bugbears began slipping past the goblins and sidling down the tunnel. One, than another, than the whole group broke into a run. Rhuun gave Thar a toothy grin.

Thar blinked, swallowed, and took a deep breath. "Right. Let’s see to the body, shall we?"

A quick spell later and Thar discovered that the ring and chain shirt the bugbear wore were enchanted. Wordlessly he passed the ring to Rhuun, who placed it proudly on her thumb. They stripped the body and bundled the armor into Thar’s enchanted Haversack. A large sack, holding around 500 gold coins hung from the bugbear’s belt. "Here Rhuun, take this. We’ll use it to pay our way through the next checkpoint."


[Game note: Foleful’s player ran Rhuun for this session. When he rolled to hit with the axe he rolled not one, not two, but three 20s in succession. Immediately after that he rolled an 18 on Rhuun’s intimidate check, making her result a 24 before circumstance bonuses for the decapitation trick. That pretty much answered the question what a former goblin slave was going to do with a bunch of ranks in intimidate.]

Re: Against the Elves – Prologue

Morrow said:

[Game Note: At this point Forrester started grumbling about the characters avoiding all the fights. We tried to explained that as goblins we weren’t inclined to fight larger, more numerous foes, but he would hear none of it. So as soon as the invisibility spells and airwalk wore off, we heard voices up ahead...]

Click to expand...

SOOO untrue!

First of all, I started grumbling a bit before then, as I recall. Maybe around the portcullis.

Second of all, Morrow makes it sound like I just *decided* to throw another group at them after their invisibility wore off, as opposed to leaving it up to the roll of a die.

Very unfair. I mean, do I seem like the type of DM who would purposely throw an unwinnable, unescapable combat up against a party? Me?!

Not my fault I rolled a '1' after their invisibility wore off.

(That's my story and I'm sticking to it . . . )

Against the Elves - Prologue

An hour later the pair came to the great stone door guarded the last ‘toll booth’ before turning north toward Gulg or south toward Freetown. A moment later the great door slid upwards. The cavern walls blocked the sound of whatever contrivance was capable of lifting the great slab. "Bugbears built this?" asked Thar as they passed the doors and entered the antechamber beyond.

The antechamber was more or less square, with a ceiling stretching out of sight above them. The floor was damp and there were water stains on the walls. Did the bugbears have the means to flood the cavern?

Thar heard the sound of spellcasting from somewhere above him and recognized a zone of truth as it washed over him once, then twice. He easily resisted its effects, but knew that Rhuun likely had not. "Who are you?" called a voice from above.

"Thar, son of Ghorn, cleric of Maglubiyet. This is Rhuun."

"The other will speak for herself. Who are you?"

"I am Rhuun." She replied.

"Why do you come to Gulg?"

"We had heard that Gulg was a trade city." Replied Thar. "We came to trade, and to meet other goblins who are already here."

"Gulg is closed to outsiders. You may not enter there."

Thar nodded, it was as Atarax told him to expect. "Then we will go to Freetown and send word for our friends to come to us."

The voice seemed satisfied. "To pass you must pay. 250 gold each. Can you pay?"

Rhuun looked at Thar incredulously. He grimaced and shrugged. "We can pay."

A large bucket slowly descended from above, hanging from a large rope. Rhuun wordlessly filled it with gold and the two watched it raise out of sight.

They stood waiting for several minutes. Thar reflected that it might take some time for bugbears to count that much gold. Eventually the door at the other end of the cavern slid open and they pair could proceed. They passed through several more doors, but no one blocked their passage.

On the other side the pair met several goblins from Gulg. They spoke to two, Stevearg and Bobarg, and quickly learned that Atarax had become something of a celebrity in Gulg. "Oh, Atarax, everyone knows him."

The two also confirmed Atarax’s story that an important bugbear had been killed. Little effort was being made to find his killer or stop anyone from leaving Gulg, but no one was allowed to enter for fear that they were drow spies. Stevear and Bobarg advised that if Thar and Rhuun did enter Gulg, they should stay in goblintown and obey all the rules. Borga, leader of the bugbears was a stern ruler and harshly punished anyone who broke his rules. Thar thanked the two goblins, and he and Rhuun turned south toward Freetown.

The campaign continues

Event One: Kriggle’s Big Adventure

Kriggle, kobold paladin and champion of his tribe, returns from a routine patrol with his scout assistants Plikt and Krup. The tribe is (sorry, was) a couple of hundred kobolds, plus a handful of domesticated giant lizards, et al, and dwelled in a small complex on the outer edges of a Hellmouth. Its membership never needed to give the tribe a clever name (like “the Red Feather Tribe” or something) since it was the only kobold tribe in the area and people who weren’t kobolds in the tribe had no reason to refer to it.

Like most humanoid tribes, it was ruled by a cleric… one able to cast Stone Shape. The walls of stone (from Stone Shape as opposed to walls of stone from Wall of Stone), coupled with the small size of the passages and the ability of kobolds to squeeze through things, formed the nucleus of the tribe’s defense plans.

Which plans failed utterly, sad to say. Kriggle and his two assistants came home to find everyone else dead. Day-old kobold corpses littered the tunnels, bearing clear bite and sword wounds. The wall-of-stone defenses had been erected, but judging from the debris patterns, someone had burst out of them, not in. Under one of the beds in a dormitory, Kriggle finds a four-year-old kobold girl, Karana, dead of a stab wound.

Kriggle counts the bodies (which is tough, because he keeps losing count and has to start over, plus his two assistants are too busy weeping and rending their garments to provide much help) and finds that out of the 200 kobolds in the tribe, 195 are dead and present. Kurt, Krepple, Karl, Karen, and Keith are missing… Krup tells Kriggle that those five were another patrol, and may still be alive somewhere.

Kriggle swears vengeance to Kurtlemak, and exhorts Plikt and Krup to join him as they set out to find the fiends who killed the village. Plikt and Krup are creeped out by Kriggle’s lack of concern for his tribe’s violent deaths. Kriggle explains that he was an only child and an orphan, so he had no family among the dozens and dozens of dead kinsmen. Plikt and Krup wonder if Kriggle is a sociopath.

Event Two: When Last We Left Our Heroes…

Atarax and Foleful, only survivors of the horrible spider attack in the Hellmouth, return bloody and half-dead to Gulg. There they lay low and lick their wounds. They also learn that Smedley the Dealer, the merchant who had commissioned their group to venture into the Hellmouth and fetch back some spider venom sacs, Smedley of the odd and misshapen body, was dead. Found dismembered in a panic room in his compound in Gulg, with resurrection-proofing poison in his veins and a sheet of paper with “D” on it pinned to his chest. Rumors of D., the drow hit man, were running rampant.

(Personally I’m hoping D. turns out to be one of those adamantium knights, the ones who replace parts of their bodies with prosthetics… it reminds me of Thomas Pynchon’s V., the titular character of which replaces her eyes, feet, teeth, and God knows what else with plastic prosthetics in an attempt to channel the Spirit of Modernity.)

So it was just as well that they had come back from that expedition with no venom sacs and two-thirds of their party dead.

While Foleful bought a big hat and lay low, Atarax communicated (magically) with Thar, his comrade from a ways to the east. What with the notorious murder, Gulg had been pretty much sealed up, and Thar wouldn’t be able to get in. Ergo, after some thought, they decided to meet up in Freetown. Foleful, who’d lived in Freetown seven weeks prior, suggested the residence of Doon, a troll who kept to himself and was less malicious than most trolls. Foleful wasn’t too keen on meeting Thar, but Atarax rattled off a list of twenty or so former player-characters who died defending New Blarkarg and its people, and assured Foleful that Thar was good people.

Once out of Gulg, Foleful used his divinatory powers to ascertain the situation in Freetown, and learned that the city was divided into rampant chaos on the one hand and tight-fisted tyrannical order on the other. (So what better place than Freetown to meet Thar?)

Atarax and Foleful take Foleful’s secret way out of Gulg and into the Hellmouth (again) and start meandering through the Hellmouth towards Freetown.

Then someone throws a pebble at Atarax’s head. Foleful nearly panics, but it turns out it’s a strange little woman Atarax knew back in the day – Kirkara, the dark creeper rogue. Krikara does not explain why she is walking moving sneaking traveling motating through the Hellmouth, but seems pleased surprised happy neutral excited to see Atarax again. She cheerfully joining adding venturing the two, and the three of them move on through the Hellmouth.

Kirkara takes a few minutes out to explain Dark Creeper monotheism to Foleful, whose secular humanoidist arguments are ill-equipped to refure actual theology. It’s something he’ll have to think about.

Event Three: The Obligatory Misunderstanding Fight

Kirkara is, as is habit, sneaking sixty feet or so ahead of Atarax and Foleful. From this vantage, she gets the drop on Kriggle, Plikt, and Krup, who are wandering through the Hellmouth looking for someone to punish for killing their village. She doesn’t know what to make of three kobolds, one mounted on a giant lizard and wearing plate mail, so she signals for Foleful and Atarax to come up. They do so, but get spotted.

Picture it, then: an eighty-degree slope forty feet long. At the top, the winding tunnel through which Krikara, Atarax, and Foleful came. At the bottom, a wide chamber with several exits, and the kobolds.

“Hello!” calls down Atarax.

Kriggle pulls out his lance, points it up at the interlopers, and shouts for them to face the wrath of Kurtlemak. His voice is squeaky and echoes in his helmet.

Foleful interprets this as an attack on him and his secular humanoidist beliefs, and fires a bolt of conjuring straight at Kriggle’s helmet. This has the side effect of conjuring an earth-elemental stirge, which latches onto Kriggle’s exposed throat and distracts him.

Krikara moves to sneak-attack. Atarax tries to talk, some more, calm everyone down, maybe get charming but the pesky kobolds make their Will saves. They fire crossbows at Foleful, who summons a fire-elemental dire ape in their midst.

The stirge dealt with, Kriggle charges up the slope and Foleful, stabbing him with his little kobold lance. Due to the extreme steepness of the slope, however, it’s not a “charge” so much as a “climb laboriously up and then poke,” and Foleful reacts by sending his ape to swat at Krup, and summoning up a heap of sandbags to hide behind.

Atarax tries his words, again, suggests they all calm down, but those darn Will saves…

Krikara moves in under cover of darkness and sneak-attacks Plikt, while the ape swats at Krup some more. Kriggle ("Surrender to Kurtlemak!") pokes at Foleful again, who steps back and casts some defensive magic. Atarax decides to go for a different spell, and blinds Kriggle with glitterdust. Blinded, Kriggle is easily taken prisoner, and Krikara shoots Plikt again, then binds his wounds. As for the dire ape and Krup… well, there’s not much of Krup left.

And of course it all turns out to have been a misunderstanding: Atarax didn’t kill everyone in Kriggle’s tribe, Kriggle isn’t a witch-hunter sent to kill Foleful for his secular humanoidism, and Foleful didn’t summon a dire ape that ate one of Kriggle’s friends. Actually, that last one is in fact the case, but boys will be boys. Everyone gets kind of sheepish, except for Atarax, who has nothing to be sheepish about, and Krikara, who probably couldn’t be sheepish if she tried.

I love it! I'm really sorry I missed this session. It's a hilarious concept- a multi racial group of humanoids who are likely going to spend all of their time arguing about theology. Thar is going to have to polish up his "polytheism is your friend," arguments for this crowd.

Morrow