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Story Hour
Erkonin (Campaign #1) [Session 46: Making Deals with Devils is Stupid as well as Bad]
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<blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 8152692" data-attributes="member: 7016699"><p style="text-align: justify">Session 24: The Liberation of Tristlan</p><p></p><p>Dramatis Personae:</p><p></p><p>Mo - Goliath Bard (College of Lore)</p><p>Orryk - Forest Gnome Monk (Way of the Four Elements, variant)</p><p>Fiona - Half-Elf Wizard (Evoker)/Cleric (Knowledge)</p><p>Taman - Human (variant) Rogue (Inquisitive)/Ranger</p><p>Joybell - Forest Gnome Paladin (Oath of the Ancients)</p><p>Thneed - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)</p><p></p><p>GM - Everyone Else</p><p></p><p></p><p>22 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 53)</p><p></p><p>As we were reaching the end of our long rest, with Taman, Thneed and Fiona awake and the rest of the party sleeping, they spotted seven bugbears out in the woods around the tiny hut. One of those bugbears walked into the stone colored, perfectly hemispherical hut.</p><p></p><p>Taman and Fiona started waking the rest of the party up and we decided to wait and see what they did before acting. Four of them surrounded the hut, but two turned to head toward the overrun village, Tristlan.</p><p></p><p>Right. We didn’t want to let them to get back to report anything.</p><p></p><p>Thneed put her hunter’s mark on one of the two that was heading toward the village and took a shot at it hitting and, with the horde breaker ability, the one next to it, Then she shot at the marked one again and dropped it. Taman had one of them standing outside of the hut right in front of him, so he took a swing through the hut with his rapier at it, but missed. All from within the hut.</p><p></p><p>The leader of this scouting band started to run away, presumably to report. Joybell jumped on Scooby to run after him and try to stop him but was unable to hit. Fortunately a moment later, Mo emerged from the hut and tangled the chief up with a web spell from the wand, then inspired Joybell. Orryk ran like the wind after the one that Thneed had shot with the horde breaker ability and dropped it.</p><p></p><p>As two of the bugbears that had been examining the hut turned to attack Mo, Taman was able to get an opportunity attack against them from within the hut. Their attacks on Mo hit, but he shrugged off most of the damage.</p><p></p><p>With the two that had been running toward the village dropped, two of the remaining “regular” bugbears began to run in the direction of the road.</p><p></p><p>Fiona stepped out of the hut, causing it to disappear, and firebolted one of those two heading for the road. It screamed like it had just been lit on fire. Appropriate. Thneed moved around some trees to get a better line of sight and moved her hunter’s mark to the other one heading for the road then shot it twice, dropping it. Taman dropped one of the ones that had attacked Mo with a sneaky stab in the back.</p><p></p><p>The chief/squad leader, restrained by the webbing, was unable to go anywhere and didn’t hit anything in his flailing attempts to attack. Joybell on the other hand hit him with both of her attacks.</p><p></p><p>Orryk ran to the other one running for the road and, having failed to stun it with a stunning strike, just went ahead and dropped it with his bonus attack. Mo tried to viciously mock one of the ones attacking him, with cruel words about the bugbear’s mother.</p><p></p><p>The bugbear, angered (but not injured) turned around and attacked him, getting a hit that did a critical wound. It roared something in bugbear that might have been, “What did you say about my mother?” Fiona then cast toll the dead on it, but was unable to drop it. Taman snuck in behind it while it was distracted by Mo’s insult and stabbed it, removing a kidney with his rapier as it fell to the ground, dead.</p><p></p><p>Thneed put her hunter’s mark on the chief, still restrained in the web, and did a lot of damage to him with two shots from her bow. The chief took a couple of futile swings at Joybell, who then hit him twice. It took Orryk running over and shooting with his shortbow to finally kill the bugbear chief -- who slumped in death but was held up in the web.</p><p></p><p>We looted everyone, finding 1400 copper pieces and 30 electrum between the lot of them. The bugbear chief had the mark of the Red Bones on his shield.</p><p></p><p>We took a short rest, making breakfast and making plans for our assault on the hobgoblin invaders of Tristlan. Thneed foraged for some food which we cooked and ate while talking.</p><p></p><p>Mo suggested getting up to some high ground that overlooked the town, so we could see the situation -- but one far enough away that clanky Joybell wouldn’t be a problem. After breakfast we found a good hill to observe from and saw that the village was very small. There were people moving around who didn’t look like hobgoblins (or any of their allies) -- they looked like normal “civilized” humanoids. Though we didn’t see anyone who looked like an elf. The non-hobgoblin people walking around were sort of scooting from one building to another, not loitering or lingering. We saw a couple dozen hobgoblins and some goblins as well.</p><p></p><p>The stockade had been started and was built around most of the city, but there were four or five gaps in the wall -- one where the road entered and left as well as a couple of others.</p><p></p><p>There was a larger building in the middle of the town that, after several minutes of watching, we never saw any of the non-hobgoblin humanoids going into. Mo speculated that this might be their command center and that the leader might be somewhere in the back of the building, so he did his junior birdman mask clairvoyance and puts the sensor just inside the back wall. Looking around he could tell that this would normally be the mayor or town leader’s office. There was a hobgoblin in plate armor and another in chainmail in the room. They were talking to a goblin. Mo switched to listening with the clairvoyance spell and could hear three voices speaking a language he didn’t know -- one voice was clearly giving orders and another was being obsequious to the point of cowardice. He could get that just from the voices.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Fiona, do you have anything that would let me understand goblin?</p><p>Fiona: No.</p><p></p><p>Mo heard something that even in an unknown language sounded like “Sir, yes, sir!” As he relayed, he switched back to the birdman goggles and saw the two hobgoblins have a quick exchange, then the one in chainmail left. Looking around the room, he saw a sketch with a map of the city with some marks on it showing where they were planning the stockades.</p><p></p><p>Since he was already looking around, he took a look for anything to steal, but only saw that it was not a room laden with treasure.</p><p></p><p>While Mo was doing that, Taman spotted a goblin leave that central building and go into a small building nearby. Then a bunch of goblins emerged and headed out toward the road in our direction.</p><p></p><p>GM: The most expendable force they have …</p><p></p><p>We headed to the road to intercept the goblin patrol. Since they were looking for us and everything.</p><p></p><p>Most of the party hid on the sides of the road. Joybell, on Scooby, moved slowly along the road, ambling, being a member of the public on the public thoroughfare. (In splint armor, on a wolf, and with two short swords and a flail strapped to her. But still a member of the public on the public thoroughfare.)</p><p></p><p>After a little while, we saw 11 goblins, one of them clearly a chief, moving along the road in a loose fireball formation. When Joybell saw them, she slowed down even further and moved to the side of the road, to let them go by. She smiled and waved at them.</p><p></p><p>At that they spread out, breaking their fireball formation. Some hid in the woods, some moved and dashed toward Joybell aggressively, making it clear that they were not just going to pass by as Joybell waved at them.</p><p></p><p>Mo cast web on two of the regular goblins and their chief, then he inspired Taman.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Will you kill these guys for me?</p><p></p><p>Fiona cast a fireball, which caught the webbed guys and a couple of the others. One of the others had the fireball almost brush his nose -- he could feel his nostril hair singing -- but he escaped the effects entirely. Unfortunately for him he couldn't escape watching four of his compatriots, and his chief, get immolated in the fire. Only the chief lived long enough to scream before dying.</p><p></p><p>The archers in the party began shooting at the ones they could see (some had hidden very well and were not visible) -- Orryk dropped one and Taman shot an arrow clean through another one’s head.</p><p></p><p>Joybell could only see one of them (it was very poorly hidden) and it was far away, so she moved up Scooby’s full speed and waited hoping one of them would be foolish enough to come out of the woods and attack her. To her irritation, some of them shot at her (missing wildly) but none closed with her.</p><p></p><p>Thneed took two shots at the one Joybell could see and killed it thoroughly -- killing it with her first arrow and pinning it to a tree with the second.</p><p></p><p>The others, more clued in to where the hiding goblins were, figured out that they were running away, hiding in the underbrush as they fled. One of them, in its flight, tripped over a tree root and revealed its location. Mo killed that one then moved closer to where Orryk was moving through the trees on the other side of the road, circling around to have a different view and hopefully see them as they’re hiding behind things.</p><p></p><p>Joybell, unable to see any goblins at all, moved up her full speed to hold level with Mo and Orryk, and held a javelin to throw at any goblin that appeared to her.</p><p></p><p>Taman spotted a couple over near Orryk.</p><p></p><p>Taman: Orryk, 12 o’clock.</p><p></p><p>Then he took a shot at that one and dropped it.</p><p></p><p>Taman: Orryk, 2 o’clock.</p><p></p><p>Thneed moved up and looked around, but couldn’t see the one remaining goblin, which was hiding in the underbrush and sneaking away stealthy like.</p><p></p><p>Orryk headed out in the direction Taman had indicated -- finally spotting the last goblin when he got within ten feet of it. He shot it and killed it.</p><p></p><p>As we were gathering and regrouping, and Thneed was carving her name in the foreheads of the dead goblins, Mo cast a rope trick to give us a safe place to take a short rest. While we were up there, Taman scouted around from time to time. Scooby stayed on the ground just lurking around like a wolf in the woods. Nothing came along the road in the hour we were up in the rope trick.</p><p></p><p>While we were resting we discussed again how we wanted to handle the assault, now that we had more information.</p><p></p><p>Mo: I have this idea that I could turn someone into a giant ape.</p><p></p><p>We agreed that Taman would be a good choice for giant ape-hood, because among other things it would give him a huge reserve of hit points.</p><p></p><p>We discussed extensively having the ape attack at one road entrance to the palisade followed a few seconds later by the rest of the party approaching at the other road entrance, having snuck through the forest to the other side of town. Joybell was concerned about any plan that involved her sneaking. There was also concern about having Giant Ape Taman exposed by himself with the rest of the party way off on the other side of the village.</p><p></p><p>Mo: I think you’re misunderstanding the awesomeness of the giant ape.</p><p>Thneed: Could the ape fly over the town?</p><p></p><p>We considered having Mo and the Giant Ape be the ones to circle around the town (Monkey Strike Force Alpha) while the rest of us approached along the road.</p><p></p><p>Joybell, concerned: Can we maybe talk to them first? Maybe they’re nice.</p><p>Orryk (to Thneed): Meet Joybell.</p><p></p><p>We eventually decided that Mo and Taman would go along on the road while the rest of the party circled around through the forest toward the nearest gap in the wall (not all the way around to the other road -- we didn’t want to be that far away). When the rest of the party got to the gap in the wall, Mo planned to cast polymorph on Taman.</p><p></p><p>The Apeless Group (Orryk, Joybell, Thneed, and Fiona) tried to sneak around through the woods and across the open area just outside the wall. Unfortunately the sentries spotted us along the way. Even more unfortunately, we were spotted before the polymorph could be cast.</p><p></p><p>The Apeless were about 30 feet away from the wall when the hue and cry went up and a whole bunch of hobgoblins popped up over the top of the wall from all around the city. We heard roars from in the city that called to mind the ogres we’ve encountered before. We were immediately confronted with several hobgoblins on the wall near us, with more coming through the city, including a hobgoblin cleric that was on the wall.</p><p></p><p>Thneed used her hunter’s mark and took a shot at one of the ogres, visible through the gap in the wall, hitting with both arrows. Taman, not yet an ape, took a shot at the same ogre.</p><p></p><p>All the hobgoblins in the town began yelling an alert -- which spread to the entire village.</p><p></p><p>Fiona cast a fly spell on herself and went up to the level of the top of the wall, moving around past the opening we were going to use, but didn’t get too close. Orryk took two shots at one of the hobgoblins on the wall, but didn’t hit. Then he moved off to the left, spreading out so we weren’t in a fireball formation.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Are we still going in that side entrance?</p><p>Taman: At this point the plan is hosed.</p><p></p><p>The hobgoblin cleric waved his hands and a cloud of winged axes, his spirit guardians, appeared around him.</p><p></p><p>Joybell, to the hobgoblins: We just want to visit!</p><p></p><p>Then she held a shot with the wand of magic missile on one of the hobgoblins ready to let it go as soon as one of them did anything aggressive to one of us.</p><p></p><p>Almost immediately, one of the ogres moved up and attacked Taman. Fortunately, Taman had a lucky dodge and it missed. While it was still in its follow-through, Joybell fired the magic missile at the hobgoblin on the wall she’d been aiming at, hitting it in the face and dropping it off the back of the wall.</p><p></p><p>Another ogre ran as fast as it could to get right up into Joybell’s grill. Which suited her just fine.</p><p></p><p>Mo played a song on his flute and the swirling cloud of smoke encircled Taman and when the smoke cleared there was a ginormous, hairy ape standing there. Then Mo moved to the side, away from Taman, Inspired Orryk, and lay down on the ground (to make himself less of a target for the archers on the wall).</p><p></p><p>The ogre that attacked Taman had his club pass over the puny human and then in a puff of smoke there was a giant ape there. Very confusing.</p><p></p><p>A hobgoblin came out of the building we’d identified as their headquarters, cast scorching ray on Fiona, flying just above the level of the wall, and critting her with it. Then it went back into the building. Fortunately, Fiona was able to keep her fly spell up despite the damage, and wasn’t further hurt by falling.</p><p></p><p>As we expected, the hobgoblins started firing at the giant ape, some of them hitting it. But a giant ape is a giant mountain of strength and muscle and can absorb a lot of damage. Some of the hobgoblins on the more distant parts of the wall jumped down and ran in the direction of the combat.</p><p></p><p>Thneed backed away from the ogre in front of her, then shot it twice, leaving the ogre looking kind of rough. Giant Ape Taman hit the ogre in front of him and smushed it right into the ground. He then turned and hit the other ogre nearby, the one in front of Joybell, but didn’t drop it. Then he moved to the entrance to the town.</p><p></p><p>Fiona, from her flying vantage point, could see the hobgoblin in plate armor come out of the headquarters building and go around to the back of one of the buildings -- moving away from the fray. She then cast a fireball on a group of hobgoblins nearby, but it was a kind of wimpy one. Then she flew down so that she was just an inch above the ground and not visible above the wall. Orryk dropped one with an arrow as he moved to a position closer to Fiona.</p><p></p><p>The hobgoblin cleric with the cloud of spirit guardians attempted to dispel magic on the giant ape, but failed, then, in a move we recognized well, he moved closer to bring his spirit guardians into play against Giant Ape Taman. Another hobgoblin moved up and it turned out to be a cleric as well, because it also cast dispel magic on the Ape, causing the polymorph to fall and Taman to to return to his normal form. Immediately he was attacked by a hobgoblin on the ground swinging a sword, which missed, and an arrow shot from one of their longbows.</p><p></p><p>Joybell smote the ogre in front of her with both of her blows, but still wasn’t able to drop it. It swung at her and would have hit, except Mo said something super insulting to it and it missed. Mo then blew a cloud of colorful flashing smoke from his pipe that settled over the two clerics and an ogre, as well as two of the regular hobgoblins, that were near Taman. The cleric surrounded by winged axes had his spirit guardians disappear, so he clearly failed to resist the allure of the beautiful lights. (Only one of the regular hobgoblins saved against the hypnotic pattern.)</p><p></p><p>The hobgoblin devastator, their wizard, came out of their headquarters and cast a fireball on Mo, Orryk and Fiona. Mo and Orryk both saved. Fiona took a lot of damage, but didn’t drop and was even able to keep her fly spell going.</p><p></p><p>The hobgoblin that wasn’t entranced by the pretty lights, tried to snap some of his colleagues out of it, but only managed to hit the ogre and wake it up. One of the hobgoblins that had been on a far wall made it as far as the base of the wall near Orryk, but was unable to attack.</p><p></p><p>Thneed moved her hunter’s mark to the ogre in front of Joybell and dropped it with her first shot. Then she took a shot at the hobgoblin that wasn’t hypnotized. Taman got some insight into one of the hobgoblin’s weak points and attacked for extra damage. Then he moved to outside the village near the wall.</p><p></p><p>The hobgoblin in plate mail, presumably the captain, finished with the task that had taken him further from the fray initially, moved closer.</p><p></p><p>Fiona, badly damaged by the scorching ray and the fireball, hid behind the wall and cast cure wounds on herself. Orryk tried to use his water whips to move the devastator closer to himself, but the whips didn’t grab hold right and the devastator was able to avoid being pulled. So Orryk moved closer himself and threw a couple of daggers at it. Joybell rode Scooby has hard as he could run to get to the ogre that had been snapped out of its hypnosis.</p><p></p><p>The captain in plate mail said something to the ogre Joybell had ridden so hard to get to. It grunted in response and, instead of attacking Joybell on its turn, it whacked the hobgoblin cleric next to it and woke that up.</p><p></p><p>Mo blew a crashing loud note on his flute and cast shatter on two of the regular hobgoblins that were standing next to each other, killing both of them with the force of the noise.</p><p></p><p>The devastator, finding himself near Orryk, cast thunderstep to get away, reappearing next to the captain in plate mail. And doing some damage to Orryk with the thunderous noise. One of the regular hobgoblins woke up the other hobgoblin cleric. A couple of regular hobgoblins tooks shots at Joybell, but she barely noticed.</p><p></p><p>Thneed put her hunter’s mark on one of the clerics and took a shot at it with her bow. Then she hit the ogre with the horde breaker ability, dropping it. Then she took another shot at the cleric. Taman then followed up with an attack with his rapier at the same cleric, dropping it, then he moved around behind Joybell.</p><p></p><p>The hobgoblin captain moved up into melee with Joybell, taking three swings at her. Fortunately, he didn’t hit her too hard.</p><p></p><p>Fiona flew up over the top of the wall and dropped a fireball on the devastator, the captain, some of the regular hobgoblins. It killed all of the regulars, leaving only two of those of the 20 that had been occupying the village still alive (and one of those two hypnotized). The devastator, the captain and one of the clerics were also still alive.</p><p></p><p>But only briefly. Because Orryk moved over to the remaining cleric and dropped it.</p><p></p><p>Joybell cast wrathful smite and attacked the captain, hitting it and causing it to be afraid of her. She attacked him again and got a critical hit so she once again called down the divine smiting energy on him to enhance the damage from her blow. Mo tried to get into a position where he could see what was going on, but couldn’t. So he inspired Orryk.</p><p></p><p>The devastator cast a fireball right on top of Orryk, Taman and Joybell. Orryk and Taman both saved. So did Scooby and he managed to survive the damage he took. Joybell failed to dodge out of the fireball, but wasn’t dropped by it. The remaining un-hypnotized regular hobgoblin mook attacked Joybell, getting what would have been a really damaging blow in, but Mo insulted it and the force of its blow was weakened.</p><p></p><p>Thneed moved her hunter’s mark to the hobgoblin mook that had attacked Joybell, hitting it in a critical spot with her second shot and also taking a horde breaker shot at the captain. Taman ran to the devastator, avoiding attacks of opportunity because of a zephyr strike spell that let him move through threatened areas.</p><p></p><p>The captain tried to steel himself so that he was no longer frightened of the tiny gnome (on the wolf) but was unable to do so.</p><p></p><p>Fiona then dropped him with two critical hits with a scorching ray spell. Orryk moved up to the devastator and attacked him. His attempt at a stunning strike failed so he did a flurry of blows against him and dropped the devastator when both of those hit.</p><p></p><p>All that was left was one hypnotized hobgoblin mook…</p><p></p><p></p><p>Treasure</p><p></p><p>30 ep (5 each)</p><p>1400 cp (233 each with 2 left for the party kitty)</p><p></p><p>Party Kitty update:</p><p>2gp, 3 sp, and 16 cp.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="prabe, post: 8152692, member: 7016699"] [JUSTIFY]Session 24: The Liberation of Tristlan[/JUSTIFY] Dramatis Personae: Mo - Goliath Bard (College of Lore) Orryk - Forest Gnome Monk (Way of the Four Elements, variant) Fiona - Half-Elf Wizard (Evoker)/Cleric (Knowledge) Taman - Human (variant) Rogue (Inquisitive)/Ranger Joybell - Forest Gnome Paladin (Oath of the Ancients) Thneed - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave) GM - Everyone Else 22 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 53) As we were reaching the end of our long rest, with Taman, Thneed and Fiona awake and the rest of the party sleeping, they spotted seven bugbears out in the woods around the tiny hut. One of those bugbears walked into the stone colored, perfectly hemispherical hut. Taman and Fiona started waking the rest of the party up and we decided to wait and see what they did before acting. Four of them surrounded the hut, but two turned to head toward the overrun village, Tristlan. Right. We didn’t want to let them to get back to report anything. Thneed put her hunter’s mark on one of the two that was heading toward the village and took a shot at it hitting and, with the horde breaker ability, the one next to it, Then she shot at the marked one again and dropped it. Taman had one of them standing outside of the hut right in front of him, so he took a swing through the hut with his rapier at it, but missed. All from within the hut. The leader of this scouting band started to run away, presumably to report. Joybell jumped on Scooby to run after him and try to stop him but was unable to hit. Fortunately a moment later, Mo emerged from the hut and tangled the chief up with a web spell from the wand, then inspired Joybell. Orryk ran like the wind after the one that Thneed had shot with the horde breaker ability and dropped it. As two of the bugbears that had been examining the hut turned to attack Mo, Taman was able to get an opportunity attack against them from within the hut. Their attacks on Mo hit, but he shrugged off most of the damage. With the two that had been running toward the village dropped, two of the remaining “regular” bugbears began to run in the direction of the road. Fiona stepped out of the hut, causing it to disappear, and firebolted one of those two heading for the road. It screamed like it had just been lit on fire. Appropriate. Thneed moved around some trees to get a better line of sight and moved her hunter’s mark to the other one heading for the road then shot it twice, dropping it. Taman dropped one of the ones that had attacked Mo with a sneaky stab in the back. The chief/squad leader, restrained by the webbing, was unable to go anywhere and didn’t hit anything in his flailing attempts to attack. Joybell on the other hand hit him with both of her attacks. Orryk ran to the other one running for the road and, having failed to stun it with a stunning strike, just went ahead and dropped it with his bonus attack. Mo tried to viciously mock one of the ones attacking him, with cruel words about the bugbear’s mother. The bugbear, angered (but not injured) turned around and attacked him, getting a hit that did a critical wound. It roared something in bugbear that might have been, “What did you say about my mother?” Fiona then cast toll the dead on it, but was unable to drop it. Taman snuck in behind it while it was distracted by Mo’s insult and stabbed it, removing a kidney with his rapier as it fell to the ground, dead. Thneed put her hunter’s mark on the chief, still restrained in the web, and did a lot of damage to him with two shots from her bow. The chief took a couple of futile swings at Joybell, who then hit him twice. It took Orryk running over and shooting with his shortbow to finally kill the bugbear chief -- who slumped in death but was held up in the web. We looted everyone, finding 1400 copper pieces and 30 electrum between the lot of them. The bugbear chief had the mark of the Red Bones on his shield. We took a short rest, making breakfast and making plans for our assault on the hobgoblin invaders of Tristlan. Thneed foraged for some food which we cooked and ate while talking. Mo suggested getting up to some high ground that overlooked the town, so we could see the situation -- but one far enough away that clanky Joybell wouldn’t be a problem. After breakfast we found a good hill to observe from and saw that the village was very small. There were people moving around who didn’t look like hobgoblins (or any of their allies) -- they looked like normal “civilized” humanoids. Though we didn’t see anyone who looked like an elf. The non-hobgoblin people walking around were sort of scooting from one building to another, not loitering or lingering. We saw a couple dozen hobgoblins and some goblins as well. The stockade had been started and was built around most of the city, but there were four or five gaps in the wall -- one where the road entered and left as well as a couple of others. There was a larger building in the middle of the town that, after several minutes of watching, we never saw any of the non-hobgoblin humanoids going into. Mo speculated that this might be their command center and that the leader might be somewhere in the back of the building, so he did his junior birdman mask clairvoyance and puts the sensor just inside the back wall. Looking around he could tell that this would normally be the mayor or town leader’s office. There was a hobgoblin in plate armor and another in chainmail in the room. They were talking to a goblin. Mo switched to listening with the clairvoyance spell and could hear three voices speaking a language he didn’t know -- one voice was clearly giving orders and another was being obsequious to the point of cowardice. He could get that just from the voices. Mo: Fiona, do you have anything that would let me understand goblin? Fiona: No. Mo heard something that even in an unknown language sounded like “Sir, yes, sir!” As he relayed, he switched back to the birdman goggles and saw the two hobgoblins have a quick exchange, then the one in chainmail left. Looking around the room, he saw a sketch with a map of the city with some marks on it showing where they were planning the stockades. Since he was already looking around, he took a look for anything to steal, but only saw that it was not a room laden with treasure. While Mo was doing that, Taman spotted a goblin leave that central building and go into a small building nearby. Then a bunch of goblins emerged and headed out toward the road in our direction. GM: The most expendable force they have … We headed to the road to intercept the goblin patrol. Since they were looking for us and everything. Most of the party hid on the sides of the road. Joybell, on Scooby, moved slowly along the road, ambling, being a member of the public on the public thoroughfare. (In splint armor, on a wolf, and with two short swords and a flail strapped to her. But still a member of the public on the public thoroughfare.) After a little while, we saw 11 goblins, one of them clearly a chief, moving along the road in a loose fireball formation. When Joybell saw them, she slowed down even further and moved to the side of the road, to let them go by. She smiled and waved at them. At that they spread out, breaking their fireball formation. Some hid in the woods, some moved and dashed toward Joybell aggressively, making it clear that they were not just going to pass by as Joybell waved at them. Mo cast web on two of the regular goblins and their chief, then he inspired Taman. Mo: Will you kill these guys for me? Fiona cast a fireball, which caught the webbed guys and a couple of the others. One of the others had the fireball almost brush his nose -- he could feel his nostril hair singing -- but he escaped the effects entirely. Unfortunately for him he couldn't escape watching four of his compatriots, and his chief, get immolated in the fire. Only the chief lived long enough to scream before dying. The archers in the party began shooting at the ones they could see (some had hidden very well and were not visible) -- Orryk dropped one and Taman shot an arrow clean through another one’s head. Joybell could only see one of them (it was very poorly hidden) and it was far away, so she moved up Scooby’s full speed and waited hoping one of them would be foolish enough to come out of the woods and attack her. To her irritation, some of them shot at her (missing wildly) but none closed with her. Thneed took two shots at the one Joybell could see and killed it thoroughly -- killing it with her first arrow and pinning it to a tree with the second. The others, more clued in to where the hiding goblins were, figured out that they were running away, hiding in the underbrush as they fled. One of them, in its flight, tripped over a tree root and revealed its location. Mo killed that one then moved closer to where Orryk was moving through the trees on the other side of the road, circling around to have a different view and hopefully see them as they’re hiding behind things. Joybell, unable to see any goblins at all, moved up her full speed to hold level with Mo and Orryk, and held a javelin to throw at any goblin that appeared to her. Taman spotted a couple over near Orryk. Taman: Orryk, 12 o’clock. Then he took a shot at that one and dropped it. Taman: Orryk, 2 o’clock. Thneed moved up and looked around, but couldn’t see the one remaining goblin, which was hiding in the underbrush and sneaking away stealthy like. Orryk headed out in the direction Taman had indicated -- finally spotting the last goblin when he got within ten feet of it. He shot it and killed it. As we were gathering and regrouping, and Thneed was carving her name in the foreheads of the dead goblins, Mo cast a rope trick to give us a safe place to take a short rest. While we were up there, Taman scouted around from time to time. Scooby stayed on the ground just lurking around like a wolf in the woods. Nothing came along the road in the hour we were up in the rope trick. While we were resting we discussed again how we wanted to handle the assault, now that we had more information. Mo: I have this idea that I could turn someone into a giant ape. We agreed that Taman would be a good choice for giant ape-hood, because among other things it would give him a huge reserve of hit points. We discussed extensively having the ape attack at one road entrance to the palisade followed a few seconds later by the rest of the party approaching at the other road entrance, having snuck through the forest to the other side of town. Joybell was concerned about any plan that involved her sneaking. There was also concern about having Giant Ape Taman exposed by himself with the rest of the party way off on the other side of the village. Mo: I think you’re misunderstanding the awesomeness of the giant ape. Thneed: Could the ape fly over the town? We considered having Mo and the Giant Ape be the ones to circle around the town (Monkey Strike Force Alpha) while the rest of us approached along the road. Joybell, concerned: Can we maybe talk to them first? Maybe they’re nice. Orryk (to Thneed): Meet Joybell. We eventually decided that Mo and Taman would go along on the road while the rest of the party circled around through the forest toward the nearest gap in the wall (not all the way around to the other road -- we didn’t want to be that far away). When the rest of the party got to the gap in the wall, Mo planned to cast polymorph on Taman. The Apeless Group (Orryk, Joybell, Thneed, and Fiona) tried to sneak around through the woods and across the open area just outside the wall. Unfortunately the sentries spotted us along the way. Even more unfortunately, we were spotted before the polymorph could be cast. The Apeless were about 30 feet away from the wall when the hue and cry went up and a whole bunch of hobgoblins popped up over the top of the wall from all around the city. We heard roars from in the city that called to mind the ogres we’ve encountered before. We were immediately confronted with several hobgoblins on the wall near us, with more coming through the city, including a hobgoblin cleric that was on the wall. Thneed used her hunter’s mark and took a shot at one of the ogres, visible through the gap in the wall, hitting with both arrows. Taman, not yet an ape, took a shot at the same ogre. All the hobgoblins in the town began yelling an alert -- which spread to the entire village. Fiona cast a fly spell on herself and went up to the level of the top of the wall, moving around past the opening we were going to use, but didn’t get too close. Orryk took two shots at one of the hobgoblins on the wall, but didn’t hit. Then he moved off to the left, spreading out so we weren’t in a fireball formation. Joybell: Are we still going in that side entrance? Taman: At this point the plan is hosed. The hobgoblin cleric waved his hands and a cloud of winged axes, his spirit guardians, appeared around him. Joybell, to the hobgoblins: We just want to visit! Then she held a shot with the wand of magic missile on one of the hobgoblins ready to let it go as soon as one of them did anything aggressive to one of us. Almost immediately, one of the ogres moved up and attacked Taman. Fortunately, Taman had a lucky dodge and it missed. While it was still in its follow-through, Joybell fired the magic missile at the hobgoblin on the wall she’d been aiming at, hitting it in the face and dropping it off the back of the wall. Another ogre ran as fast as it could to get right up into Joybell’s grill. Which suited her just fine. Mo played a song on his flute and the swirling cloud of smoke encircled Taman and when the smoke cleared there was a ginormous, hairy ape standing there. Then Mo moved to the side, away from Taman, Inspired Orryk, and lay down on the ground (to make himself less of a target for the archers on the wall). The ogre that attacked Taman had his club pass over the puny human and then in a puff of smoke there was a giant ape there. Very confusing. A hobgoblin came out of the building we’d identified as their headquarters, cast scorching ray on Fiona, flying just above the level of the wall, and critting her with it. Then it went back into the building. Fortunately, Fiona was able to keep her fly spell up despite the damage, and wasn’t further hurt by falling. As we expected, the hobgoblins started firing at the giant ape, some of them hitting it. But a giant ape is a giant mountain of strength and muscle and can absorb a lot of damage. Some of the hobgoblins on the more distant parts of the wall jumped down and ran in the direction of the combat. Thneed backed away from the ogre in front of her, then shot it twice, leaving the ogre looking kind of rough. Giant Ape Taman hit the ogre in front of him and smushed it right into the ground. He then turned and hit the other ogre nearby, the one in front of Joybell, but didn’t drop it. Then he moved to the entrance to the town. Fiona, from her flying vantage point, could see the hobgoblin in plate armor come out of the headquarters building and go around to the back of one of the buildings -- moving away from the fray. She then cast a fireball on a group of hobgoblins nearby, but it was a kind of wimpy one. Then she flew down so that she was just an inch above the ground and not visible above the wall. Orryk dropped one with an arrow as he moved to a position closer to Fiona. The hobgoblin cleric with the cloud of spirit guardians attempted to dispel magic on the giant ape, but failed, then, in a move we recognized well, he moved closer to bring his spirit guardians into play against Giant Ape Taman. Another hobgoblin moved up and it turned out to be a cleric as well, because it also cast dispel magic on the Ape, causing the polymorph to fall and Taman to to return to his normal form. Immediately he was attacked by a hobgoblin on the ground swinging a sword, which missed, and an arrow shot from one of their longbows. Joybell smote the ogre in front of her with both of her blows, but still wasn’t able to drop it. It swung at her and would have hit, except Mo said something super insulting to it and it missed. Mo then blew a cloud of colorful flashing smoke from his pipe that settled over the two clerics and an ogre, as well as two of the regular hobgoblins, that were near Taman. The cleric surrounded by winged axes had his spirit guardians disappear, so he clearly failed to resist the allure of the beautiful lights. (Only one of the regular hobgoblins saved against the hypnotic pattern.) The hobgoblin devastator, their wizard, came out of their headquarters and cast a fireball on Mo, Orryk and Fiona. Mo and Orryk both saved. Fiona took a lot of damage, but didn’t drop and was even able to keep her fly spell going. The hobgoblin that wasn’t entranced by the pretty lights, tried to snap some of his colleagues out of it, but only managed to hit the ogre and wake it up. One of the hobgoblins that had been on a far wall made it as far as the base of the wall near Orryk, but was unable to attack. Thneed moved her hunter’s mark to the ogre in front of Joybell and dropped it with her first shot. Then she took a shot at the hobgoblin that wasn’t hypnotized. Taman got some insight into one of the hobgoblin’s weak points and attacked for extra damage. Then he moved to outside the village near the wall. The hobgoblin in plate mail, presumably the captain, finished with the task that had taken him further from the fray initially, moved closer. Fiona, badly damaged by the scorching ray and the fireball, hid behind the wall and cast cure wounds on herself. Orryk tried to use his water whips to move the devastator closer to himself, but the whips didn’t grab hold right and the devastator was able to avoid being pulled. So Orryk moved closer himself and threw a couple of daggers at it. Joybell rode Scooby has hard as he could run to get to the ogre that had been snapped out of its hypnosis. The captain in plate mail said something to the ogre Joybell had ridden so hard to get to. It grunted in response and, instead of attacking Joybell on its turn, it whacked the hobgoblin cleric next to it and woke that up. Mo blew a crashing loud note on his flute and cast shatter on two of the regular hobgoblins that were standing next to each other, killing both of them with the force of the noise. The devastator, finding himself near Orryk, cast thunderstep to get away, reappearing next to the captain in plate mail. And doing some damage to Orryk with the thunderous noise. One of the regular hobgoblins woke up the other hobgoblin cleric. A couple of regular hobgoblins tooks shots at Joybell, but she barely noticed. Thneed put her hunter’s mark on one of the clerics and took a shot at it with her bow. Then she hit the ogre with the horde breaker ability, dropping it. Then she took another shot at the cleric. Taman then followed up with an attack with his rapier at the same cleric, dropping it, then he moved around behind Joybell. The hobgoblin captain moved up into melee with Joybell, taking three swings at her. Fortunately, he didn’t hit her too hard. Fiona flew up over the top of the wall and dropped a fireball on the devastator, the captain, some of the regular hobgoblins. It killed all of the regulars, leaving only two of those of the 20 that had been occupying the village still alive (and one of those two hypnotized). The devastator, the captain and one of the clerics were also still alive. But only briefly. Because Orryk moved over to the remaining cleric and dropped it. Joybell cast wrathful smite and attacked the captain, hitting it and causing it to be afraid of her. She attacked him again and got a critical hit so she once again called down the divine smiting energy on him to enhance the damage from her blow. Mo tried to get into a position where he could see what was going on, but couldn’t. So he inspired Orryk. The devastator cast a fireball right on top of Orryk, Taman and Joybell. Orryk and Taman both saved. So did Scooby and he managed to survive the damage he took. Joybell failed to dodge out of the fireball, but wasn’t dropped by it. The remaining un-hypnotized regular hobgoblin mook attacked Joybell, getting what would have been a really damaging blow in, but Mo insulted it and the force of its blow was weakened. Thneed moved her hunter’s mark to the hobgoblin mook that had attacked Joybell, hitting it in a critical spot with her second shot and also taking a horde breaker shot at the captain. Taman ran to the devastator, avoiding attacks of opportunity because of a zephyr strike spell that let him move through threatened areas. The captain tried to steel himself so that he was no longer frightened of the tiny gnome (on the wolf) but was unable to do so. Fiona then dropped him with two critical hits with a scorching ray spell. Orryk moved up to the devastator and attacked him. His attempt at a stunning strike failed so he did a flurry of blows against him and dropped the devastator when both of those hit. All that was left was one hypnotized hobgoblin mook… Treasure 30 ep (5 each) 1400 cp (233 each with 2 left for the party kitty) Party Kitty update: 2gp, 3 sp, and 16 cp. [/QUOTE]
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Erkonin (Campaign #1) [Session 46: Making Deals with Devils is Stupid as well as Bad]
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