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<blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 637" data-attributes="member: 63"><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Chapter Seven: Church Goblins</strong></span></p><p></p><p>[meta] Just before this session, the party leveled up, all of them reaching 2nd level. In 2e terms, they were Bhur (cleric 2), James (fighter 2), Roth (fighter 2), and Harley (thief 2), but in 3e terms it’d be more like Roth (barbarian 2) and Harley (bard 1/rogue 1). Oh, and Allar’s a ranger 12/fighter 4. [/meta]</p><p></p><p>The old church is fairly bland, just a 40 x 60 building, 20 feet tall, with a small foyer and a now-dilapidated arching roof which has a broken spire at its top. James and Bhurisrava creep up to the windows of the old church, staying low, ready with their bows ready to fire through the windows. Roth stays just outside the main door, bastard sword in hand in case of trouble. Allar leads Harley up to the front door, and the woman looks around nervously while Allar pounds at the door with the pommel of his black scimitar.</p><p></p><p>When no one answers at first, Harley whispers a question to Allar about the sword, curious about where such an odd-looking blade came from. Allar hushes her with a finger to his lips, then whispers in reply that he’ll tell her when they’re done.</p><p></p><p>“Geeba!” comes a shout from the inside of the church door. A string of gibbering follows, all of which means nothing to the PCs. Allar clears his throat and replies in another string of gibbering, going slowly and in a voice much deeper than the original speaker’s.</p><p></p><p>A moment passes, and then the door to the Church opens slowly, scraping across the ground because of the lack of one hinge. From behind it emerge a pair of three-foot tall humanoids with darkly tanned skins that look almost green. Both have scruffly black hair and are armed with wooden spears. Allar and the Goblins exchange a quick conversation, and then the Goblins sneer and nod, waving them in. Allar explains that the Goblins have heard about some ‘nasty pale big folk’ in their woods, and they’re going to bring their leader to share the information. Though Allar expects an ambush, the Goblins refuse to force their leader to go outside, so he and Harley have to go inside. Allar makes sure to speak loud enough when he tells Harley that James, Bhur, and Roth can overhear.</p><p></p><p>The entrance foyer is only 20 feet long, and then the hall opens into a tall open church, illuminated through shattered windows and holes in the ceiling. A door behind a graffitied altar probably leads to the old priestly quarters, and side rooms were perhaps for visitors. True to Goblin form, Harley and Allar are inside for less than thirty seconds before another Goblin hiding behind the front door slams it shut. With a battle cry, “GEEBA!”, the two Goblins leap to attack the intruders. More Goblins pop up from behind rubble, others burst from the side rooms, and a small horde appear on a clumsily-built balcony near the roof. Aside from normal men warriors with weapons, women and even small children start throwing rocks and sticks at the pale big folk as the Goblins begin to rush toward them.</p><p></p><p>Harley panicks at first, about to try to run out through the front door, but a half-dozen Goblins block her path. She hurls Ricochet into the crowd, hitting easily because of how clumped the green-skinned critters are, and then draws her dagger in self defense. Her cries for help are easily answered, as James and Bhurisrava appear at windows on the opposite sides of the building and begin firing in. They step to the window, fire, then step to the side, confusing the Goblins at first as to where the shots are coming from. The front door crashes in, breaking its one remaining hinge and falling down upon the Goblin who tried to slam it shut. Roaring angrily, Roth bursts into the church, wading into the Goblins with his impressive hit point total.</p><p></p><p>Allar draws his second scimitar and tells Harley to stay close, then does a stunning job of picking off any Goblins who try to hit her. He deflects spear thrusts, cuts down some warriors with clubs, and with his lightning reflexes manages to mostly dodge even the hail of thrown rocks from overhead. In less than a minute of intense fighting, the Goblins realize they shouldn’t go near the man with two swords. That realization comes too late for the 30 dead or dying Goblins in the middle of the church floor. Most have died from slashes to their face or chest, but some were crushed to a pulp by a bashing bastard sword, while others have arrows sticking out of their backs. A few are just dazed, having been struck by Bhurisrava’s blunt arrows. As the melee continues, Harley waits for an opening, then tumbles through the crowd of remaining Goblins, snatching up Ricochet along with a fistful of daggers. </p><p></p><p>Some of the Goblins begin to flee for the exit at the back of the room, but Roth pulls forth a pre-prepared bottle of ale with a cloth in it. Lighting it with a magical item he found long ago (a cigarette lighter), he tosses the molotov cocktail into the exit before many Goblins can flee down it. James and Bhur begin taking potshots at Goblins in the rafters, as does Harley, using daggers recovered from the Goblins to keep the rock-throwers ducking so they stop flinging things at her. </p><p></p><p>Allar takes a more direct approach, dropping his spare scimitar and making a running leap, catching a low rafter in one hand and pulling himself up onto the balcony. As he charges through the cowering Goblins, most leap away, preferring to fall to the floor instead of risking being cut down. Harley and Roth let the panicked Goblins—most of them women or children—flee out the front door. James and Bhurisrava rush into the church to beat the remaining Goblins into unconsciousness, not eager to kill, but not wanting to let the bloodthirsty ambushers get away with their deeds.</p><p></p><p>Swinging down from the rafters after clearing them of Goblins, Allar checks on everyone. Harley, having been in the center of the huge melee, is barely able to stand. Only the desperate defense provided by Allar kept her from being swarmed to death by a dozen or more Goblins. Roth is bloody and fairly cut up, but he shrugs off Bhurisrava’s offer of healing, instead taking out a flask of ale and downing it. James and Bhur are completely unharmed because they kept a barrier between themselves and the Goblins. Allar himself has his fair share of cuts and bruises, but he seems to have avoided anything major.</p><p></p><p>As Bhurisrava heals Harley, James and Allar put out the fire from Roth’s molotov cocktail, and Roth searches the church side rooms for Goblin treasure. He ends up finding a handful more of Goblins, and after laughing at them and warning them never to try attacking them again, he shoos them out of the church. By this point probably a good thirty Goblins have fled the Church in panic. After he heals Harley, Bhurisrava tries to bandage the wounds of those Goblins not yet quite dead, but there are more dead than wounded.</p><p></p><p>Roth manages to find a masterfully built crossbow in an old, locked treasure chest. When the rest of the party rushes to investigate the smashing sound, Roth calms their fears by holding up the new weapon. Bhurisrava checks it, feeling a magical aura around it. Roth, pleased to have found a magical weapon, gives it to Harley, saying that she needs more weapons.</p><p></p><p>[meta] And yes, I admit, I did tell Harley’s player she could only carry one dagger. My bad. At least now she had a <em>+1 light crossbow</em> with a sheaf of 13 <em>+1 bolts</em>. Of course in 2e you had to take proficiency in crossbow, which Harley didn't have, so she couldn't use it. Ugh, how glad I am for 3e.[/meta]</p><p></p><p>At James’ insistence, they press on and try to make sure the rest of the Church (it has a basement) is clear before bothering to bury the bodies of the dead. They delve into the basement, Allar leading the way because his black scimitar can shed pale light. Roth, with the keenest ears, stays at the back to make sure none of the Goblins try to come at them from behind.</p><p></p><p>The basement itself is cramped, consisting of a six-foot high tunnel that has side rooms of food stores, abandoned beds, a small armory, and a library-turned-latrine. All the rooms are empty, but at the end of the corridor is a heavy locked door that looks very sturdy. After checking to make sure it’s not rigged, Harley nimbly tries to pick the lock, commenting that she had spent time with a lot of talented people in her travels in the past few years, one of whom showed her the basics of lockpicking.</p><p></p><p>She unlocks the door, then steps back to let James and Allar head in first. Harley notices that Bhurisrava is almost constantly watching Allar, as though the priest doesn’t trust him.</p><p></p><p>Inside the door they find a long room filled with two rows of stone sarcophogi. Allar, used to this sort of thing, asks Bhurisrava to check and see if he can feel any undead, but the priest cannot.</p><p></p><p>[meta] I was trying to have an experienced adventurer like Allar show them the ropes on how it’s done, so eventually they’d be able to do it all on their own. [/meta]</p><p></p><p>They walk into the room warily, expecting something to jump out of or out from behind a sarcophogus at any moment. And at the end of the room they do indeed find the leader of the Goblin tribe cowering with two of his warriors, hiding behind one sarcophogus. They discover that the leader speaks Lyceian, and so the party interrogates him, learning from him that he hasn’t actually met with the new people living in the woods, but some of his scouts have been seeing them traveling through the woods now for a couple days. Also a few of his scouts were killed a couple days ago by an odd black creature that ran through the treetops, climbing them as easily as a spider climbs its web. They don’t know what the creature is, only that it’s bigger than a Goblin, but not not bigger than a human.</p><p></p><p>James notices that the Goblin has a fancy necklace on, and he demands it in exchange for the Goblin’s life. The Goblin leader gives it up, and then the party tells him to leave and not come back for at least a day. They also warn him never to try to attack anyone again. Roth adds that they’ll return in a few days and will expect the chief to have found out more information about the ‘pale big folk’ who have been going through the woods.</p><p></p><p>Once the Goblin leaves, the party opens a few of the sarcophogi just a crack to make sure no ambushers are hiding in there. Instead they see the looted bodies of long-dead and decayed humans, but Bhurisrava says to leave the bodies there, since that’s where they were originally interred. They proceed to check all the rooms thoroughly for treasure and clues. They find little of the first and none of the second, but Harley does discover a huge slab of stone that covers what might be another tunnel. With all of them working together, they manage to move the stone and reveal a long, roughly cut passage descending into the ground. Allar shrugs and says that it probably leads into the Land Below, but he can’t imagine why the Goblins would need to go down there, or even how they could move the stone slab. A quick check reveals that, indeed, the tunnel beyond probably hasn’t been disturbed in decades, so the party closes the passage again and decides to leave before the Goblins get organized for their return.</p><p></p><p>They discuss their plans, and eventually decide that since the Book Thieves are obviously moving through the woods, their next course of action should be to talk to Oleane [Nic snerts at her name], and find out what the Druid knows. James and Bhurisrava grumble that they don’t really want to do this, and would rather leave the Haranshire altogether and hope that no one finds them, but Harley and Roth are both willing to stay with Allar, because they trust him and because they think the safest place is with the experienced warrior. </p><p></p><p>After some mockery is exchanged between Harley and James about who was the coward in the Goblin fight (the one who tried to run away, or the one who was too scared to even go inside until it was all over), they tell Allar to bring them to Oleane’s grove.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RangerWickett, post: 637, member: 63"] [size=3][b]Chapter Seven: Church Goblins[/b][/size] [meta] Just before this session, the party leveled up, all of them reaching 2nd level. In 2e terms, they were Bhur (cleric 2), James (fighter 2), Roth (fighter 2), and Harley (thief 2), but in 3e terms it’d be more like Roth (barbarian 2) and Harley (bard 1/rogue 1). Oh, and Allar’s a ranger 12/fighter 4. [/meta] The old church is fairly bland, just a 40 x 60 building, 20 feet tall, with a small foyer and a now-dilapidated arching roof which has a broken spire at its top. James and Bhurisrava creep up to the windows of the old church, staying low, ready with their bows ready to fire through the windows. Roth stays just outside the main door, bastard sword in hand in case of trouble. Allar leads Harley up to the front door, and the woman looks around nervously while Allar pounds at the door with the pommel of his black scimitar. When no one answers at first, Harley whispers a question to Allar about the sword, curious about where such an odd-looking blade came from. Allar hushes her with a finger to his lips, then whispers in reply that he’ll tell her when they’re done. “Geeba!” comes a shout from the inside of the church door. A string of gibbering follows, all of which means nothing to the PCs. Allar clears his throat and replies in another string of gibbering, going slowly and in a voice much deeper than the original speaker’s. A moment passes, and then the door to the Church opens slowly, scraping across the ground because of the lack of one hinge. From behind it emerge a pair of three-foot tall humanoids with darkly tanned skins that look almost green. Both have scruffly black hair and are armed with wooden spears. Allar and the Goblins exchange a quick conversation, and then the Goblins sneer and nod, waving them in. Allar explains that the Goblins have heard about some ‘nasty pale big folk’ in their woods, and they’re going to bring their leader to share the information. Though Allar expects an ambush, the Goblins refuse to force their leader to go outside, so he and Harley have to go inside. Allar makes sure to speak loud enough when he tells Harley that James, Bhur, and Roth can overhear. The entrance foyer is only 20 feet long, and then the hall opens into a tall open church, illuminated through shattered windows and holes in the ceiling. A door behind a graffitied altar probably leads to the old priestly quarters, and side rooms were perhaps for visitors. True to Goblin form, Harley and Allar are inside for less than thirty seconds before another Goblin hiding behind the front door slams it shut. With a battle cry, “GEEBA!”, the two Goblins leap to attack the intruders. More Goblins pop up from behind rubble, others burst from the side rooms, and a small horde appear on a clumsily-built balcony near the roof. Aside from normal men warriors with weapons, women and even small children start throwing rocks and sticks at the pale big folk as the Goblins begin to rush toward them. Harley panicks at first, about to try to run out through the front door, but a half-dozen Goblins block her path. She hurls Ricochet into the crowd, hitting easily because of how clumped the green-skinned critters are, and then draws her dagger in self defense. Her cries for help are easily answered, as James and Bhurisrava appear at windows on the opposite sides of the building and begin firing in. They step to the window, fire, then step to the side, confusing the Goblins at first as to where the shots are coming from. The front door crashes in, breaking its one remaining hinge and falling down upon the Goblin who tried to slam it shut. Roaring angrily, Roth bursts into the church, wading into the Goblins with his impressive hit point total. Allar draws his second scimitar and tells Harley to stay close, then does a stunning job of picking off any Goblins who try to hit her. He deflects spear thrusts, cuts down some warriors with clubs, and with his lightning reflexes manages to mostly dodge even the hail of thrown rocks from overhead. In less than a minute of intense fighting, the Goblins realize they shouldn’t go near the man with two swords. That realization comes too late for the 30 dead or dying Goblins in the middle of the church floor. Most have died from slashes to their face or chest, but some were crushed to a pulp by a bashing bastard sword, while others have arrows sticking out of their backs. A few are just dazed, having been struck by Bhurisrava’s blunt arrows. As the melee continues, Harley waits for an opening, then tumbles through the crowd of remaining Goblins, snatching up Ricochet along with a fistful of daggers. Some of the Goblins begin to flee for the exit at the back of the room, but Roth pulls forth a pre-prepared bottle of ale with a cloth in it. Lighting it with a magical item he found long ago (a cigarette lighter), he tosses the molotov cocktail into the exit before many Goblins can flee down it. James and Bhur begin taking potshots at Goblins in the rafters, as does Harley, using daggers recovered from the Goblins to keep the rock-throwers ducking so they stop flinging things at her. Allar takes a more direct approach, dropping his spare scimitar and making a running leap, catching a low rafter in one hand and pulling himself up onto the balcony. As he charges through the cowering Goblins, most leap away, preferring to fall to the floor instead of risking being cut down. Harley and Roth let the panicked Goblins—most of them women or children—flee out the front door. James and Bhurisrava rush into the church to beat the remaining Goblins into unconsciousness, not eager to kill, but not wanting to let the bloodthirsty ambushers get away with their deeds. Swinging down from the rafters after clearing them of Goblins, Allar checks on everyone. Harley, having been in the center of the huge melee, is barely able to stand. Only the desperate defense provided by Allar kept her from being swarmed to death by a dozen or more Goblins. Roth is bloody and fairly cut up, but he shrugs off Bhurisrava’s offer of healing, instead taking out a flask of ale and downing it. James and Bhur are completely unharmed because they kept a barrier between themselves and the Goblins. Allar himself has his fair share of cuts and bruises, but he seems to have avoided anything major. As Bhurisrava heals Harley, James and Allar put out the fire from Roth’s molotov cocktail, and Roth searches the church side rooms for Goblin treasure. He ends up finding a handful more of Goblins, and after laughing at them and warning them never to try attacking them again, he shoos them out of the church. By this point probably a good thirty Goblins have fled the Church in panic. After he heals Harley, Bhurisrava tries to bandage the wounds of those Goblins not yet quite dead, but there are more dead than wounded. Roth manages to find a masterfully built crossbow in an old, locked treasure chest. When the rest of the party rushes to investigate the smashing sound, Roth calms their fears by holding up the new weapon. Bhurisrava checks it, feeling a magical aura around it. Roth, pleased to have found a magical weapon, gives it to Harley, saying that she needs more weapons. [meta] And yes, I admit, I did tell Harley’s player she could only carry one dagger. My bad. At least now she had a [i]+1 light crossbow[/i] with a sheaf of 13 [i]+1 bolts[/i]. Of course in 2e you had to take proficiency in crossbow, which Harley didn't have, so she couldn't use it. Ugh, how glad I am for 3e.[/meta] At James’ insistence, they press on and try to make sure the rest of the Church (it has a basement) is clear before bothering to bury the bodies of the dead. They delve into the basement, Allar leading the way because his black scimitar can shed pale light. Roth, with the keenest ears, stays at the back to make sure none of the Goblins try to come at them from behind. The basement itself is cramped, consisting of a six-foot high tunnel that has side rooms of food stores, abandoned beds, a small armory, and a library-turned-latrine. All the rooms are empty, but at the end of the corridor is a heavy locked door that looks very sturdy. After checking to make sure it’s not rigged, Harley nimbly tries to pick the lock, commenting that she had spent time with a lot of talented people in her travels in the past few years, one of whom showed her the basics of lockpicking. She unlocks the door, then steps back to let James and Allar head in first. Harley notices that Bhurisrava is almost constantly watching Allar, as though the priest doesn’t trust him. Inside the door they find a long room filled with two rows of stone sarcophogi. Allar, used to this sort of thing, asks Bhurisrava to check and see if he can feel any undead, but the priest cannot. [meta] I was trying to have an experienced adventurer like Allar show them the ropes on how it’s done, so eventually they’d be able to do it all on their own. [/meta] They walk into the room warily, expecting something to jump out of or out from behind a sarcophogus at any moment. And at the end of the room they do indeed find the leader of the Goblin tribe cowering with two of his warriors, hiding behind one sarcophogus. They discover that the leader speaks Lyceian, and so the party interrogates him, learning from him that he hasn’t actually met with the new people living in the woods, but some of his scouts have been seeing them traveling through the woods now for a couple days. Also a few of his scouts were killed a couple days ago by an odd black creature that ran through the treetops, climbing them as easily as a spider climbs its web. They don’t know what the creature is, only that it’s bigger than a Goblin, but not not bigger than a human. James notices that the Goblin has a fancy necklace on, and he demands it in exchange for the Goblin’s life. The Goblin leader gives it up, and then the party tells him to leave and not come back for at least a day. They also warn him never to try to attack anyone again. Roth adds that they’ll return in a few days and will expect the chief to have found out more information about the ‘pale big folk’ who have been going through the woods. Once the Goblin leaves, the party opens a few of the sarcophogi just a crack to make sure no ambushers are hiding in there. Instead they see the looted bodies of long-dead and decayed humans, but Bhurisrava says to leave the bodies there, since that’s where they were originally interred. They proceed to check all the rooms thoroughly for treasure and clues. They find little of the first and none of the second, but Harley does discover a huge slab of stone that covers what might be another tunnel. With all of them working together, they manage to move the stone and reveal a long, roughly cut passage descending into the ground. Allar shrugs and says that it probably leads into the Land Below, but he can’t imagine why the Goblins would need to go down there, or even how they could move the stone slab. A quick check reveals that, indeed, the tunnel beyond probably hasn’t been disturbed in decades, so the party closes the passage again and decides to leave before the Goblins get organized for their return. They discuss their plans, and eventually decide that since the Book Thieves are obviously moving through the woods, their next course of action should be to talk to Oleane [Nic snerts at her name], and find out what the Druid knows. James and Bhurisrava grumble that they don’t really want to do this, and would rather leave the Haranshire altogether and hope that no one finds them, but Harley and Roth are both willing to stay with Allar, because they trust him and because they think the safest place is with the experienced warrior. After some mockery is exchanged between Harley and James about who was the coward in the Goblin fight (the one who tried to run away, or the one who was too scared to even go inside until it was all over), they tell Allar to bring them to Oleane’s grove. [/QUOTE]
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