howandwhy99
Adventurer
This was our first playtest session. Instead of using the materials provided for B2’s “Caves of Chaos” I converted them for the “Mouths of Madness” and related castle precincts sections of Castle Greyhawk (Castle Zagyg: Upper Works). The Mouths of Madness were Gary’s recreation of the Caves of Chaos for his version of the Castle before he died. I like to think there’re a few more surprises in store for the players because of everything connected to it.
The adventure started out with me reading Gary’s rather long and inimitable box text introduction to the adventure. They liked hearing about the Curse of Fog & Frogs. Then each PC received a rumor from the rumor table. For example, "The Green Dragon Inn is where many an expedition to Castle Greyhawk hath begun" and “There is a man-like being made of gold and gems who races about the dungeon depths of Castle Greyhawk.”
Then I provided a little introduction, so I could start them out at the adventure site. Basically, they had commandeered a ship to take them north up the Selintan River and then back down the False Selintan River where the castle sat along its banks on the west side. Beforehand the crew had dealt with pirates and other events, while the party prepared. The ship reached the castle proper at noontime.
[sblock]Imagining the castle and the bluff it sits atop is hard to grasp through words alone, so I drew up a handout for reference that the PCs had “bought” before beginning. It’s chicken scratch though, so I’ll try better here.
Imagine a river running to the right of a long, forested cliff side. When it comes upon the castle it curves like a horseshoe to the right around a massive rocky bluff, almost a flat island broken off from the high ground to the west. The whole rises than any of the cliffs and is surrounded by dirt and sand level with the river’s edge. The bluff’s east side with the river running around it rises 80’ straight up and the castle fortress sitting atop it is well over 100’ more. A thin, grassy berm can be see growing atop the bluff a few feet, but castle walls and many, many towers connecting encompass the rest of the top. To the west the “isle” slopes downwards to half its height. A ravine then separates it from the rest of the raised land to the west.
The map is an homage to B2’s Keep bluff (though the castle and its bluff are far larger). The map handout also mentioned several caves that wormed into the bluff from all sides including the ravine. See edited map below. (There is no ramp leading up to the castle though. I’ll explain the main entrance in the text.)
[/sblock]
I started the game clock and the players spent the first ten minutes haggling with the ship’s captain. I explained that he had set anchor already and had given them passage for a share of whatever treasure they found. How much this was never did get determined. The rest was about where to take the rowboat ashore (they decided to the sandy beach south of the castle). Then they booted out the crew members who were going to row them and bring the boat back. (Apparently they didn’t exactly trust the captain to stick around or pick them up when signaled.)
“So that’s the signal? ‘Ah! Oh, oh God!’”
“Apparently”
The group traversed openly to the west cliff side on their left and northwards to the ravine. As they approached they spotted 4 caves in the south side of the bluff, one a good 15’ above the surface. A broken down, useless stone stairway zigzagged up the bluff side too, further east. They ignored these and entered into the ravine which formed the western face of the castle bluff. They passed by two more caves, one to each side as they entered. Half way down the ravine was a lowered drawbridge a good 35’ above them. The walls were vertical, but climbable here. The castle walls ran along above on their right. Ahead on their left was a 2-story barbican dotted with arrow slits all around. They were almost to the drawbridge and had just passed a 3rd cave in the ravine, this one on their right having been dug into the castle bluff, when they heard a voice:
“Who goes there? What are you doing here?”
Above on their left on the roof of the backside of barbican were three humans, one yelling and two archers flanking him. Tordek gave his real name and the man introduced himself as Lieutenant Smith. Things went down hill from there. After a couple insults showing the stranger’s true colors Tordek decided to secretly cock his crossbow and get a surprise round shot on the Lt. (The problem is, there are no surprise rounds in 5e). Tordek won initiative hitting leather armor and ¾ cover (within his 80’ range though) between the merlons on a machicolated battlement. The left archer took 2 damage. A couple of missed arrow shots on Tordek (his AC is too high) and the 3 men above backed out of sight.
Everyone else decided to hide from view under the drawbridge, all except Tordek. A few minutes later and another voice boomed out from hiding up above.
“Ho, Strangers! Surely you seek the bounty of the castle beyond! This is good! I am Cap’n Cooper, gatekeeper of its precincts. We’d like to offer you safe passage through. All we require is a small toll paid for each person that would pass. The price? 1 [later amended to 10] silver coin per head. This small fee provides you with safe passage through this structure, across the drawbridge, and to the door of the next gatehouse where the goblins lie in wait. We alone can appease those foul humanoids, but only with silver and gold. A pittance when one considers the upkeep of this place – and the priceless value of personal safety, eh? Well, what say ye?”
Except of course that this speech he prepared was interrupted several times. Gaining some trust the Cpt. and Lt. poked their heads over the side above and tried to convince the party to cross the bridge or otherwise side with them. Most weren’t having it and another attempted surprise attack and another battle broke out. This time 8 archers were firing from above, one moving to each of the barbican’s far corners to get the angle for clear shots on those beneath the drawbridge.
Andro the elven wizard took off running for the nearby cave mouth and walked right into a goblin guard post.
“You make go ‘way now! Or we kill, kill, kill you!”
Tordek started climbing up the cliff face under the drawbridge to bring justice to these dishonest curs toe to toe. Spike was hit by an arrow, so ran after Andro into the cave. Mid way there he casually shot his crossbow back over his right shoulder at the bowman on the far side of the roof who had hit him on just seconds ago. The man was easily in difficult range, over 80', and in 3/4 cover behind a merlon. No matter. Critical! Right in the neck and we have our first kill.
Tordek decided to draw fire by climbing into the open, while the others held action, then ran one by one into the cave for shelter. The archers couldn’t hit much at all today as Tordek clambered atop the drawbridge and ran into the barbican’s central passage. [He said he was looking for an entrance at some point here and I screwed up, there were two closed doors sort of recessed on this rear side of the building.] By this point the party was well split up and we were out of rounds, so we proceeded by swapping between the Tordek and everyone else.
In the cave, Niddler the thief one shot killed a goblin and the other ran away to the party’s left. A door was heard slamming shut and a bar sliding into place. Inspecting the cave, it looked dug out and went about 50' straight back. Halfway down it though was an X intersection where the left and right passages were of mortared stone and professionally squared off construction. The 50’ dug in area dead ended, but down each of the side passages were corridor endings with closed oaken doors. The party set up a marching order in front of the north one the goblin had run down and went quiet. A few minutes later the door opened and we were into combat #3 not 20 minutes into the game clock. I have to say, with 5e powers 6 PCs slaughtered 7 goblins, most of whom had just woken up and armored, in less than 20 seconds. The Sleep spell and easy Coup de Grace are your friends.
Tordek ran down the tall, roman arched central path of the barbican that opened up to the outside like the Arc de Triomphe. Besides some hay bales and brooms, he noticed two wood covered holes in the ceiling [murder holes] and a large iron portcullis just inside the far end of the passage. After some struggling and seeing the holes above open up – light within crossed by moving shadows shone out – Tordek called on every muscle to barely lift the portcullis a foot high. He slid under it and… started climbing the front face of the edifice. I guess he was still all about bringing just to those on the roof.
Unbeknownst to the rest of the party they were down to five as they took a Short Resttm. Tordek, unperturbed and near unstoppable, climbed up 20 feet and managed to squeeze into the machicolation between two corbels to eye the rooftop. Then 4 longbow arrows sent quickly sank his hit points below 0 and the 20 foot fall hurt a little bit too. [1d6/10’, but help me if you can find the rule for that] Three stabilization successes in a row and I was rolling for how many hours before he was up and at 'em again.
The goblin guard room held 6 straw pallets, a barrel of javelins, a small keg (which was ignored), a big, half-eaten raw fish lying atop a rectangular oak table – the legs of which were sawed down to shorten their length - and 7 dead goblins (also) stinking up the place. No rest for the wicked, they decided to hunt for more goblins one-hit-wonders. Smartly, they set themselves back into marching order, unbarred the door, and darkness poured in from the hall.
None within could see within it, even with lowlight vision. [This was a homebrewed magical Darkness spell cast on the door when the bar was heard coming off.] Only the elf wizard Andro in the very rear could see and it was determined he could look through the darkness as if it were merely shadow. [He wasn't suffering from its effects]. Andro made his spot check and saw a goblin trying to use the wall at the intersection both to hide and for cover. Ray of Frost let him know he was found right quick. Spike and Bob Johnson stumbled down the corridor in the dark and we learned how to attack hidden creatures while disadvantaged when directed to target a specific square. (This worked better than they could hope.) Andro the elf directed them next round a critical hit backstab from Niddler the Halfling (who took time to hide in the Darkness) wiped out my homemade goblin shaman. He took 39 hp of damage in less than two rounds, getting only one action and no move after having been frozen in place.
A Radiant Lance hit one of the many goblins peering in from behind the far corridor’s half open door. A female goblin voice screamed, but little damage was done. The door slammed and another bar was heard sliding into place.
The (slaughter) party picked up the dead goblin, the previous one’s body was gone now, and brought it back to the guard room. They noticed in the light that it was wearing a drooping weird leather robe with bizarre symbols inscribed on it. Bob Johnson recalled from his religious lore that this was a shaman of the barbarian humanoid tribes. They did a quick search and made out big time: (detected magic is noted)
[sblock]
[/sblock]
After such a battle the party opted for to take a long Extended Resttm. They barred the door and kept 2 hour watches. During his turn Andro deciphered the first two spells in the spellbook: arcane Detect Magic and divine Detect Alignment. (There were no rules for deciphering scrolls or spellbooks, so I had him roll for each and spend 1 hour apiece.) Light sources were never needed as they simply doubled up Bob Johnson, the only human, with the wizard who could cast Light for 1 hour at will. Everyone else could see in the dark as simply shadowy. [I got the feeling that a lot of equipment became irrelevant depending on the 0-level spells selected]
Most of the rest the watchers heard distant, slow dragging noises coming from outside the door. They set up for attack again when they opened the door, but no response. The cave was empty and dark (and they may not have known it, but it was almost midnight.)
At some point in time during the party’s rest Tordek woke up to find himself bound, gagged, blindfolded, and lying prostrate on hard stone. And that’s pretty much where he stayed the rest of the session.
Wakey, wakey, time to kill the goblins! The [-]rest of the[/-] party marched to the far, as yet unsearched door across the intersection. Niddler the Halfling rogue couldn’t find a lock and the door was solidly shut, so Bob Johnson decided to Radiant Lance it into submission. This amounts to unbelievably severe sunburn damage at will without resource loss. As for the door? "Gone in Sixty Seconds (2012)". From the ashes they noticed that the goblins had actually gone to the trouble of hammering wood shims and planks to bar the door even more sturdily. [Nobody said goblins were terribly bright though, right?]
Niddler developed a new means of scouting and searching for traps about 10’ in front of the party while still being continually hidden behind Spike in the front row. He’d pop forward and search and then pop back on the same round as not to lose his “Hidden” condition [which really should be a condition btw, at least to specific individuals like Charm].
The passage beyond went 20’ and turn 45° to the left. Niddler actually missed the pit trap on his search, but made his DEX save. No harm, no foul. It was 10’ anyways, standard 1st level stuff. After 30’ more the passage turned 45° again to the left and they saw “a set of sturdy, oaken double doors banded in iron and framed in stone. They are some 7 feet wide by 9 feet high.” This time the dwarves, Spike and Jozan, moved forward to break down the doors, but 4 unnoticed holes with apertures opened and poking javelins thrusts through. None hit, but getting close to either door meant being steadily attacked.
Moreover, up close the dwarves could not help but notice that these doors were dwarven of design and built by dwarves. They were old too, at least two generations before their own time if not more. Wherever they had come from, whatever had faced them before, these doors had stood for centuries.
Not a problem. Bob Johnson’s Radiant Lance spent 10 minutes and the doors cracked and blistered into ash. [100d8+400 hp]
“This room is crowded with goblins! At the south end of the 60 by 30-foot room there are two long benches, six stools, and a tool rack, and a 5-gallon cask. The north end to the central area is littered with beds of torn cloth and heaped straw.” [The goblin children had been evacuated at this point] “Three iron cressets hold burning torches (north, south, east), and a 30-gallon barrel of water sits along the center of the east wall, flanked by a pair of doors spaced apart by some 25 feet. The main access [which was just permanently opened} sits in the middle of the west wall." [There’s actually a continuity error in the adventure here between map & text, but it wasn’t important.]
The Common Room, where the strength of the goblin tribe had amassed to make their stand. 8 males, 6 females (one back to full that was injured previously), 2 “royal” guards, and the Goblin King himself [no, not David Bowie]. The longest combat of the session occurred lasting 7 round [36 seconds?] wherein the PCs stuck to the close quarters of the entrance hall and let the goblins try and wipe them out. The Goblin King charged, er... strutted forward and started beating on Spike, their front line dwarven warrior. The rest of the goblins swarmed around and pushed in for some action and to feed off the Goblin King’s special ability aiding allies on any target he hit.
Spike took a beating, while the other PCs had simple, but brutally effective tactic. They would carve out a hole in the front of the goblin ranks and then each Move-Attack-Moved into and out of that hole every round. The goblins fell with single hits, so nearly every PC had a turn to take shots on the King. If the King didn’t have 12 times as many hit points as every other goblin, the whole ordeal might have resembled fighting children. These buggers had no chance at all. By the time they were starting to cut and run (no Morale rules as of yet), the King was under 10 hp. A couple of Sleep spells had kept the back lines busy waking each other up when they weren’t pressing forward, so the took off as soon as he was as weak as they. [Even though I can’t think of a reason he would know how Sleep magic works, he wouldn't have lasted another round in combat anyways.]
Crazy but true, only one other goblin managed to get away. Both ran through the north eastern door with the PCs following. They caught the king, but he finally dropped Spike before running into the darkness of the passage beyond. The rest of the PCs were largely damage free. They had won the day. Spike, who was merely in the negatives, needed a long rest and there was no time for it at the moment, so they broke off the chase. The loot consisted of goblin weaponry too many to carry want and a pile of copper coins, 208 to be exact.
The session ended with the party heading back to the ship sometime after midnight. Bob Johnson was lit up with the Light spell and in the ravine they heard a yell,
“Hey! They’re back! Get up!”
Everyone ran as best they could while carrying Spike. A stray arrow missed and the party made the turn to get out of the ravine and behind the bluff for cover. Walking down to the riverside they found their rowboat was gone.
“Hey! You guys! We’re here!”
A light blazed on the ship’s deck and a voice shouted back in the night across the water,
“What’s the signal?”
It took a minute, but they got it.
Code:
There were only 3 players this time, but each elected to run 2 of the pre-gens.
Character Names are as follows:
[U][B]Andro[/B][/U], elven wizard;
[U][B]Bob Johnson[/B][/U], human cleric of Pelor;
[U][B]Spike[/B][/U], dwarven fighter;
[U][B]Niddler[/B][/U], halfling rogue;
[U][B]Jozan[/B][/U], dwarven cleric of Moradin; and
[U][B]Tordek[/B][/U], dwarven fighter with the Guardian theme swapped in.The adventure started out with me reading Gary’s rather long and inimitable box text introduction to the adventure. They liked hearing about the Curse of Fog & Frogs. Then each PC received a rumor from the rumor table. For example, "The Green Dragon Inn is where many an expedition to Castle Greyhawk hath begun" and “There is a man-like being made of gold and gems who races about the dungeon depths of Castle Greyhawk.”
Then I provided a little introduction, so I could start them out at the adventure site. Basically, they had commandeered a ship to take them north up the Selintan River and then back down the False Selintan River where the castle sat along its banks on the west side. Beforehand the crew had dealt with pirates and other events, while the party prepared. The ship reached the castle proper at noontime.
[sblock]Imagining the castle and the bluff it sits atop is hard to grasp through words alone, so I drew up a handout for reference that the PCs had “bought” before beginning. It’s chicken scratch though, so I’ll try better here.
Imagine a river running to the right of a long, forested cliff side. When it comes upon the castle it curves like a horseshoe to the right around a massive rocky bluff, almost a flat island broken off from the high ground to the west. The whole rises than any of the cliffs and is surrounded by dirt and sand level with the river’s edge. The bluff’s east side with the river running around it rises 80’ straight up and the castle fortress sitting atop it is well over 100’ more. A thin, grassy berm can be see growing atop the bluff a few feet, but castle walls and many, many towers connecting encompass the rest of the top. To the west the “isle” slopes downwards to half its height. A ravine then separates it from the rest of the raised land to the west.
The map is an homage to B2’s Keep bluff (though the castle and its bluff are far larger). The map handout also mentioned several caves that wormed into the bluff from all sides including the ravine. See edited map below. (There is no ramp leading up to the castle though. I’ll explain the main entrance in the text.)
[/sblock]
I started the game clock and the players spent the first ten minutes haggling with the ship’s captain. I explained that he had set anchor already and had given them passage for a share of whatever treasure they found. How much this was never did get determined. The rest was about where to take the rowboat ashore (they decided to the sandy beach south of the castle). Then they booted out the crew members who were going to row them and bring the boat back. (Apparently they didn’t exactly trust the captain to stick around or pick them up when signaled.)
“So that’s the signal? ‘Ah! Oh, oh God!’”
“Apparently”
The group traversed openly to the west cliff side on their left and northwards to the ravine. As they approached they spotted 4 caves in the south side of the bluff, one a good 15’ above the surface. A broken down, useless stone stairway zigzagged up the bluff side too, further east. They ignored these and entered into the ravine which formed the western face of the castle bluff. They passed by two more caves, one to each side as they entered. Half way down the ravine was a lowered drawbridge a good 35’ above them. The walls were vertical, but climbable here. The castle walls ran along above on their right. Ahead on their left was a 2-story barbican dotted with arrow slits all around. They were almost to the drawbridge and had just passed a 3rd cave in the ravine, this one on their right having been dug into the castle bluff, when they heard a voice:
“Who goes there? What are you doing here?”
Above on their left on the roof of the backside of barbican were three humans, one yelling and two archers flanking him. Tordek gave his real name and the man introduced himself as Lieutenant Smith. Things went down hill from there. After a couple insults showing the stranger’s true colors Tordek decided to secretly cock his crossbow and get a surprise round shot on the Lt. (The problem is, there are no surprise rounds in 5e). Tordek won initiative hitting leather armor and ¾ cover (within his 80’ range though) between the merlons on a machicolated battlement. The left archer took 2 damage. A couple of missed arrow shots on Tordek (his AC is too high) and the 3 men above backed out of sight.
Everyone else decided to hide from view under the drawbridge, all except Tordek. A few minutes later and another voice boomed out from hiding up above.
“Ho, Strangers! Surely you seek the bounty of the castle beyond! This is good! I am Cap’n Cooper, gatekeeper of its precincts. We’d like to offer you safe passage through. All we require is a small toll paid for each person that would pass. The price? 1 [later amended to 10] silver coin per head. This small fee provides you with safe passage through this structure, across the drawbridge, and to the door of the next gatehouse where the goblins lie in wait. We alone can appease those foul humanoids, but only with silver and gold. A pittance when one considers the upkeep of this place – and the priceless value of personal safety, eh? Well, what say ye?”
Except of course that this speech he prepared was interrupted several times. Gaining some trust the Cpt. and Lt. poked their heads over the side above and tried to convince the party to cross the bridge or otherwise side with them. Most weren’t having it and another attempted surprise attack and another battle broke out. This time 8 archers were firing from above, one moving to each of the barbican’s far corners to get the angle for clear shots on those beneath the drawbridge.
Andro the elven wizard took off running for the nearby cave mouth and walked right into a goblin guard post.
“You make go ‘way now! Or we kill, kill, kill you!”
Tordek started climbing up the cliff face under the drawbridge to bring justice to these dishonest curs toe to toe. Spike was hit by an arrow, so ran after Andro into the cave. Mid way there he casually shot his crossbow back over his right shoulder at the bowman on the far side of the roof who had hit him on just seconds ago. The man was easily in difficult range, over 80', and in 3/4 cover behind a merlon. No matter. Critical! Right in the neck and we have our first kill.
Tordek decided to draw fire by climbing into the open, while the others held action, then ran one by one into the cave for shelter. The archers couldn’t hit much at all today as Tordek clambered atop the drawbridge and ran into the barbican’s central passage. [He said he was looking for an entrance at some point here and I screwed up, there were two closed doors sort of recessed on this rear side of the building.] By this point the party was well split up and we were out of rounds, so we proceeded by swapping between the Tordek and everyone else.
In the cave, Niddler the thief one shot killed a goblin and the other ran away to the party’s left. A door was heard slamming shut and a bar sliding into place. Inspecting the cave, it looked dug out and went about 50' straight back. Halfway down it though was an X intersection where the left and right passages were of mortared stone and professionally squared off construction. The 50’ dug in area dead ended, but down each of the side passages were corridor endings with closed oaken doors. The party set up a marching order in front of the north one the goblin had run down and went quiet. A few minutes later the door opened and we were into combat #3 not 20 minutes into the game clock. I have to say, with 5e powers 6 PCs slaughtered 7 goblins, most of whom had just woken up and armored, in less than 20 seconds. The Sleep spell and easy Coup de Grace are your friends.
Tordek ran down the tall, roman arched central path of the barbican that opened up to the outside like the Arc de Triomphe. Besides some hay bales and brooms, he noticed two wood covered holes in the ceiling [murder holes] and a large iron portcullis just inside the far end of the passage. After some struggling and seeing the holes above open up – light within crossed by moving shadows shone out – Tordek called on every muscle to barely lift the portcullis a foot high. He slid under it and… started climbing the front face of the edifice. I guess he was still all about bringing just to those on the roof.
Unbeknownst to the rest of the party they were down to five as they took a Short Resttm. Tordek, unperturbed and near unstoppable, climbed up 20 feet and managed to squeeze into the machicolation between two corbels to eye the rooftop. Then 4 longbow arrows sent quickly sank his hit points below 0 and the 20 foot fall hurt a little bit too. [1d6/10’, but help me if you can find the rule for that] Three stabilization successes in a row and I was rolling for how many hours before he was up and at 'em again.
The goblin guard room held 6 straw pallets, a barrel of javelins, a small keg (which was ignored), a big, half-eaten raw fish lying atop a rectangular oak table – the legs of which were sawed down to shorten their length - and 7 dead goblins (also) stinking up the place. No rest for the wicked, they decided to hunt for more goblins one-hit-wonders. Smartly, they set themselves back into marching order, unbarred the door, and darkness poured in from the hall.
None within could see within it, even with lowlight vision. [This was a homebrewed magical Darkness spell cast on the door when the bar was heard coming off.] Only the elf wizard Andro in the very rear could see and it was determined he could look through the darkness as if it were merely shadow. [He wasn't suffering from its effects]. Andro made his spot check and saw a goblin trying to use the wall at the intersection both to hide and for cover. Ray of Frost let him know he was found right quick. Spike and Bob Johnson stumbled down the corridor in the dark and we learned how to attack hidden creatures while disadvantaged when directed to target a specific square. (This worked better than they could hope.) Andro the elf directed them next round a critical hit backstab from Niddler the Halfling (who took time to hide in the Darkness) wiped out my homemade goblin shaman. He took 39 hp of damage in less than two rounds, getting only one action and no move after having been frozen in place.
A Radiant Lance hit one of the many goblins peering in from behind the far corridor’s half open door. A female goblin voice screamed, but little damage was done. The door slammed and another bar was heard sliding into place.
The (slaughter) party picked up the dead goblin, the previous one’s body was gone now, and brought it back to the guard room. They noticed in the light that it was wearing a drooping weird leather robe with bizarre symbols inscribed on it. Bob Johnson recalled from his religious lore that this was a shaman of the barbarian humanoid tribes. They did a quick search and made out big time: (detected magic is noted)
Code:
• A bone scroll case (magical gleaming from inside. This was later deciphered as a divine spell of “[I]Paralysis[/I]”)
• A vial of blue hued liquid (magical)
• A book covered in large scaly hide (magical spellbook, the hide was Lore checked as dragon skin of some sort)
• A pouch with 50 GP
• A gold ring with a red ruby affixed.
• A chain with key looped in.
• A bronze-hilted poniard (magical, determined as able to hit creatures often immune to natural attacks)[/sblock]
After such a battle the party opted for to take a long Extended Resttm. They barred the door and kept 2 hour watches. During his turn Andro deciphered the first two spells in the spellbook: arcane Detect Magic and divine Detect Alignment. (There were no rules for deciphering scrolls or spellbooks, so I had him roll for each and spend 1 hour apiece.) Light sources were never needed as they simply doubled up Bob Johnson, the only human, with the wizard who could cast Light for 1 hour at will. Everyone else could see in the dark as simply shadowy. [I got the feeling that a lot of equipment became irrelevant depending on the 0-level spells selected]
Most of the rest the watchers heard distant, slow dragging noises coming from outside the door. They set up for attack again when they opened the door, but no response. The cave was empty and dark (and they may not have known it, but it was almost midnight.)
At some point in time during the party’s rest Tordek woke up to find himself bound, gagged, blindfolded, and lying prostrate on hard stone. And that’s pretty much where he stayed the rest of the session.
Wakey, wakey, time to kill the goblins! The [-]rest of the[/-] party marched to the far, as yet unsearched door across the intersection. Niddler the Halfling rogue couldn’t find a lock and the door was solidly shut, so Bob Johnson decided to Radiant Lance it into submission. This amounts to unbelievably severe sunburn damage at will without resource loss. As for the door? "Gone in Sixty Seconds (2012)". From the ashes they noticed that the goblins had actually gone to the trouble of hammering wood shims and planks to bar the door even more sturdily. [Nobody said goblins were terribly bright though, right?]
Niddler developed a new means of scouting and searching for traps about 10’ in front of the party while still being continually hidden behind Spike in the front row. He’d pop forward and search and then pop back on the same round as not to lose his “Hidden” condition [which really should be a condition btw, at least to specific individuals like Charm].
The passage beyond went 20’ and turn 45° to the left. Niddler actually missed the pit trap on his search, but made his DEX save. No harm, no foul. It was 10’ anyways, standard 1st level stuff. After 30’ more the passage turned 45° again to the left and they saw “a set of sturdy, oaken double doors banded in iron and framed in stone. They are some 7 feet wide by 9 feet high.” This time the dwarves, Spike and Jozan, moved forward to break down the doors, but 4 unnoticed holes with apertures opened and poking javelins thrusts through. None hit, but getting close to either door meant being steadily attacked.
Moreover, up close the dwarves could not help but notice that these doors were dwarven of design and built by dwarves. They were old too, at least two generations before their own time if not more. Wherever they had come from, whatever had faced them before, these doors had stood for centuries.
Not a problem. Bob Johnson’s Radiant Lance spent 10 minutes and the doors cracked and blistered into ash. [100d8+400 hp]
“This room is crowded with goblins! At the south end of the 60 by 30-foot room there are two long benches, six stools, and a tool rack, and a 5-gallon cask. The north end to the central area is littered with beds of torn cloth and heaped straw.” [The goblin children had been evacuated at this point] “Three iron cressets hold burning torches (north, south, east), and a 30-gallon barrel of water sits along the center of the east wall, flanked by a pair of doors spaced apart by some 25 feet. The main access [which was just permanently opened} sits in the middle of the west wall." [There’s actually a continuity error in the adventure here between map & text, but it wasn’t important.]
The Common Room, where the strength of the goblin tribe had amassed to make their stand. 8 males, 6 females (one back to full that was injured previously), 2 “royal” guards, and the Goblin King himself [no, not David Bowie]. The longest combat of the session occurred lasting 7 round [36 seconds?] wherein the PCs stuck to the close quarters of the entrance hall and let the goblins try and wipe them out. The Goblin King charged, er... strutted forward and started beating on Spike, their front line dwarven warrior. The rest of the goblins swarmed around and pushed in for some action and to feed off the Goblin King’s special ability aiding allies on any target he hit.
Spike took a beating, while the other PCs had simple, but brutally effective tactic. They would carve out a hole in the front of the goblin ranks and then each Move-Attack-Moved into and out of that hole every round. The goblins fell with single hits, so nearly every PC had a turn to take shots on the King. If the King didn’t have 12 times as many hit points as every other goblin, the whole ordeal might have resembled fighting children. These buggers had no chance at all. By the time they were starting to cut and run (no Morale rules as of yet), the King was under 10 hp. A couple of Sleep spells had kept the back lines busy waking each other up when they weren’t pressing forward, so the took off as soon as he was as weak as they. [Even though I can’t think of a reason he would know how Sleep magic works, he wouldn't have lasted another round in combat anyways.]
Crazy but true, only one other goblin managed to get away. Both ran through the north eastern door with the PCs following. They caught the king, but he finally dropped Spike before running into the darkness of the passage beyond. The rest of the PCs were largely damage free. They had won the day. Spike, who was merely in the negatives, needed a long rest and there was no time for it at the moment, so they broke off the chase. The loot consisted of goblin weaponry too many to carry want and a pile of copper coins, 208 to be exact.
The session ended with the party heading back to the ship sometime after midnight. Bob Johnson was lit up with the Light spell and in the ravine they heard a yell,
“Hey! They’re back! Get up!”
Everyone ran as best they could while carrying Spike. A stray arrow missed and the party made the turn to get out of the ravine and behind the bluff for cover. Walking down to the riverside they found their rowboat was gone.
“Hey! You guys! We’re here!”
A light blazed on the ship’s deck and a voice shouted back in the night across the water,
“What’s the signal?”
It took a minute, but they got it.
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