Old Kentfield Country Estate, June 7th, AE 420
Reana steps up to the first hobgoblin in the hallway, and drops him with one swing. Gavin’s goblinbane sword is glowing a fierce blue, and he manouevers into position to back her up. A Hobgoblin tumbles into flanking position behind Reana, and draws blood before Gavin dispatches him. The Ranger and the ex-mercenary start hacking their way down the corridor, taking a few blows but giving far more than they receive.
Sir Brennen moves up almost to the patio doors, heeding Aris’ warning of the grease spell that covers the area right in front of the doors. Aris reaches for dry, ungreased ground, and pulls himself out of the area, still prone. Just in time; he pulls his feet up just as a hobgoblin tries to grab his legs and pull him into the room full of foes. Brennen looks around, and sees Corwin just behind him.
“Corwin!” he yells. “Got a haste available?”
Corwin casts haste on Brennen, and the Sword of Kelanen’s eyes glint with anticipation of the carnage he’s about to create.
Meanwhile, Jovah is flying at high speeds through the upper floors of the manor house, finding that everyone is pretty much on the ground floor. He zooms to a position overlooking the entry hallway, and sees a group of a half-dozen hobgoblins, but can’t quite see Quinn, Kentfield, or the other half-dozen hobgoblins just a few feet into the next room. Two of the hobgoblins look up and see the flying gnome, and let loose arrows. Jovah dodges arrows for a few moments, then swoops down right next to one of the hobgoblin leaders.
Now, he can see the massed hobgoblins and their leaders, ready to send dozens of arrowss into the next person to step around the patio doors.
He casts darkness, and starts swinging blindly at the hobgoblin leader.
On the back porch, Anthius sees the greased area, but wants to get to the other side to flank the patio doors. He nimbly runs forward, jumps up onto the stone rail that keeps people from falling off the porch, and expertly runs along the narrow stones, which are perfectly dry. Soldago thinks that’s a great idea, and tries to jump across the grease. He misjudges his leap, and lands in the affected area! However, he keeps his balance, and does a slip-n-slide across the area.
Brennen steps around the greased area into the room, and realizes that Jovah’s darkness covers most of the room. He skewers a hobgoblin, one of the few he can see, and then draws a sharp breath as he sees Arlen Kentfield, dressed in full plate armor, bearing a shield and wielding a morning star, step forward and land a heavy blow that misses him by a good distance. The blow knocks a piece of stone off the wall from its force.
Anthius slips into the room on the other side, and engages the hobgoblin that Aris had been chasing. This particular specimen has seen his share of battle; he wears a patch over one eye and has a hook attached to his left forearm, replacing a hand he must have lost in some long-gone scrap. He wields a mean cutlass, as does Anthius, and the two begin duelling.
Not that anyone can really call Anthius’ cutlass “mean.” After all, it sings songs from Pirates of Penzance…
Aris and Corwin are standing outside, flinging spells into the room on targets as they can see them. Soldago starts flinging arrows at targets in the room.
Brennen manouevers to get a blow in on Kentfield, but the nobleman strikes first, landing a shot with his morning star that send the swordsman reeling. He then steps back into the darkness. Brennen gets a parting swing in on him, but his quarry continues retreating.
Brennen took 35 points of damage from that blow from Kentfield. It was not a critical. He was not using power attack.
Gavin and Reana finally finish cutting down the roguish hobgoblins in the side hallway, and advance on their leader, who bolts through the door at the end of the hall. They pursue, and come out right next to Brennen in the next room.
“Where is everybody?” Reana says. “I can’t see a thing!”
“Someone cast darkness,” Brennen yells. “Has anyone seen Jovah?”
Jovah is too busy to answer; he’s been trading blows with a hobgoblin leader all by himself. Now, however, he realizes that the noise has abated, and he suspects his foe has retreated. He tries to remember the position of one of the doorways out of the room he’s in, and runs in that direction.
“Oww!” he yells, as he runs headfirst (or is that nose-first for a gnome?) into the door jam. He stumbles further into the room, and finds that it, also, is filled with hobgoblins. Four, to be exact. They were just about to sneak out the windows onto the back porch and try to pounce on Soldago and Aris, but they find a gnome to be much more inviting target. They move quickly to flank the Luckbringer, and start chopping away.
Aris and Corwin have now moved into the darkened room off of the patio, and join Anthius, Brennen, Reana, and Gavin. They cautiously move into the darkened area, and can feel hobgoblins rushing past them in an attempt to escape. Reana hears one running past her, and skewers him. She continues on, looking for the kitchen, where she knows the secret door to the temple below is hidden.
Soldago has heard the commotion in the room where Jovah is being assaulted, and he steps up to the window. Jovah has dropped one of the hobgoblins, but the other two are giving him trouble. Soldago sets himself, and then lets three arrows fly. Each finds and kills its target.
“Saving you is becoming a habit, little one,” the plainsman says, as he climbs into the room through the window.
“Luck favors the bold,” Jovah replies unconvincingly, casting multiple cure spells upon himself.
Reana finally slips around the corner of the room, and into the kitchen, where the darkeness can’t reach. She hears footsteps coming up behind her, and turns just in time to see the cutlass wielding hobgoblin, who has just broken away from his duel with Anthius.
“Hello,” she says charmingly, and then skewers him, too.
“I found the kitchen!” she yells out.
“Now’s not the time for that!” Corwin yells. “You should have had something to eat before we started!”
The party reassembles in the kitchen. Anthius chops the hook off of the dead hobgoblin’s arm, and takes his cutlass for good measure.
The party has been here before, so they know where the secret door is; it is in the basement, reached only through the pantry under the kitchen, past a couple of storerooms. They head down the stairs, and Anthius tries the handle of the door to the next room. As soon as he jiggles the handle, the door flies open, and Anthius is attacked by a Gorrilon, the same monstrosity that Brennen avoided in the fight under the Norden River in Ulfang.
The thing grabs at the bard with his four apish arms, landing two blows, and pulls him in for a rending attack. It then throws the hapless minstrel backwards over his head, where he lands like a crumpled rag-doll.
Anthius went to 5 hit points with that series of blows. Ouch.
Anthius is down, but not out. He sees four hobgoblins in the room with him, and decides to play dead. The hobgoblins are not impressed though.
The closest one snickers softly, and drawing his longsword, advances on the badly injured bard…