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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1823057" data-attributes="member: 1210">Bugbears in the Well8/1/369 O.L.G., 6 p.m., some ruins in the Brown HillsLita and Sandy urgently begin planning to trap the well before any bugbears can come out, but they’re too slow.  Fortunately, Lita manages to catch the big goblinoid in the face with a flask of alchemist’s fire before it slips on the scum of soap coating the rim of the well, and it screams and falls.  There’s a thud from the well and the sounds of some excited voices talking below.  Our heroes tense, but after a few moments, the voices draw off.“They’ll wait until dark,” guesses Sandy. ***9 p.m.Their tools are crude and their options are few, but Sandy and Lita have done brilliantly with what they had.  The well, from which they presume bugbears are going to emerge, is covered with a blanket.  Large rocks- well, large for a halfling to forage and carry back, anyhow- weight it down on the ground around the well.  Atop the blanket is another flask of Lita’s alchemist’s fire.  Coating the rim of the well, under the blanket, is a film of moist soap.  “It’ll have to do,” Lita says nervously.  “We’re in no shape to fight.”“We should move off a ways to rest, maybe into the building the first bugbears were in,” suggests Sandy.  The two halflings haul their friends’ wounded forms out of sight and try to disguise them with rubble and brush.  Then they hide themselves and fade into exhausted sleep themselves.***8/2/369 O.L.G., 8:30 a.m.“I’ll be damned, it worked,” Sandy says.Their trap is intact.  A single arrow is lodged into it from below; it appears to have pierced the alchemist’s fire, burning a hole in the center of the blanket (and likely the archer below).  A look down the well reveals two corpses.  “They’ll try again,” Sandy states.  “How do you know there are more of them?” Boddynock asks.  He is still terribly wounded, but he is at least conscious.  Timothy remains on the edge of death.  “What are you talking about?  I’m a seasoned adventurer, and trust me- there are always more bugbears,” Sandy replies firmly.  “Maybe we should just leave, then,” Boddynock shrugs.“No way!” Lita exclaims.  “Maybe they have some inmates from the asylum- or some treasure.  Let’s take these bugbears out.  Besides, how are we going to carry Timothy?”  They all think of their somewhat autistic companion- he’s chubby, and since they have put him on the halfling program (since he thinks he’s a human, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding) he’s really learned to eat.“Good point,” admits Boddynock.1 p.m.The day is dry and dusty.  Our heroes continue to watch the well.  Suddenly a series of sounds presages a flurry of arrows from below.  The blanket is pierced, and a couple of vials of acid and another alchemist’s fire drop down.  This time the arrows continue- clearly there are several archers below. Once the blanket it shredded, the arrows stop for a moment.  Our heroes wait, sweaty in the hot sun, and to their surprise a voice calls up to them.  Lita and Sandy exchange a glance and shrug. “Oh, can’t you understand them?” asks Boddynock.The halflings turn to the gnome.  “You speak goblin?”“You don’t?”***It turns out that the bugbear talking is the leader of the tribe in the ruins.  He seems to feel that he’s lost enough people.  He wants the group to let his people climb out of the well peacefully, and demands to know who they are and what they want.  His folk have no source of food below the well, so they have to come out soon peacefully or no.  Surprised by such a reasonable-sounding bugbear, the party (through Boddynock, who acts as the translator) asks whether the bugbears have seen or heard of any of the escaped inmates, describing the hospital smocks they had been wearing when the party released them.  The bugbear chief declares that he has several of the smocks, but informs the party that, sadly, their wearers are no longer available.“That’s a polite way of saying we ate them,” he admits, when pressed.“Maybe the smocks will be worth something,” suggests Sandy with a sigh.And so the bugbear chief and our heroes work out an exchange.  The bugbears are allowed free the next morning, the party is given the smocks, and they move on, heading back to the Asylum of Advanced Mental Treatment to report in and return the smocks.  The new head doctor, Dr. Avendzo, sighs sadly at the new of the deaths- three of them.  He clearly finds our heroes’ efforts lacking, especially given that they are responsible for the release of the inmates in the first place.  Nonetheless, our heroes take the opportunity to rest for a few days.  Next Time: What was that about a mass murderer?</blockquote>

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