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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2835916" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter 19, “Ambushing the Hobgoblins”, August 7th, 1018, 4:15 P.M.Back in the building to the west, Aradyn, Fiona and Guice climb up to the roof, and cautiously head towards the center south wall of the structure, just as the hobgoblins round the southwestern wall of this building.   They lie in wait above an alcove, and wait until after all but the last dozen or so have past.   Jerry and Freyland wait inside a door of this alcove, alongside Isaiah and Razou who begin a Chant spell.   The hobgoblin leader spots the seven climbing out of the window of the building to the East, and orders an attack.   As soon as the hobgoblins start to rush forward, Fiona lets loose a Sleep spell, with Guice and Aradyn firing point blank into others below.   Serita, Narg, Mojo and Timothy then charge at the group of Hobgoblins, as Blip flies her broom up to the roof of that structure.  Meanwhile, those on the roof of the other building continue to fire down, as Freyland and Jerry exit the building to attack the hobgoblins remaining in the rear of the group.  Serita is the first to close ranks with the monsters in the front, followed by Narg, Mojo and Timothy who waste no time in cutting down the first line.  A group of hobgoblin archers break off, and begin firing point blank into these four.  Mojo pulls out his hammer, and begins picking off the hobgoblin archers one by one, the hammer returning to him after each throw.  Narg, Serita and Mojo show no mercy, bringing down all that they can reach.   The hobgoblins do very poorly with hitting back, with only one getting in a successful attack from behind, on Serita. Blip fires down from her roof, dropping several.  The hobgoblins in the middle see their allies fall from both the front and rear, and many attempt to flee, only to be cut down from the rooftop.  One of the fleeing hobgoblins runs in the direction of the large tree, spotting Kale climbing down it.  This hobgoblin points directly at him and yells “There’s another one.” just as Aradyn’s arrow strikes this hobgoblin down.  Some hobgoblins retreat into the building, apparently unaware that several adventurers still remain within the structure, finding Adrianna and Kruk both more than willing to deal with them.   Another runs into an adjacent building, with Luekia chasing after him, chasing him through several rooms before cutting him down as well.   The last of the foes are taken down out on the street.The party quickly gathers up some armor and weapons for those who need it, and heads back into the western building, gathering together their group.  A quick assessment shows that the only injury from the hobgoblins was the single blow on Serita.  They decide that the best place to retreat to is Serita’s house down the street, and all twenty-two exit from the front of this building, bringing with them the still unconscious prisoner Gina, and head west down the street.Kale eventually reaches the base of the tree, to a point about 150 feet southwest of where the hobgoblin battle just took place.   He is relieved to finally be off of the tree, as the heavy wind blowing against the branches above the crater caused it to continuously sway during his entire descent. He does not see any hobgoblins, or any other movement.   The city is now extremely quiet, the only sound being that of the swift wind blowing above the crater.  He makes his way over to the building that the group was last in, heading through it to the front door.  In Serita’s house, she quickly confers with the two large cats and large gorilla that she keeps as guards.  They confirm that no enemy has breeched the safety of the house.  This relieves her, until she checks the cellar for the Mimic Dave, finding him to be gone.  She heads back to the party, informing them that “Dave’s not here.”It is decided that Blip will head back up to the cloud giant Herculean's cave where they left the crew, to drop off Lono, Hobbson, Hardy, Marcroft and the prisoner Gina.  Adrianna volunteers to accompany her as well.  The six get into two bags of holding, and Blip sails off with her broom, staying low between buildings.  She does not gain altitude until he is over the marsh, out of sight from a lot of the city.   She arrives at the cave, and finds it empty.  She chooses to head immediately back to Serita's house, again flying low between buildings to avoid detection.  Blip notices that their  Bullywug allies have now left the marsh, and are walking down the streets in small groups carrying weapons.Kale continues to look and listen for signs of where the Silver Moon have gone.  He investigates a part of a grove that appeared to be fireballed, finding the damage to be a few days old.  In the corner of his eye he catches some very distant movement from the northern rim of the crater, something or someone dropping down quickly from the crater rim.   He concludes that he cannot get to that part of the city fast enough to still be able to spot whatever it was, and continues west through the city.  Suddenly, a three-foot tall person atop a broom comes flying out from the northeasterly part of the city at a very fast pace, coming around a building 250 feet north of him, and then turning south in his direction.  Kale recognizes the broom flyer from the earlier battle scenes as being with the Silver Moon Blip was almost back to Serita's house, having just passed behind Vallessa's house.  She turns left to fly diagonally across the main street to the alley immediately north of Cassie's home, just east of Serita's.   As she turns onto this main north-south street she spots a lone man looking directly at her from 250 south on this same street. He is a male, about six feet tall and is deeply tanned.  He is wearing what appears to be a fur hat, dyed with blue and green alternating stripes.  His leather armor is a shiny gray color. He has some sort of sword sheaved on his back along and a sheaf of javelins along side with an atlatl. A small shield is slung low on his back, and a net is slung through his belt. He also appears to have a small backpack, under the weapons.Kale turns and starts to walk in Blip’s direction, waving at her and making a gesture for her to come to him.  Blip waves back at him (a "come on" kind of wave), but continue on her flight across the street, leaving a mark at the next intersection indicating that she then went north rather than south to Serita’s.Blip flies over the wall of Serita’s house and enters, frantically telling the party that there are three things are going on: “First, there are now street gangs of bullywug looking for a fight.  Second, the cave is empty.  Third, some bozo with a weird fur hat is out on the street.”  Lono comments “A fur hat?  He must be a pimp.  I don’t need anybody to help me get chicks.”   Blip empties the others out of the Bags of Holding, them being surprised to be back at Serita’s house instead of the cave.   Serita suggests that she and Blip go deal with the Bullywug situation.  Kale continues to look for the party in the directions he saw Blip go, but not finding anything.   He continues walking around the buildings on the western end of the city, looking for them.Blip and Serita head out, avoiding the streets where Blip just saw the stranger.   They soon run into the Bullywug, who Serita convinces to return to the marsh.   They head back, Serita saying that the Bullywug are no longer an issue.  “Like they ever were,” says Narg.   Serita says, “They can be useful, you just need to learn their language.”  “Speak with frogs?  I think not,” is Narg’s response.  Mojo gestures to the gorilla and asks, “What’s with the walking carpet?”   “He’s my valet,” she answers.  “Why don’t you get a man,” asks Narg.  “Until I can find a man who can actually control me I don’t need one,” answers Serita.   She then begins a conversation with her chicken, who speaks back to her in common.”  Lono says “Another one!” He then makes derogatory remarks about talking farm animals and  particularly Silas’s talking pig.Meanwhile, approximately six miles to the northwest, Vincenzo decides to return to the school, where he had instructed his daughter Jentile to wait the previous morning.  He brings with him crewmembers Richard, Fritz, Michael and his wife’s niece Janet.   They investigate the school, finding evidence of a fight having taken place on the second floor of the main house, and on the ground outside of the building.  There is no evidence of Jentile.  They find tracks and move on southwest a mile to the old Silas family home along the coast, finding is surrounded by approximately forty hobgoblins.   They discuss the merits of launching a rescue, the primary reason being to get Vinnie’s wife Jamie back to watch the children.  They decide that there are too many enemies for the five of them to take on, and return to the school.  At the school they load up with food and supplies, then trek back to Crystull’s house.  The kids prepare supper, and the group settles in, as it looks like the impending storm is about to begin.Back up in the mountaintop city, the party discusses what to do next.   They conclude that they have four choices:  (1) Attack the enemy mages in the city who are at Phormosah’s old house  (2) Mount an assault at the Silas home where hostages are being kept (3) Try to find out what happened to the people left in the cave who are now missing (4) Mount an assault on the Tavern where more hostages are being kept.  After a lengthy debate they decide on doing all of the above, by splitting up the party.  Three teams will simultaneously work on the first three objectives, then meet up in the woods west of the Tavern for objective four.  They conclude that there is still enough daylight to accomplish all of this, although the sky is now filled with dark clouds.  [And the DM is very pleased that the players have decided to split up into teams with approximately one character per player in each.]It is decided that the group of Aradyn, Blip, Furynick, Guice, Immy, Isaiah, Jerry, and Luekia will mount the assault on the Silas Estate.   All of these except Blip climb into two of the bags of holding, which Blop picks up and flies off on her broome.  Blip exits the city through the cave in the southwestern corner (avoided until now due to the cave’s underground lake as well as a rope bridge which tend to slow down movement but both of which the broom can easily fly across).  At approximately 5:15 PM Blip flies her broom out of the cave entrance on the Southwestern side of the mountain. Most of the others decide to assault the group of enemies in the city at Phormosah’s.  They discuss the best way to get there through the city undetected.  Mojo’s suggests Groucho glasses.  Serita asks him if he can tie his tongue in a knot.  He answers, “I can, but you’ll never know.” They evaluate the physical shape that everyone else is in.  Lono, at only one hit point, mouths off “We’re fine, the only one who got hurt by the hobgoblins was Serita.”  The group comments about how well they did in that battle overall, with Mojo (who previously lived on a 20th century world) adds “I haven’t seen that much carnage since my frat house went to two-for-one night at a fast food restaurant.”It is decided that Hobbson, Marcroft and Tanner should stay at Serita’s house.   Serita adamantly refuses to let the prisoner Gina remain in her home while she isn’t there.   It is decided that Kruk and Adrianna will exit the city through the main cave to go look for clues as to the whereabouts of those left in the cave, and will bring the prisoner with them.  Serita suggests that Lono go too, to which he comments, “Yeah, I can lead that group.”  She answers, “No, it’s because you’re too weak to be of any good to us and I won’t let you stay here.”  He snaps back “I’m fine.”  She yells back “You’re beat to Crap*!”  “At least I wasn’t hit by a hobgoblin” is his comeback.   “Shut the Heck * Up!” she retorts, and she slugs him.   Serita connects, knocking Lono unconscious, and concluding “That felt good.”  She tells Adrianna “He’s not staying here, take him too.”   Kruk and Adrianna leave, carrying Lono and Gina.   They head to the cave entrance at the southeastern edge of the city.*Denotes that a family friendly Euphemism has been employed.So the remaining group of Fiona, Freyland, Lannon, Mojo, Narg, Razou, Serita and Timothy leave the house, heading north through the city.</blockquote>

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