Save the Goblins from Extinction!

[Fieari]

My last D&D group just disolved because one of my players took some real life issues into the game, and basically broke the party apart with infighting. The upside is that one of the players is still interested in gaming, with an entirely new group... same campaign and all. This is good, since I have the campaign sketched out from 1st level to epic, and really want to run it all the way through. It'll be a new group, but with 1 repeat player... and since I'm starting it over 100% completely, I thought I'd change the opening slightly, by letting you guys play some of my NPCs. My hope is that you'll think up an ingenious battle plan that will surprise ALL my players. They'll still have the opportunity to survive and win, of course, but I'd love it not to work out the way it did before....

Note: Last game, despite party infighting and all that nasty stuff, they managed to wipe out the entire goblin tribe. So lets try to avoid that this time... *evil DM grin*

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You are a leveled goblin of any non-magical class, and you command 120 goblin troops, 10 of which have 1 class level (also non-magical), the rest of which are as statted in the MM. You also have 5 captured and trained worgs that can be ridden.

You worship the "Dark Gods" which appear to you and your wife the seeress alone, in the form of tall black robed figures. (Despite your worship, you are granted NO divine spells at all, no priest class levels) They give you powerful weapons that you have been using in a war against the nearby Kobold tribe. Unfortunately, despite the Gods' assistance, the war is not going as well as you wish... mostly because the enemy has more magic than you do.

You ask for more assistance from the Gods, and they agree to give you more weapons, weapons which will undoubtably eradicate the kobolds in one fell swoop, if you accomplish one simple task in return. Take this staff to the tower in the south, and place it standing upright in the direct center of said tower.

The tower in question is a human settlement whom you've been ignoring for decades, mostly because they don't have anything of value at all. Their militia contains maybe a dozen fighting men. Nevertheless, your wife has a dream... a dream in which a terrible danger to the goblin race will come from that tower, and that even now, going there will be terribly dangerous. She warns that she sees YOUR death there... if you go unprepared.

Supplies from the Dark Gods:
5 wands of Magic Missile (as cast by a 3rd level sorcerer), partly used (charges: 7, 22, 23, 30, 46)
20 small +1 Longswords
20 small +1 Spears
5 suits of Gilded Full Plate Armor (small)


What do you do? Just ask if you need more information.

 

[GlassJaw]

My last D&D group just disolved because one of my players took some real life issues into the game

This doesn't sound healthy. :\

 

[Fieari]

It wasn't. Not at all. I had no idea either... I didn't know the players outside the game. But I'm bouncing back from that horrid experience.

 

[Jolly Giant]

For the 10 goblins with PHB classes I'd make 2-3 ranger scouts/hunters, 2-3 barbarians (surprise the PCs with some physically strong goblins! ) and make the rest rogues. I'd max out hide and move sil. for all of those; stealth is what goblins are best at, after all. Give the rangers and rogues the Point Blankc Shot feat and max out their Spot skill, making them sniper types.

For myself (the chieftan) I'd either go rogue or multiclass brb/rog or ftr/rog, depending on how many levels I/he's got. Oh, and I'd pray heavily for the dark gods to bring me some good bows; I'd even be willing to trade in wome of those spears and swords!

Worg riders with +1 spears make excellent cavalry. Warriors with fullplate and and spears make nice guards for any structure that needs extra protection (I'm looking at the chieftan's hut here! ).

For further strategy, I really need to know more about your setup. I'd probably go to that tower, taking a small entourage with me. Two rangers and a rogue would be good. We'd ride worgs most of the way, then leave them somewhere, possibly with one of the rangers. The last stretch we'd cover on foot, trying our best not to be seen or heard.

Assuming we can get to the tower unnoticed, I'd probably let the rogue sneak the staff into the tower while I and the rangers waited outside. Those dreams wifey had sounded eerie...

 

[takyris]

I'd make myself a rogue... and then I would, in the tradition of my proud forefathers, lie.

Take a story to the humans that talks about the kobolds and their growing power. Kill a few wandering humans and plant kobold equipment near the bodies. The kobolds have amassed some dark and deadly magic, and they are coming forth in strength. Already, the goblin peoples are greatly imperiled, and if they fall, the humans will have no one to occupy the kobolds' far flank, and the human settlements will be overrun for certain.

"The goblins and the humans should not work together, for it is well known that the ways of the goblins are not the ways of the humans, and our gods think it just that we not meet as friends. But as allies, we may drive back the scaly vermin before their unholy numbers can boil over both our peoples. Our gods will not begrudge us that.

We ask not for weapons, for your people are large and powerful, and my people have no knowledge of your weapons. Instead, we ask only for food, that we may pull our hunters and gatherers into the fight and let our small fields lie unplowed while we take the fight to the kobolds, knowing that you shall harry them as well on the far flanks.

We will never be friends, human, but perhaps, in this coming darkness, we can be allies. Among my people, the chieftan carries one staff of office to show that he rules, and the shaman carries another staff of office, to show that he advises in wisdom. I would offer your people my staff. My shaman and I shall share one staff together, and you shall plant this staff upright in upon the center of the highest tower in your dwellings, so that all in my tribe may know that the staff of office rests with you, and your people are not to be harmed by goblinkind until this war against the kobolds is over and forgotten."

Also, I'd have Skill Focus:Bluff.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

The goblins in the MM do have class levels - just one of warrior

I found a Dragonlance supplement that had some pretty cool goblin weapons, and at low levels, when players can't easily cast remove disease... heh heh heh.

You can start by putting an ooze inside of a ceramic jar and hurling them at your opponent, and used some spiked weapons dipped in filth to weaken enemy soldiers...

 

[Fieari]

Here's a more detailed description of the Human town:

On top of a small hill the tower stretches up to the sky, higher than one could reasonably believe. Directly surrounding the tower are crops... corn mostly, also wheat, other vegetables as well. No other buildings exist directly around the tower. Surrounding the crop fields are a ring of trees which, while only about half an acre thick, would provide some cover and impedance to a charge.

Outside the ring of trees, also in a ring around the tower, are about twenty or so houses, plus a few more other buildings. The town is not walled, nor has it a moat.

The terrain is quite hilly. From the top of the impossibly tall tower you could see all around, but you've never seen lookouts there. Or anyone going to the top of the tower regardless. From the base of the tower, or from any point in the town, you can't see over the nearby hills.

To the east of the tower is a small, weak river that flows from the mountains in the north (where we goblins come from) all the way down to the sea in the south. The people there have put sheep and other cattle in fences butted up against the river, so that each pen has 3 made walls and one natural one.