Session 8 - The One Where All The Planning Paid Off
30th Oct 2020 19:00 - 23:00
In-game timeline: DR1489 Elesias 7 - Eleasias 7
Having ensured the death of Meepo, our "Heroes" take the opportunity to have a short rest without being insulted by an overexcited kobold. Luckily, they manage to rest for an hour without being disturbed, but at the end of the hour a number of things start to happen.
First, Trix, the brewer who they knocked unconscious earlier, starts to come round, and Thomas needed to tie him up and gag him so he wouldn't shout out and alert others. Then, the door into the pantry area, that they had previously barricaded with crates and barrels, started to move. Someone was trying to get through! When whoever it was discovered the way was barred, they started to ram the door in order to open it. The delay gave the party a chance to get ready for a confrontation.
They scattered some caltrops all over the floor of the pantry, then posted TC and Mahtis just inside the pantry whilst the two elves readied their ranged weapons to hit whatever came through the door. After a few attempts, the door was pushed open by a hobgoblin, who was immediately met by four attacks from the party, which took the hobgoblin down before he even realised what was happening!
Flushed by their success, our "Heroes" were brought down to earth when a second hobgoblin emerged and readied an attack. However, TC and Mahtis ran over and attacked the hobgoblin before he could do anything, and managed to bring him down. Kandi joined them at the doorway and was a little surprised at then being hit hard by an arrow fired by an impressive looking hobgoblin. Luckily another hobgoblin in the room missed his arrow shot, which gave TC the opportunity to close the door, separating the combatants.
This gave our party time to plan their next move. Unfortunately it also gave the goblinoids a chance to plan too. By the time our "heroes" were ready to open the door again, ranged attacks at the ready, they discovered the spellcasting goblin that they had previously caught sight of was now nowhere to be seen, and the two remaining hobgoblins were hiding behind the doorway and attacked Kandi with full force as he entered the room, knocking him unconscious and he started to bleed out. Kandi managed to succeed on a death saving throw as Tom rushed into the room, found the spellcasting goblin hiding behind a pillar, and knocked her unconscious in a single blow. Mahtis dragged Kandi away from the battle. One of the hobgoblins ran into the room to accost TC, but missed, and Carro gave some healing to Kandi in order to revive him.
At this point, the party's plan seemed to be in tatters. TC was isolated inside the room, with the other three busy trying to bring Kandi back to life. The strong hobgoblin, who seemed to be the leader, Durnn, mentioned by Hersch earlier, joined his friend in the room to attack TC and scored a hefty blow. TC was badly injured, but still standing. Kandi, freshly revived, fired a crossbow bolt into the room, but missed and Thomas had no option other than to try to run away from the two hobgoblins, but was taken down by an attack of opportunity and started to bleed out. Mahtis fired off a ranged healing spell to revive him in case the hobgoblins decided to make sure of the kill. Luckily the hobgoblin and Durnn missed their attacks on the freshly revived TC, but Candi's attack also missed. Kandi tried to viciously mock the hobgoblin to prevent a double-attack on a weak Tommy, but the hobgoblin laughed off his pathetic insults.
Thomas, at a loss for what to do to escape the fighting, lashed out with his longsword, and managed to hit the hobgoblin hard enough to take him down. Just Durnn to worry about now! Mahtis ran in and reached the battle, and hit Durnn, damaging him for the first time, which was swiftly followed by a superbly placed arrow from Carrow which went straight into Durnn's eye and out the other side. Durnn was finally down!
With Kandi and Thomas both having been unconscious, it had been an exhausting battle, even if it did last less than a minute! The party recovered their collective breaths and searched the bodies of the hobgoblins, finding some gold and jewellery. Mahtis looked at the iron chest in the room, and managed to avoid the trap and get it open, to find a large amount of gold and a letter from the druid Belak to Durnn, explaining more of the plot, and providing a useful map of where to find Belak's grove.
Rather than wait up to 4 hours for the goblin, who they later found out was called Grenl, to come round, TC used some of his healing power to revive her and then he proceeded to interrogate her. After much discussion, it turned out that the hobgoblins were leading the tribe, but that Grenl used to be the clan leader, and she didn't much like the hobgoblins and seemed quite pleased they were dead. The fruit was provided by Belak for the goblins to sell, the only other instructions seemed to be to "Sow the Seed!". Hersch's captivity was also explained. Grenl also told them that the dragon, Calcryx had been "nothing but trouble" and she would be glad to be rid of it.
Grenl took the group to the Village - another room nearby that was very large, very smelly, and very full of goblin families. With Grenl guiding them, none of these goblins attacked the group, and for now, the party let them be.
And so we left our "Heroes", having defeated the hobgoblins, captured the clan leader of the goblins, and found out a bit more about what is going on here. The discussion regarding next steps was left unresolved, but could involve looking further into this fortress, to possibly clear it out for the Kobolds to return; to return to Oakhurst to hopefully gain more experience before heading out further; or to head directly to Belak's grove in the hills. Decisions, decisions….