Post by hubertbartels on Mar 5, 2017 15:10:59 GMT -5
(Aerwyn reporting)
We settled down for a long nap. I (Aerwyn) sat up and reviewed my spells. In a little while, the goblins slipped away – and we woke up, readied ourselves and then followed them. The goblin raiding party was 4 goblins and a leader goblin mounted on a worg.
About 20 minutes away from Hickory House, we set up our ambush and waited. When the goblins returned, our ambush took them by complete surprise – they never even had a chance to fight back.
It was now the brightest part of the day when we returned to Hickory House. The other goblins would have been asleep with only a few worgs patrolling the woods to protect them. We decided that this would be good time to take the two girls – Laura and Mira – back to Dragonshead Manor and report to Dame Doris what we have found.
But sneaking out of Hickory House, one of the patrolling worgs noticed us. It ran up and knocked Duncan down. I hit the worg with with an acidic Chromatic Orb, hurting it badly and forcing it to run. Duncan stood up as the worg retreated, then hitting it with his spell and killing it before the worg could alert the others.
At Dragonshead Manor, we took extra time to rest, planning to return to the old hunting lodge the next day. Our trip back was not uneventful – the goblins had noticed that someone was cutting down their numbers and laid traps on the trail. Wolfram found a pit trap and a secondary deadfall nearby.
At Hickory House, the goblins had become more watchful. There were now three worgs guarding their barracks and patrolling between the buildings.
We skirted the buildings, trying to avoid the watch worgs. Approaching the old hickory sugar rendering shed – the “Sweet House” - from the rear, we carefully climbed the rickety old steps to the sagging wooden door. Wolfram pushed the door gently a foot when it got stuck. Slipping through the narrow crack, the halfing rogue found a table with crockery stacked on it holding the door shut – a crude alarm.
Inside, there were several doors and a hallway leading to the front of the Sweet House. Behind one of the doors, we found two men and a boy – Elgin and Willard from Lord Severan’s group and the stable boy from Chestnut Cottage. We brought them back outside into the forest to hide them. Willard did tell us that there were six goblins as well as an half-orc priest of Iuz in the building.
In the front of the Sweet House where they used to boil the hickory sap into syrup, we found a large room, 20’ by 40’, converted into a make-shift temple to Iuz. At one end, decorated with a large depiction of an iron skull, were 4 goblins. Two more goblins were at the other end. They started to defend the temple but were quickly despatched.
There were a few doors opening from the make-shift temple. Thabo tried the first door – he had to push it hard to get it to open. Inside was half-orc just putting on his skull-shaped helmet. Thabo quickly smacked the armored half-orc. The priest of Iuz responded by throwing a spell at Thabo and myself.
A bat, formerly invisible, threw another spell of Thabo. The paladin shook off the effects. Saphie, who had entered the room behind Thabo and myself, threw a witchbolt at the bat, killing it. Thabo then killed the priest of Iuz.
While the others examined the corpse of the half-orc, I looked over the remains of the bat. It had reverted to its natural form – that of a small fiend, a quasit. It was unknown what purpose it had served with the priest of Iuz but it might have been a point of contact with someone more powerful. Also in this room was a prayer book to Iuz – which Thabo took – and a journal.
During a short rest, the two men and the stable boy were brought into the temple. I studied the journal. It was filled with the half-orc’s musings and notes on the region. The half-orc wrote about a larger temple in the region and someone – rather vain – named Lozari. The priest of Iuz, who was named Telli, also mentions a “Third Agent”. This Third Agent had been in this part of Nyrond for quite some time – even during the last war – and was traveling from place to place among the people of Nyrond.
It was decided to sneak past the patrolling worgs and hit the goblins while they were asleep. But as we left the Sweet House, one of the worgs saw us. They came running through the trees. Two of them died to our ranged weapons and the third, badly wounded, ran off into the forest.
The goblins were staying in three workers’ barracks, formed into a ‘U’. As we approached, the shutters flew open and the goblins inside opened fire. Thabo entered one building while I ran and threw a fog cloud over the second building to keep the goblins snipers blind. The goblins came outside onto the front porch along with one of goblin bosses. I blew them away with Thunderwave while Saphie pushed the goblin boss back inside with her eldritch blast.
Thabo continued to fight by himself in the first barracks. The building was on fire, having been hit by several alchemical fires. In the second barracks, the boss goblin retreated through the fog cloud, running through the back door into the third structure. Wolfram ran after him.
Thabo had finished off the boss goblin in the first barracks. Wolfram opened the door to the third barracks – to find six more goblins, the boss goblin and the Big Boss goblin, a goblin as wide as he was tall. Wolfram was surprised.
Duncan and I heard Wolfram go down. We ran up to the door of the third barracks. When I opened the barracks door, the goblins beat on me. Thabo arrived to save me from being turned into elf-kabobs.
While Thabo deal damage to the Big Boss goblin, Duncan, Saphie and I took out the six goblins and the boss goblin. Then Thabo killed the Big Boss goblin.
We retreated to Hickory House for the night. The next morning, we started for Dragonshead Manor. Another day’s rest at Dragonshead Manor, we collected the two girls from Dame Doris and headed for Severan’s Mills. Lord Severan listened to our report and paid us each 500 sp. Lady Florana gave us each a healing potion from her supplies.