Season 1 - Episode 4: The Goblin Caves

[Iain_IF]

Paladin curses the shoddy goblin workmanship, knocks another goblin arrow, and watches for a goblin to poke his head out of the cave.

[JoeCarr28]

Having removed the dead bodies, you reset your positions and Nivek attempts his best impersonation of a goblin. It’s difficult to tell how convincing Nivek is; vocabulary is one thing, pronunciation is another. In particular, Nivek struggles to raise the pitch of his deep dwarven voice to a typical goblin level.

[Rolls]

Following the attempted bluff, you once again hear the sound of approaching footsteps from the cave mouth. However, this time they sound more cautious and considered, different from the carefree pursuit of dinner the first time around. You sense that the goblins suspect that something is not quite right, even if they don’t know exactly why. Two more goblins, equipped in the same manner as their dead comrades, appear at the cave entrance.

[This time, as the goblins are suspicious, I’ll revert to a regular 1-2 chance of being surprised. I roll a 4 - no surprise].

The fight resumes …

Round 1

Initiative
Hiker: 6 + 1 (dexterity) = 7.
Doughbert: 4 + 1 (dexterity) + 1 (halfling) = 6.
Nivek: 6.
Goblin 3: 6.
Tannen: 5.
Paladin: 1 + 2 (dexterity) + 1 (halfling) = 4.
Goblin 4: 4.
Karl: 2.

Buoyed by his recent success, Hiker is the first to react. Following the same routine as before, he steps away from the cliff face and fires at Goblin 3 [17 (again!) + 1 (attack bonus) + 1 (dexterity) + 1 (short range) = 20: hit! for 4 (again!) damage]. The goblin drops to the floor.

Goblin 4, is beyond the range of Doughbert’s dagger, so Nivek steps across in front of the halfling to engage it with his mace [10 + 1 (attack bonus) + 1 (strength) = 12: miss]. Nivek delivers a glancing blow, but it’s deflected by the goblin’s leather armour.

The responsibility of silencing the remaining goblin before it can raise the alarm rests with Tannen and his longsword [natural 1 - something of reversal of fortune!]. Tannen blows it big time, catching his longsword on the cliff edge as he swings and dropping it in the process.

Paladin decides that shooting into the melee is too risky, and so holds his fire for now. Goblin 4 meanwhile yells something (Nivek understands the cry to be “INTRUDERS!!!”) whilst taking a swipe at Tannen with his shortsword [19: hit! for 1 damage]. It’s just a nick, but it depletes Tannen’s hit points still further.

Karl comes round from behind his sergeant and swings with his longsword [8 + 1 (attack bonus) + 1 (strength) = 10: miss]. The former soldier fails to make contact with his adversary.

Meanwhile, Barnaby looks on impassively, as if men impersonating chickens and dwarves impersonating goblins are everyday occurrences and all just part of The Coastwood's rich tapestry.

That completes the round. What are your plans for the next?

[Updated tactical map available at https://sites.google.com/site/marketstonecampaign/]


Nivek: No ‘0’ level spells remaining today
Tannen: HP 5/9
3 pm, 27th day of Harvestide

[SmootRK]

Nivek will move slightly into the cave entrance, going over the fallen goblin and attempting to flank the standing goblin... and attack, still trying to be quiet about it (so he is not barking out any platitudes).

[actingkeith]

Seeing what the Dwarf is trying to do, Karl will say, "That's the spirit. You hit him high and I'll hit him low!"

[Iain_IF]

Out of the way! Out of the way! curses Paladin. He scrambles down the tree to get a clear shot.

[Birthright]

Cussing his luck, Tannen will draw his hand axe and swing at the goblin, attempting to circle around his opponent so that his back is to the forest and he can see the cave entrance in the event that any more goblins appear.

[JoeCarr28]

Round 2

Initiative
Karl: 6.
Hiker: 4 + 1 (dexterity) = 5.
Paladin: 1 + 2 (dexterity) + 1 (halfling) = 4.
Goblin 4: 3.
Doughbert: 1 + 1 (dexterity) + 1 (halfling) = 3.
Nivek: 1.
Tannen: 1.

Seeing his sergeant struggling, Karl seizes the initiative. [12 + 1 (attack bonus) + 1 (strength) = 14: hit! for 4 + 1 (strength) = 5 damage]. Karl brings the current skirmish to a swift conclusion.

So you have four dead goblins, the most recently deceased of which was able to make an attempt at raising the alarm. As you drag the additional bodies away from the cave mouth and resume your positions against the cliff face, it doesn’t appear that any more goblins are on their way at the moment.

What next?


Nivek: No ‘0’ level spells remaining today
Tannen: HP 5/9
3 pm, 27th day of Harvestide

[Birthright]

...What next?

After a quick 'thumbs up' to Karl, Tannen retrieves his longsword, groaning inwardly at the nick the rockface made in his blade. If no goblin-sounds are heard for a minute or so, Tannen will signal to the others to regroup back in the tree-line near where Barnaby is resting. Before doing so, Tannen will quickly search the bodies of the two goblins on his side of the cave entrance.

[Eevans]

Hiker had been moving his bow up, down, and around trying to find a suitable shot, but Karl and Tannen were just too close so he could not fire. Seeing all the goblins dead Hiker looked up and waited, ready to fire if anything else comes forth from the cave entrance.

"You think Miss Alma is in there?" Hiker said to everyone, and no one in particular.

[SmootRK]

"I think we are in the right place to find Ms. Alma. Goblins found where goblins are suspected... Shall we head in? or retreat to recuperate and plan more? I should think we look inside a little further.", explains Nivek.