+- The Comeback Inn (https://blackmoor.mystara.us/forums)
+-- Forum: The Opal Room - Blackmoor Campaign and World Discussion (https://blackmoor.mystara.us/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=3)
+--- Forum: Campaign Journals & Story Hour (https://blackmoor.mystara.us/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=44)
+--- Thread: HackMaster 2020/02/19, Confronting the Goblins (/showthread.php?tid=2804)
HackMaster 2020/02/19, Confronting the Goblins - tmjva - 02-22-2020
Games are now on Wednesday nights sometime after 6:30PM at World's Best Comics, 9714 Warwick Blvd Newport News, Virginia 23601.
We had an extra large philly-steak, fresh mozzarella and tomato pizza.
Disclaimer, I have decided to keep this a low information campaign. The party has no idea where they are or what world they are in.
++++ SUMMARY ++++
We left off our characters in a 60 square foot throne room with one discovered secret door, a 20 foot wide open pit and De-Bo-De just having avoided a poison pin-cushion on the throne.
Our party decided to take the secret door and found themselves going 30 feet up where they found another door. Upon opening it up, they were presented with the backside of an apparently indestructible gray curtain that stretched from floor to ceiling that allowed a 3 foot wide gap between itself and a wall. Grog tried stabbing it, Torquemada tried peeking under it, both to no avail. (I told them it was attached the floor and ceiling like upholstery to a sofa.)
Grog make his detect magic check and avoided touching the curtain henceforth.
So the party sent the teenagers down the sides of the curtain only to report back that the paths were dead ends. The curtain apparently enclosed some internal room. De-Bo-De tried his luck and found a secret door.
Taking standard the precaution of having Needles check for traps and finding none, they sent Grog the Barbarian through first with the rest of the party as back up, only to find:
A hobgoblin entertaining himself with one of the kidnapped wimmenfolk. There was also a hobgoblin guard looking down an open staircase. (Since they came through a secret door "known" only to the occupants, they were not expecting anyone from that direction.) Having achieved an element of surprise, Grog attacked from the Guard's rear flank and Torquemada put his sword edge on the other Hobgoblin's backside and demanded surrender. Which was translated into perfect Hobgoblin by "Fred" the amulet who was nearby around De-Bo-De's neck and happened to overhear ("Fred" is only trying to help.)
This was the party's lucky day, for judging by the Hobgoblin's gear lying about they had captured the leader of the Goblin tribe.
That accomplished, the party hastily had the Hobgoblin leader and his former hostage get dressed and took the two Hobgoblins hostage themselves and forced them with their hands tied to be their new guides to this dungeon. So without further ado, the party was led down a staircase, to a room with 2 more Hobgoblin guards (who also surrendered), then through another secret door and found themselves back in the throne room they had left, albeit another secret door they had not found (nor had bothered to look for since it was behind a curtain next to one of those braziers).
Reorganizing with the teenagers left behind to guard their rear. The party was led cattywumpus across the throne room (avoiding the 20 foot wide pit) and took yet another secret door they had not found and up some more stairs to a 30 by 100 foot long room with 3 doors to the right, four statues at the other end, then it turned right to a 30 foot wide staircase going up.
Their new "guides" led them to the first of the 3 doors telling the party that his allied Kobold tribe lives behind doors 1 and 3, but the 2nd door is just a closet. Going through door number 1, the party found 20 sullen Kobolds being forced to clean and scrub their clothes, pick up their things and make their beds, overseen the stern looks of the party's wimmenfolk "hostages".
The party abrubtly announced itself that that had taken their Chieftain prisoner and bade the 20 Kobolds surrender their hostages. (The party really didn't say that, it was really announced by "Fred" translated into perfect Koboldic.)
"Ding dong the Chief is had, the mean old Chief is had!" Sang the Kobolds, once again in seemingly orchestrated dancing and song which in the next chorus said: "Can you please save us from this selfmade hell!?"
Torquemada, slightly out of character said via "Fred": "Just release the hostages leave these parts, and you can go." Since the Kobold's belongings were somehow set in order beforehand, and well packed including their toothbrushes, (even their underwear was folded), the Kobolds started to march in single file out the dungeon.
Somewhat disappointed, the "rescued" wimmenfolk watched them go.
Meanwhile the party decided to open the closet door (door #2) back in the hallway. The party Thief dutifully checked for traps, found none, decided it was unlocked, then had the original Hobgoblin guard of the Chieftan open the door.
Plop! An Ochre Jelly that had been waiting on the other side of the door dropped on the hapless guard. The party had to kill it with oil and flame but not before it had consumed the Hobgoblin.
A few giggles erupted from the last of the departing Kobolds. They had apparently kept the Ochre Jelly in the closet as a joke and didn't tell anyone.
That left the next step in this night's gaming agenda. There were three other things they could do:
#1 Investigate the four statues at the end of the room just before the stairs going up. (They were a skull statue, a demon statue, a screaming figure statue, and a frog creature statue.)
#2 Up the 30 foot wide staircase going up. To which the ex-Chieftain said were the barracks for 10 Goblins.
#3 Yet another secret door from the ex-Kobold's quarters going underneath staircase #1 which leads to the barracks of 10 Hobgoblins.
They decided to ignore the statutes and go up the wide staircase. At the top of which, were 10 Goblins with (you guessed it) 10 wimmenfolk hostages. However these wimmenfolk didn't have it as easy as the ones with the Kobolds and were in dire need of rescue.
Additionally the surrender call by from the party did not work as intended so we ended up gaming a battle. Three Goblins guarded the wimmenfolk, which left seven Goblins versus the party. This included the Grog, Torquemada, Eleven Teenagers, and the party even recruited the two Hobgoblin prisoners to fight on their side. (But not the ex-Chieftain.) Only Needles and De-bo-De remained behind to guard the ex-Chieftain.
About six rounds later the morale of the Goblins finally broke and they surrendered.
Being out of time we called it a night. The party having rescued 31 wimmenfolk. The next step would be to go though the secret door in the Kobold's barracks and confront the Hobgoblins, and as you may guess, an equal number of hostages.
Oh and by the way, I didn't mention it to my gamers, in the just defeated Goblin quarters there is a large statue of a sphinx with broken glass eyes.
++++ CHARACTER SUMMARY ++++
- A Barbarian named Grog.
- A Magic User Sole Practitioner (Detective Class) named De-Bo-De
- "Fred" the talking indestructible wooden fish amulet found in session one and taken possession by De-Bo-De.
- A Thief named Needles (who has a fear of needles)
- A Cleric named Torquemada, a Cleric who bought the Inquisitor package with his build points.
- Eleven "teenagers", who are apparently some sort of Sprite kin encountered last episode who want in on the "action".
++++ OUT OF CHEESE ERROR ++++