Idalium Game 95: The Goblin Battle

Session date: Monday, April 2, 2018
Game date: Saturday, May 15, 210

PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 70093/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 18800/20000   
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 3, hp 11, xp 7598/8000
Adrien, Fighter 3, hp 9, xp 6618/8000

Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 16000/32000
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 3530/6000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 1257/4000
Jack, Thief 2, hp 8, xp 1912/2400

Now that Meat had been restored (after a fashion), the party set their sights on the vanquishing of the Goblin King. They did a little pre-delve shopping, buying some gemstones from a jeweler near the Rusty Lantern Tavern (to feed to the animated stone column they had befriended). Adrien was feeling reckless, and intentionally did not feed her demonic giant ferret Norman the weekly dose of her blood that she had been told he needed in order to remain bonded to her. After exchanging some friendly words in the tavern with the Brothers Fruthwood (another adventuring party made of three hobbit brothers and a couple of others), they descended below and hurried towards the second level.

In the Street of Temples, they were swooped upon by four blood sucking stirges. Norman strained against his leash, and Adrien let go of it and let him lunge forward. He snapped a stirge right out of the air (natural 20!), crushing it between his foaming jaws. Gulleck deftly swung her axe and another stirge fell, sliced in twain. But the remaining two stirges descended upon Norman, impaling him with their long proboscises and sucking the foul blood from his mangy body. But the stirges had little time to drink the ferret's blood, because Adrien and Gulleck stepped up and stabbed them through. Norman twisted on the ancient cobblestones, whining and lapping at his wounds. Adrien took pity on him and decided to feed him, slicing her palm open on her sword and letting him lap at her blood. The other party members turned away in horror.

They moved on, through the Temple of Hedonism, and down into the basement den where the two magical fountains bubbled merrily away. To their surprise, two hobgoblins were present, filling flasks from the fountain on the west side of the room, the one that could cause the drinker to become magically enamored with the first person they saw. (A pair of orcs had once fallen for Caryatid and Gulleck this way.) They talked to the goblins, who slyly heckled them, encouraging them to drink from the fountains and see what happened.

Well, it turned out that suited Meat just fine. Unlike Gulleck, she apparently was uncomfortable with the sudden transportation of her memories as a man into a woman's body. Meat drank deeply of the shimmering water from the fountain on the east side of the room, and after a few grotesque convulsions, she turned... well, not back into Meat as they had known him, but a male version of the "new" Meat, still dark haired and pale of skin and considerably weaker than before. And now his armor fit oddly again after Gulleck had just paid to have it adjusted.

The hobgoblins were disappointed to see that the party members were not more impressed and dismayed at this transformation, and sauntered off, saying "Perhaps we shall meet again soon!"

"Oh, I'm sure we will," laughed the adventurers to each other after the goblins had left, because their next move was to head directly to invade the Goblin Palace.

The group entered the caves and made their way down the twisty passage that led to the grand double doors that were the entrance to the palace. When they arrived, they found the doors guarded by a pair of tall, lanky bugbears.

"We have an appointment for Saturday!" Gulleck cried out, which was technically true, as they had once left an entry in the appointment book for "Any Saturday". Alas, the bugbears were not in a humor to indulge them.

"His Majesty the Goblin King is not receiving visitors today."

Well, Orin put an end to the conversation with a Sleep spell and Gulleck quickly put an end to the bugbears. Caryatid checked the big double doors and found that they were locked. So she went ahead and knocked on the door.

"Yes?" came the hooting, querulous voice of a bugbear from the behind the doors. Caryatid decided to bluff, and tried to imitate the strange, hollow voice of the bugbears.

"There's some people here who say they have an appointment. Let us in so we can check the appointment book."

Well, to me this seemed unlikely to work, so I made Caryatid's player roll 4d6, trying to roll her Charisma score (which is 10) or lower. She rolled a 17, so I guess her bugbear voice wasn't very convincing.

"Go get lost!" came the reply from behind the doors.

The group conferred in whispers for a minute, and then Caryatid and Orin slipped on invisibility rings and hid in the corner of the cave chamber, while the rest of the party retreated around the corner of the passage, loudly and conspicuously calling out, "Okay, we're leaving now!"

After a minute or so the double doors were unbarred and two bugbears poked their heads out. Their baleful yellow eyes widened as they saw their dead comrades lying on the cavern floor, and they cautiously moved into the chamber to drag the bodies back inside. Caryatid slipped invisibly through the doors into the guardroom. There were another two bugbears on guard here. Caryatid began to push the door closed, but the closing door was noticed by one of the bugbears, who leaped forward to try to pull it back open. I had Caryatid made an opposed hit dice roll against the bugbear (this is how I handle grapples and other struggles, adapted from an article by Gary Gygax in an early issue of The Strategic Review). Somewhat surprisingly, Caryatid succeeded in the opposed roll and managed to slam the door shut on the bugbear's fingers.

Outside, Orin shouted "Come get them!" and the party fell screaming from around the corner upon the two bugbears in the cave. They made quick work of them, with Adrien landing both killing blows. Inside the guardroom, Caryatid cast Sleep but unfortunately only one bugbear fell unconscious. The other turned to her (now visible) with an evil glint in his yellow eyes and pulled a thin leather cord from his belt and with horrifying speed had it around her throat and was throttling her. Fortunately, before she expired the rest of the gang burst through the doors and struck the last bugbear down. He surrendered and begged for mercy but they weren't interested.

Caryatid cast Wizard Lock on the outer door and then they began their explorations of the Goblin Palace. A short hall led to an intersection marked by a large stuffed ostrich. Gulleck decided to mark the bird in some way in case there was more than one. First she slashed its side open with her axe, revealing filthy old stuffing, and then reached up and cut its beak right off. The group explored some of the halls, and found them confusing as ever. They went up and down short flights of stairs and along hallways that eventually led back to the same place they had started in ways that seemed topologically impossible. Eventually they returned to the stuffed bird, which was still missing its beak.

Gulleck got tired of wandering around these insane halls, and decided it would be best to find some goblins and force them to lead them to the King. She banged her axe on her shield loudly and hollered, and soon eight goblins came running into view at the end of the hallway to the south with small drawn. Orin put on his invisibility ring and hid behind the stuffed ostrich. Gulleck sized up the situation and decided to run headlong into the goblins. Arrows flew through the air, clattering in the hall and making a pincushion out of the ostrich that Orin was hiding behind. Gulleck was hit by three arrows but kept running at the goblins, but then she took an arrow to the knee (natural 20) and her charge was stopped short. But Orin had been murmuring the words of Sleep behind the ostrich and completed the spell, and all of the goblins fell in a clatter of bows and swords at the end of the hall.

Before the adventurers had time to reach, another ten goblins came running in at the north end of the hall. Gulleck and Adrien ran to attack this second group. Arrows flew around them, but ricocheted off armor and shield, and then Adrien and Gulleck were laying into goblins left and right and the poor goblins had little defense. In fact, the worst injury Gulleck received was when Simon's player rolled a 1 and Simon managed to shoot Gulleck in the back with an arrow. A majority of the goblins were killed and the last three broke morale and fled around a corner.

Caryatid didn't want to wander these maze-like corridors, but was persuaded to continue on with the party under duress. They explored a bit further and Simon used his mind-reading amulet to listen at a door, but as he was doing so, the party was attacked by surprise by half a dozen hobgoblins at the end of the hall they were in. Adrien was hit by an arrow, but then Gulleck and Chase charged the goblins down. Gulleck killed one and the other five bolted. Gulleck took the opportunity to run after them, screaming and threatening them the entire time. The hobgoblins led the party down a long hall that turned several times and then suddenly opened into a large banquet hall, in which a goblin feast was is full swing. Counting the five hobgoblins that had just run in, there were nine goblins, fourteen hobgoblins, and one bugbear. Nine hobgoblins were sitting at the large u-shaped table eating meats and fruits, and nine goblins were carousing merrily. Some were lying under the taps of barrels of beer, guzzling the beer as it poured into their mouths, some were swinging from chandeliers, and some were just shoveling food into their mouths in the most gluttonous way. When the five hobgoblins and the party burst through the door into the hall, it was one of those "record scratch" moments where everyone stopped dead and stared at them. And then chairs were shoved back and goblins leaped to their feet, drawing swords and jumping forward to engage the intruders.

As the battle began, Orin cast another Sleep spell from a scroll, which took all of the goblins and one of the hobgoblins out of the action immediately. Caryatid attempted to frighten the hobgoblins by casting a Phantasmal Force spell to create the illusion of their erstwhile adventuring companion Krang the pyromaniac dwarf. Krang came running through the door with a bandolier of oil flasks stoppered with oily rags and a lit torch. "BUUUUURRRRRRN!" he bellowed, and threw a lit flask at a hobgoblin, who fell to the ground screaming and rolling around trying to put out the illusory flames. Krang didn't last long before one of the hobgoblins stabbed at him with a sword and he blinked out of existence, but it was funny while it lasted.

The battle raged on, and the party was taking some severe injuries, even as they were doling them out. There were moments when it looked like the tide was turning against them, but eventually they rallied and hobgoblins were falling left and right. Eventually there were just two hobgoblins remaining, and Caryatid cast Magic Missile to take out one of them. As her glowing arrow slew the hobgoblin, he turned to the sole remaining hobgoblin and croaked, with his dying breath, "Go inform His Majesty!" The last hobgoblin, pale of face, ran out the door at the opposite end of the feast hall, screaming "Your Majesty! Invaders, Your Majesty!"

The adventurers caught their breath and looked around at the piles of goblin bodies. They were bloodied and exhausted, and the mages had no useful spells left. They decided to take advantage of this lull in the action by retreating, hoping to return in a week to finish the job. Luckily, they were able to retrace their steps to the entrance and made it back to the surface without further encounters.