Expedition: Earc/Guhra's Tower-Part II-29 July 2021

[Alethan]

Oops! Sorry. We'll let that stand...

[Marullus]

The swords, blades, and knives of the goblins continue in a chaotic mess in the small room. Earc sips his potion and disappears from view - no one sees the arrow that careens through the air and embeds itself in his shoulder through his cloth robes (-4), the arrow disappearing on contact. Olaf's giant strength makes him appear more a farmer hewing grain than a warrior battling foes. He swipes his sword through the goblins before him and they fall in pieces. (-18, four dead) Halfpint likewise skewers one of the goblins before her (-8, 1 dead), leaving it on the floor.

Funil continues to yell and weep, standing guard over Drunil. He takes a hand-axe blow in the leg. (-5) Florian comes forward to stabilize the fallen dwarf, also taking a glancing blow (-1) but getting the job done. Steve, trying to protect the cleric of his order, is overwhelmed, falling before the goblins that clamber towards Florian and Drunil. (-6, unconscious)

With their front ranks more than decimated, the lieutenants at the rear throw up their hands and begin yelling, "No! Don't kill us! We leave peace! You keep tower!" One is grabbing up loot off the floor, however, and another is trying to hang out the window and find a way down to safety.

(Five more goblins down. Six lieutenants and one goblin remain, pleading.)

Date: 12:03pm, 02 August 2021
Effects: Continual light, Olaf's Giant Strength (until 12:20pm), Bless (until 1:00pm)
Injuries: Drunil (dying, unconscious), Steve (near death, unconscious), Earc (moderately wounded), Funil (moderately wounded), Halfpint (moderately wounded), Florian (minorly wounded), Hereward (minorly wound)

Party init is 5.
Goblin init [1d6] = 6
Goblins [1d20] = 9 [1d20] = 7 [1d20] = 6 [1d20] = 1
Goblins [1d20] = 5 [1d20] = 2 [1d20] = 2 [1d20] = 17
Goblins [1d20] = 18 [1d20] = 15 [1d20] = 15 [1d20] = 10
Goblin targeting [1d6] = 3[1d6] = 4[1d6] = 6[1d6] = 5[1d6] = 6
17 Earc (Hits, even with invisible)
18 Funil (Hits)
15 Florian (Hits)
15 Steve (Hits)
10 Florian (Miss)
damage to Earc [1d6] = 4 Funil [1d6] = 5 Florian [1d6] = 1 Steve [1d6] = 6
Funil sword (Thac0 16) [1d20] = 6 [1d8+2] = 3+2 = 5
Goblin morale (6) [2d6] = 11

[Zhym]

Olaf is certain he could kill the rest of the goblins all on his own—but there might be deaths on his side. And he will not kill a foe who has surrendered. "Go," he says. "Keep your lives. But leave shinies. And weapons." He says it again in goblin, just to make sure they understand.

If they don't follow his instructions exactly, he will not hesitate to press the fight.

[Alethan]

Earc shouts out in goblinese, "Drop your weapons and valuables. You cowards can leave through the window."

[onlyme]

Injuries: Drunil (dying, unconscious), Steve (near death, unconscious), Earc (moderately wounded), Funil (moderately wounded), Halfpint (moderately wounded), Florian (minorly wounded), Hereward (minorly wound)

Is Hereward up at this level to bind/heal? Or is he still down below?
Is Florian able to get to Steve's aid this round or still working on Drunil?
Trying to see if Halfpint needs to wave her sword around and act mean, or turn into Florence Nightingale for a round...

[Marullus]

If the consensus to let them escape, then we can wrap-up.

Under credible threat from Olaf (and the disembodied voice of Earc), the goblins drop their goods and clamber out the window. Better to risk a broken limb than certain death... they clamber/fall to below and limp away.

Florian and Hereward are able to staunch the bleeding for both Steve and Drunil. They rest comfortably, unconscious, as the clerics have no more healing to call upon this day.

As the routine next step, the party checks Guhra's chambers for valuables now that the threat has passed. A number of large lockboxes - stolen from southern merchants - are loaded with coin which is Guhra's treasury. The dead she-goblin wears three necklaces around her throat, sharing none - one gold chain, one platinum chain, one bloodstone amulet. The rest is gathered up from among the chaotic mess and the bodies of fallen goblins.

One chest of copper coins (100lbs)
Six chests of silver coins (600lbs)
One thick gold chain necklace
One delicate platinum chain necklace
One tarnished amulet of silver with a polished bloodstone in its center
One wizard scroll
One set of elf-sized chainmail on a broken armor stand
A rumpled set of elf-sized studded leather armor
One light throwing hammer
Six southron short swords
Ten southron shortbows
15 goblin-made spears
17 goblin-made shortswords
24 goblin-made throwing knives


Date: 12:20pm, 02 August 2021
Effects: Continual light, Olaf's Giant Strength (until 12:20pm), Bless (until 1:00pm), Invisible (Earc)
Injuries: Drunil (dying, unconscious), Steve (near death, unconscious), Earc (moderately wounded), Funil (moderately wounded), Halfpint (moderately wounded), Florian (minorly wounded), Hereward (minorly wound)

[Alethan]

Earc, seeing that Drunil is still unconscious, rushes over to him and kneels at his side. He retrieves the potion of healing from his pack and gives it to Drunil, one sip at a time, to see if that brings him to consciousness.

"If anyone has any other healing potions remaining, attend to Steve!"

[onlyme]

Halfpint obliges with a vial to assist the comatose Steve.

[Zhym]

Olaf feels his strength ebb down to usual levels. It takes a moment to adjust, but it's also something of a relief. Being that strong made him like throwing things a lot more than he usually does, and that can't be good.

"Hurrah!" he cries, in a rare moment of exuberance. "The goblins be gone! This tower be belonging to the Blackhelm clan now." He nods to Funil and the hopefully-revived Drunil. "It be yours. Er, yours 'n that wizard." He tries to remember the proper protocol when you find yourself suddenly a guest in a dwarf home that was a goblin lair when you entered it, but draws a blank. "Ye mind if we be staying here a night?" he asks.

Does anyone have a Detect Magic ready? If not, someone can probably cast it in the morning.

Did we ever find Carchannoi's sword?

Otherwise, I think we're basically done here, right?

ETA: Oh, maybe we should take Guhra's head back to Gaul as proof that we cleared at least one goblin threat, for whatever reward we can get. Do we need to bring goblin ears or anything to get a per-head bounty, or do we think Guhra's ugly pate is enough?

[Marullus]

Did we ever find Carchannoi's sword?

Nope. That appears to be missing.

Olaf dilligently searches further, finding a hidden stash in a pouch behind Guhra's chair cushion, where she hid her best shinies. With his skilled dwarven shrewdness, he evaluates them.

blue azurite (10 GP)
dull deep blue lapis lazuli (10 GP)
large striated green malachite (25 GP)
white chalcedony (75 GP)
murky golden yellow topaz (75 GP)
green zircon (75 GP)
flawed red garnet (75 GP)
banded black onyx (75 GP)
perfect deep blue azurite (100 GP)
deep green chrysoprase (100 GP)
banded black onyx (100 GP)
flawless pale blue tourmaline (1,000 GP)

[Zhym]

Olaf goes through the gems as is his custom, treating the lesser-value gems with disdain, the middle-value gems with interest, and the tourmaline with keen appreciation. Then he pokes his head out the windows, his crossbow in hand, just to make sure that none of the goblins decided to hang around.

Okay, so, there's a bit more to be done here, but I don't know if we need to role-play it all:

- Give Carchannoi and Tyrell a proper burial
- Collect reward from Hagaseth
- Collect other treasures we left in place
- Gather whatever bits of dead goblins we need to claim a reward in Gaul

That door to the stables of Idmi d'dum gives us a nice way to haul even the heavy loot back to civilization.

Is there anything we need to do that I'm forgetting? I mean, someone's going to want to clean the place up a bit, and Olaf would probably help restore the chapel of Moradin, but I think we're about ready for a summary post and list of treasure and XP awards, right?

[Marullus]

- Collect reward from Hagaseth
- Collect other treasures we left in place

Those need to be handled IC before I can post the summary. You are correct that the stable door allows you to transport things without any 'return trip' encounter rolls, so the dangerous aspect are over.

[Zhym]

Olaf thinks about removing Guhra's head, to take to Gaul as proof of her death for a reward. As if the word of a dwarf isn't enough! But heads contain blood, and he doesn't want to make any more of a mess of the tower than it already is. So he looks for a bucket or chamberpot he could put the head in. At least that would stop the head dripping blood everywhere he went.

Okay. So I'd suggest we work our way through the tower levels, searching thoroughly and collecting everything Olaf didn't use as a makeshift boulder, but especially the elven bow a few levels down. I don't think we searched the level just below us, either. Then there's all the treasure or goods we stashed or left because Olaf said we could get it later. There's a bag 2/3 full of platinum and a bag full of gold. There were also some magical inks, but I'm guessing Hagaseth is claiming those as his own.

It's puzzling that Carchannoi's sword isn't among the known treasure. I'd have thought Guhra or one of her lieutenants would have carried it, but they dropped their weapons on the way out (right?). Or maybe the shaman had it and we didn't search him? Anyway, either (a) the sword is here, but somewhere we haven't looked, or (b) one of the goblins took it and left the tower. Both possibilities are kind of interesting.

[Alethan]

Earc agrees with taking the goblin leader's head back to Gaul.

"I agree - aside from one or two rooms in the catacombs, this place should be fairly well secured. We should take all of the items here and all of the items from the storage rooms below to the main level and check them all for magical properties. I cannot do that now, but after resting I should be able to check them in the morning. We should also check the main door of the tower and make sure it is secured properly before doing anything else."

"After that, we can haul everything down to the underground level of the tower and gather up the remaining treasure we've left in place."

[Zhym]

One more thing (sorry):

As the party makes its way down the tower, Olaf will throw the goblin corpses out a window to be burned (after the bodies have been searched, of course). He learned his lesson from the rotting gnoll carcasses: a gracious tower guest cleans up after a battle.

[onlyme]

Halfpint will assist in any cleanup...

[Alethan]

Earc, with his average strength but high intelligence, assists the dwarf and the halfling, but uses a broken spear staff to help leaver the goblin and warg bodies out of the window.

[Marullus]

The party heaves the bodies out the windows, trying not to look as they squish, crack, or land at wierd angles below. Surely the wolves will take care of of them soon any way. Or at least vultures. Or rats. Making your way down the tower, you secure the solid ground level doors, feeling safe within the dwarven construction. You then repeat the process to get rid of bodies on the other floors and then collect your bounty.

Please list all the items you gather and take. You can haul them down to the stables and your pack animals are sufficient. The dwarves are even happy to send a Wagoner along if needed if they're getting the tower.

Date: 1:00pm, 02 August 2021
Effects: Continual light, Olaf's Giant Strength (until 12:20pm), Bless (until 1:00pm), Invisible (Earc)
Injuries: Drunil (severely wounded), Steve (severely wounded), Earc (moderately wounded), Funil (moderately wounded), Halfpint (moderately wounded), Florian (minorly wounded), Hereward (minorly wound)

[Zhym]

Please list all the items you gather and take. You can haul them down to the stables and your pack animals are sufficient. The dwarves are even happy to send a Wagoner along if needed if they're getting the tower.

I read that as "Wagoneer" at first. "They're sending a Jeep? Cool!"

In previous expeditions, you tallied all the loot for us. That makes me wonder if there's some sort of test here—like, because we said we needed to remember to go back and pick up treasure we stashed on the way, now we need to show that we "remember" (mostly by going back through the past 29 pages and tallying everything up). If that's so, or if you're too busy to do the usual "here's everything you found" list, I can certainly go through and do a loot accounting. But like I said about the sword, it's a little weird that we haven't seen everything I thought we'd see. Can we assume that we've found all the treasure in the tower that we could find with a thorough, IC search? Or do we need to RP further search?

[Marullus]

It is more a question of what you choose to take. I described a lot of things and it is more about what you deem worth taking.

Also, I am burned out for the day. I appreciate the help.