Expedition - Foxy: Bounty On The Goblin HQ - 02 June 2021

[Starbeard]

The Grizzly Woman takes the bear with her to the far end of the hallway.

'If the oil does not work, you will need a distraction to lure them forward. I will bet the goblins do not pay much attention to much else when they see us in the corner.

She has Huckleberry lie down and then lies against him with one eye open. If the fire fails to light and the goblins do not stop at the hallway, she remains quiet and lets them pass. If they stop and investigate, she will begin to snore loudly as though asleep. If the fire is set off successfully, she will leap up and give them a rude raspberry, telling Huckleberry to defend and heckling them toward her (and past the party's hiding spots).

[Rusty Tincanne]

Does anyone have oil? We can spread it on the stairs and then engulf them in flames. Perhaps it will turn them to ash and we will not need to fight them twice. Clay indicates that three flasks might be a good amount. He also lights a torch off Ms. O'Hare's lantern.

I cannot believe I keep forgetting to buy oil for Clay!

[Stirling]

Foxy O'Hare

I am a bit confused as to our positions and what we intend to do or what the sun fields are.

Okay Foxy will hide, sheltered behind the spillage of soil and stuff from the opened door on the right hand side of the derelict hallway. She presumes Grizzly and Honeysuckle have hidden themselves on the far left of the hallway. Foxy intends to let the goblins pass and continue up the next flight of stairs and away from us without unnecessary melee. Just letting them pass and then getting the bear to chase them up and out might be sufficient to give us time to explore further inwards.

In anticipation of being spotted, Foxy cocks her bow ready.

[Starbeard]

My understanding is that there's one long flight of stairs, running east-west, at the top of the map. We've ducked into a hallway that heads south; within that hallway are two doors that lead into collapsed sun field rooms, and the hallway itself dead-ends further down (where Grizzly is hiding). The goblins would be approaching up the stairs from the west. Is this all correct, or way off?

[Marullus]

It is a spiraling stone stair, but essentially yes. A doorway opens off the stair south with visibility into a short north-south hallway. There are two arm/branch tunnels going east and west, each of which have three stone doors to sun fields. I posted a map for you.

You have two competing plans, and need to decide quickly before goblins arrive:

• Someone loans Clay oil (he doesn't have any), he spreads it on the stair and lights them on fire. Grizzly/Huckleberry then lure them into the north-south tunnel segment allowing the others to come out with surprise from the side tunnels.
• Everyone hides in the side tunnels, hoping they pass by. Send Huckleberry up after them to scare them out the top of the tunnel if necessary.

To be clear - the sun fields filled in with dirt long ago. You can't enter them.

In the slanting light, Shortbread throws his arms out and cries, "Stop!" He points to the evenly mitered shadows stretching across the slope above them. "Sun-fields. They'll have the cave-fields below, but drop-quarries like that allow sun-crops." He chuffs up the slope, pointing out where the indented squares would be, but now are mostly filled in by sloping erosion. "This is a lot of fields... huh." The group searches around and finds a secret dwarven-made door in the mountainside, concealed in a cliff face just behind the plots. The door isn't locked, and looks like it could still rotate open.

One flight down, they find an archway that leads to a derelict hallway. The hallway stretches past the lantern light both right and left. A series of heavy stone doors appear on the far wall at regular intervals, plain and unadorned. Several of the doors are pushed partially ajar, dirt spilling through the forced doorjambs. "That'd be the sun fields," explains Shortbread, "erosion filled in the field beds on the mountainside, which is what those doors show. It must be centuries since the dwarven field-keepers came this way to tend the patches." A quick look down the hallway in each direction with the lantern shows nothing of interest here besides dirt and ancient leaves.

[Rusty Tincanne]

Thanks for the description, Marullus. I was confused, too.

So... Oil, anyone? If he gets it, Clay will do as planned. If not, he and Morr will clamber behind the first earthen mound on the left-side of the map.

[onlyme]

Halfpint has a couple pints of oil.
She is game for either strategy.

[Starbeard]

Grizzly has no oil, unfortunately. She'll stick to her part in the oil plan if we have the oil to do it (and either lure them in or chase them off with the bear if they continue running up the stairs), otherwise she'll hide in the side rooms best she can.

[Dram]

Baxtaw is good with oil plan he will stay hidden but ready with his bow for any stragglers that come out of the staircase.

[Marullus]

Halfpint loans Clay three flasks of oil (reduce 5 to 2) and he coats a long stretch of stairs and draws a catch-line back to the hiding place. Huckleberry and Grizzly Woman stand in the visible hallway, providing a tempting target. The others hide behind the partially-obstructing earth spills in either side hallway, ready to pounce.

When the front-most goblins come into sight, Clay lights the oil. It flares back down the long stretch of stairwell and you hear the screams of goblins - the fear and chaos of death-by-fire doesn't require knowledge of their language.

Two massive, bristle-furred wargs and one goblin handler go sprinting up the stairs past you through and then out of the flames. Looking into your hallway and seeing Grizzly and the Bear dissuades them and they rush on upward. Your thought of chasing them out is hindered by the flaming steps which bar your way as well, and Huckleberry has no interest in advancing into the flaming stairwell. You wait ten minutes for the flames to subside and see no sign of the wargs or goblin returning. It seems, for the moment, quiet ahead.

Date: 10:20 pm, 04 June 2021
Light: Foxy's lantern (until 1:00am)
Spell effects: None
Injuries: Foxy (mild injury), Baxtaw (mild injury), Clay (mild injury)

[Starbeard]

The Grizzly Woman

Once the flames have subsided, The Grizzly Woman moves out into the stairwell to see if the coast is clear, her massive tree branch ready to strike at anything that happens to be moving. She takes the bear with her, but is happy to leave him behind if he is still too frightened of the fire.

Combat rolls, in case they're needed:
Grizzly Initiative [1d6] = 3
The Grizzly's Trunk (provides -1AC vs natural weapons) [1d20+2] = 16+2 = 18, damage [1d10+2] = 6+2 = 8

With a roll like that, now I'm really hoping there is something lurking in the stairwell!

[Marullus]

Grizzle has no luck.

The wild-woman and her bear lead the way back out to inspect the hallway with the fire abated. They find no threats awaiting, only eight horribly-burned goblins dead on the stairs, cluttering the way from here downward back to the storage room. Looking up the stairs, it appears the two wargs and their goblin handler have fled and not returned.

Date: 10:30 pm, 04 June 2021
Light: Foxy's lantern (until 1:00am)
Spell effects: None
Injuries: Foxy (mild injury), Baxtaw (mild injury), Clay (mild injury)

[Rusty Tincanne]

Clay looks grimly at the corpses, saying a brief prayer over them. They worshiped Sdubok the Flaming in life, now they know what fire does. May Beith allow these bodies return to the cycle of life, as they should. He thanks Halfpint for the oil and readies himself to continue.

Too bad one didn't survive. We could have used a guide...

[Stirling]

Foxy O'Hare

Why wait for the ten minutes before the fire dies down? Once lit and the goblins get crispy we should be on the move...

Okay Foxy will head further down the flight of steps into the goblin unknown...

[Starbeard]

Foxy O'Hare

Why wait for the ten minutes before the fire dies down? Once lit and the goblins get crispy we should be on the move...

Okay Foxy will head further down the flight of steps into the goblin unknown...

I don't think there was anywhere for us to go other than stepping through the fire. In hindsight, trapping ourselves in a dead end tunnel and setting fire to our only exit probably sounds pretty risky. Still, at least there were air vents, so no suffocating this time.

The Grizzly Woman leads the bear alongside her as she keeps up with Foxy. She has The Good Knife drawn in her hand.

[Rusty Tincanne]

Dram, as an elf, your character can cast spells. What does he have up his sleeve? Now that we're inside, Clay won't have much to offer side from a couple Hold Persons (which he'll preserve until we're facing the king or the shaman) and his ability to turn some undead.
I am just guessing this would have come up in conversation as we planned.

[Dram]

Baxtaw has 2 Magic missiles and a sleep spell. I was saving Magic missiles for the boss since they do not miss.

[onlyme]

Halfpint will follow in line, wondering why they didnt bring many more flasks.

[Marullus]

Grizzly and the Bear lead the way down to the next level, followed closely by Foxy and then Halfpint, the rest bringing up the rear. It takes a few extra minutes to shift the charred and bursting corpses out of the way; Clay prays over them in Beith's way.

Another level downward and the stairwell opens up onto a hallway. It extends beyond the lantern-light to your left, a door on the right-hand side about 20 feet down and on the left-hand side about 30 feet down. To your right, the hallway continues ten more feet and the makes a sharp left turn. It travels 60 feet in that direction then makes a sharp turn to its right, continuing out of sight.

Date: 10:40 pm, 04 June 2021
Light: Foxy's lantern (until 1:00am)
Spell effects: None
Injuries: Foxy (mild injury), Baxtaw (mild injury), Clay (mild injury)

[Starbeard]

The Grizzly Woman remembers Foxy's admonitions to keep moving. She takes the right passage, not daring even to whisper to the others. At the corner she stops, listens briefly, then peeks around to see what lies beyond. (Unless, of course, Foxy decides to go left. She does have our only light source, after all!)

Marullus: I've made up a map on a Google Docs spreadsheet. Are we looking at something like this?

Is it kosher for me to keep an updated map for everyone to view? If so, is there a depository in the game forum where we can keep it, and/or would anyone like me to share the Google Doc with them so we can all view it and edit it there?