The Unseen Servant forums

"I do remember that depression," says Ulf, "but I had forgotten about the tracks. I agree that we should camp there instead of here. Let's be on our way."

May 26, 1 VC - 3:40am

The trio head northeast to the cleft in the ground Seadu had uncovered on his last visit to the tomb, and within half an hour the group is advancing down the narrow defile toward the rough-stone dead end. The sun is already out of sight from their current spot and they make a brief, half-hearted attempt to uncover an expected secret door before making camp with no success.

They array their bedrolls along the path and divvy up watches before settling in to sleep. Near the beginning of the final watch, Ulf hears sounds drifting over the landscape like the faint echo of conversation. He creeps to the edge of the cleft to scout what it might be, and spies four humanoid figures laden with heavy packs and wearing armor outlined in the moonlight, clustered together perhaps fifty feet away and engaged in a discussion of some kind. Ulf can't make out any of the words, but from their silhouettes and the harsh, clipped nature of their speech he believes they are probably hobgoblins.

Please deduct one day's rations each.

Yes, there's enough healing to get you back in shape but you'll still be down a spell if you have to fight here.

Four hobgoblins. One Ulf. Ulf likes those odds better than their odds against the gnolls, but his mission is not to pick fights with passing hobgoblins. He readies his throwing hammer and waits to see whether the enemies approach.

May 26, 1 VC - 4:00am

The conversation among the four continues for a long while. It seems there might be some confusion or disagreement among the members of the group about what their course is or should be. Finally, they seem to reach a consensus and they begin to head due west, along a course that brings them within twenty feet of the open end of the cleft. Ulf bides his time, waiting and hoping that they pass without trouble. However, his worst fears are realized when the group stops outside the opening, and one of the group leans toward another and seems to point in Ulf's direction. Immediately, the group changes course and heads straight toward him.

They are approximately thirty feet away from Ulf's position inside the cleft.

Ulf drops below the ridge and wakes the others. He backs away and throws his hammer when the group is within short range.

Hammer of lightning, +2 (THAC0 19): [1d20+3] = 10+3 = 13 Dmg: [1d4+2] = 3+2 = 5 + [1d6] = 2 elec.

Starbeard, would you roll initiative please?

Sorry, was unexpectedly detained all weekend.

Seadu is jolted awake and instinctively reaches for his weapon. 'What? Hobgoblins? Of all the rotten luck—you'd think we'd have an easier time with an altruistic quest, but no.'

He quickly mumbles a protection from evil spell to himself and prepares to defend the camp.

Initiative [1d6] = 6

The party lies in wait for the hobgoblins to approach. The quartet seems more curious than hostile as they come closer, but electing not to risk anything, Ulf hurls his hammer as Seadu whispers a benediction and Martin prepares his mace for the ensuing melee. Ulf's hammer strikes the lead hobgoblin powerfully in the chest, staggering him. The impact itself seems insufficient to fell the hobgoblin, but as the electrical charge coruscates through his body, the goblinoid jerks and twitches and falls to the ground lifeless and smoking.

The remainder of the hobgoblins immediately turn and flee back they way they came, disappearing into the darkness.

"I hope we scared them enough that they do not come back with a larger force," says Ulf. He checks the body of the fallen hobgoblin to see what it was carrying in its heavy pack.

May 26, 1 VC - 4:10am

The hobgoblin is carrying three platinum pieces, four gold pieces, and 2 silver pieces in cash in a belt pouch. By the insignia sewn into his studded leather jerkin, he appears to be an officer and the likely leader of the group just routed. His heavy pack contained a staggering array of specialized military tools, each of which is single-purpose and sturdily constructed but large and heavy compared to a similar item which might be crafted by a human, elf or dwarf.

A small pair of books is bound together with a leather thong, and four days of well-preserved rations are canned in a separate section of the square pack.

Was the group heading toward Vaul, away from Vaul, or in some other direction?

Ulf takes the books, money, and rations and returns to the group in the cleft. "Sorry to wake you," he tells Seadu and Martin, showing them the take.

He inspects the rations to make sure they aren't made of something vile or inhuman—or human—and adds them to his stores if they seem palatable. Then he opens the books. "Let's see what books a hobgoblin officer carries," he says.

It looked like toward Vaul.

Also, the rations looks edible. They are well-prepared and in good condition. Who knows what, exactly, the meat might be, but it looks like it wouldn't be poisonous. Nor the biscuit packing in with it.

Perusing the books, Ulf finds that they are all written in the neat, spidery Hobgoblin script, with huge amounts of information packed into each digest-sized page, front and back, along with a large number of illustrative and detailed diagrams. There are headings and sub-headings well-numbered, footnotes and so on. All meticulously recreated by hand, in two complete volumes.

Many goblinoid languages share commonalities, but the best sense Ulf can get is that it's a technical manual of some kind.

"Hmph," grunts Ulf, stashing the books in his pack. "I can't make anything out of these. Probably just the rules of hobgoblin army operations. The field version, with the full set filling a wing of a library somewhere in hogoblindom. Perhaps we can find a translator in town."

"I'll maintain watch," he tells Seadu and Martin. "You two get some more rest. We'll try to find a way in at dawn."

May 26, 1 VC - 7:00am

The clerics go back to sleep as best they can, waking a few hours later as the sun begins to creep down the wall of the cleft toward their position. While everyone gets their belongings re-packed after breakfast, Seadu spots the tracks of the undead horde exiting from the tomb that had previously been noted. What he sees, however, is that the narrow, shallow tracks presumably left by skeletons and the shallow but wider footprints likely left by unarmored ghouls have mostly been eroded by light rain or the passage of animals, leaving only the sign of a single deep set of footprints that could only belong to a heavily burdened and shod humanoid. That track breaks off from the lighter tracks almost immediately after departing the cleft, heading directly west.

Uf takes another close look at the place where the tracks exit from the tomb, hoping to find some indication of a secret door. If after a thorough search, he finds nothing, he sighs and turns to the other two. "Do we dig into the tomb or follow the tracks?" he asks.

If a dwarf has a 1 in 3 chance of finding a secret door, then six checks has a 92% probability of finding a secret door if one is there. If everyone searches for four rounds/turns (or whatever the unit of measure is), that's over a 95% probability of finding a door if it's there. Statistician Ulf is satisfied with p < 0.05, so let's have everyone quadruple check.

I don't do rerolls on failed checks. If you fail to detect a hidden door by dice roll, you need to level up before you can try again in that way.