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

[Rusty Tincanne]

Where we were ambushed by Dmukas and the other clerics: We might have enough time to set those barrels up at the uphill entrance. The them in place, or something to show the goblins a bit. Which will slow the whatever-it-is-that's-after-them. It's a sloped floor so we could coat it with oil and light it once the goblins are on it, sending them back up the ramp.

And reset the scythe trap. Then we should hide.

[Starbeard]

To clarify, is that sound is coming from up the tunnel we took to get to this room? In other words, if we take our known escape route we'll be heading toward the crashing and rumblings and screams?

[Marullus]

To clarify, is that sound is coming from up the tunnel we took to get to this room? In other words, if we take our known escape route we'll be heading toward the crashing and rumblings and screams?

Yes.

[Starbeard]

The Grizzly Woman herds the injured bear out of the room.

"This does not look too good for us any more. I say we head back up to the hospital room and so that place has another way out. Back here we have no way to escape."

She runs up to the barricade by the scythe trap and looks for someplace they can all hide in the infirmary.

[Marullus]

The badger formerly known as Clay remains plopped on his rear haunches, its forepaws fiddling with the holy symbol which Halfpint has secured to its neck. Morrs whines plaintively at the badger, evincing much confusion in his canine expression. He remains in the throne room, remaining focused on reclaiming his spiritual wits after what appears to have been an extensive ordeal in other realms while only a few moments passed here.

Halfpint heads up the hallway first, concealed in the darkness. She slinks up the stone passage ahead of the others, but her feet keep making scraping noises as they find rock shards in the dark. Foxy orders the others to charge forward with her, hoping to pincer the goblins in the tunnels before they can make it to the throne room. Lighting the remains of the torch she doused earlier, she heads up the hallway.

The Grizzly Woman rousts Huckleberry, with much protesting from the bear, and does indeed follow Foxy up the hallway, at least to go as far ahead as the baracade erected earlier, where she and the bear duck into the chapel room to the left which they already investigated, looking for good places of concealment for their equally large forms.

Baxtaw, gripped with a moment of uncertainty and also an elven reverie for the reincarnation process which just infused the throne room, remains behind watching Clay for the moment.

Halfpint and then Foxy pass beyond the barrel barricade that you left in the hallway and continue trepidatiously onward to see what they can see.

Foxy and Halfpint:

You pass up the stretch of hallway from the infirmary and chapel back up to the next set of expected doors - where there was a sealed set of golden doors on what is now the left side and the shattered doors leading to the library on what is now the right. The golden doors, however, are no longer sealed. They are melted - forming still warm pools of runny gold which run in rivulets across the hallway floor and ooze down the decline to where they cooled enough to stop. Fire scorch marks obscure all the walls of the hallway, having billowed out from within. The interior of the room, at a glance, appears to be some kind of fancy dining room cast into disarray.

You hear continued screams and cries of alarm up the hallway in the darkness ahead, amplifying and echoing over unknown distances. Then the hallway about 200' ahead of you is illuminated by a flare of firelight - a fresh bout of closer goblin screams echo from that point, but that is not what catches your attention. The flame silhouettes the huge, ruddy red-scaled form of a giant wyrm, its wings pressed flat against its back, its sinewy tail snaking down the incline towards you while its head sprays fire in the other direction. In the 20' wide dwarven hallway, it moves easily, its bulk likely having enough room to either progress ahead or wind back on itself to return this way.

Date: 3:00pm, 05 June 2021
Light: Braziers in the King's Chamber, Foxy's Torch (until 3:30pm)
Spell effects: Banner of Pain until 3:40pm (now concealed); Dwarven drums ongoing
Injuries: Huckleberry (mortal injury), Halfpint (grevious injury), Grizzly Woman (grevious injury), Baxtaw (grevious injury), Foxy (moderate injury), Mors (mild injury)

Halfling stealth [1d6] = 6

[onlyme]

Halfpint sneakily (best she can) returns to tell the others what they saw as well as look for any hiding places.

[Stirling]

Lighting the remains of the torch she doused earlier, she heads up the hallway.

not the glow from the balefire sword then?


Foxy O'Hare
"A dragon...A DRAGON!!!" her mind explodes, luckily just her mind as the fire from the great wyrm burns the goblins almost to ashes she expects. Trying to piece things together in her mind, the golden doors were sealed before she observed. No open and melted. Did we, in killing the goblin king and destroying the Fingers of Zhint cause the beast to be released from its years of bondage and captivity? Too random for the beast to suddenly appear inside the caves when the goblin king ruled sway over the place. We must have done something and if we ARE responsible for its' release then maybe it might be thankful, (and not hungry...)

Foxy will search her brains in regard to any legends of dragons lost or in servitude that she might have heard about. The dwarves over the southern mountains were said to war with dragons, any names or battles, famous stories come to mind?

For an action Foxy will immerse her shield and smother her tweed cloak and boots in the cooling gold, (sorry have no bucket, shame to leave so much viscous money just lying around).

[Rusty Tincanne]

For the sake of simplicity, I'll assume Halfpint has alerted Clay, too.

Having been made aware of the dragon, Clay decides to forego the rest of his prayers. The dragon probably wants to claim this hold for itself. I take no issue with that. Let's try and sneak around it to leave this place. He looks forlornly at the treasure he will be leaving behind before leaving Morr up the ramp, into the forest. He contemplates what it would have been like if Beith had seen fit to bring him back as a dragon. He could have gotten his job done faster.

Anyone want to grab up the gem stones from the crates of treasure? They are worth XP and can pay the trolls if they survived. If that wasn't done already, Clay would pray a bit longer.

[Marullus]

I will allow that Clay was warned as it brings the group together, but that takes 20 mins. The gems and coins are all mixed haphazardly in the coffers, though,
so you need to haul whole coffers or take hours to sift and sort them.

not the glow from the balefire sword then?

Not enough to see by. Invokable light spell is a bigger effect.

Foxy will search her brains in regard to any legends of dragons lost or in servitude that she might have heard about. The dwarves over the southern mountains were said to war with dragons, any names or battles, famous stories come to mind?

Depending on Foxy's access to scholars, or make up a Southland song which fits this lore and add it to the Legends thread.
viewtopic.php?f=353&t=5491#p295888

Foxy takes her time, dipping her shield in the solidifying flows of metal, finding enough to coat it thoroughly before retreating to the others.

Baxtaw and the badger join the others at the barricade, the group ducking into the chapel to to regroup and decide their way ahead.

You know two routes of egress currently - up the stairs to the rear entrance as you came in (which is just past the dragon's current location) or all the way up the wide sloping hall to the front entrance where the dwarves await.

Date: 3:20pm, 05 June 2021
Light: Braziers in the King's Chamber, Foxy's Torch (until 3:30pm)
Spell effects: Banner of Pain until 3:40pm (now concealed); Dwarven drums ongoing
Injuries: Huckleberry (mortal injury), Halfpint (grevious injury), Grizzly Woman (grevious injury), Baxtaw (grevious injury), Foxy (moderate injury), Mors (mild injury)

[Dram]

Baxtaw stays in the rear with the bear as he is wounded. His bow at the ready. If there is healing available. I am in need of it.

[Starbeard]

The Grizzly Woman's eyes bug out at the mention of a dragon. Wasting no time, she says, "Dragons do like money and gleaming objects like a magpie. I have just the thing for it. If we take us some treasure then we can distract the dragon if it catches us!"

It's a risky move, but she does it. She drops her tree branch by the bear and sprints back down to the royal chamber, grabs the first chest she can carry by herself, and runs back up to the others.

[Stirling]

Foxy O'Hare

"This will make a fine tribute piece. Come everyone stick a hand print into the cooling gold, or a paw from Huckleberry, Mors and the badger-in-Clay-mould."

She opens her right palm and spreads her fingers wide to imprint into the shield gold. making room for the smaller elf, dwarf and Halfling hand prints, The bear can smudge the centre with the paws around the edge.

"I don't recall any dragon tale about one captive or friendly with dwarves. Still I think we must have released it in some way. Lets go that way and find out what happened to Thundred and the ogres."

[Marullus]

Foxy realizes that she is looking at molten gold which is cooling from at least 2,000 F, not plaster or clay, and touching it with her hand would result in serious injury.

[Marullus]

While Grizzly Woman sprints back to grab a treasure chest, the others are startled by a loud crash and the muffled sound of crumbling stone down the side passage from the chapel where you crouch. You hear the sound of a male voice yelling, but cannot discern the words. "That's dwarvish," says Shortbread, alerting you.

[Marullus]

Dmukaz winces a moment as Grizzly Woman steps on his leg, then the broad-shouldered woman stomps onward through the right-hand door. She finds herself in a massive, oval-shaped chamber with a domed roof. It is over 100' across and twice that going left-to-right, iron braziers casting a ruddy glow to light the room along its entire length. The walls flicker with the firelight, showing breathtaking dwarven engravings around the entire room. Massive kettle drums are easily discernable at the room ends to both left and right, what might be other large instruments clustered there as well. The far wall has massive stone tables before it, now bloody and covered with gore. An archway leads to a hall on the far wall, offset to the right of center. The floors are covered with filth and bones, the evidence of unkempt goblin life. She sees Huckleberry rummaging through some smashed barrels on the left end of the room, pawing at what looks like salt fish.

Reminder of the room you are currently in. The barricade is in the hallway outside and the infirmary is on the other side of the hall.

[Stirling]

I think that it is the sudden unexpected arrival of the red dragon that has thrown us all a bit. We heard the creaking and fighting, Foxy assuming it was the ogres and dwarves attacking but we saw the red dragon and decided 'whoa' too much danger, lets sneak out the back. Now we hear a dwarven voice which unless a hoard of prisoners have been released from goblin captivity also, means those attacking the palisade are inside the building.

Whose side is the red dragon on? neither I guess and too many of the party are down to bare bones HP to want to face a feral angry dragon. How many times has it breathed fire?

Foxy, will signal Shortbread to follow as she speaks no dwarvish and maybe while the dragons back is still turned to us we can see who is speaking. I think rag tag prisoners in chains or Thundred's group will make us decide different options.

[Rusty Tincanne]

yeah. The dragon definitely is a curve ball. It is sort of pushing us to forego treasure, which is the mainstay of character advancement because GP=XP. But d&d is about resource management, so lets figure out our priorities.

If other folks wanted to pack up some treasure quickly, they should go with Grizzly. It seems like Baxtaw would have had time to do so while lingering with Clay. Clay and Morr cannot pack anything, but Clay had a backpack and sacks. And i believe he asked one of the others to pack the scrolls, keys and other things of importance to him.

The job is done and Clay has another now. He is indifferent to checking on any dwarf voices at this time, especially since he feels awkward in his new body at this time. He will check on the voices if the others want to.

[onlyme]

So, am I understanding correctly that we have 2 general choices.
1) Quickly escape through the kitchen with just our stuff and no treasure
2) go toward the dwarven voices and hope they are just about to finish off any remaining goblins; knowing we have very little hp left to sustain any hits.

I think 1 is the answer, with having the head at least for proof back in town.

[Marullus]

You know two current exits - out the back the way you came and also out the front gate. Those aren't your only choices of action, however. You have a plethora of options, each with its own challenges.

Foxy leads Shortbread through the archway on the far side of the chapel. The hallway continues straight further than the torchlight's reach; it has a solid wooden door immediately on the left-hand side and a branching hallway which leads off on the right-hand side, also continuing beyond the torchlight's reach. The crashing and dwarvish cursing comes from the right-hand tunnel - they turn and peer down that direction with Foxy's fading torch. There is a door on the left side about 20' down and then a pair of doors on both sides about 60' down the hallway's dim length. The door on the right which is 60' down shudders abruptly as something smashes into it, then shudders again as its latch snaps and the door swings wide into the hallway, spilling forth its occupant. You see a wild-eyed dwarf, rough with misshapen features, his entire head ringed with unkempt orange-red beard and hair. He wears only the ragged remains of his linen garments, soil and stain of captivity marring them, and a pair of sturdy iron chains which dangle broken from the manacles which still cling to his wrists.


Date: 3:30pm, 05 June 2021
Light: Braziers in Dmukaz' Chapel, Foxy's Torch (until 3:30pm)
Spell effects: Banner of Pain until 3:40pm (now concealed)
Injuries: Huckleberry (mortal injury), Halfpint (grevious injury), Grizzly Woman (grevious injury), Baxtaw (grevious injury), Foxy (moderate injury), Mors (mild injury)

Open Doors [1d6] = 2

[Stirling]

Foxy O'Hare

"Is this Jarkul?" she asks Shortbeard hoping he might have a clue to long lost prisoners. She looks for answers and then addresses the stranger.

"I am an envoy of the new founded duchy of Gaul (well he probably hasn't got a clue who or where that is..), and we bore the Horn of Jarkul to sound once more in this goblin infested place. We have come to free the captives and help re-claim ancestral rights to this hold. (pointing off to the roaring red dragon...)Is he with you...and are you with us?"