Expedition: Baxtaw - Seeking Scatha's Lair - 23 July 2021

[Marullus]

I still need a marching order.
I need actions from Piers and Baxtaw.
I need actions for Clauson/Stantz and Rowine/Crowgar (you can do the rolls if they attack).

[Jernau35]

Piers yells a translation of Lug's offer to The World's Stupidest Goblins. He follows it up with a sling bullet as a way of showing that the group is negotiating from a position of strength.

Sling Bullet (THACO 18): [1d20] = 8 Damage: [1d4+1] = 1+1 = 2

If it's daylight outside, maybe we should go out the front gate? Goblins will be worse off in daylight.

[Zhym]

Could we maybe get an HP & AC list? I'll try to put together a marching order.

[Marullus]

Okay, I relent.

SPOILERS:

PCs:
(AC 5) Baxtaw Grayburst 17 / 20
(Ac 4/3s) Lug 21 / 25
(Ac 6/5s) Piers Garrett 21 / 21
(AC 2) Rowine (NPC) 8 / 8
(AC 5) Crowgar (NPC) 7 / 7
(AC 9) Osuna 3 / 3
(AC 7) Bremen 19 / 28
(AC 3/2s) Stantz (NPC) 24 / 27
(AC 5) Clauson (NPC) 7 / 9

[Zhym]

Thanks. How about this?

Stantz Lug
Baxtaw Piers
Rowine Crowgar
Osuna Clauson
Bremen

[Rusty Tincanne]

That marching order looks fine to me. Bremen is happy to (help) lead from the back.

Stantz fires his bow into the darkness as well, hoping to hit a warg.
Short Bow (THAC0 19) - [1d20+1] = 16+1 = 17, dmg [1d6] = 3

Clauson bravely recites prayers to embolden the faithful.

Not a real spell, mind you. Just fluff.

[Marullus]

The group shuffles as Lug replaces Clouson as a cart-pusher and the rest organize behind them in partial cover. Lug then stops pushing the cart forward and draws his bow, halting the forward advance and making the decision to assault the goblins from where you stand.

A volley of arrows whiffs through the darkness, arrows flying both directions. The party members shoot into the blackness. Lug and Bremen hear a goblin cry in pain and thud to the ground as they release their shots. (-5, -5, 2 goblins down) Rowine listens for the snarl of a warg and then releases her own shaft (Critical hit: -12), shouts of anger heard from the goblins as the beast caterwauls. The goblin arrows clatter off the carts, close calls narrowly averted for Clauson and Baxtaw. One well-aimed shaft arcs over it and hits Bremen as he stands unprotected at the rear. (-6)

"A lot fewer of you would die if you'd just let us go!" Lug shouts. "And you'd get all that nice leftover loot, too! I mean, unless you want us to kill you all!?" Piers then follows up, repeating the words in Goblin.

CHA [5d6] = 13
That's a pass for Lug.

The imposing figure of Lug is compelling, even as he crouches, his bulk barely concealed, behind the ore cart full of dragon hide.
"Go up the stair, then!" shouts a goblin from the deep darkness as the there is a pause in the arrow fire. "Go up and don't come back, or next time you won't find us so friendly!"


Date: 7:41am, 27 July 2021
Light: Light spell (dining room), Piers' torch (until 8:30am)
Effects: Dining Room Light (until 9:00am)
Injuries: Bremen (moderately wounded), Baxtaw (minorly wounded), Clouson (minor wound), Lug (minor wound), Stantz (minor wound)

[Rusty Tincanne]

Cool!

Hearing the translation, Bremen is torn. He had been looking forward to killing each and every goblin in the mountain. But the arrow in his shoulder convinces him to accept the offer if the rest do. Tell them we need a couple-three more carts to make a go of it. And some help wouldn't go unrewarded. What do we have that will persuade them? A gemstone each? A hunk of Scatha meat? I've got a skin of wine. Anyone else got wine? Everyone loves wine.

Nothing that can be used against us though.

Bremen has a CHA 15 if we need to make another check to recruit. But it would be nice to know what we have to offer first.

[Zhym]

Cool! ...I think. Depending on the number of goblins left, we might have been better off fighting. And this might complicate clearing out the Mines of Verdun for the Blackfeet. Hm.

I'm skeptical about our ability to bargain. Lug's offer was basically, "Let us go and you can keep all the leftover loot." Anything they do to help us carry more loot out reduces what they get.

Besides, we can only take the carts so far. Eventually, we have to carry all this stuff the rest of the way on our backs, or figure out a way to drag it behind us.

[Jernau35]

Piers shakes his head. "Loathe as I am to have to deal with such creatures, they have accepted our terms. Baudh would not look favorably upon us if we broke our word. I'd like to take more tribute to Lord Baudh out myself, but I believe we will have to accept our current gains."

Yeah, I don't really see how we can get more out without just killing them all. Now they've FINALLY accepted one of our deals we're a bit stuck. I think we should just take what we've got. I mean "5 minutes ago" we were worried we couldn't get out safely with what we have (Wasn't that the point of the offer? ) And now we can.

Unless they break the deal again. They haven't kept one yet. Then we can kill them all

Who knows? Maybe the dwarves will subcontract some of the clearance work out to us

[Rusty Tincanne]

What deal is that? Lug just offered to not kill more of them. Then they said we could go up the stairs. Seems there's some wiggle room there. At least tell them we're getting more carts for what we have with us now. Otherwise we need to keep dragging this mess. They can have the rest until the dwarfs come back and clear these critters out.

Though I suppose the work of going up/down the stairs is really just paperwork in this case, we might, instead, bargain for leaving by the front door, and have a couple folks head up the stairs to tell the riders to ride around and meet us.

[Marullus]

I'm all for Bremen being Bremen IC, but I do want to make sure we're clear OOC.

They are still "Unfriendly, May Attack." Lug succeeded in convincing them at that disposition with a 5d6 CHA roll.

In order to request their help for your benefit, they need to be Friendly. They're nowhere near that. Without being friendly, you're convincing them that your request is in their interest.

There were, in fact, terms about what's in their interest inherent in both sides of that agreement.
* You won't kill any more of them and will leave. They get all remaining treasure.
* They specify that you can take what you have and go up the stair (thus not the front door) and not come back (i.e. no more trips.)

Yes, there's pros and cons to accepting those terms. THAT is what you're deciding. Is it worth taking the "Free Out" at the cost of leaving everything else behind?

Bremen is looking for the Pennsylvania Walking Purchase here, which is totally IC for him. Fast-talking to alter the terms and/or create loopholes (front door, multiple trips, let us get more carts to take more of what we just promised to leave for you, etc) requires a new roll at 4d6. (A little easier, as you already have them in a deal and talking, but still quite hard.) Failing that roll spoils the deal currently in place, as your wheedling is untrustworthy (to Piers' point).

Now, back IC to argue it out. Don't argue these IC matters with red text.

[Zhym]

At the risk of some more red text, can we figure out what we can get out of here with if we stick with Lug's deal?

That's not necessarily a question for Marullus, if we have the info to answer that ourselves. I'll dig back for the answer later, but if anyone has that handy, that'd be faster. Or easier for me, anyway.

BTW: Killing all the goblins is probably simpler in terms of the overarching story and not having to have "cleanup" missions that would complicate my becoming sub-DM for this particular location. And in terms of being able to take all the loot with us, of course. But it's not safer.

[Rusty Tincanne]

Baxtaw gathers up the robes and wand; Piers wears the smithing hammer (testing it out: it is +1). Three sacks are filled with gems and jewelry. Nine sacks are filled with gold coins. The gilded beer growler is balanced atop a cart of dragon meat. The giant pick is left in the floor. Twenty four axes and warhammers are gathered by Lug and he struggles to triage or pack them.

You have nine people. Three are pushing mining carts. The remaining six can carry the twelve sacks. More can be gathered and hauled with makeshift gurneys if there are sacks to hold it.

Treasure in hand:
I couldn't find it in my quick scan, but I believe Bremen helped create a couple sledges out of bedrolls. So we should have 2 carts full of dragon parts and a keg of beer, 3 sacks of gemstones and jewelry, and 12 sacks of gold pieces. (One cart was destroyed by the ballista.)

11 of those sacks were provided by Bremen and Stantz. I can't remember where the extra sack came from.

For what it's worth, Bremen was asking for more carts to speed our departure, not to collect more than what we are currently dragging. We can travel to the stairs faster with carts than dragging sacks on bedrolls. And the purpose of checking inventory was to butter them up and, maybe, affect the dice roll. But it sounds like the party just wants to get out at this point. And if this deal includes multiple trips up/down the stairs, we have a good haul, I think.

Before repeating himself, I'll let Piers and the rest of the party talk sense into Bremen.

[Zhym]

"You wanna kill them all anyway?" Lug asks Bremen, quietly so the goblins don't hear. "I mean, I'm down with that, but we already got us a haul. And if we do every goblin under this mountain, them dwarves are gonna be here faster'n you can say 'Balin's Balls' claiming that all this is theirs cause their great great grandpas used to live here. Hell, they're gonna be pissed at us anyway, what with taking all their old shinies. Even though we did kill Scatha. Anyway, if we do kill all the gobs we're still gonna have to argue with dwarves over the loot, and you know what arguing with a dwarf is like."

"So I say we just take all this loot and git. Maybe find a way to drag the dragon parts that were in that cart that got smashed, too. But you wanna keep fighting, I'm cool killing more goblins."

Yup, I think this is what we have:

• Black silk robes
• 16-inch wand of basilisk bone
• 80 gemstones
• 69 rings, pendants, and necklaces
• 21 items of breathtakingly-wrought jewelry
• The Beer of Guldarim
• Smithing Hammer of Balthnoc
• Scrolls of Selduffin
• Two carts of dragon parts (200 lbs each) (one of which contains the dragon's hide, the other holding miscellaneous parts) (plus 200lbs of uncarted parts?)
• Nine sacks of gold coins (600 gp each, right?)

Can we maybe sledge the parts that were in that cart? The axes and warhammers weren't magical, right? And we didn't bring them?

On the extra-meta side: an empty or dwarf-occupied Mines of Verdun is easier to work with as a sub-GM than one with goblins left in it, since Olaf would probably want a hand in helping clear out the goblins that are left. OTOH, if all that are left in here are a few goblins, Olaf and a few well-armored dwarves would be enough to clear the place out, I'd think. So maybe it's a fait accompli either way. It's just a question of whether we want to be the ones to do it (with the risk that entails).

But, also meta, it's just over four weeks to Christmas. I vote we take this rather impressive amount of loot and our sudden lucky ability to get it out of here without a fight and wrap things up as quickly as we can.

[Jernau35]

"I think Baudh has smiled on us so far and has given us this chance to leave for a reason. We're low on healing and it would be a shame for somebody to die at this point", pontificates Piers.

"If we need sledges, however, there are tables back there that the goblins were using as barricades. We could use those to sledge the remains dragon parts out at least."

Yes, as much as I'd like a lot more loot, I think this an opportune time to head back to town.

[Dram]

Baxtaw- How many sledges will we need? They have not been trustworthy so far and they still have 2 wargs up there. I will have a sleep spell ready to cast if they shall attack.


I say we head up with what we got. What we need to is rest again so that we can use a light spell again so that we can at least see where we going and see if they leading in to a trap hopefully.

[Rusty Tincanne]

We made two sledges already out of bedrolls. We did that so we could free up a couple folks to carry weapons, cast spells, and hold torches.

Bremen acknowledges the wisdom of the cleric and elf. Fine then. The treasure won't do us any good if we're dead. We'll take what we've got now and go. As he starts dragging a sledge, he mumbles, Maybe I'll come back for the skeleton later.

Just the makeshift sledges (with 12 sacks) and the carts.

[Marullus]

Can we maybe sledge the parts that were in that cart? The axes and warhammers weren't magical, right? And we didn't bring them?

On the extra-meta side: an empty or dwarf-occupied Mines of Verdun is easier to work with as a sub-GM than one with goblins left in it, since Olaf would probably want a hand in helping clear out the goblins that are left. OTOH, if all that are left in here are a few goblins, Olaf and a few well-armored dwarves would be enough to clear the place out, I'd think. So maybe it's a fait accompli either way. It's just a question of whether we want to be the ones to do it (with the risk that entails).

But, also meta, it's just over four weeks to Christmas. I vote we take this rather impressive amount of loot and our sudden lucky ability to get it out of here without a fight and wrap things up as quickly as we can.

From my re-reading of the actual actions taken: You never cast Detect Magic to check. You left all the weapons behind. You did secure the doors/traps behind you. You also never did anything with the weapons/armor in the Noble's Chamber. You never actually build any sledges that I can see. (Action posts are what matter - if I missed an action, you can link it here to correct me.)

If you're taking the deal and departing, then you don't have time to go back in, build sledges, and load up the extra stuff. You're going with what you've got, which means you're leaving the 200lbs of dragon parts currently dumped in the Noble's Chambers, too.

For meta-consideration, King Drunil's dwarf forces (not Olaf) will clear the goblins and claim everything left behind shortly after you leave. It will be downright miraculous in its achievement and bolster the new King's growing legend. What you take now is what you get. That is OOC knowledge for you now, of course, and will all be part of the transition announcements.

The consensus seems to be that you're comfortable with the load you've got and the goblins will let you get it all up the stair. I'll post the update shortly.

[Zhym]

Too bad we didn't ID magic before (I thought the post with items of interest, like the black robe, marked in purple was indicating stuff we found that was magic. Guess not).

But as long as Lug gets his dragon armor and a whole bunch of money, he's happy.