A New Group
July 1, 2008
Encounter Overview:
At the request of Zelara Belroth, the initial group of four journeys to learn the fate of a small village at the edge of the tamed land to the east. Orrin had not arrived yet, so the two dragonborn, the human and the dwarf set out on an initial journey to get to know each other and test their mettle. After an uneventful day of travel, a pack of wolves attacks in the night on Kernosh’s watch. The dragonborn warlord wakes Sereck, but is knocked over by a charging wolf, and a second engages Sereck. Cabal and Duncan are awakened rudely by the tearing teeth of yet more wolves. The group quickly gains control of the battle, however, and the wolves are put down.
Defeat Wolves: XP 125
The next morning, the party travels to the village again, but Duncan finds a sign of ill portent – there are goblin tracks in the area. Unwilling to leave the villagers to the savagery of the goblins if the party cannot find the monsters before they attack, the group rushes to town to warn them. Soon the town has gathered and is aware of the threat…but several are missing. The party sets out at once.
Soon a villages is spotted trying to hide…he is visibly scared, but unwilling to leave his friend – now missing – to the goblins without at least trying to save him. Kernosh tells the man to get back to the village, but he hesitates. Kernosh changes the statement to a command, and though the man still is cautious, few can say no to a nearly 7-foot-tall dragonborn carrying a sword taller than most humans. As added motivation, Cabal makes an almost imperceptible gesture, and the sound of swishing grass, lightly clanking armor and muttered goblin curses arises from thin air, stalking the man. The skill of the illusion completely convinces the man he is being stalked by a goblin, and he screams in panic and runs to the village as fast as he can.
Quickly, a sack of unsown seed is found, as well as hoe with both goblin and human blood on it. The group quickly approaches the goblins, but fails to sneak up on them. A bow twangs and an arrow flies at Kernosh, but misses. The group charges the goblins; the air soon reeks of ozone as the crackling lightning of the dragonborn’s breath weapons leaves five smoking goblin corpses on the ground mere moments after battle is joined. The rest of the group catches up; though Duncan initially misses, a quick shout of encouragement and an opening created by Kernosh allow Duncan to follow up and pin a goblin between them, cutting it down. Cabal tosses a few around with a quick strike of thunder, and though Kernosh seems to barely escape with his life, the group cuts down the goblins and rescues the young man from the village.
Kill 10 goblins & rescue Tag: 137XP 72 copper, 2 silver each.
Esta, the woman of the village, thanked us for retrieving Tag from the goblins.
Duncan and Cabal go out to hunt Deer, each catching one to bring back to the village for everyone to eat.
They thank us and tell us it was lucky we showed up, that was the first time they had seen any goblins. They had just showed up last season and were surprised.
They ask if we go back to town to tell the mayor about the goblins for patrols and such, maybe.
This was the village we were to check up on, so that went well.
Exhausted and still awaiting the arrival of another member to aid in their quest, all return first to the village and then to Glenmaple to warn of the encroaching goblins. Zelara is concerned, but glad to know the village is safe, at least for now. The town sends out a few more guards and scouts, while the group rests and recovers, awaiting the arrival of their last group member and the beginning of the larger quest.
Complete quest: 175XP
Starting at Glenmaple, added Greg to the group.
We start going out to the town. We come back to the same town we went to before, the travel went much easier. A farmer north east of town said he saw a goblin up there, but it could be that goblins are just on people’s minds.
We see tracks, the goblin tracks were in a circle like he was pacing. We continue on our quest and ignore the goblin.
We find more tracks, possibly of 2 goblins crossing our path. We ignore them too, and continue to the forest. It is fairly thick and old growth forest, very tall and old trees. We set up camp there on the edge.
8 goblin minions attack us; they had slings with no rocks, and rusty knives that are useless. All of them were wearing a necklace with a piece of onyx or obsidian that glows a little purplish and then fades out.
We figure the necklaces are part of a ritual where if the wearer dies the magic is activated and it takes their soul back to something bigger.
We go back to sleep.
Later in the night, we hear movement again coming from the same direction. It’s another goblin raiding party of 8 goblins. We take off their necklaces and kill them.
We track the goblins back to their camp the next morning. After 90 minutes we find what appears to be a building of some kind. It’s a small Mayan style pyramid there, as an entire tribe of goblins is around the pyramid. The clearing is about 100 feet across, the pyramid goes about 25 feet high. There is a small shelter covering alter, on top of the pyramid. 6 little guys and 1 big guy are on the top of the pyramid. The big guy is killing the little guys, and every time one dies, their necklace glows and his glows brighter. We rush the alter, the big guy turns and tells them to attack us.
We take them out, a shadow demon is summoned, we kill it too.
Big guy (hob goblin) had a pouch with, scale armor, flail, leather armor on goblins.
Duncan finds a hidden secret door on the top of the pyramid.
132 silver each – coins are old, not the same as the monarchy
The mage keeps setting the trap off so he gets hit with spears multiple times. The fighters try to break some spears, and eventually the mage disarms the trap. They then open the lock on the door. Inside is a chest. There is no lock or traps. Inside is an old bronze hand axe (+1 thundering pg 236 ph), and an oak rod with bronze on either end (+1). As history goes, this is the first find of an ancient item in this area.
Thoughts are this could be a tourist attraction if we clear a trail, and maybe clear up the dead bodies.
We find and obvious trail heading east by south east, some times it lines up perfectly. Occasionally, we find remnants of a road under the vegetation. It is an old cobblestone road that may have gone to the pyramid. Although there are old growth trees, there is nothing old on the path, maybe 50 years old, near the road.
After about 3 hours, we see movement up ahead. It is a group of goblins, probably 25 or 26 and another hob-goblin.
We let them pass being too large a force to take on. About another mile or so is another clearing. This clearing is probably 500 yards across. There is another step pyramid, with close to 200 goblins and 30 hobgoblins and a large war-camp here.
We either just found the start or a large goblin civilization that has ever been seen or reported in the past 80 years…ever.
XP: 350
DM Notes
- I was nervous with my own world but it worked out well. I handled it VERY differently. Before, I hid maps until they explored an area. Now, I started with a known area and so had maps to hand out. I think that works much better.
- I really like skill checks. They have an upper limit around 30, and even a 25 is a very good check. So, the characters figured out a lot more, based on their roles, then I would normally expect a 1st level character to know. I liked it a lot!
- The players figured out the obvious clues about the goblins sacrificing themselves to power something larger, so they started taking their necklaces before killing them. Once that was done, it was a "real" battle with them trying to be killed.
- I was also happy that common sense came into play and when they saw a large group of goblins, they didn't attack! I was very happy with that! I was worried they might attack and that would have been tough.
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