Old Ways IC

[Valameer]

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PC's turn?

"Bran!" Stefan plunges headlong into the melee to get to Brandon when the young warrior falls. Swatting at a nearby goblin with his shield, Stefan manages to disuade the attacker long enough to grab his friend, and hauls him back a lunging pace or two before frantically finding some loose bandages.

Shucking off his shield (at an approaching goblin if need be), he quickly tries to staunch the bloodflow of Brandon's wounds with clean and tight bandages.

"Holy Petra, Mother Wisdom, protect this man.
This is not his time, he still has much left undone.
Hear me, Petra!"

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HP: 2/2 AC: 3 (no shield currently) Int: 9
Healing roll(Int): (1d20)[9]
Damage healed (if successful): (1d3)[2]

[Altair_the_Vexed]

"Damn you, then, you little git!" Talsarios shouts at the wily goblin as his spell fails, and swings his sling to hurl a bullet at the ugly creature.

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Talsarios, Level 1 Magic-User
AC 9; HP 1, max 1; THAC0 19
Sling - (1d20)[7]
Damage - (1d4)[1]

[Sterngir]

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Gregaros AC:6, HP:1, THACO: 19
Attack: [roll1d20]1d20[/roll]
Damage: (1d8)[3]

[Matthew]

Nathros, seeing Brandon struck down, attacks in a fury!

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Nathros, Level One Dwarf: AC 5(3); HP 4(1); THAC0 19.

Attack Roll: (1d20+1)[3]
Damage Roll: (1d6+1)[4]

[jmbrown]

Jeanne holds the flank and fires with all fury. "Haha, fight the good fight. This is way more exhilarating than picking mushrooms and singing in meadows!"

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AC:1, HP:1, THACO: 19
attack - (1d20+1)[21]
damage - (1d6)[4]

[Roland St. Jude]

Talsarios and Devin fire wide of the mark, and Gregaros and Nathros similarly miss the scrappy goblins.

Jeanne finally ends the goblin standing over Brandon with an arrow into the goblin's skull as Stefan finishes his quick binding and resuscitation of his friend.

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1 goblin remains in the fight, toe-to-toe with Nathros. 12 others remain asleep (round 6)

Goblin still makes his morale check.

PCs turn.

[Matthew]

"Yaaarrrggghhhh!"

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Nathros, Level One Dwarf: AC 5(3); HP 4(1); THAC0 19.

Attack Roll: (1d20+1)[18]
Damage Roll: (1d6+1)[4]

[Sterngir]

Gregaros slunk over to the nearest sleeping goblin, his sword dripping with gore and stared down at it for a moment.
"Kill them all?" he muttered, hoarsely.

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He will in fact kill the goblins if necessary, although if he ends up doing it alone he will be shaking like a leaf by the time he's finished with them.

[Roland St. Jude]

The final goblin falls and the room goes silent as the echo of Nathros' battle-cry fades.

[Frivolous]

Brandon Bor

Brandon says in a muzzy voice, "Ouch, that smarts. Guess that means I'm still alive"

He opens his eyes and nods to Stefan. "Thanks for saving me. I was a goner." With a grunt of effort he staggers to his knees, and then to his feet, his armor rattling around him.

Brandon joins the others in killing the sleeping goblins. As he does so, he checks the bodies for treasure and equipment and keys. He also searches the rest of the room.

OOC: Roland, may I ask if there are doors to this room other than the one we used to enter?

Since we brought a number of hirelings, I hope we can ask them to carry seized equipment and treasure, if any of it is particularly heavy.

I'm betting the goblin fighting Brandon was a leader type. Was he bigger than the others? He hit Brandon with alarming frequency.

[Frivolous]

Brandon Bor

Brandon also says, "Stef, help Nathros if you can. The little wretches hurt him bad, too."

[Roland St. Jude]

As Brandon and Gregaros walk through the room, dispatching fallen goblins, they notice the other doors to this room. The room is forty feet deep and about seventy-five feet wide. Large double doors sit in the center of the far wall. Normal wooden doors flank the door Gregaros opened from the entry passage, one about twenty-five feet to either side of the doorway. Devin now stands in that doorway, out of the arrow strewn hallway, and he appraises the scene with a nod.

Brandon finds that these goblins, like the others they've encountered seem pretty well dressed though not well-kept. Each wields a spear and carries a knife. Each carries a belt pouch with several coins of varying amounts, the room's worth totaling 200 copper and 30 silver.

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Talasarios, Nathros, and Jeanne would all recognize that these goblins are exceptionally organized and disciplined. Nathros' people have legends of goblin armies and invasions and Talasarios' histories speculate that these subterranean creatures do occasionally come under the control of a leader who can govern them somehow.

Nathros' stone-sense also suggests to him, though it might be obvious to high-Int characters, the two normal doors likely lead to the rooms behind the murderholes.

[Valameer]

Stefan takes his helmet off to wipe his brow, then places his helmet back on.

He smiles at Brandon shakily, "yeah, no problem."

Stefan gets up and turns his attention to Nathros next. As he bandages the dwarf he motions to the last fallen goblin and says, "nice work there. That one sure was persistent."

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Healing roll(Int:9): (1d20)[14]
Damage healed (if successful): (1d3)[2]

[Altair_the_Vexed]

The Thyatian scholar grips Gregaros's shoulder for a moment and smiles grimly at him with a nod, then turns to the rest of the party.
"Does anyone else think we should try seeing what was shooting the arrows out of the murder holes? I suspect some sort of mechanical process - most of the shots went wild." Talsarios shakes his head. "These goblins are strange..."

[Sterngir]

Gregaros moved back from the corpses, and leaned against the wall staring into space.
I am never doing this again.

[Frivolous]

Brandon Bor


Brandon gathers up all the knives and gives them to the hirelings to carry back to the camp.

He also says, "If any of you want the goblin spears, take what you want and can carry easily. The others, break 'em. Shatter them all, so the goblins can't use them against us when we come back and finish driving them out."

[Matthew]

Nathros helps dispatch the sleeping goblins, a grim smile on his face. "Well, that was a close thing and no mistake; we perhaps need to learn to look before we leap. Better check out the doors we think lead to passages running parallel with the murder holes, probably a handful more goblins to be found there. It would be a shame if we let them escape."

[Frivolous]

Brandon Bor

Brandon shudders a little. "I agree, but do we need to do it? It would also be a shame if one of us went down because we had to open just one more door..."

The young fighter's voice is softer than normal, and he looks sick and pale at the thought of fighting yet again so soon, before he's fully healed.

[Sterngir]

"Aren't you here to take this keep? That would mean every door."
Gregaros moved over to stand by one of the doors, cupping a hand to his ear as he listened at it.

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Hear Noise 30%
(1d100)[41]

[Valameer]

"If we go any further, it's just to clear out whatever was shooting all those arrows through the murder holes."

Stefan grips his mace and shield.

"Those rooms must be small. Anyone got any oil?"

[Frivolous]

Brandon Bor

Brandon raises his hand at Stefan's question. "I've got two."

He grimaces. "Much as I hate to burn good bow wood, I like living more."

[Altair_the_Vexed]

"I have three flasks", says Talsarios, bringing them out of his pack.

"Whatever we do, we should be ready to make a fast retreat if there are too many to tackle in our current state. If we were to set a fire in a small room full of goblins, I suspect they'd come rushing out fairly swiftly!"

[Valameer]

-double post, sorry-

[Valameer]

"Right, we need a solid back-up plan."

"Devin, get your guys ready in the courtyard. If we run, give us some cover fire if we're followed."

"Once we ford the river we'll be safe. Those goblins are all a bit too short to follow."

[Sterngir]

Gregaros looked exasperated.
"They can't be too short to follow, or else they'd never be found outside this keep! As there's so many, perhaps we'd best return with news of their army, rather than try to rest and let them hunt us down at night?"
He jerked his head back towards the entrance as he spoke, looking hopeful.
I'd like nothing more than to never see a forest again...

[Valameer]

"Well, there was that grate we had to break through, so I doubt they use the way we entered.

I figured they'd just use the drawbridge, but then again, it did look fairly unused, didn't it?

Maybe they have... some other way in?"

[Matthew]

"I suspect that if our enemies remain in any great numbers they would be pouring into this chamber right now and we would find ourselves close beset. Let us investigate these doors whilst we may, and gain more information as to the nature of our enemy. In truth, we are no real worse for wear than when we undertook this task, and for my part I am willing to rely on my armour and shield to ward off the blows of the enemy yet!"

[Altair_the_Vexed]

Talsarios smiles at Gregaros and shakes his head. "Would an army fare better, when this keep is so easily defended against a large scale assault? But there is some logic to retreating further than to merely camp nearby - surely the goblins will send out patrols. Perhaps their king will coordinate their scouting thoroughly and we would find ourselves overwhelmed in the dark.
"I think our best course of action is to try to deal with the murderholes now, and retreat to return with better supplies later. And I must add: is it only I who has noticed that only Devin of the woodsmen is armed with a bow? If we need covering missiles, we shall have to provide them ourselves."
Now Talsarios looks sternly about at the party, fixing each in turn with what he hopes is a level gaze. "However, without any further circumlocution, I must urge haste - we have stood here debating our course overlong, I fear. Our goblinoid foes may be regrouping as we speak." He looks abruptly sheepish. "As I speak. Sorry. Let's get on with it!"

[Roland St. Jude]

The keep's defenders press the issue, as the door to the right of the entry way (as one faces into the room) cracks open and an arrow flies out but misses everyone.

[Frivolous]

Brandon Bor

Brandon flinches back from the arrow. The young fighter looks awfully pasty and pale (perhaps from blood loss), but his voice is relatively steady as he sheathes his sword and whispers, "On the count of three, I'll kick the door fully open and Talsarios and I lob our flasks of oil. Then we throw a lit torch and incinerate the wretches."

"The rest of you fire your missile weapons. Nathros, maybe you can use the goblin knives. You don't want to get too close to the blaze once it starts."

"If there are too many goblins and we don't kill them all quickly, it might be a good idea to duck beside the door so the goblins have to come out to attack us. Arrows can't go around corners."

"Ready? One. Two. Three." Then he holds his shield before him and kicks the door fully open, aiming his flask at the largest visible cluster of goblins, so the oil causes maximum damage.

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Hit Points: 2/8.

Attack: (1d20)[16]
Thac0: 19

Damage: To be determined, I guess...