Old Ways IC

[Matthew]

Nathros gives Jeanne a sympathetic look, whilst examining the head of his spear and considering whether to simply throw it through the goblin's neck.

[Roland St. Jude]

Brandon spies a few small crates and a couple tables. In the pantry, the wooden remnants of crates, barrels, or maybe just the shelves litters the floor.

"Straight back and down. So easy. C'mon. I'll show you." the goblin continues in his guttural tongue.

The rest of the group stands ready in this single kitchen room.

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This is the castle kitchen. It is a roughly 20' square with a pantry in the back right corner.

Perhaps the map will help: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...=168160&page=9

The use of the term "abattoir" was just a colorful way to describe the kitchen's present status as more slaughterhouse than kitchen. It's all the same room.

In the back left corner, a stairwell heads down, with the top landing against the far wall and the stairwell descending to the left.

Nathros would observe that a stairwell likely rises up above it with access through the double doors in the main hall. There's no access to that stairwell the second level from here, though.

[Frivolous]

Brandon Bor

Brandon sheathes his sword and hangs his shield at his back. As rapidly as he can, he uses both hands to drag a table and the heaviest of the crates backwards towards the top of the stairs, puffing from the exertion.

He tries to make as little noise as he can, but right now he's more concerned about the incoming goblin attack than he is about alerting a single magically addled goblin butcher.

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Pardon me, Roland, that link does not seem to go anywhere but to the OOC thread. I can see no map there.

If Brandon still has time (the conversation between Talsarios and the butcher still goes on), he'll keep dragging more tables and crates and empty barrels to near the top of the stairs. He'll even get the stuff that comprised the bugbear barricade.

By the way, does Brandon notice what is in the crates he is dragging?

[Altair_the_Vexed]

"Isn't there a better lit way? You know all humans are afraid of the dark... You don't always come and go out of the keep: there must be another way in and out."
Talsarios lifts up his lantern and starts slowly down the stairs, gingerly checking each step as he goes, as if he could hardly see.
"Your king - is he a goblin too, or a hobgoblin? Or a bugbear? Or something else? I bet he has a big guard of honour."

[Valameer]

Stefan, having overcome his fit of laughter, creeps back up to the rear of the group. He looks at Talsarios and the goblin and asks anyone who understands goblin, "What are they arguing about?"

[Roland St. Jude]

"No, what? Yes, but-" the goblin was clearly confused by all the questions in varying topics. One could imagine him shaking his ugly head down there in the dark before continuing. His voice is quieter now.

"Huh, what? Yeah, up there. Friendly. Fang's dead."

[Frivolous]

Brandon Bor


Brandon continues to huff and puff and haul crates and tables and barrels to the top of the stairs.

[Altair_the_Vexed]

Talsarios opens the shutters of his lantern to shine it into the gloom at the bottom of the stairs.
"Who's that you're talking to?" he asks, first in common, so that everyone can hear him, then again in the goblin language.

[Roland St. Jude]

Brandon's barricade reached its limit as pretty much every available item was now stacked at the top of the stairwell.

As Talsarios shined his light down the steps, he lit up a group of at least three goblins, his new friend and two others. The two new arrivals seemed to be drawing weapons and heading up the stairs, though they balk momentarily at the light.

They grunt at the light but don't stop entirely. The charmed goblin doesn't answer, but neither does he draw his own weapon.

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PCs win initiative.

A barricade blocks the top of the stairwell and only two people can really have a line of sight down the stairs at any one time.

[Frivolous]

Brandon Bor


Brandon pants, "Just two goblins besides the butcher. Jeanne, Talsarios, shoot 'em."

He holds his sword ready to skewer any goblin that manages to make it to or through the barricade.

However, he adds, "Don't count on it for long, though. If we have to, we'll topple it all down on them and maybe also set it on fire to kill them or cover our escape. And Jeanne still has her Sleep spell."

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I'm presuming the goblins are not armed with missile weapons. But even if they are, I hope the barricade should give us some AC bonus.

[Valameer]

Stefan gives the others room to move around, but gets his sling ready for if the goblins make it up the stairwell where he can see them.

The humour he's found in the situation seems to have melted away.

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If readied/held actions are a thing, use these rolls for my attack. If Stefan doesn't get a clear shot this round, just disregard these rolls and I'll roll again next round.

HP: 2/2 AC: 2 THAC0: 19
To Hit: (1d20)[9]
Damage: (1d4)[1]

[Matthew]

Nathros stands back holding his spear, and worries about the advantage of numbers his companions have given up versus two goblins. Hopefully Talsarios can clamber over the barricade without too much difficulty.

[Roland St. Jude]

Talsarios and Brandon stand at the barricade as the goblins regain their pluck and continue up the stone stairs, daggers drawn.

The two armed goblins charge up the stairs, one landing a very solid stab into the barricade that would have cut into Talsarios' gut.

Below the sound of the charmed goblin yelling, "hey don't! He's with me."

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Goblins won initiative.

PCs turn.

[jmbrown]

Jeanne knocks an arrow and fires at a charging goblin. "These shenanigans have worn out my patience. Back to goblin slaying."

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HP: 1/1
THAC0: 20
attack - (1d20+1)[7]
damage - (1d6)[5]

[Altair_the_Vexed]

Talsarios gets behind the barrier with a call of "Hey - stop them!" in goblin.

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Behind the barrier, he'll retrieve his sling and load a stone.

[Matthew]

Nathros stands by and awaits any goblins that might pass the barricade.

[Valameer]

Stefan fires his sling at a goblin, given the opportunity.

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HP: 2/2 AC: 2 THAC0: 19
To hit: (1d20)[19]
Damage: (1d4)[2]

[Roland St. Jude]

Jeanne fires down the stairs but her arrow misses. Stefan nudges aside the momentarily inert Brandon and fires a sling stone of his own, catching a goblin in the chest. The goblin falls back down the stairs, bumping into the charmed goblin making his way up. "Hey, stop, we're going to see the boss," the charmed goblin says in feeble defense of his new friend.

The remaining armed goblin swings his dagger in Stefan's face but misses by mere inches.

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1 goblin dead/1 goblin alive/1 goblin charmed

PCs lost initiative.

PC's turn.

[Frivolous]

Brandon Bor

Brandon mutters, "My turn," and shoulders aside Stefan.

He snarls, "Eat steel, gobbo!" and thrusts forward with his sword.

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OOC: Sorry, Roland, I thought it was clear that Bran was holding onto his sword and letting the other members of the party do the missile attacks. I hope I didn't make others wait.


Hit Points: 4/8.

Attack: (1d20+1)[7]
Thac0: 19
Damage: (1d8+1)[3]

[Valameer]

Stefan readjusts his helmet after taking a hit from Brandon. "Oof! The front line is a rough place," he chuckles as he manouvers around to get behind the warrior. "Let 'im up here and I'll plunk this one, too."

He readies his sling.

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I'm assuming I can't get a shot off this with the crowd around the stairs. If an opportunity to fire without hitting my allies comes up, I'll take the shot. Otherwise, disregard this:

HP: 2/2 AC: 2 (thank goodness) THAC0: 19
To hit: (1d20)[18]
Damage: (1d4)[3]

[Matthew]

Nathros stands ready.

[Roland St. Jude]

Jeanne fires her arrow and Brandon swings his sword, but neither connects with the knife wielding goblin.

Stefan finds a gap to squeeze in and fire off another bullet as Tal stays ducked behind the barricade.

Stefan's shot strikes true and the goblin wails in pain.

The injured goblin turns as he screams and heads down the stairs bowling into his charmed friend and the two tumble down the stairs in a shouting heap.

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Goblins
1 dead
1 seriously injured and prone in the dark below
1 charmed and prone in the dark below

PCs lost initiative, but the goblin failed his morale check and fled into a tumbling mess.

PCs turn. No goblins presently visible.

[Frivolous]

Brandon Bor

Brandon backs away from the front lines so as to give the missile-weapon-wielding party members a chance to attack again, once more goblins present themselves.

He pants a little from exertion of dragging so much stuff to build the barricade, but he smiles as he says, "I think we're in a good position here. We can do a lot of damage unless they have an alternate route to the surface."

"A pity we only have one flask of oil left, though. We could do a lot -more- damage if we could set more gobbos on fire."

[Altair_the_Vexed]

In goblin, Talsarios calls "Oh no, don't hurt them! Hey, how many more of you are going to come out?"
Aside, to his compatriots in the common tongue, he quietly mutters, "We should be ready to retreat if there are too many of them."

[Frivolous]

"Jeanne still has her sleep spell," Brandon reminds the others quietly.

"We should retreat if there are too many, yes, but it would be wasteful if we retreated with it uncast. We can get a lot of gobbos with her spell."

[Valameer]

"Well, we're at a pretty decent bottleneck here, but it's still been a little hard getting a good shot off. Luckily, the Gods are with me today." Stefan grins.

"Are they coming back up yet?" He listens for movement, without peeking over the barricade.

[Matthew]

Nathros has a look at the door on the left hand side of the main chamber, listens for any sounds beyond and opens the door.

[Roland St. Jude]

After a moment, the charmed goblin rushes back up stairs blustering about something or other. The most clear statement he makes is, "you gotta leave."

His sickly skin turns a slightly lighter color as he spies all the Fang-killers back in the room. It's a slow train, but clearly there is some train of though going on as he puts it all together.

From the stairtop, there is no sign or sound of the other goblin below.

---
Nathros hears nothing beyond and as he opens the door, finds the room empty. A similar dimension to the kitchen, though this area's purpose was far less apparent. Perhaps some kind of service or storage room. Tables lined the wall along the left, and a closed single door sat at the far end of the wall to his right, which Nathros anticipated would open to reveal the stairwell that his comrades were presently standing atop. Otherwise, the room appeared empty and unused.

[Altair_the_Vexed]

Talsarios tries to take advantage of the goblin's moment of surprise...

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- grabbing one of the barrels, he dumps it over the goblin's head with a shout of "Quick, mate - in here! I'll look after you."

Talsarios, MU1, AC9, HP1/1, THAC0 19
"Barrel attack" - (1d20)[12]

I'm kind of assuming there are barrels or similar storage around from the room description. A sack would be best. If there's no such thing available, please take roll above that for my wrestling roll.
My WR is (if I'm remembering this right) STR (10) + Level (1) + AC (9) = 20.

[jmbrown]

Jeanne covers the door with her bow, firing at any creatures she sees beyond when opened. She looks over at Talsarios and can't help but laugh.