Actual Play
Relaxing At The Pub, And Then Off To Bed!
We started out in the Broken Stone, the local tavern, and it was
getting close to the last round of drinks for the evening.
Droston and Bartha spent 7 c.p. each trying to find out about, in
Droston's case, the old Hermit who is rumored to live somewhere south
of Masonburg, and in Bartha's case, the witch who is rumored to live
somewhere in the swamp near Riverton. Unfortunately, nobody knew
anything about either of them.
… Or Not!
As we were leaving the tavern, Onchu, Bartha, and Droston noticed what
looked like a child's body floating in a pool in the river. Wading
out and turning it over revealed it to be a dead goblin, with a
militia arrow in its belly. The goblin was wearing roughly the same
colors as the ones we killed on our first tour of duty. The only
think of any value it had was a small knife, and that was in pretty
poor shape. Eirnin took it. The corpse was bloated and looking
pretty bad. Bartha thought it must be at least 2 days old.
We knew that the on-duty militia company was due in the next morning.
We took the body to the mayor, who was sitting on his porch, drinking
ale, and already at dusk feeling the effects. He found the goblin's
corpse to be quite sobering. The militia hadn't been seen in four
days, since they left the area of the new mine looking for creatures.
It is half a day's travel to the new mine.
Rumor has it that goblins see in the dark.
After some discussion the mayor called up the other companies. The
Block & Hammer company was dispatched head north to Riverton (“Which
way to Riverton? North! No, south! No, north!”), our company, the
Wolf-banes was assigned to scout towards the mines (“Which way are
the mines? South? North? South?”), and the Axe & Bow company was
tasked to look for creatures across the river.
All This In The Dark
As they were scouting quietly Bartha and Droston heard something
crawling towards them, and Droston told Bartha to hang back while he
takes the torch up to see what it is. It is Evan, one of the members
of the Serpents, the militia company that was on duty. He's been
crawling on the ground, badly hurt. Droston yelled for Bartha, and the
others heard and came running. Bartha managed to stabilize him, and we
built a little litter and carried him to the mayor. Bartha stayed with him,
hoping he'll revive enough to tell them something about what happened
to him and the rest of the militia, while Polonius and Droston ran to
the old mine and brought back the healer, old Gertie. By this time it's
3 a.m. Gertie told Bartha she's done a good job, and sent her off.
Evan hadn't said anything before she left.
We asked about Evan, and he still hadn't said anything. His leather armor showed that
he'd been very badly beaten by some blunt object. He was also very
scratched up, as if he'd been running blindly through the woods. He
had his pack, but not his weapon, a big mason's hammer.
Scouting For Trouble
In the morning, Droston and Bartha tracked him a mile past the close
mine — it looks like he missed the mines running through the woods and
ran until he fell down, then crawled another one-half mile. We followed the
track for another 2 miles, almost losing the tracks completely at one
point, but managed to find them and keep going. The tracks curve back
towards the road, and lead to a scene of carnage. Splatters of blood
and tissue were everywhere and broken weapons, broken trees, crossbow
bolts, and arrows littered the ground. It looked like many people
fought here. There were no bodies. Drag marks lead to the road
and across to the edge of the steep drop down to the river, and two
goblin bodies lay on the rocks just shy of the water, as if they'd
just missed being thrown far enough. Other tracks lead to the
stone-paved road and south-east along it.
By this point we were three miles from Masonburg, one mile from the
bridge we helped Brock build, and three miles from the new mine. We
headed there, keeping close watch as we went. When we're close,
Bartha and Droston snuck ahead to see if anything was amiss at the
mine. There were no miners in sight, and the door to the mine
barracks had been been torn off, and there were more crossbow bolts
and so forth lying about, and a goblin shortsword lying between the
mine and the barracks. Droston and Bartha headed back and got the
others, and returned to take a closer look. There had definitely been
a big melee here, too. The carnage inside the barracks was especially
bad, with blood and gore on the beds. The barracks had been looted.
Footprints lead to both the mine and to the road south-east, and there
were prints of wagon wheels headed south as well, though some effort
had been made to obfuscate the tracks.
I Told You To Be Careful!
After some discussion, we decided we should check the mine for
survivors before we go further south-east along the road. We lit some
torches and headed into the mine. After about 30 feet we came to the
first turn in the passage, and found a dead goblin. When we rolled
him over, we found he was killed by a crossbow bolt that we recognize
from its craftsmanship to be Brock Stonearm's. The body had 5 c.p.,
which Eirnin took, 2 javelins, which Bartha took, and 1 dagger, which
Eirnin took. After this Onchu and Eirnin both moved forward around
the bend. While Droston tried to warn them that Brock had probably
trapped the passageway they hit a tripwire and a huge timber swung
down from the roof of the tunnel and hit them both across the chest,
throwing them backwards violently. At that point we heard Brock
yelling that he'll kill any goblins that come near. Eventually we get
him to recognize us, and he eagerly staggers forward, barely able to
stay on his feet and awake after standing vigil in the mine all night
against goblins.
Brock told us that the mine had been attacked by a horde of hobgoblins and
goblins — there must have been more than 20 of them. He was unable to
sleep and was measuring things in the mine when the attack came, and
when he emerged and found the attackers he killed two and then headed
back into the mine to hold the rest off. When questioned he told us
that the militia company had already passed by on their way back to
Masonburg.
We decided we couldn't stay where we were, since if the horde returned
we'd be cut off with no food and water. Brock mentioned that the tomb
of the dwarven hero would probably be a good defensible place to spend
the night, if needed. Eventually, though, we decided to go back to
town and let them know what has happened. Droston suggested Brock
rearm his trap, and asked to watch, and Brock happily obliged. After
that we headed back to town, stopping first at the new mine to drop
Brock off at his fortified domicile and warn whoever is there. Turns
out that there is only the mayor and a skeleton force , and they all headed back to town
with us.
Dismay And Disorder
In Masonburg the mayor, who was even more disturbed by the news of the
missing miners, called a town meeting for that evening, July 26th.
The Axe & Bow militia company had returned from searching across the
river, and while they weren't able to cover much ground due to the
rain and rough terrain they'd seen no evidence of any intruders, and
were convinced that none have been across the river. The Block &
Hammer militia company, which took horses and headed north (“Which
way to Riverton? South? North? South? North?”) to Riverton, were
not expected back yet.
The town meeting was loud and upset, with wives and kids crying about
their missing husbands and fathers, and lots of arguing about what is
to be done. It's finally decided that the Axe & Bow company will,
with all the townsfolk who can lift a shovel or swing an axe, build
defenses at the bridge, while we, the Wolf-banes company, will
continue south-east along the road, scouting and, if possible,
mount a rescue of the missing miners and militiamen. After that we
retired for the evening to the first sleep we've had in — what? 48
hours? — and slept like the dead.
Hope And Preparations
The next morning the mayor gave us a bullseye lantern from his days
working in the mines. Bartha came up with the excellent idea of
making rye whiskey firebombs, and after an initial experiment with
gourds, we each ended up with pottery rye whiskey flasks with attached
cloth for lighting.
Brock was appointed to be in charge of the defense building. Bartha
showed the bombs to Brock, who suggests tindertwigs would be useful,
and after seeing our blank stares, explains that tindertwigs are a
technology perfected by the drwarves for easily and quickly lighting
fires. Of course, when Bartha inquired if he could make us some, he
said he would be too busy building defenses.
Headed For Trouble
We headed out, and are soon traveling south-east along the old road
beyond the new mine. After many hours of travel, Bartha and Droston
decided that there's going to be a summer thunderstorm in an hour or
so. After some discussion we decided to keep going, and in only a
half hour the heavens opened and a tremendous deluge crashed down. We
trudged on for a little while, but with the tracks quickly washed
away, we decided (with Bartha grumbling about how if we'd stopped when
she wanted we'd be inside a nice shelter) to find someplace to sit
out the storm. We eventually ended up under the 2nd dwarven bridge,
which is still in reasonably good shape, and there we sat through the
night in the dark without a fire. The rain stopped at midnight.
Oh, Yummy!
On Polonius's watch he heard a large creature heading slowly down the
ravine towards us. He woke us up and Bartha started struggling with
flint and steel to light a torch. In the mean while the rest of us
drew our weapons.
When Bartha finally got the torch lit, we could see a huge grizzly
bear on the slope below us, nearly up to the bridge. Droston loosed
two arrows at it but, unnerved by the suddenness of it all, missed
with both. Onchu moved up and attacked the bear, which struck back
and landed a tremendous blow, wounding Onchu severely. Bartha then
stepped forward yelling and waving the torch in the bear's face. The
bear fled. Bartha tended to Onchu's wound, and we spent the rest of
the night in cold silence. We figured the bear was probably after
some of the tasty-smelling jerky Bartha always keeps with her.
Back To Town…?
In the morning we headed back to Masonburg to get Onchu some more
medical attention. On the way back Onchu and Bartha noticed what
looked like a lightning strike off to the side of the road.
Remembering that Polonius wanted to find the meteor, they told the
company and we headed in that direction. We found a crater, as we'd
expected, but the meteor that should have been in the crater was
missing. The hole left at the center showed that it was about the
size of a basketball. Bartha and Droston figured out that a cart or
wagon came up out of the crater, to the road, and away from town,
headed south-east along the road. Polonius spent the next few mines
moaning about his bad luck.
…Not Yet!
When we got to the new mine, everybody but Polonius was halfway
expecting trouble. Polonius, still moaning about the missing meteor,
was therefore the only one surprised when three goblins, two
hobgoblins, and one strangely dressed goblin burst out of the mine. The
three normal goblins, in the lead, launched javelins at us, and
missed. Bartha launched a javelin back, and when it hit a goblin
shouted something about how she'd send their javelins back where it
would do some good!
The strangely dressed goblin, who had a skull on his head, elaborate
(for a goblin) robes, and a staff, began gesticulating oddly. The two
hobgoblins stayed in front of and close to the strangely dressed
goblin, as if they were its bodyguards. Droston immediately was
suspicious of the oddly behaving goblin, and started targeting him
with his arrows. Suddenly, a two-foot diameter spider appeared out of
nowhere and dropped on Eirnin's shoulder and bit him. Eirnin started
spinning around and trying to bash it with the blunt side of his axe,
and eventually did so, leading to lots of spider-guts all over his
face.
At this point things turned into a general melee, with Droston
continuing to fire at the oddly dressed goblin with little effect and
the others moving to attack the other goblins and the hobgoblin
bodyguards. As the melee continued the oddly dressed goblin again did
his gesticulation again When the melee had turned decisively against
the goblins, the oddly dressed goblin did his gesticulation a final
time and vanished, leaving Droston in frustration to fire one final
shot through the space where it had been before turning his arrows to
the remaining enemies.
Eventually all the normal goblins but one were killed, as were both
hobgoblins. Bartha grappled the remaining goblin, yelling out to the
rest of us to capture it. Droston attempted to help, trying to whack
it with the blunt side of one of his axes, but ended up hitting Bartha
instead! (And boy can Bartha blister your ears when you accidentally
whack her!) Luckily the blow hadn't done any real damage,
and Bartha finally subdued the goblin, after which began an argument
about the appropriate way to transport a captured enemy to town.
So, at the end of the fight, we had: 1 goblin captured and trussed up,
6 more goblin javelins, 3 small goblin short-swords (of terrible
quality), 3 suits of bad goblin leather armor, two sets of
hobgoblin-sized studded leather armor, a light wooden shield, and a
small morning star, 12 sp, 35 cp, and in an evil-smelling bag, two
heads of folks we recognize as belonging to the Serpents militia
company. Everybody takes 2 sp each, with Droston
taking the left over 2 sp, and everybody takes 7 cp each. Bartha
forgives Droston for hitting her, and tells him she can clean up and
repair the studded leather armor for him and and he apologized
for accidentally hitting her.
Finally Back to Town!
When we got to the old mine and quarry complex near the village the
only person left there was old Gertie, who pretty much does whatever
she wants. She tended to Onchu's wounds, and we continued to the
village. Once finally there we had a difficult time preventing the
mob from killing the goblin, but eventually we prevailed on the wiser
heads and got him thrown down in the ice cellar the village uses as a
lockup, to be interrogated by the elders.
Polonius talked to Coll about the missing meteor, but Coll was not
impressed. Polonius has to bring Coll the meteor if he wants to be
Coll's apprentice. We showed the Coll the goblin blades, and he said
the best thing to do was melt them down and reforge them, and that
there was about enough for a long sword. “I've never made a long sword
before, but I'm willing to give it a try.” Droston said go ahead.
Polonius begged and pleaded and Coll eventually relented enough to let
Polonius watch Coll working on the blade.