With the party rested up, they headed out of Sandpoint and
towards Thistletop, where they figured that the goblins would be setting up
camp. Valeros and Lem went to infiltrate the goblin fortress, while Ezren
checked out the boats in the waterfront – apparently goblins used boats, who
knew – and Harsk stayed in the woods to provide ranged support if necessary. On
the outskirts of the fortress, they saw what looked like a small hovel, and
inside it – a sage was chained up, kidnapped by the goblins! They freed the
sage, and the sage repaid them by showing them a hidden entrance to the
fortress. Valeros led the way, but soon he was menaced by a ghost! Only magic
could defeat it, so they had to run away. Valeros was loaded down with armor,
so he couldn’t run very fast, he felt the ghost grab him, and tear his armor
off. At least he himself wasn’t wounded, and he had a set of tools with him
that he could use to fix his armor after he got away.
While exploring the woods, Harsk saw a series of bottles on
the ground. Most were empty or filled with an unrecognizable liquid, but Harsk
recognized one as a Potion of Hiding. But soon he realized what all the potions
were for – there was actually a cult in the woods that was allied with the
goblins! Harsk was able to take out some of the cultists without being
detected, and the rest of the cultists fled. An archer that he was with hit one
of the fleeing cultists square in the leg, immobilizing him. Harsk went up to
the cultist to interrogate him.
“What are you doing here?” Harsk asked.
“Sandpoint belongs to goblins. It was goblins that lived in
Sandpoint before the humans took it over. The humans invade the goblins’ lands,
raid their villages, and have the temerity to call the goblins the evildoers?”
“I did not realize you were in favor of the goblins; I
thought you were just one of those evil death cults,” Harsk said. He tried to
come up with a plausible lie. “I’m here to help the goblins too. If you take me
to their leader, I can help them.”
Unfortunately, Harsk was not very good at deception; the
cultists saw through his lie easily. “Fool! I myself don’t know where the
leader is; Gogmurt never trusts anyone.” At least the villain’s name had
slipped. Harsk had heard stories about Gogmurt – supposedly he could cast fire
from a distance, incapacitating an enemy before he had time to react. Harsk
remembered to make sure he was wearing his armor before going to face such a
foe.
It was time to try something else. Harsk jammed another
crossbow bolt into the cultist’s arm, causing him to scream I pain. “If you
want to live, tell me where the leader is!”
“He – I don’t know where the leader is, but he has some
camps around here. There’s one up that hill. Maybe there’s something there.
Beware – these are tougher than normal goblins.”
Harsk went cautiously up the hill, weapon in hand. There
were three guards up there. Somehow, the bolt on his crossbow burst into
flames. It must have been another one of Ezren’s spells. He fired one bolt,
then another, then another. Three shots, three kills. There were a few other
goblins, but when they saw their comrades felled, they panicked. A few more
shots caused the rest to run.
Harsk rushed to the top of the hill. His shots had set the
camp on fire. He only had a few minutes to gather whatever evidence he could
before flames consumed the camp. There were chests hidden under logs and bushes
– he had to use his knowledge of the wilderness to find them in time. He called
upon the gods for help, and he had no problems in locating the leader’s tent
with a set of maps and documents. The maps revealed a series of hidden tunnels
underneath the camp. He grabbed some of the flaming stalks, dropped them into
the tunnels, and sealed the entrances. If anything was alive in the tunnels,
they wouldn’t be there for much longer. With the woods cleared, Harsk could
move in the direction to join up with the rest of the party.
Lem ran away from the fortress to one of the human’s guard
towers closer to Sandpoint – hopefully he coud find shelter there. This whole
“running away from the bad guys” tactic was working pretty well for Lem, so he
kept using it. He made it to the guard tower unscathed, and went in. He took a
look at some of the weapons in the tower’s small armory, but his relief was
short-lived – it was an ambush! A bugbear had somehow snuck past the guards and
made it straight into the armory! Lem fired a blast from his Wand od Force Missiles
at close range, but it wasn’t enough. The bugbear landed a glancing bow, before
he could run away and sound the alarm, and let the guards deal with the
situation. Fortunately he had a cure spell to heal himself right back up. Ezren
also joined him at the guard tower. Together they performed a short ritual in
which they lit their Holy Candle, keeping the forces of evil at bay for some
time. The candle burned much brighter this time, giving them hope.
With ambushes happening, Valeros rushed over to the guard
tower to help. Pretty soon the bandits would also attack – it would be nice if
they could clear out the threat before that happened. He rand and ran, but was
weighed down by his armor, so it took him a while to get there. Harsk went up a
hill to find the entrance to the Treacherous Cave, making sure he still had a
good view of the guard tower in case he needed to offer assistance.
Back at the guard tower, the bandits had started attacking!
Lem saw the bandits coming, but had no weapon to defend himself. He quickly ran
back inside the guard tower asking for his party’s help. He gave Ezren a
blessing from Pharasma - the wizard could use it better than himself. He soon
heard a crash outside and looked to see what was going on – Valeros had
cleverly pushed a tree on top of the bandit, flattening him! Cautiously, Lem
cast a spell of evil detection – and realized that one of the goblin raiders
was about to attack! He had no chance in a straight-up fight, so he snuck out
the back door to make his way to the waterfront. Lem saw a bunyip jump out of
the water and attack! As Lem danced around to distract the bunyip, it was
felled by several of Harsk’s arrows.
Meanwhile, Ezren had seen that another bandit was coming,
and put a gaudy codex on display as bait, and killed the bandit with Valeros’
help when he took the codex. Then he found a good perch and, when the goblin
raider attacked, was ready with his acid arrow! The acid arrow hit the Goblin
Raider square in the chest, making it explode in a shower of green acid. Why
the acid was green, Ezren didn’t know. Usually acids, in their natural state,
are clear. It might make sense that alchemists but green coloring in their
acids so people can tell that it’s acid, just as a safety measure, and when
they made the spells they did the same thing. But one would think that at least
in some cases, being able to make acids not look dangerous would be useful,
like if you were trying to trick someone. Anyway, he helped to shore up some of
the walls to protect against further attacks, and a standard bearer from the
guard tower offered to join him to explore the goblin lairs further.
Valeros went back to the waterfront, and killed a goblin
commando with his bare hands. Harsk helped a little bit, but mostly it was his
bare hands. Lem kept dancing around the waterfront, and soon attracted the
attention of Cyrdak Drokkus again, who was looking for more tales of adventure!
“It would be really cool if you could fight some evil here,”
Cyrdak said.
“You’re in luck! I can use my detect evil spell to see if
there’s evil around here.” Lem cast the detect
evil spell, and didn’t find
evil, but did find a trap.
“Wow, who puts traps on board a sailing vessel?” Cyrdak
asked. “I would really love to find out. My audience loves characters who do
things that seem weird, but ends up finding the reasoning behind them. Can you
go into the trap?”
“I should be able to help get through the trap using another
spell, but I might need a little bit of help from my wizard friend.”
A magical spell was cast on Lem, making him move faster. They
went into the sailing vessel and saw a slashing blade trap. Lem cast his trap
detection spell, and he easily made it through the trap, and flipped the off
switch on the other side.
>>>
Ezren tried to figure out where to go next. He didn’t want
to go to the goblin fortress – he only had one attack spell left for now; it
would be too risky. Same with the Nettlemaze – if he was mobbed by two monsters
at once, he would be defeated. Going to the treacherous cave was also, well,
treacherous- Harsk’s support would be useless in its depths, and he was not
confident that he had the skills to survive in the cave. So he joined the rest
of the group at the waterfront – they could back him up there.
He advanced forward, and found none other than Bruthazmus
the bugbear who had taken over the docks! Ezren went forward even without his
spells, thinking he would be backed up by the rest of his party. He was, but an
unlucky blow sent Ezren back reeling, and enabled Bruthazmus to escape back to
another vessel. Seeing the flag of a standard-bearer gave Ezren the strength to
carry on. Bruthazmus had sent out a goblin dog to attack, but Ezren was able to
throw it off the pier into the ocean. Valeros brought up the rear, and rescued
a guard who had been chained to the docks (why the bad guys left hostages just
tied up waiting to be rescued, rather than just getting what they want out and
killing them, he didn’t know) Lem then took the lead, and saw Bruthasmus, who
had commandeered a sailing ship. H and the rest of the party jumped on board to
fight them. Lem was armed with just a sling, and the rocking waves made it very
difficult to get a good aim. But with some help from his party members and the
gods, he was able to hit Bruthazmus twice in the noggin, knocking him out, then
fend off a bandit who had used the chaos to climb aboard. The good guys had won
this round.
Ezren decided it was time to brave the Goblin Fortress – he
had to, in order to continue with his quest. He approached cautiously, using
his magic as best he could to detect what was up ahead. He used the same secret
entrance the others had used, but now knew to be wary of the ghost. He prepared
his spell and entered. The ghost was scorched (I guess ghosts can burn, even
though they’re incorporeal). When he entered the interior of the fortress he
saw Valeros, who had just battled his way past the goblin warrior who was
guarding the gates.
Harsk continued through the treacherous cave, crossbow in
hand, then suddenly realized his crossbow was out of his hand! A sneak had
stolen the crossbow right out of his hands in the dark. Harsk instinctively
tried to fire at the sneak, but of course since he had nothing in his hands,
that didn’t work. The sneak bolted into the darkness before he could react.
Lem joined the party in the goblin fortress, and continued
exploring. A cougar burst out of the stables, and rushed them! This was
Tangletooth, and it was bucking wildly – they couldn’t pin it down. Lem danced
around, luring the cougar after him while his allies pelted it with arrows. Lem
led it right towards Valeros, who slashed at its ankles. Ezren seized the
opportunity to zap it with a lightning touch, finishing it off. But that wasn’t
the main boss of this level – it was just the sub-sub-boss! The sub-boss, a
goblin raider, approached. “How dare you invade my fortress!” it said. “Now you
will die!” The goblin raider got several of his goblin friends to show up, and
charged the party. Ezren took out his Wand of Force Missile and blasted away.
Four goblins were felled by his bolts, and one more was felled by an arrow from
Harsk. But the enemy goblin raider had snuck up behind him, and was just about
to drive the daggers into his back. But Valeros was right behind and plunged
his sword into his back first. The denizens of the goblin fortress were
defeated … for now.
The party went to search the goblin’s armory for useful
loot. They were exhausted – they would at least get some useful rewards for their
efforts. Ezren in particular felt nearly depleted – it took all of his energy
just to stay awake. He searched through the armory, but could find a mere
shortbow. The rest of the weapons were too damaged to be useful, or too small –
after all they were a goblins’ size. (If the goblins were smart enough to make
fancy magical weapons like the humans, they would be smart enough to not need
to be evil and stuff.) Lem called upon the wisdom of Father Zantus to restore
his strength, cast a healing spell on Ezren, and they made their way to the
rest of the party in preparation for the final battle.
Valeros braved the Nettlemaze, hoping to find something
good. He did find something – the villain! Gogmurt burst out of the brush and
cast a deadly fire spell, burning Valeros’ weapon so much he had to drop it. If
he was to defeat Gogmurt, he would have to do it with his bare hands. This
would be difficult. He called to Harsk for help as he wrestled Gogmurt. He
heard Harsk call to him from the top of the hill, and with all his strength
managed to wrestle Gogmurt so he was between Harsk and himself, and heard
Gogmurt’s scream as Harsk’s crossbow bolt hit him. But this only seemed to
enrage Gogmurt more. Valeros called upon the gods themselves for aid, and heard
Lem’s song in the distance. This time he ripped one of Gogmurt’s arms right out
of its socket. Gogmurt scremed even more, and Valeros was temporarily startled,
and dropped Gogmurt. Gogmurt ran away, and Valeros could see him run in the
direction of the treacherous cave. He ran right past Harsk, who was busy
checking his weapons and reloading after having expended all that ammunition in
the previous few battles.
>>>
Ezren was walking along, when he heard Lem’s song again:
It’s a sneak! It’s a
sneak! Better stay alert:
Or you’ll get your
stuff stolen and you’re in a world of hurt!
Ezren was startled into alertness, and noticed a
sneak about to steal his stuff! He turned in the sneak’s direction and drew a
shortbow, to fire at close range. With his speed boosted by a speed spell, he
was able to take out the sneak before he could be taken out himself. He soon
joined up with the rest of the party at the treacherous cave, where Gogmurt was
hidden. Harsk saw what looked like a mystic inscription on a tablet, but when
he started reading it he realized he had set off an Explosive Runes trap.
Fortunately, he had his trusty thieves’ tools ready, so he could disable it
just before they exploded. He opened the chest that the explosive runes were
protecting, and found it was a suit of magical leather armor. He kept going and
saw none other than Gogmurt! Fortunately Gogmurt was backed into a corner, and
the whole party was there, so it wasn’t too hard to defeat him once and for
all. They counted their blessings – eight of them left – and set about looting
the rest of the cave system. They found a cache of weapons, most of which
seemed fairly useless – just the same as the weapons they already had. Valeros
picked up a scimitar and swung it around a few times – this was one that could
potentially be useful. Also, Harsk found a light crossbow, which was enchanted
for extra protection against the undead.
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