In attendance - Elren the Woodelf Druid 5 and Yelrah the HalfOrc Barbarian 5, backed by a half-dozen meatshields outlined HERE.
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Our game picks up where it left off last time - with the PCs hunting missing hunters.
Tracking the goblins to their lair, our heroes found themselves overlooking a valley full of goblins, as well as 5 humans tied to stakes near a large fire and a larger tent. Elren summoned a pair of giant vultures to distract the goblins while Yelrah led a daring raid (himself, the Dwarf, and several people-at-arms) into the camp to free the captives.
Cries of 'Bree-Yark' in all its variations filled the air as the vultures successfully distracted goblins.
As the minions were freeing the prisoners, a goblin stepped out of the central tent, laughed and growled 'another soul to power my ascension!' as its flesh rippled and it grew and grew into a 7-8 foot hairy goblin thing - definitely the source of the unknown scent!
Yelrah was unphased and uttered, 'eat this' then rolled initiative. Winning by a large amount, Yelrah rolled first with advantage (raging) and connected critically. Cascading damage dice houserule kicked in and the end state was a very dead goblin-thing (71 damage total between two hits). With his first blow, Yelrah kneecapped the fiend, and as it fell forward, he pulped its skull. The fiend collapsed onto the ground and immediately began smoking and bubbling, a sulfur stench filling the air until - within seconds - all that was left was a body-shaped outline of scorched earth.
As the fiend melted away, the sounds of 'bree-Yark' grew closer as two groups of goblins rounded the large tent - a trio to the south and a trio to the north. Boltag let fly a crossbow bolt at the south group, missing utterly, while Elren sent his vultures directly into combat - one missing as a Goblin ducked, and the other goblin getting its head crushed in a mighty beak, cutting off its words in mid-Bree.
Galrik the Dwarf charged the north trio and the vultures, while Yelrah walked towards the south trio. Elren cast Thorn Whip, missing at first, but then catching the rhythm of it, sheared off a goblin's head.
The northern goblins knocked Galrik down and bleeding (maybe that is why he hates Goblins - he loses fights to them?), while the southern Goblns fell steadily to Yelrah's mighty blade. Cries of 'Bree-Yark' filled the air as both trios were quickly dispatched and the remaining goblins failed their morale roll and bolted into the surrounding forest.
A healing word later had Galrik on his feet, pondering his sliced mail and rethinking his distrust of the elf. His ponderings were cut short as Yelrah called him over and the two entered the central tent. Inside was a sleeping area made of several furs, three amphorae filled with wine, and a large chest (two-person lift size and weight). A quick search of the tent turned up a key to the otherwise simple lock. Yelrah opened first the lock and then the chest, dodging most - but not all - of the spring-loaded darts that flew out of it. Plucking the darts (3 damage between the two of them, blah) from himself, Yelrah's eyes focused on the coins glittering in the light - gold and silver all loose and jumbled deep together.
Plunging his arms into the coins, he felt around for anything that might be hidden, finding a bottle or vial, and then the stem of a goblet. Leaving both covered in coins, he closed the lid and then he and Galrik carried it to the others while Elren and Boltag stood in overwatch, and the others bound the wounds of the rescued humans.
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Three of the prisoners wore hunting leathers in brown and green, while the other two wore tattered robes of black and purple and yellow. Yelrah recognized the robes, but wasn't sure exactly from where - despite their similarity to the ones worn by the chaos priests from his last adventure.
Interrogating the rescued prisoners, our heroes learned that their names were (courtesy of Gig Economy - it arrived!): the pair in leathers that are the missing hunters are Tambo the Steady and Corso the Lovely (with a lascivious smile - but no teeth!), while the third in leathers being named Eiron of the Swamp - and he smells like one. Meanwhile, the two in robes are Toly Springall (who speaks only in cliches - this was fun to roleplay) and Craigie Pollock who smells of onions and garlic, but is quite interested in Yelrah's muscles.
The robed individuals, Craigie, actually, provided useful information to the team - the shapeshifting goblin was a fiend from the lower planes called a Barghest. He didn't reveal much beyond that except that he and Toly were ambushed while on a pilgrimage.
When asked how Eibon came to be captured, he said goblins ambushed him and his friends, and his friends ran. After the q&a session, the hunters were asked if they knew an alternate route back to the keep, and all three acknowledged that they did. Tambo and Corso's route was chosen over Eibon's, who just shrugged and went along with the group.
This left the chest as the next order of business.
Yelrah opened it, with Elren watching over his shoulder. As coins were sorted out, Elren noticed that some of the silver pieces were actually platinum, and he claimed those (12 pp). Yelrah claimed the gold coins (100gp), and the two left the remaining coinage (1000sp and 1000cp) to be divided up among the others as the others saw fit. This left the potion and the goblet.
Examining the liquid in the bottle revealed it to be viscous and Yelrah said he was looking forward to drinking it in an emergency. It's label read 'the key to the labyrinth of mazzamaxx.' As for the goblet, it looked like this:
Coins in pockets, the freed prisoners commented that they were unarmed, their belongings taken by the goblins. Heading back into the camp, they quickly picked up dropped goblin weapons - not the best, but better than nothing. A wandering monster roll reminded all that they had dallied long enough - perhaps far too long.
Note that while the prisoners were gathering weapons, Yelrah handed Elren the wooden ring he had found. Elren donned it and felt a tingle - as in 'spidey sense is tingling' tingle.
We ended with the group ready to head back to Ironguard Keep.
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All told, it was a fun session, with lots of laughs. Initiative and cascading dice rolls made the fight with the Barghest not nearly what I was hoping for, but still lots of fun. All those 6s that Yelrah rolled for damage!
The potion is a bottled memory, though the players don't know that yet. As for the goblet, that is the Goblet of Apsethus. Because when you have few players, you need NPCs to travel with them.
I haven't decided on what exactly the ring does, yet, but I do have some ideas.
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