Castle Caldwell Explorers VIII - Goblins Come Easy and Go Fast

Saturday 11 November 2017 6:30 – 8:30 PM

The DM was Steve.

The Cast:

Everaxe, Level 2 Dwarf War Cleric of Odin played by Nate

Vuvier, Level 3 Gnome Thief played by Julie

Thane, Level 3 Human Wizard played by Julie

Ronin, Level 3 Human Fighting-Man played by Ethan

Faelin, Level 3 Human Ranger played by Simone

Ældlin, Level 3 Half-Elf Druid played by me, Scott

And

Meira, Level 2 Half-Elf Fighting-Man played by Nate as an NPC since her normal player AJ couldn’t be with us tonight.

When Last We Left Our Murderhobos…

We had just defeated an owlbear in a large library. We just missed the evil wizard Oliver and his nigh-companion (!) Sylvia, who we had been sent to rescue disappearing through a secret door! And we decided to switch up our marching order to put more beef up front.

So we dashed up to the portal where Oliver had gone. Vuvier checked for traps and found there was something ot quite right about the doorknob.  So Ældlin called upon one of his goblin lackeys to check the door. Alack! The goblin touched the knob and was instantly slain! Poison!

So that solved that door thing.

Ronin, he of Strength 18/98, casually obliterated the door with his boot and we stepped through the hole in the wall. Oliver was long gone.  Or was he? WE HAVE A RANGER!! And the dungeon complex is made from packed earth, not stone – she can track them! YAY for Faelin!

She tracked him through the compound and right into a bare wall. We checked and Vuvier found a secret latch and opened a secret door! We went 20’ in and there were bags and bags of rich stuff.

Vuvier, in spite of his better nature, went to collect the jangling, glowing coins. But he tripped a metal door trap which pinned him against a wall!  The rest of us rushed in and found Oliver was guarded by three zombies.

Everaxe the Dwarven war Cleric held his mace back and instead turned the foul fiends. Faelin shot Oliver with an arrow. Since he was cornered and apparently out of spells, he surrendered. He said he would tell us where Sylvia was if Everaxe the Cleric swore he would release him safely. Everaxe thought about it and slugged him unconscious instead.

We extricated Vuvier from the trap. He was okay. A little HP damage but hale and hearty.

We picked up 9600 GP worth of treasure in coins, jewels and jewelry (YAY!) and additionally found several potions and an interesting old leather box. We suspect that the jewels and box belong to Sylvia or were part of a dowry.

Again thanks to Faelin, we determined the bags of coins and rich stuff had been dragged into the dungeon quite recently. Perhaps the riches were Sylvia’s ransom…?

We went back to check the books. The other goblin asked us, “Where is my brother?”

Source

Ældlin told him, “I’m sorry. Your brother is dead. Poison. Oliver did it!”

The goblin jumped upon Oliver in a murderous rage! Before we could stop him, he had run Oliver’s skull through with a potato peeler! Ronin slugged the goblin and killed him.

With a dying declaration, Oliver told Everaxe where to find Sylvia: in the stockade with the men from East Reach where we had late escaped.

Ældlin gave the remaining goblin a healing potion, bringing him back to life. In exchange, the goblin turned up a Ring of Invisibility, Oliver’s spell book, a Dagger +1, and several potions.  Score!!  And now Ældlin has another goblin to hench for him – until there’s another poisoned doorknob.

Ældlin also gave Ronin the Ring of Invisibility, fulfilling Ældlin’s promise to Ronin to give him a magic item in exchange for exclusive bargaining rights for Sylvia’s.

The seven friends and grieving goblin left the dungeon complex, having killed everything and looted a heck of a lot. Ældlin dismissed the snare at the entrance and asked a squirrel if she’d seen men like those at East Reach. She had, and they had been there in the last two days.

Faelin found the tracks of dozens of men and horses heading in the same direction we were going – to Castle Clifton. They were six hours ahead of us. We were low on spells and hit points and there was no way we could reach them in time anyway. Clifton was on his own for now.

We found a secluded spot in the West Wood to bury our treasure, heal up, rest, regain our spells, and level up.

Level Ups:

Vuvier goes to 4!

Ronin goes to 4!

Everaxe goes to 3!

Meira goes to 3!

The other three gain quite a lot of good XP on their way to their next levels.

PROPS: Everybody! I think we made every roll tonight. We all used our special abilities and all made great decisions! Steve made it so fun because we all had a chance to contribute. (Granted, Thane and Meira didn’t do much but Julie had another, active PC and AJ wasn’t there to notice.)

SLOPS: Having to stop earlier than normal tonight. Oh well, we all had a chance to beat the bad guy and get rich!

Additional PROPS: The cat Rosie who was just a total luv all night, spending time in every lap in the place.

NEXT TIME: Magic up a strike team with Invisibility rings and potions and infiltrate the stockade to see just whether Sylvia is there now... or had the foul fiend misled us with his dying declaration?