Sunday, January 27, 2008

Hobgoblins!

6 November, 595
Part One

The next morning our heroes meet back at Keygan's shop and continue exploring the malachite dungeon. Plenty's secret door is investigated and it leads to a secret armory, containing a number of weapons, and pieces of armor. Plenty and Fario don new sets of banded mail, and Nodonn claims a set of plate mail, which is hauled up to Keygan's for safe-keeping.

Both the ogre's den and the armory is searched and a secret door is found which leads into a forge. Lyra sneaks into the large room and finds it occupied by 2 halflings and a female dwarf, working as slaves, and a guard consisting of 3 goblins and 4 hobgoblins. Lyra attempts to sneak up on the goblins but gives away her presence. The goblins rush to swarm her and she is soon joined by her comrades. In the ensuing battle several are severely wounded and Felian is slain. After the conflict, Fario grieves for his fallen friend and begs to return to the surface to attend to his corpse. It is agreed and the prisoners are brought to the temple of St. Cuthbert for an interview with Jenya, while Fario goes off with Felian's body.

Jenya questions both the prisoners and the party members about the missing children, and Keyan Gehlve's role in things. She says that Keygan should be dealt with when this is all over, but that he should not be interfered with until after the children are found. Jenya agrees to have the members of the party healed on the condition that they return to the search right away, as time is clearly of the essence.

The group returns to the forge area and decides to investigate one of the doors in the room. The door opens into a hallway, and Lyra sneals out to explore it. She spies two figures around the corner, but can't make out much more in the dark. Bruinor goes to look and confirms 2 hobgoblins standing guard in front of a set of double doors. Throckmorten casts a light spell on one of the guards, momentarily blinding them both. The party then rushes the two while Nodonn and Lyra hang back. One is slain but the other manages to get off two critical actions before he falls. First, he pulls a lever activating a spike pit trap. Lyra is nimble enough to avoid the trap but Nodonn falls gracelessly onto the spikes. The second thing the creature does is bang a warning on the doors. Unfortunately for Lyra she is caught on the other side of the trap when 4 more hobgoblins come springing out of another room. Plenty makes a running jump but misjudges the distance and falls down into the pit with Nodonn. Bruinor thinks quickly and closes the trap door, allowing the hobgoblins to run over the trap, at which point he pulls the lever again, trapping 2 of them down in the pit. Plenty and Nodonn make short work of the unlucky ones. In the meantime more hobgoblins start entering the hallway, overwhelming the party. Their only exit cut off, the group has no option but to fight to the death. Nodonn helps Plenty out of the trap, but he is subdued by javelins thrown by the hobgoblins on the other side. Plenty and Bruinor go down, but Bruinor is revived and plays a key role in the outcome of the battle. Fario is cut down by an axe before the group finally wins out. Checking their losses, the fallen in the group are healed, except for Fario, who is a lost cause.

The bodies are pillaged and the team once again returns to the surface. Throckmorten takes Fario's corpse to the temple of Wee Jas for burial. Nodonn and Bruinor head to the mayor's office to find out who should be notified about the deaths of Fario and Felian. The receptionist is not immediately helpful, telling them that the mayor is not available at this time. Bruinor blows a gasket and uses his axe to turn the administrator's desk into firewood. The scared receptionist calls out for the guard, who immediately come and arrest Bruinor and Nodonn, after a short confrontation. The two are put into a holding cell and left alone...

Descent Into the Malachite Fortress

5 November, 595
Part Two

After disposing of Jimmy's remains, our heroes reequip themselves and prepare for another foray into the ruins. When they arrive at Keygan's shop, they find a pair of half-elves waiting for them. The newcomers introduce themselves as Fario Ellegoth, and Felian Shard, sent by the mayor's office to help in the investigation of the missing children. Fario is an expert with a sword, and Felian is a cleric of Fharlanghn.

Descending the staircase, the group decides to investigate the secret doorways found on one of the landings. Lyra turns a nearby sconce counterclockwise, and the lower stairs collapse into a ramp, sending Nodonn and Felian tumbling down into the mask room. Felian seems a bit bruised but dusts himself off and climbs back up the staircase. Lyra turns the sconce the other way and the door opens into a short corrider. Bruinor inspects the end of the passage and finds another hidden door. As Lyra attempts to open it the floor underneath her gives way, and she jumps back in time to avoid falling into a pit trap filled with bubbling acid, holding onto Bruinor's beard for dear life.

The torch sconce is fiddled with again in the hopes that the pit trap will close, but this has no effect, apart from sending Nodonn hurtling down into the mask room again. Lyra finds that she is able to disable the trap by closing the far door and jamming it shut with a dagger. The second door is opened to reveal an elevator platform populated by a pair of hobgoblins. The foes get off a few javelin tosses, then melee ensues, and the hobgoblin threat is removed. Afterward, another secret door is found to lead to a room featuring a lever in one of the walls. After some experimenting, it is discovered that the lever enables and disables the acid pit trap on the other side of the wall. The group takes up position around the elevator and Plenty pulls the switch, sending them down into the depths of the Malachite Fortress.

They come out into a room with a pair of empty cages and a stone statue from which protrude several tendrils ending in crystalized spikes. Nodonn whacks at the thing and it springs to life, swinging its tendrils about threateningly. The statue is surrounded and defeated fairly quickly. At the same time, a large brutish humanoid emerges from a door shouting "More carrion for my larder!" and joins the fray with his ridiculously large falchion. The creature is surrounded and takes blow after blow from the party, but holds his ground while dropping both Throckmorten and Plenty each with one swing of his sword. Fario also takes a severe beating but remains on his feet. It's Bruinor's axe which slices through his abdomen that fells the foul creature. The fallen party members are revived, and the beast's filthy "larder" is explored. A chest is found which contains a couple of thousand silver pieces, two deep green spinel gems, and a fungi flask containing some kind of magical potion. Plenty finds a secret door which leads down a long passage, but the group decides to head back up to the surface to recover after a hard battle.

The party pays a visit to the temple of Wee Jas, and their wounds are attended to. The members of the party then part ways and rest for the remainder of the night.