September 13, 2008.

Alecsa and Cinoi string a tripwire over the top of the stairs to prevent unknown followers to ambush us. After searching the cellar, pantry and winecellar (with only one trap nearly crushing Osrik, and the group having to crawl back and forth over the broken wine bottles and wine racks -- oh, and the barrel of turpentine), we find a secret door behind a wine rack on the back wall. This leads into a surprisingly large cave with low ceiling and sloping floor. A smell of rot alerts us to something ahead - it turns out to be a carrion crawler. [This is where Tod sics a nasty creature with an AC of 20 on 1st level characters!] The foul thing attacks at once, and we fight a hard battle. Osric wades in with his axe and is almost immediately slowed, then held for one round. He whacks solidly with his axe and does much damage. Gloriana uses her healing powers very effectively to keep him alive and lands a couple of telling blows of her own. Chaedi uses her Icy Terrain to knock it prone for one round. Alecsa tries to assist, but the creature's armor is heavy enough that at first she has little luck. Near the end, she gets in one very lucky hit that nearly slays it. [Why is Alecsa's hit "lucky?"] Cinoi has stayed back with Chaedi, and he manages to do nothing through the whole combat, missing with every eldrich blast he throws. Chaedi finally inflicts the killing wound with her Cloud of Daggers. Chaedi does an obnoxious celebration dance because she took off ONE point that coincidentally killed it.

Investigating the charnal pile of the creature reveals a pouch with some 100 gold coins in it. Much celebration and discussion ensues. We decide to keep exploring. There are multiple tunnels leading out of this area, and we enter a mind-numbing series of passages and rooms.

Of the many winding passages, mostly described as filled with "stuff", the party finds a way outside and can see another house (DM note, this is actually the same house), a sleeping/living area the goblins use, a portable anvil, the recent smell of animals, etc. In a bedroom area outside of the "smithy", the party encounters some gray, fast creature that eludes them and escapes. Somewhere in the mess [Gillian, this is where your memory will need to come in], they find a chest on which Alecsa disables a magical trap. Inside they find a satchel with a pouch of semiprecious stones worth about 100 gp and a 100 gold coins. They are pleased with this find.

Deciding they need a rest, the party returns upstairs. They are surprised to find a couple of goblins trying to sneak up on them. For whatever reason, Osrik wants to keep a prisoner. [Osrik didn't realize the goblin wouldn't be easy to communicate with. He's still young and inexperienced!] [Hey, I'm brackets. Use something else! Oh, and, yeah, right!] Chaedi tries to get one with her cloud of daggers, but missed. Alecsa buries a shuriken in a goblin's forehead, killing instantly. Osrik finally knocks out his prisoner. What joy.

Talking to the goblin is just about fruitless, since no one speaks goblin. From what we discovered and what we can understand from the goblin (providing he understands what we asked), we think there may be upwards of about 30 goblins unaccounted for. Having served his usefulness, Osrik kills his prisoner, claiming it's doing him a favor (because what the villagers would do to it would be worse and inhumane). Gloriana is utterly shocked, not by the killing of the goblin but that it was couched as "doing it a favor." That particular experience has left a bad taste in her mouth.

Alecsa thinks the whole prisoner thing was pretty stupid, and most likely Cinoi agrees.Osrik agrees that if he'd realized how futile it was, he wouldn't have done it. Next time, he'll think twice about bothering.

[Ok, Gillian, what was the final encounter, where Cinoi finally did something helpful? Was there a third goblin upstairs that he killed? It's a shame not to remember...]

SessionFour

SessionSix