SessionEight

October 4, 2008

Before the party leaves for Otillis, Gardon Mor tells them the goblins used to not ride wolves before the war and only began to when they were led by the evil wizard, the Green Adept. This occurred within the last year. Cinoi has looking a bit desperate at the thought of sitting around all day in this town, his boredom getting to him.

The party sets out for Otillis, traveling about three miles before getting there. This road is a bit better than Halys road. They can see some more damaged houses. Soon, they see the Otillis lodge, which is made of huge wood logs and stonework, not quite a castle. The smaller out buildings around the place are destroyed. There are signs someone has been working on it, and smoke is coming out of the chimney.

As the party approaches the lodge, they see door is open, but nothing seems to be amiss. Osrik calls to the Lodge. A voice answers and asks them to go in and the party does. The voice belongs to a human male, priest of Otillis. When asked why they are there, Chaedi says they are looking for Dex and Dudley. The priest says Dex was around a couple of weeks ago, but hasn't seen him since. He didn't have Dudley with him at the time and was still looking for him. (Cinoi doesn't think he's lying.) The conversation bores Cinoi.

Dex had arrived with a horse. A priest of Yalokai and other companions make up his party. They are a bold and well-equipped band that does jobs for the duke. Dex is in charge of the Vim area. Osrik mentions Dannic is back, and the guy talks about how nice Dannic's family were (making Cinoi choke). Then, they discover Dannic's position in life is relatively new, having gained his position after family members had died. Cinoi warns, "Just watch out for his magic wand. No one knows what he does with it, but he's very protective of it."

Chaedi asks about finding Dex. The priest suggest Lord Mirthon is someone to find, who is a friend of Dex. He lives up north near Lad, 20 miles west of the lodge. Cinoi asks what is between here and there. He is told the area is made up of a swamp, forest, hills, lake, a difficult trek across country. If they go down the road for 10 miles or so, they'll come to good-sized manor. A track leads west from there and leads to a small town called Blomar. Once there, they can find the way to Lad, which is a good-sized town. He says Dex's friends were up north, and he was waiting for them to come back south because he had information for them.

The party decides not to look for Dex for a while. They decide to go back to Vim and check out the barrow. Cinoi is all for hiring someone from the settlers to dig at the barrow. When Alecsa points out the guy hired could end up stealing any treasure they find, Cinoi claims he'll watch over his shoulder. [Yeah, like he has that kind of attention span.] The priest tells Osrik he will notify the party if Dex or his friends come back through.

The party heads back to Vim, arriving around noon. Villagers are busy tearing down damaged houses and stacking the good lumber. Dannic tells them what to do. Cinoi pokes Osrik and tells him there are villagers for him to guard. Osrik says he's done his duty, and Cinoi looks disappointed.

The party decides they will get a digger later if they end up needing one. Cinoi agrees, "Otherwise, we have a dwarf, and dwarves like digging, right? Osrok says, "NOT."

The mound is on other side of the river. The party finds no hidden way to cross, and the water is about 40-50 feet across. Chaedi goes testing to see if how they can get across. Cinoi warns her to watch out for giant turtles! Chaedi reports that the water is deep enough to paddle a bit. Cinoi looks skeptical. He suggests looking up- or downstream for an easier way to cross. (After a short discussion of why Nate doesn't own a cell phone) The party searches for another way, since the mound is on the other side of river. Going upstream a ½ mile, almost back to Vim, they find a spot the dwarf won't drown in. [Dwarves sink.] They cross and walk back to the barrow.

The mound is on the edge of the forest, so the party is careful in approaching. Cinoi watches the trees carefully. Osrik walks around the barrow and sees some weathered stones that look like part of the structure. Osrik climbs up and examines them. They look old, and he can't make out anything on them. He's not sure if there is actually any writing.

Cinoi asks Osrik if there are any loose stones, but nothing seems to be loose. Cinoi tries to chip a piece of one of the stones off and breaks off a piece and puts it with his castle piece, and looks really, really sneaky for Osrik's benefit. Osrik rolls his eyes. Cinoi suggests blasting the stones, to see if anything happens. He hits them with an eldritch blast, but it only leaves a mark and nothing else. Cinoi looks disappointed and mutters something about all those years of study for nothing...

Chaedi looks for any tracks and locates a path that heads east. She says it looks like a game or goblin trail, but she's not sure. Chaedi says the party will follow it. Cinoi is not enamored of that idea and suggests Osrik go first; he thinks it's too dark. [And he's got that dendrophobia thing going on...]

They decide to forget about the game trail and hire a digger. Since the big boys don't want to go on this little errand, Alecsa, Gloriana, and Chaedi go get a digger or two. Cinoi wants to know what if the villagers are too busy? Alecsa is rather incredulous that no one might come if the party offers money. Cinoi points out Dannic might not let them go. Alecsa says he can threaten his wand. Cinoi says he doesn't think he wants see his wand. Cinoi declares he'll stay behind and poke around the stones, and see if he hears hollow spots if he bangs on the ground. He finds nothing.

Osrik watches the trail to see if he can plan where to dig in order to slide out a stone. Cinoi looks around for any dry sticks, even a twig. He finds one and sneaks up on Osrik and steps on it, yelling "BOO!" Osrik slugs him in the chest. Cinoi says, "Ugh... Dwarves, no sense of humor." [Alecsa has told him that many, many times.] Cinoi is not sure what kind of stone it is, but Osrik thinks it was probably quarried nearby. A bored Cinoi makes a castle out of twigs and then eldritch blasts it.

Back at the village, Dannic is lording it over the villagers and has six henchmen working for him. Alecsa asks around for someone who wants to dig. They spot a guy and send Gloriana to recruit him. She grabs him and drags him with her when he indicates he might be interested in helping. Chaedi "recruits shovels," and they return to the barrow.

Once back at the site, Osrik shows the diggers a likely spot. Cinoi recommends digging near the stones and stands back with his arms crossed, chewing on a piece of grass. Alecsa looks at the blown-up twigs and asks him what that was. Cinoi raises an eyebrow, and says, "Magic!" She pokes him. So, the party spends three or fours hours digging. Cinoi jokingly suggests camping out and telling ghost stories all night, but he isn't serious.

Osrik notices someone watching from the trees, and a villager whines about Goblins. He tells them that burning something on top of the mound signals that they want to talk to the goblins. [Way to go, Cinoi!!!] Cinoi looks amused.

Five or six goblins arrive. Cinoi says he's not going to say anything to them, since it's the others that want to talk to the goblins and not him. Chaedi lights a candle and sets it on the rock. Three of the goblins start up the hill. One is an old looking goblin. One is tough and has an axe. The other is smaller. They come up to within 10 paces and ask Osrik and Cinoi why they have come. Cinoi moves to be further back than Osrik and tells him to deal with it.

Osrik tells the goblin the war is over. Silent Warrior, the tough goblin, says Red Axe is not finished with the war. Osrik tells them to send the wolves away to make peace with the humans in the village. Old guy, Hexing Bones, says Red Axe must speak with Osrik, and won't listen to him. So, they want the party to kill Red Axe and then they will make peace. Osrik tells him to make sure the other goblins do not attack them. After making sure the goblins understand not to kill him, he starts to worry that Red Axe might be a good goblin [Is there such a thing?], since Hexing Bones is a goblin and might be lying to them.

Hexing Bones says to return to the crossing place and find the path that leads to Red Axe. Red Axe's place looks like a fort built of trees, built by bad things that made goblins work. Bad things are gone, and only Red Axe is left, along with a lot of wolves. Hexing Bones says Red Axe is a big goblin. The party reinforces the idea that the other goblins not attack them as the party travels through their area. Cinoi walks up the Hexing bones, and says, "Red Axe throat cut," and bows.

They swear the villagers to silence. Cinoi says Silthond should be happy there's a way the village can be safe and hopes the party gets some treasure out of this venture.

Back at Vim, Dannic is pissed that they had left and taken his villagers. Cinoi gives him a dirty look. The party dishes crap right back at him when he starts, since they no longer have any reason to be nice to him with the journey over. [I know. It's not like they were ever nice to him before, either] They do decide to tell Silthond, and possibly Dannic's the sergeant.

As they walk through town, Cinoi is scanning the ground for loose change. Thinking he's just acting really oddly, Alecsa kicks him in the ankle. He says he told her he'd get her some treasure, Alecsa says, "In a goblin war?!" Cinoi says, "No, looking for change." She says, "Thanks. We can buy a house in no time this way." Cinoi laughs.

The party tells the sergeant about the goblin meeting, too, and that they plan to set out in the morning. He says he can't send out someone to help them without Dannic noticing. He says he'll try to come up with something. He can say they stumbled into each other out there. He promises to send someone to meet them at the crossing place.

Next morning, they wait for the guard at the river. The guards' name is Roger. He's all into the goblin killing. They follow him and find the real crossing path, which is where they had crossed before.

Across the river, they look for the signs Hex Bones had mentioned. Chaedi finds the trail, which is sort of concealed. It starts a ways into the woods. Cinoi walks slouchy-like to seem shorter in the woods. [Trees attack tall people?!] Chaedi goes a bit ahead to check on things, since she can teleport back if something goes bad.

Chaedi follows the path, and they go up a mile or so before they come to a low hill with a stockade. They can see a crude black flag with a half moon shape. The stockade is less than totally intact. There may have been some buildings outside of it, but they are now destroyed. There is a small stone tower-looking thing that looks old and not well maintained. Cinoi wants to blast down a tree down on it, but Osrik says it will probably have to be finished off. Alas, there are near trees. Alecsa says she can move up and look. Cinoi doesn't want any goblins flanking them.

Alecsa sneaks up to the fort. She slips through the gate where it looks like someone had bashed it in, in the past. There's an area inside that is 50 feet across, and she can see the base of a 20-30 foot stone tower. A couple of other buildings there are badly maintained.

Cinoi cuts some branches and sticks them in his backpack so that they're sticking out, but he pats the tree after, and says, "Nice tree." [Yeah...]

Alecsa returns to tell the party what she's seen. Chaedi begins telling her she can do prestidigitation. Alecsa interrupts her by saying no one wants a magic show. Chaedi clarifies that she wants to make a sound in the forest to draw the goblins out. Cinoi barely keeps a straight face. Cinoi suggests a trip rope across the gate, if Alecsa can do it safely, ankle-height, a dirty rope with spiky things. However, she has no caltrops, and they don't have time to try to weave her pitons into the rope.

So, they lay the ankle high rope 10' from the gates with Cinoi, having wrapped his end around the tree, holding it and using the tree for hiding. Osrik stays near Cinoi. Chaedi and Alecsa will be further away to make the sounds. Gloriana stands with the guard, Roger.

Chaedi says she will do the first call. Cinoi wants the farther tree. When Osrik says he's braver and bolder than the guard is, Cinoi claims he's not. Being brave and bold is Osrik's job. Osrik says that's why he's standing next him. Cinoi threatens to cut off his beard if Osrik gets him scratched. [Such friendship brings a tear to the eye.]

After a while, once Chaedi has made her freaky sound, they see a goblin look through hole in gate. Chaedi does the sound again a little farther away. He comes out and sneaks over to the tree Cinoi and Osrik are hiding behind. Osrik tries to club the oblivious idiot on the head but misses. Cinoi hits him with dire radiance and kills him. Osrik hauls the body into the woods.

A few minutes later, another goblin sticks his head out the hole. Chaedi does another ghost sound. The goblin comes out slowly, looking around, suspicious and sniffing. Chaedi stands up and wiggles to get its attention. The goblin shouts and turns back into the hole. Chaedi collapses and pretends she's hurt. Another goblin pops up at the top of the palisade of the gate with a javelin and hurls it at her. It goes wide, and she blasts it with a cloud of daggers, hitting the goblin. Alecsa shoots the one in the gate with a crossbow bolt.

Osrik leads an attack inside. Cinoi says so much for waiting and is miffed that the dwarf has messed up his great ambush.

Osrik sees nine goblins on the other side of the gate. He takes a swing at one and steps back outside the gate. He hits it and cleaves it in half. Another goblin steps up and swings at him through the hole and hits the dwarf. Cinoi blasts a goblin and hits it. Chaedi casts sleep on the other goblins. All four are slowed, and another three goblins are seen above the gates brandishing javelins. Alecsa moves up and shoots at one but misses. The three at the gate throw javelins at Osrik. One misses, but the other hits Osrik, and the third one throws at Roger and hits him, doing minor damage. Gloriana misses with Lance of Faith.

Osrik steps in and kills one goblin that looks sleepy. Cinoi tells Roger to help Osrik. Cinoi casts warlock's curse on the crispy one on the top and misses. Chaedi uses thunder wave. She manages to push two of them off. Alecsa throws a shuriken at the third one but doesn't kill it. The goblin on the ground swings at Osrik and hits. One at the wall throws javelin at Gloriana and hits her. Cinoi mutters something about the blindness of the gods, but only Alecsa, and maybe Osrik, could hear. Roger hits the ground goblin and kills it. Gloriana misses with her attack.

Osrik stabs at a goblin and misses. Then, all is quiet. Alecsa, looking though the gate, sees a goblin with a red axe. [From here, I was wondering how the hell she ended up inside the gate when she never stepped through!] Red Axe hits her. Chaedi casts cloud of daggers but didn't hit it. Alecsa attacks axe guy with Easy Target. Cinoi moves up to take a look and looks between Osrik and Roger, seeing a goblin with a spear. He hits the goblin with warlock's curse and kills it! A goblin on the wall throws a javelin at Osrik and hits. Another one misses Roger. Another smaller goblin swings at Osrik.

Osrik does a healing surge, steps through the gate, and attacks Red Axe, hitting him. Cinoi warlock curses the closest one and misses. Chaedi casts cloud of daggers on a goblin and kills it. Alecsa hits Red Axe with a torturous strike. A goblin jumps down on Alecsa with a spear and misses. Another attacks her and hits. Gloriana shoots at a goblin and misses. Roger runs in and attacks a warrior and hits.

Osrik swings at Red Axe and misses. Red Axe swings and hits Osrik. Cinoi casts warlock's curse on the Red Axe but misses. Chaedi casts icy terrain on Red Axe. She hits, and he falls. Alecsa hits Red Axe with her shortsword. A spear goblin hits Alecsa. Another hits Roger. Another goblin hits Alecsa. Gloriana casts healing word, causing Alecsa to use a healing surge without her consciously having to do it.

Osrik does a spinning sweep and hits, making Red Axe fall again. Cinoi moves to get line of sight on Red Axe and casts warlock's curse, using the dread star. Red Axe is immobilized. Chaedi uses cloud of daggers on the goblin warrior and kills it. Alecsa maneuvers away from the melee to use a healing surge. Red Axe is still down and immobilized. One goblin hits Alecsa. Then he turns, and Alecsa kills him. Roger is hit by a goblin and goes down. Gloriana uses healing word on Osrik.

Osrik hits Red Axe. Cinoi hits with dreadful word. Alecsa hits with her shortsword. One goblin swings and misses. Another is running. Red Axe is slowly standing up. Gloriana shoots and kills him. Chaedi misses with cloud of daggers. Osrik misses the fleeing minion. Cinoi curses a goblin and kills it.

Gloriana and Chaedi help Roger. And Cinoi helps him, too. They grab the body of Red Axe. The party stops and heals up for a bit.

The party is mid-argument about sacking the tower, even though Osrik claims they just did what they agreed to. However, Cinoi argues that he has promised Alecsa treasure.

Tod gave us XP! -- 150 each!

SessionTen