Pre-trial session for Play by Post.
Pre-trial DM: Omelette
- The Party:
- Xavier
- Babel
- Kelzika (temporary character)
- Seeilby (temporary character) and her undead minion Clark (it did not attack us during the adventure. I swore to myself that if it did, I would shoot it with radiant magic).
- Qabal (temporary character)
- Rhelen (temporary character)
We learned from a goblin that a band of other goblins attacked the hunting party he belonged to, kidnapping several people. Apparently, after a previous band of adventurers that were hunting owlbears had attacked the goblins and taken one of their idol statues. The goblins belonged to a religious sect of some sort, so they decided to take hostages as a form of retribution. in particular, his master’s relative named Baldour Junior had been taken hostage as well, so we were asked to rescue him in particular.
We set off to where the hunting party was located. We were attacked at night by a pride of lionesses that we saw during the evening. Although I am a druid, I am not particularly merciful to beasts that attack me, so I fought back by lighting bonfires. The lionesses had managed to get close to our campsite during the night and pounced on us savagely, but we managed to slay them all, taking their furs and meats.
We arrived at the hunting party location, where they had set up tents. We met with Huntsmaster Martin, whom explained more of the situation. The goblins had been last seen to the west. The idol stolen in question had gone missing.
13 people, including Baldour Junior, were kidnapped by roughly 30 goblins, including one large goblin. We went to question the guards during the night when the people were kidnapped. The guards were a betrothed couple named Jery and Gwen.
Jery was abrasive in his responses, while Gwen was evasive. Gwen eventually broke down and revealed that she had the stolen idol. I alerted Martin, but in a sudden burst of action, Jery stabbed Martin. We fought Jery and Gwen while healing Martin. The pair were taken away to be tried and punished by the hunting party. During the night, seven hostages turned up dead in the campsite. It was likely a sign of brutatlity from the goblins, making the odds of negotiating the hostages for the stolen idol unlikely.
The next day, we went to where the goblins were last seen and found tracks. We followed the tracks to a stream which turned out to be an illusory stream. Below the illusion was a slope going downward to a hidden door below the water, with either side of the door being dammed up with stone and wood. I tried drawing a rough diagram.
We fought goblins riding spiders, swarms of spiders and more goblins in the dungeon. While fighting the swarms of spiders in a room covered in webs, I accidentally started a fire that enveloped the whole room, requiring us to move on. I did not know spider webs could be so flammable…
We eventually arrived before a particularly large goblin that was likely the leader. Babel the professor kenku linked with me telepathically as he tried to negotiate for the remaining hostages. However, he was unsuccesful, and a brutal battle ensued, with me falling unconscious at one point due to a ball of roaring fire. I managed to get healed by Rhelen, and we killed the remaining goblin kidnappers (note that this does not refer to people that kidnap goblins but rather goblins that just so happens to be kidnappers. Since there were a lot of ally and enemy goblins in this quest, I felt it was important to distinguish this). Seeilby the goblin lost her… undead minion Clark in that same fire. She seemed sad. We managed to rescue the remaining living hostages, including Baldour Junior, a haughty young man whom was missing a leg. He seemed resentful that we had arrived late and promised that his parents would hear about his mistreatment. I had dealt with more troublesome individuals before, so I merely said that I would accept any consequences after we escaped. Seeilby did not seem to tolerate the young man as much, despite his amputated limb, which we could not find.
We took the hostages back to the campsite, where they were packing things up to move out. We reunited with Martin along with the goblin Friskie, whom had arrived, and together, we managed to return to Port Mirandia in one piece. Well, most of us were, and in this particular quest, that was good enough for me. I have learned to live with such mistakes…