Grabby Scores!

June 21–23, 3430, Age of Kings

After a quick rest, the party moved down the north hall that ended in double doors, flickering candle light could be seen from between the door cracks. Cautiously opening the door the group gazed into a 20x20 foot room, brightly lit by hundreds of lit candles along the walls. The centerpiece of the room: a massive stone statue of Orcus, Demon Prince of the Dead. Several human skulls were scattered about the bloated demonic statue's cloven feet. Infront of the statue sat a stone altar, stained dark from long dried blood, and sitting atop it: a copper goblet with Orcus' visage carved onto it.

Broak, with great subtlety, decided to approach the altar and bring his warhammer down upon the goblet, smashing it, then exited the room. From here, the rest of the party noticed a wooden chest tucked away into the south-east corner of the room. Opening the chest they found 3 dark, hooded robes—similar to the one worn by the mysterious man in the other room that Ander caught a glimpse of—and 2 heavy iron medallions on chains depicting the icon of Orcus. Odd findings for a goblin lair, indeed.

Taking the robes and medallions with them, the party doubled back to the chamber they had entered through, and continued down the unexplored south hall.

The hall wound around to 2 more rooms that lay in ruin: a small chapel devoted to St. Eliah, now destroyed and desecrated, and a small room that was once the personal chambers of a priest. Finding nothing they headed down a hall that lead further to the south that opened up into the woods.

Satisfied with what they had found, they decided to journey back home for some much needed rest, and to cash in on their sack full of goblin ears.

*   *   *

Deciding to go out and celebrate and resupply, the group left for West Leedshire. Before hitting the taverns, Ander decided it was time to purchase a new war dog, luckily he managed to find one, named Skoobius, and bring it along with him and met up with the others. Deciding to tavern-hop between The Pale Lamb Barroom, The Silver Rose Tavern, and They Grey Cauldron Inn (all randomly generated names, by the way!) to do some drinking, gambling, and other random carousing (ie: I used the carousing random table in the DMG).

Audrey and Broak managed to have an uneventful, but profitable night playing games of chance and even managed to find a new friend named Bartlen Gormell, a local labourer.

Grabby managed to find himself wrapped up in a whirlwind (and drunken) romance with a woman named Audry Wachs, which ended rather poorly the next morning when she awoke to find Grabby trying to leave her townhouse with armfuls of silverware and other bric-a-brac.

Meanwhile, Ander, wanting to take a darker turn, sought out the pleasures of illicit substances—which seemed to have worked. He awoke the next morning, his head pounding, in a barn in the outskirts of the village, his weapons and brand new war dog were nowhere to be seen. It was a long walk back home.

*   *   *

Deciding the previous night was a source of wholesome entertainment, they decided to head into the village of West Leedshire once more for a night of carousing. Not wanting to tempt fate a second time, Ander simply purchased the last available war dog, Skrapeth, and headed back home for a night in.

That night Audrey made out the same as the previous night and Broak manged to make another friend, a visiting dwarf merchant by the name of Baern Krondar. The 2 dwarves headed out on their own and Broak wasn't seen again until the next day.

It seems Grabby didn't learn much from the previous night and sought out Audry Wachs in a desperate attempt to redeem himself... and "git some." He managed to find her and once again the 2 got drunk and wound up back at Audry's home...

*   *   *

Grabby awoke early the next morning in a stinking alleyway strewn with garbage. The horribly hung over halfling then realized he was completely naked, apparently robbed of everything by his vengeful lover. Slowly making his way to his feet, Grabby managed to find a piece of cabbage to cover his shame and fashion himself a makeshift cabbage loincloth. 

Furious with the thought that someone else had Mr. Shiney (his trusted magic dagger) in their possession he made his way back to Audry's home, thankful it was still very early, and few people were in the street this early in the morning. 

Looking through a first floor window he looked inside, and only saw a man, fast asleep on the floor by the smoldering fireplace. Deciding it might be wisest to retreat back home to get some clothes and nurse his hangover (that and it is a well known fact that hungover halflings wearing nothing but a cabbage leaf are not very intimidating) he wandered off down the lonely road back home. 

A small halfling, a giant walk of shame.

A Bad Day for Broak and Grabby

June 21, 3430, Age of Kings

After spending the day in town to resupply and gather themselves, the party set back out to find the goblin burrow in the woods.

After traveling for the day, Ander managed to lead his companions to the entrance. Lighting a lantern the party squeezed down the narrow passageway, clogged with stones and deep tree roots. The pathway twisted and turned as the party pressed on through the claustrophobic space until the found a hole that dropped into a flagstone room. Tied to thick roots were three chains that hung into the chamber below—the means by which the goblins could come and go.

One by one the party descended into the chamber 40 feet below. Once there, they found themselves in a 20 by 20 room, with a corridor leading to the north, and another to the south. From the north, the sound of goblins speaking could just barely be heard—so they headed towards the sound.

Coming around a corner the voices got louder, and the hall descended down a staircase that ended in a set of double doors—the voices were coming from the other side. Several goblins could be heard talking with one another, and another 2 or 3 could be heard squabbling of a game of cards (Ander speaks Goblin). Realizing the goblins were unaware of their presence, the party burst into the room to launch an attack.

Sitting around a table, playing cards, were 4 goblins, and in the far end of the room were another 8 goblins relaxing among a pile of dirty animal furs—jumping to their feet when the doors burst open.

The party launched their attack, with Broak and Audrey leading the way. In an epic—an somewhat comical—feat of agility, Audrey leapt into the fray by launching herself off of Broak's helmeted head with her foot. As they began cutting down the goblins, 2 broke for a corridor that led to the east.

Positioning himself near a group of goblins and the table, Grabby made a gesture with his hand and spoke some arcane words that unleashed a thunderous crack that shook the chamber, dislodging small stones and dirt from the ceiling—and alerting everyone in the area—sending several goblins flying through the air, landing on their backs. In addition, the heavy oak table flipped through the air, sending cards and shillings all over the room. The table landed squarely on a goblin that was knocked onto his back, crushing him with a crunch and a muffled scream.

The 2 goblins that had fled were making their way to a door, and out into a corridor heading to the south. The party tried to chase the 2 down as they fought their way through the goblins, Ander chased them in to the hall just in time to see them escape through another set of doors at the end of the hall. Just before they slammed the doors behind them, Ander got a brief glimpse of what appeared to be a human wearing dark robes move in the room beyond.

With the rest of the goblins laying dead on the floor, the rest of the party spilled into the hall and down to the doors to continue their assault. From the other side of the doors and argument could be heard between what sounded like a human, and deep, gruff voice that spoke with a Goblin accent. 

"We need more time," said the gruff voice.

"We need more, just get it done!" responded the human voice, which followed by the sound of grinding stone.

Not wasting anymore time, the party was about to charge into the room, but the gruff voice, speaking in Goblin, shouted, "Get back out there!" and the doors swung open by 2 goblins suprised to see the party standing right there.

Inside the room were several more goblins, and 3 hulking bugbears. In the room sat a table with a sizable pile of random loot on it.

Ander fell back down the hall to provide cover from a distance as Audrey and Broak fought the goblins hand-to-hand, while Grabby provided support against any that got through. Eventually the bugbears manged to make their way to the front line to engage Broak and Audrey, dealing devastating hits to them both. Broak suffered a horrible cut to his abdomen that bled profusely (House rule: criticals with slashing weapons cause d6 bleeding at the end of a character's turn, unless they use a standard action to staunch the wound).

As hits were delivered between goblins, bugbears, Audrey, Broak and Grabby, a goblin who was lurking in the room made several failed attempts to cast spells on some of the party, who eventually resorted to blasting them with magic missile spells down the hall.

Broak, realizing he was in a bad spot with his wound still bleeding, hastily pulled a vial out labeled "VAPORS" in Dwarvish that he had found from their previous adventure, took a chance and chugged it down. The gambit payed off as is body suddenly became ethereal, and his smokey incorporeal form bagan floating back down the hall away from the battle so he could be healed by Ander. But Broak's tactic quickly turned south, despite being ethereal, his mortal flesh was still bleeding profusely, as he floated back he suddenly felt woozy and passed out from the blood loss—causing his form to revert back to its physical form. Everyone in the hall, ally and foe alike, was shocked to see the dwarf that had just escaped in a puff of smoke suddenly rematerialize just 10 feet away, and fall flat to the ground with a heavy THUD.

As the battle carried on Grabby also fell unconscious from his wounds with, when things looked their darkest, the tables were turned on the Bugbears with some well placed arrows from Ander, and a critical strike from the now raging barbarian, Audrey.

With the bugbears defeated and the few goblins left (that had now retreated into the room) Audrey and Ander roused their uncnoncious friends and led the charge back into the room. They found one goblin trying to grab as much as he could from the loot on the table, and another that was standing in the corner of the room in the opening of an open secret passageway—the spell casting goblin was now already long gone. Killing the goblin in the passageway, the party chased after the last on as he dodged past the party and down the secret hall, but was felled by one of Ander's arrows.

With the battle over, and Audrey very exhausted (she had gone into her barbarian frenzy twice so far), the party looked through the spoils. Finding plenty of coin, some red gems, and an iron ring set with a diamond bearing the icon of the demon prince of the dead, Orcus.

The party decided to find a safe location to rest and heal their wounds...