DM Mathpro's Jade Regent Campaign-Table 2

Game Master Almagafor

Upon seeing Jayna untie the other prisoner, Derric readies his katana. He stands ready to intercept any foe that comes charging out.

He is now readied against approach, so should an enemy try to approach him or go past him, Derric will interrupt their movement allowing him to attack them.

Rishana breathes a sigh of relief as rescuers appear out of the darkness. "My thanks," she says as she quickly climbs to her feet, rubbing her wrists and ankles as feeling begins to return to them.

As she spots one of the men leaning down for a closer look at Senga, she calls out, "Leave her!" She races over to where the cat lays silent on the ground and kneels down next to her. Relieved to see the familiar rise and fall of the chest, she whispers, "Let me wake her. She doesn't know your face!"

Daichi raises an eyebrow, but does as he's asked and steps back from the beast. "As you wish."

Knowing she needs to work quickly, Rishana leans down and gently strokes Senga's head as she murmurs quietly into her ear. "Senga, he wa ki ara. Shhh...te reira pai. Ahau i konei ahau ki a koutou."

As the leopard's eyes flutter open, Rishana glances up at the man - who she now recognizes as Daichi. "Apologies, Daichi. Although Senga will listen to me, she is still wild at heart. I was afraid that she might panic and hurt you or herself if she woke up to an unfamiliar face."

"I will remember to treat her with care," he says. "You are... Rishana, correct? I apologize, but I do not believe we have spoken in any meaningful way before. Are you unharmed?"

Kiko was shocked when the little goblin went down, something that didn't fade when the woman untied her. "Who are you and what are you doing here?

She did not wait for an answer and instead rushed towards the little goblin. "You poor thing. You should be an exemplar for all goblin kind and not knocked down like this." Her words are followed by some mumbling as she touched the downed goblin.

Casting CLW on Runt
Healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

"You're welcome, Rishana. I'm not sure how you got captured by these goblins but I'm glad we were able to rescue you from them," the kitsune said with a smile on his face before he returned to being prepared to intercept any charging goblins.

He then saw the other prisoner heal the goblin they had taken down. He thought about telling her not to, but then he began to wonder if the goblin had actually turned over a new leaf and was going to free the prisoners but he got scared when Jayna startled him.

Jayna looks confused as the young woman she vaguly knows runs to the goblin to heal him.

"Miss. Kiko isn't it? Why are you healing him?", she asks while skanning the area anything headed toward the group.

"Kiko!? What are you doing here? Were you with Ameiko when you were attacked by the goblins!!?"

The kitsune knew that Kiko and Ameiko were good friends so it was a good thing that the adventurers had found the goblins' village.

Derric returned to preparing the goblins' charge.

"I was. We got separated when the other goblins attacked. As for this one, his name is Runt. He is the one goblin in here who speaks our language and was willing to talk. He was to be my ticket out of here before you guys appeared." She smiled at the little goblin, "He was nice so deserves better than this. He also told me what has been riling up the goblins. I think they're dealing with attacks by the living dead."

"Rishana! How'd you wind up captured?" says Leo. He keeps his sword ready, surveying the area in case goblins make a sudden return. "If the goblins aren't here watching you... I wonder if they're attacking the town. Not a good sign."

Derric nodded at Kiko. He did wonder if the goblin named Runt would be thankful. But his mind was more focused on two things: being prepared for a goblin rush and the fact that a group of undead had attacked the goblins. But that didn't make sense.

Why would goblins attack travelers and caravans in retaliation for being attacked by undead?

"Kiko why did the undead attack the goblins? And when? Did Runt tell you anything more about the undead?"

Now recognizing the rest of her rescuers, as well as the other prisoner, Rishana feels both relieved and a little puzzled. "Senga and I were out scouting," she responds. It's hard to tell in the dim light, but she looks a little embarrassed. "We were ambushed and overwhelmed. I remember some sort of weapon of fire..." she glances down at herself and at the now-conscious Senga, "but either their aim was poor or they mended our wounds afterwards. No burns."

She glances over at the tiny goblin as Kiko tends to him. "She's right, that one didn't seem...hostile. He said something about his tribe being attacked by 'bony men'."

She then looks around warily. "We'd best make a plan and quickly. His screaming will have alerted the other goblins, if they are still nearby!"

"If he truly was less... malicious than the others, I will apologize once we've dealt with this mess. I fear our only options are retreat or attempting to defeat everything the goblins throw at us until they break and run." He looks around the entrance to the village. "Perhaps we can use the gates as a bottleneck to keep them from swarming us under."

Nodding in agreement with Daichi, Derric replies, "Sounds like a plan. I say we go for it. Especially if the goblins start using their fireworks on us."

Runt's eyes flutter open with Kiko's healing touch, his wounds have stopped bleeding but the flesh is still tender and would easily reopen if he tried to exert himself. "Runt is alive, why Runt is alive?" he gasps between words, "Was sure I was dead, saw fiery place..."

Runt's at 0hp, that heal was spot on.

While still preparing to intercept any charging goblins, Derric quickly asked the goblin, "Okay Runt, we just saved your life, so please tell us about these bony men?"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11 :(

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

"We were in the swamp. It was odd. There was this bright lightening, and then I was there and not in the Rusty Dragon like I thought I was."

"You helped me Runt, so I'm helping you in return. I healed you." She offered the little goblin a warm smile. "You're a good man Runt, that deserves to be rewarded."

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26

"Now I think you'd best hide for a bit, unless you can calm the rest of your tribe. It sounds like they'll be attacking soon. I don't want you to get hurt again." As she spoke she got up, looking towards the direction she heard the sounds coming from.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16

Although she had no particular love for goblins Rishana knew that if these 'bony men' actually were the living dead shambling around, that they posed a much greater risk to Sandpoint and the surrounding area than the goblins ever could.

"My earlier offer still stands," she says quietly. "Maybe I...or we..." she glances at the others, "can put an end to these bony men for you, if your Chief will promise not to hurt anyone else."

Diplomacy (Aid Another): 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (10) - 1 = 9

She draws her longbow. "But we will also defend ourselves if necessary. Senga, noho."

The cat, now easily identified as a leopard, gazes up at Rishana with great yellow eyes before sitting back down. She regards the others, especially the small goblin, with a bit of a hungry look but makes no move to attack.

A call comes down from the nearest building, in a chirping sort of language.

Runt crawls onto his knees and does his best to reply, speaking in the same tongue.

A little green head with an over-sized helm perched on it pops up in a window, a malicious smile creeping across it's face.

"Hi, humies! Runt says you want to help, that right?"

Derric hoped this was okay. Goblins weren't exactly friendly or trustworthy.

Speaking in Tien to Kiko, the kitsune asked, "Do you think this is wise? What if the goblins double cross us? They did attack you and Ameiko as well. Can we trust them? Plus the sheriff of Sandpoint has told us he wanted us to bring him the head of the goblins' chieftain to him as well."

Derric is speaking in Tien.

Jayna says in common, "We want to get rid of the bony men. That helps you yes? Where are the bony men?"

Jayna hopes that talking to the goblin works. She knows they aren't trustworthy, but they can be reasoned with some what.

If you need it. Diplomacy: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30

Derric didn't like the fact that the goblin was giving them a very evil looking smile.

"At least they haven't mistaken me for a talking two legged dog," he muttered to himself.

Leo remains wary but lets his friends do the talking with the goblins - anyone who's known him for a while, though, can tell he's not entirely happy about it.

He says to Rishana, "Did you get hurt at all? Do you need magical healing?"

Are the goblin-captive PCs still in their armor/have their gear, or is it stowed in the room, or is it not here? Uh, if that was mentioned already, sorry, I missed it. :)

"Yes, the bony men. What can you tell us about them? Runt said they were evil and nasty but we don't know anything else about them yet." She offered the big goblin a broad, kind smile in return for his malicious one.

"Senga and I seem to be unharmed," Rishana murmurs to Leo, still keeping one wary eye on the goblin peeping out of the nearby window. "If we were injured, then the goblins patched us up after they took us prisoner. That little one, Runt, said something about giving the two of us and Kiko to the bony men to try and appease them. Probably why we weren't treated more poorly."

As they attempt to negotiate with the goblins, something else occurs to Rishana. "Why are the rest of you out here in the first place? Derric mentioned the goblins attacking and Jayna said something about being first in one place and then another. Is Sandpoint in danger??" she continues, looking worried.

Is Mother Koya safe?

"There were other injuries in the recent goblin raids. Ameiko is still in bed recovering. The sheriff sent a party out to deal with them before they actually threaten Sandpoint."

Okay...how is everyone making their text small? I've yet to figure that out.

Derric whispered to Rishana, "I'm not sure but it is possible that something happened and the gods wanted to um...well for good to be done or something. I'm not sure. I was out here in the swamps trying to locate the goblins and stop their attacks on caravans and travelers. I was with some others...I think they were Daichi, Leo, and Jayna but still my memory does have some blurry spots here and there. But we'll figure that out later. Sandpoint is fine I think. I do know that Shalelu was hurt when she rescued Ameiko. But she's a quick in recovering. Lady Koya is fine as well. She was tending Ameiko last time I checked. The whole town is furious that Ameiko was injured."

The kitsune then remembered Shalelu saying something to him before he had gone into the swamps: ...do me a favor, can you get the guts up to tell her how you feel? Its obvious you have feelings for her...women can always tell. And speaking as one, I'd much rather be told if someone had feelings for me than them have feeling for me and always be around and not say anything. Nothing worse than a missed opportunity for love..."

He left that part out as he was still a bit embarrassed that someone had figured out that he had a romantic crush on Ameiko.

"Wait...isn't Daichi a servant for Ameiko's family!? Oh crud! Does he know that I'm in love with her!? Double crud!"

The captives gear is close enough to not worry about finding it, assume they've got everything.

The goblin with the helmet's smile continues to spread, the corners of his mouth have gotten well beyond the limit for humans or elves and they keep spreading, the width of his grin is truly disconcerting.

"Yeah, we can show you bony men. One problem is Chief, he show you where they at and then gut you when you done, maybe before. You need to kill Chief first, safer, we can get many goblins to stay out of fight though."

Sense motive: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14

Derric asked the goblin why he wanted them to kill their chief first. As he asked he watched for any signs of deceit.

Use the 'smaller' and 'bigger' tags to change your font size! Just put them in brackets like you would for ooc :)

"I see..." she whispers back as Derric explains a little more of the situation. "It seems that something strange has happened outside of the goblin attacks, but whatever it is needs to be put aside for now until this threat is taken care of."

When the grinning goblin informs them that the goblin chieftain should also die, Rishana raises an eyebrow. "So you ask us to also kill your Chief for you. Why?" she asks, although she's fairly certain she already knows the answer - or at least part of it.

The struggle for power...some things are the same no matter what sort of peoples you meet.

The little goblin looks at you a moment, then at Runt. He chooses his words carefully. "You need Chief dead because he will try to kill you eventually, I want Chief dead cause he kill my friend."

Runt nods, "Chief kill Scribbleface, Scribbleface was friend, never kick Runt."

Jayna looks startled, "Scribbleface? Did he write?"

Runt nods, "Yeah, he wrote. We were going to just run him outta town, he was nice to us. But Chief killed him, made his friends watch."

"I'm sorry," Daichi says simply. "I believe that we may be able to solve your problem. But I must ask, do you think the goblins could be dissuaded from causing further problems for Sandpoint if we deal with the chief and these bone men?"

Derric was a bit puzzled at what was happening. If they killed the chieftain wouldn't another goblin far worse take his place?

"I agree. How do we know that you won't turn around and attack Sandpoint again?"

Local: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (10) + 5 = 15 Seeing if Derric has heard anything about goblins, their honesty (or their lack), and this tribe's chieftain.

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15

As the two groups feel each other out, trying to determine where the other stands, Rishana listens intently. For the moment, she felt no need to add any input of her own as the others were already echoing her own concerns.

Dealing with goblins...not wise, but if these bony men are real then they're a danger to us all.

The goblin chews on his lip, considering Daichi and Derric's questions,"It's dangerous to attack humie town, our numbers are fewer and will be less when Chief gone, we not attack town, we avoid main roads. You can't really trust us, but we not likely to attack with no Chief."

"He has a point, much as I hate to say it," Rishana mutters to the others. "The goblins are the known threat and that also makes them the lesser threat right now. These 'bony men' - whether the walking dead or something else - are a bigger concern for us."

Derric nodded in agreement with Rishana.

"I agree. From what I've heard from travelers and from others in Sandpoint, the Licktoad tribe is actually quite small compared to the more troublesome goblin tribes in the area. They've kept to the occasional foolish merchant who tries to cut through the swamp. They've only recently began to attack the main roads, mostly due to their acquiring of fireworks. Goblins aren't known for their honesty I'm afraid. However," Derric pauses as he quickly looks at the goblin the adventurers had been speaking to before finishing his reply to his companions, "this goblin seems to be speaking the truth as far as I can tell. Still it best that we stay alert...just in case."

Jayna says, "I agree let's do as they ask. I have no problem with killing goblins." she glares at the two standing before her, But the bony men are clearly the more dangerous target right now."

Jayana's body language says that she clearly doesn't trust these goblins, but she's willing to take a chance that they are being honest about not raiding the town if we take care of the chief.

"I... suppose that we can't really expect more from a goblin tribe. And we were only asked to bring back the chief's head, so we would be doing as the sheriff asked." Daichi sighs. "Very well. Let us deal with the chief quickly so that we can hunt down these bone men. I wish to return to check on Ameiko-sama as soon as possible."

"We'll have to make sure to take all of the fireworks these goblins have to be sure that they don't attack the town," the kitsune whispered.

Leo looks a bit unhappy and says in a low voice, "I'm not in the habit of making deals with evil creatures. IF we think we might be able to force the goblins to leave, or to change their ways - which seems unlikely, but hope springs eternal - then it may be worth it. But I don't want to help them if they're just going to betray us and the town."

"Then make sure they know what will happen if they do," Rishana responds bluntly. "One chance - to change if they care to try or to leave Sandpoint be, but one chance only. No seconds."

"Not every goblin is evil Leo. In Magnimar there are clans in the sewers that live in peace with the city at large. Besides, everyone deserves the chance to prove themselves before being judged, don't you think?" She turned to look what seemed to be the group's leader straight in the eyes when she spoke the last sentence.

"Did I not say that hope springs eternal?" Leo says with one of his signature easygoing smiles. "If we give them an opportunity - then it's on us to make sure no harm comes to the town if they turn on us."