Not hearing what his friends heard, Derrig whispers, Let me get that--you two...er, three... get ready. Derrig moves next to the door and gets ready to open it for Gregor, Dane and Ausk. He holds up 4 fingers, then 3, 2, 1...
Unaware of his friends hearing anything, Derrig opens the door... and triggers a trap.
However, Derrig manages to hit the ground, and the rest of the group is fortunately not in the line of the acid that sprays out! Zoning in on where Keridan herad the voices, he discovers a trapdoor under a rug, and opens it to screams, and then sighs of relief.
Within the cellar are a large number of vegetables and forest herbs. A fercious stink comes from a slight seepage of the shop's cesspit. Within are four people, one of whom looks a little better-dressed than the others.
"Oh thank the Gods, I thought we were done for. That hobgoblin bomber was going to blow us all up!"
With the danger over, Abby and your other followers slowly move their way up until everyone meets each other as the survivors get out of the foul-smelling cellar.
C'mon Les' go. We gotta stop by the Shrine. Abby'll get these uns to the bridge...
Keridan gives the rescued people a quick check-over for wounds or issues that might cause difficulty, then assigns a few of them to handle the unfortunate Oreld.
"Alright, we're headed to the shrine, but the path around town will take us past the trading house, so let's plan to stop there to see what we can salvage to take with us. Is everyone ready?"
As quickly as possible, he gets everyone going and leads the way.
You waste no time in organizing the rest of your refugees. Oreld is still severely injured, but he's no slower than Aubrin and the two of them are helped along. You gather more and more supplies, passing them out amongst your survivors.
---
The bedlam overtaking the community continues at a pitch as several people attack hobgoblins and die. There are several lit fires in many dwellings and as people flee their homes they are captured and hauled into the commons to be enslaved.
Using the bushes and skirting around the edge of town, you manage to avoid detection, and soon come to the Riverwood Shrine.
---
A wooden deck surrounds the front of an octagonal structure with broad archways leading into a place of worship. To its left stands a moss-encrusted stone monument. Carved birds, branches, and fruits decorate the wooden supports of the temple’s entryway. A dead villager is curled up on the wooden deck before the temple.
You hear growling from the other side of the temple.
Ausk sniffs the air and surveys the area before him.
As the group approaches the temple, Keridan holds up a hand to stop everyone. He whispers, "I hear something from around the building..."
I hear it, too, Derrig whispers back. We can split and approach it from both sides.
As Derrig and Keridan stopped, Dane tilted his head upwards. "Gregor, did you hear that? It was a growling sort of noise from teh other side. I don't think that's good. There's a lot of stuff that growls, but almost none of them are good. Especially when they are growling at you."
Gregor shrugged. I didn't hear it, but then you've always been the better listener. If we're going to split up, how 'bout us and Ausk go right, and the rest of you go left?"
Ausk grunts his approval at Gregor/Dane's plan
Les do it.
Rather than going to the shrine, you sneak westwards through the alleyways towards the Phaendar Trading Company, run by the unpopular blacksmith Kining Blondebeard.
You approach it from the back.
A signpost by the road announces the clapboard wooden shop and barnlike smithy sharing a single large, stone wall to be the Phaendar Trading Company. The smithy’s double doors stand open, revealing a large, still-glowing forge within. Two slaughtered goats and a dead horse fill an adjacent animal pen. Many fresh scratches and dents mar the trading post’s heavy wooden door, and a chair leg juts through one
broken window. Small fames lick at the thatch rooftop where a red-hot iron has been tossed.
Keridan points at the burning section of thatch and says, "Uisce!" Water appears just above the flame and drenches the area.
He stands back to make sure the fire is out, and allows the better armed of the group approach the door.
"What's going on, Gregor? I smell smoke, and it's nearby."
"Just the thatch on the roof, Dane. I think Keridan has it under control. Now, we're about to go into this building, and there might be bad guys that we have to deal with. So, just let me do the dealing, okay?"
"Okay, Gregor. You get to have all the fun." Dane mumbled this last bit, but Gregor ignored it. He knew his brother had some fine skills, but combat wasn't one of them.
He made sure that the others were ready, then he kicked open the door.
While your refugees gimp along, trying their best to help Aubrin (who has for the first time in her life fallen silent thanks to the giant hole in her chest), and the completely unconscious Oreld, you start to investigate the trading company.
Keridan starts casting create water onto the roof from his current position, which mostly runs off but soaks the thatch and helps prevent the fire.
The rest of you head up for the door, ready to boot it down. However, as you approach you spy three very beat-up looking hobgoblins hanging out to the south of the door. You all spot each other, and they groan, drawing their weapons!
Derrig
---
Hobgoblin
---
Keridan
Gregor and Dane
Ausk
Derrig blocks the hobgoblins' path, preventing them from getting to his injured comrades. He holds his polearm ready and sighs. I don't suppose you'd be willing to drop everything that you're carrying and run?
The three hobgoblins, although not too thrilled about a fight, know their orders and charge at Derrig! The old dwarf misses his first trip attempt, but the second succeeds and he sends one of the hobgoblins sprawling. The remaining two move in, attacking. He manages to block one attack, but another cuts a vicious wound into him.
Derrig (-10)
---
Hobgoblins:
Grey (prone)
Yellow
Blue
---
Keridan
Gregor and Dane
Ausk
"Derrig!" Keridan watches as one of the hobgoblins nearly skewers his old friend, and runs up, fishing in his pouch. He pulls out a vial of nasty looking sludge.
"Hand on Dane, they aren't going to make this easy." Gregor stepped up and swiped at the standing hobgoblin nearest, but Dane said "I hear one on the ground, look out!" and threw then both sideways. The result was a staggering shuffle and an offhand attack that sailed past Gregor's target and passed mere inches above Derrig's head.
hp: 14/14
conditions:
magical effects:
rage rounds left: 4/6
heart of the fields: 1/1
Keridan leaves his work on dousing the rooftop to help out Derrig as Gregor charges in for a mighty swing, which unfortunately his parried by the skillful hobgoblin soldiers.
Ausk chants a curse at the nearby Hobgoblin soldier (Yellow)
The Curse of Kecko Morde upon you!
The hobgoblin shakes his head quickly, resisting Ausk's spell. The hobgoblins descend on Derrig and Gregor with their longswords. As they do so, the tripped one stands up and Gregor quickly cuts it down. The remaining two attack. Gregor is badly wounded while Derrig manages to parry the blow with his bec de corbin.
Derrig (-10)
---
Hobgoblins:
Yellow
Blue
---
Keridan
Gregor and Dane (-8)
Ausk
The hobgoblin shakes his head quickly, resisting Ausk's spell. The hobgoblins descend on Derrig and Gregor with their longswords. As they do so, the tripped one stands up and Gregor quickly cuts it down. The remaining two attack. Gregor is badly wounded while Derrig manages to parry the blow with his bec de corbin.
Dane reached down to grab the hole in their side as Gregor growled in fury. The hobgoblin who had hit them paled at the look Gregor gave as the two-headed man hefted his axe and stepped to put the greenskin between Derrig and himself. Gregor brought the axe down hard.
hp: 6/14
conditions:
magical effects:
rage rounds left: 4/6
heart of the fields: 1/1
Passing the healing concoction to Derrig, Keridan moves around to draw the hobs' attention away from the dwarf. Swinging as hard as he can, he connects, but the fact that he is not trained to fight is evident as the glancing blow is barely even noticed by his quarry.
Ausk glares at the Hobgoblins and attempts the Evil Eye on another
As the hobgoblin's sword cuts through his guts, Derrig snarls in its native tongue.
Sinun olisi pitänyt juosta kun sinulla oli mahdollisuus! (The guttural anger seems out of place for the old librarian, but that's probably just the Goblin accent...)
He steps back and swings his polearm again, then turns and accepts the potion from his friend.
hp: 2/12 (will be 7/12 after he take Keridan's potion next round)
Currently holding the polearm in one hand, but he threatens adjacent squares with his cestus.
The group rallies, and both Derrig and Gregor put a quick end to the two remaining injured hobgoblins.
End of Combat
With Keridan fighting the hobgoblins, the fire on the rooftop begins to spread, as his stream of create water was so rudely interrupted. Through the windows, you can see that the front doors have furniture heavily piled against them keeping the hobgoblins out - and possibly trapping the occupants within.
Keridan turns back to the fire and begins creating as much water as he can.
"See if you can see anyone in there, we need to get them out in case we can't get this fire out!"
Derrig skakes the hob's blood from his polearm. Can someone see if they have anything useful on them? I'd rather not touch them right now. But any gear, rations, weapons, ammunition could be critical.
Derrig goes to the window and knocks on it. Everyone OK in there? The hobs are dead--we're helping people get to woods.
Derrig thanks the druid and drinks the potion.
Ausk will assist Derrig in unpiling furniture.
The furniture is actually inside the front doors - it looks like the folk inside the building barred and piled furniture against the doors to keep the hobgoblins out. The furniture also blocks any view in from the windows. However, as the fire has spread on the roof, smoke is seen wafting inside, and the people trapped within respond. You hear cries for help as you get to work. The sound of furniture being moved from within is also head.
Ausk heaves against the door
With Ausk's help, Derrig puts his shoulder against the door and shoves with all his might.
The door proves to be very difficult to take down, but Keridan's create water spell manages to keep the fire contained and slowly pushes it back. Before the smoke gets too bad, you manage to get the door down.
Inside you see the notoriously unpleasant dwarven blacksmith Kining Blondebeard, and three more survivors with her. "My heroes," she sneers. "Bastards were going to just burn us out when they realized we weren't an easy kill. Let's get out of here."
As the other survivors peer in, you hear Aubrin speak up, weakly. "Stop b@@*#ing you rotten cow. Get your supplies together, I know you keep stuff here."
Grumbling, Kining starts gathering supplies, which includes the following:
- a longsword
- two battleaxes
- a silver rapier
- a masterwork light steel shield
- a masterwork backpack
- a climber's kit
- eight waterskins
- 12 points of provisions
"That's it, can we just check the smithy outside and get out of here?" Kining looks at all of you defiantly.
Gregor and Dane looked at each other as the smith groused. "She doesn't seem happy. Why wouldn't she be happy? Didn't we just save her and the others? Gregor, what's going on?"
"Easy Dane, they're just scared. They thought they were going to die, and that made them scared. But look, one has a look of wonder on her face, wonder that her life was returned to her. And look here, supplies that we can use to help defend the others. And see? none f them are frightened of us any more. Isn't that terrific?"
While Gregor was calming down his brother, he continued to look about for signs of danger or supplies. He moved with the others to the outside
Having finally put out the fire, Keridan shakes his head at Kining's attitude, and helps distribute the gear found. "Yes, we should keep moving."
With the others close at hand, he heads around to the smithy to see what can be found there.
Good idea Ker. Les' go. Ausk grunts as he hefts his axe and follows along
You head outside while Kining picks an argument with Jet, who appears to clearly dislike the dwarven smith. The smithy is just adjacent to where you were fighting, but you head in for a proper look.
The centuries-old forge provided ample space for working iron and steel as well as limited farrier services. The hobgoblin raiders have already targeted the smithy, snatching up any weapons or armor in their meaty paws before being chased away by an unexpected visitor. A single hobgoblin still lies in the middle of the floor.
As you step in, there's a brief rumbling under the ground, and a small, roughly humanoid creature of earth and stone explodes up from the earth! It shifts around wildly before lunging at the group!
This is a small earth elemental, which can notably move through the ground as a fish through water.
Althouhg it's hard to read the body language of living rocks, this thing appears panicked and scared, not aggressive.
An earth elemental? What is that doing here? Derrig readies his poleam. Watch out! Those buggers can "swim" through solid rock; they can easily get the drop on you.
Derrig watches the creature for a moment, then shifts his poleam into a defensive stance. Huh. It's acting more frightened than angry. Hey, Blondebeard! Do you know this beastie?
Gregor hefted his axe as the earth creature burst through the ground, but held his blow as Derrig began to speak. He held his axe raised, ready to strike, but waited to see what would happen. After all, dwarfs were supposed to be close to the earth creatures, right?
Dane swung his head over towards the sounds the creature emitted, saying "Gregor, what's an earth elemental? You never told me about those before."
Ker holds back at Derrig's words. "Kining, are you keeping a pet we didn't know about?"
Ausk hefts his axe Thing looks mean to me.