Mirage sees some guys around the camp and begin to count their numbers. This is gonna be a good harvest. He gets curious about the caves, but they are not the major problem now. Mirage tries to locate the green goo, if it's in sight, then he returns to the group.
If Arthur doesn't investigate the gasps, then nothing comes of it. You check out the camp and luckily they are in too much of a frenzy to notice Arthur either.
-----
The scouts return to the group with no greenskins at their heels.
"Ready and willing." Locke says simply as he winks at Arsil. He dismounts and puts on his shield and unsheathes his scimitar. He then whispers to his horse and it moves back, looking ready to defend the other horses. "If you have not figured it out yet, I am the healer of the group, let me know if you are hurt."
And you have no idea how "good" he is , as well as decent with that weapon of his she replied her icy cold eyes warming up to her usual self after Locke's comment
Just rushing them, then? Fine with me, doesn't look like there's too many of them. Let's go!
Arthur stretches his arms and wrists, spins his staff a couple of times and heads back the way he just came.
Sareth follows the rest of the group headed toward the camp, shield and mace at the ready.
Mirage, who left his horse behind a while ago, check if it's with the others, then draws his sword and gets ready to havoc! "Don't kill-steal me, or I'll cut your head off!"
With heavy steps he moves in the direction of the tribe, looking back just to check if Alabaster and Lyrian are also coming.
Locke smiles at Mirage's claim to slaughter, and says with some mirth, "I can't help it if you let them get to me. So you best make sure that doesn't happen."
On their way there he asks Mirage, "Any advantages we can have like a choke point, eleveation; or just wade in to pronounce ourselves? Honestly it is your choice but you know I like to have a plan if possible."
All the mounts are there with Thaolin, the guard and the two extra horses. Mirage you notice that Locke's mount, the one with the barding seems to be protective of the horses, trotting around slowly keeping its ears and eyes alert to movement.
There's a big bonfire. Any of you magic folk have a way to use that? Otherwise I have some acid we could toss into their midst, but I'd prefer to save it for something more problematic.
Mirage smiles at Arthur. "Hack'n'slash never goes old, you know." He gets a little serious and turns to Locke. "Still, there is green meat, goo or whatever that is all around the place. It seems they are feeding themselves from that, and it may be troublesome. There are about ten smaller caves and a big one in the face of a cliff, and there are dozens of goblins inside and outside. We could climb around the hill and descend upon them, using the power of gravity to empower our arrows while at the same time preventing theirs from hitting is."
He lifts two fingers to show the others. "Otherwise we could try to get inside the caves unseen and use that as a choke point. Those caves might lead somewhere, so if we find another entrance we're good to go."
"Third option is to remain a hundred feet away from the place and use our greater archery capability to our advantage."
"They appear to be pretty distracted. If we approached quietly enough we could silence several of them with arrows before they noticed what was happening."
"Last case scenario, we keep the cliff or the bonfire at our left and avoid being too surrounded, although a little bit more goblin never hurt anyone."
His face assumes a troubled look. "I'm still not satisfied, though. Why would they light such a huge bonfire? Fire reminds me of someone..."
"I doubt Helios has anything to do with these goblins, let alone any of them. He charged us with their eradication. Then again he might have already experimented on them and want us to take care of his dirty work. A possibility but I just don't see Helios in that kind of magic but I have been wrong before, namely Kirren. Oh that's right you showed up after that issue. Back to planning though, well I guess you did not scout out the caves, we don't want to be in that situation again. Though finding another entrance in the area could work for us. I like that idea. Otherwise cliff sniping sounds like a good backup choice. Arsil do you agree?" Locke says seriously as he goes through the implications and options.
While normal goblin shouldn't be a threat i have learned to respect what they can become with a little transmutation
she looks at locke i'll go scout and find us the information we need
That is a whole lot of meaningless names. Oh well. They're Pathfinders. They've adventured together before, in all likelihood.
They're goblins mixed with demons. Do they need a reason for a big fire? They probably worship the damn thing. My only objections to the sniping from the cliffs idea are that the cliff is not very big, so tactically that puts us out in the open where we are easily seen, sacrificing stealth for a not too defensible position, and that we might not have too many people still armed with ranged weapons. As for the caves, demonic goblins sound like a recipe for a lot of fire. I don't know if you know what fire does in a tunnel, but it moves fast and we'd have nowhere to go.
"Please do Arsil, we will be slowly making our way up towards the goblins." He holds back choice words, he is not angry, just waiting for the plans to be set in motion.
"Yeah that makes sense Arthur and since these are goblins there will be plenty of fuel for that fire. Unless it has all been burnt out already. So instead of height we fight then on even ground in the open?" He agrees with Arthur then asks for clarification.
Sareth considers the options being discussed before speaking up.
"I will follow whatever plan we decide on, but I don't think the high ground will give us as much of an advantage as we'd hope for"
"Oh, and lest I forget, I do possess some magic that could help protect us against the demonic influence at play here. It needs me to be close and doesn't last very long, so its best cast at the beginning of combat."
Mirage listens to the opinion of the others, but does not add anything new. He is ready to move anytime now. "Let's at least keep the cliff to our left, to avoid being surrounded too fast. We get in the first cave we can, if there are too many of them to take down."
Arthur nods in agreement with Mirage.
Well, it'd be rude to keep them waiting, don't you think?
He pulls out a pair of light maces and begins spinning them absentmindedly.
The cliff should give some advantage for a while, no easy access up from the goblin camp. The caves are natural choke points.
I will pm you the map when at my laptop.
The large goblin does not leave his tunnel, he follows you out to the entrance then looks a bit sad and walks back.
Arsil returns with a bit of lack of breath.
"Its only rude to keep them waiting if they know we are coming, do they know we are coming Arthur?" He asks the man.
"Mirage would you agree keeping Sareth closest to the wall, Arthur, Arsil, and yourself, keeping me at our flank?" Locke suggests.
"So do you have anything else to report?" Locke asks as Arsil returns. Scimitar and shield still at the ready.
"It's not a problem. As long as you don't kill my goblins we're gonna be alright." He waits until Arsil makes any comments she wants, and then moves to the camp.
Arthur shurgs. I doubt it. They were very into their charming little dances and the grandiose buffet of demon ichor that they had prepared. As far as demonic rituals go, I have to give them credit. They went all-in and they're sticking to it. he says sarcastically.
Sareth nods at the tactical decisions being made.
"Not getting surrounded is wise. As individuals, I doubt these goblins pose much of a threat, but in groups they can be quite nasty."
Upon hearing Arthur's comments and seeing Arsil return, he hefts his mace and shield, looking very serious.
"Looks like the time has finally come to put an end to these rituals, demonic or not. Let us restore some order to this world, one goblin at a time."
He then follows Mirage as he heads towards the camp.
Arsil return to the group
So i got close to the camp and realize taht the place is bigger than what was explained. I found lots of holes in the ground but nothing that looks promising as another entrance into the crater. As i went sneaking into the camp proper I saw that most of the little caves are merely that perhaps 10 to 30 feet back but nothing more. There are caves up from ladders or ropes but I am sure that they are the same. So I went to check out the big cave saw a massive over bloated goblin, he is eight times my size. He is using a modified wagon wheel with spikes and other timber strapped to it. she replied to locke's question
Se pause for a brief moment We are facing a little over two dozen goblin ruffly speaking and there is only one way in. So it is going to have to be a straight move, shoot move as we advance into melee
After hearing the scouting mission and preparations, Al walks along with confidence, back straight and chest out. "Dibs on the big one. I should be able to take him at range, especially if he's a bit slower than a regular goblin." His usually jovial demeanor was replaced with something akin to a confident work ethic. It was time to earn his pay.
Casting a quick spell as they go in, he figures it would be best to be prepared for what they were getting themselves into.
You will have to compete for it with Mirage then she replied smiling
Mirage continues Arsil's phrase. "As I have prearranged Dibs on the bigger guys."
Al smiled at the banter between the veterans of the group, pulling away from his business mentality. "You may have prearranged with others, but you've made no arrangements with me. All I received was a verbal agreement to do my share of the killing for a share of the loot and a polite secondhand reminder not to steal your kills on punishment of decapitation. Making up rules you don't tell others makes for a poor work environment, as do real or perceived threats. No wonder you have trouble keeping people in your group." He laughed easily at the thought of negotiating with Mirage in a bazaar south of the inner sea. He wouldn't last five minutes.
"Well, it's on you if he knocks anyone's head in. I'll only be insistent when it comes to being paid." He waved his hand in a dismissal way. These kids and their pride made him a bit nostalgic. They might listen to reason after a few of them died, maybe not. Kids were funny that way.
Mirage makes a mocking face, obviously tihnking Al does not want to face him. "I'm not saying you cannot try to take it down, but you have to beat me to it, wise guy. Unless you think you're not up to the challenge?"
The group continues walking towards the goblin camp and soon enough over a small dirt hill you can see the goblin encampment.
Surprise round
Cast Shield
Round 1
Move 30ft forward Full defense
Current AC 28
Clutching his holy symbol, Sareth mutters a quick incantation: "Dark prince, let my aim be true as I help restore order to this world."
Moving forward and drawing his sling, Sareth turns to rest of the party: "I hope you are ready, because I'm about to get their attention."
He twirls his sling around a couple of times, before deftly hurling a stone at the nearest goblin's head.
Mirage lets someone else start the party, so if would be a fair contest. Once Sareth does it, he moves closer and lets fly a precise arrow at one of the goblins who are far away from the group, preferably at any who is up the cliff, if any. The black and red bow puts some red energy into the arrow, removing some of Mirage's own life force, but not enough for him to miss it.
Surprise and Round 1
Locke moves forward keeping up his guard and standing beside Arsil.
He quietly says to her, "Well here we go again! Crazy goblins."
Round 1
The goblins stop their dancing and charge towards your group, most of them are shrieking with delight as a couple of them are singing in goblin. Two of the goblins are close enough to charge but their green glowing muscles don't get through the prepared defenses of Locke and Arsil.
Yay! New eat, smooth eates.
Come and burn,
Come and cut,
come and hurt,
come and carve!
Round 2
Arthur runs around the side of the goblin nearest Arsil (not sure if we're supposed to be able to move those things, I can't) so he's approximately 5 feet to her right, and swings at the goblin with one of his maces.
Round 2
=> failed
Arsil will 5ft step forward toward the camp
Current AC 25
Sareth drops his sling, steps forward while drawing his mace and takes a swing at the goblin in front of him.
"One." Mirage drops the bow and approaches the goblin trying to kill Locke, while drawing his greatsword. He delivers a powerful blow with his flaming weapon, but it was not well aimed.
Al just smiles at Mirage's provocation. The hobgoblin was definitely confident, and could quite possibly outlast his magic. Their previous excursions looked to be terribly profitable, and if the sorcerer could keep up, he'd likely end up with some reasonably good equipment as well.
He cautiously approached the goblin advancement. He needed them to group up a little more to make good use of his spells. Unlike yonder hobgoblin who could swing his sword and use his bow all day, he was limited in his strength. After all, he wasn't as young as he used to be. Perhaps he should have been more interested in adventuring as a young lad, but then again, he didn't really regret the life he had so far, at least not as it pertained to his own choices.
round 1
Arthur comes up and smashes the goblin in the face with his mace, it bleeds but still has that blood crazed look in its eyes.
Arsil cuts down the goblin Arthur already hurt though the arm she cuts off falls to the ground first and turns to green goo. The rest of the body spasms on the ground. Sareth misses with his attack.
Sareth takes a slashing wound on his leg from the charging goblin. Arsil gets cut by one of the beefier goblins, blood oozes from the wound on her arm as the goblin licks it off his blade. Now the goblins are swarming your group.
Carefull everyone, these little buggers are more skilled than they normally would be
Alabaster stepped back, and an orange glow started shining through his neck just below his shirt line and moved up into his mouth. His cheeks turned a bright yellow as he opened his mouth and a large gout of orange flame shot forward, encompassing two of the goblins. He'd hoped they might group up a little better, but he had to settle with what he had since they were right up on them.
Sareth winces as the goblin slashes at him. Stepping back behind Mirage, he sheathes his mace before clutching his holy symbol once again.
"Look, you filthy creatures, once we are done with you, you will be nothing but Asmodeus' playtoys." The insults and threat keep coming with the wrath of the divine backing them up.