The Sunless Citadel - 5th Edition (Inactive)

Game Master spinningdice

Jack nods. Not wanting to reply to the dirty trog directly, he turns to his companions. "Well, we've got sanction to go into goblin turf an' rough 'em up a might. They've got a bunch of stuff that a bunch of other people want. That's makes 'em not-good in my book. Shall we be about it?"

I agree that we need to move on, Jack, !Ko says.

After they're out of the Kobold presence, !Ko says, Can we really trust a bunch of dragon worshiping Kobolds with a real live dragon? Those things are dangerous and mean.

And we should be careful with the goblin tribe. Goblins may be the traditional enemy of you humans, but these guys seems to actually have a decent trade system set up with the local village for those magic apples. They are quite possibly reasonable people to deal with. Mayhaps they could even be worthy of the ancient Goblin heroes.

I understand that this may not be the case, and if not, it's ok to work with more violent measures.

"Guess we'll find out soon enough. I vote !Ko does the talking first." Guillermo pipes up.

"I trust you can tell pretty quick if we've got the reasonable, enterprising goblins or the not-so-reasonable want-to-kill-us-on-sight types?" he asks the paladin.

"Apart from if they greet us with a volley of arrows or something." he quickly adds.

"Greg will stop goblins from attacking and let !Ko talk."

The bugbear seems somewhat excited to meet the goblins.

"Huh? What's this about magic apples?" Jack asks, apparently hearing, or caring, about them for the first time.

Word has it they sell magic apples to the nearby village. Supposed to cure any illness or disease. Some people try to cultivate them for themselves, but as soon as the sapling gets a certain height, they disappear. No one knows why.

As for me, I'm looking for them, because my son is very ill. I'm hoping to acquire an apple to cure him.

"Well, I hope you get one Kobie. You seem like a good da."

"Agreed. You have provided much credit to goblin-kind. It is nice to know that not all of your race are monstrous man-eaters." He paused a moment, considering his words.

"No offense meant my friend..."

Since you seem to have backed off from the queen to confer (she will give you space, though you can't guarantee there are no evesdroppers, there are two ways you can head, see the map. Also are you taking Meepo with you?
1: This leads to the goblins fortified position, the kobolds have this corridor rigged with traps as most goblin assaults used to come through here.
2: This leads to 'back' way into the goblin territory, it used to be less well guarded, but this is also the route your Hucrele's took, so they may have shored up their defences.

My vote is for straight towards the goblins, especially if we can bypass the traps.

Agree with Kenzi.

One thing I'm curious about is why they stole the dragon.

"I know, right? Who wants a creature that will likely kill and eat you?"

"The Dragon is young now, and not so smart, but when it is older it will lead our people." Meepo states proudly.

You head down the corridor Marked 1 and Meepo tells you exactly where to walk to avoid triggering the traps. As you approach the next doorway around the corner he whispers "There's a goblin guard post here..." Listening at teh door, you can hear muffled goblin voices.

What are you doing?

feel free to talk to meepo a little more, or if you wanted to say anything further to Yusdrayl we can skip back a little (or do both simultaneously)

"Meepo, tell me about the goblins they have guarding the post. Do they mostly shoot bows or crossbows, or are they more melee oriented?"

"umm, Goblin have blade and bow. Mostly."

"Come !Ko, let us be reacquainted with "our" people! Perhaps we can talk sense into them and not battle...ha!"

Greg gets ready to open the door and walk in.

Jack continued his silent vigil. Better for watching for trouble. Better for not opening mouth and reminding everyone how untrustworthy dirty kobolds were.

Jack piles up behind the front-liners so he can feather the sentries once "talks" break down.

And they will.

"Hell, what could possibly go wrong? Goblins always get on with other goblins just like humans always get on with other humans, right?"

Guillermo gets in behind !Ko and keeps him within arm's reach.

"I've got faith in you little guy."

Will cast guidance on !Ko when needed to give him a boost on CHA.

Kenzi will draw out one of the vials of red-tinged liquid that she was throwing earlier, the kind that explodes into fire, and then nods.

Gregek opens the door(once you're all ready) and inside is a smallish room (around 20x20) with another door in the North wall.
Four goblins sitting around the firepit scramble to their feet as the door opens, two of them drawing scimitars, the other two pick up bows.

The confusion on their face as they're confronted with a bugbear and a goblin is evident. One of them reels off words quickly in it's harsh tongue.

Insight: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 1 = 10

Insight: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21

Years of training beaten into Gregek come to the fore as the goblins challenge him.

Snarling and sweeping his maul back and forth, the bugbear attempts to cow the goblins into lowering their weapons.

The goblins look visibly cowed by whatever Gregek is calling at them.

The attention of the goblins is focussed on Gregek at the moment, a 'simple' DC 5 stealth check can allow someone to unobtrusively enter the room without being noticed. Should you wish to

Jack, being Jack, unobtrusively enters the room without being noticed.

Stealth!: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19

He uses an expertly honed tactical walk that maximizes stealth and readiness, his eyes following his crossbow and he becomes one with the shadows and penetrates the space within.

Upon hearing his fellow goblins' challenge, !Ko mentally prepared to set up and take charge - to bring these goblins one step closer to the true heroes they were in the past. But before he can, he friend Greg speaks up with such strength that even !Ko starts to real back.

For a moment, he's taken back to when he was a slave on the farm. The screams. The threats. The bowing as a show of respect while you bit your tongue to prevent foul words from escaping the captivity of your throat.

But when Gregor calls upon the name of !Ko as the war leader, his thoughts come rushing back and force his spine to straighten.

The words pour out as he proselytizes.

Soval looked back and forth between the goblins, !Ko and Gregek. Sensing the tension in the air, but not understanding the conversation, he firmly gripped his mace and readied himself for further conflict.

The crow waits to see what will take place

Yay, for going so far of script here, umm, Let's use a Wis save to set the difficulty for your Persuade. Wis Save: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (11) - 1 = 10

The goblins start to cheer gleefully in their gibbering tongue. They seem impressed by !Ko, however they are also making a lot of noise and you're not sure how far away other members of the tribe are.

I say let it ride. !Ko is awesome, and rocking his racial heritage.

Turning to the others, the bugbear grins.

"they be friends for now. !Ko told them story and they like it. We can go now?"

This last was directed at !Ko.

Sorry for going off script! But I can't help but giggle at the outcome. :)

Yes, let us go. Lead the way, my friend.

Jack went ahead, right?

Once !Ko and Gregek return to the group, Kenzi will follow them out across the bridge, the vial in her hand literally fading from existence.

Jack entered the room, but he's still in the room, gazing on at the really weirdness going on. o.O

Listening at the next door, you hear nothing untoward so leave the room Northwards. Another long wide hallway stands beyond, similar to the one the kobold leader presided over, with rows of columns sculpted as entwined dragons.
Torches have been mounted along the walls, and the smoke from them has built to a haze, restricting vision - though as far as you can see - there's nothing moving in here.

There are three doors spaced evenly across the North wall (you have come in from the South wall, near the western end of the hallway). A further door is at each end (east and west) of the hallway.

Meepo eyes the new goblin recruits suspiciously, but doesn't say anything

Will update map etc later, running out of time to post now. Are you letting Meepo travel with you armed (he had a dagger, sling and a whip).

"Meepo, you can come with us if you want, but you should know that I will be really disappointed in you if you try to fight them while we're talking to them." she pauses for a moment and then adds "and Jackelroy will probably kill you."

Jack nods solemnly at this truism, respecting Kenzi's honesty, and keeps skulking along.

"Meepo no trouble. Meepo does as told if we get Dragon."

Insight: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Nodding, Kenzi seemed satisfied with his answer.

insight: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

Greg notices nothing out of the ordinary.

Insight: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (10) + 5 = 15

Guillermo notices the goblins' unease and keeps his voice low so they won't hear.

"As soon as the little guy mentioned the dragon they got scared. It's possible they've run into it."

"All looked over that way as soon as he said it." He says, gesturing with his head toward the Easternmost door on the North wall.

Kenzi begins heading towards the door that Guillermo indicated.

Good catch, Mr. Arkha, !Ko says. He too, goes in the direction indicated.

The wooden door is unremarkable, but appears to be locked. Compared to the warm, somewhat stuffy haze of the room you're in, the door seems cooller than it should be.

DC15 Dex (Thieves Tools) to unlock

Kenzi pulls an odd little screwdriver looking device from her satchel and puts it into the lock and begins twisting it around.

Thieve's Tools: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10

Kenzi pulls an odd little screwdriver looking device from her satchel and puts it into the lock and begins twisting it around.

Thieve's Tools: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 2 = 19

There is a popping sound, and Kenzi twists the handle.

Jack looks over Kenzi's shoulder. "No, the rook goes above the mountain and down the well--okay, there, you got it."

Jack aids Kenzi to justify that apparent double roll. =)

weird. I only submitted once. Must be trying to make up for all of the times it's eaten my posts.

It's been happening to me, too.

The door clicks open, on the other side is a grisly trophy room, sloppily mounted creature heads are on the walls - cattle, rats and kobolds mostly. The room looks like it was originally well furnished, but it appears to have been smashed up relatively recently.
An iron spike with a chain hanging off it stands in the centre of the room, and somewhat oddly there are patches of frost around the room.
The other major feature is a relatively intact sturdy wooden table near the far wall, laying on it's side, obscuring view of anything behind it.

Forums do seem to have been spotty in general lately... or maybe not just lately. No harm, unless everyone else is occupied there's enough of you with lockpick skill to get advantage on most lockpick checks.