Among the people rescued is the famously irascible Kining Blondebeard, who, after caughing a bit, grabbed one of the hobgoblin weapons and attacked the larger double doors leading to the Smithy half of the building.
is the cantankerous and scheming local smith Kining
Blondebeard, who was exiled from Glimmerhold for crimes she refuses to divulge.
Despite her greed and lack of compassion, she lives upto the letter of agreements and turns out fine metal goods the town relies on, and so most locals accept her inhospitable nature as “a dwarf thing” and leave her be.
Countless burn scars mar Kining’s pale skin, and she
keeps her iron-gray hair cut in a short wedge.
"Quick, we gotta get some stuff out of here before we leave!"
Those looking for supplies in the Store: Thanks to the Nirmathi free-spirited nature, Kining maintains a small stock of supplies for would-be adventurers and mercenaries: a longsword, two battleaxes, an alchemical silver rapier, a masterwork light steel shield, a masterwork backpack(UE), a climber’s kit, and eight waterskins. In addition, there are 12 Provision points worth of consumables.
Leaving Sebastion outside to guard the gathering injured folk he moved into the place to help gather supplies, He quickly stopped when he saw Kining go after the door he joined them adding his axe to the carnage of door slaying.
Sor notices a trapdoor and attempts to open it.
The trapdoor, though cleverly hidden, opens easily.
Sor YOINKS it with a smile behind his veil.
”Sure Blondebeard, but we need to make a grab and dash and make it over to the Alchemist’s Shop.”
”Any body else supposed to be trapped in here? We need to get them out quick if they are.”
Faerieth tends to those suffering from smoke inhilation and any other wounded, as the others search for supplies.
Yaron stands outside, scanning for hobgoblins, bow at the ready.
Arlen finishes moving survivors outside and then rushes to help the dwarf also.
[ooc] Nope [/ooc[
"Go with her. Whatever she's trying to salvage is sure to be quality, and likely very useful." Faerieth says, knowing Blondebeard rather well.
”Alright Blondbeard, let’s grab the good stuff and get out. We can’t get it all, but let’s get what we can.”
Big John dashes over to Yaron and puts a hand on his shoulder.
”Yaron, while I’m loading up, I think you’d better check for outbuildings or other places where survivors might be hiding. The dwarf isn’t known for her care about others. She will seek save her stock before her fellow villagers.”
Unless Yaron or someone else stops him, he will run back to help carry out items hoping to get done with this task so he can move to his primary concern.
"See if you cant find a bow or crossbow halfling sized will ya?"
He called out to those getting supplies from the smithy.
"He's not wrong, I'll help you check the other buildings quickly Yaron. Well me and Sebastion."
Yaron says, "I was thinking the same thing, actually - but didn't want to stop watching..." ...and I'm always loathe to buy into the bad rumours you hear about someone when you've only been in town a day... ""On it. "
With that, the bard starts to dash around the smaller structures and hiding places looking for survivors... or fallen.
What sort of checks would be needed to dash to all the buildings around the shop and knock on doors and try to find any survivors? Stealth, Diplomacy? Perception?
Just double move and Perception.
After several repeated strikes, and with some help from you guys, Kining finally splintered the door hasp on the forge shop and kicked the doors open.
Yaron ran around back looking for survivors, cleared the outhouse but found no one else.
Darry ran around back on Sebastion and found the wagon yard (offscreen). There are four four-wheeled conestoga style wagons and one two-wheeled open top buggy.
Everyone can see that the animal pen and hitching posts have nothing but dead horses, cruelly hacked to death by Hobgoblins for fun.
Though the animals are dead, they are fresh enough that enterprising folk can carve off the most useful slabs of meat to eat later. Removing the most accessible cuts requires 5 minutes per animal, and yields 2 Provision Points per goat, and 4 Provision Points per horse.
There are three goats and eight horses total.
With the doors open, the fire of the forge as well as a white light torch providing some light, you can see that the centuries-old forge provided ample space for working iron and steel as well as limited farrier services.
There are racks standing empty of weapons, clearly looted already.
A single hobgoblin still lies in the middle of the floor.
You see Kining go to her work table and start searching feverously through the clutter there.
Faerieth stands almost unnaturally still as her violet eyes take in the grisly carnage wrought by the hobgoblins. Tears steaming freely down her face as she grips her staff so tightly that the wood creaks, the pure anger emanating off of her so strongly that those beside her can feel it.
Taking a long, shuddering breath, the druidess stamps down her emotions, focusing on the task at hand. "that trough can hold about a hundred and fifty gallons of water between that and the buckets if we put it on one of the carts it can help with putting out fires."
Staring at the animals again for another moment she lets out a sigh "These poor animals were slaughtered by these bastards but at least they might still be able to serve and aid us in death. If we....butcher them quickly we should be able to salvage enough meat to help us survive over the next few weeks. We'll need to be quick about it though."
"Careful. Those two say something's wrong with the forge."
John’s eyes follow the elf’s finger.
Spotting the people hiding he switches to sword and shield and braces his eyes scan the area where the survivors indicate.
”We need to get them out of here. What could force them up there like that in a fire?”
”What lurks here?”
Having explored the outbuildings, Yaron rejoins the others, then raises his bow at Sor's warning.
"Bad business, this. Sebastion ol' buddy. Never thought i would see a hobgoblin invasion force in this town."
He muttered as he searched quickly, He patted Sebastions head as the goodest of good boys whined in agreement.
Elandra takes up her normal position of watching for approaching Hobgoblins as the party makes their search.
Abruptly a figure crawled from out of the open forge. As it stood up, you see that it is as tall as a four year old boy, but as broad across the shoulders as a large man. Its skin is rocky, glowing a faint orange now fading. A mouth opened on it's crude head and you hear a rough and harsh language call out something declarative.
It stomped its feet and slammed its large fists together with a loud crash.
Round 1_________________
Players take their turn in order of posting, enemies already went.
Yaron says, "Can anyone call this thing off? I'd rather not waste our energy fighting it..."
”It’s definitely saying something. Blondebeard, what’s it saying? Is this what heats your forge?”
”I think it killed the hob, any enemy of a hob is a friend of mine.”
”Hey!? Where is the bard? Have him come talk to it or play music or something. Maybe we can talk to it?”
John sheaths his sword and shows an open hand as he steps back giving the fiery being an avenue of escape or at least breathing room.
”Look we don’t want to hurt you man. We just want to get our people and things and go.”
Elandra shouts "It's trying to frighten us off..."
Elandra looks around for a hobgoblin body to assault to try and show the elemental that we're on the same side.
Yaron says, "I tell baudy tales, I'm not a linguist." He takes a moment, then asks, "Can anyone see anything that makes it worth going to the forge itself? I'm wondering if we should just let the elemental have its peace..." He looks at the corpse, then smiles wickedly, "..or leave a trail to lead a squad of hobgoblins back here to be surprised."
John had waited for someone to respond to Yaron, but when no other ideas were put forth he speaks again.
”I’m not looking to fight anything that we don’t have to. Let’s get those people out of the rafters and let it be. Maybe we can circle around and give it space and an avenue of escape.”
He lifts his head toward those in the roof.
”Can you climb down? Do you need a rope or something? We are gathering survivors and pulling out to regroup. You can come with us.”
”Let’s do this team, and do it fast.”
Yaron nods, suggesting, "If they need a rope, I can fire an arrow to bring it to them."
"A good plan Yaron. They could also use the rope to swing to safety and avoid the fiery dwarf thing if it isn't safe to just come straight down. Let's do it!"
"Heck, we could even tie the rope off and they could zip-line to a safe spot."
John says enthusiastically ready to act.
There was a tense minute where neither you nor the elemental attacked. The two in the loft refused to come down, despite your calling out to them.
"What the hell are you cowards doing? Kill it!" Shouted Kining, brandishing her forge hammer.
You note that she herself made no move to attack it alone.
Then, step by step, the elemental approached the doorway. With no one attacking, it made a sudden leap and dove into the earth of the courtyard where it disappeared with a bare ripple. The decreasing sound of underground rumbling indicates to you that it was leaving the area at a sprint underground.
With that, the two figures in the loft stand up with relief and hop down agilely. They thank you effusively as they recover their bows.
"You didn't see that thing hammer those hobgobers." One said shuddering. "No way were we going to tangle with it."
"“You can take care of the townsfolk now,” Taidel says.
Lirosa adds, “We’ve got hobgoblins to hunt.”
Now that the hunters have cleared away the tarp they were hiding under in the loft, you can see several small sized mannikins demonstrating the armor sets for a small sized chain shirt, a small sized masterwork chainmail armor set, and a small sized breastplate.
Anyone studying the slate for 1 minute gains a +2 insight bonus on any Craft (alchemy), Disable Device, or Knowledge (engineering) checks attempted to destroy Phaendar Bridge.
"Keys," Sor points out bluntly.
Yaron looks at the mannequins, "Nice. Wish it was bigger. Still, useful and worth grabbing."
Elandra looks over the challk slate "I don't suppose those keys have anything to do with the Bridge? That's what these notes are about at least."