Looking out at the retreating war party, Antal notices that not all of them are goblinoids. Squinting his eyes, he sees what appears to be halflings or "By the gods no, not the children." he cries out.
Antal takes aim on one of the retreating goblins. He raises his aim to adjust for distance and lets the arrow fly.
But the distance was a little farther than he thought and the arrow sticks in the ground at the goblins feet.
”Children? What children?” The Goliath looked up. He was in the process of rocking through one of the hobgoblin corpses for any coin.
Kalia walks around the farm, looking for any stragglers hiding out.
The range of the retreating goblin is way beyond a flung corpse but it is an impressive effort and the goblin crunches into a tree satisfyingly before flopping bonelessly to the earth.
Antal spies small forms among the goblinoids, and outraged, lets loose a cry and shoots a vain arrow that is caught in the breeze and goes wide. The Hobgoblin rearguard do nothing but form a rough shield formation as the rest of their band continues away from the farm. Towards the river, and back towards the boundary between the Empire and the frontier... but also away from the direction of The Fort. Heading North.
Aelwulf can see the rearguard seem as ready to defend as it is to retreat. It's a disciplined rearguard effort.
After flipping off the Hobgoblin leader Gaeldon finds a purse thrust into a belt that has 20 silver shillings - worn but Imperial stamped.
The barn can't be saved. The farmhouse is on fire but not well alight... could you save it? Maybe with a bucket brigade. Smoke causes those searching for survivors to cough and wheeze, while the crackle and roar of flames makes it difficult to hear. The farm house has been throughly albeit hastily ransacked. Particularly the kitchen, it's larder and the pantry cellar.
Kalia finds that much of the livestock has been stolen but some animals run loose at the fence line, a chaotic mix of goats, pigs and fowl all avoiding the flames of the barn and house as well as the smell of blood and smoke. Their large work horse seems particularly distressed, rearing as Kalia even looks like she might move in its direction.
As for Varis and Iocundius? You come upon a bedroom and a sight terrible to behold. A large wolf crossed mastiff hound lies in a pool of its own blood, covered in wounds - stabs and slashes - near to the remains of two mauled goblin corpses. It clearly died defending the door and occupants of the room. Sadly these are not the only bodies you find... you choke up a little at the bloodied small forms of those children you met but once but were so full of life and laughter, so full of curiosity and questions when they helped their mother dish out meals at the barn you took shelter in...
Iocundius stares at the small corpses for a moment then looks away.
"Murdering, cowardly goblin wretches.", he mutters, mostly to himself as if confirming a long-held truth. He then speaks up:
"Varis, we need to leave. There is no one left to save in here."
To confirm, have we accounted for all the occupants of the farm? If we have, then Iocundius is referring to the entire cottage. If we haven't accounted for them, he means this room.
The armoured man shouts into the remaining farmhouse before advancing:
"The goblins are gone! Come out!"
Iocundius continues to search other rooms.
The armoured man shouts into the remaining farmhouse before advancing:
"The goblins are gone! Come out!"
The sight is almost too much to behold. Varis covers his mouth, the assault of smells and sights of violence is overbearing.
"Disgusting little creatures those goblins are. To kill the innocent and steal their children."
Although Varis believes is hopeless, he continues to help Iocundius search for survivors in the farm house shouting "It's ok to come out! It is safe out here now! Do not die in vain. We cannot put out the fire that is beginning to consume the house!"
Without comment, Kalia started hauling water from the well towards the house, trying to put out the fire.
Apart from roiling smoke and the roar of flames the house is empty and those searching the house are forced to leave it... Kalia may be able to save part of the structure with help but in truth without a dedicated fight to save the building, and a few more people it's going to burn to the ground over the next few hours.
Those outside the burning farmhouse see the hobgoblins move away from you, following their train of goblinoids further north, away from the direction of The Fort and back towards the river. They stay in a loose formation and seem to be keeping watch - it is sure they are still watching you.
In terms of arms and armour? You can scavenge both sets of ring mail and two off the shields. A Morningstar and a Longsword look to be of sale condition. The dead goblin archer has a poor quality short bow but his arrows are good, 10 in all... likely looted from some human farmer or hunter going by the quality of the fletching.
Antal moves from one fallen farmer to another checking if any of them are still alive and can be saved.
But his mind is still lost on the children that he saw being taken away. The feeling of helplessness over powering him due to the memories when he was a young orphan, lost on the streets of Waterdeep with the gangs praying on him and the other orphans. Every night wishing that someone would help him and take him somewhere safe. Antal had many a nightmare, reliving those days of his childhood as he grew up.
From looking at this last dead farmer, Antal looks up to where the goblin raiding party ran off to and whispers "You will not be forgotten, I promise."
Iocundius emerges from the doomed firehouse and shakes his head.
"We found only corpses within. Any developments out here?"
"Building's gonna burn out. We should go and kill those greenskin b@#$@$+$."
"Agreed, there isn't much left here to save sadly. We should move quickly and see what we can do about that war party before they hurt anyone else."
"Let us march and catch up to them."
It's afternoon... tracking them at night may not be the smartest. However, hitting them in the morning? That's solid or maybe catching them as they fjord the river? Also a good idea. If you move after breaking line of sight, holding a swifter parallel course to the river? It could be done... maybe... it would be a fast and hard march.
Otherwise? A frontal assault on the rearguard? Foolhardy but if the fires of rage are hot enough, who knows? At least you can drag some of those bastards down to hell!
"A parallel march. We can beat them to the river."
"Okay, that works if we are sure that they are heading to the river."
"Sure, if we attack by ambush, one of us might be able to get in and rescue the children while the goblins are distracted with fighting."
"I'll give them a distraction - Ripping off one of their limbs should be plenty distracting, and the screaming is pretty funny too."
Decided on your course of action, you set out at a rapid pace.
Con Saves -DC10/Group Challenge
Kalia
Antal
Iocundius
Varis
Gaeldon
Aelwulf
Gaeldon and Aelwulf are feeling their wounds... at the time, based on raw adrenaline and anger, they could shrug it off but now they are struggling to keep pace.
"Keep moving girls. Those children aren't gonna save themselves!" Kalia growled as she stomped back to the two stragglers.
"Right now, we're all they have. Don't disappoint them."
"Yeah, yeah don't get her britches in a knot," Aelwulf retorts knowing that his pace had slowed. He spits on the ground and notes that the blood was nearly gone now.
Gaelden stoically trudged on, but he had one hand over the arrow wound which he had suffered. As much as he did not want to show it, he was in a not-insubstantial amount of pain. Still, the Goliath pressed on.
Iocundius does not spend his breath on exhortations, as Kalia has a sharper tongue than his own. Instead he lends a strong arm whenever Aelwulf or Gaelden start really struggling with a rough patch.
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Perhaps a marching song might cheer everyone up Varis thought.
Varis found difficult to focus on a song to cheer everyone up, the image of the dead children still burned into his memory.
Perhaps a marching song might cheer everyone up Varis thought.
[dice=Performance]1d20+4Varis found difficult to focus on a song to cheer everyone up, the image of the dead children still burned into his memory.
As the group moves through the woods Antal notices the warriors starting to slow down due to pain. He looks around for some natural pain killers that they can eat / chew on to dull the pain and they can keep going.
With the house still burning, Antal runs in and heads for a kids room. Coughing from breathing in some of the smoke as he runs out of the house with a bundle of clothes wrapped in his arms.
"For a disguise, since I am the only one who could pass as one of the children." Antal says answering the looks of the group why he would run into a house that is on fire.
Varis loots a few corpses gathering of their garb.
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Antal finds some herbs that both fights exhaustion and dulls pain.While Varis' attempts to stimulate the group by song fall flat, Kalia is able to encourage via threat of an imminent arse kicking, finally Aelwulf either carries packs or lends a shoulder when needed.
All this enables the group to stay together and not lose pace.
Gaeldon remembers a track that not only suits but would get the party to the fjording point in well ahead of the foes AND do it put them in a position to ambush them as they cross the river.
River crossing follows the path of the yellow arrows thru the blue zone... movement only allows a single square for climbing out of the river, creating a natural choke point.
Movement through water is difficult terrain.
Squares in orange terrain needs a DC13 climb check (only during the encounter and move at climb speed), Green squares can be moved to via double movement and no climb check. Green squares is 10ft elevated.
You can try to hide either by laying in elevated squares laying prone or in wooded squares.
I've only put you on the river tiles just so its easy to find for you.
Put yourself where ever you will and make what rolls you want for hiding... BUT if you have other ideas or concepts? Brain storm it out for the next day or so
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We might be able to rescue the children at night when they make camp.
About 30... mixed goblins and hobgoblins
”Let’s do this fast and efficiently. They’ll be spread out as they march, so we won’t be hitting a formation. That, and goblins are cowardly. So we hit them, do our damage, and get out before they can bring their numbers to bear. If only we had some magic that could produce sounds...then it would be possible to trick them into thinking we are but the vanguard of a larger force. But still, we can make this work.”
"I would much rather follow them until they camp and sneak the the children out under the cover of darkness rather than an all out assault, even if we funnel them into a smaller column, they out number us by quite a bit. Not to mention their ranged weapons."
"They can see at night. Not all of us can.", Iocundius notes.
"Don't worry helf, Goblin weapons are so weak that can't break even your dainty skin." says Kalia at Varis' mention of being outnumbered.
"Besides, sooner we're done with this the better. Goblins are too stupid to take prisoners, so they're likely working for someone else."
"Gaelden is right, I have heard that goblins are cowards. Does any of you have a spell that could help scare some of them off to reduce the numbers?" Antal asks
"Nothing like that no, I can throw insults at them, but that is about it."
"I can rip the arms off of one of them. That's apparently pretty scary."
"I can give brief assistance to blows, spare the dying from afar, and drop goblins dead from afar. Very easily if they have so much as a decent scratch already. I am also quite willing to be a bulwark against their escape. My armour and shield are both in good condition."
With a quick hop up on to the rock (can he take 10 which will be a 15) Antal drops down to hide after he put on the clothes over his armor.