[Gameday IX] GM Eclipse's Lions of Katapesh (Inactive)

Game Master Agent Eclipse

Please feel free to dot and delete, as the game is first come first serve. The game will start on September 1st.

Mystery: 1d10 ⇒ 6

The Pathfinder have been called to Katapesh to handle a mission dealing with dangerous wildlife that are threatening the construction of a bridge. The bridge is being built over the Elemion River, hoping to increase trade between Solku in Katapesh and Oenopion in Nex.

Your contact is currently handling some last minute business dealings, however you have been granted a lush private room in the tavern to wait.

The initial post will go up in one week. However, you can use this time to talk among yourselves and handle introductions before your briefing.

Within the private meeting room sits a small, stumpy goblin with skin the color of an old bruise. Too small, really, for the human-sized chair she's settled into, she gazes around with a look of satisfaction as she absently swings her legs back and forth.

"Now this is the lifes! A sweet waitings room and no stupid notes tellings mes to comes here - just a messages from a real, lives persons, insteads!"

Her armor, studded leather by the looks of it, creaks a bit as she excitedly fidgets in her seat. It must still be pretty new and not fully broken in yet. Next to the chair sits a backpack, a whip and a shortsword, and a goblin-sized lute.

"Oh yes, Pookas is movings up in the worlds now, yessiree!"

A small goblin sits in another of the chairs, bedecked in fully polished full plate from head to toe, catching every ray of light in the room and bouncing it around. It seems perfectly sized for him, but there are clear dwarven designs worked through out it. A big grin splits the yellow-green coloring of his face as he beams at nothing, soft clinks iterating out as he excitedly swings his legs back and forth. Next to the chair is his pack with a shield and mace strapped to the back.

His attention refocuses on the room as Pooka starts talking, his movements slowing some, but the extra energy clearly gets diverted into the conversation as words bubble out of him like a small child. "I'm okay with notes if it means that we have a mission! Especially one where I can go flying! The last one I went on a giant tree threw me across a meadow! That was fun."

"Oh yes, Pookas is movings up in the worlds now, yessiree!"

Ogren gets a little puzzled at this and looks over at her. "Moving up? Are you climbing to the roof? OH, are you going to jump off? That's always a fun time! But I can't do it anymore 'cause Meemaw made me promise not to, 'cause it worried her."

"Giant trees? Huh. My last missions had us do a bunch of things. Visit a haunteds house, go to the docks, keeps a protest from gettings ugly, stuffs like that."

Pooka pauses and thinks on this.

"Giant trees sounds coolers, though."

She then looks over at Ogren, shaking her head. "No, BIGGERS thans the roofs! Like...more monies and stuffs. More importants. Pooka own her own bars one days! Ooh, ooh, ands a fancy house, likes rich longshanks do."

Another pause.

"But jumping off roofs is fun toos, if they aren'ts very highs. Bonus funs if you uses an umbrella when you do. I's not been ables to flies with ones yet but if some longshanks ladys cans do it, so cans I!"

Bedecked with blades of all types, from rusty old weapons to nice shiny hatchets and kitchen knives, another goblin enters the room. The goblin wears a creased chef's off-white hat, splattered with grease and other foreign bodies, an whiteish-brown apron coloured with both dried blood and stains of various shades from beetroot to saffron, with the odd burn mark. In one hand she holds a shiny sharp kitchen knife or hatchet in one hand, whilst in the other a bottle of liquid refreshment is available for consumption. Her backpack has pots and pans falling off it, along with the famous goblin weapons of choice sheathed at her side.

"Be here now, where is it?" her beady eyes look from side to side as her head almost swivels round 360. "Set up time!" Her booted foot stamps on the ground. "'Spossed to make din dins, why call me Nic Nic Cook-Cook, so's I cooks." The words tumble out of her mouth, as she seems to getting a little angry. "Need fire! Need Kitchen! No singy song song til din dins cooked." She looks at the other goblins, "No din dins? Ahhh!" She drops everything in a heap (knives and all), takes a swig from the bottle and burps a loud and strong smelling burp, a garlicky and alcohol filled aroma greets the world.

Hearing one of the others say

Pooka own her own bars one days! Ooh, ooh, ands a fancy house, likes rich longshanks do."

Nic Nic's eyes open wide, "Yes bar, longshanks need cooks and drink makers. I work, I do!" she says. "Makey drink, blast you over tree." It is obvious that any drink she makes, does not involve the goblin's favourite pastime, bomb mixtures, blowing up and fires, but rather the mixing of various volatile alcoholic beverages, pure and colourless voddkkaaaa and others, distilled by her own hands. "Don't worry, make tasty tasty when Nic Nic Cook-Cook on team!"

After the whirlwind that is her entrance, she paused as she listens, before offering, "Nin Nic chased by witchy doll, not nice! Would jumpy jump from tree if had to! Ugly ugly doll!"

"You makes drinks too?" Pooka's own eyes go wide for a moment. Then they narrow and she grins a toothy grin. "Nice to sees you're also a goblins of good tastes."

She does, however, wrinkle her nose a bit when Nic Nic talks about witchy dolls. "Uglys witchy dolls? It not still chasings you, is its?"

Ogren nods at the gaint trees comment. "Yup! Giant tree! He was really rude to my friend's though and maybe evil? So we had to chop it up. But that sounds like fun getting to explore places like that! How were the docks?"

"But jumping off roofs is fun toos, if they aren'ts very highs. Bonus funs if you uses an umbrella when you do. I's not been ables to flies with ones yet but if some longshanks ladys cans do it, so cans I!"

Ogren's eyes go wide at the idea of using an umbrella to fly. "WAIT you can use UMBRELLAS to FLY? Ohhhhhhhhh, I have to go buy one now! I wish I got one last mission now, they had these fancy wood and waxed paper ones in this one town. Uhhhh, If I jump off a low shed does that count as a 'roof' or do I have to have someone try tossing me again to try using the umbrella?"

His grin ratches up a notch or two as the new goblin comes into the room and he jumps up and nearly bounces over to the new comer. "We don't need din dins, but thank-you! They gave us room service here! ... or at least I've been ordering room service. The chicken is good!" He reaches the new goblin and takes her hand, giving it an enthusiastic shake up and down. "I'm Ogren Bound, adoptee of the Deepwall Clan in Kraggodan and 'prod-a-gull' son of the Crookedtoes. I don't know what 'prod-a-gull' means but King Zusgut said I was one! What's your name?"

Briney - perhaps the smallest goblin in the room, but carrying the largest weapon (a heavy crossbow) which nearly drags across the floor as he walks - strides right up to Nikebei, and pulls out his equally large magnifying glass. "Something's not right here!" he declares to whomever he imagines watching himself walk and speak as if narrating his thoughts using his voice - he ventures to pinch "Nic Nic's" skin to see if it is indeed "real", and seems satisfied with the result, declaring "False alarm: Real goblin here. Wasn't sure. Now sure." again to whomever is happening to be concerning themself with his caravan of thought.

He continues to pace heavily around the room, still looking for the lion, and now whistling to himself as he "works" - and refusing any offerings of food or drink (because "Eating makes you not think" if pressed) - possessed with the strange compulsion to find just a single clue before anything "important" happens.

After the better part of [redacted] minutes, he finally seems to settle down... Only to get right back up and make a "several-th round" checking anything he has already checked several times already, again "Just to be sure I can be sure I'm sure"...

Pooka watches this fourth (she's pretty sure it's fourth) goblin putter around and around and around the room for some time before finally shaking her head.

"Watchings you is makings me dizzy! Whats do you needs to be sures abouts?"

"The Lion!" Briney reminds "Longshanks said there was a missing Lion! Did you not receive the same summons?" he is beginning to wonder if he misinterpreted one of the initial details - then grows spontaneously suspicious of Pooka, expressed by a subtley slight narrowing of the eyes, and focusing on the goblin with tunneling intensity now - and in three long steps, he is upon her front, side, and back, looking to see where her hands are, how much room are in her pockets, and whether the bagginess of her clothing are within a "normal" parameter.

This takes him a silent moment as his brain visibly races - until he narrates "Okay you can be trusted so far, and that makes two of us. C'mon! Let's go!" Briney invites Pooka to join him in his quest to seize the next lead, wherever that may be, whenever they may find it, whomever it may involve, when it dawns on him: He's got absolutely nothing to go on at this very moment!

This gets him to about the end of the room - whether or not his new companion followed suit - when he stops one final time in his own tracks. And gives Pooka a look.

!!

Seated at a tall chair with his legs dangling well above the floor is a goblin wearing a top hat, his nose buried so far into a large book that only the hat and the tips of his ears can be seen. He lowers the book an adjusts a pair of spectacles back onto his nose. The spectacles are cracked and clearly intended for a much smaller head necessitating them to be tied to his head with a length of string. He shakes his head ruefully at the antics of his fellow goblins.

"Ridiculous. It's these sorts of shenanigans that continuously precipitate the notion that goblins are preposterous buffoons."

His shirt begins to move and a tiny spiked head appears from between the buttons. It's a hedgehog.

"Isn't that right Erinaceinae? Go back to sleep now." He gently pushes the hedgehog back into his shirt.

He pulls a pipe from his pouch and places it in his mouth.

He shakes his head once more. "Shenanigans." he scoffs and blows into his pipe. Soap bubbles emerge and float around the room as he returns to his book.

"We ares NOTS buffoons," Pooka snaps, a scowl on her face. "I's can reads longshank words and longshank books...even if it still feels kindas gross sometimes," she shudders.

Hobbs sighs and mutters under his breath from behind his book. "Fifty percent more 's's than necessary suggests otherwise.

He lowers his book once again. "You misunderstand me my dear. What I said was that the larger races often perceive us to be somewhat less than serious due to our more...whimsical nature. It is my endeavor to refute that notion and prove conclusively that goblins are to be taken seriously as a people."

He adjusts his spectacles.

"Forgive my atrocious manners I have neglected to introduce myself. My name is Hobbs and I am a practitioner of the esoteric disciplines, what you might call a wizard."

He blows more bubbles out of his pipe.

Ogren perks up at the new comer in the doorway and gives the goblin a gleaming smile. He steps up behind him as the smaller one looks over nic-nic, trying to figure out what is going on in the goblin's head. He then plays follow the leader with the investigator as he scours the room.

He pokes his head up from the game when the third goblin in a chair pipes up and looks over at the clearly elderly goblin, given the pipe and glasses. He listens to the berating, (definintely an elder, who else can say things like that?) but his eyes glaze over some of the words. However the last one that he repeated causes Ogren to perk up. He bounces over to the chair and peers up at the wizard, "Uhhh, Honored Elder Hobbs, what's 'she-nana-gains' mean? Does it have something to do with gaining a grandmother?"

"It means "things old people too old to still do"" Briney insists "I think Hobbs the Elder has seen a lot in his several-more years and wishes to share his words" he adds. He sizes up the entire room, scanning his eyes and brains across his whole group, and shares the following analysis:

To Ogren "You're quite strong"
To Hobbs "You're quite smart"
To Pooka "You're quite brave"
To Nic "You're quire scary"

Round robin, each in turn, Briney proclaims what he feels to be the single word that describes each and every one of you around the room. He smiles. "This is a fine company. I am happy to meet you all. I am Briney. You can call me Briney. But I must share: I feel that our group dynamic is missing a single element, but I'm not yet sure what that is!" And with that, the young small goblin seems to lose himself in thought...

"Maybes someones wise?" Pooka remarks after thinking about it for a moment.

"And...hmm...I guess thats makes sense," she adds, addressing Hobbs again. "I thinks goblins can still haves funs but get stuffs done toos...but is okay if you's rather be supers serious like longshank book-reading peoples. Is rooms for both types."

Round robin, each in turn, Briney proclaims what he feels to be the single word that describes each and every one of you around the room. He smiles. "This is a fine company. I am happy to meet you all. I am Briney. You can call me Briney. But I must share: I feel that our group dynamic is missing a single element, but I'm not yet sure what that is!" And with that, the young small goblin seems to lose himself in thought...

Ogren perks up, "OH,OH! Maybe we're missing someone who can FLY?"

Despite clearly running late, a statuesque human woman walks through the door as if she owns the establishment. She wears very little save for draped pink cloths over the necessary regions that flow around her like betta fish fins. Her long and sleek black hair is pulled back from her face with one of the many golden adornments on her body.

”Hello, darlings. Hope you’ve been keeping yourselves entertained while you were waiti-“ She initially spoke while inspecting one of her large golden nail guards, completely ignoring the group, but freezes after an off-handed glance to the room.

She looks back around at all of the goblins with a look of confusion and seems to consider leaving without saying anything but ultimately speaks to the group with a smile, ”Apologies, my lovelies. Clearly I’ve interrupted some sort of goblin gathering. One round on me for whatever the occasion is!” She laughs politely and starts making her way to the door mumbling to herself. ”Can’t believe I wasted a dramatic entrance for nothing. It’s ok, Galilea. Reset and redo. We just have to locate where the group actually is. It’ll still be new to them.” She pauses by the door and leans a hand against it to adjust a strap on her sandal.

"No No. This is a Pathfinder gathering" Briney corrects "Longshanks welcome here" He adds. He scans her strange person visually (and from a distance) for a clue, and quickly spotting a tell-tale symbol as to her mysterious origin, says:

To Galilea "You're quite magical"

Then to the entire group "She is the missing element!" and he jumps for joy, having put together his first "puzzle" for the mission! With that, something inside of him seems soothed, and he finally sits down without moving or pacing or searching or rummaging. Just sits. Still and peaceful. Smiling to himself.

Galilea raises a curious brow at Briney’s inspection but otherwise does not react until he compliments her. She preens and flips her hair over her shoulder, ”Oh..... ahem, thank you! I am quite magical, aren’t I?”

She saunters to an empty chair and lounges with her chin resting in her palm, ”Well my lovelies, I can’t say I’ve ever worked with goblins before but I think we are off to a great start! How about that free round?“

All the goblins gather around the sorcerer like a kindergarten class?

The goblin in the shining plate with an even brighter smile bounds over to the new lady and extends a hand. "I'm Ogren Bound, adoptee of the Deepwall Clan in Kraggodan and 'prod-a-gull' son of the Crookedtoes. It's nice to meetcha! You can FLY, can't you? I mean that's the most magical thing, right? And can I get a milk?"

Sounds like a plan! Swarm the teacher longshanks!

Another goblin peeks their head into the room while the introductions take place, "Yigrig is ready for the Pathfinders...if you want to follow me." he says meekly, unsure of what is happening as the goblins begin to gather around the newcomer.

Gonna move us into the briefing but please feel free to continue introductions. The goblin will wait and watch with curiosity till you have finished.

Once the group is ready, they are lead into a larger meeting room with your contact sitting behind his desk.

Yigrig Moneymaker, the powerful goblin merchant, slumps in a large chair. His face, normally so proud and assured, looks troubled. “It’s good to see you, Pathfinders! I have a lot of respect for the Society. You’ve been good to me in the past, and my family has aided you in return. But today I come before you, my hat in my hands, in need of help."

"My family and I have almost brokered a trade agreement between the cities of Solku and Oenopion. It’s a beneficial deal, one where Solku gains the materials it needs to defend itself, Oenopion gains a new trading partner, and everyone stands to make a heap of coin. There’s only one issue standing in the way of the negotiation being finalized: a bridge must be constructed over the Elemion River to facilitate safe travel between the two cities. My family is responsible for building and maintaining this bridge. It should have been a simple job… easy to pull off." Yigrig sighs putting his face into his open palms for a moment before continuing his long winded briefing.

“It has been anything but easy.” The old goblin leans forward. “Every morning at the work camp, it is discovered that more of my children have been pulled from their beds in the night, presumed dead. Every shipment of aid I send gets attacked. The last one I sent did not even arrive."

“There is a lot of money riding on this deal, but I admit this isn’t about money anymore. This is personal. Someone is harming my family and I can’t sit by and let that happen. I have contracted the Pathfinder Society to protect the bridge and surrounding work camp while construction is completed. I have a caravan ready to leave, filled with new workers and supplies for the bridge site. I want you on it. When you see it safely to the bridge site, I need you to stop the attacks on the camp by any means necessary until the job is complete. When you get to the work camp, you will meet my son Zig, the overseer of the project. Sweet kid… takes after his old man. He’ll be your liaison with the workers and see to your needs." The goblin holds up a drawing of himself and his son, with pride. Pausing to make sure everyone can get a good look at Zig.

“Nothing is more important than family. Nothing. And so, I’m asking you to take care of mine. Our future is in your hands. Any questions?”

Feel free to ask any questions of your contact.

PCs may also make a Secret Nature check to Recall Knowledge on the area. For Secret checks I ask that you roll them in spoilers then I will post the information you recall.

"What type of bridge are you building? A cable-stayed bridge, arch bridge, truss bridge, beam bridge, girder bridge, suspension bridge, arch bridge, clapper bridge, covered bridge, arch bridge, moon bridge, roving bridge, step-stone bridge, arch bridge...?"

This goes on for several minutes. Arch bridge comes up at least a dozen times and several others make encore appearances as well.

Ogren takes a seat and demurely listens to the briefing, but seems to get a bit agitated about the part of goblin children going missing. When given persmission to speak, Ogren springs up to standing in his chair. "We can't let goblin children get kidnapped in the middle of the night! That's terrible! We should go right away! Also Zig has your ears Mr. uhhh, Figrig!"

He stops for a moment as Hobbs the Honored Elder in the group starts asking questions, Ogren tries to toss in a few of his own, adding 'Arch Bridge' twice, as well as sillier things such as 'metal bridge' or 'banana bridge.' Calmed of some of the fervor he had earlier, Ogren looks back at Yigrig and asks in all seriousness. "Does jumping off a bridge count as jumping off a building or not?"

"Well, Zig has all the specifics on that but from what I last heard they are struggling to get the base completed due to the attacks. Arch? Yes, that sounds like something Zig said to me in a report. As long as it gets built up enough for wagons to make it across for trading." the older goblin says trying to dig through correspondence, possibly influenced by the multiple mentions of arch.

Turning to Ogren, Yigrig shows a huge smile showcasing his teeth while also pulling on his own ears.

"Thank you for noticing! And it is Yigrig, Yigrig Moneymaker. I like your style! Ready to get down to business and save your fellow goblins!"

He thinks about the next question for a moment.

"If Zig gets this bridge nice and big, why would't it count as a building! Worth more money that way!" he laughs at the question.

Ogren gets a little crest fallen at the declaration the bridge might be a 'building.' "Oh, guess I can't jump off it... But a bridge big enough to be a building would be amazing to see!"

Pooka sits and taps her head, clearly thinking about this conundrum good Yigrig and his family find themselves in. Geography and study of the natural world never has been a particularly strong point of hers, but she did at least take some basic classes back during training...

...but she also looks up as something else occurs to her.

"Does Mister Moneymaker haves any enemies? Hobbs said longshanks don't takes goblins seriously sometimes...maybes someone's upset abouts your sweets trade deals you set up?"

“I am sure I do have some enemies. Ah the life of a goblin but no specific names arise. Since the attacks began, information has been spotty getting out. All I know so far is that some sort of large animals have been attacking the work camp during the night, and something else has been aggressive toward anyone that tries to leave or enter the site, no matter what time of day. Bandits? Animals? Something else? Accounts have been conflicting, but whatever they are, they’re dangerous.” he answers the question.

"Hum...that's verys strange," Pooka frowns. "Okay, sos no enemies thats you can thinks of. Maybes there's just a critters nest in the areas or somethings, then."

"Oh! Should we takes any special supplies withs us? I's never really beens out in the deserts before."

Nic enters the room with Briney, pinching the goblin's arm, "You's be one too, but no meaty!" She then punches Briney's arm, "Pinchey, Punchey, first day of monthey!!" She laughs, "I's had a dreamy last night, we's met in dreamy, we's be good friends. I's make you a wangle-dangle-hotchey-blammer drink, it's one of I's specials." she beams a wide smile as she reads some words written in various coloured inks on his arm. Hootch Whiskey 3 bits, Rumty Rumty 3 bits, Flayety Leafty soaked 1 bit, Clucky Eggy 1, Lime and Fruity Juice (some), Cold chunks (many) she pauses, "When's I's got everything, then we's drinks it!"

Entering she then listens to the boss man's words and considers them.

With one hand scratching the chef's hat perched on her head and the other precariously holding a couple of kitchen knives, Nic Nic Cook has a puzzled expression. "Bridge over river, protect it! OK Nic Nic do that! Has the river nice tasty fish? Cooks real tasty fish 'n chips, plenty grease. Plenty good for goblins and longshanks. Me never been deserts either Pooka, what they like? Been in forest, they nice, lots of green, easy to make fire! So deserts different? Only desert I know my muvver made, bread 'n butter pudding, we's posh, has desert with dinner." The goblin looks confused at Yigrig Moneymaker.

"Mr Moneymaker, I's got plenty knives, pots and pans. What else I need for building bridge thing in desert! I's keep yous children well fed, yes. Make them strong so not disappear. I's seen magical man make things disappear, it was at night too. Not on a bridge though and not children."

She looks at Hobbs and the longshanks lady smiles in her confusion, but hoping that all she said helps. Turning back to Ogren, she confides, "I's seen jumping into water too!" and beams.

"Well, the caravan will be able to keep you sheltered from the day's sun as long as it doesn't get attacked like the camp has been. So as far as extra supplies, whatever the Pathfinder agents usually take and a few extra pointy tools to deal with these pests once and for all." Yigrig says using one of his writing quills to poke at the air and making cat noises.

When Nic Nic speaks up, Yigrig starts to laugh and smile, "You might be just what the gobbo ordered. The attacks sure have got the workers in the camp and on the caravans feeling down...but some piping hot foods will bring em around, I hope. Plenty of river fish and cactus fruit once you get there and maybe some steaks of whatever is causing problems. And Zig better still have supplies if that bridge isn't built so he can lend some to you when you reach the camp but let those bone heads build while you exterminate."

The first several to speak - faster on the tongue - vocalized the mental questions Briney had generated in his mind - and as a result, listening to this Yigrig Moneymaker answer their questions has simultaneously answered his questions by turn.

He looks towards Pooka and notices that she seems to remember something important, and waits to see if she is inclined to share her background knowledge.

Alas, even as Briney considers himself a "world traveler", in truth he has only barely begun, having left his "hometown" of Absalom not long ago; and furthermore, as a city slicker, is not intimately familiar with the countryside, and thus, would certainly lack any background knowledge of his own to add to Pooka's, even as he promises on the spot to commit to becoming a quick learner: Most things are not really that difficult once you set your mind to it, after all.

Too: It is a good thing he is in such excellent company!

Galilea hangs back towards the door, not wanting to obstruct anyone’s view. She clutches her necklace in shock at the mention of Yigrig’s children being taken but otherwise says nothing. She ponders just how many children he has since in human terms, most people would run out of children to have stolen before the week was over.

She waits for a pause in the conversation to pipe up from the back, ”Terrible news about your children. We will surely do our best to protect the remaining. Once we arrive with the caravan, is there already some semblance of security in place that we should bolster? Or are we to implement new security measures ourselves?”

Noticing Briney repeatedly glancing her way, Pooka finally looks over at him and mouths, 'What? I's gots nothing.'

"The camp has a small perimeter of wooden fencing, goblin style...so maybe not that effective since things keep getting in at night! You could possibly shore that up with extra supplies Zig has but the quickest way is to get to the bottom of the attacks." with this last bit of information he stands up to usher the group out, poking Galilea in the knees.

"The caravan should be ready, real soon! Don't make those buffoons get bored and light it on fire. Watch out for Muckmuck...he is a mess and a half, or another whole mess, two messes."

Yigrig Moneymaker leads the group to the caravan mustering area, there are 4 Huge wagons and roughly 20 goblin workers. The workers are jumpy and nervous as they finish loading up supplies; wooden beams, food, and various tools. You assume the larger goblin hiding on top of the lead wagon is Muckmuck, he begins to laugh as you approach.

“You gobbos think you can protect us, is this longshank your mother? You can’t save Muckmuck. You’re weak. Face facts. We’re all going to die." he exclaims pointing at the human.

"You sit there in the back and talk to the workers. We’re all scared. Doesn’t matter what we do. We’re all going to die. Tell you truth, I don’t want to go. Yigrig reads too many books. He’s lost his mind. We all think about leaving before he gets us killed. Not help that the minstrel lost hand in teethbrushing accident. Much blood. Can’t play lute anymore. Tell you what. You want to help? You be the minstrel. Make fancy music. Make goblins feel less likely to run away. Convince them we’re not all going to die.” he continues, his own fear making the orders seem less convincing. Yet, he has a point as the workers look ready to flee at a moments notice. Finding ways to comfort them during the journey might be a good idea.

As they stop for the first night, the short attention span of the goblins turns fear to celebration around the campfire. By joining in you just might keep the spirits raised.

First Night: Each PC can make a total of 2 skill checks but each specific check cannot be attempted more than 3 times. Examples include Acrobatics to impress them with physical feats, Athletics to prove your bravery by climbing and jumping off of things, Deception to make impressions, and of course Performance to sing goblin songs. However, other skill checks can work as long as you explain it well.

Current Morale of Team: 6

Just dotting in, so I can see which villains are used in this repeatable. Just check the character off as an NPC or a previous character while keeping the player list still on here, so it will still appear in my active campaigns and I can read along.

"Pfft, I's can brush my teeths and keeps my hands at the sames times," Pooka declares later on, when they're all settled in around the campfire. "Pooka be new temporarys minstrel! Sing lots of fun songs!"

With that, she pulls out her lute and begins to strum a jaunty tune. As she does, she opens her mouth and begins to sing...

~Oh me oh my oh you
Whatever shall I do?
Hallelujah,
The question is peculiar
I'd give a lot of dough
If only I could know
The answer to my question
Is it yes or is it no?

Does your chewing gum lose its flavor
on the bedpost overnight?
If your mother says don't chew it,
Do you swallow it in spite?
Can you catch it on your tonsils,
Can you heave it left & right?
Does your chewing gum lose its flavor
on the bedpost overnight?~

Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor - Lonnie Donegan

Performance: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25

She doesn't even over-pluralize any of the words!

Hobbs scoffs as Pooka begins her song. Almost immediately though he begins tapping his foot. By the end of the song he is humming along, nodding his head and about to burst into dance. As the song ends he regains his composure and frowns, looking around nervously to make sure nobody saw him enjoying the music so much.

"We're going to die, are we Muckmuck? Poppycock. I won't hear any more of this nonsense. Stop it right this instant." He punctuates his words with a blast of fire that ignites the evening's campfire.

"Did you see that? There is far more than that in store for any miscreants with the audacity to assault us."

deception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

"You know. Just because we goblins are small does not mean we are helpless."

He takes a seat at the campfire, blows some bubbles from his pipe and proceeds to tell a tale of a goblin that killed a hydra by tricking it into falling off a cliff and into a a live volcano. This story is extremely similar to one in which a gnome is the hero.

performance: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14

Hero point to reroll the deception check.

deception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19

Pooka's song is infectious! Briney strains his ear to ascertain the rhythm, and after a moment, he finds it. Dancing now, he bounces up to (1d6 ⇒ 4) Ogren Bound, and reaches out his hands, so that they can bounce together in a random circle holding hands...

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13

...before tumbling down over under and onto eachother Splat! upon the ground. Giggling madly!

... Athletics to prove your bravery by climbing and jumping off of things...

Why does it feel like you wrote this just for Ogren?

Ogren gives Muckmuck a frown and says, "She not my mother, MY Meemaw is 4 feet tall and is one of the best miners in Kraggodan! Not to be rude, but she'd think Galilea here is a twig." He glances back at the woman as if to apologize before plowing forward. "Also I'm plenty strong! I fought two full allogators in the sewers of Absalom before! They were scary! Watch I'll PROVE how strong I am!"

The little goblin then takes off all of his armor, not wanting to get it scratched or dirty, and then tries to scramble up the nearby cliff face, before getting up as high as possible and, with a gleeful squeeeee, jumps off. He hits the ground, visibly squishing down some before he rebounds up a little and then landing again.

Athletics: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22
Unbreakable goblin means he halves the fall damage and then lay on hands should allow him to heal up from anything short of 22 damage

Later around the campfire, he wraps his mace in thick padding and then adds a layer of fabrics to his armor as well, trying to reproduce the effects of a zombie's tattered clothes. He then allows goblins around the fire to take turns to 'bash' him about with his mace as he acts like a timid zombie for them.
Creative use of Undead Lore?: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17

Around the campfire is a lot of boisterous activity, a lot of them wonder what bubblegum is but that doesn't stop them from singing along with Pooka. You spot many opening up their mouths grabbing each others tonsils for some reason, but they look happy and aren't throwing things!

"Uuuuh---bble uuumm!" they try to call out with the song while they have their fun.

+2 Morale for Critical Success! 8 Total. Pooka can still make one more check.

---

As for Hobbs, he attempts to create a fiery display in the campfire but it appears to sputter out for a second...but then a giant plume of flame erupts. Even Muckmuck has to stop moping around and whining for a second.

"That could burn a dozen monsters! Or lure them here..." he exclaims before falling back to his normal mood in impressive time.

A group of goblins gathers around begging him to make more fire, enough to miss the point of the story. They instead poke fun at the story teller.

"Hydra on a volcano! What...just make a volcano here instead. Fire not stories! Fire not stories!" they chant for a bit before falling back and laughing.

1 Success and 1 Failure, +1 Morale. 9 Total.

---

Briney grabs Ogren to bounce to the music but he fails to get much height on the last bounce which causes a chorus of raspberry sounds and downward pointing thumbs. Other pairs of goblins get up to show you how to do it, pushing each other off the tops of the wagons.

1 Failure. Briney can still make 1 more check.

---

Surprisingly, the scenario specificaly talks about climbing high enough to make a nasty impact, but I knew Ogren would take to it. Haha.

Ogren starts off not taking any of Muckmucks doubts. As he soars through the air the caravan workers stop to watch the crash. After the dustcloud settles there is quite a but of cheering.

"He is a comet! My cousin was squishy like that! YEAH!"

It takes a lot of yelling from Muckmuck and restraint from the workers to stop them from jumping off the caravans on the way there screaming Ogrens name.

Later at the campfire Ogren begins putting on a fun display that at first terrifies the some goblins, "Undead?! I was told maybe a big cat but now undead!?", but they are quickly silenced as others excited about smacking the zombie rush up for their turn.

(Padded Mace) Improvised Club: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (7) - 2 = 5
(Padded Mace) Improvised Club: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (8) - 2 = 6
(Padded Mace) Improvised Club: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (13) - 2 = 11
(Padded Mace) Improvised Club: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (4) - 2 = 2
(Padded Mace) Improvised Club: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (6) - 2 = 4

Lucikly for Ogren and possibly why they keep getting dragged off, they are terrible at swinging any kind of weapon.

2 Successes for +2 Morale. 11 Total.

---

Current Morale: 11
Caravan Shenanigans Left:
Galilea: 2
Nikebei: 2
Pooka: 1
Briney: 1

"Whoa...no way I's top a jumps like that," Pooka gasps as Ogren takes his leap and quite literally bounces right back from it. "THATS WAS AWESOMES! AGAINS, AGAINS!" she whoops.

But luckily for Ogren she does calm down after a few minutes, especially as he starts up his zombie game for the others. As she watches them swing and repeatedly miss, she shakes her head.

"Heys! If you don't knows how to fights then you need to learns how to dodge ands be light on your feets," she declares as the game winds down. "I's gonna show you how! I's gonna fire-dance! Saws a longshank ats the circus do it once!"

After urging the others to stoke the campfire up a bit, Pooka attempts to do some sort of weird dance that involves a lot of asynchronous gyration and leaps through the roaring flames...

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9

...but apparently fire-dancing is much harder than it looks.

"YEWOUCH! Mys eyebrows!"

With so much music going on, Nic Nic Cook Cook gets ready to make her special Chop Chop Carrott Carrott Soupey Soup. In time with the song she puts her chopping board down on a makeshift table. On the wooden table top, she lays out a whole row of carrots, then her feet start to move uncontrollably in time with the music. She takes two large kitchens knives, one in each hand and throws one of them up into the air. The blade and hilt tumbles end over end in the air, reaching a peak height before falling back down. She catches the knife as it falls, with skill and precision, whilst at the same time, launching the other knife into the air. With the knife caught safely in her hand, it is quickly used to slice and dice a carrot, before the other knife returns to her other hand and the process of throwing the knives starts again. She then repeats the process cutting fresh green herbs and placing everything along with the specially hot spices into the pot to cook.

She serves the tasty soup to the workers, "Here's eat this up, makes you strong, hit Ogren better with full belly."although perhaps it doesn't taste quite as good and spicy as normal, with most of the spices, thrown haphazardly around in time with Pooka's tune.

Acrobatics - juggling the knives 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19
Craft(Cooking Food) - Carrot and Spices Soup 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10

Briney stands, and with a two-finger swipe, dusts off his collar.

He watches with wonder as Ogren stands up from their collision, bounds off the cliff unharmed, easily recovers, then wraps his mace into the costume of a zombie; he watches as all the other goblins fail to meaningfully damage the "zombie". So, Briney designates the "zombie" as his "lead", and sizes it up for a "telling blow"...

1d20 ⇒ 20

...Briney predicts a perfect strike! Ergo, with a tiny jump and hip thrust for leverage, he whips his oversized heavy crossbow into his small hands, and without evening aiming - just pure instinct - fires a Bolt at the "zombie"...

1d20+7 > (20)+7 = 27 to hit (using predicted die roll above) for 2d10 ⇒ (4, 3) = 7 piercing damage

...sticking the "zombie" right in it's "brain"! Without hesitation, he shoves the crossbow face-first into the ground, jumps on top of it, and winds the crank with both hands using his whole body (Reload ◆◆), then hopping off, uses another levering jump to swing it back over his shoulder, stowing the weapon back upon his meager person (Stow ◆)...

He then smiles sheepishly at Ogren!

Galilea claps gleefully along with the song and after a few beats shoots up to her feet. ”Now for a real treat, my lovelies! Stand back!”

She prestidigitates a flurry of magical bubbles and starts starts swirling them around her. After a moment, she starts dancing, flipping, and tumbling amongst them; shooting out arcs of lightning on beat to pop several bubbles that shower her in shimmery magic.

Prestidigitation+Electric arc+acrobatics+performance??? :D
Acrobatics: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6
Acrobatics: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12
Acrobatics: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19
Perform: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11
Perform: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17
Perform: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17

Hobbs frowns as he contemplates how he can make the bubbles from his pipe burst in a similar manner.