The dwarf flattens herself against the wall, out of direct line of sight of the door, and gives Henry a thumbs-up.
Henry will then open the door and enter shield-first.
Behind the door is simply a smallish (15 feet square) room. Three plain wooden chairs sit along the east (left) wall, but the room is otherwise empty.
There is one obvious exit: a door on the west (right) wall.
That was anticlimactic. Hilde enters cautiously, peering around the room for signs of anything out of the ordinary before checking the door.
Hilde notices that the middle chair leans against the wall and that the wall pivots slightly outward. There is a secret door behind it.
There are now two obvious exits: a secret door to the left and an ordinary door to the right.
Tindertwig follows along. Both the goblin and crocodile eyeing the magical shield....
"Hidden door first?"
"Seems reasonable," agrees Eddred. "Ready when you are."
Henry nods and begins opening the hidden door.
You carefully sneak through the secret door and peer around the corner. You find yourselves in a very long corridor.
This long, ten-foot-wide hallway has a vaulted ceiling arching to a dozen feet high. Three broken metal brackets hang from the ceiling; one to the south, one to the north, and one in the middle, although what the frames once held is unclear. The floor is strewn with pieces of rotten wood and twisted metal. To the north, pale green light shimmers around a closed door’s frame.
There are lots of obvious exits. Which one do you want to explore?
Tindertwig kicks Dirtbag; the goblin pointing up at the ceiling. The crocodile nods solemnly, before moving next to a wall.
The goblin smiles as he attempts to climb up to the empty frames.
Dirtbag seems to have gotten a bit enamored with an itch that he begins scratching; causing our goblin to flail about....
While Tindertwig (with Dirtbag's questionable assistance) tries to climb one of the frames, Hilde pads quietly down the hall, listening at each door .
Henry stays with Hilde in case any of these doors open as she checks them.
Hilde hears a scraping noise, mixed with some kind of metallic tinkle, from behind the double doors. Do you want to try the other ones?
"If you decide to open that one, give me ten seconds first," says Eddred.
You and your allies gain a +1 status bonus to attack rolls while within the emanation.
"You walk in the sight of Kerkamoth, and all will be as it should be. Be comforted and raise up your hearts."
Hilde does indeed step back from the door and share her observations with the other three-and-a-half members of the party.
Not wanting to let Eddred's spell go to waste, Henry opens the door and heads through to investigate the source of the noise.
You open the doors after being blessed and find yourselves in a large, stinking room. This large open area is a filthy mess, even beyond the
collapse to the south that clogs part of the room with rubble. Half-eaten fish, cat-sized beetles, and bits of waterfowl lie strewn about in a tangle amid gnawed bones of larger creatures.
Four strange creatures that look a bit like lanky goblins with big saucer-like eyes are tinkering with what looks like some kind of ballista. But they snarl and hiss in anger and surprise as they become aware of you.
Their initiative is 20 so if you beat that, go ahead and act.
Hilde starts at the sight of the creatures. The mushroom-eyed people that the mite king talked about!
Goblin and crocodile shrug at the ceiling and join the others at the new door. They both start scratching a bit after Eddred's spell.
Someting feels differents.
Dirtbag smiles at the Cleric.
Tindertwig and Dirtbag look into the room; both of their mouths hanging open in disbelief!
Half-eatens fishes, cat-sized beetles, and bits ov waterfowls bees just strewns about in un tangle amids gnawed boneses ov larger creatures?
The goblin winks at no one in particular. They both then notice the not even close to being real goblins messing around with a cool looking big crossbow thingy.
Hey! Youses guys are in our tower! Ooo! Nice! Whats dat do!
Still chanting an invocation to the Waiting Void, Eddredd dashes into the room and fires at the nearest enemy.
Henry will step forward towards the closest enemy. Raising his Morningstar high, he attempted to bring it down on the enemy.
"What are these... ugly things?" Henry asked back, half yelling and half trying not to. He raised his shield.
Definities nots goblins!
The not-goblins seem to be blinded by the glare of Henry's shield. Shrieking in rage they all pile up on him, daggers drawn, managing to tangle in such a preternatural way that they share squares. But unfortunately they are all blinded and most of their attacks go wide. Just one manages to land a lucky hit, cutting Henry for 8 points of damage (before blocking).
You are all up. The blindness has now passed but they are still dazzled.
Eddred fires his bow swiftly while continuing to chant even, sonorous prayers to Kerkamoth. The keening sound is somehow eerie and desolate, even in the heat of battle. Yet somehow it sweeps away the confusion and chaos, leaving each ally better able to focus on the truth of the battle around them.
Tindertwig watches as the Not Goblins swarm Henry. The real goblin decides to change the odds!
He places his fingers like horns on his head. He then charges through!
Waving at everyone from the other side, Tindertwig then Hunt's Prey!
Dirtbag is seen playing a quick game of Solitaire, while he waits....
"These must be what the mite king told us about!" Hilde advances into the room and hurls a dart at one of the creatures before drawing another dart.
Henry deflects the blow partially with his shining shield. Giving Tindertwig a nod, he began attacking the flanked creatures starting with the one already injured.
Henry follows up by raising his shield.
Tindertwig is almost blocked by the tangle of limbs but he manages to switch directions in the last minute, and with a flourish cuts down one of his definitely-not-kin. Hilde puts a dart in another and Henry finishes off the one that he wounded last round.
Two mushroom-eyes remain, one with a dart sticking out of it. They move as one, turning their attention to Tindertwig and between them manage to stab him twice for 11 points of damage.
You are all up again.
"Hey, leave Mister Tindertwig alone," Henry growled. He moved so that he was flanking the creatures with Tindertwig and swung wildly with his morninstar.
After a solid blow, he once again hid behind his shield.
Tindertwig takes the stab wounds with a grin. The goblin does look a bit confused when Henry referred to someone called Mister?
Shrugging his shoulders, the Ranger call Dirtbag over to have some fun too. The goblin then Scuttles into a Flank with the crocodile.
They both then attempt to end these imposters!
Hilde strides into the room past the creatures, hurls another dart at the one he hit before, and draws a third one. Her foot slips on a rock, though, and the dart ricochets off the ceiling, coming too close to the crocodile. The rogue mutters a Dwarven curse under her breath.
Eddred continues to chant while firing his bow as fast as he can.
Henry brings down the wounded creature, and Eddred puts an arrow in the last one, who opts for the better part of valour and runs away, disappearing into the corridor to the far south.
Hilde approaches the fallen creatures, turning one over with her shortsword and looking it over.
Henry lands another blow as the creature scuttles away. As a parting shot it stabs Tindertwig yet again in passing for 3 points of damage.
"Follow it, or who knows how many of its fellows will come back for revenge!" says Eddred, running to pursue.
Ouch! Why youeses dirtys rat-faced not un goblin!
Tindertwig and Dirtbag take off after it!
The last of the creatures sets off down a corridor with doors on both sides. It has just managed to open a door at the end of it when Eddred hits is with an arrow and Tindertwig catches up with him.
A desk with a chair sits in the middle of this room, while three empty picture frames hang on the walls.
Two more of the lanky humanoids stand over the desk fiddling with something. They look up in surprise as the door opens.
Tindertwig has one action left and Henry has all his actions, then the monsters go. EDIT: Hilde may also want to change her action to pursue the fleeing monster. In that case, go ahead, and we'll get back to the results of the Recall Knowledge check later.
Henry took off after Tindertwig and Dirtbag, chasing down the strange Not Goblin. As he entered the hallway, he swore under his breath that there wasn't enough room to take a good swing at it. Regardless, he dropped his Morningstar and pulled out a Javelin, aiming for it over Tindertwig's head.
Tindertwig (and Dirtbag) run screaming bloody murder after the Not A Goblin!
The dwarf throws another dart at the fleeing enemy, then chases after it .
Her accuracy is only slightly better than the last one, though,
Henry manages to wound the creature some more with a javelin that passes perilously close to Tindertwig's ear, but it is still standing.
The creatures in the room open the door to the right and disappear through it. Their smaller kin does the same but not before delivering a vicious stab to Tindertwig's belly for 12 points of damage.
You are up again. The monsters are out of sight for now.
Eddred reaches out and touches Henry's shoulder.
"Assume now your proper place on the path to Entropy," he says, and the chaos of Henry's wound is swiftly replaced by a far more orderly bruise.
Henry picked up his morningstar and hesitated. "Chasing one, then chasing, what was that, three? Iunno how I feel about this lion's den. Do we keep running after them?" Henry asked the party, dubious about moving forward without consent but still full of fight.
Hilde shakes her head. "We don't want them to lead us into an ambush, or a trap. These are morlocks, and they're supposed to be good at tinkering. Let's get healed up first. Then we can set an ambush for them, if they come back after us."