I'm wondering... how did the goblins get the horse through those 4 feet high cramped briar tunnels to get it to the island?
My players wondered how it got across the bridge, too, since it's probably too heavy. I just smiled knowingly like it was something they hadn't figured out, but I dunno either.
Creative Director
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I'm wondering... how did the goblins get the horse through those 4 feet high cramped briar tunnels to get it to the island?
Until they got the horse into the building, it was unconscious. They carried it. Took a dozen or more of them, but that's the only way. Four-foot-high briar tunnels aside, there's NO WAY a goblin or fifty of them would approach close enough to a horse to lead it anywhere unless it was already mostly dead.
I'm wondering... how did the goblins get the horse through those 4 feet high cramped briar tunnels to get it to the island?
They may have knocked them unconscious and dragged them through (perhaps using goblin dogs) while they were prone.
Or, if you're willing to handwave some of the RAW uses of magic to be especially gruesome, perhaps they cut off the horses' legs, stopped the bleeding using magic and healed them back together later, dragging the poor horses through while they were still awake and in pain. A cleric who does a heal check on Shadowmist could notice that the legs were detached at one point.
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Creative Director
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My players wondered how it got across the bridge, too, since it's probably too heavy. I just smiled knowingly like it was something they hadn't figured out, but I dunno either.
The bridge is capable of holding a horse. Remember that the goblins can reinforce the bridge for situations like this; they just normally leave it in "collapse" mode when they don't need it for any heavy work.
I'm wondering... how did the goblins get the horse through those 4 feet high cramped briar tunnels to get it to the island?Until they got the horse into the building, it was unconscious. They carried it. Took a dozen or more of them, but that's the only way. Four-foot-high briar tunnels aside, there's NO WAY a goblin or fifty of them would approach close enough to a horse to lead it anywhere unless it was already mostly dead.
Wow, that was fast. :) You just have to love these boards. Thanks for a reasonable explanation. :)
How exactly is Shadowmist an asset to the players? I'm assuming because the goblins are afraid of horses, but Shadowmist surely can't follow them into the lower levels, right?
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Creative Director
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How exactly is Shadowmist an asset to the players? I'm assuming because the goblins are afraid of horses, but Shadowmist surely can't follow them into the lower levels, right?
If you have a druid or ranger in the party capable of recruiting the horse and/or charming it, leading Shadowmist into the fight with Ripnugget (or luring the goblins out into the courtyard when they don't realize the "monster" is loose) makes the horse quite a potent asset.
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I was also considering the following possibility: the goblin druid (Gogmurt?) could have charmed the horse to make it really docile, so it would let itself be handled by the goblins. Gogmurt wanted to offer the horse as a gift to chief Ripnugget in a last desperate effort to "win some points" against the damned Longshanks.
But when Gogmurt saw that, even after such a generous gift, the ungrateful warchief still listened only to Nualia's suggestions, he decided to leave the now un-charmed and dangerous horse in the courtyard and let the rest of the tribe deal with it.
I was also considering the following possibility: the goblin druid (Gogmurt?) could have charmed the horse to make it really docile, so it would let itself be handled by the goblins. Gogmurt wanted to offer the horse as a gift to chief Ripnugget in a last desperate effort to "win some points" against the damned Longshanks.
But when Gogmurt saw that, even after such a generous gift, the ungrateful warchief still listened only to Nualia's suggestions, he decided to leave the now un-charmed and dangerous horse in the courtyard and let the rest of the tribe deal with it.
Once charmed maybe the druid cast Reduce Animal?
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How exactly is Shadowmist an asset to the players? I'm assuming because the goblins are afraid of horses, but Shadowmist surely can't follow them into the lower levels, right?
for one of the groups I ran through Burnt Offerings, it was not as much a benefit as it was a hazard. The PC who approached the horse rolled a 1 on the Handle Animal check. It ended up attacking the PCs for a few rounds until the druid came up with some food and calmed it down; during that window it almost dropped the party's cleric.
Of course, the crazed horse attacking humans freaked out a handful of goblins who witnessed it and they proceeded to flee from the island lest it attack them once it was done with the longshanks ...
If you have a druid or ranger in the party capable of recruiting the horse and/or charming it, leading Shadowmist into the fight with Ripnugget (or luring the goblins out into the courtyard when they don't realize the "monster" is loose) makes the horse quite a potent asset.
That sounds so much more noble than what my PCs did . . . sneak into the pen, set the horse loose, let it wildly flail at the goblin dogs until it was dead, and then finished off the half dead survivors.
Then again, they also stuffed Tsuto into the furnace at the Glassworks, beat each other up, and told the guards that he escaped.
Wow...
We left the poor thing where it was until it was safe. Our ranger nursed the horse back to health. When he died, my paladin took it for his mount. Had no clue what the horse's name was. We called him Obsidian.
my players made friends and it helped them thrash some gobbos and big B.
M
The rogue in my party ended up with this horse. He crushed two ghouls to death later on.
My group used Reduce Animal too... the party Druid befriended the horse, feeding it, healing it, etc... and the bridge collapsed when they tried to bring the horse across it (the group completely failing to strengthen the bridge, and the horse 20'ing his reflex save to get off it)
In the end they left the horse to roam free on top of Thistletop while they cleared out the dungeons below. Once they were done, they created a method of winching the horse into a rowing boat tethered below. The druid used Speak with Animals to explain what was going to happen, and Reduce Animal to deal with the size/weight problem.
The main problem was that the party combat specialist (barbarian/dragon shaman) had bought it in the fight against Malfeshnekor, so it was left to the party cleric to do all the lifting/rowing. She wasn't best pleased about that :)