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So my party reached Thistletop today. I have a fighter, druid, rogue, and wizard. The fighter was a samurai, but the the samurai died so now we have a fighter.
Upon reaching Thistletop they came upon the giant wall of briars. The druid walked right through and discovered that there were tunnels running through the briars. He returns to tell the party, but decides to continue scouting while they wait at the mouth of the tunnel. He tries to stay in the briars as much as possible, jumping across the tunnels and being stealthy.
First he finds the big hole in the ground. Passes that by and heads north, comes to the edge and see the bridge so decides to head that way. Finds the kennel with the goblin dogs tied up but they see him and start barking, so he turns around and heads the other way. Keeps sneaking until he finds the goblin refugees who don't see him. He then decides to head back to his companions, follows the same path back and fails a perception checks. Gets hit by the goblin druid hiding in the brambles, then fails on the iniative roll and gets hit again and goes down.
My thoughts on the goblin druid was that he would hear the goblin dogs barking and go investigate. He questions them with speak to animals, finds out that someone is running around in the brambles, sends a message to raise the alarm and then sets off to find the intruder. Since the player didn't immediately leave and seek out his companions but kept exploring it wasn't too difficult for the goblin druid to find him and ambush him.
So the party runs into save him but between the goblin dogs, the goblin druid/rogue, and the cougar they can't seem to get 15 past the entrance. An entagle spell really trips them up and they end up running away. At that point I ended the session, told the Druid's player to roll up a temp character for Tuesday that he can play until he discovers the Druids fate, with the chance that it might be his new character. I decided to have the goblin Druid kill the druids animal companion who also fell in the combat and torture the druid for information, but give the guy a chance to save his character.
What do you guys think? Reasonable and/or realistic response? Would you have done anything differently?
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Not being able to resist a thread with no replies for a whole 9 hours, I'll just say, "You did good, kid."
(1) Sending a single character ahead scouting alone is foolhardy. "Out of sight, out of life." Every game I play in (and the number's getting scary), if you move out of bowshot/sight/hearing of the rest of the party, you're asking to die. Your druid went ahead anyway, revealed himself to the dogs (and I would argue you were generous here to have them tied up; he would've been dog chow in my campaign), and then KEEPS GOING AFTER SETTING OFF THE ALARM. It was absolutely appropriate (and some would say necessary) to have Gogmurt come after him. And in a one-on-one fight, Gogmurt's got a darned good chance.
In short, the player did something that every player knows is a life-risking act. He then ignored the fact that he'd set off the alarm. That's just pretty darned bad.
(2) The fact that the rest of the party got away is impressive. Against Gogmurt, the dogs, and an Entangle spell, they got lucky.
I think the rest of your actions are correct as well:
Gogmurt hates Nualia, so he would be more than likely to keep the prisoner to himself to torture him and find out the strengths, weaknesses, and numbers of companions. Since he's a Druid, I would argue he'd keep the animal companion alive long enough to question it as well. Then he'd keep the party's druid as a hostage, and kill the animal companion as 'no longer useful to him', and a possible threat.
You *could* have him hand both the druid and the companion over to Nualia for sacrifices, but that goes against Gogmurt's nature.
Long story short, it sounds like you want endorsement of how you played it, and how you're going to play it going forward, and I personally think you did an excellent job.
Now that he has the upper hand (having a prisoner), perhaps Gogmurt could try to make a deal and help them get rid of Nualia.
My thoughts on the goblin druid was that he would hear the goblin dogs barking and go investigate. He questions them with speak to animals, finds out that someone is running around in the brambles, sends a message to raise the alarm and then sets off to find the intruder. Since the player didn't immediately leave and seek out his companions but kept exploring it wasn't too difficult for the goblin druid to find him and ambush him.
This is the crux of whether or not you might want to go easy on the druid. How difficult did you make it for the goblin druid to find and ambush the PC druid? Did he track him? Did he figure out the PC would eventually leave the brambles and head him off there? Do you feel you gave the PC enough time scouting for the goblin druid to respond to the goblin dogs' racket, get useful information out of them with the spell, sound the alarm, track or head off the PC, AND set up an ambush?
If any of those questions would make you uncomfortable with the fairness if you think about them from a player perspective, consider not being too abusive to the druid PC.
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One thing to keep in mind is that animal messenger has a casting time of one minute. As far as I can tell from your description, Gogmurt should not have had time to both cast the spell and attack the Druid before he returned to his companions (I assume he was on his way back when ambushed, not just wandering around). Otherwise, Gogmurt could forego the casting and just attack as you described. In that situation, assuming the rest of the group doesn't take too long to make their move, the island will be caught by surprise.
At least, that's my take on it.
I tend to agree with Nobodyshome. Setting off the alarm is bad mmmmkay. Setting off the alarm and then wandering around alone in enemy territory is suicidal.
I would get the goblin druid to try and ally with these guys to kill Nualia - someone he is not happy with.
I think it says he wouldn't betray his tribe, but this might be a good 'rule' to break here. I always prefered the RP idea of him telling the PCs some info (but not accompanying them). He wants Nualia and Lamashtu gone so the tribe can return to worshipping the almighty spirits.
A bunch of adventurers falling into his hands would be too much to resist :)