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So my group left off last time having killed everything south of the rope bridge at Thistletop except for Gogmurt the goblin druid, who they captured with 2 HP left. We decided to stop there and start our next session (tomorrow evening) with the interrogation of Gogmurt and go from there.
I know it says Gogmurt will tell them everything since he's that low on HP, and he wants the "longshanks" (Nualia and crew) gone, so he'll try to cut a deal with the PCs to get them to leave the goblins alone. But it also says he won't go with them.
Besides the specific information listed in the adventure, I'm wondering what other detail Gogmurt is likely to provide. Would he warn them about the trap on the rope bridge? Give them directions within the goblins' building for where to find Nualia's crew while avoiding Chief Ripnugget?
I guess some of this might depend on the approach the PCs take. I'm honestly not sure if they'll try diplomacy, or just go for intimidation. If intimidated, he definitely won't tell them about the bridge trap. But if they try to cut a deal to only deal with the "longshanks" and leave most of the goblins alone, would Gogmurt be more forthcoming?
My Gogmurt used the bridge info as proof of his sincerity/truthfulness when spilling the beans to save his life, since it could be quickly checked.
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In my campaign, Gogmurt is the only goblin left alive. The players encountered him and Tanglefoot first in the thistles but chased them off and were blocked from pursuing or exiting by an entangle spell. Rather than waiting for it to expire, they plunged ahead over the bridge. <insert total carnage for the goblins, Nualia and her allies.> Now the only thing left alive in Thistletop are those creatures that can't or won't move (their days appear numbered too, though the Big M might give them fits...) Gogmurt has left to find the Mosswood Goblins and tell them Thistletop is available for the taking. He and a good force of goblins will arrive in a few days. They are unlikely to be a match for the PC's who are now 4th level. Unless the goblins find the players in a particularly vulnerable position, I suspect we have seen the last of the goblin problems for Sandpoint for the foreseeable future.
I've played Gogmurt, who my players did not ever capture as having these priorities:
1. His own survival
2. Preservation of as many Thistletop goblins as possible
3. Expulsion of Nualia and her minions from Thistletop
4. Revenge on the longshanks who have harmed his tribe
He's down to #1 and #4 now and they may be inverted. He was particularly outraged when the pc's rather ruthlessly killed a few goblins who had been routed from the fort and were trying to flee across the trap-triggered bridge. One grease spell from the bard and they fell into the ocean to feed the monster that lives there. He complained bitterly to them from the mainland side of the bridge about the needless slaughter. They responded with 'War is Hell' and used him as a pin cushion for their missile weapons. He barely survived the barrage by fleeing into the thistle.
As for what he will tell the pc's if captured - anything that will advance his priorities. As other posters have said, he has to tell them about the bridge or they're almost certain to violate his priority #1. He should blame all the problems on Nualia and tell them everything he knows about her and what's happening in the fortress/dungeon (translation: whatever you want the pc's to know.) He should paint the goblins as victims and blameless for the attack on Sandpoint. If you want to give him some flavor play him as filled with a smug despair - his predictions to Ripnugget about adventurers retaliating from Sandpoint have come true.
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So much to my surprise, the group kinda accepted Gogmurt's "deal" of only targeting the longshanks and leaving the goblins alone. He described Nualia's crew to them, told them to go down into the island to find them. They left him tied up in the thistles to make sure he wouldn't betray them, but promised to come back and untie him on their way out.
I had him warn them about the bridge, but in vague enough terms that they didn't realize what the warning meant until after it was too late. They crossed one at a time due to paranoia of getting shot at from the watch towers, then one of them spotted the trap and realized the real reason he told them not to cross all at once.
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I know there's nothing in the rules to that effect, but IMO tying up a druid capable of Wild Shape doesn't work very well, as my PCs discovered. :)
Yeah, I already planned on having him not be there when they get back. He's also still got his Animal Messenger spell that he never cast, so I was going to have him raise the alarm with that, too. He doesn't trust them, so he wants to warn the chief. Which is ironic, since he has the word of a paladin and lawful cavalier, so these humans are actually trustworthy.
Actually, I have followup questions about Thistletop that don't relate to Gogmurt. The group snuck in rather effectively without raising the alarm, listened at doors before going anywhere, and managed to find the stairs down to the basement without running into any goblins or goblin dogs. The ranger made some good rolls on perception checks to hear the goblins in the chief's throne room and the goblin dogs in the courtyard, so they managed to avoid them.
I figure Gogmurt's warning will get to the goblin chief while they're downstairs, so getting out will be tougher than getting in was. They'll probably be able to negotiate with the goblins without a fight, though. Seeing these humans and elves walking out carrying Nualia and her crew dead or unconscious should be enough to scare the goblins into letting them leave without a fight.
Also, the group found and subdued Orik in the bedrooms. They knocked him down to -4 HP, stabilized him, took his stuff, and left him tied up, with the intention of carrying him out when they leave to face justice back in Sandpoint.
Then they found the temple of Lamashtu, and the yeth hounds howled at them, which is supposed to be pretty loud. So I'm wondering how many doors that howling can be heard through. I figure Bruthazmus is only two closed doors away (the temple doors were open), so he probably heard the hounds and will be on alert. There are four closed doors between the temple and Lyrie, so she may not have heard, but I can't decide - it may be loud enough that she did. The nearest goblins upstairs are the sleeping goblins in the barracks, through three closed doors and up the stairs, so they probably didn't hear. We finished for the night with the group taking care of healing in the Lamashtu temple after killing the hounds, so reacting to that will be the next step.
So as stealthy as the group thinks they were up to this point, pretty much everyone knows they're there now. I'm just debating how to handle it. The goblin preparations after the chief gets Gogmurt's warning are covered in the adventure, ie waking the sleeping goblins from the barracks and posting them in the entry hall, having the goblins in the towers and outside the walls alerted, and the preparations described in the chief's throne room.
As I said, I figure Bruthazmus probably heard, and he'd know that the howling came from the temple, so one question is whether he'd go to deal with it by himself or raise the guard. I'm thinking maybe he'd send at least one of the chief's wives upstairs to warn the goblins, but would he go to the temple, or go looking for Nualia to warn her before investigating the disturbance?
Also, are the yeth hounds loud enough that Lyrie would hear them through 4 closed doors? It's actually not that much distance, just a lot of closed doors. Perhaps she would hear and head downstairs to alert Nualia.
Actually, I have followup questions about Thistletop that don't relate to Gogmurt. The group snuck in rather effectively without raising the alarm, listened at doors before going anywhere, and managed to find the stairs down to the basement without running into any goblins or goblin dogs. The ranger made some good rolls on perception checks to hear the goblins in the chief's throne room and the goblin dogs in the courtyard, so they managed to avoid them.I figure Gogmurt's warning will get to the goblin chief while they're downstairs, so getting out will be tougher than getting in was. They'll probably be able to negotiate with the goblins without a fight, though. Seeing these humans and elves walking out carrying Nualia and her crew dead or unconscious should be enough to scare the goblins into letting them leave without a fight.
Also, the group found and subdued Orik in the bedrooms. They knocked him down to -4 HP, stabilized him, took his stuff, and left him tied up, with the intention of carrying him out when they leave to face justice back in Sandpoint.
Then they found the temple of Lamashtu, and the yeth hounds howled at them, which is supposed to be pretty loud. So I'm wondering how many doors that howling can be heard through. I figure Bruthazmus is only two closed doors away (the temple doors were open), so he probably heard the hounds and will be on alert. There are four closed doors between the temple and Lyrie, so she may not have heard, but I can't decide - it may be loud enough that she did. The nearest goblins upstairs are the sleeping goblins in the barracks, through three closed doors and up the stairs, so they probably didn't hear. We finished for the night with the group taking care of healing in the Lamashtu temple after killing the hounds, so reacting to that will be the next step.
So as stealthy as the group thinks they were up to this point, pretty much everyone knows they're there now. I'm just debating how to handle it. The goblin preparations after the chief gets Gogmurt's warning are covered in the adventure, ie waking the sleeping goblins from the barracks and posting them in the entry hall, having the goblins in the towers and outside the walls alerted, and the preparations described in the chief's throne room.
As I said, I figure Bruthazmus probably heard, and he'd know that the howling came from the temple, so one question is whether he'd go to deal with it by himself or raise the guard. I'm thinking maybe he'd send at least one of the chief's wives upstairs to warn the goblins, but would he go to the temple, or go looking for Nualia to warn her before investigating the disturbance?
Also, are the yeth hounds loud enough that Lyrie would hear them through 4 closed doors? It's actually not that much distance, just a lot of closed doors. Perhaps she would hear and head downstairs to alert Nualia.
I'll quote from the AE version, p. 57: "Remember that a yeth hound’s bay is a spread, and as such, it can turn corners but can’t pass solid barriers (such as closed doors). Nonetheless, the baying is quite loud, and should suffice to alert every denizen of Thistletop that intruders have entered the chapel."
If you wanted to rule that Nualia, on the second level down cannot hear, that would be within reason but everyone else in the complex, above and below ground knows something unusual happened in the temple. If the pc's left doors open, the other occupants may be affected but regardless they know. I would argue Lyrie retreats to warn Nualia. Exactly how the pc's defeated Orik without alerting Bruthazmus, I'm not sure. Perhaps he was ... otherwise engaged with the goblin wives. But when he is alerted, he would probably move to Orik who he expects to be in D4b. Finding him bound, he might kill him, free him or ignore him. Next he would link up with Ripnugget who he should find coming down. Would be very bad for Ripnugget if there was an intrusion and Nualia found out he just stayed in his throne room. So I'd argue that Bruthazmus, Ripnugget, the gecko, the warchanter and three goblin commandos head straight for the Temple. Nualia, the last hound and Lyrie arrive a small number of rounds later. Of course I'm one of those DM's who thinks NPC's shouldn't just stay in their rooms waiting for the pc's to kill them ;)
I'd also argue Bruthazmus wouldn't go toward Nualia in this case because the intruders (and the Temple) are between him and Nualia. He'd link up with Rignugget first, since the goblins are right up the stairs from D1.
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The PCs heard Bruthazmus and the goblin wives through the door to their room and avoided him, then engaged Orik in his own bedroom, which is why Bruthazmus was never alerted until hearing the hounds.
I wasn't sure if the hounds were loud enough to alert Ripnugget. I was thinking the goblins would be on alert upstairs once they got Gogmurt's message, but not realize the party had gotten downstairs already, which is why I wasn't planning on having them investigate down there until they got word from Bruthazmus.
I disagree about Ripnugget coming downstairs, though, even if he does know the intruders are there. The room description for his throne room specifically says he'll stay there, even if the alarm has been raised, with his commandos hiding in the rafters and warchanter behind the throne, ready for a fight. But if he thinks the longshanks have already gotten to the temple, he might send the 6 goblins from the barracks down there, rather than posting them in the entry hall.
I think I agree with you that Bruthazmus would go get Orik (after he puts on his armor) when he hears the hounds, then head directly to the temple. Finding Orik unconscious and bound, he'd probably get angrier, but just leave Orik there. Lyrie would probably head downstairs to get Nualia. I may have to do the math on how many rounds this all takes to decide who arrives at the temple first, and by how much. The PCs will definitely have time to heal from their fight against the first two yeth hounds before anyone else arrives.
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The PCs heard Bruthazmus and the goblin wives through the door to their room and avoided him, then engaged Orik in his own bedroom, which is why Bruthazmus was never alerted until hearing the hounds.
I wasn't sure if the hounds were loud enough to alert Ripnugget. I was thinking the goblins would be on alert upstairs once they got Gogmurt's message, but not realize the party had gotten downstairs already, which is why I wasn't planning on having them investigate down there until they got word from Bruthazmus.
I disagree about Ripnugget coming downstairs, though, even if he does know the intruders are there. The room description for his throne room specifically says he'll stay there, even if the alarm has been raised, with his commandos hiding in the rafters and warchanter behind the throne, ready for a fight. But if he thinks the longshanks have already gotten to the temple, he might send the 6 goblins from the barracks down there, rather than posting them in the entry hall.
I think I agree with you that Bruthazmus would go get Orik (after he puts on his armor) when he hears the hounds, then head directly to the temple. Finding Orik unconscious and bound, he'd probably get angrier, but just leave Orik there. Lyrie would probably head downstairs to get Nualia. I may have to do the math on how many rounds this all takes to decide who arrives at the temple first, and by how much. The PCs will definitely have time to heal from their fight against the first two yeth hounds before anyone else arrives.
That's the great thing about these discussions - everyone is right! It sounds like you have a good plan for what's next.
I would though point out that Ripnugget has a growing credibility problem - he's alienated the tribe's shaman (Gogmurt), he's letting the bugbear cuckold him, he failed to defeat Shadowmist and, from the goblin point of view, the raid on Sandpoint was anything but a success. At some point he has to demonstrate he's still the baddest goblin in the building. Or he'll have a real morale problem on his hands - might wake-up with a knife in his back or his throat slit.