Keep on the Borderlands - The Path of Evil - Session 26d

SESSION 26d: DAY 13 – CAVES OF CHAOS  

Talmark wonders if that south passage back by Kord heads to the hobgoblins, or perhaps another den. He force whispers "Not too far Malandir, we still have some backtracking we should do to be sure our rear is clear. Kord, watch out for that corridor to your south. There might be hobgoblins down there."

He looks about for something flammable. Perhaps, he thinks to himself, he can relight the fire in the upper right corner to keep this area lit like they did before in the other room and leave Barrett to keep an eye out from the bottom right entrance while everyone else clears the remainder of what we passed.

Malandir thinks, we could always sow some caltrops across corridors we haven't fully cleared as well, to slow down any assault on us from those directions. If we leave at a time of our choosing, we can collect them again. If we have to leave in a hurry, we will probably want any obstacles we can create to slow down a pursuit.

Talmark lights the fire in the north eastern corner. There is enough very dry kindling and wood for it to quickly build. It won’t be long before it’ll shed 30ft of light in all directions.

Kord calls up Lucien, Fremont, Per and Clovis into the main room. They post Fremont and Per to guard the south eastern entrance to the room and the southern and the western passage leading to it.  

Talmark, Barret and Kord move up to the eastern entrance to the room and Talmark signals Malandir to move on. 

What Malandir see’s next fills him with mixed feelings of dreed and exhilaration. As he peers around the corner he can see a large room filled with overly excited goblins. They are screaming to each other about the attack of the humans from the east. Some of them are wounded, obviously victims from the first fight. Jumping up and down and waving their arms in all directions, they are all talking over each other. 

There are a lot of them. e cannot see the whole room but he can see that there must be at least 30 plus goblins with males, females and young all together. It appears that food is prepared and eaten here as there is a large fire place, currently lit, and heaps of bedding, tables, stools, benches etc all around the whole place, making it very cluttered. 

Malandir creeps back to the party where they quickly formulate a plan. 

They’ll attack as before except this time Lucien and Clovis will get into ambush positions in the room that they are currently in and Fremont and Per will protect their eastern position and ultimate path of retreat. Fremont strikes another torch. “It’s too dark in here” he mutters to himself.

Malandir, Talmark, Kord and Barret position themselves ready to move to the attack. 

Kord covers his light. Malandir leads Talmark, Kord and Barret on. 

Talmark again Takes 10 and this combined with the excited and distracted situation of the goblins ensures the four are able to sneak up on their foes. The light of the fire eerily casts shadows of the devilish goblins as Talmark readies his sword, Malandir his bow, Barret his spear and Kord his divine powers. 

SURPRISE ROUND

·        Malandir gives the signal and Kord calls upon the power of Asmodeus once again. He rolls a 1 for damage with a DC 15 reflex save and a goblin reflex save modifier of -1 means that they will need to roll a 16 to pass. The non-combatants, ie the females and young, do not get a save and each take 1pt of damage. Three young are instantly killed and six females are wounded. Four males are caught in the area of effect and they roll 3, 4, 9 and 10. Three are wounded and one is killed (he had been previously wounded). It’s a pitiful use of Asmodeus’ gifts but still at least one goblin is killed and the goblins will need to take a morale test in the next round.

·        Talmark launches into action and charges the nearest male goblin. He ignores the female knowing that she can’t hurt him. He smashes into the goblin and the big blade bites deep dealing 12pts of damage as he cuts into the little monsters stomach. As it falls to the ground dead, Talmark cleaves at the female and cuts her down with 13pts of damage.

·        Malandir fires an arrow to the nearest male in his line of sight but he misses.

·        Barret cannot get into contact and attack with his one action so he moves up to provide flank protection to Talmark. This will also put him into contact with the closest female and should she run he’ll get an attack of opportunity.

ROUND 1A

Initiative Goblins roll 13 + 6 = 19. Party roll 16 + 0 = 16. 

·        The goblins roll 8 on 2d6 for morale against their morale value of 7. They break and run.

·        As they flee Barret gets an attack of opportunity against the female and he hits her in the back doing 4pts of damage and killing her.

·        There are simply too many goblins in the room for them all to get out at once and a great number of them are frantic, stuck in the room with their aggressors.

ROUND 1B

·        “They’re on the run” yells Talmark as he charges the back of the pack. [DM’s note: In this mad panic and crush, the goblins are considered to be flat footed and helpless (see page 195 of the Core Rule Book). So their normal armour class of 16 drops to 14 flat footed, then to 13 for being considered to have a dex of 0 and then to 9 as the -4 modifier for helpless is applied. Talmark has charged getting a +2 to hit with his normal +5 for a powered attack (which he needs to cleave). He only needs a 2 to hit]. Talmark brings down the big sword and cuts the first goblin in two. He cleaves and kills another.

·        Barret charges one of the females and stabs her in the back with his spear dealing 8 pts of damage and instantly killing her.

·        Malandir advances 30ft into the room and fires at one of the northern females who is not in combat. The shot is outside of point blank range and he misses the lucky monster.

·        Kord cannot get into position for an attack just using one action so he double moves into the room, ready for the next round.

ROUND 2A

·        The northern group of goblins continues their rout and disappear in the inky blackness of a corridor that heads to the north.

·        The southern group of goblins routs to the west. Talmark swings Felldrac with an attack of opportunity and cuts down another female. It’s a critical hit and he deals 25pts of damage (a record for this group I think).

·        The western corridor bifurcates into two corridors. One continues west and the other turns to the south. The rear goblins are only just visible in the dark but Talmark can see that for some reason all the goblins head to the west and then they stop running. It’s like they’ve hit a dead end and are trapped. 

ROUND 2B

·        Kord boldly steps to the west 20ft (his maximum move) and Channels Negative Energy dealing 5pts of damage. Five non-combatant females are caught in the effect and are instantly slain. The five males roll the following, each needing a 16 to save: 11, 19, 20, 14, 15. Three take full damage of 5pts and two take half damage (rounded down) of 2pts. One of the previously wounded goblins is killed.

·        Malandir steps forward 25ft and fires an arrow down the corridor at one of the heavily wounded goblins, hoping to finish it off. He strikes it in the back dealing 3pts of damage and kills it.

·        Talmark steps past Kord and swings his two handed sword and cuts down another, delivering 15pts of damage. Talmark can see that the southern corridor is a dead end, hence why none of the goblins fled that way.

·        Barret is only wearing light armour and can move 30ft. He advances through the throng of dying goblins to attack a heavily wounded male. He hits it in the back and delivers 4pts of damage, killing the beast. 

DEW