Meet 19, Adv 1, 12/15/12

Every gaming group has tropes, something that is unique to them and often gets repeated over time. We've had "Hwa'cha" and the 500 lb gorilla as well as getting "Pucked" and at least half a dozen others. This meeting saw the introduction of "Supplies!" - the battle cry of the party upon attacking the goblin forces with a dubious amount of surprise. Adopted from the poor goblin suppliers who were bringing said goods down to their cavernous brothers we started using it around every corner and through every patch of darkness, like a bad parody of Weird Al's UHF.

I also had the chance to throw some zombie animals at the party. Zombies are an old staple, but zombie animals are just fricking disturbing to me. We had goats and chickens and although they were not "deadly" to the group, I know I was skeeved out by them.

Write up follows:

The goblins came riding down the slope on the door carts and hit our left bedrolls almost immediately, causing the three of them to crash and bang together. We raced up there to look the wreckage over and dispatched 5 of the goblins swiftly. The last three were stunned and captured; Chase convinced it was a trick of some sort. We took our bedrolls and pushed one of the carts back up the slope, eventually leading the goblins out as well. As for Goelarid, the charmed greenskin was sent back to talk to Malven and tell him about the elves – hoping to lure them out.

 

When outside we pressed the goblins for information and eventually dispatched two of them, keeping one for possible ransom or ease of passage later. As time went on we deduced the goblins were not going to come out and face us. Also Chase and Fist’al took a walk around to see if there was a possible back way into the place – finding nothing serious except for what seemed to be chimney or air fissures. Nothing we could block up or poison, but confident that we were not going to find ourselves surrounded on both sides by the goblins within.

 

The party reentered the cavern and started our walk back down the slope. About half way down we heard the same tapping from below. Do we answer? We did, same. A voice called out, “Who is it?” Without pause, the party replied, “Supplies!” and then trundled down the slope in attack formation.

 

A barrier had been erected at the bottom of the slope, braced from the other side by moved barrels and boxes. Two goblins were there, spears at the ready and set to receive charges. Chase vaulted over the barrier and tried to take out the first goblin but failed as he was skewered by the greenskin’s spear. The other goblin was hit by our party’s arrows and then Fergus and Tempi clambered over the barrier. There were 3 other goblins here with spears and shields and one just outside the room with a bow. He fired upon us as Chase fell to the ground at 0 and fading out. Tempi hit the group on the left with a fury, splintering one of the goblin’s shields and leaving the greenskin surprised.

 

Fist’al tried to get in backstabbing position and Enthir got hung up on the barrier, unable to fully cross. Whosea joined the fight near Tempi while Flimflam dropped a cure light on Chase, waking the ranger up who charged the archer’s position.

 

The battle raged shortly and then ended with most everyone with greenskin dead and down. We purloined some more shields and spears and then came to the barrier hall where Chase was facing off against 3 goats. Typical goats, but they had been partially eaten and their carcasses raised from the dead. They were…hard to say for sure, butting the ranger was a definite but for the most part were more of an inconvenience to the party than an actual major threat. Be that as it may it did take a serious amount of time to actually finally drop the zombie goats – made more difficult due to the fact that we were forced to use what bludgeoning weapons we had.

 

The hall beyond the zombie goats ended at a decent sized chamber filled with scattered chicken bodies, 12 or so of them. There were also 5 candles and a lots of chalk lines about the floor. The entrance was blocked by another barrier about 3’ tall. We debated what to do and were assured by Fergus that if we disturbed the chalk lines, some sense of evil would occur. Confident that it would be the awakening of zombie chickens, we decided how we were to proceed.

 

The chalk line was disturbed and the chickens woke up, milling about the room and bouncing. When they got too close to the barrier we hit them. We also were sure that goblins were at the other end of the room and most likely had a bead on us with bows and arrows. We goosed an arrow from them by faking our crossing with a dead goblin body and then Chase vaulted over and ran across the room, out of the view of the other hall. Eventually Fergus and Tempi joined him and they charged the goblins yelling, “Supplies!”. There were 4 of them and the party hit them hard while the rest of the group brought up the rear. In no time we broke their line and one of them tried to flee.

 

Chase followed, closing the gap and then hacking the goblin down. He fell forward and slid across some wet patch of stone, the ranger just able to make himself stop at the wet area. And he heard the giggling sound of goblins laughing in the nearby gloom.