Icemonth the 9th, 5:05 PM
“Brian…there’s a bunch of them coming now!” Fjord cried out, backing up, weapon ready. The group fanned out, weapon up. Hrimvir called out a blessing from Thrym, filling the party with energy. But the fact that we were ill prepared for the fight and low on spells had Yandr suggest, “Seriously – what are we doing?! Let’s go! I’ll cover everyone!”
The group opted to flee heading back to the stairs and drawing up again. A glance down the hall showed a serious number of hobgoblins and a bugbear leader, all armed and armored up. Even Nevah, bow at the ready, grimaced at the number approaching. “Fuck it, up the stairs. Now!”
Cara who was already there, took out two flasks of oil while the rest of the group filed by, until as the foes were coming, she smashed them to the ground and we got the oil lit – sending a 3’ gout of flame up and coving our retreat. We charged to the top of the stairs, contemplated throwing food and barrels down, but decided it was better to just go.
We left the alcove area, ended up at the guard room, Gun locked the door and we used Cara’s poor rope to tied the door handle to a pair of beds. Then we ran for the hall, to the Sanctuary, and then out the monastery doors into the snow. Fjord and Hrimvir ran point, plowing over 2’ of snow aside with their bodies. The wind had picked up to 20 mile gusts and Cara went last, balanced on her snow shoes and dragging her cloak back and forth behind us to obscure the worst of the trail behind. With the wind, it should fill in any obvious tracks within a half hour.
Cold, wet, and tired, we returned to the garrison where we entered, closed the door, and braced it shut. We opted to not light a fire, cursing us to cold rations and shivering under blankets. We wrote what scrolls we could and after setting up a watch, we fell asleep.
We awoke early on Icemonth the 10th and after praying and studying, were ready to go by quarter after7. A shake of the lantern let us know it was 1/3rd full (8 hours). We left the garrison, closed it behind us, then took a circuitous route back to the Monastery. It was 8 AM when we made it to the door. 8:30 when we were back at the hobgoblin chambers. It was obvious that they had forced the door, rope was missing. At the alcove, there was now no longer any food or water stored here.
We proceeded down quietly, hearing nothing. Goblinoids are nocturnal so this was sleep time for them. We decided to recheck the original northern hall. By 8:50 we were back in the sitting room. Fire was out and stew was gone. Beyond here the cell was still closed. Yandr let us know there was a single evil figure in the bugbear room. And from the taste, it was the dwarf.
We crept up, slowly looking around. Fjord and Yandr went back down the hall to keep watch. Gun took some of his new contact poison out, applied to to a piece of the bottom of his cloak, and using his gloved hand, held it ready. He snuck in to the sleeping dirty dwarf in the bugbear bed, slapped it over his face and mouth – and he died! His heart and lungs froze and he gasped, muscles locking up until he passed on in 20 seconds.
Whoa.
We looked over the room, the dwarf had old callused wrists and ankles, showing that at one point he was in manacles for a time – but not for a while now. He had a single worn forge hammer. We left the area and decided to head back to the other passage and retry the forge area again.
By 9:30 we were back at the area, and Gun and Fjord assured us it was quiet. Yandr got a faint pair of evil pings to the east and south – nothing here though. We entered. The forge was large enough for 4 people to work at once. ¾ of a ton of iron bar was here, as well as enough coal and woodstuffs to run the forges for some time. Weapon racks were empty, but tool racks had 4 sets of about everything. Door on the south wall.
We looked around and decided to place the tools inside the 2nd furnace, under the ash and residue in there – they might find them, they also might not and accidentally burn them. The south door led to a simple cell. It appeared that this was where the dwarf normally slept and stayed but he had been upgraded to the bugbear chambers (before he died).
We headed back to the northern hall, went east and headed off to the area with the 2 evil pings. There was a closed door here and a passage that went further on. We opted for the door and looking it – it was a torture room. Iron maiden, rack, cauldron with oil, pokers. Two goblins here in leather and barbed wire, woman in the bed, man on the floor. Some, BDSM stuff? The party went in and took them out.
There were 4 cells in here, each with some moldering hay and little else. The iron maiden had the bones of a long dead person. The scent of incense was coming from the other hall. Yandr let us know that there was nothing evil there – but the place had the taste of evil – as if something evil had been done there. Moray Vaco’s area? We proceeded with caution.
The hall turned twice until we could see a single torch burning in a sconce. There was a door partially open near it – and another door at the end of the hall. There was a metal basket there with 5 torches spent and three fresh. The hall was very clean for some reason. We could also smell dogs.
The thought was to wait and see. That torch was not going to last forever. And it was a good thing we did. As it was getting low, a figure came out of the partially open room. It was a conglomerate of stitched together bugbears, at least 5 of them, gruesomely made into a golem of dead superior goblinoids. It lit the torch, put the spent in the rack, and then went back and got a broom, sweeping the hall clean.
We did not want to fight the golem so we left here and headed back the long way until by 11:20, were back outside the hall with the forge. The gut was the goblins were probably going to sleep another 3 hours or so, maybe a bit more. But we could hear very faint voices coming down the long hall past the forge. So we followed.
It split here, turning south eventually or heading off to the southwest. The south had the faint goblin voices – so we went that way. The hall was very long here and we went slow and with care, after Gun and Fjord gave it a quick scouting (2 doors and the passage kept going).
The first door was closed and locked, so we went on past here to the next door. There was a doubledoor on the other side of the hall a bit further on, but we could hear goblin voices here. They were thin and reedy, bitching about getting up early and getting breakfast ready. The door was locked and maybe barred. We wanted it open but didn’t want to alert the entire compound. So we knocked on the door hard and waited.
One of the goblins told us to go away, it was too early for breakfast, come back later. So we knocked again harder. Goblin thought we were one of the ogres and berated us to leave. We played stupid and kept annoying the goblins to open the door before one of them was very mad, pulled the bar and unlocked the door, pulling it open.
And Nevah shot him at point blank with his crossbow, sending him crashing back 12’ to roll to a stop in the huge over sized dining room.
We entered quick seeing 3 goblins, thin, small, and wearing rags, working on setting the tables and getting the place ready for breakfast. They put their hands up immediately and said, “We surrender!”
Nevah went to methodically shoot another when Yandr was right there. “What the fuck do you think you are doing?!” The paladin asked, hand out, “They surrendered.”
Nevah drew himself up and got in the paladin’s face. “We talked about this upstairs! No surrender, remember?! Let me kill them.”
The two of them got to squabbling as we shut the door and the 3 goblins came forward ready to be captured. “It’s ok,” one of them said as we tied him up. “We get roughed up and captured often. We know the drill.”
We checked the room out. Kitchen beyond here, they were steeping beans for now to make a porridge. King Gavin gets everyone up about 3-4 PM and they all come in and eat. (3 hours?) No pantry here. The goblins aren’t allowed to go anywhere else but they do give a sort of idea of the nearby rooms. A store room is north of here. And the seating in here is for about 80.
After getting what infor we can out of them, we leave them in the kitchen, and head off back to the store room. It is locked but Gun manages to pick the lock, twisting it open and we entered. Cured leather, grain, corn, wheat, oats, thousands of arrowheads, fresh torches, 20 coils of rope, 200 cloaks, 800 spikes, 200 backpacks, etc. A trove to outfit an army.
We managed to get a pair of ropes when Atlas was looking back at the door. At the top was a glyph, spread over the door and lintel. And we had broken it when we entered. “Guys?” The mage intoned slowly. “I think we set off an alarm.”
Yandr did a quick detect evil – and got 30 pings at the limit of his senses to the south and closing. “Fucking hell.”
The party ripped the door open and ran north. The goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears gave immediate chase, shouting and crying. We scooped up Gun (Hrimvir) and Nevah (Cara), running hard and doing our best to stay ahead of the rising horde. We hit the hall, turned right, and charged for the stairs, Yandr letting us know it was now maybe 40 behind us. At the stairs we did not pause, hitting it with all we had, breathing hard and legs churning. At the top we blew through the door and slammed it closed, Gun locking it and the party quickly tying the rope to the bed. Paladin let us know it was at least 50 now.
We ran across the chamber before we heard the door behind us tear open, blades hacking at the rope as we charged out and ran for the Sanctuary – 3 to 4 minutes tops ahead of the goblinoids giving chase. We hit the door outside, snow was falling, visibility was down to 150’ tops, wind was howling. Blizzard.
Hrimvir and Fjord took the front, the half orc and half ogre shoving the 3’ snow aside with the bodies and shields. An endure elements was doled out to keep Fjord in top form as they charged off out of the Monastery and towards the exit. We ran on for 6 additional minutes in the snow before Fjord was forced to slow, holding his side in paid and breathing like a bellows. Hrimvir took point for another minute or two before he too was just done.
We were quiet, weapons waiting, looking back. It was obvious the goblins were not going to chase us in the snow, there was a blizzard going on and no visibility. We waited to get breath back and then cold and miserable, headed back up the hill and made it to the garrison again. We entered, closed the door behind us and barred it in place.
“This isn’t going to remain hidden for long,” Carl offered. “They are subhuman but they will find this place especially since we’ve now been in their lair and they’ve seen us and chased up twice.” He looked around, “What are we going to do?”
“Besides kill them,” Nevah offered.
“Of course,” Carl agreed. “Besides that.”
12:45 PM, Icemonth the 10th
