Meet 152, Adv 16, 3/14/26

Heatmonth 15th 10:20 PM, 289 of the 29th age. We got the lay of the land from Ghostbear, Geronimo, and Stoneribs. Discussed what we were to do next, how we would leave the Umbra, and other notes. Connal was abrupt and rude, almost condescending, Shim was also part of it. Not brave? Could have helped. Other comments. Eoghan and Darius tried to give cooler heads and the monk played it off like he was just saying and didn’t mean it.

Then Nate had a few things to say, which turned into quite a lot to say. He berated the 3 natives and the 2 animal spirit gods, lambasting them for not jumping in. They were the only one to do this, the only one to get everyone home. Don’t need or want their help. It was long, damning, and brutal.

When he was done, Shim was nodding in agreement and Ghostbear was like – fine. Fuck off and go do it yourself. There was much discussion and Darius took Nate outside to cool the fuck off (even though it was 120 degrees with 3 suns burning overhead). Things were not good, eventually some cooler heads prevailed but there was now a sour undercurrent through the entire thing. On the morrow, they would all leave and return to the goblin warren, and Stoneribs would escort a few of the party to the Earthgate on the south side of the Warren. Ghostbear would camouflage them before they left, and they would all stay in the hut at that time.

During the night, Wilhelm, Nate, and Eoghan had recurring nightmares of the goblin kids they had killed. It repeated again, and again, and again – in many cases the kids appearing as human. The ages shifted but the kids deaths were all real feeling, exhausting the 3 of them. The plane of Shadows (where we were) shared the Cosmological locale as the Realm of Nightmares, so it was part of the reason it was so heavy, prevalent, and real.

The guide and savior of the shared dreamscape was the emergence of Lathandar. He sent the other 2 on their way, reminding them to be good. Children are NOT universally evil based upon their race and should be treated accordingly. He then turned to Eoghan when the others were gone and was so happy to meet him. He was in a conundrum, because he did not know Eoghan at all. But he also knew everything about Eoghan.

When the group fell through the Ragnarok Gate from the Desmondian Diamond, Jessie the rabbit, a small piece of divinity that Eoghan had rescued from the Terror Dungeon in the Lathandar Node, came through as well. Except in this time, Lathandar is NOT a forgotten god, but a powerful and well liked and respected actually prayed to divine being. And Jessie … WHOOSHED right back to him.

To Lathandar it was decidedly odd. He had 100% of himself, but here was a 5% piece of him, telling such fanciful and strange and odd things. Things that have not happened. At all. It was frustrating. He’s been waiting for the opportunity to talk to Eoghan, but the Ranger had not been in a place he could easily commune with, until now.

No god, no one, can pass backwards through time. Except Chronos and he has been lost under the River Lethe, rotting away in the darkest hole of Tartarus since the formation of the Crystal Spheres. In fact only Odin has any perfect gift of foresight, and he had to hand from a tree for 9 days and give up an eye for it. And here Lathandar has a small time glimpse of it, and it’s enough to drive the god almost mad.

But he wants Eoghan to know that he can succeed, he is rooting for him, changes are already occurring. And he wanted to let the ranger know…his son. Lives. It’s true. To Lathandar’s eyes, Eoghan’s son is alive and if and when he manages to get himself done and back home, he will see him again. There were thanks and hugs and the dream eventually ended.

The night passed and the clock ticked over to the next day. Healing was doled out and we grew ready. Ghostbear planeshifted us back across from the Umbra to the Material plane and we were in the goblin warren, in the same building, 2nd floor. There was a temporary scaffolding up in place and the stairs down to the 1st floor had been consumed. It was relatively dark outside. We opened the hut and split the group – Wilhelm, Darius, Shim, Connal, Nate, and Captain Asher would go with Stoneribs to the Earth node. The Native hero could extend his walk on any surface ability to anyone who joined hands with him.

Ghostbear camouflaged them and they left, heading up to the 4th floor. From there they made it to the roof, crawled out, and closed the roof access trap. A number of giant spiders were about, but the goblin city was not on high alert anymore. They all stepped back to the wall of the city, and then stepped onto it, climbing up the cavern wall slowly to the roof above. From there they walked along, the ceiling eventually curving down, the group of them ending some 15 or so feet above a building.

There was a tunnel here, an underhang of rock obscured it from being seen below. They entered, perhaps 6’ wide, 10’ tall. Some distance in the passage had an area with falling gravel. Stoneribs held his breath, parted the falling stones, and entered, the group following.

We felt the incredible weight of stone above and all around us. A guard met us, recognized Stoneribs, and was willing to take us to See Oblord Seven. We passed gnomes, dwarves, giants, worms, even Xorns and an illithid. The main cavern had a figure made of stones, and elemental reaching 15’ in height. This was Oblord Seven. Darius headed off the talks.

He was charming and ingratiating, taking the stance that the Earth elementals were great and deserved better. We learned a bit about what was done here for Queen Helen Back. The Earth node provides Hadesnium and Flowstone for the Fire forges. The realm of Fire refines the Hadesnium into finer materials, sending some of it back to the Earth Node. The Flowstone and cutaways are also send to the Water realm to help them make baffles for the increase and decrease of Water flow traffic. In Return, Water performs deep hardening and pressurizing techniques on finished goods Earth provides, making the crafted goods practically invulnerable. They also act as a bank for Helen if need be, storing riches for the Goblin Queen.

We suggested heavily that instead of having Queen Helen get in the middle of it, they should trade directly with the Fire Realm. Earth was a bit pissed off that the best refined material of Hadesnium was something called Flowstring that Air uses to power their trade and messenger gates. If the group could get Fire to cease passing material on to Air, Oblord Seven would try to make a deal with Countess Respidrii of Fire directly.

We offered to go and try to talk to Countess Respidrii and were given the ok to pass through to the Fire Realm from the Oblord’s personal gateway.

We left the realm, passing through a curtain of falling fire, and found ourselves in a superheated flamescape. Most of the place was embers, small flames, fields of lava, curtains of fire.  A pathway of obsidian acted as a highway for us, the temperature remaining at a bearable 110 or so degrees. Go off the path, temperature hit 200 easy and then some.

A Fire Giant named Canal stopped us, was not happy, but agreed to take us to the Countess. It was a long walk, more fire denizens, eefreti, salamanders, horses made of fire, giants. Eventually we arrived at the Countess’ audience chamber and she was not happy to meet with us. Captain Asher passed on being the person who talked, giving the mantle to Connal to treat with her.

She demanded combat, and called to her personal Captain, Taris the Fire Giant, to step out. 16’, she held a 2 handed blade almost 10’ in length. The 2 of them squared off and fought . Darius was surprisingly capable and held his own, turning the combat to a series of dodges and parries, his axe cutting deep and often. Taris eventually started throwing 25# boulders at the knight, clipping him in a couple of places. Eventually she lunged down and snatched him up, grappling with him. Darius and Taris who had been bantering the whole time, the knight then used her bosom as a step, shoved himself up and kissed her.

The combat sort of ended and the two of them left, calling it a tie, Taris taking the knight to her chambers where even with the 2 plus times height difference, enjoyed one another.

We talked to Countess Respidrii. Yes, she gets Hadesnium from Earth. They supply much of it back to Earth for their purposes, and give the Flowstring to Air. Air then turned the volatile and wildly erratic refined Hadesnium flowstring into a series of Flowgates that they use to transport goods great distances almost instantly. Air, the local ruler was known as Rash Ma’Luud, Sultan of the 3rd Storm, also ran an entire communication array with the Flowgates. In return, Air has shunted a section of their Flowgates to act as blowers for the Forges in Fire.

Countess Respidrii sees no reason to make any direct trade with Oblord Seven that would cut out Air, since Rash Ma’Luud takes the most dangerous and volatile material off her hands, pays well for it, and helps power the Countess’ forge. She might be willing to deal directly with Earth if Oblord Seven agreed to stop providing Flowstone and trade with Princess Alecta of Water.

Darius eventually came back, singed, smiling, and winded. We figured we would have to find the weak part of the interconnected trade agreements and upset it long enough to take Helen Back off the board and allow us to then pass on through the rest of the Warrens without the Goblin Queen present. The thought was we would try and visit Rash Ma’Luud, Sultan of the 3rd Storm next. Heatmonth the 16th, 11:45 PM.

Meet 151, Adv 16, 3/7/26

Heatmonth 15th 8:05 AM, 289 of the 29th age. With the Warren chanting outside we backed away from the windows and quickly made our way down to the 2nd and then 1st floor. The faster party members were eating up ground, hitting the store down here. It was a finished art store, pictures, slate, canvas. 2 front facing windows. Massing goblins outside. Already 3 ranks, more coming. “Gotta get that Hwa’cha disabled,” Connal muttered.

Display table was upended, Nate showing it in one of the windows. Darius locked the door. We were going to rush out there, was the thought. Then the back ranks began hurling sling bullets, half pound hunks of lead, spinning wildly through the air. Table, doors, shelves. Shattered glass, forced us to get low, give ground.

A wind wall shot out, slamming into the ruined art store, sending broken glass to soar about, cutting everyone half a dozen or more times. Shim actually went airborne, almost whisked away but was safely grabbed and brought back down. We backed up to the stairs. Wilhelm had some spells he could try to cast on Connal.

IN VAS FLAM GRAV POR

The air outside ignited and a Fireball smashed through the front door and exploded. The entire floor shook, the building ground, and super hot fire race up the stairs engulfing Nate briefly as well as blowing out the front door, ending the conflagration just shy of the gathered goblins. Wilhelm cast Jump on Connal who ran as fast as he could for the roof access. Looking out the front window, we could not account for one of the giant spiders.

Another Fireball raced out, hitting the ground floor again, causing the structure to lurch and if anyone was still down there, they’d have been vaporized. Taking aim, Eoghan loaded up his last Thunderbird Arrow, arced back (the entire air seemed to slow down, ozone racing through the sky and igniting the ranger from behind and beneath), took aim, and fired.

And a single 60 hp stroke of Lightning blew away from the range, consuming his Uller bow, lancing into the street, and obliterating a spider rider and the Lolthian steed it was riding, leaving a smoking crater behind. The goblins close to that were quieted but the sudden and brutal death wasn’t enough to stop the overall chanting. Connal made it to the roof, shoving the trap door open and then lowering it in place. Goblins were racing around, lining up, getting in order, and coming to the building. The group was seriously overmatched.

And then the goblins called out some complex spell and the entire front of the building turned to mud, 2 stories worth of cladding and stone face slid out and away, crashing to the street below, leaving the 2nd and 3rd floors wide open.

FIRE!!

And the Hwa’cha to the west fired, sending 100 bolts streaming across the air and smashing into the party, tearing through everyone rank by rank. Most everyone was terribly wounded but Nate gave up his life, shifting his shield from himself to Shim, saving the gnome but dooming himself, the fighter/thief hitting negative hit points and then dead.

And then sling stones followed, ripping into the room, knocking armor and people wildly all over. Shim shot off a magic missile spell at a spell caster but it was stopped by a shield spell. A Lolthian spider crawled into the open floor and viciously attacked Wilhelm, the fangs pouring poison into the druid’s veins, the elf staggering but still alive. From outside one of the goblin spell casters was casting cloudburst on the burning 1st floor. Eoghan pulled out his hook and hook possible long bow.

Connal made his way eastward over building and gaps, running for the still 2nd unfired Hwa’Cha, his invisibility holding. Two demonic bats swarmed into the area, watching the fight unfold in the building. The spider’s venom continued to eat at Wilhelm, the druid falling over dead. Somewhere in the mess, a goblin shamen yelled out Hellfire Transport, and a 9 count of goblin warriors were transported to the open 2nd floor, doing battle with the group. Wilhelm’s animals were going nuts, tearing and shredding the goblins here. The goblin’s outside were given the order and a 30 count charged the first burned out floor.

Bit by bit, the party began falling. Hit points whittling away. The bodies hit the ground but appeared shadowy, as if not entirely there. Connal throttled the first goblin on the dead man switch, watching more goblins enter the warren from the lower warren, 40 more advancing. As the goblins around his were punching and hitting, he pulled the trigger and the Hwa’Cha fired – sending bolts and arrows INTO the building, but this time spearing and killing the Transported goblins there. He climbed up to the top and JUMPED back to the building, as sling stones and giant spiders gave chase.

To stop the press of bodies coming to the stairs, Shim cast a summons – getting a Gelatinous Cube – which he proceeded to gum up the stairs with, stopping the goblins from coming up from below. Darius fumbled, losing his axe while fighting a Lolthian spider but he lunged forward , shoving and pushing, trying to man handle the massive arachnid off the building. Healing was doled out but we were losing.

Shim called out, “I cast Lovitar’s Spell!” and the spider was hit with 5 instant waves of cascading pain. This allowed Darius the chance to hoist the spider up and SHOVE it off the building. He grabbed his axe and another wave of HELL FIRE TRANSPORT shot out, and 8 more goblins hit the party from the front. The fighter was critically struck in the chest and killed instantly.

Connal managed to dance and dodge his way over, an errant Hold Person spell hit his ring and slid off, protecting him. He slid down the front of the building and swung in, daggers and fists flailing. There were maybe 5 of us left, Connal tried to grab Wilhelm’s pack, the druid very shadowy, using the etheric gloves – instead it felt like he was being pulled in, the skin hot.

A fast decision was made as the goblins massed for a final overwhelming wave. Spells were coming through the open walls, sling bullets smashing everywhere. The last 5 of us linked up and Connal plunged his enchanted gauntlets into the shadowy outline of his friends.

And the 5 of them were transported through the edge of the elemental Plane of Fire to land with a rolling crunch in some desert. Cactus. Odd colored sky, hot. 2 suns. A single wigwam was here. We crawled towards it and there were all our friends who had died, and 5 others. An oversized coyote, an oversized raven, and 3 native americans. A large muscled one, chisled good looks, and a bare chest wearing a shirt with sleeves only covered in fringes. A slightly older one shorter, mad glint in his eye and sparks on his teeth. And a much older one, grizzled and wrinkled, long greying hair but kind face.

They were Stoneribs, Geronimo, and Ghostbear. They had been watching us for some time, waiting to see if we were brave enough to eventually face the Sword Bitch, Queen Helen. Bear alerted the spirits that strangers had come to the cave over 2 weeks ago. Raven came up with a plan to steal some of our life force each night. Coyote planted a spinel as treasure in his lair and we picked it up. Each night, the spinel would siphon a bit of out life force to Coyote who would then bring it to Ghostbear who would bag it for us. They had multiple medicine bags.

If we die, we would come back the next day a bit more hurt and weak, but still alive. In fact everyone who had died had lost a permanent constitution point. And some of us had more permanent injuries (scars, sores, hunches, no tongue). The bravery sense was not given to the few who had ridden with Connal to here in the Umbra – but they would have a chance to prove themselves later.

While here, 24 hours, they can sleep, study, pray. But, they cannot open anything with a seal to it, and food and water will taste as ash. But they did know how to find the guardian of the earth gate and would go with us to sneak there tomorrow.

Meet 150, Adv 16, 2/28/26

Heatmonth 15th, 3:00 PM. Hiding in the 7th building (by count along the north wall, from the end of the Warren we were looking to get to), we discussed options and plans. The thought was to keep picking our way along but to not get caught. The next building was the one with the elder couple in it (currently elsewhere). But for this, we figured, let's check out the rest of this building. 3 invisibilities were doled out and Shim, Connal, and Nate made their way downstairs.

3rd floor had some apartments and the 2nd floor was the same – kids and families. The 1st floor was a store – a cloth store (raw bolts, not finished goods), and being everyone was on lockdown, they were a captive audience for the shop keeper who was trying to force a sale on the goblins here. We listened for a bit and then went back to the rest of the party.

Given the Chime was still in position, we snuck across the next building, setting ourselves up again in the elder family’s home. We looked diagonally across the way to the other home. It was the home of a scholar or some sort, books, inks, papers. Shim read some of it, maybe a history teacher.

We went back to the other apartment and extended the bridge again, crossing to the 5th building where the gnoll had attacked people had been. We know the investigation of buildings below was still going on but we had not crossed to a building that had been searched so we had some breathing room for time. The place smelled bad, lye was in the air, and the scent was making us breathe funny and our eyes hurt. We got out of there to the next one across the way, looking over to the drug user’s apartment over there in the 4th building.

Being it was a 6’ gap, Darius slimmed the door down some more and Shim hit it with an enlarge spell – making it more than long enough to clear the gap. We extended the bridge and 4 of us invisibly made out way over.

6 goblin druggies in here; 3 were baked, 3 were just high. Door to the hall was open. Could see people walking back and forth there. Place was dirty. Goblins were seemingly rolling some powder in some damp cloth balls, packing drugs? A few noticed the bridge and were like, Maglubiyat wants me to cross it. Nah mad, you’ll fall and die. No, Mag’s wants this. Others came into the kitchen and were discussing what to do. Connal tried to shut the door and a goblin in the hall 2 seconds later slammed it open yelling at them, to keep the door open! Ventilation! Don’t shut it!

We stayed aside, lured them back to the main room, and then ran across the bridge, Darius pulling it back and us slamming the shutters closed again. We waited to make sure the noise died down and then figured we’d need a different place to cross over.

So we decided to check downstairs and there were 2 goblin families here, both with young kids . Invisibly we scouted it out, north east was a family of 4 and southwest was a family of 5 – other 2 apartments seemed empty. We figured to tackle the north east one first. So 4 of us were ready – Eoghan, Nate, Connal, and Shim. At 7 PM then snuck down there, and opened the door – arrows flew, killing the day, pegging the game board they were playing, then taking out the mom, the elder son, and then the daughter – elapsed time – 15 seconds. A bit of noise was made but they closed the door and waited.

No one seemed to catch them, so they figured to take out the other apartment next. Listening had 5 in here, and it sounded like it was bath time. 2 of us were now visible so we had to be faster. Door opened and Eoghan was not as effective in his shots this time, arrows going everywhere. A single yell started and Nate was in, face slamming the 4 year old into the wash basin, throttling and drowning the child. Shim and Connal were next but were still about half a second out and some cries were given before we silenced them at long last. Brutally, powerfully, and without mercy.

We gathered together and tried not to look at what we had done. A quick clean followed and then we were gathering some food stuffs to eat up when a Detect spell rang out from outside and we were found. 8:05 PM, Heatmonth the 15th, and the chants of Helen were following as the goblins gathered forces towards getting us.

Meet 149, Adv 16, 2/21/26

Heatmonth 15th, 11:15 AM. Given the low light, we hoped that details of our being caught were minimal. A few Lolthian Spiders and riders were on the various buildings, one of them highlighting our direction with a blast of dancing lights. Shim Countered the end of the area of the lights with a darkness spell while the rest of the group ran to the edge of the next roof.

Connal and Darius were tossing people across the gap while we kept a ready eye out for approaching enemies. A look to the street showed goblins gathering and running along. A few other spiders were climbing on the ceiling or vaulting over the gaps in buildings. Random sling stones flew out, ringing off floors and roofs as we ran off. Shim fired off a knock spell, unlocking the roof access of the next building that we were running across to. The Hwa’Cha was being repositioned to take a straffing run at us if need be. “Off! Off the roof!”

Access hatch was lifted and Asher was down first, turning to help catch everyone who fell down afterwards. The Captain was kicked and buffeted, but the party slid down the opening as fast as we could. On the floor of the 4th floor, we plowed into the apartment on the north side of the building, racing across the ruined apartment to the shuttered window. From the roof the spiders were close and Shim fell down the hole, getting battered as Connal was last, twisting in the end to lock the dog wheel above.

Across the way, 4 feet, was another apartment, seemingly empty. From the edge of the window we could hear goblins chanting and racing into the building as well as forcing the roof access open. Shim shot off an Open/Close spell on the other shutter and Connal vaulted through the 2x2 window and across the open 4 story alley to the other side. Taking the busted door off the floor, Darius scraped a long furrow down the length of it, scoring deep with his enchanted axe and then splitting it in twain.

Using the 6 and a half foot, now 2’ wide door plank as a bridge, he spanned the opening and the party hit the window and raced across to the next building, closing the shutters behind us and quieting down. We snuck across to the next side and from that apartment looked out. Across the way was an older goblin hanging a bit out the open shutters looking at the street. We quietly opened this one, and Connal ran, launching himself across the gap, slamming into the goblin and..non-lethally…smashed his head into the countertop before lowering him to the ground. An older goblin female was calling out to the kitchen and Connal repeated the action, knocking the old woman out, spilling stew everywhere.

We repeated the action crossing now to the 6th building. We wanted to keep going but a look at the next building showed a number of goblins looking out – in fact 3 or 4 windows filled. We needed to back up and Shim shot off a Summon Monster spell, getting a gnoll that appeared in the next apartment and proceeded to tear into the goblins there. This attracted the goblins in the street and we fled back from the building with the older couple to the other abandoned goblin building and waited there.

The situation outside calmed down a bit and eventually various goblins did arrive. We chanced to open the hut and hid within, knowing we had an hour and a half tops before it was used up for the day. Healing was given and we waited.

After 1 hour we snuck out and could hear voices across the way. Investigators were talking to the older couple about their attacker. Human, bare chested. They had a preconceived notion on who or what, and we assumed they were guessing Stoneribs might have been here. This means they saw a group of us, but no identifiers as to who we are. So that was good. The elder couple were being taken to the infirmary as per their adult children and the investigators. We could not hear chanting outside anymore so that was good. As for the gnoll, the thought from the goblins was it too might have been Stoneribs or something like that, and some goblins in that building had been hurt and/or killed.

We waited an hour for them all to go before we guessed we could cross again. We used the door/bridge to funnel everyone back to the older goblin apartment where we ate some of their stew and Wilhelm set himself to use the cauldron here as a reflecting pool. We gathered around as the druid cast the spells one after the other – using all 4 of them, but getting 24 valuable minutes of information.

The building past this one along the north wall (of which there were 5 still till the end), had a variety of apartments and homes, each getting nicer and nicer. There was a drug den, some young goblin couples, then a nice penthouse apartment. Eventually the last building was a cathedral to Maglubiyet. The streets had goblins about. There was a group with some shamen who did glean Wilhelm’s scry briefly before he pulled the image back.

At the end of the Warren was a set of stairs going down, the passage narrowed to 20’. A plinth with a 14’ gargoyle was on top, a chain around its neck, keeping it within 50, 70’ of the plinth. A Warren was past here. 2/3rd the size of this warren. An Overwatch with 12 goblins was on the ceiling. A weighted kill switch would seal the doors at the far end of this warren. Some juggernaut of brass, iron, steel, and wood was set up below, metal and stone rollers spiked and ready to defend. Better neighborhood here. Richer. Still over 150 goblins at least. Some steamworks were here as well, 3 to 10 suits for goblins here.

The images eventually ended and we discussed what to do. We didn’t want to be caught here, so we went to head back to building 7. Before we did we unlocked the roof access here on the 6th building and then went back to the 7th one to discuss our next options. Time was 3 PM, Heatmonth the 15th.

Meet 148, Adv 16, 2/7/26

Heatmonth 15th, 6 AM. After waking up and breaking our fast, we went through our supplies and then were going to set out. The assumption is that the goblins have been further establishing their dominance in the area so we wanted to check it out with care. Shim cast Invisibility on Nate and the budding thief slipped out and checked around. Could hear more goblin mining in the distance, and it sounded like multiple picks at a time. There was also a set of mine cart tracks here, running around the length of the room in the center, heading south and west and then north and west.

Dared to check around the corner to the north, Hellfire brazier was still there, and there was the start of a set of a gates at the northern exit for the chamber – and the western end of that chamber had the collapsed stones removed. The mine cart tracks ran off that way. And there was the sound of distant goblin voices. He headed back and shared what we learned. The consensus was that the goblin expansion was happening all around us and our window to slip out was fading and fast. We had to go.

We linked up, closed the hut, and made our way north, relying on the infravision people to guide our way. As we came to the brazier room, we paused long enough to make sure the coast was clear before sending Lexi in in both, drag the copper brazier to the side, but to feed on the hellfire within. She ate swiftly, dormant flames withing the hellhound firing up again. The rest of us ran north, through the not completed gate, across the stones, and to the waterfall chamber again, Eoghan and Lexi slipping out last but safely and better off.

We had heard from the Wolf Spirit that the Cree Negashi had made their way to the chasm where the Water Babies had offered them some succor. We figured this was as good of a place to go next, especially as it was hinted the water babies could possibly make it down to the city below.

However, as we came to the bridge, we fell victim to the cave fishers…again. And again it was Captain Asher who was hit, whisked up and away from the bridge. Damn it! This time we were prepared, sort of. Another weighty chest, and another feather fall took care of the insectoid, tearing it from its perch above as it perceived the Captain’s weight to be much larger than its own. But the space and drop was going to pull Asher down so Nate made a brave leap and knocked the Captain aside just in time, clutching his friend to keep from falling, as the fisher whistled past and smashed to the rocks below. “Hey! More food for the animals!”

The two friends settled down to the bottom of the chasm and Connal and Darius used ropes to ferry the rest of the party down. 7:35 AM. We approached the northeast section of the chasm where the water was pooling from the falls above. We could hear faint cries from the water. Eventually a young adult/teenaged figure came out, reddish tanned skin, long black hair. It talked to us after we convinced it that the Wolf Spirit and the Cree Negashi were our friends. There were more of them, they arrived some months ago but the goblins had attacked, wounded, and then eventually dragged its clutchmates out of the water, effectively stilling them. They were taken away somewhere. It has no love of the goblins.

It tried to describe the city area below, the falls down there, the massive pool, the goblins who come and get water, the guards and buildings. But we needed more information. It could swim not only down the falls, but up as well. But to swim any of us back up would not be possible except for Shim – the rest of us were too large and heavy. So Shim volunteered to go down. They held hands and Sim could feel sharp barbs connecting him to the water baby. And then he took a deep breath and was dragged under the water.

“It would be funny if we totally fucked up just now and trusted the wrong figure, huh?”

Shim felt himself dragged under the water, everything blurry and hard to focus. The lower half of the water baby was a mass of undulating tentacles, flippers, and fins, running out almost another 7’. The hit the drain hole and swam DOWN the waterfall, the Water baby kicking off just a moment before they would have smashed on the rocks about 30’ above the pool, and then dove into the spray to the water here. Shim resurfaced (maybe 35/40 seconds?), made sure his oilskin messenger bags were still closed (would protect his scrolls for 10 minutes before water would get in, spoiling them), and took a look around.

Hwa’Cha was the most obvious thing outside of the water, 90’ or so from here. Menacing tall tower of prepared missiles. 20 to 30 buildings down here, on both sides of the massive cave. Some 3 or 4 stories tall. Lolthian Spiders with riders were perched on top of buildings as well as walking the city. Easily a dozen goblins AT the pool. And another 2 to 3 dozen could see the pool should need be. Two buildings were nearest the pool – west was a forge or smithy on the bottom floor, 3 stories tall, east was an apartment building of some sort, 4 stories tall. A few windows visible.

Shim nodded to the Water baby who grabbed the gnome and swam UP the waterfall, dragging Shim behind, until we arrived at the top and made his way out of the pool. He stripped off some of his wet things and wrung them out, sharing with what he learned below.

We then spend some time talking about invisibility spells, how long we could hold out breath for, and the time between the water baby trip up and down the falls. The hope was enough of us could get down there and we could all fight as one, but the ability to stay underwater for that length of time was not possible. At all. Not for an all in one plan.

So that brought us around to the hut and nap spells. A few of us would go down ferried by the water baby, we would be invisible, then make our way to the tenement housing building and find a way inside one of the apartments and open the hut and get everyone out. It was a good plan. Captain Asher cast the spells, Invisibility was put in place, we sealed the hut, and we had an hour on the clock.

A few of us cycled down to the pool below, thanking the water baby and then figuring out our next options. We swam quietly to the east side of the pool, waited for a clear spot, and then when the coast was cleared, climbed to dry land all the while watching the hundreds and hundreds and goblins going about their business. We crept eastward to the building there and looked in the nearest windows. Some sort of bedroom, goblin sleeping. Darius led the way to the front of the building. There was a main door in, and on the 2nd and 3rd floors were some sort of overhang place to sit. There were a lot of goblins about. Shim was keeping time – 43 and ½ minutes expired.

We made our way to the front door and then pushed it in. Hallway, 2 doors left and right, stairs and the end going up to the 2nd floor. Garbage and weird smell. Noises in a few of the doors. We opted neither of the doors on the left as we know through the windows we could hear people inside. So the 1st on the right. Checked it out, locked. 55 minutes. Knock spell followed, pushed in, we entered. Foyer, smells of feet. Goblin woman, so very fat, sleeping on a shitty couch. 59th minute, no time – good enough.

Hut went down and opened just before the nap spell ended. We went in to check the animals, all friends up. Then some 1 year old goblin toddler stepped into the room and took one look at all of us. And Jarjar, Wilhelm’s Lynx, lunged forward as the kid began to yell and eviscerated it, tearing its throat out and then raking it, splitting the child in two. Blood filled the area and we all just looked around, counting to 5 to see if anything heard us. Darius turned to Wilhelm with a WTF expression and Nate was just slashing the air with one hand in a repeated be quiet, its over motion.

We looked over the apartment we were in. 3 or 4 room. Corpulent goblin woman sleeping, kitchen with some gruel looking crap in a pot, main bedroom, and a smaller closet like bedroom – with 4 other goblin kids in it in cribs. We guessed we were in some goblin nursery. Shit shit shit. Also, looking around – the apartment should have 2 adults in it – but there was one missing. We didn’t have much time.

Nate did suggest that maybe killing the goblins would be necessary and There was much discussion about not now, not in a fight, their fucking sleeping, and there are kids. Direct quote from Nate, “There is no such thing as an innocent goblin.” We did pick up the goblin kid body and put it in the couch under the cushions for now. “We can’t stay here,” we need to find another place to hole up.

Shim and Nate, invisible, went into the hall and up the stairs. They creaked and were in bad condition – limited to 1 person at a time. Another 4 doors up here 2 and 2, and then another stair going up. Some woman goblin was fighting with her kids and the fight spilled into the hall, another goblin from another apartment came out and helped ameliorate the situation. We waited and were not sure about this. Time was ticking.

Went back to the main apartment and told the group what was what. We had to risk going up to the 3rd and/or 4th floor. 3rd floor was partially lived in only 2 apartments had people in it. The 4th floor was abandoned apartments. There was a ladder at the end of the hall leading to the roof. The 2 friends crept that way, opened the jogging lock, and pushed it open.

City was laid out about them. There were at least 8 lolthian spiders we could see, and three of them were on patrol. They would travel about 1/8th of the city’s perimeter from the roof of the building or the walls themselves and then stay in place looking around. 300 goblins in total? We could see the far end of the warren had some sort of exit from the cave there so that was the ultimate goal – but there were at least 9 or 10 building between us and there.

A patrolling spider saw the open roof access and came over, closing it (locks from the inside). We waited for it to move on before daring to open in again and slip back in. We went back down to the 1st floor and told the group what was what. We figured we’d make the roof and then travel from roof to roof eastward and hope to make it out that way.

Then there was what to do here. Start a fire? Stage an accident? Nate was talking about options when a goblin kid saw us and starting yelling. Wilhelm being the closest ended up throttling the child as it was biting and scratching at the druid, choking the life out of it. Nate took care of the mother swiftly and the situation was getting out of control. “What the fucking hell guys?!” Darius asked. Captain Asher felt VERY upset inside from Maglubiyat and Eoghan was just, “They’re fucking kids, damn it!”

“Guys, no more.” “Its out of our control.” “No its very much in our control.” “It’s a series of unfortunate accidents” Nate assured as he set fire to the living room. “Let’s get going.”

“Sonovacrap..”

We left the apartment and ran for the stairs, pounding up them. A Few goblins that saw us tried to get in the way but were either intimidated to return to their home or just flat out stabbed (depending on who ran past) as we ran on. 3rd floor, 4th floor. Roof. 10:55 AM.

We emerged up here, smoke coming from below. In the excitement, we made our way west to the next building and jumped or tossed across everyone the 3 to 4’ gap. From behind us, Wilhelm could feel druidic magic being cast as multiple cloudbursts filled the apartment, guttering the flames. We crossed the 2nd roof to the next building, making us 8 buildings away from the end of the Warren. When multiple spotters saw us and the alarm was raised. We were 4 stories up, Spider riders and others turning our way, a bit over half way through the goblin City, at 11:15 AM on Heatmonth the 15th.

No where to retreat to. Do or die.

Hero time.