(078) A Second Expedition

[sully]

Faengol watches the fleeing goblins impassively.

"We cannot long stay in this location, even with a trap, to be set upon on two sides...we must move and in our mobility be hard to vanquish. We face superior numbers, I think, but we still have a chance to move through part of this stronghold unnoticed. If we can inflict sufficient casualties, we might have an easier time retreating or perhaps even take this fortification. This is my counsel, take it as you wish."

The Herald likes this idea. Let's move now and strike hard before they get organized.

[coffee]

Karl agrees with this.

[ehiker133]

Leudigar is good with this idea, as well, after he is done searching the corpses for valuables...

[Eris]

Freid nods as he goes through Hob pockets and pouches, "Yeah, let's get moving, as soon as we search these Snorks."

[flightcommander]

Akbar, hearing the commotion of battle, draws closer to the party from the rear — but stops to peer into the stairwell.

[The Red Baron]

Dopey quickly notes the passages leading from the room.

The party entered through one, and surviving hobgoblins fled down two others. Are there other exits besides these three?

[Tonneau]

Zax follows Akbar into the aftermath of the skirmish, still enjoying the lingering flavour of the pipe weed on his tongue.

[waysoftheearth]

Wetzel pursues the nearest hobgoblin on foot while Kianna and Arian vie for positions from which to loose missiles. Alas, neither Kianna nor Arian can find a meritorious angle through their allies, and both miss. Their target vanishes immediately through an arch and out of sight. Wetzel , however, pursues 90ft down a gnarly passage before hurling his short spear. It flies true and pierces hobgoblin through the back of its skull just as it is about to scamper around a corner.

The ref uses initiative dice to determine whether Kiana and/or Arian can make a firing position before their quarry has eluded them:

Kianna d6 → 4, Arian d6 → 3, Hobgoblins d6 → 2, so yes.
Kianna (Man+1) d20+3 → [12] having no penalty for fire on the move and +2 for rear attack, would hit AC7, misses by 1 pip.
Arian (Man) d20+2 → [10] including a -2 penalty for fire on the move and +2 for rear attack, would hit AC9, misses.

Wetzel's movement rate is 9" so he won't catch these hobgoblins, but--having pursued down the passage--he can has an opportunity to hurl his spear: Wetzel (Man+1) 1 # d20 +1 → [15] including a -2 penalty for fire on the move and +2 for rear attack, would hit AC 4, so hits. 1 # d6 → [6] it's a head hit. Ref dice hp for the hob 1 # d6 + 1 → [4], so it's a kill.

[waysoftheearth]

Meanwhile, the others quickly ascertain their whereabouts. The mess-hall is roughly 60ft x 40ft and occupied by four long benches. There are precisely three entries; the one our heroes stormed in by, the one Wetzel has just run down, and the other which Kianna and Arian have just shot down. Above all three doorways hangs a strange circle of thorny brambles supporting several little candles.

Amid the carnage of gutted, cleaved, and beheaded hobgoblins and the smashed up table and stools, Leudigar and the looters discover the remains of spilled bowls, drinking horns, grubby playing cards, semi-dried rodent bodies, and a scatter of coinage. Clearly the goblins must have been gambling over a card game. Moreover, in one corner of the room a small and wilted fir-tree stands in a pot. It is curiously decorated with little skulls, fingers and toes, dangling eye-balls, and a dozen little candle-flames. Around the base of the tree are a bunch of small boxes wrapped in black paper...

[ehiker133]

Curious, Leudigar carefully uses his dagger to cut away the paper from one of the packages to see what is inside...