Immersive Ink

The Herald will watch the corridor into which Kianna and Arian's missed target fled.

Hurry up with that, will you, he says to Leudigar. We're losing the advantage of surprise by the second.

Slowing to as stealthy a pace as he can manage -- armored-up as he is -- Wetzel advances to the body of the dead Hobgoblin and retrieves his spear from the corpse. He listens for a few seconds for sound from around the corner, and then retreats to the banquet hall, keeping an eye over his shoulder the whole way.

Zax strides (in as much as his stubby legs allow) into the aftermath of the melee and surveys the chamber with a slow pan of his head.

He nods toward the passage, "This way then is it?," and makes his way after Wetzel, loosening up his shoulders as he goes.

Arian pouts petulantly as her spear cast goes awry, but brightens up considerably when Wetzel's spear impales the goblin's skull, clapping her hands and giggling with a child-like delight.

She retrieves her spear then turns her attention to the garlands of brambles, trying to make sense of this hint of strange beliefs before her...

Wetzel pads toward the corpse to retrieve his spear--but he has scarcely made a pace before he hears a mightily offended voice cry "Whaazzugummit?!" immediately followed by the commotion that must be the pother of many feet. Whomever it may be has recently witnessed a hobgoblin being speared through the skull, inconveniently dying on their doorstep!

Will the persons in the next room take Wetzel by surprise, or will they be all rowdy? Let the dice decide! d6 → 3 Ah, so they are all rowdy about it, and thus Wetzel is not surprised.

The corpse and spear lie virtually in the open archway, now 20ft ahead with the room beyond hidden to the right. Will Wetzel attempt to snatch his spear back?

Meanwhile, Leudigar abandons the purloining of hobgoblin coins, strides to the bleak fir-tree, and slices free the wrapping from the nearest of the boxes... it's a rather long and narrow thing... as the wrapping comes off it becomes clear to Leudigar that a sword lies within an open-topped wood box. A fine looking weapon of silver-looking blade, with a beautiful piece of polished jet embedded in the cross-piece where the quillions meet. No goblin-smith could have wrought this thing!

While the young tracker is making this discovery, Arian examines the brambled wreathes... they cannot be well meaning; wrapped around one is a dead snake. Atop another is a severed hand that might have belonged to a witch for all its ugliness... could this horrid practise be something to do with the Goblin-kind's Festival of The Bleakmass?

By which time Zax has tramped through the room and into the passage after Wetzel, whom he spies some 50ft farther along...

The referee cracks his knuckles before casting the dice! d100 → ?

Leudigar smiles inwardly as he wraps his hand around the sword's grip, testing it for weight and balance.

He glances down to see if there are any other presents, though he is pleased with this and does not want to appear greedy. If nobody else moves to open a present, however, he will set aside his old sword, sheath his new one in its stead, and examine another present.

If The Herald hears the commotion in Wetzel's hallway, he'll move to watch that one. If not, he stays on guard in his current hallway.

Very shiny, Leudigar. But we need to get moving.

Dopey seeks out the smallest box and stowed it in his sack for later opening.

The hobbit notes that the party is unbloodied and in good fighting spirits, (in the wake of the two immediately subsequent slaughters) so the hobbet remains easy and confident in the party's fighting ability.

Freid blinks when he sees the sword drawn from the wrapping paper, "Oh, let's see what else is in there!"

He will rummage through the boxes ripping paper aside to see what is inside.