(078) A Second Expedition

[The Red Baron]

Dopey draws the hobgoblin's knife to determine whether it is nicer than his own. He taps it on the table, sniffs it, and inspects the hilt for secret compartments or raised grooves.

Upon completing his inspection of the dagger, Dopey works his way around the desk, tapping for hollow compartments, feeling for secret drawers, and trying not to get blood all over himself. If no one can read goblin, Dopey will take the ledger to bring back to camp for translation.

"Try inside his vest, Kianna," suggests the hobbet. "This greedy goblin would keep his money nowhere else."

[riftstone]

Faengol keeps his eyes and ears open and alert, watching the way whence we came.

[waysoftheearth]

Fried tries to count the voices, but it's hard to follow them all individually; there could be a dozen of them or more!

Leudigar listens for whatever voices or noises might carry up the narrow stair... there's only the low moan of gently moving air to be heard.

Meanwhile, back at the watch room:

Dopey extracts the grubby hobgoblin poniard and finds that its grease-pot scent wrinkles his nose. He taps the blade over the desk, but no secret compartments or hidden drawers are revealed. In all, he concludes it is a regular, pointy dagger. Who reads the goblin scrawl, he wonders, dubiously. Zax stomps over to examine the ledger briefly, then huff with disgust when he finds the glyphs unrecognizable. Dopey decides to collect the weighty sheaf of hide-bound papers.

Dungeon Exploration Turn 2

d6 → ?

Second move of turn one is thusly concluded.

Turn 3 is up next; your orders?

[Eris]

Freid whispers to Leudigar,"Could be a dozen or more up there." he nods toward the room ahead, "Do we risk a peek inside or return and bring the whole party forward?"

[mgtremaine]

"Onward?" Zem whispers to Leudigar.

[sully]

If we get into a fight with a dozen or more hobs, many of the party will die. Even if we get a few kills in a surprise round, best case scenario is that the rest rout and run away and then everyone knows we're here.

I think we have three options:
A. avoid the hobs and go down the stairs (the worry here is that our escape route might be blocked once the hob clerk crime scene is discovered)
B. sneak up on the hobs and toss a bunch of oil flasks in there, light 'em up, and wipe up the rest (worry here is that some might still get away)
C. set up an ambush, preferably with oil, in the entry room and lure the hobs to us (worry here is that they might not all come, or some might get away)

None of these options are perfect. But I do not want to see another stand up fight.

The Herald's vote is for B.

[ehiker133]

Leudigar agrees with B. Maybe they're having a party and drinking and will be asleep or drunk or passed out in the near future and we can try and take them then. Or, at the very least, maybe they will be spread out and easier to take.

As a player, I've never been a fan of the flaming oil idea. It seems like the cheap way out (and I've seen many times where the use of it backfired - either treasure was burned or flaming oil was used back on the party at a different time with similar effect). But I'm the same way with meat shield hirelings. Never saw much point in playing adventurer when my character wasn't taking proper adventuring risks. Probably why most of my characters always come across as fool-hardy.

[The Red Baron]

Dopey is armed and ready for a tussle!

[waysoftheearth]

All interesting speculation, good Sirs, so notice: "there could be a dozen of them"...

and hand down your orders!

[acodispo]

Wetzel softly voices his support for the "attack-with-fire" plan, and puts his bow away, preparing spear and shield.

"Perhaps someone lightly armored should sneak ahead a little further and try to get an accurate count of what we're jumping in to?"