(080) Where a Hobbet Goes

[The Red Baron]

"Right! The others!" pipes Dopey, a momentarily worried and agitated hobbet, "I hope they are all right - they were still fighting those awful goblins when we split company."

[waysoftheearth]

The company withdraw, watchfully, to the Bleakmass Tree room. They find the room as they recently left it; littered with goblin corpses and broken furniture. The Bleakmass Tree itself occupies one corner, brooding over the black-wrapped gifts. There are three means of egress from here; back the toward the wall room (from whence you have just come), back toward the stair to the surface, and a third passage with Zax and Co. took a little while back...

Somewhere between the rooms, Zem realises he has assumed his normal, dwarf proportions.

The game now returns to the exploration time scale; Faengol's enchantment ends.

What from here?

[mgtremaine]

Zem inspects the packages under the bleak mass tree. "What's this then? Perhaps there are more items like our Leudigar sword. So many choices."Zem tries to visually sort the packages by shape. Any hints as to what might be there.

[Eris]

If Freid grabs a package and rips the wrapping off. He'll go through several quickly, collecting whatever is inside each if it appears useful or valuable.

[doctorx]

Arian considers matters.

"The goblins are dead," she says to no-one in particular.

She contemplates the situation, the wheels of her brain turning (a little slowly perhaps.)

"Therefore... I don't think they'll be needing these anymore."

She too turns her attention to the black-wrapped packages.

[ehiker133]

Out of curiosity, Leudigar grabs a smaller, untouched package, and opens it.

[riftstone]

Faengol contemplates the last few minutes.

"We may want to prepare. I believe the hobgoblins were waiting for the enchantment to end before launching another scouting strike. It is only a matter of time before they test our defenses once more."

[waysoftheearth]

The Bleakmass gifts are unwrapped in a flurry led by Fried, with Arian, Zem, and Leudigar being more selective. Dopey returns to the small box in his pocketses...

There are twelves gifts in all, of various sizes, which turn out to be:

1. A pig-iron, boar-tusk faced helm,
2. A black buckler-shield with white Bleakmass Tree emblem,
3. 19 black-feathered goblin arrows in a Hessian wrap,
4. A pewter pint-mug styled as a hobgoblin head,
5. A ring of intertwined iron and silver serpents (in Dopey's pocket),
6. A traveller's Bleakmass prayer book (digest-sized, 2in thick, black leather),
7. A black vellum scroll inside an olde bone-scroll tube,
8. A withered claw back-backscratcher, which might once have been a goblin arm,
9. A gnarled wood walking staff; the top carved as a woeful bald head,
10. A silvered sword with small stones in the hilt (in Leudigar's service),
11. A cleaver-shaped, pig-iron sword with a goblin-faced basket hilt,
12. A strip of leather cut into the shape of a sword; its "hilt" a belt buckle.

[mgtremaine]

Zem looks on deflated as the others tear open all the presents. He eyes the drinking mug (A pewter pint-mug styled as a hobgoblin head) "Here is a funny thing. Might come in handy if we are attacked by beer." He picks it up and stows it away.

[doctorx]

Having just lost one, Arian would like to claim the shield.