(008) The Blockade

[waysoftheearth]

eris wrote:

Mads the Fair

Mads hesitates for a moment and then returns with the others to rest. "I don't like this one bit. Spiders that size aren't natural."

"I don't think we can go hunting it tonight." Olaf says, "I hate that a prisoner, even a hobgoblin was taken from us, but I don't think it can be helped."

[waysoftheearth]

eris wrote:

"Where form?", the first Hobgoblin repeats, licking his lips with a puzzled experssion on his face.

"The nasty Elfs is tricksee," the second Hobgoblin warns his fellow, but his hunger apparently wins out.

"Weez from here we is," the first fellow explain, as if any child should know, "Tha mountainses, there, yess." he nods his head vaguely easterly toward the hinterlands proper.

"That is where many Goblinses are from, yessss" the second fellow agrees, "Now givesss us tha food, yesss.".

Olaf takes a bit of his rations out and holds it in his hand before the goblins, "I *will* give this much to each of you, but you must answer all of our questions."

OOC: For each answer Olaf will give a bite of rations to each of the goblins if he and the others thing their answers are true.

"You live in the mountains to the east of here you say? How many days march from here is your home?"

"Is there a company of your fellows nearby? Whereabouts are they and how far from that company's base did you march to this spot?"

"Who sent you here to put up the blockade across the road and do you know why?"

[waysoftheearth]

heartless wrote:
Padrig looks at party and asks, "Olaf, Mads or Taines do you have any more questions for our captive guests."

Padrig then looking at the hobgoblins again says, "Just one second, the food will come. First you need to finish answering my questions." Smiling Padrig continues, "I also asked who is in charge of the operation on the road and where do we find him?"

[waysoftheearth]

danhem wrote:
Ulric completes his studies, carefully places his Grimoire back into his backpack, then waits for Flewellen to finish his studies as well.When he does he nods to the young mage.

"That was an impressive enchantment you performed yesterday. I must admit I have never heard those words uttered before. They certainly put the fear of the gods in those goblins. You are certainly well-versed in the Arts. I did not think I would happen upon another of our kind so soon and certainly not under these circumstances."

"How did you come to be a guest of our good friends over there?" Ulric points over his shoulder at the bound goblins currently being questioned by the warriors.

[waysoftheearth]

verhaden wrote:
Mads the Fair

Mads nods to Olaf and Padrig. "We really needed the Boson to answer these questions. Without him, I don't know how useful these guys are." He pauses for a moment and strokes his chin. "Why would they send a captain out to build that blockade? Surely there are better, more traveled roads to toll."

Taking out a bit of his own rations, Mads walks back and forth as he nibbles on them slowly. "They're interested in these ruins. Someone overheard us at the tavern and have come to fatten themselves up."

"I have so much food I don't know what to do with it all." Mads says as he stops in front of the hobgoblins. "Convince us that you're worth more than the Captain or the Boson, and I don't leave you as the spider's after dinner snack."

[waysoftheearth]

tombowings wrote:

Ulric completes his studies, carefully places his Grimoire back into his backpack, then waits for Flewellen to finish his studies as well.When he does he nods to the young mage.

"That was an impressive enchantment you performed yesterday. I must admit I have never heard those words uttered before. They certainly put the fear of the gods in those goblins. You are certainly well-versed in the Arts. I did not think I would happen upon another of our kind so soon and certainly not under these circumstances."

"How did you come to be a guest of our good friends over there?" Ulric points over his shoulder at the bound goblins currently being questioned by the warriors.

Not sure how much to tell his new companion of his exploits, Flewellen decides on a partial truth. "I have long journeyed with no clear destination in mind. Taking odd jobs for food and staying no where too terribly long, all the while studying this set of scrolls. After many months of study and toil, finally they began to open up their secrets to me--as I'm sure that tome did to you. It was one of those spells that I preformed yestermorrow, an modest enchantment of spiritual command and mental domination. Merely did I excite emotions they already felt, filling and arousing them with fearful thoughts. Likewise, you must be a powerful spinner of sorceress to make out foes collapse upon a waring battlefield. That is impressive magic indeed.

"Oh yes, I must get ahead of myself--and my story. Long has it been since I heard the voices of other men and a bumbling of footsteps caused me to--although now I confess I regret the act--shout out for joy. Turned out they were a hoard of green skins. And so I ran for my life. Followed, and small as I am, I scuttled into a small hole in the ground while they passed.

"Where they were going, I knew. This keep was their destination. I then heard the roars and clangs of maces and mail. Running over, I was captured by their leader. I begs him not to harm me--told him I had powers he could never dream of and could exploit. Of course I would have exploited them on my captor. Anyways, he brought me back to their encampment and tied me up so tight that I could not even reach my own dagger. From there, you know the tale better than myself, I reckon.

"And brings your here to this ruined land once to fertile and glorious?"

[waysoftheearth]

waysoftheearth wrote:

"I don't think we can go hunting it tonight." Olaf says, "I hate that a prisoner, even a hobgoblin was taken from us, but I don't think it can be helped."

It was, perhaps, a stroke of great fortune that one dearer to you was not snatched away to such an awful fate...

[waysoftheearth]

waysoftheearth wrote:
With Olaf, Padrig and Mads doing something of a good-cop, bad-cop, indifferent-cop routine, they eventually tease an approximation of the desired information from the Hobgoblin pair, amid much fawning and stuttering and begging for food.

"You sees tha mountains with your own eyeses," says one of the captive, "they is not far, nooo, not far,"

"And goblin feet march quick," agrees the other.

Olaf pushes open the eastern shutter and gazes out upon the crisp grey morning. The peaks of the hinterlands proper can be seen amid the morning mist. The foothill themselves are probably two or three days march away, he hazards.

"Theys lots a goblinses here abouts," they reveal, "but not so many by daysss, nooo, not by dayssss."

"Bolgog was the Captain until nasssty Men kill him. Yessss Bolgog. Him dead now,"

"Ssoon they will find dead Bolgog, yesss, ssoon." they predict, and further warn "And then there will be trouble, oh yesss, trouble for killerssss."

They are none too impressed by the bland, dry trail rations, but are so hungry they wolf it down anyway.

[waysoftheearth]

waysoftheearth wrote:

"Surely there are better, more traveled roads to toll."

In fact, there are very few roads in these rural outlands.

From recollection of the map in Ulric's protection, this road is the only one departing west from Ket, or indeed from this region of the Kingdom. From the other perspective, this is the only road into this region of the Kingdom from the West.

That the road is so mean beyals a modest volume of comings and goings. That the road exists at all says that whatever the volume of traffic, it must at least be persistent.

[waysoftheearth]

waysoftheearth wrote:
The Hobgoblins are mean, scrawny fellows, and will be able to subsist on quarter rations.

Given that Padrig was being the nicest, and also has the most to spare, I have struck off half a day worth of his supplies to keep the two Hobgoblins fed for today.