Gathering, 1002, Damesday 5th , 51 degrees modest wind, leaves and small twigs in constant motion, flags extended
Immersion-Memory-5 years ago
Remote Event: the Taking of Peace
Scene:
At our tents, the sergeant divides up our shares of the plunder we’ve taken. I am given Erik’s share, to pass on to our grandmother, but while every man gets two of the gemstones, the sergeant gives me the two map cases in lieu of one of the gems, suggesting that they might actually be worth more to the right buyer. He keeps the potions we found, as is his right as our commander. The coins alone are worth half a month’s wages. A nice windfall.
I think back to a time shortly after Erik and I joined the Baron’s retinue. Our squadron had tracked down a small gang of bandits, and after bringing them to justice, got to divvy up some of their spoils. It seemed odd then that we were taking from bandits what they had stolen from others, instead of returning it to the rightful owners, but sometimes…that’s just the way it’s done. Otherwise, in peacetime, a soldier has a hard time getting ahead. Erik was very proud of a copper torque he was given. He wore it for months, until he lost it in a high stakes poker game with a wandering card sharp.
I’m still recalling that event when we load Erik and the other two dead men in a cart bound for Coronal. Tibaran asks if I want to be part of that escort, but I tell him I’d rather wait here for word on Rosamund. Four men from among the others in our squadron serve as escort instead with Tibaran as their leader.
-village encounter-
While I am walking around town, a large man sitting on the steps in front of his house starts yelling at me, “You soldiers think you are so tough! Steel armor and weapons? Bah! Man for man you’re no better than any of the rest of us! I dare you to fight me, and prove how strong you really are you snivelling weakling! If we had arms like yours, nobody in our village would have been taken! The goblins would have been killed in a flash.”
-Insight 13-
The man is obviously drunk. And perhaps lost someone who is still missing. I try to walk on past, but he starts following me, yelling at me, while a number of the villagers start to gather and watch. The local lord and his garrison are in the field, so right now, our company is the law in this village.
Q: Does anyone try to pull him back? NO
Eventually, the man rushes up and shoves me. “What are you going to do soldier? Draw your sword and cut me down? Or face me like a man?” he demands, shoving me again. But this second time, I reach out and grab him by the neck, and drive him down head-first into the dirt, holding him face down while he struggles to get free. The man is strong, but I don’t allow him to get any real leverage against me, and eventually he gives up and starts sobbing about how worthless he is. How he can’t even protect his own family.
At this point, I release him and help him back up to his feet. “It’s alright friend. We’ve all lost people. Courage and strength matter little against the wheel of fate.” I say, sounding remarkeably like my brother.
Then I decide, I’m not going to let Fate decide. I am going trust in Fortune, and I’m going to find Rosamund myself.
Scene:
I collect my gear and tell Nestor I am not going to wait anymore. If all goes well, I’ll return to the barracks. If not, wait a fortnight, then let my grandmother know that I am gone as well and ask that she pray for my soul.
Q: Does Nestor try to stop me? EXCEPTIONAL YES
“Wait a minute, Reder! You can’t do that!” Nestor shouts, “You are supposed to wait here as garrison, and on your own, you can’t survive in those woods. We’ve already faced down two trolls and the place is crawling with goblins!”
Undeterred, I continue collecting my things, “Get behind me friend, I’ve made up my mind. Live or die, I’ll be trusting in Fortune to shape my own fate.” Then I pause, and pulling out the sack of silver coins I’d been given, plus two of the gemstones from my purse I tell Nestor, “Give these to my grandmother if I don’t make it back.”
Q: Does he come with? NO E: Resolution of ‘The Baron assaults Red Stones’: the Neglect of Pleasures
Battle at Red Stone, takes place midafternoon:
Q: Is the blow decisive against the goblins? NO Q: Are the captives rescued? NO Q: killed? NO Q: identified? NO Q: Is siege laid? NO
-300 men, 12 knights, 2 battle mages, baron- 3 CR Advantage (13% casualties)
7 goblin bands-151 dregs, 129 hunters, 120 warriors, 104 wolf riders * wolves, 6 bosses, 6 shamans (49% casualties)
The Baron’s assault, spearheaded by an arcane onslaught, slaughters many of the goblins, but the survivors retreat beneath the old ruins, where it is difficult for the Baron’s men to continue their attack without exposing themselves to potential ambush in the depths of the mazelike ruins. Instead of pressing the assault further, the baron orders the entrances to the undercity to be sealed and the goblins buried alive. The chief Custodian warns that any captives taken below will then be lost, but the Baron’s wrath against the goblins drives his vengeance, more than his concern for the innocent lives he already considers lost.
-Encounter-Stirges-Immersion-Social (really?)
I am wandering through the forest, following the very clear trail of the Baron’s army. He must have mustered the entire fiefdom for this retaliatory raid! When suddenly, I hear a thrumming sound, like that of a very large mosquito. I see three needle nosed birds with batlike wings swooping towards me. One buzzes past my ear, while another lands on my arm and sinks its needle like beak into my flesh. The third meets the tip of my spear and is cut in half by the thrust.
Then the second beast clamps onto my back while I pull away the one that was on my arm. I feel myself growing weaker as I throw that bird to the ground and crush it underfoot. Then the other one suddenly lets go, and starts to fly away, but I swing my spear at it and knock it against a nearby tree, where it splatters as a huge amount of blood sprays out from its corpse.
I feel a bit week in my knees, but after resting a bit and drinking some water, I feel much better and am able to continue my journey.
-encounter-event-survival 11 vs DC 20 for any signs of the escaped captive- (4 parties returned, 3 captives rescued…where is the 4th that was with a small group?)-
As I follow the trail blazed by the Baron’s army towards the Red Stones, I keep an eye along teh edges, looking for any sign of goblins, or other travellers. Some clue that we mgiht have missed one of the hostages.
I end up spotting a trio of porcupines that bristle when they first see me, but we give each other a wide berth and I don’t need them, and they don’t need me.
-encounter-annoyance-survival 15 vs DC 20 for signs.
When I pause at dusk to eat dinner, i notice a pair of glowing eyes in the brush in front of me.
Then I hear something behind me, and on turning, the racoon in the brush dashed forward to steel my pack with the food inside!
I race after it as it dashes back into the brush, and am just able to grab hold of one strap. I hear the second raccoon just before it slams into my back, and slashing it with my dagger, the second animal squeals in pain and the first releases my pack and runs off.
Q: Anything ruined? NO E: Resolution of ‘Rescue the captives taken by goblins’: an Ambush and Weapons
I put my pack back together, grateful not to have lost anything…then I spot a gobln arrow imbeded in a nearby tree. And another a little farther off.
Survival 10, DC
I begin examining the ground to see what they might have been shooting at, but cannot find any tracks. Still, looking at the placement of the arrows, assuming they were firing at a fleeing target, I head in the direction that the arrows seemed to be fired towards.
Survival 26
Then I spot a set of goblin footprints, and begin following them in earnest
Where do they lead? Q: old ruins? NO Q: cave? EXCEPTIONAL YES Q: Do they enter the cave? NO
Looking up ahead, I spot a darker, gloomy area where the thickets seem to part, and I suspect there may be a cave there.
(At what range am I ambushed? 20+d10*5= 25 ft for some stupid reason)
Suddenly, goblin arrows fly at me from two different directions, and I can see the goblins retreat as they reload, trying to ensure that I cannot run them down. I drop to one knee behind a tree and put a crossbow bolt square in one’s chest as he turns to shoot again. As they continue firing, a couple of shots passing uncomfortably close, I strike another in the arm, but he is still able to keep fighting it seems. Until my third shot strikes him through his left eye and he collapses to the forest floor. The other two must not have seen him fall, for they continue to fight.
More close shots, but with careful aim, I wound the third in the leg. Two more shots in quick succession, and he goes down when a bolt hits him in the left shoulder, leaving me with one foe remaining. I call to him in goblin, “Just you and I now! Call to your friends, you are the last one!”
The goblin calls out the names of his fellows, and when they do not answer, he turns to flee. He falls to the ground when my bolt strikes him square in the back. I then inspect the enemy. The one is dead, but the other three are still breathing. They may have a chance if their kin find them before the wolves, bear or even racoons do. I’ll let the dark tyrant they worship determine their fate. I check for valuables.
Q: Anything odd on them? YES
I find a few silver and copper coins, some Ardelian, some older. And also a glass jar that seems to have a troll’s finger floating in urine. I toss it to the side. I’ve no use for such an odd curio.
In the darkness, I can see no tracks near the entrance of the cave. So I sling my shield over my shoulder, leave my spear near the entrance of the cave, light up a torch and head into the gloom with my blade drawn.
Immersion: Touch-Flexible-
Scene :
I step inside the dark cave, sore and a bit tired, but eager to find out if there is a survivor inside. I am surprised to see that just past the entrance, the floor seems to have been worked by iron tools, though the cave walls are natural. I step down a crude flight of stairs, and notice there a bones littering the floor of the cave. Tiny little skulls and short little bones white with age…and some fresh, with the flesh still on them and flies and beetles feeding from them. The bones of goblin infants?
But as I look, I notice something rising to its feet nearby, the bones of a fully grown goblin, a rusted blade in its hand and unholy light gleaming from its eyes. An unliving foe? Where does one even strike such a thing? I decide to go for the head, to shatter the home of those otherworldly lights. The thing is quick, slashing at me once, twice, three times. It is all I can do to avoid a lethal blow. It fights as though it must have been some sort of champion, leaving me no openings until…a brutal thrust carries it full inside my reach, and I quickly reverse my blade and bring it down severing the head at the base of the neck. The skull scatters to the ground, the eerie lights winking out of existance.
I retreat from the cave to bind up my wounds. It is dark. I light a fire, and set camp by the cave entrance. I don’t want to be inside with whatever the goblins feared, but I don’t want to leave the site unguarded. I try to sleep.
-Nightime encounter-Temperature plummets-
Gathering, 1002, Godsday 6th , 31 degrees modest wind, leaves and small twigs in constant motion, flags extended, blizzard 9″ of snow!
Immersion-Sound-Moaning
E: Negative for Reder Fane: the Attainment of Death Q: is the prisoner dead? NO
Q: Is this area also littered with bones? YES Q: Are other creatures mixed in? YES Q: game animals? YES Q: butchered? YES
Scene:
I wake the next morning shivering as snowflakes begin to fall upon me! A late storm? And then, there is a sound…a moaning sound of someone in pain, coming from deep within the cave. I stand up and don my armor, light a fresh torch and head inside to investigate further.
I move through the room full of goblin bones and push furher into the darkness. the cave seems deep, and appears to widen and narrow repeatedly. The cave is eerie, as it seems to be entirely filled with bones littered across its floor even as I go farther in. Is this truly a goblin graveyard?
Then I spot the bones of some deer. I kneel down to study them, and see the distinctive markings of a knife having carved away meat. So the animal was butchered before its carcass was thrown in her to rot. But why?
Then I hear a load squeel as a large rat leaps at me, I knock the creature to the side with a flick of my blade, but another one leaps onto my back. I then stomp on the wounded rat before it can get back to its feet, but feel a pinch on my neck from the second rat! I reach over my shoulder, grab it and throw it to the ground, stomping on that rat as well. Then I feel the wound. It didn’t bite deep, but it was a nasty surprise! I staunch the bleeding with a bit of bloodmoss.
I then continue deeper, folowing the moaning sound. As I enter the next vault, I notice that the walls appear to change color from a reddish brown at teh base, like the rest of the cave, to an orange, yellow then white ceiling with some sort of crystals protruding from the roof. Then a pair of rats lunge at me, one bites my foot, but I kick it into the wall beside me. A second also tries to attack me, but I skewer it on my blade. This place is infested with rats!
Perception DC 15- Direction Right Q: more bones? YES (some cave dressing rolls)
The moaning seems to come from the right, so I take a deep breath and then head in that direction. As I move to the right, I notice that thw walls of the cave here seem to curve away and then back inward towards the cieling, creating a ledge that would be perfect roost for birds or something… Old bones continue to crack beneath my boots.
I notice there are small divets in the cave wall that are filled with fresh pine nuts. There are rats nests beneath them, like the animals have stored up food for the winter. Then i notice off to my left, in a natural alcove, some sort of altar hewn of stone. There are tallow candles set around and what appears to be a bull’s skull, with unusually long horns.
-dressing-
There are goblin symbols painted on the wall behind the altar, Kramarath the Dead. The name means nothing to me, but if the goblins worship this tyrant, he can’t possibly be good. I leave tha altar undisturbed,
I can’t quite tell where the sound is coming from anymore, it seems to echo all around, but I head deeper into the cave. And am attacked by more large rats! They are killed as quickly as the others, but my leather boots are getting chewed up!
-dressing-
There are more rats nests here, and the areas smells of rat droppings. The floor is slick with it.
-encounter-
As I pick my way through it, I disturb a large centipede that was scurrying about after the tiny little beetles and crickets that feed on the filth. The centipede lashed at me, but I cut it in half. It’s torn body left squirming in the muck. Then I heard something large moving up ahead.
-encounter-
In the shadow of torchlight I saw what looked like a hobgoblin, but its armor is ancient, rusted, and half falling off…and its flesh has rotted way though its skeletal visage glows with an eerie purple light. I lunge at the thing ripping off a piece of its tattered mail as it brings its greatsword up in a mighty arc, narrowly missing my head! Another blow through it’s ribs shatters a few but doesn’t slow it down. I leap backward to avoid its counterstroke, then dash in once more and drive my sword through its skull, sending the ancient warrior back to the hells where its possessor belongs!
-short rest/encounter-
I sit down to rest for a bit, but as I am about to sit, I notice there are cords tied around several bones in this area. Examining them, I discern that they seem bound to a device, made of bones, that looks like it would fling a spray of needles across the cavern. I am fortunate that the hobgoblin prevented me from walking carelessly into that trap!
Q: Is the moaning still going? NO
Then the moaning stops. I take a swig of water from my skin, the its coldness refreshing me. Then I stand an move deeper into the cave, hugging the right wall.
-encounter-
I notice a form stirring from the bones as another goblin corpse rises up to challenge my intrusion. Two swift blows from my blade, and the corpse collapses again, its skull shattering against the ground and the unholy light within flickering out.
-dressing-Q: human? NO Q: goblin? NO
Suddenly, I am overwhelmed by the stench of rotting meat. Looking around, I find a deer carcass, half eaten. It’s remains seem to writhe from the movement of the maggots within its flesh. Its dead eyes sunken, seeing no more.
Something carried it in here, for there was no trail showing it had been dragged! Something large. The thought gives me chills.
I follow the cave as it turns, and leads back behind where I first saw the hobgoblin. Amidst the bones, there is a clearing where a campfire had once been cleared out. The logs long turned to ash and there is soot still clinging to the cieling overhead.
I see that the cave wall curves back and there is a large opening on my left, and a narrow passage on the right, where there appears to be some sort of pit. It looks as though someone took deer hide and entrails to try to conceal the pit beneath a layer of bones, but it sags a bit int he middle so it was easy to spot.
I hear a sound behind me, and another undead goblin is scampering towards me. I dodge the thrust of its spear and slash at it with my shortblade. We dance like this for several moments as I look for an opening. A strke against its wrist, and then near its shoulder, but the goblin checks me with the haft of its spear, throwing me backwards a moment. Finally, I get the opening I need to take of the thing’s head, and it goes down like the others.
I look beyond the skeleton into the area from where it came. There is a pool of brackish looking water, and moisture drips from the cieling, continously feeding it. Bones have been cleared away from the water’s edge, and I hear the scurrying of rats as my light reveals the scene.
I turn back to the corridor guarded by the pit. Something smells foul across the other side.
“Rosamund!” I shout, breaking the silence at last.
Q: Does anyone answer? NO Q: Bones on the other side? EXCEPTIONAL NO
Seeing no bones on the other side of the pit, I leap across.
big bad 1-2 Ghoul, 3-4 ogre zombie, 5 demon, 6 necromancer
On landing, I see a small winged demon covered in spines turn and hiss at me! I leap at it as it tries to take to the air. i chase it around the cavern as it slashes and bites at me, flinging tale spines my way at every opportunity, Several hit my shield and one even pierces my skin through the links of my armor, but slash at it each time I draw close, catching it’s leges or tail, and finally the edge of one of its wings and the thing tumbles to the ground before I stab it through its heart. All the time, it seemed to be chanting something. Something I did not understand but which made my head hurt.
Th walls of this room are lined with goblin size corpses wrapped in deerskin. These must be the remains of fallen warriors.
I am bleeding pretty heavily from the spine in my shoulder, so I pause to dress my wounds.
Q: is the captive here? YES
Then I notice one of the deerskins start to move, and moan like I heard before. A woman’s hand pushes out from the skin, dried blood on it.
“Rosamund?” I ask, warily. Hoping for a reply from a living soul, and not the gutteral cry of some possessed fiend.
-20% chance it is Rosamund, but no, it is someone else-
“Help me,” the woman pleads and I quickly help free her of the leather wrap. She is an older woman, with rough hands accustomed to farm work, scratches and torn clothes from having been chased through the woods, and a large bruise on her forehead. “I can’t walk” she says, tears of pain streaming down her face.
I pull up her skirt and see she has a broken leg. “Let me splint this, and maybe we can get out of here.” I suggest.
Q: Will she let me look for materials? YES
“Please, hurry, I don’t want to die in this place,” she begs, “the devil will eat me!”
I point to the demon I killed, and she shakes her had, “No, the one that looks like a man…a tall, thin man!”
When I leap over the pit, it dawns on me…I have no real way to get the woman across. Another trial to face!
Walking past the pool, I hear something to my right, and see a shadowy figure creeping towards me. Like a man, but with leathery skin and long claws. Its eye’s shine red reflecting my torchlight.
Realizing I’ve spotted it, the thing tastes the air with its long black tongue, and then scampers towards me with a devilish cry. It leaps onto my blade as it tries to sink it’s claws into me, igonring the pain as I thrust my blead into it time and again. It tears at my armor until I slam it into the wall and throw it onto the ground. As it starts to scramble back onto its feet, I kick it in ribs, and then bring my blade down, severing its spine. The creatures thick black blood slowly oozes out as it dies.
In the distance, I make my way back out of the cave and collect the arrows from from the dead goblins, and also my spear. Carrying them inside I return to the old woman and start cutting leather strips from body wraps so I can brace her broken calf. It’s an easy thing to do, the break wasn’t too bad. Soon I am able ot help her get up on her good foot, and using my spear as a brace, I help walk her to the edge of the pit.
I use the spear to poke around a bit, toppling debris into it and realizing that its bottom is beyond the reach of my torch’s light.
Q: Is it a shallow pit? NO
“Hmmm, backup,” I tell her as I jump across the pit, and then strip off all of my armor and other gear, leaving my torch on this side, and then jumping back to her. The pit isn’t difficult for me to jump, even armored, but with another person? There is only one thing to do but try.
Athletics 17 vs DC 15 (hipster hard)
We throw the spear across, and I hoist her up over my shoulders. With as big a running start as we can manage to clear the gap but end up tangled in a heap on the other side. Thankfully, we don’t come down on the woman’s broken leg. I help her to her feet and she winces in pain. “Thank you!” she says. “I thought I was going to die in there.”
I nod, and begin putting my armor back on. “Let’s get you back to Lesher. It’s a long walk.”
She nods, and tells me her name is Callista, in case I was wondering. I grin and tell her my name as well, asking if she saw what happened to Rosamund. She doesn’t know.
Q: Does she know? NO
I walk her over to the entrance of the cave, but as we are heading out, she spots the altar. “What is that?” she asks. I tell her that it looks like a demonic altar to some goblin god called Kramarath.
Q: Did she hear that name? EXCEPTIONAL NO
She suggests that we should destroy it. Such beings should not be worshipped. I nod in agreement, but warn that I’m not sure we should…
And she throws a skull at it before I’m don’t warning her not to mess with it. Then another, trying to knock the bull skull down from the altar.
Q: Does anything happen with the altar? EXCEPTIONAL NO
I just watch, warily as she throws bone after bone at the thing until she finally knocks it over. When nothing happens, I walk over to inspect the wreckage. The candles are all broken, but the bull skull is still intact. I kick the skull into another cave room, and then I help Callistta hobble out of the cave.
Sound-Boom-Scene #12:
Callista and I emerge from the cave to hear the sound of thunder. Her eyes widen as she sees the falling snow, “Was I asleep through the summer? Has winter come again?”
“No,” I say grimly, “Lesher was raided two days ago. It’s a late storm.” She shakes her head and suggests we sit and wait for it to pass. I agree.
I gather some branches and take them back inside where she has hobbled over to where the fire pit had been. We gather some of the bedding from rat’s nests to get something started while we wait for the larger pieces of wood to dry enough to use. While she tends the fire, I explore the rest of the cave, finding the area where the ghoul had laired.
It had been hidden in a pile of bones, many split to have the marrow sucked out, and rags and torn scraps of goblin and human clothing. There are some coins piled up on a corner, along with a couple of gemstones. I collect the gold and silver coins along with the stones, and then some of the dryer bits of bedding to help get the fire going. Though they smell foul, they are dry!
Callista and I talk as we roast freshly skinned rats spitted on goblin arrows. She talks about the chaos of the goblin raid, how they broke into several homes and were grabbing women as captives. She remembers how they had done that during the goblin war. How they’d taken one of her daughters in a raid and that her corpse had been found on an altar deep in the woods. That’s why she had run away the first chance she found, but then the ghoul found her in the cave, and when she woke up, her leg was broken and she was bound up in a leather sack…where she had cried and struggled to get out all day until she passed out.
Gathering, 1002, Market Day 7th , 52 degrees modest wind, feel wind on skin, leaves rustle, weathervanes begin to move-snow melting fast
-Immersion-Conspicuous Shadow-
After a long night in the foul smelling cave, having to shoo away rats that tried to get into my pack, we were ready to pick our way through the rapidly melting snow back home.
-Encounter-Hobgoblin Raiders- (Stealth 13 vs Perception 10)
As we move through the woods, we hear the sounds of movement to our left, and I help Callista get down behind some brush to hide. We hear footsteps drawing closer, and the clank of steel on steel like soldiers on the march. I wonder if it’s the baron’s men, then I see the shadow of a gobln standard pass through the nearby clearing. I warn Callista to remain very quiet and very still.
We remain hidden until the small company passes us by.
Q: Heading to Red Stone? NO Q: Lesher YES E: Negative for Rosamund: the Killing of a Hero
As I watch them pass us by, heading towards Lesher, I notice a severed human head dangling from one’s belt. I recognize Rosamund’s face, even covered in blood.
I close my eyes and try to still my anger. There are too many of them to risk a fight. After the company passes, we start to follow slowly behind them, wary since we are traelling in the same direction as they also seem to be heading towards Lesher.
-Encounter-Small game-Squirrel-
As we continue our trek, slowly falling behind the goblins, we startle a squirrel, or rather, it startles us, but as it scampers into the woods, we breathe a sigh of relief that we had not been spotted by anything dangerous.
Immersion: I bark an order to an NPC
Scene: We take shelter for the night under the shadows of Levan’s Tower. “We are staying her tonight,” I say. Callista starts to object, but I warn her, “Goblins won’t come near. They know this place is haunted as well as you and I. So we stay here. Perhaps the ancestors will favor protect us.”
Callista looks very nervous, but she starts to offer up prayers as I weave a shelter together for us. I ask about her leg and she says it is hard, but she can keep going. It looks badly swollen, but there is not much to it but to keep moving forward.
Our shelters is well concealed, woven of saplings and loose branches. I let her sleep as much as I can, but then have to take my own rest too. Fortunately, nothing happens during the night.
Gathering, 1002, Sun Day 8th , 45 degrees modest wind, leaves and small twigs in consant motion, flags extended
Immersion: Illuminated runes E: Positive for Goblin Raiders: the Care of Misfortune
Scene #15:
In the morning light, I notice some strange runes on the tower that seem to reflect the rising sun. I don’t understand what they mean, but I watch as they fade from view after a few moments. Then I start assembling a sledge while I let Callista rest. As soon as it is ready, I wake her and have her lay on the woven sledge with my blanket so I can drag her through the woods along the trail the Baron’s army had cut through. She still has to get up and walk aa bit, but not as often as before.
-Encounter-event-
When we stop for a late morning rest, a racoon tries to steal some of our food, but Callista swats it away with my spear.
-Encounter-event-
Later, as I am pulling the sledge, we rip open a cluster of mushrooms on the forest floor, but they release a horrific stench that leaves both Calissta and I choking and gagging. We lose everything we ate that morning, and I have to carry her over to a nearby stream where we fill and refill my waterskin, trying to rinse the stench from our mouths, cleaning the odor from our clothes. After a couple of hours, we are able to move about a bit, but we are both weak in our knees.
Q: Is there fighting when we arrive? YES
As we reach the edge of the forest surrounding Leshen’s fields, I hear the alarm bell of the village manor sounding, and then the sound of goblin horns. It is unusual for goblins to attack midday, but those were hobgoblins we saw the day before, and they will strike at any moment that seems opportune.
“Wait here!” I tell Callista, then taking my spear from her, I hoist up my shield and start moving towards the village to see how I can help.
Q: Do I arrive in time? YES Q: Do I get the drop on one? YES Q: Are the baron’s men gone? EXCEPTIONAL YES E: Negative for Reder Fane: a Fight over a Dispute
The hobgoblins have attacked the cemetary outside of town while villagers were burying the dead from the prior raid and the baron’s counterattack! I creep close to the battlefield where I see local guards and villagers fighting desperately against a large number of hobgoblin raiders. I sneak up behihnd one of the raiders, and stab him in the thigh with my spear, but he turns and his blade narrowly misses my arm as I pull it back. We circle each other, testing one another’s defenses, until I see an opening, slip my spear inside his defences and right into his gut!
Then I join the general melee! I am soon cornered by two hobgoblins. They work well together and without anyone backing me up, I am soon in serious trouble having a hard time fending off their blows as they each approach from opposite sides. Wounded from cuts to my arms, in desperation, I lunge at one, skewering him through the neck with my spear, but then blacking out from a heavy blow from behind that shatters my helm.
(-Survive the fight, Constitution check succussful, attendant’s medicne check fails-Suffer Lingering wound-horrible disfigurement!-8 days until I am otherwise healed)
Q: Is the raid successful? EXCEPTIONAL NO
I wake up in the village shrine alongside several other wounded. “Reder was it? The one wnose brother died? Eager to join him were you?” the Custodian asks. I nod, and then realize that I cannot feel my face. “Rest, you took a bad cut. You are lucky to be alive. Luckier than many.”
“Callista?” I ask.
“We found her at the edge of the woods. She is back home now. She told us how you rescued her from the cave. The ancestors must favor you,” the Custodian jokes.
I lay back down and try to move my jaw. I can scarcely do so. The Custodian warns me not to try.
A short time later, one of the villagers comes in, “Reder! You’re name is Reder! Why didn’t you save her? If you loved Rosamund so much, why didn’t you save her? Why was her head on a goblins belt?” the man fumes at me accusingly, tears of rage streaming down his face. “I’d have rescued her if I hadn’t been ordered to stand guard here! Not like you useless clods of the baron! I’d have saved her?”
I look up at him, “Why didn’t you? I was also under orders to stay here, but I went looking for her. Why didn’t you?” (Persuasion 17 even with disadvantage!)
The man stops short, and then falls to his knees sobbing over his lost love. I take off the gauntlet she gave me. I am not worthy of it.
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