Plan A or not Plan A

Present:

• Cody Dieback. Human Male Wizard from Highport – Andrew
• Jack "Blocker" Jones. Human Male Temple Fighter of Aquamarina from Porn City – Guest star, Chris Whelan
• Tom Eade. Human Male Fighter from Porn City – Jeff
• Grim Hand. Human Male Rogue from Porn City – Jason
• Esmeralda "Ezme" Abernathy. Human Female Temple Fighter of Soixante Neuf from Scabport – Shane
• MARMALADING Ardern. Human Female Priestess of Mr Quail from Porn City – Kevin
• Rock Hammer. Human Male Barbarian from Central Plains – Steven
• Willow Woods. Half-elf Male Caribou Gorn Priest from Porn City - Chris
• Kippy Hunt. Human Male Barbarian of the Central Plains – Ian
• Munch Ease. Human Male Thief from Porn City – Darryl

 by Andrew

The stone circle

Standing Stones

Just before dark, the party made camp. Off in the distance, about a league away, there was a circle of standing stones on hill.  [ 1 league = 1 km ] There was a fire flickering in the circle.

"We have a lot of company in this wilderness," observed Grim.

So the party set watches for the night: 

1. Grim, Cody, Ezme.
2. Tom, Munch. 
3. Kippy, Jack, Rock. 

During second watch - the fire in the circle of standing stones flared up - large like a bonfire. Nothing else happened, so Tom and Munch didn't escalate.

The morning was overcast dreary; like every other day on the Central Plains. It was decided to send Munch and Grim to sneak up to investigate the source of the fire last night, much to Munch's chagrin.

"Why don't we just ignore them?" said Munch. But he was out-voted.

Grim and Munch got close and unseen. Seated next to the fire was an elderly hooded woman with milk-white eyes staring blindly at the fire. Next to her stood two big barbarians. Off to one side, two young barbarian women worked in an open tent.

Grim tried to sneak in to the circle.

"Welcome, Grim," the blind woman, unmoving, said "Warm yourself by the fire."

Grim froze, then sheepishly approached. He gave Munch a signal to go fetch the rest of the party.

The Job

The stone menhirs had runes carved in to them. The party's magic-users (Cody, Ardern, Ezme, Jack, Willow) felt tingles when they entered the circle. A foreboding feel; made hackles rise.

"Welcome strangers," said the old lady. "Come warm yourselves by the fire. Do not be reticent. You may call me Ester."

The party was offered breakfast: porridge, eggs, fruit, rye-grass bread, and meat.

The two leches in the party, Rock and Kippy, stared at the boobs on the barbarian girls as they brought the food in. Kip managed some subtlety, but Rock was more open.

"Are those tits real?" he said.

"Keep your eyes off her!" snapped one of the males, Foster. He was about to launch into Rock, but the Ester calmed him with an authoritative wave of her hand.

Ester

Rock's lecherous eyes then alighted on Ester's stringy sixty-year-old body.

"Bet ya don't get many of those to the pound." 

Ester blinked. Her face went hard. Then she waved a hand in Rock's direction.

"Aarrgh!" yelped Rock. He was struck blind.

Tom and Jack shepherded Rock away while the only ones in the group not ugly, Ezme and Munch, stepped forward to talk.

 It turned out that Ester had seen the group arrive on the Central Plains last week, down by O'Reilly's Passage, and had been following their travels, on and off, since then. She probably had a magical connection to the local wolves and could see through their eyes.

"I have a task for your group," said Ester. "There is a tribe of goblins near here. They are ruled by two wicked men. They have kidnapped a young man of my tribe. I would like him returned."

The group perked interest.

"If you do this, I will help your travel to Porn City."

She offered a dire wolf to travel with the group, and show them the way to Porn City. So, they agreed the job.

"How many goblins?" asked Tom.

 

"Less than there were. 30-40 maybe. But I wouldn't advise you to attack them front on."

Ester was happy to order her tribe to lend some armour and weapons to the group; two sets of studded leather armour [ 2 armour points ] and a couple of double-handed swords.

The next morning Rock's blindness had worn off, and the group left. 

Ester sent a wolf to lead them to the goblins' area. After seven hours of walking, maybe ten leagues funkenwards from the standing stones, the wolf stopped and pointed with his nose. Then he took off, back the way they came.

There was a small hill with some trees, and the wind was blowing towards the group. They moved up carefully and looked over the edge. It was a basin, half a league by half a league; let's call it a "crater". There was a stream in the centre which flowed into a pond, but nothing flowed out.

Reconnaissance

Grim and Cody sneaked in to the crater. Despite being an ugly wizard, Cody was a superb sneaker [ He has the Shadow talent - that gives a bonus die on Stealth rolls. ]

They spotted a cave entrance (not visible from the rim), three plains bison carcasses (freshly butchered), and a stand of trees near the cave in which there were some movements. Cody is a superb watcher too. [ His second talent is Aware which gives bonus Spot Hidden rolls. ]

Goblin watchers

Sure enough, there were two goblin guards hiding in there, watching the cave entrance, from platforms up a tree.

Cody and Grim both withdrew back a bit and had a discussion.

Cody had the Sleep spell, so could drop the guards, and if any melee ensued, Grim was competent enough to protect the non-combatant mage. So they had to make a decision. This would affect the entire party and would put the mission into plan A. Grim was more than keen to drop those goblins and commit the whole party. Cody was a bit more circumspect and suggested caution. So they both had a lengthy argument [ And the rest of the table harped in with their OOC opinions ]

There were basically four choices

1. Drop the two goblin guards and return to the group. When the goblin replacements eventually arrived, that would alert the base, and commit the group into a full frontal assault: "Plan A".
2. Drop the two guards, and bring the group down into the valley. Then attrite the goblin reinforcements, whittling them away, and, by the time they realized, their numbers have been reduced to a more manageable size: "Plan A with bells on".
3. Skulk back to the group and conduct a search of the area around the crater more thoroughly. This might seem good in theory, but Cody knew from experience that it'd take days - and any delay would always end badly. This was a party with humans with no infravision. So camping out here in the wilderness, where the overcast skies make the nights blacker than black, meant the party is totally at the mercy of luck: being spotted by a goblin patrol during the night - and goblins have superb infravision.
4. Leave the area like cowardly poltroons.

So, Cody and Grim voted: 1 vs 1. A tie! In a spectacular bout of logic and eloquence, Grim convinced Cody to go Plan A. [ Andrew had no idea, so we decided to use a Persuade roll, and Jason/Grim rolled a critical. ] Plan A with bells on.

Plan A

Goblin signal horn

Sure enough, it was trivial for two of Cody's Sleeps to drop the goblin guards. Grim summarily dispatched them in cold blood*. They had signal horns.

"That commits us now," muttered Cody. "No going back!"

They withdrew up the hill and summoned the group. Munch was not pleased. They stationed themselves, hidden best they could, near the cave entrance. 

Grim and Cody sneaked inside to reconnoitre. The narrow entrance opened into a cave, with a fire, and four goblins cooking a rabbit. The cave had two far exits with a lot of noise down the right-hand corridor and the smoke from the fire was going down the left-hand corridor.

But it was only a quick visit, because, two goblins were about to come out - presumably to replace the watch goblins. 

Grim and Cody quickly withdrew, the goblins emerged, and were shot down by the party's archers* (out of sight of the entrance).

"Now they will start to escalate," said Jack.

Grim grabbed a goblin corpse, and while Cody held it, he impaled it on a stick*. Grim could use the stick to hold the gruesome puppet silhouette by the cave mouth, while Cody worked the arms, in some parody of goblin-life. 

This brough forth much goblin chattering and squawking. The gruesome silhouette withdrew.

Four armoured goblins emerged. They started to search, and when out of sight of the cave, the group attacked. This fight was more difficult, but the goblins were eventually dropped*.

After a bit, a human voice from the cave shouted: "Surrender, or the boy dies".

The party withdrew back up top the crater rim.

* = In the Known World, goblins are dark-spawn (as are kobolds, hobgoblins, and orcs), so that means they are absolute evil. There is no concept of "a good goblin". It is genetic; no nature vs nurture nonsense. No la-de-dah "moral relativism" gas-lighting. Killing goblins in cold blood is not an evil act.

Plan A with bells on

About half a league away, one man and eight goblins emerged from a low patch, and started to approach the crater. So there was another exit from the caves! In our defence, we wouldn't have found it in daylight, so that'd mean a dangerous night, camping, in pitch dark, with no fire.

The party split into two groups. "Grim's group" Grim, Jack, and Rock stayed down by the cave mouth. This left "Cody's group" Cody, Kippy, Tom, Munch, Ezme and fat Willow to ambush the nine. They took positions in the copses of trees near the crater rim.

The nine approached the trees and Cody's group, and the battle was met!

Cody's group prevailed in the end, killing all eight goblins and the human warrior too. But it was hard on them: Almost all got wounded. Kip got dropped unconscious, Tom took a critical. Cody, Ezme and fat Willow's magic resources were totally drained [ 0 MPs ]. 

Mention in dispatches to:

• Tom - despite being criticalled, fought on bravely.

• 

  Ezme proves herself

  Ezme - for killing the most goblins with her borrowed double-handed sword.
• Cody - a well-timed Sleep dropped the dangerous human leader, then Munch & Kip's arrows, and a Magic Bolt finished him off.
• Kip and Munch - withering fire dropping several.
• Willow - woke up from his marmalade, took on a goblin, Cody slept it, and Willow spread its brains all over the hillside with his make-shift club.
• Jack - for using the verb "attrite".

At the cave entrance

While the fight was in progress, Grim's group heard tramping from the cave, so they all hid best they could. Hiding was an art Grim was master at, but Jack and Rock, not so much. However, Rock found a rock and kept perfectly still [ His Stealth skill is 5. He threw a 1 - critical. ]  and Jack hunkered down behind Rock's bulk.

Another human man and seven goblins rushed out of the cave entrance (we will call these the "Eight group").  The battle with Cody's group was quite loud even down here, so the Eight group began the climb up the crater, and never noticed the unhidden Jack.

Grim took this opportunity to sneak into the cave alone.

Jack and Rock slowly followed the eight, staying well back. 

Sound from Cody's group's battle had died down by now. 

Ester's boy

Jack belatedly decided that it would not be a good idea to let the Eight group reinforce the Nine group, so he tooted one of the goblin alarm horns to try to bring them back. But, it was too quiet and they never heard him.

Meanwhile, Grim had encountered no guards nor other life in the tunnels. Down one side-passage he found Ester's young man,  naked, hung upside down, with his throat cut. His blood had emptied into a bucket; some ritual? But it was all cold - he had been dead many days. So the party could never had succeeded in this mission anyway.

Grim dragged the body outside.

Cool for Cats Goblins - a la Squeeze

Grim's little group sends signals from the rocks above the pass.

Cody's take positions in the bushes and the grass.

The boy is in the tunnel; he is tied up by his knees.

He doesn't mind the language, it's the cut throat he don't need.

Grim lets loose the dead body when the goblins have all gone.

And Grim Hand strides around and says he's cool for cats goblins.

 

 Jack and Rock approached the top of the crater, where they crested the rim, and could see that the Eight group had engaged the wounded Cody's group - another battle in progress. So much for tooting.