Road to Auer Session 2: Shrub Goblins

Our group numbered nine, with both Harvey missing and Caber taking up a new line of work. The group bought potions from Corsco Wightbane and headed out into the wilds to find the lair of the red capped goblins. Using the wolf ally they had made in the previous session they made their way east of town and into the forest. Stopping to mark his territory and do other wolfish things took a little longer than expected. Following the wolf, they made it to a river and the wolf stopped, something smelled different. A large toad jumped out at the wolf and another broke cover and charged the party. The cleric used his channel divinity to charm both toads, which would only keep them from attacking him and he still had the spell speak with animals up. He told them to betray their master and help him in the woods. The toads did not think the witch would like that. The witch came out of the water, angry her toads were being delayed. The hag stood a skinny ten feet tall and had blue waterlogged skin. She looked at the party and dug her nails into her face. The disfiguring was enough to unnerve a few of the party and then she came in swinging haymakers. Longshot was the only one weakened by her fear effect and was able to resist her killing gaze. The group jumped to action, breaking the charm on the toads and sending spells and steel into the witch. She made to flee and was brought down, falling into the water and bashing her skull. The group made quick work of the toads and took a quick break for some Nonne grilled toads. Balziros took the chance to make a javelin out of the toad bones.

The group followed the wolf to the stone cave mentioned earlier and found it was a large “L” shaped tower. The large wooden doors on the front were closed and flanked by two shrubs. Longshot, having seen a few tricks in their day shot an arrow into one of the bushes. The group was greeted by a scream as a goblin fell out, arrow lodged in its good eye. The other shrub had a goblin fall out and two more on the buildings lower roof stood up with bows at the ready. The group jumped to attention fighting against the visible goblins with much glee. Nonne ran up and jumped to grab the lip of the lower roof and pulled himself up to attack the ranged goblin, noticing after his attack the eight other goblins on the roof building hang gliders. The goblins rushed him and tried to push him off the roof. All eight failed due to leverage and the fact he is a very large dragonborn paladin. They used their nimble escape to flea and climb off the building. Nomi tried to pick up the goblin next to him but it was too slippery and kept slapping his hands. He took the rest of his turn to leap off the building after the goblins and belly flop onto them. He was able to flatten two of them and was damaged himself.

While this was happening, 04 made his way into the front door, finding it unlocked. He noticed three more doors inside, one a large double door and two smaller guard doors. He checked one and found a storage room full of weapons so he took a crossbow. He went to the double door and looked through them to see a hobgoblin in nice armor readying a bow with fancy arrows. He closed the door and heard the hobgoblin lock it, another door sliding, and the door to his left locked as well. the rest of the group mopped up the outer goblins and saw a large arrow hit the wall next to 04’s head. Nonne came and looked into the wall to see a hobgoblin getting ready to draw another arrow and jumped aside to not be struck. Willow entered the room and launched magic missiles through the arrow slit, killing the hobgoblin. They took some time to unlock the side door and found a secret passage into the room with the double doors. They found numerous half-built wicker boulders and signs of numerous goblins living here. The party pressed on, hearing the sounds of dozens of goblins from the next room.

They peeked through the doors and saw an empty meal hall with a staircase going up. With detect magic they could tell there was a magic mote giving off the sounds of goblins attached to the ceiling, and as they were investigating two hobgoblins descended the stairs and started launching arrows at the party. Nonne charged the hobgoblins, noticing a large rug at the base of the stairs. As his foot hit the rug it gave way, he was just able to get his footing and leap onto the stairs as the rest of the rug fell into the pit. The group fell upon the hobgoblins, sending one into the pit and killing the other. They peered down into the hole and could only hear rustling down below and could barely see the glinting of eyes and teeth. Recognizing something terrible was down there, they left the hole alone for now and crept up the stairs. the wolf stayed on the first floor, not wanting to follow over the pit. They found a room with a large war table, four goblins, and two hobgoblins as well as more stairs leading up. Combat was had. The hobgoblins were slain quickly, one getting a moldy bookshelf toppled on him, revealing the swarm of bugs that lived in the mildew covered tomes. They took out three of the goblins and the fourth ran up the next batch of stairs. the party collected themselves and prepared for heading up the next flight, finishing session 2.

Road to Auer Session 1: An adventure Begins

Many years ago, the giants saved bits of life from a great cataclysm. The giants made three islands within a relatively safe area of the world and helped nurture the creatures they saved. The first island had humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, and half orcs living in relative peace until one of the giants betrayed his siblings by destroying one of their cities with an army of monsters he had snuck into the sanctuary. The giants bound their wayward brother to the bottom of the ocean and scattered his forces and life has seemingly returned to normal.

            The second island became home to the wilder peoples. Fey, satyrs, cat folk, lizardmen, minotaur, centaur, and goliaths lived in harmony under the protection of a nature goddess, Ellendriana. Ellendriana’s continent was contested at first by a tribe of evil giants that staked claim to its riches. Their champion was composed of the rock itself and was of great size. The giant came at Ellendriana when she had just finished creating her place of power, a stone platform between three mountains. The giant, whose name was lost, was turned into the western mountains and his torso is still visible. The island inhabitants pay homage to Ellendriana and what once was a festival style worshiping grounds has turned into a city called Godmoot.

            The third island is populated by Hobgoblins and Orcs. The hobgoblins have a harsh and cruel god that leads them to slaughter most in their path and make more hobgoblins. The orcs on the other hand worship a giant blue panther beast that was cast out of hell for killing other devils. They had a society based on solar alignment and giant stone ziggurats that reached towards the heavens. The ziggurats were made of obsidian. After many years of “peace” between the two tribes the hobgoblins wiped out over half the population of the orcs and made the rest into slaves. The dead orcs rose again as undead and are seeking ways to over throw the hobgoblins and reclaim their home.  

    

The three islands for the most part have ignored each other, not wanting to draw attention to their own politics and problems with outsiders. The hobgoblins from the third island have started invading the second islands and have set up a small base camp on the southern shore. Some first islanders have made their way into the second island but tend to return home with tales of wonder or horror depending on their experiences.

Our new adventure started on the Northern Island with the party being hired to help transport medical supplies from the town of Jarl to the trade city of Telas. Telas was suffering from an illness spreading within the forest of Briar’s Woods and other supplies had been stolen on the roads by goblin bandits. The party consisted of Longshot the half elf ranger, foe of goblins, Terror the tiefling dragon blooded sorcerer, Harvey the eladrin warlock, follower of the archfey, Nonne the bronze dragonborn noble paladin, ruler of a small kingdom of kobolds, Balziros the lizardfolk cleric of nature, he wandered away from his tribe and was raised by a priest of Telln, Gorg the triton paladin, faithful of Korten, 04 the human paladin, with a haunted past, Halanthis the Eladrin druid, Caber the centaur rogue, Willow the human fighter, and Madkris the dragonborn artificer. 

With the new team assembled and introduced they quickly started on their way to Telas. They were escorting three carts with dwarven drivers. The carts contained all of the medical supplies as well as any gear they might need on the road. The first day of travel was rather boring, not much other then great time out in the sun and walking passed large abandoned towers off the road. When they set camp, the watch noticed giggling in the distance, which was odd for a nighttime creature. Balziros used thaumaturgy, shouting “Who Goes There!” causing the giggling to flee into the night. In the morning they set out again, seeing tiny footprints quite a distance from their camp site.

They continued on the road and saw something very strange. There was a large boulder in the center of the road, no dirt displaced, no crater, no drag marks. Longshot approached to take a closer look and knew something was up and Noni walked right up to the “boulder” and gave it a quick shove. From inside they heard a scream as the paper covered wicker boulder not only slid, startling the five goblins with loaded crossbows inside, but also caused the fake boulder to start rolling down the road. The goblins were filthy and wearing crimson caps that looked wet with blood. Halanthis and Gorg suggested they might be peaceful but spells and attacks were had.

As they dealt with those five goblins, they noticed five more goblins on makeshift hang gliders descending on them from the sky. They also saw a very tall tree with a goblin stuck in the branches with a broken hang glider. One of the glider goblins seemed to be in charge, or at least moderately more intelligent than his brethren, he had broken aviator goggles and was able to dodge many of the party’s attacks. Gorg attempted to be nonviolent until one of the goblins attempted to attack her, causing her view to change. One of the drivers was hit by an errant spell, Halanthis was downed by a pair of goblins. It was a tense moment but Balziros was able to heal him up before it got dangerous. They cleaned up the last goblin, investigated the tree with the goblin stuck on it by snapping the rope connecting him to his glider by throwing a spear at it and watched the goblin plummet the thirty feet into the ground. They rolled every goblin body and found conveniently gold equal to the party members. They noticed each goblin did have the bloody caps and a strange jagged grim tattoo. They took some goblin ears and a couple of heads just in case. They fixed up the wagons, healed up the wounded driver, and set off towards town again. They discussed tracing the goblins back to their lair but figured it was a good idea to get the carts to town first and could always head back this way.

That night when they rested, they could faintly hear wolf howls. The next morning, they got within eyesight of Telas before the wolves caught up with them. Two wolves in fact, each with two goblins riding on their backs. Because they noticed the goblins while they had the advantage of range, they were able to thin the heard. The first wolf went down, each goblin succumbing to their wounds and magically created bonfires. The other wolf got close to the party, one goblin hanging off the side due to a bad ride check. Balziros cast animal friendship on the wolf and gained a buddy. The last goblin ran off, screaming for his boss to help. From a distant hill the party saw the glint of an arrow as it flew to its target, silencing the loud goblin instantly. They saw something ride off over the hill and lost sight of it. the nature cleric cast speak with animals to converse with their wolf friend and found out about the stone caves the goblins lived in, the other wolves, and the wolf was not good at judging distance. Comically it was okay at pantomiming a few other things. It told them about the dead dried out gross goblin meat he and his pack had been eating, the strange tall man in the tattered cloak that did not smell right, flashes of light. With confusing information, the party collected a few more ears, beheaded the dead wolf, collected the metal arrow from the dead goblin, and finished escorting the convoy of carts into town.

The cart drivers were familiar to the guards and let in without a question. The party on the other hand was an odd assortment. The gate guards consisted of a finely dressed gnome and two burly halforcs. The group told the gnome they were hired to escort the carts and the gnome conferred with the drivers and relented, giving the party fifty gold each. Nonne also attempted to give the gnome the wolf head and a goblin head. The gnome motioned for one of his half orc minions to take it and tried to get the party through the gate quicker. One of the guards saw the live wolf with the party and tried to tell them they could not bring it into the city, but Balziros was able to convince him it was a strong dog. They asked who to talk to for information in town and were told to head to the tavern and ask for Corsco Wightbane.

Now in the city they were directed to head to the local tavern for information and Corsco Wightbane, finding themselves in the threshold of the Rusty Bone. They watched as a drunk patron was tossed out into the trough outside and could see the dimly lit interior. A group of them entered, while a few others stood outside to people watch. Caber led the charge into the tavern and went up to the barkeep, ordering himself two ales and asking to see Corsco Wightbane. The Gnome bartender kept them coming and told the group he was detained for the moment and should be down in a few minutes. The group outside could see there were all kinds of people in town, from the standard dwarves and gnomes to an overabundance of tiefling and some bird people. A few of them noticed a green skinned red bearded dwarf yelling and his possible apprentice in the street. They also saw the drunk man that had been thrown out being lifted out of the water trough by a horse. Some light thievery happened. While both groups were waiting, they were entertained by an ogre piano player with only the highest and lowest key working on his instrument. No one commented on his playing for safety reasons. Harvey did use mage hand to show him hitting both keys with one hand and the ogre seemed pleased, again it was hard to tell.

Around twenty minutes later a red skinned, white haired, shirtless elf descended from upstairs and summoned a bottle of wine with magic. He sat at the bar and looked around seeing a pile of new faces. He greeted them and got a smattering of names back, Harvey’s acronym caused him to lose about thirty golds worth of wine in a spit take. They told him about the goblins, the red caps, the strange tattoos, and the metal arrow. Corsco showed them the arrow was unbreakable, a few of his men had been killed by such an arrow. He paid each of them additional gold for the goblins they had slain and gave them a little bit of lore about the creatures. He mentioned they probably had a keep out in the woods somewhere to the east, since the northern woods had the sickness that had been creeping into town. They agreed to look into the issue and were given rooms for the night at an inn across the street. Out first session ended there and the party made it to level 2.

Road to Auer is a homebrew campaign using the Fifth Edition Dungeons and Dragons rule set.