To the left Duran and Oloc stand ready – the former to shoot with his bow, the latter to cast his charm spell. Duran quietly pulls the arrow to its full length on the bow and awaits Varros' signal to fire. Oloc is pleasantly surprised that there are only two adversaries, but is convinced that more must be in the area. He tells Duran as much. Now that they are close enough to see the meat roasting over the fire, the young mage almost becomes sick. "Gods, let the girl be ok."
Meanwhile, to the right, Gaven whispers lowly to Varros, "I've never heard of goblins bathing in sunlight, something is very odd here..." Gaven thinks for a moment, "Neither goblin appears wounded, there must be more of them close by. That shank may be human, that does not bode well for the young couple. We may be in for a big battle if we cannot dispatch these two quickly and quietly. I think a lucky arrow shot and the charm spell may allow this, plus possibly gain us some intelligence if we can somehow converse with the fiend. Perhaps we should let Duran kill one and have Oloc try to charm the other so we can question it?"
Varros looks Stan and Gaven in the eye and says, "Let us ready ourselves in case Duran misses or something goes wrong with our plan, we may yet be able to subdue one of these dirty beasts." Varros fixes his gaze back upon the goblins, "At all costs we must not allow either of these creatures to sound a warning, good fortune to you both, companions."
Gaven signals to Oloc to cast his charm spell on one of the goblins. Oloc sees Gaven's gesturing and after a moment he nods in agreement. "Duran, if the rest of you can take care of the one, I can try my charm spell on the other. Then I can speak to it to try and find out what has come of the girl."
Duran indicates to Oloc that he will shoot at the goblin with the spear laying near by. Varros gives the signal and Duran lets loose.
Just as he does, the goblins seem to sense something is wrong. They tense, and start to rise. One of Duran's arrows zips through the air past the first goblin's ear. The second strikes the goblin in the torso, knocking him flat. At the same time Oloc casts a charm spell on the other goblin, whose eyes instantly glaze. His arms drop limp at his sides, then he slowly lowers himself back down to his previous sitting position next to the fire.
Varros, Gaven and Stan quickly charge toward the campfire, but the fight is over before they get there. A quick glance confirms that one goblin is dead and the other charmed. None of you sees any indication of other immediate threats.
There are, however, signs of a path beginning to form between the campfire area and the farmhouse from recent passing back and forth. You also notice that the farm house is actually two conjoined buildings, both ruined, consisting of a house proper at the north end, and what was once probably a barn-like structure at the south end.
OOC: Actions?
Combat Rolls:
Surprise Round
Duran: d20 = 2 + 2 (short range) = 4 (miss), 11 + 2 (short range) = 13 (hit); d6 = 2 (goblin killed)
Oloc: Charm Spell, in range, save d20 = 2 (fail, goblin charmed)
Combat Ends
One thing that will help the pace (assuming you interrogate the charmed goblin now) is to provide a list of all questions you'd like to ask him at this point, which I can then address in the next post. You will of course be able to ask follow-up questions if you have any, after I've had the goblin answer your initial questions.
ReplyDeleteOloc is pleased to see that his spell worked. Turning to Duran he says, "Let me go see if I can speak with this goblin."
ReplyDeleteThe mage musters his courage and steps out of the trees, waving at the charmed goblin. He walks calmly but directly, trying to hide his fears that perhaps the spell didn't work.
Oloc speaks in the goblin tongue. "I am sorry about your friend there. But you see," he adds, pointing to the leg over the fire and trying not to get sick, "That is also a friend of ours. My comrades were sworn to avenge his death with blood. But now the debt is paid."
He then smiles at the goblin. "My name is Oloc and I am your friend now. Will you speak to me and my comrades?"
ooc: Not sure if the gob is buying this or not! But if so, Oloc will wave over the rest of the party. Questions would be: Are there other gobs about - where and how many? Where is the girl? Is she unharmed? Where did they come from? Others?
He'll definitely buy it. I envision the charm spell as a being quite controlling. Basically as long as you don't command him to do anything fundamentally contrary to his core nature (like suicide -- or any act that he perceives would be suicidal), or to his core beliefs, he'll do or believe anything you tell him.
DeleteI should add that I will rule that asking the charmed individual to do things contrary to his nature will result in the chance of dispelling the charm (a new save). But it would pretty much be impossible for simple things like requests for information, commands to carry gear, etc. to ever fail, or to run any chance of breaking the charm.
DeleteDuran - Fighter
ReplyDeleteDuran nods to Oloc as he moves away. He pulls another arrow from his quiver and keeps an eye out for any other threats as well as a watch full eye on the charmed goblin.
When Oloc waves them over Duran tries to retrieve his fired arrows as well as searching the dead goblin for anything useful or informative. He will continue to keep a watch full eye out with his bow at the ready while the Goblin is questioned.
OOC: Let me know how many arrows I recover so I can update my inventory. My questions for the goblin: Why does the sun not affect you? Why did you attack the boy and girl?
You're able to recuperate one of the two arrows you shot.
DeleteGaven - cleric
ReplyDeleteGaven looks at the slain goblin and then at the charmed goblin and remarks, "that was easy."
Pointing to the bows and arrows, Gaven says to Varros and Stan, "either of you good with a bow?"
Gaven will keep the spear if it is in good enough condition to be used as a missile.
While waiting for Duran and Oloc to approach, Gaven will examine the shank to try to definitively determine if it is human. He will also examine the slain goblin for any markings of tribe or deity or any other identifying trinkets.
When Duran and Oloc are present, Gaven compliments them, "Nice work, you may have, temporarily, saved us from a larger battle. Let's see what information we can get from this villain."
OOC: Questions: How are they able to stay in the sunlight? Who is their master? Who is their deity? What is their mission? How many are in the farmhouse and clan and in the area (not necessarily just in the farmhouse, but on the roads or hills or forests nearby)? Is the boy and girl still alive? If so, what do they want with them? If not, where are their remains? Are there any tricks or traps in the area or in the farmhouse? Any tunnels to a lair? Secret doors to hidden treasure or evil idols or maps?
"that was easy."
DeleteLol--challenge accepted! :)
Doh!
DeleteVarros - Fighter
ReplyDeleteVarros moves to the group keeping his eye on the farmhouse, "Well done all," he says taking the bow, "Ollie, gather the rest of any salvageable gear." Taking up position next to Duran, Varros says, "Duran if I might have a few of your arrows?"
OOC: Varros will ready the bow and maintain watch on the farmhouse to the East. If he notices the charm spell weakening or the goblin flees Varros will attempt to kill him. I agree with all the questions.
Each of the goblins had 10 arrows (and a quiver) so you could simply take one quiver and fill it with the 20 arrows, if you wanted.
DeleteDone and added to inventory.
Delete