Session 2, 2007-07-21: Dangerous Roads and Goblins

Session 2: wherein Ike makes jerky out of Lotus' little friend, and an ambush doesn't go according to plan

Players (Characters)
Scott (Filthy Ike)
Jeremy (Flynn Flamm)
Tony (Brother Jakob)
Rachel (Lotus)
Tom (Nathaniel Graythorne)
DM: Catherine

After repeated unsuccessful attempts to wake Ike, the party decided to leave him behind, figuring the ranger would have no trouble tracking them. Arabella received a summons to join another party that needed her services more urgently, so she headed back toward the crossroads. Jakob led the way, with Nathaniel and Flynn just behind, and Lotus and Tara bringing up the rear. Soon, the party heard a very large creature approaching along the road. Lotus could see that it was a giant mounted on a triceratops, with two armored horsemen and a nobleman behind. All of their shields had a symbol of a mountain split in two. The party quickly looked for cover, hiding behind bushes along the road. As the giant approached, he noticed Flynn, and boomed out "who are you hiding in the trees like a bandit?" Flynn responded "I'm just a traveling minstrel, looking to meet Mary in Waecleft." The giant introduced himself as Jearn, the champion of Waecleft, and said he'd been out clearing the roads and that they were now safe. Flynn responded "we've encountered goblin bandits along this road. Perhaps they're smart enough not to attack you, but they are out there." Jearn thanked us and continued on his way.

Two hours later, Jakob noticed a pair of goblin scouts along the road. He ran up to "hug" them, leading them to try to run away. One tried to cast "hold person" on Jakob, but failed. Flynn began singing an inspirational song, and Jakob swung his huge fist just over the head of the spellcaster. Tara bit the caster and dragged him to the ground. Nate laughed at the goblins as one of them continued to flee. The caster tried to stand to flee, taking hits from Jakob and Tara. Jakob tried to pick him up and throw him, but his hands slipped. Tara again dragged the caster to the ground, and again mauled him as he stood up, killing him. Jakob said "good kitty, pet the kitty" as he accidentally knocked Tara over. He then chased down and killed the fleeing goblin.

Further on, the party found the remains of a wagon. Jakob picked it up to look underneath it and found an amulet with the same cleft mountain symbol as Jearn's shield had. Lotus cast Speak with Animals to ask the birds and squirrels what they'd witnessed. Most of them just wanted some food, but one said some bad guys had gone up the road. Lotus thanked the squirrels and asked Jakob not to pet them. A short distance later, Lotus started talking about a strange blue dragon and rider with yellow robes, and wondered why the rest of the party was so confused. "It just flew overhead and we were all talking about it. What happened?" Jakob climbed a tree and looked out to the west, and then described the dragon, and its jackal-headed, black-skinned rider. When Jakob reached the bottom of the tree again, he'd forgotten what he saw. The dragon likely had a "modify memory" spell of some sort active on it.

Soon, Ike caught up to the party. He said he'd followed the tracks from the wagon, and that it had been wrecked for several days by now. He offered the party squirrel kebobs, which angered and disgusted Lotus. The party rested for the night without incident.

In the morning, the party came upon a goblin who was attacking a woman. Nate created lion sounds to try to scare the goblin. Jakob ran up next to it, and Tara positioned herself between the goblin and the woman. Ike shot the goblin, who took off running and took a nasty swipe from Jakob in the process. Nathaniel, in his "Nate the Great" persona, told the woman "don't worry, I'll save you" as Ike's arrow finished off the goblin. Jakob went to pick up the corpse while Nate talked to the vaguely snake-like woman. She introduced herself as Anna, and said she'd been traveling. Nate, sensing deception, charmed her. She introduced herself as Selenshe, in charge of intelligence for the goblin camp, and told the party to check in with the leaders. Suddenly she realized the party's hostility toward goblins (and, by extension, toward her), and ran. Ike fired a pair of arrows. Selenshe cast Darkness and hid somewhere inside it. Jakob ran through but didn't run into her, so Lotus dispelled the darkness. Tara jumped on Selenshe and dragged her to the ground, and Flynn began singing inspiring songs. Nate caused Selenshe to fall to the ground laughing hideously, and Jakob crushed her and took the cloak from her dead body.

The party suspected an ambush was waiting around the corner. Lotus turned into eagle form and flew up above, noticing seven goblins already in position on a pair of hills, and four bigger hobgoblins approaching from the north. Lotus landed and the party began their own ambush. She began summoning a bear to the south, and Nate created a second illusory bear to the north. Jakob, Ike, and Flynn moved onto the south hill behind the waiting goblins. Jakob attacked and killed one, and Ike shot another, wounding it grievously. Flynn used glitterdust to blind several goblins across the road. Nate made his bear roar loudly. One of the goblins turned to flee while two others shot at Nate's illusory bear, leading one to figure out the illusion. The fourth fired a shot that narrowly missed Jakob. The two remaining on the south hill tried to get some distance, but Jakob killed one and made the other lose the spell he was trying to cast, and Lotus' bear finished off the south hill.

Tara and Jakob crossed over to the northern hill and Lotus dropped a flaming sphere on one of the goblins. Ike shot and killed one and injured another. Flynn turned himself invisible, and Nathaniel made himself look like a hobgoblin and began climbing uphill. The three remaining goblins tried to flee, and Jakob dropped two of them easily. Jakob, Lotus, Tara, and the summoned bear climbed the hill to intercept the inbound hobgoblins, who came charging down at Jakob. Jakob tossed the largest one aside, while two others hit him and one hit the bear. Flynn cast Rage on Jakob, who used a Stone Bones strike on one, while Ike fired more arrows into the enemies. Nathaniel laid some grease beneath two hobgoblins, and Lotus' flaming sphere lit the grease on fire. Tara and the bear dragged one hobgoblin to the ground. Two hobgoblins again attacked Jakob, but one missed and one failed to penetrate his damage reduction. The biggest hobgoblin swung and missed, and Jakob's counterstrike clobbered him solidly. Jakob pummelled him to death while Tara kept another on the ground. Ike fired an arrow into the hillside and then took out the last goblin with another shot. Lotus' fire and lightning and Tara's attack finished off two hobgoblins, and the final one fled, but Jakob chased him down and killed him.

Nathaniel disguised himself to look like the hobgoblin leader and approached the camp. Two goblins stood around a fire, so Nate used a hypnotic pattern on them. Jakob threw one in the fire while Tara dragged the other to the ground. Lotus' lightning and Jakob's fists finished them off, and Ike exclaimed "we'll have goblin for dinner!" Nate watched in fascination as Ike cooked up some goblin stew. Jakob smashed open the locked chests around the camp and found a note from Tindell to Waecleft requesting Jearn's aid in killing off some dinosaurs. Ike kept asking "don't you guys eat? Are you sure you don't want any?" as the party tried to ignore the smell of cooked goblin. On the way out, the party set fire to the remnants of the camp.

The remaining two days of travel were mostly uneventful. The party approached the city of Waecleft, at the center of a split mountain. Nathaniel led the way to Mary's outpost just outside of town, and described the dragon, the goblins, and the found message.