6/9/1150 – Equipped with their horses and wagon, travel is indeed swift down the southern road. Soon they have left the environs of Wohlen and entered the forest once again. Now on the main road, they can see that it is well overgrown and not traveled at all. Young Trees are even growing between the cobbles here and there because of the lack of maintenance.
Near the end of the day, deep in the forest they encounter a group of minotaurs again. This time there is a priest with them who has created four undead minotaurs as well. Both parties ready actions and advance slowly until the minotaurs are close enough to charge and attack. Meanwhile Torchon, Jak, and Lydya kill one with ranged attacks. The priest makes his presence known when he casts a banishment spell and succeeds in sending Sven to another plane of existence. Priorities change immediately to killing the priest. Lughausen uses his divine power to turn the minotaur skeletons. The priest falls a moment later and Sven returns, but the minotaurs have ganged up on Lughausen and he is knocked unconscious. They are swiftly dealt with, and the party leaves the fleeing skeletons to their doom in the woods.
There is still time before sunset, so they move on after a short rest and recovery. As they move through the forest road, the horses suddenly get restless after traveling for the last hour or so of daylight. Then the sharp-eyed ones in the party notice stealthy movement. It is a group of hobgoblins, some of which are riding worgs. They had detected the party, and almost were able to sneak up on their position. The hobgoblins all have three blue diagonal blue stripes of warpaint on their face. As they charge, Sven, who can understand goblin, hears them calling out the glory of Lord Graat and Nomog-Geaya. He insults them, and they in turn yell threats about taking him as a slave and putting him in a pit. He rages, and the battle is engaged. The devastating arrows and weapons of the party make short work of the hobgoblins. They strip them of their equipment, find nothing else of value, then decide to camp.
6/10/1150 – Overnight, a cold front moves in which bring cold winds and snow flurries that carry on through the day. They wake up chilled and warm themselves and their mounts as best as they can and move on. Several hours later, they come across tree stumps that have clearly been cut. Torchon figures in recent years. Not long after that they hear the sounds of saws and axes and even spot a campfire ahead. They stop while Torchon and Lydya scout ahead stealthily.
The two spot a work-camp. Emaciated humans are cutting down trees and preparing the lumber for transport with mules while another group of hobgoblins, identical to the patrol they just killed the day before, watching over them. The conclusion is obvious. These are slaves. Torchon stays to watch while Lydya goes back to inform the party. There is much discussion about attacking them versus following them to their camp. Sven wants to go in first and speak with them in goblin. This is their ultimate plan, and they leave the horses and wagon behind to go on foot after getting a bit closer.
The hobgoblins are watchful and call out to their companions as Sven approaches. The conversation again is full of threats and promises of killing and slavery. Torchon fires from cover and kills a hobgoblin instantly and battle begins. The lumberjacks panic for the most part, scrambling around with different reactions. Two of them, later revealed to be brothers, grab clubs to join in the fight. One of those is wounded with a glancing blow, while the other is saved by Jak’s eldritch blasts before he can be killed by the hobgoblin threatening him. The hobgoblins focus their fire on Sven and severely wound him, but they are taken down by attrition. Two of the lumberjacks manage to grab Baptiste by the arms screaming. One goes on about how they are going to get the woman and children killed with these actions against the hobgoblins, while the other is screaming about how the party is going to get them killed. Lughausen calms their emotions, which is quite a help because they were hindering Baptiste’s ability. The last lumberjack flees into the forest towards the end of the fight and Sven is forced to run him down and bring him back before he can make things worse by alerting others.
With the hobgoblins all slain, they can sit down and talk. One of the lumberjacks had been calm during the fight and this turns out to be the foreman, Justin. He is questioned, and it is revealed that they are from the town of Wald (that appears on the party’s map). Apparently, the town has been conquered and occupied by legions of hobgoblins that appears some eighteen years ago. The entire town is held hostage. A more immediate concern, however, is that the lumberjacks are expected back at a sawmill in a matter of hours. The owner of the mill, Tecum, is there with more slaves, but more hobgoblins, and these are expected to report back to the town in a matter of a day or two.
Justin and the others are afraid of retaliation by the hobgoblins. Especially if another patrol were to find the hobgoblin bodies. They must be dealt with. The party agrees that their first priority is to deal with the sawmill. They retrieve the horses and do what they can with the bodies. Justin tells them of the mill, how it is situated on a creek, that there are some six civilians there and about 17 hobgoblins. The party comes up with a plan:
Sven will use the hat of disguise to appears as a hobgoblin since he can speak their language. Brimstone Jak will do the same. They will have Lughausen and Baptiste “tied” up with a rope and will pretend that they are new captives. Torchon and Lydya will hide in the woods with their bows. They want to take out any hobgoblins that are outside first while they are distracted and then move inside.
As they approach the mill, they see that only two hobgoblins have been forced to watch outside in the cold. The mill is closed up tight, all doors and windows closed and shuttered because of the weather. They are indeed confused and hesitant as they approach, allowing Torchon and Lydya time to shoot them dead quickly. However, there was a sharp-eared hobgoblin inside who heard something and issues a warning. Sven is able to get to the door and get inside before the hobgoblins understand what is happening. He yells to them about snipers in the woods and pretends to be on their side. He gets deep into the room, while Jak also runs in. However, there is a super-smart and lucky hobgoblin there who smells something fishy about Sven. Maybe he doesn’t recognize him, or maybe he is suspicious of the non-standard weapon that he is bearing, but he tries to take a swing at him. The hobgoblin is however, in the doorway and Torchon takes him down instantly. This gives credence to their story and allows Lughausen and Baptiste to get inside too.
However, everyone is on alert now. Orders are being shouted from the upstairs room. A door connecting the small room they have entered with the main mill area opens to reveal more hobgoblins. The civilians who had been their working are yelling and cowering against the wall while the hobgoblins immediately begin firing their bows on any enemy they can see. Sven charges out, still disguised, but he has killed a goblin in plain view. There are more here than he expects, and they have bows. They start peppering him with arrows and he is forced to retreat. Then from the office upstairs, comes a spellcaster hobgoblin and he casts a fireball into the room where the party is, partially setting it on fire and severely damaging everyone. Sven is finally knocked unconscious and Lughausen must heal him.
Meanwhile, Torchon has reached the building and climbed up to a window. Jumping in, he lands on the balcony that circles the main working area. The hobgoblins respond by switching their targets to him, and rain arrows upon him. He manages to take out the spellcaster, and then drops beneath the balcony to try and escape more harm. There is, however, a second spellcaster how hits him with scorching ray and then a flurry of magic missiles. This last caster is able to cast another fireball but it isn’t enough to kill the party. Before he too is slain by Brimstone Jak’s magic eldritch blast. The tide turns as more and more hobgoblins are taken down. The captain is near the end of the battle as he had been staying in the office doorway shouting orders and rallying the men. He severely wounds Lydya, but Sven is able to take him down. The last hobgoblin falls and everyone, including the civilians works to put out the fires. There have been no casualties, though it was a very tough fight.
Catching their breath, the civilians move about the sawmill tending to their own. They throw nervous glances towards the party. Finally, an older bearded man approaches as the party tends to their wounds. He introduces himself as Tecum Sundane. This mill used to be his before the hobgoblin occupation. He is rueful and shaking his head over the situation they now find themselves in. The hobgoblins are dead. There will be retribution if the goblins find out, and they surely will. He is not as gung-ho as Justin was (who is sent for at this point with the rest of the lumberjacks), but cautious and level-headed. The party admits that they have stumbled into this mess and put the town of Wald and the people there in danger. He tells them briefly what he knows about the Hobgoblins.
About 18 years ago, to the east, northeast of the town, about 2 miles, there was a sudden blinding flash and a horrendous earthquake in the late evening. The next morning, the townspeople see that there was now a hill where there was none before. It appears to have completely crushed the Johannson farmstead. The hobgoblins came from that hill in legions. They easily crushed the town militia and conquered the town. Since then, they have been enslaved, working for the hobgoblins in providing food, labor, and so on.
He also tells them a little about the town. When the cataclysm hit, the town was mostly destroyed by fire. Tales are told of three wizards that came and burned all they saw. Only by fleeing and hiding did the townspeople survive. Many didn't. Eventually the wizards killed each other. The town's population was devastated. But being hardy folk, and having ready access to wood, since this is a lumbering town on the edge of the forest, they rebuilt the town. The entire town is wooden, with a few stone foundations. There are only a handful of ruins left to mark the conflagration which occurred. As they were building, they were beset upon by strange beasts that they had never seen before. Necessity had the council of elders form a steady militia to defend the town. They awaited aid from the government, but that never came. They couldn't afford to really send anyone to go for help. So they huddled in, built palisades, and kept their heads down and prayed.
At this point, Lughausen wants to take the party aside for a private discussion. Tecum does the same with his people. They can be heard arguing about the situation they are now in. How their loved ones are all about to die. Or they are about to die when the hobgoblins come.
Meanwhile, a suddenly frank conversation takes place with the party. Lughausen has a decidedly bleak point of view. What’s the point in trying to save the town when they are likely to be overrun by all the nasty creatures that are in the woods. Removing the hobgoblins from the town will leave them unprotected from these creatures. The whole town is most likely going to be completely destroyed in a couple years after all this regardless of what the party does. What is more interesting is the fortress that appeared out of nowhere. That speaks about the mysteries that the party wants to explore to begin with. Besides, attacking the fortress first and worrying about the town later is the better tactical decision. Strike at the heart. Brimstone Jak is easily swayed to this position. He also suggests that maybe is would be best to just burn it all down. The town will end up being refugees anyway and will have to flee back to the Confederation. And likely along the way many will just die of starvation and privation. Torchon too isn’t sure what is the best course of action.
It is Lydya and Sven who argue that the people must be saved. Baptiste too, of course, is dead set on saving the people and not bring them harm. They must go to the town first. There is much argument. They also consider sending back to the Confederation and Sir Guyson for help. The Confederation Army is what is needed here. They just wonder if there is time before all hell breaks loose in the town when the hobgoblins find out what has happened here. Wohlen is indeed only two days away. Lughausen suggests he use a sending spell to send for help.
They re-convene with Tecum. The lumberjacks too have come to some sort of decision. Tecum is more level-headed, but it appears he has been convinced to offer as much help as they can. He tells them, when asked, that they are supposed to return to the town in the morning, with the goblin escort, and the big pile of wood that is against the wall. That timetable suggests that the party is mostly on their own. Tecum also hands over a map of the town. One of the lumberjacks is an artist, and he made it for them. Tecum tells them a bit more.
The hobgoblins are led by Warlord Graat. He does not allow any kind of organization. No Mayor, council nothing. He feels threatened if they have a leader. However, of course they have a council of elders in secret. The map points where the council meets, and one Elmerdine Hunt, a tailor, is the strongest voice and ally on the council.
The hobgoblins do not allow the humans temples. They have destroyed those. But in secret, they worship Duath and Ithun. The hobgoblins have built a temple of Nomog-Geaya in the town and make the townspeople worship there. They have had their fill of preaching about duty, discipline, and unity.
Tecum can offer very little more information than this. Perhaps the council would be able to do more if they are able to get inside and contact them.
More discussion follows. The party knows now that they have to do something tomorrow. Sven, Lydya, and Baptiste do ultimately convince Lughausen and Jak that they must go to the town first. Their plan is this. They will rest, and Torchon who needs less than the rest of the party will then head out in the night to the town and attempt to sneak in over the wall. He will go to Elmerdine’s house and make contact and learn what he can. Meanwhile, the party will travel to within a half hour of the city and wait for him to join them. Then, they will go from there. Probably assaulting the front northern gates.
Decision made, they rest. They find that the captain of the hobgoblins had a strongbox filled with coins in the office and take that. They will level to 8th in the morning, being more capable for this task.
6/11/1150 – In the middle of the night it snows a bit, but that is no problem for the fleet of foot ranger, Torchon. He easily leaves no trace as he travels the four hours to the town. He sees it and circles around to the west wall. There are hobgoblins all over the walls, which are bristled with spike emplacements. He is successful in observing their patterns and stealthily getting to and over the wall without being noticed. He avoids a patrol in the streets, which surprisingly has some humans in it as well. Reaching the house, he discovers it is locked. He must climb up to the second floor and enter a window. In a storeroom, he quietly finds the bedroom and wakes Elmerdine with a hand over her mouth. He shows her a paper that Tecum has written and calms her down. They talk.
Elmerdine is shocked that this is happening and is unsure of the party’s success. But, it really is a done deal at this point. The attack is going to happen. She insists that they must convene the council to talk this over. Torchon agrees to wait for that, knowing that the timing will still work out. They have breakfast and she gets to know him better, hearing some stories. Torchon doesn’t hold back on the party’s history. She goes out after sunrise and returns mid-morning with the rest of the council. The plan is laid out. Torchon learns a bit more.
Apparently the sharp eyed in the town have noticed that the hobgoblin numbers have steadily been dwindling. They haven’t seen that many young recruits. All of the hobgoblins are aging. They suspect that they haven’t many women in the fortress to replenish their numbers. They also put the numbers in the town at a hundred or so. Half at each gate, others in various patrols, guards of workgangs and so on. They think about various ways of sneaking the party in but realize that hobgoblins are always present on any outing and the likelihood of a mistake being made in stealth is very high. They settle in a simple plan: the townspeople will cause a diversion at a set time to occupy the guards at the south gate while the party attacks the north gate. They help Torchon get back to the wall, but now he must go over and out across the wheat fields in winter. He succeeds since the guards seem a bit complacent.
Meanwhile, in the morning before leaving the sawmill, Lughausen uses the sending spell to Sir Guyson. He sends this: “Lughausen of Wohlen - Wald overrun by hobgoblins. Will attack in hours. Hundreds present. Tower northeast of town, next target. Seeking martial support immediately. Save slaves.”
Sir Guyson replies thus, “People in Wald? Will organize here. Will take time. Will have to deal with bureaucracy. Will send patrol for proof. Need proof to convince.”
This reinforces the idea that they will not get help in time. Bureaucracy in action. They set out to get to the town and wait for Torchon.
Together with the party again, they talk some more about their plan. Lughausen suggests that he animate some hobgoblin bodies to pretend to be a patrol returning. However, the bodies are still at the sawmill. They settle on the plan they used at that sawmill. Jak and Sven will use disguise magic to appears as hobgoblins while the rest pretend to be prisoners.
They get to it. They use a rope to pretend to tie up the rest of the party, and Sven takes the lead with Jak in the rear. It works to an extent that the hobgoblins let them get all the way up to the gates before questioning them. The guard in front says he doesn’t recognize Sven and asks who he is. Sven tries to deceive them by saying his superior is the captain from the mill (using his name) and that they are in trouble. They were sent with these prisoners and the captain needs help. The guard notices that Baptiste is still in armor and has his weapons. “Why have these prisoners not been stripped naked?” Sven tries to assure them that they are tied up and tugs on the rope. It slips from Lughausen’s hands and the jig is up.
The party immediately focuses their fire with bows on the hobgoblins at the gates to prevent them from closing them. Sven charges forward through the gates with Baptiste right behind them to get to the other side to also prevent this. The hobgoblins on the walls start using their bows but are taken down one by one by Torchon and Lydya. Sven and Baptiste hold a line at the mouth of the gate tunnel. They see the hobgoblins running to defend the town. There is captain their shouting orders and calling for reinforcements. He manages to alert the worg pens and shortly after the worgs have been set loose and come running with more hobgoblins. However, when they arrive the first contingent of hobgoblins have been almost all dealt with by the party. Brimstone Jak has acquired a new power to throw great balls of fire and he ends up using it three times in the battle, wreaking devastation and slaying many worgs and hobgoblins at once.
However, more reinforcements come in a third wave from the west barracks and officer’s quarters and at this point the battle starts turning against the party. These last hobgoblins have to use their bows because the eager worgs have gotten their first and are blocking them. Despite this, their arrows land. But the worst are a group of more power hobgoblins that come at the party with no armor but moving fast. Some climb the wall to reach Torchon and Lydya who have taken post up there. Unfortunately, even before that, the hobgoblins with bows have riddled her with arrows and she falls unconscious. The unarmored hobgoblins are throwing darts at a great rate, doing lots of damage. They are too much for the party. Brimstone Jak is taken down after he makes himself a target with his last fireball spell, and then Baptiste. Torchon managed to retrieve Lydya’s body from the wall and bring it down to the tunnel where Lughausen had been keeping mostly safe from the combat.
Then, Baptiste, Lydya, Jak, and Torchon are all knocked unconscious. Sven is almost there as well and it looks bad for the party. Then Lughausen casts a mass healing word which brings everyone but Torchon up, who is outside the wall and out of sight. Then, he is able to cast calm emotions and get most of the hobgoblins to suddenly become indifferent to the party. He tells the party not to attack the hobgoblins because that would break the spell. They must retreat.
Lughausen drags Baptiste’s body, Lydya get’s Fluffy’s body who had taken a stand over his mistress’s unconscious form but suffered a near fatal blow from the monk-like unarmored hobgoblins that did so much devastation with their four unarmed or dart attacks each. Jak is well enough to get out on his own. Sven takes Baptiste’s body from Lughausen, allowing him to reach Torchon and wake him with a cure spell. There is one of the unarmored hobgoblins outside that must be dealt with and Lughausen is able to save himself after nearly dying in one round by using sanctuary. Fortunately that hobgoblin was unable to attack Lughausen again. Torchon kills that last hobgoblin out of sight of the calmed hobgoblins which allows the party to barely escape, all nearly dead.
At first, as they run, they talk about resting and then returning as soon as possible to finish off the hobgoblins while they are still wounded and off-guard. They seem decided upon this course of action until it comes time to take a short rest and assess their resources. Lughausen is severely tapped of his divine magic, and Brimstone Jak isn’t too far behind him. Still, Jak is gung-ho to return immediately as is most of the party. Baptiste and Lughausen aren’t so sure. In fact, Lughausen puts his foot down and says they must go without him if they return now. Cooler heads prevail, and they come up with a new plan. Now, they will circle around the city to the point that Torchon had climbed the night before and take advantage of the chaos to sneak inside. There, they will return to Elmerdine Hunt’s house and hide there to take a long rest. They worry about hobgoblin reprisals against the citizens of the town. If the hobgoblins look like they will start wholesale slaughter, action must be taken.
They succeed in sneaking back into the city, exactly as planned, though Lughausen is exceptionally loud climbing the wall. Fortunately, the guards are too spread thin and looking in the wrong places. They manage to sneak to the tailor shop by Torchon’s memory. They see some patrols and little to no citizens. They avoid those easily. They are unable to defeat the lock on Ms. Hunt’s shop and must break in the second-floor window like he did the night before. Once inside, they go to the secret room in the basement and collapse. After some discussion, they realize they must know what is going on outside. First, Jak goes out using his disguise self invocation to look like a nondescript peasant. He figures to talk his way out of trouble if it comes his way. He works his way by memory of the map they had been given at the sawmill to head towards the town market place in the center. There, he witnesses that hobgoblins are starting to gather and detain the commoners there with guards keeping an eye for escapees. He realizes that his disguise is no good. If he gets caught he will be corralled like the others. So he quickly makes his way back.
Next, Lydya goes out by stealth to keep watch. At the square, she sees the same thing as Jak. The hobgoblins are bringing in more and more people, and are starting to interrogate them. With her magical earrings, she is able to understand their talk. She hears them mention “Booyahg Booyahg Booyahg Klaarg” and Booyahg Booyahg Booyahg Humla”. She learns that they aren’t happy and are trying to find out what happened. Rumors amongst the guards are already exaggerating the attack. She also learns that forces from the south gate have been sent north. She sees this herself as well. As the four hours pass, a period of time that will allow Torchon to trance and then take over, she sees more and more people brought in. She returns to rest and Torchon comes out for the final shift.
He is able to recognize a few of the Elders, including Ms. Hunt, in the crowd. He also sees some forms that are wounded and possibly killed by the interrogations. He witnesses the hobgoblins asking their questions, but it doesn’t look like they are learning much. Fortunately, it doesn’t look like they are slaughtering the town like they feared. Some of the guards clearly wanted to, but others remind them that the slaves provide their livelihood. Finally, it looks like the guards are finally escorting groups out as new groups are being brought in. They don’t want the entire town’s populace in one place. He recognizes that one group has Ms. Hunt, and they are heading back to her house. He discretely and stealthily follows, entering her house by the second floor again and catching her in the hallway moments after she enters.
Surprised, he fills her in on what happened and where the party is – her basement. They had, meanwhile heard the commotion of her coming home, but remain still and quiet. She doesn’t have much information for them. They think they were successful in making their distraction, a fire in the southern training yards, look like an accident. But the timing is suspicious, so the guards will never fully buy it. Time is not on their side. She is grateful that she herself did not get interrogated. She doesn’t think she would be able to hold out for long.
6/12/1150 – In the wee hours of the morning before sunrise, the party finishes resting and is ready to move. It is a very cold but clear morning. Their new plan is to once again pose as two hobgoblins with slaves and brazenly walk down the street and this time go to the grand temple of Nomog-Geaya at the northern side. There, they hope to take out the occupants quickly and use the doors as a choke point to limit how many of the enemy forces can fight them at a time. Hoping for a back door to then escape before things turn against them. Ms. Hunt doesn’t think there is one, but she doesn’t know for sure. They decide to use the front door. They take clothes from the tailor shop to assist in their disguises and head out.
They are able to fool the now-alert patrols in thinking they belong, and they are successful in entering the temple quickly through the front door. Inside, they see that the temple is immense. Inside are two robed hobgoblins conversing by the altar. The party continues with their story and successfully bluff the priest as they walk up. They tell them that these peasants know something and were ordered to take them here. One priest goes to retrieve Booyahg Booyahg Booyahg Humla from the back. When he returns a few moments later, the party is just steps away from them. The leader is much more skeptical about this irregularity and questions them, then the pretense is dropped and combat begins.
The slow-reacting hobgoblins are unable to prevent the party from focusing their fire and quickly killing the high priest before he can take any action. However, there are four other sub-priests and these priests manage to cast three fireballs and a lightning bolt on the party, taking down Baptiste and Jak, and almost Lughausen. He would have been killed, but he prepared for this eventuality and had put a death ward upon him that kept him from dying. Sven, Lydya, and Torchon manage to take down the other three, but during the course of the fight Sven falls. Torchon had been falling back while firing his arrows, with the intention of going back to the front doors to barricade them to continue with the original plan. But they hadn’t counted on the size of the temple and the myriad powerful area of effect magics cast upon them. The explosions had indeed caught the intention of the hobgoblins outside.
However, Torchon was just able to get to the doors and heave a large pew in front of it, and then another after the hobgoblins were unable to open the doors easily. As they ran to the front of the temple, the did what healing they could with spells and potions. Lughausen was the last to move out having taken the time to jam two candelabras into the door handles of two of the three doors in the back of the temple.
They are successful in holding the door long enough for everyone to finally regroup. Torchon starts killing hobgoblins by firing his bow through the narrow crack that had been slowly opening. The hobgoblin captain orders them to fall back and sends the large worgs to force the door. This they do, pushing the blockade into the party, but they avoid getting tangled up. Baptiste, Lydya, and Sven hold the line. Jak uses a hypnotic pattern to mesmerize a number of the hobgoblins, further keeping the party from being overwhelmed.
Then, however, the strange unarmored hobgoblins appear in the first wave and then more in the second wave. They also show a new ability, apparently teleporting to and from shadowed areas instantly, getting past the party’s line. Fortunately, Torchon is able to kill them quickly one-by-one with his bow. While this is happening, however, there is a sudden boom of another fireball blasting the party’s line. Where it comes from is completely unknown. Lughausen and the party struggle to keep up with this damage. Then magic missiles fly out from an unknown origin and blast into Lughausen, yet he does not go down. They know there is a spellcaster somewhere but have no idea where he could be. He also manages to counterspell a faerie fire from Jak. They battle on, taking out the fearsome monk-like hobgoblins one by one.
Then the spellcaster, who has to be invisible, is inside the temple and casts a cone of cold, nearly destroying the front line. He also casts more magic missiles and takes out Jak. Torchon, however, is able to heal him long enough for Jak to try a faerie fire again. This time he succeeds, and it reveals the glowing form of this invisible caster. It is enough for Sven, who is nearly dead, to rush up and hit him with his axe. And for Torchon to fire an arrow and miss with another. The caster, however, holds on to his concentration and remains invisible. After that, the regular hobgoblins and the remaining captain are able to enter the temple. Arrows take out Lydya and Baptiste fell to the cold.
The caster once again casts a high level magic missile and takes out both Sven and Jak, removing the faerie fire so that Torchon can no longer shoot him. It is only Torchon and Lughausen now. Lughausen faces the rushing hobgoblins and just heals himself to stay alive while Torchon does the only thing he can and kill them as fast as possible. He manages to take out the captain with two shots, which ends the leadership that made them so effective at fighting. The caster then starts focusing his fire on Torchon who becomes severely wounded. But suddenly, the regular hobgoblins have all been killed and Lughausen is able to finally begin healing the party and get them up one by one.
The caster then makes his escape through the front door, and once outside his invisibility finally expires. He tries to make a break to the south down the road, but now the rest of the party is conscious, and Sven chases him down and kills him with a javelin thrown into his back. They have survived, but just once again.
After the end of the battle, the sharp-eared ones in the party hear a distinct thump come from the back of the temple. Baptiste and Brimstone Jak stay at the front door to keep watch while the others investigate. They choose the central doors behind the altar and find a large antechamber with a fountain and many other doors. Behind one of those they find something interesting. A small room with a chest, a pile of equipment on the floor next to it, a pew, and a chair with a strange creature tied and gagged to it. The creature looks like a mix of dragon and humanoid with bronze scales. At first, Sven is the only one in the room and he still has his hobgoblin illusion disguise from his hat up. He speaks to it in goblin then leaves telling them that he found a dragon. Astounded, Lughausen, after some discussion goes in and ungags it. They learn that this creature is a female dragonborn named Illadara. She lost her whole adventuring party while exploring some ruins and was magically teleported somewhere where she was recently captured by these hobgoblins and brought here blindfolded and gagged. She tells them that she is from Arkhosia.
Lughausen searches his memory about that name and remembers that dragons came, were invited actually, here. He tries to remember by whom and Illadara pipes up with “Emissary Eldrin Dragonfriend.” That triggers Lughausen’s memory again and he recognizes that Eldrin was a hero who served Duke Ulrich long before the cataclysm. He is associated with the dragons that came and then conquered the Alliance of Peace. Maybe even triggering the Cataclysm itself! He also remembers that they came at the request of the heroes for help against the fiends that came before them.
Torchon is immediately hostile toward Illadara. Dragons could have caused all of this trouble! It is Lughausen who talks him down preaching tolerance. Crimes of the ancestors should not be punished on their descendants. After much discussion and convincing, weapons are lowered. It is agreed that she should travel with the party for now. Lughausen notices that Lydya doesn’t participate in the discussion much and looks particularly disturbed by the presence of this dragonborn.
They discuss whether they should stay here in the temple and rest or retreat back to the safe house. Sven carries out their plan of beheading the priests and putting their heads on pikes outside of the temple. They also recover a chest full of loot and remember to admonish Lydya to put the items she took from the high priest into the chest as well.
They decide that returning to the safe house is the better move considering their condition, and the sneak back. It is not a moment too soon as they hear many booted feet coming up the street from the south. As they get away they see a detachment of at least 20 more hobgoblins approaching. They have to avoid yet another patrol as well before they get back. However, when they get inside they notice that Lydya is missing. Did she sneak away? Or did she get captured.
Thinking on it, They don’t believe that she would leave without her dog. Brimstone Jak points out that her dog, all the horses, and the wagon full of loot is left unguarded outside of the city. Torchon immediately sneaks out to get their first. With his improved ability, size, and movement, he is certain to get there first and hides. She arrives at the wagon, sure enough, minutes after. She goes for the wagon first and he calls out to her not to move. They talk, and she tells him that she is done with all of this. She refuses to be around the dragonborn and doesn’t like all these near-death experiences. She wants her fair share of the treasure and to leave. Torchon tells her to take her share and go. Perhaps they will meet again one day. After she is gone with her horse and dog, he checks the wagon and finds that far more of her share has disappeared with her quick fingers. It is daylight now, so he cannot return to the city, so he sleeps here.
6/13/1150 – In the morning, a cold and potentially snowy one, they realize that Torchon did not return. They give him more time, which they use to detect magic on the items from the chest. Many are magical, and Lughausen identifies three of them: a pearl of power, a brooch of shielding, and gauntlets of ogre power. He takes the pearl, while the gauntlets go unused. Baptiste’s strength has improved to the point where they are no help.
Torchon makes his way back, even in broad daylight like he did before. He comes down with Elmerdine. They learn that the patrols continue but the hobgoblins are on high alert. The citizens are not allowed out of their homes and groups of them are still held as hostage in the center of town. House to house searches continue. Torchon stealths outside to reconnoiter. He sees that patrols, perhaps two, are making a round through the town perhaps every 10 minutes. The town center isn’t the command center. He goes south a bit to find the headquarters for the south gate. He spots another powerful spellcaster there briefly outside before he goes in. Torchon returns with the news.
They decide to attack the command center. They plan to sneak up as close as they can, and then make a mad dash to get inside as quickly as possible. The confined quarters should help neutralize the effectiveness of the caster’s invisibility. They launch the plan, getting almost all the way up to the building. Torchon takes to the rooftop to be a sniper while Sven first uses his hobgoblin illusion to stroll inside. The hobgoblins are suspicious however, and Torchon and Brimstone Jak start with the killing. Baptiste also makes it inside the building quickly, before the worgs are unleashed and the hobgoblins make an effective defense. Illadara shows her worth by launching fireball spells that kill the majority of the worgs. She does this while remaining invisible, and effective strategy that served the enemy Booghya goblins.
Before the worgs are slain, they prove troublesome to Lughausen and he is nearly bitten to death. His heals save him as does the spirit guardians spell that kills the worgs that aren’t burned by the fireball. Meanwhile, inside the command center (a former inn), Baptiste is an immediate target for some 10 hobgoblins. They stand up and use their bows to try and kill him, but his armor is too effective. Sven successfully uses his disguise to get past the archers and almost to the stairs to the second floor, when those that are upstairs come down, alerted by the battle.
Down the stairs comes more of the hobgoblin iron shadows that fight unarmed as well as a captain shouting orders. Of the caster, he is not seen yet and that worries the party. Outside, The numbers of the hobgoblins are slowly dwindling through the efforts of Torchon, Lughausen, and Illadara. Jak spends a short time here, then goes inside to help. There, he can use a fireball himself to kill 5 hobgoblin archers instantly. They target him instead so he runs over to a table to knock it over and use it as cover.
Once the numbers outside become much more manageable, Lughausen also enters the building in time to heal Jak. Sven is fighting four of the iron shadows, but is doing enough damage to kill them quickly. Then, boom, a fireball comes from nowhere and hurts Sven and Baptiste badly. A moment later, another burns Jak, Lughausen and Illadara. Jak is knocked unconscious but healed a moment later by Lughausen. By this time, the hobgoblins are almost killed. But the invisible caster is here. A cone of cold nearly takes the party’s casters out again, but it is desperation for the goblin. He is then all alone, but still invisible. The party plays cat and mouse, trying to find him. Jak tries faerie fire twice but fails to get the invisible caster. He escapes saying that “You will be defeated by the power of Warlord Graat!” through the front door while the party had been guarding the back door where they thought they had heard him.
They take a few minutes to heal up, and then another few minutes to quickly search the rest of the building in case there are more hobgoblins hiding. The building was an inn at one point before it was taken over by the hobgoblins. After a discussion, they rule out an hour’s rest for fear of the remaining goblins and the hostages in the center of town. They leave the building and start heading north.
Only minutes into their walk, they hear horns being called from the town square. And lots of activity. They decide to go between some buildings next to the square instead of one of the roads. They are almost there when they again hear the voice of the caster yelling:
"Human scum! You dare attack the great Warlord Graat and his legions? It is not you that will pay for this insolence, but the people of this town! I kill 10 people now just because you kill so many of us." There is screaming, then after it settles down, sobbing can be heard. He continues, "I kill 10 more every 10 minutes until you come to me without weapons and armor and surrender! Their deaths are on your head, Heroes!" The last word is sneered.
The party knows that they are too late to save some of the townspeople, but there are more to save. Hobgoblins have been posted on the rooftops all around the square with longbows. On the ground are worgs. The townspeople are in the center amongst the market stands with hobgoblins standing over them with weapons ready. A pile of bodies of townspeople is on the north side, thrown there just moments ago. Most of the commoners are tied and on the ground. A few stand.
When the party arrives, the caster can be seen in the midst of the hostages giving orders. Sven is still disguised as a hobgoblin and he is the first to be seen. However, this time the hobgoblins have been forewarned about the imposter and are not fooled. The worgs are sent to attack and the arrows begin to fly at Sven. Illadara recovers her use of greater invisibility and casts it. A moment later the goblin caster casts the same spell and vanishes. The rest of the party is concerned at the number of hobgoblins and worgs and the fact that they are almost out of magical spells.
Early in the fight, before the party has advanced into the square much at all, the goblin caster manages to catch the entire party in a fireball. Fortunately, his last for the day as it turns out. Nevertheless, the entire party is wounded now. The hobgoblin archer’s positions on the rooftops allows them to continuously lob arrows at mostly Sven, and later Lughausen, Jak and Torchon as they enter the square. The superior sharpshooting of Illadara, Torchon, and Jak allows them to quickly nullify the leadership commands of the two captains almost immediately before the hobgoblins can use that advantage, killing them quickly.
Then the invisible goblin caster commands the hobgoblins to begin killing the townspeople. The guards make quick work, killing commoners instantly when they get a chance. Illadara’s lightning bolt finishes most of the worgs and then a nearly dead Sven runs in to start killing the hobgoblins that are killing the hostages. Illadara and Jak also follow suit with their ranged spells. However, more of the hobgoblin iron shadows have shown up, throwing darts and then unarmed attacks when they close on Torchon. Brimstone Jak is knocked unconscious by these darts. Then some of the hostages get free while the others are being killed and run towards the party. Then, to everyone’s surprise, when they reach Lughausen the first commoner girl suddenly starts striking at him. Baptiste must battle her to keep Lughausen alive. Three more of these hostages “escape” and suddenly turn on the party, pretending to flee. When the first girl is finally killed it is revealed to be more of the Iron shadows in magical disguise.
Sven has successfully reached the commoners and the hobgoblins who have been killing them and gets their attention, killing them with great sweeps of his axe. Nearly dead, when he kills the last hobgoblin threatening the commoners, he runs to a building to try and get up to the roof and the hobgoblin there. Unfortunately, arrows finally take him down far from Lughausen’s healing magic.
The invisible caster has been lobbing magic missiles and fire bolts at the party, keeping on constant move just in case the party tries to attack him. His magic has managed to nearly kill Baptiste, who somehow remains on his feet, running across the square to try and help Sven. When he reaches him a few moments later, he searches for healing potions. Finding none, he must resort to using the healing kit in his pack to stabilize Sven.
Things look very grim indeed. Lughausen has been the target of many arrows, darts, and unarmed strikes and somehow miraculously escapes death several times. Torchon is nearly killed by the iron shadows and has to retreat with the plan of somehow getting a potion of healing to Jak. However, it is Lughausen who gets Jak up and back into the fight. When Jak and Torchon and re-enter the square, however, arrows take them down again.
Illadara’s invisibility has run out and she starts hiding behind buildings to use her magic to take down archers. Then the goblin appears, as his invisibility has faded. But it is only Illadara, Lughausen and Baptiste still alive, but just barely. Lughausen uses his new pearl of power to recover a powerful 3rd level spell and uses it to cast healing word to get both Torchon and Jak back on their feet. Then, finally, Jak and Torchon have a target with the leader and use eldritch blast and arrows to finally kill him.
The last archer is chased down and killed and at last the hobgoblins are no more.
The party unties commoners one by one, reaching Theresa Woodfellow, one of the elders who assists them. She tries to calm the sobbing and dazed people. She suggests that the party retreat to Elmerdine’s house to recover, dragging the unconscious Sven with them. By their count at least 20 hostages have been killed. Maybe a few more.
6/14/1150 – The next morning, the party is recovered. Elmerdine comes down and tells them that the walls of the town are empty of hobgoblins for the first time. They have seen no new patrols. The town is in a collective daze. She is going to have a council meeting to decide their next step. The party advises her to set up watchers at both gates and to also get them closed and secured as best as they can. The watchers will be armed with horns and signal fires but are not expected to fight. Sven and Baptiste volunteer to each take a gate to inspect, secure, and watch for a time. This is while Torchon will go out and scout the citadel. He is expected to be gone for most of the day.
Brimstone Jak walks the streets playing inspiring music to hearten the people. This is accepted wholeheartedly by the people. There is a noticeable change in demeanor, and even a spark of hope in the people’s eyes as he passes. Lughausen identifies the last three remaining magic items: a luckstone, +1 studded leather armor of cold resistance, and a wand of the war mage +1.
Torchon takes at least 3 hours of travel to get to the citadel. Along the way he searches for and befriends a hawk that he has found. He uses the scroll of beast sense that he acquired a while ago and suggests that the hawk fly over the citadel. He will be able to see through its eyes with the spell. He also uses his primeval awareness to learn that there about a hundred hobgoblins in the citadel and a smaller group of around 10 on patrol headed towards the town. He figures they are about two hours away.
Through the hawk’s eyes he sees that the citadel has four gates. The walls bristle with spikes and are stone and higher than the ones at the town. There are trenches and pits dug along the walls making them seem even higher for practical purposes. There is a large building in the center and lots of huts and pits throughout the citadel. He sees hobgoblins wandering about. He has a good idea that this scouting trip will provide a lot of information to help them plan the assault.
After Torchon returns, they decide to meet that patrol and destroy it. Their plan is to go get the horses and wagon and use it as a sort of decoy to draw the patrol in. When the patrol is sighted, they stop and pretend to tinker with it. It doesn’t make too much difference as the entire patrol of hobgoblins is riding fast worgs. They charge in and are incinerated with fireball spells from Jak and Illadara. The rest are mopped up pretty quickly with Torchon’s arrows and Jak’s eldritch blasts.
They decide to not forge on to the citadel right away after all. They have something of a plan at first: Lughausen can use stone shape to create a hole in the wall of the citadel and use that to bypass the gates and make a somewhat defensible position. However, he doesn’t have that spell prepared, so they will return to the town with the horses and go tomorrow.
6/15/1150 – This next morning they set out on foot, leaving the horses behind. They travel 3 hours until the citadel is just within sight. They arrive about midday, and spend the afternoon watching the fortress. They know that they are seen just as much as they can see them. But nothing happens.
That night, Torchon scouts around the citadel. He has been using his primeval awareness to detect enemies, in this case humanoid hobgoblins in the area. When he concentrates he can sense their movements and numbers. So far, none have left the citadel except for that patrol that they had already dealt with. He uses this ability once an hour through the night.
6/16/1150 – This morning, Lughausen scouts with a magical arcane eye spell. He slowly advances the invisible sensor to the wall of the citadel. There, near the gate, he can see the hobgoblins are there watching the party. There is a group of leadership there pointing and talking in a group. The leader is definitely a shaman type looking quite formidable. Even ranking higher than the ones they faced in the Temple of Nomog-Geaya in the town of Wald. He cannot hear what they are saying, however, so he moves the sensor on. He scouts some of the hovels, then moves on to the big building in the middle which is clearly the command center.
When he gets the eye inside, he enters a throne room. On the throne is the warlord Graat himself, with his blue nose. He wears full plate armor with a shield and longsword at his side. In the room captains talk over maps that show the citadel, the town, and a new mark showing the party’s camp spot. Runners go from here to the gate where the other shaman was carrying messages. They are planning, but it isn’t clear what. He spots something unusual. Above the throne, on the wall, is a humanoid skeleton. He looks more closely and notices that there is a folded up paper in the ribcage. Perhaps the person had eaten it before his flesh rotted away?
He takes the eye outside once more and scouts around. One other thing of note, he finds that there are some bugbears here in the camp. He sees one look out of a tent. He can learn nothing else so he ends the spell. Once he talks with the party, he looks at Torchon and realizes that there is a good chance that the skeleton was once an elf.
They decide to make a show of leaving to go back to the city. Their strategy, after much discussion, is changing to one of a siege. They want to wait out the hobgoblins, killing any foraging patrols that might try to go out for food. They will go back to get the horses for speed, returning the next day with them. However, Torchon, once out of sight, will stay here to watch the citadel. He plans to stay up all night checking every hour with his awareness.
The night passes uneventfully, however.
6/17/1150 – They return with the horses and provisions, meet with Torchon and stay out of visual range while he rests. It is later afternoon when they return to their previous camp in sight of the fortress. They decide to taunt the hobgoblins to speed things up. Lughausen makes a white flag and together they move up to just out of bowshot. The hobgoblins start shouting orders, readying their bows. Lughausen uses his channel divinity to learn how to create a mosaic. They use the materials at hand to create a likeness of Warlord Graat on the ground. Then, they piss on it.
The hobgoblins don’t like that one bit. More shouts come and some arrows are loosed but fall short. The party retreats to see what happens next. It is almost sunset. A few minutes later, the party gets their answer. Five bodies of humans are tossed over the walls to plummet to the ground lifelessly. There were hostages inside the fortress. Are there more? They are not sure. But they can’t do anything about it. The party holds to their plan.
An hour after sunset, however, Torchon’s awareness lets him know that a large band of about 60 hobgoblins is marching out. The rest of the party hears them. A column of hobgoblins march, chanting, banging drums and blowing horns. They head straight for the party’s encampment. The party immediately mounts up and retreats towards the town. They start looking for a defensible position where they can make a stand. The darkness is to the advantage of the hobgoblins who can all see in it. The humans and dragonborn cannot.
After a couple of hours, Torchon finds a good spot. An old ruined farmhouse foundation. It is enough to give them some cover. The party puts the horses some distance ahead towards the town and walks back to it to wait and ambush the hobgoblins.
It works to an extent. Torchon was closer to the warband waiting for them. He shoots his arrows, runs back to the ruins shouting let loose the fireballs. Illadara and Jak cast their spells just estimating in the darkness where they might go. The fireballs hit the front of the column, slaying at least 24 of them. The hobgoblins are shouting orders, scattering into the dark, and then it turns out casters of their own are with them. Four more fireballs streak out from the darkness and manage to hit the party. They have some cover from the ruins, fortunately and no one is killed outright, but the damage is heavy. Fighting in the dark is a matter of guesswork as the Illadara and Jak fire two more fireballs each, killing large swaths of hobgoblins. But they are not as tightly packed as before. Torchon is to the south running in the dark attempting to shoot them with his bow when he can. Then he sees more of the monk hobgoblins running swiftly towards him. Sven and Baptiste have advanced. They throw a torch into the darkness to reveal some hobgoblins, but it makes them a target. Fireballs from the casters go to the torch enveloping Sven and Baptiste, and Sven is knocked unconscious. Baptiste is nearly dead, but he charges a hobgoblin captain.
While the captain is wounded by Baptiste’s attacks, another captain appears out of the darkness to assist him. Then spells from even further in the darkness are cast at Baptiste. His new brooch of shielding absorbs the magic missiles, allowing him to live for another few moments and opportunities to swing his sword before he is hacked down by a captain.
Meanwhile, the swift-moving iron shadow hobgoblins continue to chase down Torchon, Lughausen, Jak, and Illadara. Lughausen is lucky after many of their darts whiz by him in the darkness. He casts a confusion spell upon them, allowing him to escape and heal Sven and get him back into the fray. Jak is also able to cast his last fireball upon the iron shadows while they are grouped up and do some serious damage to them. However, two survive and engage Jak, knocking him unconscious.
The newly awakened Sven is able to assist Torchon for a few moments on the south side of the farmstead ruin against more iron shadows.
But then the enemy spellcasters really make their presence known. More magic missiles, scorching rays, and acid arrows shoot out of the darkness as the four spellcasters turn the tide against the party. Illadara makes an attempt to hold off the captains for a round or two with a wall of fire, and it kills one captain, but there are two more shouting orders and encouragement to the last remaining hobgoblin forces.
Lughausens last group heal brings Jak, Sven, and Torchon back to consciousness, and at the same time Baptiste miraculously awakens by himself on the other side of the wall of fire. But their wounds are too much and the spellcasters are too fresh in the battle to be overcome.
Torchon and Sven’s last heroic effort is to kill the last iron shadows. This eliminates the swift moving element of the hobgoblin force that might be able to chase down whoever escapes. Illadara falls to the last two captains and their greatswords, but she takes one with her. Baptiste engages two of the casters, keeping them out of the fray for just a moment before they kill those that are fleeing. Their spells prove too much for him and he goes down last.
Brimstone Jak, awakened with Lughausen’s heal casts invisibility upon himself and flees to the horses, shouting to Lughausen that he will meet him there. Lughausen has also managed to throw his healing spells and then make a run for it in the darkness. Only these last two heroes make it out alive. The sixty strong force of hobgoblins is reduced to one captain and four spellcasters, which is enough to kill Baptiste, Sven, Torchon, and Illadara where they lay.
They do not pursue the last two heroes, who ride back west towards the town of Wald. As they get closer, they discuss their next move. They decide that they must return to Wohlen to regroup and turn their horses north as the sun rises.
6/18/1150 - When they reach sight of the road leading into the Drakewind Forest to Wohlen at dawn, they are surprised to see a large contingent of horses, wagons and armed men come out of the forest heading towards Wald. Fifty strong at least, they bear banners:
1 - Three black circles in a gold triangle on a field of green - The Confederation of Cities
2 - A purple goblet on a field of red gray and white chevron shaped - Wohlen
3 - A hand holding a bag, full of coins and a scale - Order of Coins
4 - A wheel and a paddle in dark brown separated by a diagonal line. Tri-vertical bands in the background of Blue-White-Blue. The symbol on the middle white - Guild of Wheels and Paddles
Lughausen and Jak stop as a half a dozen riders break away to meet them. They are hailed, and Lughausen tells them who he is and that he sent the message. They are escorted back to the column. Closer, they see the leader of the band has his own banner (quartered fields of brown and white, each holding an eagle clutching a bloody glove in gold) and is named Lord Nayrdon. He greets Lughausen and suggests that they ride to Wald where he can tell his story properly. As they ride, a woman in Confederation livery rides to the fore, but she wears no armor. She is introduced as magistrate Lady Risiah Hernwoll and is in charge of the negotiations. She whispers to Lord Nayrdon and Lughausen overhears with his sharp ears that she is displeased with his presence which may taint the discussions. The Lord attempts to assuage her worries.
An hour later, they reach Wald. The Confederation contingent does not enter the town but sets up camp outside along the road. Large tents are set up with more banners. Lughausen spots one of the banners flying with the Order of Coins to be the Honorable Halewind Ysgiliah, one who has a practical monopoly on the lumber business in Wohlen. Shortly after arriving, Risiah rides out with an armed escort towards the gates of the town. Lughausen at first tries to follow, but one of the guards intercepts him and makes it clear that his presence is not desired. He decides to return to the camp and rest. Risiah gives greetings and is eventually allowed into the town. Lord Nayrdon introduces Lughausen and Jak to Berg Skallgrimson a paladin of Nuath, Khragg a half-orc warrior, Peril a human scout, Yannic a human wizard hired by Sir Guyson, and Kayleth Amastacia a wood elf druid. Berg, Peril, and Khragg were asked to come along by Sir Guyson, whose duty required him to remain at Wohlen. Lord Nayrdon is his superior and holds a rank of Captain in the Confederation Army. Kayleth happened upon the Confederation contingent while they were traveling south through the Drakewind Forest and elected to join them. She has only been with them for a day.
After Lughausen and Jak rests after their long night Jak seems to have melted away. No one is sure where he is. Lughausen isn’t surprised and doesn’t even bother to search. Later in the afternoon when Risiah returns a meeting is held. Lughausen recounts the story of their adventures in Wald, starting with their encounter with the lumberjacks and the sawmill, through the liberation of Wald, to last night’s encounter with the force from the Fortress. He is questioned by the people there. Graven Marker is a dwarf who is a leading member of the Guild of Wheels and Paddles. His questions concern the road from Wohlen to Wald, and when the dangers are recounted he turns to Lord Nayrdon and exclaims “Aha! See? We must have armed escort!”
Risiah’s questions are about the town itself and the council. She asks if the party had identified themselves as being from the Confederation. He says no but is lying which, she sees through. When it is revealed that citizens of the city were killed as a result of the party’s raid, she is concerned that leadership in Wald could hold the Confederation accountable. These are factors in her negotiations that she is concerned with.
Lughausen is asked what his intentions are now, and he states that he wants to get into that fortress to see how these hobgoblins got here. He doesn’t believe it was natural for them to appear here like they did. He also wants revenge for his fallen comrades. Berg, Khragg, and Peril volunteer to assist him, as does Kayleth and then Yannic. Lord Nayrdon states that the Confederation force is concerned with securing the town and negotiating. Risiah says that they cannot presume to do things for or to Wald without their council’s permission or request. There is a lot of caution on their part. They cannot just step in and take over. Lord Nayrdon commends the new heroes for offering to help and he says he can spare half a dozen soldiers to go with them, but no more.
The meeting breaks up and Lughausen, Berg, Khragg, Peril, Yanic, and Kayleth go plan. The resulting plan is this: They will travel until they are close, but not too close so that Peril can circle the fortress and scout it to see what strength remains and what might have changed since yesterday. If all is good, then Kayleth will use her druid powers to cast pass without trace to mask their travel in shadow. They will sneak up almost to a gate beyond the trenches where they can have access to a wall. Lughausen will create a tunnel with stone shape that will allow them to get in quickly. Then they will make a beeline for the command center and hit them with the maximum element of surprise. Meanwhile, the six Confederation soldiers have been instructed to circle around to the opposite gate and make a distraction once they hear the commotion inside. They are to harry and use their bows to keep the hobgoblins attention, but not to stay and get themselves killed. They are to run if the hobgoblins sortie.
They set out in the afternoon, and after a couple of hours of travel reach the battle site. They see smoke still rising from it and go investigate. They find that the scores of charred hobgoblin bodies have been left where they died the night before but looted of valuable weapons. The bodies of Sven, Baptiste, Torchon and Illadara are still where they fell but have been looted of all valuables including arms and armor. Torchon’s body has been beheaded and kicked away. Sven’s body bears clear post-mortem weapon blows as well. Lughausen asks the Confederation soldiers who had accompanied them to assist in digging graves. The other party members chip in as well. Peril, however, thinks this is a good time to do his scouting as dusk is approaching quickly.
Peril travels for the remaining hour and arrives when night has fallen at the fortress. He has no problem finding it because some of the hobgoblins have lit torches. He carefully sneaks around the entire perimeter. He sees that there are only four hobgoblins at each of the four gates. A single hobgoblin occasionally walks half the wall and back. As they are so few, it is easily seen that they can be avoided. He returns.
By the time he gets back, Lughausen and the others have finished the graves. Lughausen performs a ceremony on each, hoping to prevent them from rising as undead. He also does appropriate services for each. He uses a stone shape spell to use the remaining foundation of the farmhouse to create a pillar of stone. Engraved upon it are the words: “Here the Brave Did Fall: 6/17/1150 Torchon Baptiste Sven Illadara.”
They enact their plan. Kayleth casts pass without trace and they set out. They succeed in sneaking up to the wall and passing through with Lughausen’s magic. They then move towards the command center that Lughausen had reconnoitered earlier with his arcane eye. They see some movement in buildings to the northeast of the compound. They decide to circle around the command building to see what other entrances and exits might exist. They already see the main entrance as double doors. In the back, however, they are almost detected. From that area of movement emerge a couple of bugbears who almost noticed them. However, they do not and return to the tents. They think they might have seen a dozen of them there.
After circling around, they spot two doors in the back. One is locked and one is not. From Lughausen’s scouting, they know the door to the kitchen is the unlocked one. Khragg hides near that one and Kayleth escorts the rest to the front. Then returns to him in the back. Those two will wait until the commotion has started before they enter. The rest are in position in the front. Berg slams the door open and strides into the chamber. He sees a throne with Warlord Graat upon it. Next to him is High Shaman Blaard and in front is a hobgoblin captain. He also sees a couple of regular hobgoblins sitting at a table. After he moves into the hall he noticed a few more hobgoblins were around the corner, including two more devastators, the casters that were the doom of the previous heroes, and a second captain.
Berg points at Graat and declares that he is their doom and casts the armor of agathys spell, covering his armor in frost. The battle is on. The captain and charges Berg and the casters hit him with spells, eliminating the magical armor. Yannic then runs past the door and casts an ice storm that catches the high shaman, the warlord and a captain. This angers the high shaman who summons a vrock into the main doorway, preventing anyone else from entering the building to support Berg. He then runs to the kitchen doorway to shout orders to a couple of hobgoblins there. Then, Khragg and Kayleth enter through the kitchen and engage and kill those hobgoblins before they can act on their orders. The vrock shoots out a spore cloud the poisons Peril and Lughausen for much of the fight. It also doesn’t help that hobgoblins including a single iron shadow monk join the fray from the side rooms.
The battle favors the hobgoblins for some time as spells and blows from the Warlord and his captains first knock down Berg, then Khragg, then Kayleth who had wild-shaped into a dire wolf (Unfortunately, the large creature had to squeeze and fight in small doorways). The Vrock’s poison makes Peril ineffectual and continuously hurts him and Lughausen. The fight is not lost immediately because Yannic is able to counterspell the devastator’s worst attempts to destroy them with area of effect spells. The tide turns when Khragg, with is nearly last breath is able to deal a critical blow to the shaman who took a risk in moving away from him without disengaging. The damage was severe and broke his concentration on the Vrock who disappeared. Khragg went down a moment later from the warlord’s blows, but the shaman was wounded enough that when he damaged Lughausen a moment later, Lughausen rebuked him with deadly fire and burned him to death.
Yannic also was able to clear out many of the weaker hobgoblins with a sculpted fireball cast at his feet that avoided burning Lughausen, Peril, and himself. Then Lughausen was able to heal Berg who subsequently used his paladin ability to lay healing hands upon himself and return to the battle in decent shape. Then, suddenly, Kayleth regained consciousness and was able to do damage and eventually heal herself and Khragg enough to return him to the battle a few moments later.
One-by-one, the captains fell. Then the iron shadow took Lughausen down before he was killed by Peril’s crossbow bolt. Yannic cast another ice storm that damaged the warlord and killed one of the devastator casters. Finally, Berg was able to attack the warlord with the power of Nuath and smote him to the ground. The last devastator fought hard but was finally killed by Khragg with a thrown handaxe the moment he returned to consciousness by Kayleth’s healing.
In the silence post-battle, Peril is still standing in the front doorway. He hears the sounds of battle to the east, and surmises that the Confederation soldiers are doing their job at that position. There is only one hobgoblin at the south and west gates that he can discern. There is a larger crowd at the east gate. He runs inside and closes and bars the front doors. He yells at the others to close the kitchen door and hold it. Kayleth and Khragg are there and they do indeed hear and see the sounds of bugbears arguing and moving towards both the commotion at the gate and towards the command building. They close the kitchen door and throw the small bolt. Heals are being passed out and actions are readied for the continuing battle.
Bugbears reach the kitchen door, find it locked and proceed to break it down. Khragg is ready and kills one. The rest attempt to attack through the doorway but are ineffective. There are only 6 of them, so the party’s confidence grows. Peril has been hiding in a corner and uses sneak attack with his crossbow to kill another. Berg comes in with the head of the warlord and holds it up threatening the bugbears. They become frightened and all but one run away to the east gate. Then there is another thump at the front door. Yannic, Lughausen, Peril, and then Berg run that way. The bar holds long enough for Berg to get there. He quietly removed the bar so that when the foes tried to break down the door, they will tumble in. It works. Three hobgoblin iron shadows are there. One stumbles in through the door and is slain by Berg’s readied sword and Yannic’s readied spell.
Meanwhile, in the back, Khragg has exited the building and circled around. He is witness to the east gates opening and a contingent of hobgoblins and bugbears exiting. Some remain on the walls still. He is looking for other foes as he goes. By the time he reaches the front door, another iron shadow is slain, but he assists in killing the third. The foes here have been vanquished. But they now hear the familiar sound of fireballs exploding outside the east gate…
Lughausen and Kayleth have only a moment to cast a minor heal or two before the others charge out into the night to defeat the remaining hobgoblins. They worry that the confederation soldiers have been unable to escape after causing their distraction. They are halfway to the eastern gate before they are noticed by a spellcaster upon the palisades. That caster casts an ice storm that hurts four of the heroes, who were severely wounded still from the previous battle. A large force of other hobgoblins was outside chasing the Confederation soldiers, who at first did a good job of killing another spellcaster and a few other hobgoblins. But in the end, they were all six slain during the course of the battle. That caster was dealt with by ranged spells and crossbow bolts from Peril.
Berg gets ahead of the rest of the party and reached the wall. He climbed upon the palisade and race to meet a hobgoblin captain who was coming along from the north gate. The rest are only halfway there when hobgoblins from the south and west gate start arriving as well. This includes two more casters and two more captains which quickly turns things against the party. A melf’s acid arrow takes down Khragg. Kayleth is severely wounded by javelins and spells and resorts to using her wild shape to become a brown bear. This bear takes a severe beating while exposed in the open. Kayleth is forced back into her natural form and then knocked unconscious.
Berg reaches the captain from the north gate and they duel, but Berg loses and is knocked unconscious. The captain advances to join the fray inside.
Spell resources are severely depleted. And it takes time for everyone to cross the battlefield. There are far more hobgoblins remaining than the party first thought. Soon, the forces outside will be arriving and in the meantime the hobgoblins that remain inside are too much for the remaining heroes. Lughausen is able to revive Khragg, but then he and Yannic decide to flee. Yannic uses his last spell slot to selflessly cast invisibility upon Lughausen so he can escape. And he himself runs too. In the dark and confusion, he and Peril retreat. But Khragg is hit with spells again and is nearly unconscious a second time. He decides to charge, despite the certain death awaiting him. Suddenly, the first captain is taken down by his sword and then the first caster with Peril’s help. Then the second captain and then the second caster falls. Lughausen by this time has reached the southern wall and scaled it to be outside.
The hobgoblins have returned to the east gate and are coming back in. The force includes two of the iron shadows that have been so dangerous with their run speed and four attacks. Khragg kills the last hobgoblin captain, the one who took care of Berg, as one of the iron shadows reaches the command center and goes inside. The head of the captain is removed with Khragg’s axe and he yells defiantly at the two bugbears that are almost in reach. Then the voice of the iron shadow cries out that the warlord and high shaman have been slain. This breaks the will of the hobgoblins. The bugbears turn and run, as does the last bunch of regular hobgoblins and the last captain.
The final iron shadow still pursues Peril and Yannic, but Peril unleashes a fatal blow with his crossbow that nearly finishes him and Yannic puts in the final blow. All that remains is the final iron shadow in the command center. He exits the front door carrying a sword and a chest. Yannic is ready for him and hits him with a fire bolt. Khragg hurls two hand axes and finishes him off before he could escape into the night with the loot. Berg recovers on his own from his wounds and cures himself and runs to join the others.
They drag Kayleth inside the command building, and Lughausen has realized that the battle has been won and re-enters the fortress. About a half-dozen hobgoblins and bugbears have run off into the night. This fact worries them some, but after they find that they can board themselves inside the center, they take the time to rest a while. Lughausen spots a pile of equipment that he recognizes as having belonged to his former comrades. When they fell at the farmstead, the hobgoblins took their loot and piled it here. There was no time to do anything else to it apparently. They take the time to divide it up to help them in their endeavors. Next they open the chest and recover the items that the iron shadow had taken from the warlord. There were a number of magic items that they found would need identifying. Fortunately, the chest held a few loose pearls and a nice pearl necklace that would provide a number of material components that could be used to identify.
Lughausen spends the next two hours identifying magic items, which are then handed out. Included is a very rare and powerful bardic instrument. That reminds Lughausen of the paper he saw in the skeleton that had been nailed to the wall above the warlord’s throne. They take the paper and read it. It is Sovereth Lightwand's Last Account. In summary, It details how he was part of a force that was sent to deal with the hobgoblins in the Feywild. They lost and were captured by the hobgoblins, but then somehow the entire fortress was transported to the Material Plane, here. Sovereth speculates about the cause of that, which he doesn’t share with his captors. He was certainly slain some time later.
The account inspires Lughausen and the others to do some thinking. Sovereth had speculated that Elysenika had to be involved because it is her purview to govern the planes and the movement between them. Lughausen realizes he has never seen a priest or temple to Elysenika. Peril remembers Elysenika's Prophecy he read about long ago that involved her.
Seeing that things are secure here, they rest for the night. Some wanted to burn the fortress to the ground and return to Wald, but coolers heads prevailed and suggested that they should wait on that and consult with the town and Confederation forces. They do decide to take the skeleton of Sovereth with them. It is removed and wrapped in the furs take from the warlord’s bed. They also find some paperwork from the hobgoblins that suggests they were in dire straits. When they came here, all the females were left behind. They were slowly dying anyway and were trying to get home, but obviously failed. In the morning, they wake up more powerful (9th level) and rested.
6/19/1150 – The next morning, they leave the command center and search for the bodies of the Confederation soldiers. They find them to the northeast of the fortress, outside the walls. They were all slain as they tried to retreat, some with arrows, others with blows from hobgoblin weapons. They find a cart in the fortress and load the bodies up. Then head back to Wald.
When they reach the town, they go straight to the Confederation camp outside the north gate. They are nodded through the sentries, who upon seeing their fallen comrades create a procession to take them. A sergeant escorts them to Lord Nayrdon’s tent and they are admitted. They give a report, including word of the fallen soldiers, but also of their success with the fortress. As they are recounting their story, Risiah enters to listen to the second half. Lord Nayrdon commends them and suggests that the fortress might be a possible outpost for the Confederation in this area. He will send out scouts immediately to confirm the party’s success. Risiah also commends them and suggests that it is a great victory for the Confederation to have defeated the hobgoblins. The townspeople of Wald will certainly be grateful. She strongly suggests that the party wait to tell the council of elders about it until tomorrow. They have surely earned a rest. Lord Nayrdon requests that they notify him if they are leaving after this task is done. They agree.
They then head into Wald. They notice that the first building, which was an officer’s quarters during the occupation, is now becoming a tavern again like it was originally. A group of workers are hanging outside drinking and surreptitiously looking out through the gates at the tent encampment. They decide to go in. However, they also notice that Risiah is walking purposefully deeper into the town with a few retainers. Peril and Kayleth are suspicious and decide to follow her. Kayleth uses wild shape to become a hawk in an alley first, however.
In the tavern, they see that an effort has been made to clean it up, though there is still a lot to do. There aren’t many choices for drinks. The proprietor lets them know that the hobgoblins didn’t allow drinking, but of course the townspeople did in secret. They are now setting back up. He gets them ales, and Lughausen requests to perform. He sets up and uses the new bandore for the first time, doing a somewhat passable job. He sings a lament about the evens that just transpired and his fallen comrades. By the end, most of the people are joining in. Berg talks about Nuath and the benefits of conflict and competition, mostly in the context of what they just accomplished and wins over some of the people. They talk a bit about reinstating the town militia.
Meanwhile, Kayleth and Peril follow Risiah to a house near the town square. She knocks and is admitted. As a hawk, Kayleth lands on the chimney and listens in. Peril similarly finds a spot near a window where he can make out what is being said, though he isn’t too discreet about it. They hear Risiah talk to an Elmerdine Hunt (who they later learn is an elder on the town council), passing on the great news of the hobgoblins ultimate defeat at the hands of the Confederation. Naturally, she is spinning the victory in terms that are favorable for the Confederation. Elmerdine leaves to spread the good news and Risiah returns to the encampment.
Kayleth and Peril join the rest in the inn in time for dinner: venison and potatoes. Over dinner they begin a long discussion about what comes next. Yannic remembers about the stack of papers that they recovered from Lughausen’s fallen comrades, and Lughausen begins a long discussion about what is there and why it is there. The discussion moves from the Tower of Salinga Penne, to the Bible of the Blessed ones found in an old cult headquarters under Venlo, to then the strange dome over Zell and their intention to go to the School of Abjuration in Gyswyl to see if something could be recovered to help them get in there.
Lughausen recounts the tower outside of Zell with the soldiers watching it and the journal they found. They suspect Karzhad, an enemy of Wodemar Blum’s as being behind a lot of their past investigations and troubles. At the mention of the name Karzhad, Khragg becomes suddenly very interested and intent. He mutters that “He must die by my hand!” indicating that he might have his own reasons to see that one killed. Lughausen also recounts Wodemar’s theory about a secret hidden in Ap Wys for centuries, perhaps in a vault of some kind. And that Karzhad is also very likely after the same thing.
Lughausen suggests that the new companions join him and seeing that particular quest through and travel south. They readily agree.
After dinner, Elmerdine comes in and joins them, recognizing Lughausen. She confirms their story and thanks them all for what they have done to benefit her town. She says that room and board, food and drinks will always be free to them. She will have the town take care of the monument to the fallen heroes, who will always be remembered here for their sacrifice. She has no reward to give them but would like to give them a proper celebration. They regretfully decline, indicating that they will be leaving in the morning. She suggests that the next time they come through, perhaps they can have a feast.
They turn in for the night