Session 15 of an Ongoing AD&D 1e Campaign on Roll20

    As of last session the party had defeated Killary the Troll in the Caves of Chaos, as she died she vowed revenge upon the party and she would be back and get them at any cost. Feeling they were followed by Bugbears possibly the party attempted to stage several ambushes for the humanoids using their wagon loaded with empty crates and boxes with the hired NPCs Wilhelm and Oderick of Greyhawk as bait. Needless to say the new hires were un-amused but no attack came so the Ranger Nyloch ventured into the Fellgrim to search for tracks. He did discover tracks of many small booted humanoids going in the direction of Quasqueton along the very path they usually used to assault the Caverns. The party opts to send the wagon and NPCs back to Quasqueton and meet them there after dealing with the marauding humanoids.

(The party killed an intelligent devious troll which I had named Killary. As one of her back up plans she has put a severed finger in a pickle jar within her cavernous lair, the party however did search past the big pile of treasure so she has regenerated a new body and is quite not better for hte experience. I intend to go one of two ways with this she is a ravager with diminished mental faculties or has been captured and put to use by the cultists in the Temple of Doom. Her burst damage as a troll could be problematic in the final show down but with Brax with his new flametongue and his burst damage as well it could be anti climatic. I'll keep debating upon it. With the trap idea the humanoids; specifically the goblins, sought out some more help to deal with the raiding adventuring party who have not returned to the Castellan so Cultist Assassins there have had no targets. The party had fallen into a habit of coming from Quasqueton which was the fastest route to the Caves but they planned their ambush on the road where no raids by humanoids have occurred since their incursions into the Ravine. I was not sure that reasoning but its what went down)

    The party arrives at the back end of an ambush meant for them and the mixed group of humanoids from the Caves of Chaos are engaged. A Bugbear Rush style ambush partially thwarted they engage Redcap goblins backed by Short bow archers. Arrows pepper the party as Goblins rush and soon they are backed by Bugbears festooned with bandoliers of darts and gourds.A timely Web spell immobilizes many of the attackers and the darts of the Bugbear are discovered to poisoned with a attrition poison reducing the movement of the afflicted and their ability to concentrate. As the melee goes against the humanoids the final unwebbed Bugbear hurls a small grey ball to the ground and runs away in the confusing smoke as the Redcap archers flee as well. Another timely Web spell immobilizes many more and the party begins to whisper Spider Mage amongst themselves. Questioning a single goblin survivor they learn the location of the Bugbear cave in the ravine and of the Big Treasure Cave. Poisoning the goblin with the debilitating Bugbear poison they release him and return to Quasqueton to reunite with their followers. Cautiously watching their trail for any stalking bugbears.

(Bugbears are definitely a step up from regular goblins or even hobgoblins. I've stealthed/beefed them up a bit and they have the unusual equipment provided by their alchemy inclined witch doctor "Hairy Diablo". A debilitating poison called the goop by the bugbears forces a save v poison at +3 or be slowed and at  -2 to attacks. There are powder balls which have a variety of uses from ninja smoke bomb; everyone loves ninjas right, a minor stinking cloud bomb and finally a yellow spore cloud bomb which is being carried around in the Ranger's pocket. Ash has been quite the web tosser and it has turned many of the larger battles rather suddenly, Web is much more powerful than given credit for but I must admit I have been loose on its range because I do not want to get too tactical on figure usage on the battlemats for Roll20. A change occurs when you go to that focus which I noticed when playing 3e in that it becomes less of a fantasy role playing game and more of a tactical video game. Also at the end of the encounter I had to slightly chastise party members on alignment issues the majority of party is Neutral Good and the main argument is executing prisoners and torture. Given a chance all player characters are Chaotic Neutral viking raiders but intention over malice plays out in these discussions. I feel the Cleric will change up alignment and maybe the Fighter eventually with Tritherion being a better fit for the Cleric but he was new to me and I didn't know his playing style. Should have had a longer conversation before maybe a random encounter with a shapechanged outer planar being is in order. )

    The party decides that Redcap goblin treachery is enough and set off the next day to finish them. Arriving at the ravine early in the morning they instead head towards the Bugbear lair near all the pumpkins. Approaching the entry they discover it is an old mine. outside there is a small chest, hanging gourds everywhere and a sign with rates for mercenary work.intrigued the Ranger Nyloch approaches and drops a 1000GP gem into the chest and begins banging on the sign. He had noticed a Bugbear skulk off into the darker corridor earlier. Another approaches and asks what they want to which the group says raiders. He fetches the gem and skulks back into the mine. A few turns later a group of 5 bugbears return and agree to raid the goblins but defer on raiding the Orcs or the Temple. Together the party leaves with their new temporary allies.

(I had designed the Bugbear tribe as a mercenary group of goblinoids. They participate in raids when paid whether that be upon another tribe in the caves or merchants on the road. They have stuck mainly to the Fellgrim and would waylay people lost there but have avoided human settlements as they are displaced here from another location that went afoul of civilized lands. Still vile and evil creatures but more apt for mercenary work. Their chaotic nature is at odds with the Cultists who seek to organize the caverns tribes but have come to a truce with them of sorts. They don't kill the cultists and they are left alone. When relocated to the caves they discovered the old mine high on the ridge and have delved a bit into the mines but spiders have taken it over and the original Dwarves who mined it have fates unknown. They use the Witch Docotors alchemy abilities to keep the spiders at bay, have superior alchemy based equipment and knowing how players are min-maxers I took the +1 to all damage and went with darts with a high rate of fire to go hand in and with their bugbear rush tactics. Hit hard with poisoned darts and fall back until everyone is slowed then rush in for the kill. I didn't expect the party to straight up hire them when they read the sign first, good move guys. Well played)

    As the bugbears attempt to sneak past the Ogre's lair the group contends they gain passage from Bruud and go in that way. They pay the Ogre 50 GP and enter the goblin warrens by way of the secret door that they call upon Bruud to help with intruders. The assault is on and they press forward with Bugbears as a vanguard. They notice murals depicting horrid fishmen and encounter goblins trapped in oubliettes in the halls of the complex. A pitched battle erupts in the hall as some party members slide into a side room where more goblins are in a general purpose area. Brax, WIlhelm of Greyhawk and a pair of Bugbears wade through goblins dealing death and destruction. AS the final few defenders fall a pair of bugbears break off towards the sounds of goblin children and screams of goblin females, there follows a series of arguing and shouts in goblin tongue as the rest of the splintered group rejoins the fray in the halls.

(This turned into a hack and slash raid very quickly. Distrust between hired mercenary Bugbears and mixed group of adventurers. The party was definitely planing on murdering the bugbears and were using them to soak up as much damage as possible but they were all just dripping goblins fast. Plus, the bugbears were planning on grabbing as much loot and just getting out as fast as can and if the humans got themselves killed fighting the goblins they got a good bonus of whatever they have on them too. Being Chaotic Evil the party becoming very weak may have triggered some backstabbing but the eyes were always on the door.)

    The Redcap goblins have the party bottle necked in the hall which now had several goblin corpses nearly forming a small wall between them and the bugbear shock troops employed by the party. Fresh reinforcements resupply the goblin sand are cut down by the support of Nylochs spear from the second rank protected by large bugbear bodies. During the skirmish a wounded bugbear takes the roped goblin females and children and falls back while the group is engaged. Ash shouts insults at the retreating Bugbear with his goblin prisoners. Goblin leaders launch flaming oil over their fellow goblins but miss terribly injuring several of the party with splashes of burning oil and then the bottle neck is broke and the party grabs a few pouches from the dead goblins. They quickly push forward and decide to split momentarily in the halls with Brax, Two Bugbears, Ash, Wilhelm and Mark Antoney the Cleric go south while Nyloch and two bugbears check quickly east with Oderick the crossbowman covering the hall in both directions. To the south is the goblin throne room and east were some goblins who broke earlier and now rush the fewer numbered side group.

(Rarely do  I see a party gingerly split the party. I had forgotten that 1 in 3 Red Caps carried burning oil for the previously dispatched Troll but figured it may have become lax after news of her demise as an excuse for my forgetfulness.)

    The side group has a protracted melee but the goblins are quickly defeated with a single one pleading for mercy. The bugbears pound him to death with their morning stars while the Ranger falls back to the party. In the throne room the group parlayed but the Goblin King armored in spiked goblin sized plate mail offers to allow the to leave if they drop their gold and weapons. Lest he feed them to his rats. The goblins are in good position with each side of the hall with several warriors and a heavily armored king so the party rushes opting to hold the door while their wizard casts her spells. A magic missile spell causes the Goblin King to run around behind his throne while the goblin forces rush forward to engage the party. The party is outnumbered but a Web spell in the center of the chamber enshrouds man of the goblins but blocks their view as they make their way around the web they see the Goblin King has escaped. Taking but a single prisoner from the web they interrogate the goblin who acknowledges a secret door the King takes the good treasure through but does not know how to open it. The bugbears beat the goblin to death while the party searches for the secret door.

(Goblin numbers may have been a problem if it had become am ass melee but they held a line and webbed the center of the room shrouding the vast majority of the goblins who ad spaced themselves fairly well in the confined hall. More massive Web effects from Ash. I'll go over my House Rules for Magic-users in BX and AD&D 1e in another Blog after I finish this recap w/commentary. The Bugbears seeing the vast majority of the goblins defeated, the Goblin King Zargle Skullcrusher routed figure their terms of employ satisfied plan to skulk away while the party is distracted with a secret door search.)

The party discover how to open the door and the keen eyes of the half elf detects another secret door. They check out the long hall that leads from the back of the throne behind the secret door leads to a small room with a secret door again. This one marked by the goblin rune for Orcs. They return to the throne room and take notice that the Bugbears have taken their leave of the party. There had been much mistrust between the two factions but the Bugbears believed they had fulfilled enough of their deal and left as there were no goblins left to kill.

(I had decided earlier they would quit the party when it looked good and they had taken many prisoners and sent lone or pairs off to search while the party pressed forward. The Half-Elf had awesome luck with noticing secret doors which opens up opportunity with a secret door towards the Orc lair and the hidden goblin treasury)

Discovering the secret door has a lock and is locked Brax gives it the old shoulder and it opens. A corridor leads up and into darkness so they press forward. At the end they discover a stout door, Brax tries it and triggers a scything blade trap while he recoils from tit he door opens and the goblin king and his loyal Henchgobs attack him with spears nearly killing him. Taking a quick swig from his pink goo skin he rushed forward and is again hit by the scything blade trap and falls into the treasury unconscious and bleeding while the party is in disarray in the tight goblin sized corridors. The Cleric rushes forward to aid in combat and is laid low by the scything blade. Oderick stands in the hall with scything blade between him and the goblins using his crossbow while Wilhelm and Nyloch rush to aid their fallen ally Brax. Wilhelm avoids the scything blade while Nyloch is nearly killed by it as well ! The Goblin King pairs up against he ranger while his loyal henchgob attacks Wilhelm. The battle is shortly over and the bloody battered party closes the secret door to the hidden treasury and bandages their wounds. The fallen party members are bandaged back to health and recuperated by the pink goo of Quasqueton.

(Now to be honest we were pressing on and pushing our regular time limit here so there was much distraction in my living room as well in some of the players homes as well, but oh well shit happens. I had decided off hand that the scything blade trap in front of the goblin treasury door was self resetting and had multiple pressure plates in front of the door, this made the final battle actually way cooler than it should have been with a party of 6 facing down a wounded 2HD goblin King and his 1+1HD bodyguards.  Save versus wands for either no damage or 2d12 damage from passing through the area. The trap demolishes the Half-Orc Brax as he trues to reenter the chamber having taken two hits from it and the Cleric gets reduced to negative hit points as well. Passing into the room the Ranger loses over half of his hit points and the only one to make his save was the 2nd level fighter Wilhelm. The other NPC was a crossbow specialist who stood in the hall. This could have turned into a wipe fairly quickly as even though I use negative hit points any hit upon a unconscious, held, sleeping or bleeding out opponent; or PC, is an instant kill. The Ranger and WiIlhelm drop both goblins after two rounds of combat so the day is saved I hand wave the negative hit point characters although I should have double checked current negative totals as I have a negative Con rule instead of Negative 10. Some party members have less than 10 Con and may have been at 8 or 9 but meh. They can get a pass once in awhile. They decide to hole up in the treasury which has coins scattered about and lots of armor and weapons until next session and I heard lets take everything. The mentality that all things can be gathered up and hauled out amuses me to no end. I leave regular equipment tossed in with treasure allot and the last time they had this conundrum they ended up emptying their contents of all their backpacks to get more coins while carrying an additional dozen weapons just in case they were magical. While leaving magical items laying on the ground after major battles! This time however the Cleric picks up the Green Devil Flange mace from the Goblin King and keeps it. Having Detect magic handy is nice when looting, just saying.)

#OSR #MindsGaming #DnD #1e #RPG #Roll20 #KotB