"Pathfinder Campaign - A Call to Arms - S31" Topic

SESSION 31: HUNT EM DOWN

[DM's Note: Sorry guys I started writing this about 24 hours ago but got interrupted. I've picked up most of your directions but might have missed a few bits and bobs and I think it's preferable to keep moving forward rather than me go back and re-write sections.]

Worishofen is both generous and effuse with his praise. He walks up to each of the party members and vigorously shakes their hands. He starts to recall the fight and the acts of bravery. He is particularly impressed with the plucky little halfling. "It's most unusual to see a halfling with so much bravery. You must be very proud Master Thomas."

Thomas turns to him and responds, "Yeah, sure. Ahm, do you mind that I climb your house to get a better view of where the goblins have gone?" but before Master Worishofen can even answer he's already taken off.

After collecting the ears from the fallen goblins, Uthalin starts scratching around in the ground, picking up the goblins' trail.

Asmara introduces herself to Ansic, Halee, Risandor and the men at arms. She had been visiting the Worishofen chateau when it had come under attack from the goblins. Between her, Master Worishofen, his two sons and a couple of farm hands they had managed to keep the goblins out of the compound but they probably wouldn't have been able to continue to do so for much longer. She notices that Penn and Halee are wounded and asks them to stay steady for a second. Asmara raises her hands and praises Sarenare and Channels Positive Energy healing back 4pts of damage for both members.

Risandor nudges Halee. Halee leans down and asks "What?"

"Ask him for one of the halfling slaves as a gift."

"What?"

"Well you know I want to free as many of the halflings as I can but we cannot do it right now but we might be able to get one out."

"Ok." Halee turns to Master Worishofen and asks "Master Worishofen, I was wondering, as perhaps a sign of appreciation, could we have one of your halflings."

"We would be most appreciative," adds Risandor.

This will be a Diplomacy check. Worishofen is considered to be Helpful, due to the aid provided by the party and that his family have an existing, favourable relationship with the party. It is a request for effectively a gift of some value so I've rated it as a +15, its more than an important secret and the next band is a 15. Risandor provides aid. He needs a DC10 and has a Diplomacy skill of 7 so needs a 3. He rolls an 18 and provides valuable assistance. Halee will need a DC 0 (for Helpful attitude) + 15 difficultly – 2 assistance = 13. She has a skill of 8 and so will need only not roll a 5. She rolls a 6 and passes. Risandors little face has obviously swayed the argument.

"Ahh," responds Worishofen, "Want a little mate do you." Turning to Halee he says "A splendid idea. I've got two breeding females and one I think would be best for your little Risandor." He extends his hand and smiling rubs the top of Risandors head affectionately.

Whilst the party is talking with Asmara and Master Worishofen, Uthalin begins tracking. It's firm ground which needs a DC15 to track modified by -1 for each 3 creatures being tracked (14 in this instance so a modifier of -4), +1 for the creatures being small so an all up DC of 12. Thomas is effectively providing an assist. He needs to roll a DC 10 +1 for his poor Wisdom but we'll give him a +4 for using the terrain appropriately to help and hence needs a 7 on a D20. He rolls a 1 and doesn't really help much. Uthalin has a Survival skill of 6 +1 tracking for being a Ranger so he needs to roll a 5 on a d20. He rolls a 12 and has found the track.

Uthalin shouts up to Thomas, "Can you see them?"

"No".

"Ok, I think I've found the tracks anyway, come down and let's start chasing these hidebound, beard shaving stench kows down."

Striding to the party Uthalin shouts, "Stop yer gibby jabba and grap ya gear. They've gone this way." He turns and head down, watching the ground as he walks, Uthalin heads to the north east.

The party quickly gather their equipment and take after him.

They hustle at the double and after a few miles Uthalin raises his hand. "Shoosh, they're not far away."

Rising over a small hillock they can see the little band of goblins. They have stopped and have started a fire and are cooking some disgusting rotten meat. Nursing their wounds and singing little goblin songs they are unaware of the party sneaking up on them.

The Surprise Round is devastating. Uthalin, Ansic, Asmara and the four men at arms charge whilst Halee and Thomas shoot arrows and Risandor casts Daze. Four goblins are instantly slain in the Surprise Round. The party wins initiative and the remainder are dealt with.

The slave goblins know that the gig is up. They fall to their knees and beg for forgiveness. The party huddles them into a small group and escorts them back to Worishofen Hamlet.

Upon their return, Master Worishofen invites the party back to the chateau to clean up and have a meal.

He introduces them to his family. Frau Worishofen, his wife, his eldest son, Junker Rainer and his younger son, Junker Amwolf.

During the meal the Frau whisks off to a back room and reappears ushering a little female halfling before her.

She introduces the halfling as Karleigh and presents her as a gift to Thomas. The Frau lightly claps her hands in excitement as she exclaims that Karleigh would make an excellent mate for Risandor and she so loves little halfling babies because they are sooooo cute.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DM RECAP AND RECONCILIATION

So the party have killed 20 goblins and collected 20 sets of ears. The 20 goblins are worth 2,700xp and the
20 sets of goblin ears plus the bounty for saving the Worishofen family are together worth 1,000gp.

Total party member xp as follows:
- Halee 1,616 + 338 = 1,954
- Ansic 1,616 + 338 = 1,954
- Risandor 1,436 + 338 = 1,774
- Uthalin 1,436 + 338 = 1774
- Thomas 1,436 + 338 = 1,774
- Men at arms 180 + 169 = 349
- Asmara 0 + 338 = 338

So close for a couple of party members for cracking 2nd level. Next time the whole party will probably go up.

Karleigh is pretty much a noncombatant. Her basic statistics are Str 8, Dex 12, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 12, Size Small, AC 12, HP 6. She has no character class. She won't earn experience points nor draw party treasure unless the party wants to give her some. As he is the resident halfling I'll leave it to Risandor to provide some guidance to me on her personality via a separate email.

DEW

Ok, well that worked out pretty well, a goblin raiding party destroyed for no losses and we are up a freed halfling.
So, everyone is well, we have 5 healing potions, and its been over a week since Cord's death.

Do we visit the hobgoblins and get them to join us to avenge our fallen?

Do we attack the hobgoblins – Ris isnt keen on this option.

Do we return to the orc caves to finish Magor and his cronies? Ris favours th e last option: we are better equipped yhan before, the orcs were weakened in the last battle, and we left a pile of loot behind. If we finish the job with the orcs, we have a better story to tell the hobgoblin tribe to honour their losses with a tale of victory.

Is there a fourth and better option to all of the above?

Risandor would like to order a masterwork chain shirt from Fenton. In time, a masterwork weapon would be good, but he can wait and is happy to have his order done after any party member who wants a masterwork weapon.

Halee leans towards asking for more assistance from the Hobgoblin chief, BUT… be prepared for things to go pear-shaped due to the amount of time that has passed; we may have no goodwill from him despite describing his warriors heroism and killing so many orcs for him.

Before that, though – We need to start thinking of our forays from a thinking monster's perspective… We are raiders.

We have assaulted and done much damage to a couple of tribes and caves, and it has been a week. Word may have gotten around between the various humanoids and alliances formed or guards posted.

I think it would be beneficial to spend a day in observation mode. Head out at dawn, stay hidden and observe the caves looking for sentries and change of watches, come back before sunset. Evaluate the information and THEN make our next foray the next morning.

It could be we see nothing all day. Maybe a hunting party heads out at a certain time each day. Maybe the tribes post sentries and we get to know their schedule. Maybe we decide to approach from one of the reverse slopes instead of the down the valley (we've been predictable on our approach up to this point.)

I recommend that we give Ansic and Uthalin priority with the master crafted weapons when they want one as they are less active.

For Thomas he's going to tag along, whatever the group does, he's too busy playing with Baby Cord.
Hobgoblins or orcs doesn't matter much but we need to finish the fight.

Do we want to let the halfling go/free? We could get some kind of certificate at the town to say who she belongs to and say we're sending her to run errant somewhere.

Just an idea: what about tackling Magor and his remaining orcs by entering in the way you came out last time, assuming that recon indicates it's clear, instead of looking for their other entrance. They had left that cave section empty before, and unless they have more orc reinforcements, might not have enough to man both cave sections. Might be able to get in unnoticed and approach them from an unexpected direction. IIRC there were 8 orcs, 1 female, and Magor left. If they had more, would they have brought them to the previous battle? Not an easy job, but with full complement, healing potions, surprise, range weapons, spells, grease, oil, fire, acid, caltrops, and tanglefoot, should be able to offset their ferocity bonus. Of course, recon could show up a better possible target, and then could come back later for the tougher orcs after advancement to 2nd level. Random ideas, good luck with whatever you decide. Enjoying it.

Hi guys.

I've received a couple of requests about ordering masterworked equipment.

On reflection I think it might be better if I don't impose the time limits and that Fenton could only do one thing at a time.

With 1/2 a dozen or so players its just fairer and easier to make it a bit more open.

So just let me know what you want if you haven't already and I'll build it into the next session or so.

DEW

I vote for recon, then an assault on the orcs the way the party left last time.

Ok, a strong recon party seems the way forward. Im thinking Halee, Uthalin, Risandor and Ansic would make a formidable recce party, with plenty of options to deal with any sentries or scouting parties from the different goblinoids.

On the plus side, it has been over a week. How disciplined are orcs and could their guard have begun to slip after days of boredom and inactivity?

Alliances could also be a problem. The clan that sent out the goblin raiding party may be weakened by losses to the extent that it allies with someone stronger, perhaps offering to provide sentries. In all, caution seems a prudent course of action after our previous excursions and the damage to goblinoid fighting strength so far….

Before the recon – We should question the captured goblins (using Intimidation – Thomas doing the check with Halee Aiding Another to give an even better bonus.)

Why did you attack the estate (just to confirm that they were only trying to free their tribe-mates.)

What has been going on in the valley the last week?

Have any of the tribes come together?

(show the map) Which tribes are based in which caves? (races, not just tribe names)

Have the tribes started putting guards around?

Are there any scarier things in the caves besides the tribes? (other monsters, some "big boss?")

How often do the tribe send out hunters to get food or send raiders out to attack?

Do any of the tribes keep slaves and what are they?

MD, all good stuff ….. but I fear that the only goblins who survived our attack might have been the former slaves. Now, they might have picked up some info, but it might be slim…… still worth the try, especially with Thomas and Baby Cord to influence them!

Hmmm, I might have misinterpreted the narrative (?)

The Surprise Round is devastating. Uthalin, Ansic, Asmara and the four men at arms charge whilst Halee and Thomas shoot arrows and Risandor casts Daze. Four goblins are instantly slain in the Surprise Round. The party wins initiative and the remainder are dealt with.

I guess we were not 100% clear on kill or capture, and I choose to interpret, "dealt with," as captured (after the fact.)

DM, what say you?

All the raiders are dead and all the former slaves have been recaptured.