Session 4 - Negotiations in the Dark
General Summary
19 Planting, 498 TA
Approaching the west end of this large hall, the party finds a short throne, constructed of fallen bits of masonry stacked against an old altar. On the top of the altar sat a variety of small items. The portion of the altar that served as the throne’s back included a carving of a rearing dragon, with a metallic key held firmly in the dragon’s open jaws. In the throne sits an eldery kobold, wrapped in a tattered and stained white robe. As the party drew close, Meepo rushed ahead and threw himself on the ground before the throne said, “Yudrasyl strangers come. They say they can help get the dragon back.” Turing to stare at the party with an opaque look Yudrasyl said nothing.After a few moments of awkward silence Denye stepped forward and with a small bow introduced the party. “We have been sent by the Watcher to find out why the goblins have been attacking. If there is some way we can help you, we would be happy to do so.”
Yudrasyl sat up a bit straighter and spoke in a thin, quavering voice, “Help? You can help by getting rid of these goblins or at least getting them to leave us alone.”
“Why are the goblins bothering you?” asked Denye.
“Kobolds are heir to dragons. As the mightiest among my people, I have led a brave few to this ancient holy site, where dragons were worshiped long ago,” Yudrasyl answered. “We have been here for many years. Once we had run of the entire structure, but then the goblins came, 20-25yrs ago, and pushed us to this small territory. For a time we lived in relative peace, but they have gotten more aggressive in the past moons and I fear they mean to drive us from this place.”
Janora stepped up and asked, “Do you know why the goblins have been getting aggressive?”
Yudrasyl raised one hand in a shrug, “I know not, the last time I tried to send a messenger, the nasty goblins shot at him. My scouts have heard rumors that their leader, Rezerx, is dead. Perhaps whoever took over is more blood-thristy than that old hard-head.”
“And what is this about a dragon?” asked Jilken.
“The goblins stole our white dragon Calcryx. I know not why, except to perhaps harass us more. If you could return the goblin to us, I would grant you a reward.”
Looking up at the key glinting in the torch light Ell hazarded a guess, “I have seen a magical lock recently, would that be the key to fit it?”
Yudrasyl’s lower jaw dropped open in a kobold grin, “You seek the Tomb of the Dragonpriest? Very well, return our dragon to the tribe and the key is yours.”
“Do you know where they are keeping the dragon?” asked Janora.
Yudrasyl shook her head, “I do not know. I’m sure she is still somewhere on this level, but where in the goblin territory I could not say. Meepo here can show you the back entrance to their lair.”
Looking at their fellow group members, Janora said,”We’ll do what we can. For the moment, do you have somewhere we could sit down for a bit and plan?
“Of course,” replied Yudrasyl. Looking down at Meepo she ordered, “Show them to one of the empty storage rooms.” Turning to the party she simply said, “Good luck!”
Meepo led the party back the way they has come and into a 30ft x 30ft stone room where everyone settled down and began to discuss what they had learned as well as various approaches to handle the goblin situation and the additional complication of a dragon.
Eventually they decided that the best plan was to go in, see what they could find, and if they ran into any goblins they would ask to be taken to the leader. Opening the door they found Meepo lurking in the passageway and he quickly led the way back through the complex to another passageway that led into a 20x25ft chamber.
The room was full of dust with odd bits of stony debris and rubble scattered on the floor. An ornate fountain was built into the eastern wall. Though cracked and stained, the fountain’s overarching carving of a diving dragon retained much of its beauty. A relief-carved stone door stood on the western wall, and a hall led off to the north.
Leading the party onward, Meepo went north and opening the first door on the left ushered the party inside. He pointed to the north door and said, “Through there, that is goblin territory.”
Jilken stalked forward and looked the door over, it was made of stone and seems to not fit the doorframe quite well anymore but as far as she could tell there were no traps on it.
After telling Meepo to stay here so that he didn’t get hurt, Denye pushed the door open. As she did so, a small bell rang in the silence of the hall. With a bit of a sheepish look she glanced over her shoulder at the rest of the group. With a sigh, Janora stepped forward, pushed the door the rest of the way open, and cast Dancing Lights into the hall beyond.
In the glow of the magic orbs, the party could see a ten-foot-wide hall, liberally strewn with sharp caltrops. On the northern end, passage to the room beyond was partially blocked by a roughly mortared, three-foot-high wall, complete with crenellations. Peeking over the wall were three goblins crouched and starting at the party.
Ell stepped forward, deftly avoiding the spikey bits of metal, and said, “Take us to your leader.”
One of the goblins shouted back, “Who are you and why do you want to speak to Durnn?”
“We have heard that there has been trouble here lately, and we’re here to help if we can. Did you say your leader was Durnn, we heard that Rezerx was the clan chief.”
“We do not speak of the Unnamed,” was the shouted reply.
Janora stepped up and asked, “So you like Durnn as your leader?”
By this point the goblin was standing, though he was only a head taller than the wall, “Durnn is big, Durnn is strong. Drunn makes all goblins strong.” Turning to look at one of the other goblins he whispered something and the goblin ran off around the corner. “You wish to speak to Durnn. We will escort you. Come forward.”
Crossing the hall and climbing over the short wall, the party found themselves standing a few feet from the two goblins, one of which still had a crossbow pointed at them. About this time, the third goblin returned with three others. As the goblins all moved to stand next each of the party and as they pulled out dirty rags the leader spoke up again, “You must be blindfolded. They will be removed before you speak with Durnn.”
After a small bit of protestation, the party agreed and were blindfolded, although they insisted on using cloths of their own and not the filthy rags held by the goblins. They were let through a series of passages until at last the blindfolds were removed. Blinking, the party looked around quickly and found themselves in a large room with about 30-40 goblins laying around resting, some working on carving small stone pots. Most of them appear to be women and children.
Standing before the party was a hobgoblin with crossed arms standing in front of a door. The original goblin that the party has spoken with stepped up and said in Goblin, “These people wish to speak with Durnn.” Turning to glare at the party the hobgoblin said in Common, “You must leave your weapons here.” and pointed at a low table next to the door.
After some grumbling and protesting, the party left much of their obvious weapons on the table. After a skeptical look at Janora’s dogstaff, the hobgoblin opened the door and the party stepped through, finding themselves in a forty-foot-diameter domed chamber.
Dim violet light shined out a circular shaft that pierced the floor, revealing sickly white and gray vines that coat the walls of the shaft. The light was supplemented by four lit wall torches set equidistant around the periphery of the chamber. A crudely fashioned stone throne sits against the curve of the northwestern wall. A large iron chest serves as the throne’s footstool. A twisted sapling grows in a wide stone pot next to the throne.
On the throne said a large hobgoblin, presumably Durrn. There were also two other hobgoblins lounging on couches and a small, older goblin who seemed to be some kind of spirit worker. Durnn cast his eyes over the party as they entered and growled, “Durnn wonders why you come to my kingdom?”
Ell stepped for and said, “We have come to speak with you. The goblins have lived here for years in peace with their neighbors. Has something gone wrong? We will help if we can.”
Durnn simply glared at him and said, “Help? Durnn took this lazy lot of trash, taught them to make something for themselves. We attack because they have gold and we want it.” At this statement, the small goblin cast a smouldering look at the larger hobgoblin and turned her back to him.
Denye moved to stand beside Ell and asked, “And what about the kobolds, why have you taken their dragon? They would like it back. We have some gold...maybe we can make a deal”
Durnn turned his glare to this new speaker and shook his head. “That wyrm has been promised to the Outcast...for his experiments. I will not bargain for it.”
“And where is this Outcast?” asked Ell.
The hobgoblin pointed at the well in the center of the room, “The Outcast is below. He guards the Tree and learns many secrets.”
At the mention of a Tree, Denye’s feathers went up. “Is this the same tree that produces the magic apples?” Durnn laughed, “Yes, the summer fruit is truly tempting with its healing properties. But the true gifts are the seeds.”
“What do you mean, the seeds are the true gift?” questioned Denye.
In response Durnn gestured to the potted plant at his right. The twisted sapling uprooted itself and stepped forward, revealing itself to be a twig blight.
Denye stammered, “You...you can control them?” as the twig blight moved down toward the party.
With another laugh Durnn replied, “Of course, they will do the wishes of the chosen.”
Realizing at this point that Durnn wasn’t going to back down, the party decided that a show of strength was in order.
Janora quickly cast an Entangle spell to catch Durnn, the spirit worker and the twig blight. The small goblin was able to slip aside, but the spell caught both of the others in twisting vines. Denye quickly threw a Firebolt at the twig blight, scorching it, but not setting it ablaze like some of the others the party had encountered.
Jilken attempted to run up to one of the other hobgoblins and stab it with a dagger she pulled from her boot, but he saw her coming in time and rolled out of the way. As he stood up Ell threw a dart at his back, but it just bounced off his armor.
Denye turned toward the spirit worker and cast Magic Missile. As it hit, she let out a small gasp and fell to one knee. Jilken went for the hobgoblin again, this time sliding the dagger between two of the plates followed up by a handaxe to the neck that managed to cut the jugular vein. Jilken pulled her blades out, allowing the body to crumple to the floor where the hobgoblin begins to bleed out.
Janora ran around the well and over to the goblin leaning on her staff. As they approached they raised their dogstaff, bringing it down onto the goblins head. With a loud WOOF the goblin crumpled into a heap on the floor.
The other lounging hobgoblin had gotten to his feet by this point and came rushing at Ell with a long sword raised. Ell attempted to dodge, but caught the blade in his leg, leaving him with a shallow, but long cut. Casting Hellish Rebuke at the hobgoblin in response, a wall of dark blue energy hit the creature knocking it back a step. Stepping away from the hobgoblin, Ell attempted to cast Create Bonfire at the twig blight, but it dodged out of the way.
Hopping up onto the wall over looking the well, Denye cast Thunderwave at the twig blight and the hobgoblin. The latter hit the door with a loud thud while the former was shattered against the wall. Jilken rushed at Durnn with a dagger, but the goblinoid chief had pulled free from the restraining vines and jumped out of the way. She took a second swing with her hand axe, but tripped over Grinal's body on the floor and fell, catching herself on the wall surrounding the hole.
Janora attempted to use their sling to hit Durnn, but it went wide, pinging against one of the walls and down into the well. Durnn, seeing this dusky elf run up and try to attack him, swung his long sword at Jilken, cutting into her right arm.
The hobgoblin from outside pulled open the door, concerned after hearing that loud thud. Seeing the chaos, he pulled his sword and ran at Denye, cutting a deep wound in her back and almost knocking her into the violet light below. Ell tried to cast Create Bonfire at the new hobgoblin, but the creature danced out of the way avoiding the flames.
Denye, pissed about the sword blow, attempted to cast Firebolt at the hobgoblin who had hit her. As she did so however, one of the stones shifted under her foot and the bolt flew past incinerating the goblin who had brought them here. He had been cowering against the wall, afraid to join in the fight.
Jilken swung at Durnn, but once again he evaded her strikes. Janora seeing this cast Burning Hands, which staggered Durnn. Wiping the blood from his nose, he growls at the witch.
The hobgoblin, in his turn, dropped his sword, pulled out his longbow and fired at this witch that had burned his leader. The arrow buried itself in Janora’s thigh, releasing a thin trickle of blood.
Durnn, furious and looking to end this, rushed Jilken attempting to knock her down into the well. He managed to pin her against the crumbling wall, but he couldn’t push him over.
Ell shot a spark of flame at Durnn hitting the hobgoblin in the side of the head. Denye followed it up with a Firebolt of her own, hitting Durnn on the other side of his head. Using the distraction, Jilken managed to slip out of the goblinoid’s grasp. Durnn fell against the stones and started to go over, but managed to grab hold of the vines.
Janora walked up with their dogstaff raised, and with two hands drove the mastiff head into the chief rear. With a loud snarl from the staff and a yelp from the hobgoblin, Durnn’s grip released and he fell down to the lower level below.
Seeing this the remaining hobgoblin who had only recently entered threw down his weapons and fell to his knees crying, “Please, just don’t...don’t kill us.”
Jilken, looking angry, kicked the sword away from him, “Are you going to answer our questions?”
“What...what do you want to know?” asked the hobgoblin, who had stopped begging and now just sat looking defeated.
“What can you tell us about this Outcast?” asked Ell.
The goblnoid looked confused for a moment, “Master Balek? He’s an old human Druid who came looking for the sacred tree about 12 years ago. Now he rules the lower level, most goblins who venture down, never come back up.
Ell persisted, “But why call him the Outcast?”
The hobgoblin shrugged, “That’s what he calls himself.”
Denye jumped in, “What about the other adventuring party that came through a while ago? Do you know what happened to them?”
“We captured three of them and brought them to Durnn, admitted the hobgoblin. “There was a fight and Durnn killed one of them. The other two went down to Belak, I haven’t seen them since.”
Switching topics again quickly, Denye asked, “And what about the dragon? Has it been taken below?”
The prisoner shook his head, “No, it is in the Trophy Room. No one can get near it after it snapped it’s chain.”
Ell reclaimed the hobgoblin's attention, “Back to this Outcast, have you ever seen him before? What does he look like?”
The goblinoid shuddered, “Seen him once, that was enough. He just looked like an old man, dirty with dark eyes and hair. He has a giant pet frog that follows him around.”
Looking around at the carnage of the room, Jilken moved over to the spirit workers corpse and rummaging through her pouches found two spell scrolls. One was for Fairy Fire while the other was for Expeditious Retreat. She handed them over to Denye with a simple, “Here I can’t use these, but you probably can.”
Turning to look at the large iron chest that Durnn had been using as a footrest, Jilken examined the lock. The chest was definitely locked and didn’t seem to be trapped. Realizing the key was probably on Durnn she stood and peered over the side. After deciding that they should probably rest before heading down there, Jilken turned to the rest of the group, “So anything else before we rest?”
Denye looked at the others, “We should probably get Meepo and try to at least talk to the dragon. Maybe it will be happy to go back with the kobolds.” Turning to the hobgoblin she asked, “Can you show us where the dragon is kept?”
Standing slowly the guard nodded his head. Leading them out into the larger chamber the party found it was completely deserted. Pausing a moment to reclaim their other weapons, the group followed him out into a large smoke/haze filled hall.
As the party was walking Janora spoke up, “We need to go back to the chamber with all the caltrops. A friend is waiting, it’s his dragon, he should be there when we talk to it.” With a shrug of his shoulders the guard led them back to that space, now dark once again.
Recasting Dancing Lights, four glowing orbs now illuminated the space, making it easier to walk through the traps. Retrieving Meepo, the group made their way to the trophy room. Unlocking the door, the hobgoblin stood back, letting the party go inside first. Janora suggests, “Meepo, you should go, she’s your dragon after all.”
Turning the handle, Meepo pushed the door open halfway and stepped inside. As he moved forward, in Draconic he called, “Calcryx, Calcryx...Meepo come for you.”
Sending one of the lights into the room revealed mounted and stuffed animal heads all over the walls. The mounting job was sloppy, and the assortment of heads included cattle, rats, and other not particularly impressive specimens. A few other grisly trophies share the wall with the animals, including a couple of kobold heads. Smashed and broken cabinets and small tables littered the periphery of the room, mute victims of some sort of rampage. A rusted iron spike stood in the center of the room, trailing a broken chain. Thin patches of frost coated sections of the walls, floor, and debris.
At the back of the room was a large table that had been knocked onto its side. As Meepo moved past it he let out a loud cry of “Calcryx!”
The white wyrmling, who had been sleeping, woke suddenly and seeing Meepo reared back crying, “You! You will never take me.” It lunged forward suddenly and bit the head off the small kobold.
With a cry of alarm, Denye stepped into the room. “Why would you do that? He cared about you and wanted to take you home.”
The dragon hissed, “I do not want to go back to the kobolds. Did you see the cage they kept me in. I want to stay here...here I have gold.”
“What if you could stay here and the kobolds took care of you?” asked Denye.
Ell pointed out, “Someone needs to bring you food and maybe they will find more gold for you.”
The dragon made a thoughtful sound, and looked at the body of Meepo, “Perhaps, but not another pathetic one like that.”
Janora nodded, “We’ll go talk to the others and see if we can work something out.”
Heading back out into the hall, the party found the hobgoblin waiting for them. After telling him what happened, he shows them a more direct way to get to the kobold side. Nearing the dragon throne, the party could see Yudraysl sleeping in the seat. As they approached one of the guards flanking the throne, shook her shoulder and she sat up blinking.
Yudraysl seemed perplexed as the party related the events of the last several hours. In the end, she agreed that if the goblins would let the kobolds through the dragon could stay, and if Calcryx doesn’t eat everyone they send they wouldn’t try to put her in a cage.
Encouraged by this news the party headed back over to the goblin area to discuss these negotiations and make sure that they worked for everyone. Making their way back into the main goblin room, they found that a majority of the goblins had come back...although very few looked to be doing anything but staring at each other. The hobgoblin guard from earlier was sitting at one of the fires next a smaller goblin woman who was rocking an infant.
Walking up to him, Janora asked, “Have your people chosen a new leader yet?”
With a tense look at the goblin woman, the guard answered, “They want me to be the leader. My name is Targg.”
After relating what had happened with Calcryx and the further negotiations with Yudrysl, the hobgoblin looked concerned. “We could perhaps make that work. If the Outcast’s monsters were cleared out of the lower level, I could convince the goblins to move down there, leaving this entire level to the kobolds.”
The party agreed that they could probably help with Balek, but they needed a rest first as it has already been a busy and adventurous day. Deciding that they should return to the surface and check on the horses, the party made its way back across the crumbling courtyard and up the stairs. Climbing the rope back up, they found the sun had almost set, but both the campsite and the horses were undisturbed.
After moving the horses to a new tethering point, the party made dinner and settled in for the night. All three watches passed uneventfully, everyone got a good night’s rest and as the dawn sun shone into the valley below the adventurers began to stir and get ready for another day.
Report Date
17 Jul 2020
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