DF Session 2: Into the Hall of Bones

It came as something of a surprise to have two back-to-back DF sessions.  No worries, though.  The adventure continues!

PCs:

Alvin (Dave) -- Human bard, equipped with wit, song, and rapier.

Bjorn (Craig) -- Northman barbarian, armed and armored with anything he can get his hands on.  (Built “freehand” and including the “Northman” racial template that exists in another campaign, he’s still a classic barbarian -- big, strong, good in the outdoors, etc.)

Enneric (Rich) -- Human wizard, of the Coma Bat school of wizardry.  (Coma Bat started as a typo for “combat”, but it has become something of a running gag; this warrants a Magical Style® of its own.)

“Ivan” (Alaric) -- Human thi--er…  Human “acquisition” specialist. (“Ivan” is the assumed name of the week for this character -- this may become a running gag as well.)

Session:

With Autumn’s player absent (our actual reason for playing DF again), I wanted an easy out for her.  Simple -- she was the most badly hurt.  But how to get the rest of the PCs healthy and introduce “Ivan”.  Again, simple: Alysa and Jory were both in the Salt Wolf (back in Wolverton) the day that the rest of the party left early in the morning.  That afternoon, Ivan’s vessel arrived.  He naturally went to the nearest watering hole to find out what opportunities for profit might be found along the Lonely Coast.

    It didn’t take long for a slightly inebriated Jory and a very determined Alysa to interest Ivan in an opportunity for reward.  Ivan, wanting to share as little of this reward as possible, coaxed the pair into setting out immediately.  It being late afternoon and the journey being 14 miles on poor roads, this would put them there well after dark.  But this hardly seemed a problem to the trio, who made the journey without incident.

    Upon arrival, they found the village in a bit of an uproar -- it seems that some adventurous sorts had been attacked by a band of these “degenerate” goblins, with several injuries resulting.  Alysa headed straightaway for the farm house where the rest of the party was, save Bjorn, in a bad way.  She set to work, using Healing Slumber liberally, and quickly determed that Autumn was just too wounded to head out the next day.

    Why the next day?  Bjorn had some information, and at least two goblins yet lived, and also that the goblins may well be about to sell or trade them with slavers (this last he had obtained from the human rogue who identified himself as “Sammeth Kinesson” -- it was assumed to be a nom de guerre rather than his true name).  With some effort, the goblins might be persuaded to reveal the location of the missing girls and Sammeth the location of the slaver ship.  

The following morning, with the goblins and Sammeth expertly tended to (though not magically healed), they were interrogated by Alvin and Bjorn.  Sammeth did in fact admit to being a slaver, his purpose in Swallowfeld being a covert meeting with the goblins.  He also gave what Jory, a former local fisherman, claimed to be a fair description of where the slaver ship might be.

The goblins, it turned out, speak Common.  So they had heard that they were being sold out.  A judicious application of bard-song and brutal threats caused them to join in and sing -- in exchange for their lives.  The first received the promise from Alvin that he -- Alvin -- would not kill him, which was sufficient for him to confirm the slaver’s tale.  The second chimed in, but not without receiving a more stringent promise from Alvin that he do all he can to spare his life.  He promised to guide them to his village, grumbling that this whole dealing with human slavers had soured him on his tribe.

All but Autumn were up to snuff by late morning, and so the PCs set out, accompanied by Alysa and Jory.  The goblin led them through a number of twisty, turny paths each much like the last, which were something more than a game trail and something less than a true pathway.  Nonetheless, by late afternoon they were at the edge of a clearing, beyond which the goblin claimed was a short path down into his village, which, he said, was in the “Hall of Bones”.

Goblin Village

The party held up, with Ivan volunteering to scout the village.  Two minutes after he left, Bjorn followed.  Both worked their way around the clearing, taking care to be as quiet as possible, and of course to remain unseen.  They were helped in this by an overcast day and a persistent light rain.  Ivan circled the clearing until he found a path down to the village.  He found the village, and discovered that “Hall of Bones” is apt, as the village lies at the bottom of an old sinkhole, and is completely surrounded by bones suspended from rope, with an awning formed of bones ringing the pit-like village.  He looked down into the village, with its dwellings built into the walls of the old sinkhole, to see which of them might be the most important.

He guessed that one of them belonged to the village shaman and decided to scout it, at the same time getting a closer look at the rest of the village.  He worked his way around the top of the pit until he came to another path, one he assumed opened near the shaman’s home.  He was correct.  

Quieter than a mouse, he crept down onto the swampy pit floor and investigated the shaman’s house.  He peered through the dim light, saw no signs of movement in any of the homes, and thus proceeded to investigate the shaman’s house.  He looked in through an unshuttered window and saw what he thought to be the shaman’s supine form, his sleep loudly pronounced by his snoring.  

Ivan took a piece of wood and wedged it into the packed mud so as to block the shaman’s door.  He then took a long look at the two bejeweled idols standing to either side of the door.  Finding no traps, he proceeded to denude them of their gems.  One of them had a secret compartment.  Inside were two narrow openings to the outside, both plugged with small glass cylinders.  There was also a bag of an unknown powder.  Ivan took them all and placed them into his purse.  He then began his return trip to meet with his comrades at the edge of the meadow.  

In the mean time, Bjorn had followed him, never quite seeing him.  He found a good overwatch spot and settled in with good concealment to observe the village.  He watched as Ivan investigated and denuded the idols.  Very shortly after Ivan left, a trio of goblins had met in the middle of the “courtyard”, then moved out along three different paths.  One passed Bjorn’s position without noticing him; a short time later, another returned by the same path.  It seemed to be the changing of the watch, which had narrowly missed Ivan.

A few minutes later, Ivan spotted Bjorn, who told him he’d seen a guard change while Ivan had been working his way back around the village-pit. This started a sort of game between the two, as Bjorn hadn’t heard, and had only just barely noticed Ivan, who had seen through his camouflage with (relative) ease.  The two would play a dangerous game of hide and seek.

Ivan made his way quietly up the path until he spotted a one-way blind looking out into the meadow.  He saw the goblin peering out across the clearing apparently oblivious to his presence.  Ivan pulled out his sling/flail (a combination weapon modeled on the weighted scarf) and whacked the unsuspecting watchman on the back of the head.  Though dazed, he was still conscious.  Wanting to end it swiftly, Ivan punched him in the back of head, dropping him.  He then bound the hapless guard and dragged him back to meet the others.

Ivan sketched the map for the rest of the crew, mentioned the “barn” doors he had seen, and decided to return to investigate.  Alvin would interrogate the goblin to see what he could tell them while Ivan searched the barn.  

Alvin was able to learn that the village was thinly defended -- it seems that a sizeable portion of their fighting strength was missing.  Before much else could be determined, however, a trio of goblins came down the trail and attacked without hesitation.  A short, sharp fight left Jory slightly wounded and three goblin corpses.

In the mean time, Ivan had worked his way back to the village.  Along the way, he snuck up behind Bjorn and tapped him on the shoulder.  Bjorn was understandably upset -- having been caught off guard, he had quick-drawn a weapon and was about to use it, but checked himself before striking his new companion.  Ivan was amused and set out for the barn.

Bjorn changed position somewhat, finding a slightly less advantageous observation post that left him with his back to a stout tree-trunk and offered better concealment as a compensation.  He then settled in to overwatch.

Ivan slipped quietly into the village, still unobserved, and crept to the barn door.  Inside were the missing girls, or at least some of them. Unfortunately, they weren’t very quiet, and he tried to silence them.  After a small commotion and a few tense moments of waiting in the open, none of the goblins seemed to have roused themselves and so he sought to finish things in one fell swoop.  He tried to lift the heavy bar which sealed the door, but it refused to budge.

Returning to Bjorn -- this round of hide-and-seek mostly a draw -- he asked for help.  Bjorn, still annoyed, refused and asked him to go fetch the rest of the party.  Ivan finally agreed and brought them to Bjorn.

There was discussion, but the only plan that came out was a pell-mell rush into the village to retrieve the girls.  Ivan snuck down in advance, then together with Alvin and Bjorn, the bar was lifted free and the girls came out noisily.  The village was finally roused.  

Some goblins took to shooting crossbow bolts across the courtyard.  Another, coming from his home, was cut down quickly.  Alvin used his bard-song to sew the seeds of discord, telling them to kill the chief to surprisingly good effect -- a sharp battle took place between the chieftain and two of his men.  The door to the shaman’s house rattled but never opened.  One of the girls was hit by a crossbow bolt, but kept her feet.  Yet in spite of the disorganized attack, the goblins were more disorganized.  

They made it to cover, healed the girl, and set out through the woods.  Through the course of the night, their goblin captive guided them, afraid now that if he were caught he would suffer a terrible fate.  Exhausted, they made it back to the village at sunrise.

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A note about this adventure:

There were numerous encounter rolls, and a timetable that I used but was unknown to the players involving when the goblins would be active, guard changes, etc.  Had an encounter roll come up, had they done things differently, they would have faced stiff resistance.  There was an element of luck to this to be certain.  

But there was also an element of skill: the blocking of the shaman’s door was far more effective than I had thought at the time, but the shaman had trouble getting out.  The bard song worked, since the goblin’s morale was quite low (they were missing 13 of their male villagers, including a party of 3 who went to look for them) and so some of the goblins were unhappy with the chieftain.  He and the shaman together with the remaining warriors could have been quite a bit more difficult even if not organized; organized things would not have gone nearly as well, and the girls might even have perished.  

So be it -- the chips fell where they fell.  It’s DF.  Sometimes things go spectacularly well and sometimes they don’t.  TPKs are a possibility, and I will feel zero remorse unless I know that I designed a no-win scenario.

Treasure & XP

There sadly was little treasure this time.  The bodies of the fallen goblins weren’t really looted.  Only Bjorn and Ivan know that any loot was taken, and Bjorn has said nothing.  Ivan’s player will receive an accounting of what he found.

All of the PCs received 4 XP, with Ivan being voted the bonus XP point for his shaman-blocking.  Alvin was a close second for the utility of his bard-song.