Date: 16 Feb 2012
DM: Quendalon
PCs: Audrey Carcassone, Barnaby Flanders, Cut Coutelain, Ja'Tubis, Martin le Black, Pritchard Hood, Robert Hazart, Roland2
Summary
After a week of hand-wringing on the orcs' behalf, the party acquiesced to Cut's demands for an assault on the night goblin lair established in the aviary. It would all be so simple: Fireball over here, stinking cloud over there, mop up the gore and collect the legendary wealth of the goblin hordes. Pritchard had recruited a new Roland from the mob at the Smoking Owl. What could go wrong? Little did the halfling know of the goblins' strategic acumen.
Tip-toeing cautiously into the depths beneath Vertume's Tower, an invisible Robert Hazart spied two scouts who, in turned, detected the delicious aroma of wizard. Their hunger pangs turned to unrest, and their unrest stirred the nesting goblins below. Hazart retreated to the darkened chambers the party wait in, and reported the scene: Several nests on the floor below, several scouts on the balconies above, and no discernable forces on the mezzanine. A quick poll made no change to the planned course of action. The Company burst through the doorway onto the upper balconies, and a fleet-footed Martin sprinted towards the guards while Robert hurled a fireball at the farthest nest of goblins.
A bloody melee ensued. In a tremendous display of magic, Pritchard and Robert slung sleeping spells and noxious clouds about the chamber, and Robert called upon the power of Hilduin's Cube to summon what appeared to be a gigantic wall of toadstools separating the far balconies (and their javelins) from the party's melee. Unfortunately, the goblin forces engaged with the party's fighters were a near mortal opponent themselves. Barnaby Flanders's cut a path through two goblins with his flashing sword, but emerged battered and bloodied within an inch of his life. A bugbear appeared out of nowhere, and was paralyzed by Audrey's invocations of Seff's power before crushing the rear flank of wizards to a pulp. Tiny Cut Coutelain was lifted from the ground by a whooping trio of goblins, and hurled to the floor below.
But the party's fighters were brave, and Roland, Barnaby and Martin slowly took control of the stairs and balconies. They fought off wave after wave of goblin and hobgoblin, buttressed by Audrey's spells and lightening javelins. But Cut did not- could not- know that the tide was turning. Desperate and alone, the halfling donned the dread Helm of Ulfhethinn, and trusted his fate to the blood-rage it provoked. The party looked on with a mixture of horror and sympathy as the halfling recklessly pursued anything that looked vulnerable to a blade across the floor of the aviary, pausing only to confront and destroy a small group of zombies attracted by the ruckus.
When finally the killing rage had passed, the party thought briefly to collect their wits and hard-earned loot- when they heard an ominous buzzing. A swarm of killer bees darted into the aviary. While an exhausted Cut threw himself into the fetid waters of the fountains to evade their deadly stings, Martin bravely fended them off with a potion of bug repellent. His heroics were enough to distract the bees until missile fire from his comrades finished them off.
On the point of exhaustion, the party turned its attention to the bodies of their victims- when another wave of hobgoblins burst through the southern doors of the chamber! Fortunately, Pritchard Hood's well of arcane wonders had not run dry, and he was able to bind them in a magical web long enough for the party to escape the aviary.
But before they left, the party thought to check one more thing: A quick search for the fireplace that Martin's firestone was bound to. Finding a promising study, they examined its hearth only to be ambushed by a vile, lamprey-headed monstrosity! A quick but decisive melee ensued, in which it was promptly revealed that this was not the cash-carrying kind of monstrosity. Depressed and depleted, but victorious, the party finally made their way to the surface and reported the deaths of the night goblin horde to their orcish allies.
Losses and Loot
The party defeated three dozen night goblins, six night hobgoblin, one night bugbear, two birdman zombie and eight giant killer bees. They retrieved 10,000cp, a couple of hundred silver pieces, a few crude silver bracelets and a crude gold torc.
For opponents defeated, each party member receives 99xp. Each party member's share of treasure comes to 63gp.