Starting the day in a luxury suite of rooms in an Eversweet Orchard inn, paid for by Charl (presumably) after vanquishing the monstrous badger. A fruit bowl and a warm bath await before a trip to the town's square. Being proper adventurers, they promptly spot the only source of adventuring entertainment. At one side of the town square is a merchant, looking flustered and worried. When approached, he explains that his previous bodyguards have left, and his wagon's load of Hard Cider (made from Moon Apple) needs escort to the relatively nearby city of Riverdale. Being a major trade hub, not to mention the only way to cross the mighty river by using Riverdale's bridge, the party agrees that they're going in the same direction.
On the way back to Grand South, as they must take the roads, the party encounters a rather skeevy looking kobold and an elf. The sorceress with a longbow greets them, as does the kobold summoner, and they make their way to Grand South.
Once in town, it's nearly dusk, so the party piles in the local inn for the night, aside from the Kobold who sleeps under the wagon - Kobolds are uncivilized and not allowed in, however he managed to sneak in under the barrels. In the morning, they find the merchant stuck in the merchant's guild, complaining of taxes and import laws. They leave him until noon, where they find him stuck in the merchant's guild complaining of embargoes and the method to tied down a barrel. At night, they fail to find him.
This continues for several days.
Nearing the end of the week, the party approaches General Constance once more, for mercenary summons. He explains to them that the region has had terrible goblin troubles lately, with kidnappings, banditry, and outright raiding becoming more common. He then explains that to the south, his army cannot travel, due to being over another nation's borders, however they have discovered a goblin camp of some type there, and since mercenaries are not actually part of the army... the party is dispatched to clean out the goblins.
Starting to leave town, the merchant promptly and cheerfully mentions how he's ready to leave and head to Riverdale - being on the other side of the only bridge, they are still going there if they intend to cross the river. Together with the wagon, they set out. It is an uneventful trip until about halfway through, where they pass by an old city guard watchtower, tall, narrow stone structure, door boarded up and stone dusty. Being a convenient midway point, and being nearly noon, they stop the wagon to eat and stretch their legs.
An arrow promptly strikes the merchant in the upper arm. As the party is looking around the watchtower in superb paranoia, the merchant scrambles to the ground and takes cover, before the arrow promptly explodes, severing his arm messily and leaving him unconscious and bleeding heavily on the ground. Equally promptly, the cleric and everyone else take up fighting positions in front of the wagon. Three heavily armed men approach from further down the road, chainmail, heavy wooden shields, and longswords, shouting and screaming. The barbarian and cleric rush into the fray, the sorceress firing arrows as the summoner sits on his ass and begins drawing summoning circles in the dirt road. However, as soon as the cavalier prepares to charge the bandits, an arrow flies out from the darkness of the woods, flaring into a wide brunt and hitting him square on the chest, knocking him off his horse and to the ground.
While the fighters deal with the bandits, another pair come running from behind the wagon, quick and only wearing light armor, they rush to the wagon and grab bags of goods before anyone can react! The cleric breaks from the heavily armed bandits to pursue the runners, although his efforts are in vain as they manage to cartwheel and backflip away in impressive displays of acrobatics that leave his greatsword cleaving through naught but air.
The battle rages for some time, the barbarian still preoccupied with the heavily armed and the cleric making no progress on the runners, while the cavalier (dismounted) breaks into the watchtower and proceeds up, though he sees nothing of note. Meanwhile the sorceress, feeling brave, ventures too far into the middle of the road and a single arrow drops her. As the runners disappear, the cleric breaks combat to heal her, or at least heal enough to stop her from dying and allow her to flee into the shelter of the now-open tower. The barbarian makes partial progress, downing two bandits before succumbing to Fatigue, as his barbarian's rage wears off and nature punishes him for his brutal misuse of his body. By this time the cavalier has re-mounted and moved in to aid the barbarian with the final armed bandit.
At just that moment, the cleric is handling the runners again, as they've returned to the wagon and are proceeding to steal an entire barrel of hard cider. His attempt to stop them is cut short as an arrow sinks into his upper thigh, quickly exploding and sending the poor dwarf unconscious on the road. The runners keep going, managing to steal two entire barrels as well as several small bags in total.
By some grace of the gods, the barbarian lying exhausted on the ground manages to look up and see the archer! 30 or so feet back, in the forest, and 30 or so feet up, perched in a high tree, his cloaked form doesn't hide an incredible size of longbow. Knowing he's been seen, he drops his bow, standing and running along the branch before leaping into the air, only to throw his arms wide and glide into the road before hitting the ground deftly and making a charged rush at the cavalier, bloodying his beak on the human's leg. The powerful tengu archer is solid black, covered in sleek feathers, his face elongated with wide, watchful eyes tucked under a pair of goggles and a long, sharp beak dripping with fresh blood.
The summoner finally acts, drawing his Eidolon out and sending it to charge the tengu, however the attack misses. As the runners manage to escape into the woods, the tengu and remaining armed bandit Withdraw, disappearing easily into the undergrowth. the party promptly throws the unconscious dwarf onto the wagon and ride away as fast as they're able.
Making Riverdale in remarkable time, thanks in no small part to the horse's terror, they immediately find a merchant's stable to store the wagon, an inn to store themselves, and recover from their ordeal. Enraged at their inability to land blow on the defensive bandits, or to strike the swift runners, or to notice the stealthy archer's deadly bow, they fortify themselves to plan more carefully, prepare more thoroughly, and to be ready for the next fight.
Selling the Hard Cider draws them in about 1,000 gold, split between them, while they keep the wagon to themselves for storage and travel. After stocking on potions and scrolls, they proceed outwards, following the river, pulling wagon over rolling, wooded hills, until cresting a particular hill and sending the barbarian up to climb. Seeing a smoke trail, they mark the direction and head directly towards it.
Luckily their approach is in stealth, and they're able to see trenches and goblin-built fortifications. Much less sturdy than regular palisades, the goblin entrenchment is little more than small logs lashed together with rope and sunk into the ground, uneven and even tilting. The party casts relevant spells, improving themselves and drawing the barbarian to unnatural size before making a charge in.
The cleric runs, stopping at the wall to peek inside, seeing only a goblin with bow. The barbarian charges, spear held forward, slamming into the palisade with astonishing force, a single mighty blow toppling the entire structure (15 foot wide) and shocking the mass of goblins and hobgoblins inside, not to mention his mighty roar. The goblins promptly fall into formation, hobgoblins with tower shields and halberds forming a phalanx line while regular goblins with bows move behind. Quick blows exchange, a hail of small arrows barely hurting as halberds thrust, and hurt quite a bit more.
Despite the braced halberds, despite the phalanx line, despite the tower shields awaiting, the cavalier takes stock of all these entrenchments, understanding all of them before making a rush into battle. He impales his horse directly on the waiting spears, falling prone in the mud as his horse dies under goblin spears.
A single flask of alchemist's fire is thrown, injuring one bowman and setting him on fire but not otherwise doing much damage. Feeling as if they're in over their heads, they proceed a sloppy and rather girlish tactical retreat, retrieving their injured comrades and fleeing with all the grace of a frightened cat back to Riverdale. The goblins, confused about the theatrical entrance and quick turnabout... mostly just set the palisade back up and consider themselves the victors.
Heading back to Grand South to lick their wounds and report findings, Constance is intrigued and disturbed to hear of hobgoblins wielding such fine weapons. Especially halberds. The favored weapon of the rival nation, in the hands of trained hobgoblins, not to mention the recent goblin raids and the finding of alchemist's fire in a goblin encampment... The evidence was abundant that the goblins were being supplied, and by someone who favored halberds and disfavored their nation.
While mulling over the best way to go to war, Constance points the party towards one of the old vaults. A nation of hoarders, they have secret, sealed vaults hidden all over the countryside. This particular one is stocked with old Goblin's Bane items. Setting out immediately, the party manages to bring the wagon along into the steep mountain pass, to eventually find the overgrown and hidden entrance. The sealed chamber warns of national retribution to all who would dare attempt to force their way past the heavy stone seal.
The barbarian and cleric promptly heave-to and push the stone slab inwards, smashing on the ground and revealing the vault itself. Proceeding in cautiously, checking for traps, they reveal a large axe blade already sunk into the floor, its pivot on the wall as it has come down into a bloodstain and a dent in the stone floor. Further along they find a series of inch wide holes in the floor, covering a wide area and offering no way to step around. Spending great time looking over, detecting, worrying, and eventually moving in, nothing actually happens to them and they walk over the trap with no reaction.
However, immediately past are a host of spiders. Massive beasts, as big as a man, the venomous creatures rush the party. Fortunately, the dismounted cavalier steps forward, shield at ready as he merely shrugs off all attacks, allowing the barbarian and cleric to thrust their spears and longhammers around and wipe out the foes. Moving on, they find a long hallway with rooms to either side, each containing weapon racks, crates and boxes, and spiders. However under the cavalier's mighty shield they pose no threat, and they proceed to the final, back room... only to see the massive spider awaiting and stop there, because it had been a 12 hour session or so.
The tengu had +19 to stealth. The party only rolled perception to find him ONCE. The barbarian lying exhausted on the ground rolled like 18, and the tengu rolled a 1. This was nothing short of an act of the gods.
It was also not a fight they were meant to win. They got full exp for surviving, and gold for the sale of cider, but it was intended to be an overpowered and smart trap, which they fell into perfectly and got totally ruined. They'd have had significantly better luck simply defending the wagon.
The goblins were hilarious. With such strength, the barbarian simply bashed into the wall like a bulldozer and destroy the structure. Then they proceeded to get stabbed, hard, and turned their badass approach into a pansy retreat in the span of about 2 turns.
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Topic: Girlinhat's Pathfinder: Failures of Ability (Read 9066 times)