Retcon: The Beatles have returned to the kobolds at the end of our last delve, and sold our gems. Now we bought some magical items and set out again: Lencio with Obelix and Donald, Hubbub with Jette and Gal, and Eban the brave spearman.

Sensible Decisions

Equipped with a map of one part of Level 2 we went down that winding staircase and checked out random corridors. First we discovered a mechanical contraption that allowed us to access deeper levels. We puzzled out how it worked and went to Level 3. However, the corridor there led right into a corridor crossing with four ogre-sized gargoyles watching us approach … from right behind an odd chalk marking.

That gave us pause. We were cool people, but not “four ogre sized gargoyles waiting for us”-cool.

Sensibly, we went back into the lift. Lencio commanded to go one lower to Level 4. Jette smiled and took us back up to Level 2. “Not yet, Lencio. Not yet.”

Diplomatic sensibilities

We walked around a bit and discovered that this area kind of “belonged” to the lizardmen. Since the lizardmen were friendlies with our friends, the kobolds, it seemed kind of dickish to mess with their territory and steal from them. So in a spirit of Diplomacy, we decided to go another way.

There we found something like a moneylender’s office with piles of coins, which we judged to be best left alone. We turned around to continue on, and promptly ran into a trap. Eban and Lencio got hurt, but Hubbub healed us both.

More than the trap itself stung the fact that it was a lizardman who came by and re-set it.

Not cool, friend of my friends. Not cool.

We continued south and discovered an area that was marked as Hobgoblin territory. Right then and there, a working gang of 12 kobolds came up from behind, and we invited them to spend a rest turn with us and chat. They told us that they were on their way to the Hobgoblins to trade, and gave us interesting intel: The valley was still cut off from the outside world with a magical barrier erected by the humans. But the Hobgoblins had their own exit from the dungeon, and it was beyond the barrier. What’s more, they had one of those cauldrons and planned to flood the land with freshly cooked up Hobgoblin invasion troops.

Bad tidings, that we promised to keep secret, so they would not suffer for their indiscretion. The kobolds went west, so we went east.

We promptly ran into two crab spiders and killed them; master warriors that we had grown into.

Master warriors, but not master surgeons: When Eban tried to de-fang one spider to harvest its poison, he accidentally poisoned himself. That left him with only 6 HP, which felt unsafe. He received a sip from the health potion and we traded him into second rank.

Bad news

Then we checked out some barrels and discovered, to our horror, three dead kobolds, salted and pickled, ready to be devoured. That got Lencio pretty agitated, because he feared for the work gang we had just met. “Let’s go after them to warn them!” he barked, and we set out.

Following their tracks we soon reached a reinforced door, barred from the inside. Jette judged it too tricky to open. Eban also wanted to try his hand at it, but Jette blew him off: “Don’t try that. It is pretty complex. You stick to hitting things, that’s what you are good at.”

But they heard Hobgoblin voices from beyond! We knocked, and Obelix called out: “Fresh Pizza delivery!”

Three Hobgoblins opened up, with an alarm gong behind them.

We started stabbing and slashing.

Badder news

Alas! Obelix cut down one, Eban stabbed another to death, but Donald’s crossbow missed very narrowly, and Lencio also failed to find a chink in the armor. Hobgoblin number 3 survived our initial onslaught. The next init went 5:5, but with home turf advantage, the Hob acted first. And slammed on the alarm gong.

Then he sped down a corridor, where Eban’s thrown spear turned out to be faster.

The party quickly moved up to recover the spear and spike a door.

Three Hobgoblins answered the alarm – and one of them also brought two trained mountain lions! At HD 3+2 and triple-attacks, these impressive animals proceeded to hand our collective asses to us. One by one we felt their claws raking our flesh, and Obelix had to fall back reduced to 2 HP.

Fight Kitties with Fire

Then Hubbub saved the day: Grinning like a madwoman, she lit a huge oil bomb and hurled it right between the opposition with glee, splashing both mountain lions and one Hobgoblin – and Lencio – with fire & fury.

We retreated west, the opponents retreated east, then fire and smoke cut us off. The combat was over. “Let’s get out of here!” called Lencio while Donald helped him extinguish his burning arm.

On the way out we hear banging behind a closed door: the Kobolds! Eban checked out the dead Hobgoblins and discovered, besides coins, a key! One, two, door open, and all twelve kobolds spilled from a too-small cell. Some of them were hurt.

“Out, out!” yelled Lencio, and all 19 of us stampeded back towards the stairs.

On the way out huge carnivorous giant flies buzzed after us, and we rolled for the chase – we shook them off and returned home, banged up and bloodied, but somehow with no fatalities … back in the kobold lair’s safety we were allowed to get kobold retainers in the future, and to heal up to 10 HP in the time until the next delve.

Link: The whole story

But wounded or healthy, Lencio’s path is crystal: After the Hobgoblins’ hostile moves against our kobold friends, not to speak about their project of attacking our homes and hearths, we have a real reason for war on our hands.

Let there be guerilla warfare.

Let there be blood.