After a long summer break our group gathered again to finish the assault on the keep. We had used multiple intense debates to make a detailed plan:
On the day of decision, we approached the north wall with three storm ladders, and our archers ascended first. Myrelin, Minig, and one of Myrelin’s three archers came first, the two other archers and Farin. Up on the wall and ready to shoot the courtyard guard, we discovered that we could not see one: the guy had moved to the southwestern part, mostly behind the edge of the northwest tower.
We quickly checked into the Northwest tower, where we saw two sleeping goblins and one guard on duty. To the northeast, two archers stood guard toward the window. So we decided to take out the guard in the tower NW. And the first round of arrows was a complete disaster. No hits, and Myrelin even dropped her bow down the wall to the outside of the castle!
Plans going awry
Luckily in round two, Minig’s swift arrow killed the guard, and the next batch of climbers returned her bow. Alas, it turned out there was an archer in the courtyard after all, just hidden around the tower’s edge. Now the archers needed to be quick! Minig climbed out onto the wall to the furthest edge of the tower to shoot the guard – but merely wounds the guy. Myrelin shoots as well – but again loses her bow, dropping it off the tower. The two archers climb down to get a better angle – but one of them falls down a chute into the underground, with much noise. Willem and Ryden the Blue climb down into the Northwest tower to kill the two sleepers – but the ladder snaps and Ryden falls down, waking a sleeper. And also, the door to the NE tower is not yet spiked, as it should be.
The goblin runs and gets wounded a second time, sounds of battle from belowground, where it looks bad for our archer. Farin signals the other mercs to throw down a rope for their comrade. But right then the door of the tower opens and an armored goblin warrior steps out. Followed by three more.
At least there our luck changes again: Minig kills the running goblin and, since our surprise is lost already, yells to the others to kill the goblins from the tower. Willem and Ryden have pulled back the bridge — finally some part of the plan that goes well! — and come back up to join the battle in the NE. But Minig is worried about the ladder that the goblins have set down into the large pit in the center: there must be more goblins down below and with the ladder they may come up and join the fight. “Remove that ladder!” he yells, and wounds the goblin warrior with one well-placed arrow.
Weirdly, this evening his shots go really well!
The fight at the NorthEast Tower is a bit of a deadlockdevolving into chaotic melee at close quarters, even including Thomas Parduc the magic user with nothing but a dagger and no armor. Overall the whole scuffle is bad because the longer it takes and the more sounds it generates, the more likely that we get more company from the southern towers. Even worse, now Minig espies goblins in the deep pit running toward the ladder, which is still in there! One of them is another goblin-boss, the armored tough goblins. Minig shoots and hits the guy for 5 damage, then in the following round again for 4 damage. The guy is still up, and Minig yells to the others: “pull the ladder, pull the ladder!”
Myrelin and Farin reach the brink of the pit at that moment, and for a moment Farin thinks about kicking the ladder down, but Minigs yells remind him that we want to have it up with us, not down with the goblins, and so he and Myrelin pull the thing up at the last possible second. Luckily Willem finally joins the tower fight and slays one of the goblins, so the humans get the upper hand.
Myrelin keeps missing her shots, and a goblin in the pit draws a bow, but Minig is still rolling hot from his high perch up on top of the tower in front of a painfully brightening sky, and he kills the enemy archer with a single shot.
Finally the melee resolves in our favour when Willem, Ryden and Thomas slay the goblin warrior, and the spearmen storm the tower to clear the remaining goblin archers inside.
Willem leads Ryden, Farin, Thomas and the surviving archers across the narrow ledge to the south, alas an enemy archer comes out of the southeast tower. Minig eliminates him with a fine shot. In the pit, a goblin archer picks up the dropped shortbow of his fallen minion and starts shooting at Farin and Thomas, luckily missing Thomas and doing very little damage, while Myrelin and Minig return shots.
Willem’s retainers really pay off in this assault, as they both bravely fight in the front line and support their employer without hesitation.
Suddenly the massive goblin chieftain and a personal archer come out to join the fray. Myrelin finally turns her luck around and hits the chieftain with a fine shot for 5 damage while Minig eliminates the archer. Willem and Ryden slay goblins coming from the southeast tower with supporting archery from Myrelin while Minig supresses the pit-goblins deep under his tower perch. Suddenly it looks a lot like we are winning good despite our initial setbacks.
The goblin chieftain sees his guys drop dead and decides, despite his strength, that he’ll run away and fight another day. But Willem, Ryden and Farin hunt and harry him, and in the end he falls, while Minig kills the pit goblin warrior below with a critical hit doing a whopping 10 damage on a foe who was already hit several times.
Victory!
Just as Minig ran dangerously low on arrows.
The field looks like total carnage, and to our relief no demon shows up. That was a bit of a worry given that our only demon-slayer — Myrelin — happened to fumble and miss so often during this battle.
But not only the demon was missing:
Also a number of the underground goblins who have killed our luckless archer have mysteriously disappeared.
Myrelin raises the flag of her ruler and we descend into the pit to recover the body of our fallen comrade and check out where the missing troops went. We discover loot, and a secret underground connection leading onward. The tempation is strong to go in, explore and hunt. But cooler heads prevail: the ruler of the land needs to be informed about the victory so he can take appropriate steps. Therefore we stop here, retreat and secure the bulwark.
We can go hunt goblins in the underground next time.
