Oathday, Pharast 28, 4713 mid day
Beneath the House of Withered Blossoms
Zos’ pair of giant golem-like things finally caught up with us just as the drawbridge to the castle clunked down before us. I say “castle”, but really it was pagoda like in shape — like a tottering shamble of an imitation of the House of Withered Blossoms above.
The giants shambled after us as we crossed the drawbridge and entered the fortress. Kali’s illusion of Munasukaru led the way into a large guard room where a troop of armed hobgoblins had assembled.
One of them stammered out in fear (and bewilderment), “We weren’t expecting you to arrive from this direction.”
“Shut up!” non-Munasukaru snarled, “Which of you idiots is in charge here?”
The hob-gobs looked sheepishly at one another, but nobody volunteered for the coveted position of flunky in command.
Non-Munasukaru growled, “Line up for inspection!”
They complied, and I walked over to the first guard as they lined up and pointed at his weapon. Pookie then demanded that he hand over his morningstar for inspection. Pookie doesn’t speak hobgoblin, but then neither do I, and so her command came out as an angry, “Squeak!”
He just stared at us.
“Insubordination!” Star angrily squeaked, as I grabbed the morningstar and moved to the next soldier. “Squeak!” This one had already caught on and immediately handed me his weapon. And so it went on down the line until I had the complete set.
Pookie was especially pleased with herself, but Huffy only shook his head and wondered, “Why do they submit so easily?”
This was a good question. No doubt these hobgoblins were just as evil as any we had seen, and would sell their own mothers if their was profit in it. But these guards were so terrified that they were effectively slaves. I doubt they cared two goblin turds about Munasukaru and her desires, and they’ve obviously had plenty of chances to escape — hell they are sent out on foraging trips. And still here they are, shivering in their boots and pissing themselves any time Kali had her image so much as look in their direction.
| 550 | 12 morning stars |
I peaked out the open doorway behind our line of cowed hob-gobs onto a large open area that smelled truly awful. It was the refuse pit and latrine for the fortress.
Dasi and Zos discovered a store room behind a door, and non-Munasukaru ordered all of the guards save one into the room to await further orders. She sent the special chosen one out to bring back his superior.
While he was away we decided to bring out the hobgoblins one at a time and quickly dispatch each to whatever afterlife awaited them. But after the first victim came out we heard the sound of feet running our way from a chamber to the east, and a voice called out, “To arms! Intruders!”
The hobgoblin before me looked at me in surprise, and I looked at him, and after giving a final “Squeak!” I clobbered him with my flail. He did not survive for much longer.
At about that time a blast of frigid air engulfed many of us, alerting us to the presence of an enemy spell caster. Several hobgoblins swarmed in from the east, and looking through the doorway I spotted someone dressed like a samurai, but acting very much like a mage.
Soon combat was fully engaged, and those hob-gobs Zos’ giants did not pulverize were quickly slain by the rest of us. But the samurai met his end much sooner than his hapless followers. Ivan quickly placed a ring of fire around him just before I called a Flamestrike down upon him.
Kali summoned an awesome dinosaur to run around thrashing foes in the chamber next to us, but as it appeared a large statue sprang to life and beat it to death. Let me repeat that: it beat a large dinosaur to death in mere moments.
The giants moved over to the storage room doorway and took turns turning the hobgoblins that came out into pate’.
Soon everything was dead except the statue thing, which someone said was a flesh golem. And it was nasty. Wounds it created would not heal right, and it took a lot of concentration and effort to keep the fighters engaging with it from dropping.
Eventually the battle was over over. I tried to heal the giants with Make Whole as you would mend any golem-like construct. But it turned out they were more like creatures than things, and regular energy channels healed them just as it did the rest of us. Hmm, interesting.
We looted through the bodies for items of interest.
| 551 | master work katana |
| 552 | master work silver wakizashi (short sword) |
| 553 | master work composite longbow [+9 STR] (and 20 arrows) |
| 554 | master work tatami-do armor (large: given to one of the giants) |
| 555 | lacquer box set with pearls |
| 556 | 12 potions of Cure Moderate Wounds |
| 557 | 5 alchemist fire |
| 558 | 12 flasks of oil |
| 559 | potion of invisibility |
| 560 | fan feather token: forms a huge flapping fan to increase or decrease wind at sea |
| 561 | broach of shielding [13 hp] |
| 562 | scroll of Spike Growth |
| 563 | master work tools for crafting armor |
| 564 | good quality locks with keys |
| 565 | gold plated merchant’s scales |
| 566 | 11 obsidians |
| 188 gp (97 + 91) 203 sp |
A set of stairs led up from the ante-chamber to a large room manned by four hobgoblins stationed near arrow slits looking out. We charged them and they died soon after.
The walls in this room were painted with scenes depicting people being tortured.
Seriously, with reminders like this I find it impossible to feel sorry for the way we’ve been slaughtering the inhabitants down here.
We used six charges from the wand of Cure Light Wounds to put everybody back into the peak of health before the giants opened the large double doors leading further into the fortress.
The room was filled with… hobgoblin lepers. They moaned and made menacing gestures at us as they slowly crawled in our direction. We simply flew over them and Kali put them out of their misery with a Fireball.
We next encountered a long wide hallway with a towering arched ceiling overhead, and open archways along the walls. A pair of closed doors was at the far end and massive pit in the floor blocked the way. Thick bars criss-crossed across the lip of the pit, widely spaced as if whatever the bars were holding in was monstrous in size. From below we could hear something large and menacing moving about and making deep throaty sounds.
While we were looking at the pit a trio of hobgoblins came out from the archway to the north, and they gracefully danced across the bars and made threatening gestures at us.
“How depressingly stupid,” said Timber.
We flew up and out of their reach. I used a Chain of Perdition to knock one of them from the bars, while arrows peppered another. The third tried to flee through the doors on the far side, but I sent the chain his way tripping him, and arrows finished him off.
Voices came out from the southern archway but they sounded distracted and unconcerned with what was going on in the hall.
We’ve taken a moment to plan our next course of action. Dealing with the voices to south seems like a priority, as well as investigating what lies to the north. After that the doors beckon.