From Sandpoint to Sakakabe: A Jade Regent Campaign: Part 3

SUNDAY, 6 ARODUS, 4711 A.R.

Immensely grateful to the adventurers for saving his life (and the lives of his remaining pet snakes), and impressed by their humility and courtesy towards him, Walthus volunteers to guide the heroes to the Licktoad goblin's secluded village. He offers them a choice between a direct route over more dangerous terrain, or a roundabout route--back the way they came, then further down the Lost Coast Road, and finally along the Old Fish Road. Not being in any particular hurry, the heroes opt for the latter.

Leaving an hour or so after sunrise, with full bellies and a new confidence in having overcome their first monster, the group spend the next several hours following Proudstump as he tells them about the swamp and his skill in, thus far, avoiding its more dangerous denizens. He expresses concern that the group found a trace of the Soggy River Monster so close to his home--the severed deer leg--as the creature usually keeps to the northeastern quarter of the swamp. He also asks the players to check in on his "neighbor," an elderly witch named Old Megus, who he explains has a somewhat sinister reputation but has never caused him any trouble. He hasn't seen or heard from Megus in several weeks, and is worried that the Soggy River Monster may have wandered south and attacked her.

Finally, an hour or so after noon, the group reaches a fork in the road. Walthus tells them that the goblin village is just little further down the road. As he's still recovering from his fight with the monster who impersonated him, he's hesitant to join the heroes in battle, but they assure him that they will be fine. He does offer to at least remain here for them in case they need a guide, but, confident in their abilities, they ask him to return to his home and wish him well.

As they near Licktoad Village and the fog thins, they realize that the small fortress has been recently attacked. The gate in the wooden palisade surrounding the village has been shattered, and what looks like it was formerly a pig pen has been repurposed as a shoddy mass grave. Digging through it, the heroes find the corpses of five dead goblins, killed by some sort of slashing attack. They collect the goblins' ears, though Brixton is uncertain that they should be rewarded for goblins they didn't personally kill.

Exploring the apparently deserted village a bit, Molido climbs onto the network of shoddy wooden bridges connecting the various buildings, all of which sit on wooden stilts five or so feet above the ground. He ducks to peer into one of the huts, and, thanks to his ability to see in total darkness, spots three goblins huddling together in the far corner of the building. He barks at them to come out and surrender. Terrified, the goblins announce that they won't be taken alive, and rush to attack.

Sadly, frightened goblins are no match for adventurers, even inexperienced ones. Two of the goblins are cut down before the third can make a shocking realization: "Guys! These aren't skeletons! GET THEM!"

Goblins begin erupting from various other huts around the village. In total, twelve more join the fray. Brix holds the rear, sword and shield flashing to intercept many of the goblins' flimsy blades. Molido holds the vanguard, shrugging off minor wounds and swarming goblins trying to pin him down. Zaphkael moves between them as best he can, learning two things about himself over the course of this battle: that he is not very good at casting arcane spells while wearing his chainmail, and that, while he is significantly smaller than Mo, he apparently excels at causing goblin bridges to collapse when he puts his weight on them.

The goblins, possessed of a sort of psychopathic bravery, do their best. Several leap from the bridges onto Molido, hoping to blind him by latching onto his face or deal extra damage by leaping from a height. One climbs to the roof of a hut and dives at the half-orc, sinking his makeshift blade through Molido's armor and deep into his shoulder, but dealing even more damage to itself through a bad landing.

Finally, with most of the goblins cut down, the rest panic and flee. Several head for the front gate and the relative safety of the swamp, but one runs to another hut and begins pounding on the door. "Chief Gutwad! Chief! They're worse than skeletons! Help!"

This perks the adventurers' ears up. In addition to the bounty on goblin ears, Chief Gutward's head is worth a reward of 300 gold pieces. Chasing off the goblin knocking on the door, they array themselves for battle, and Molido hacks down the door.

Chief Gutwad is waiting for them. He has two more goblins with him: one is armed with what looks like a ballista bolt on a long, wooden stick. It lights the fuse, and the bolt launches in a trail of colorful flame, striking Molido in the chest and exploding in a deafening cacaphony of flame and sound. The party is badly injured by the explosion, but so is the goblin who fired the rocket without realizing he was standing far too close, and he hits the wall behind him with a sickening snap of a breaking neck.

The next goblin is armed with a colorful, striped tube. He lights the fuse the moment after the first rocket fires, but rather than a single projectile, a stream of colorful cinders fires out. Unfortunately, the goblin was caught off guard by the firework's recoil, and the cinders fail to burn any of the heroes.

Gutwad himself stands with a torch raised over a large bundle of colorful explosives. He announces to the heroes that if they do not retreat, he'll kill everyone in the room.

Molido, deaf from the first rocket's impact, does not hear this.

He charges in, wielding a hammer and shield rather than his favored axe, and smashes the torch right out of Gutwad's hand. It lands behind him, sputtering. Gutwad shrieks in panic and makes a break for the secret escape door from his hut. Despite being a grotesquely obese example of goblinhood, he proves deceptively nimble, ducking beneath blows from the adventurers as they move to stop him.

Once clear of his "throne room," Gutwad draws his bow. Whatever else he may be, he's a skilled archer who excels at shooting humans. Unfortunately, he's down to only six arrows; he hasn't had a chance to restock since the attack on the village. His plan is simply to harrass the adventurers while he flees and regroups with his remaining goblins in the marsh.

Unfortunately for our heroes, while they have proven themselves quite capable of dispatching typical goblins armed only with dogslicers, the challenge of a capable and ruthless goblin ranger proves insurmountable. Faster than most of his foes and blessed with some sort of demonic good fortune, Gutwad easily weaves through his opponents, firing most of his remaining arrows and doing grevious harm to Zaphkael and slightly-less-grevious harm to Molido. Drained of resources and hurting badly, the adventurers opt to withdraw for now, an unconscious Zaph slung over Molido's shoulder.

They return to Proudstump's Shack by the safer route, arriving after sunset. The worried halfling offers them sanctuary for now, and the group can only hope that their next confrontation with Chief Gutwad will turn out in their favor.