Ghân is happy with this suggestion.
Good luck all, don’t get killed. We will hold the door here and hopefully it will be quiet, although I would not be surprised by another break out at some stage.
Now, if we can find a decent campsite, time for some hot food, followed by an afternoon of traps and snares in front of the door.
Those spears may come in useful…
Bitur takes out his “special” waterskin and takes a good long draught from it. He then offers it to the rest of those who are staying behind with him. Any who try it will find it’s a very fine (and strong) dwarven ale.
“If the rest of you want to find a suitable campsite, I can stay behind and watch the door, but it might be better to lay out a few rudimentary traps first. I also have some of these…”
Bitur pulls out what we would think of as “black cat” firecrackers.
“If you ignite the fuse and drop them, they make a report that can be heard for a distance. If you guys or I run into trouble, we can signal each other with these. They also make for a strategic distractionary weapon in a pinch. They won’t do a lot of damage, but the surprise factor is nice.”
Gilraen is heading west to the New Back Door as a healer with Thoroncir, Miron and an Elf. They spend the rest of the day and late into the night healing the wounded. Thoroncir mainly acts as a strong back.
Gil-Gandel is heading East to the Secret Exit and Brin, Hraedsig and Ghân are following. Ghân works with some of the other healers and eventually Elrohir deep into the night. Gil-Gandel, Brin and Hraedsig see more action inside but nothing major as they are largely guarding rear areas in support of Dwarves.
The party digs in with Deor resting and then sleeping. The Hobbits begin going through the Strongbox and sacks. Another 8 Elves arrive to guard this exit. Deor is back up and rested by 6pm and able to study his spells. Gilraen and Ghân will both be OK by morning.
The Strongbox has some reasonably good pelts, a nicely made otterfur coat, a small leather purse with 28 gold pieces. There are about 12 flasks of oil, A set of silverware and a silver frame 4”x5”. Nothing is magical. The pickings in the sacks are far less.
Nothing like a good nap after a hard day. Anythign interesting happen while I was out?
C: Tie, Unlock, Firefinger, Bee, Mute, Hide, Shine, Distract
1: Sleep, Magic Missile, Enlarge, Shield
2: Levitate, Web
3: Fireball
Thoroncir admires Gilraen’s skill in healing, and keeps an eye out for trouble as he helps carry the wounded on litters, sets up tents, lugs water and does whatever else is needed.
Ghân will load:
7x1st: Animal Friendship, Detect Magic, Purify Water, Faerie Fire, Entangle, Speak to Animals, Predict Weather*
6x2nd: Barkskin*, Cure Light Wounds, Flame Blade, Goodberry, Heat Metal, Slow Poison
3x3rd: Neutralise Poison, Summon Insects, Plant Growth (Protect v Fire is already running)
4x4th: Cure Serious Wounds, Dispel Magic, Speak Plants, Call Woodland Beings (Protect v Lightning is already running)
- Cast daily
Spellstone: Neutralise Poison; Call Lightning; Summon Insects
Herbal Supplies:
Goodberries: 100
Curing doses (3hp each): 15
Blowpipe dart paralysing venom: 10
Ghân will find time to reassure his animal friends (Brownie, Fang and Anca) + his mount Palafax that he is thinking about them, but that he must continue his mission to help make this area safer.
When they return a neat camp will have been set up.
Mulligan is bemoaning the fact that she is setting traps for goblins instead of coneys. 
Morning comes and word is sent. The first day of battle has gone very well. Casualties were low and the goblins were devastated. They were ill-prepared for this massive assault and failed in every breakout. Fighting was fierce outside of the Wolf Gate but the number of wargs left in this area has to be very few now combined with what you did recently on the way to Rivendell. Fighting was worse at the Secret Exit and Far Mine.
Falcon Master lost several in his group but he had an unanticipated coordinated troll assault while in the caves and had to fight a retreat while waiting for help. Once Elrohir arrived they were able to hold the exit and with Glorfindel and Gil-Gandel and some others arrived they were able to fight into the night and killed many. Brin & Hraedsig add heavy support to the Dwarves holding a rearguard that met and repelled several attacks. Ghân helped to save Panto Took who he then healed with his remaining spells before resting.
At Far Mine the Dwarven armies got bypassed and there was a breakout that went badly at first for the elves outside but this was closest to the Eagles and they came and helped along with an extra 12 elven scouts and 40 Dwarven heavy infantry from inside.
The Dwarves are now securing exits and in mass trying to explore more of the caverns. For now they just want to hold the Grave Door from the outside. They do want to eventually hunt up the last Wraith you met, maybe in two days. They feel that you learned enough that the passage can be held from the outside with ease and later explorations should be simple enough. They would like the party to head to the New Back Door and aid in the scouring from the West. Falcon Master’s group will also be joining there. An oversized group is working from the Front Porch.
Apparently there are reinforcements coming in in the next few days to help and support and rumors are that Radagast the Brown himself might come in to help heal those in need.
Is the party willing to head for the New Back Door?
Ghân is happy to help where he is needed, though he points out that the party are experienced and work well together - so it’s good if they are kept in one place.
He is very excited at the prospect of meeting with Radagast again.
By all means, let’s reunite the party for another entry into the enemy lair.
“If there is more Evil to be slain at New Back Door, then by all means let us not dawdle!”
Sounds good to me.
Oh and what happened to our two Goblin “Friends”?
They’re here of course. What did you want to do with them?
Perhaps a little cartography, with whatever assistance they can manage. In exchange they can have either a passport to where the Friendly Orcs[sup]TM[/sup] went - along with dire warnings not to stray on the way there - or a quick and merciful finish here and now if they really prefer it.
Bitur agrees with the others sentiments. He will go where he is most needed, and feels the party should stay together if we can, since we have both good dynamic and balance.
After tearing his nose out of his book, Deor will round up Folca, saddle his horse, and be ready to move out.
Ghan has a knack for low-key but effective interrogations, as we’ve seen. Let’s have him question the goblins - separately, so that if they’re going to lie we might catch them contradicting each other.
In addition to what Gil-Gandel said (with which Thoroncir agrees), let’s ask them:
Who’s in charge of them? Who does their chieftain or petty-king answer to?
How well do they know the layout of the tunnel complexes leading from the other gates?
Can they draw maps of those, too?
Does the wraith have any habits or customs of which they’re aware?
How many more of their kind remain in the area where our party was exploring?
Are there any other different or large creatures such as trolls still in that area?
Ghân is happy to ask all these useful questions (as Thoroncir says, separately), plus trying for Gil-Gandel’s mapping.
He realises the party have been very generous in letting him have a more merciful approach. After thinking about it, he decides to ‘toughen’ his interrogation a bit.
He explains to the Goblins that the Dwarves want to kill them (perfectly true) but that he has managed to save their lives by saying the prisoners could come up with useful information and then be released (as per Gil-Gandel’s statement).
Ghân feels this is acceptable behaviour for him, as this war is clearly between good and evil and more information could save good lives.
So I had one second-level spell left before I slept last night- any chance I could (retroactively) use that to ID the magic spear?