Middle Earth FA63 D&D Game: Fifth Adventure - War in Goblin Gate

Thread Games
1001

Did you have ID memorized? I did not think you did.
As to mapping, they can’t give any more than what they did except for some on Goblin Town itself and what they know does not help.

The sub-Chieftain reports directly to the Great Goblin himself. He is a large fat Goblin of great height. Nearly 7’ tall. He once wrestled a troll and though he lost he then stabbed it in the back and killed it. (The Goblin King was killed. Killed by Thorin Stonehelm himself.)

The wraith, wights and mummies are scary and deadly. They were generally avoided. The sub-Chieftain and Shaman had a way to lead the goblins through those passages to go on raids.

Once it is related roughly which goblins were killed and how many the goblins report that most of the locals are now dead and they don’t know where the second troll came from.

1002

Fair enough. Any other questions, my friends?

And after that, do the goblins want to make their own way in the world, or be mercifully and quickly put to death?

1003

Personally, I would prefer to see them alive than dead heading towards the Orc colony East of Ered Lithui.

I have a feeling Hrech will be tagging along for a while though, given what I said when we first encountered her.

1004

Before I forget Ghân, thank you for saving my brother’s life.

The dunderhead will get himself into some tricky situations. I don’t know where he gets it from. :wink:

1005

Ghân grins and says this is why he became a Druid.

1006

I personally think they should be put out of their evil misery, as I think any goblins we release have some likelihood of informing on us or rejoining their fellows. But I’m not in charge of this group or of the overall effort, so I won’t press it.

1007

The goblins understand they need to flee to the east and if they are seen again will not be shown mercy. They will take their chances but fear that the elves or men along the Anduin would kill them long before they make it to the Brown Lands.

1008

Would they prefer to remain prisoners and to work on one of the King’s labor or road crews, until such time as they may be safely resettled? “May we even make them such an offer, my lady?” Thoroncir asks.

1009

Gilraen, “Perhaps they can remain prisoner and then maybe we can ask Thranduil’s people to get them to the East of Greenwood the Great.”

1010

September 3[sup]rd[/sup]: 66° and clear early should warm up to 78° by 1pm.

The party sets out with Sten, Gellin, Jari & Víli at 8am and heads the 15 miles to the New Back Door camp. On the road they meet up with Falcon Master, Faramir Took, Farofind of Imladris, Helagorn the Ranger and five other Rangers of the North.

Falcon Master gives some detailed updates, “Ponto Took headed with some others to the Front Porch. They needed his expertise and your group has three skilled treasure finders. Half the Dwarves and Woodsmen I was working with are guarding the Secret Exit and the other half is going to reinforce the Secret Exit. Glorfindel and Taurernal’s group have also gone to support the Front Porch. Elladan is helping to break the harden defenses at Far Mine and Elrohir is remaining at the base camp with reserves and to work primarily as a healer today. An additional 80 woodmen and 53 Dwarves will be arriving today.

The New Back Door has an army of 200 Dwarves, mostly heavy infantry supported by 20 Hobbits archers (some being professional burglars like Ponto) and 5 Beorning warriors. They are led by Kwon son of Kron. Kwon is a highly skilled captain and mining expert. He is the veteran of many battles. His brother Klun is acting as the quartermaster/chief of staff. They and most of the Dwarves in this army are from the Blue Mountains. As Kwon is probably deep inside, we will meet with Klun. We should get a lot more information from Klun.”

Here is the breakdown of where the armies and important leaders and heroes are.
Base Camp: Bofur, Elrohir, Bella the Beorning Healer

  1. Front Porch Dwarves led by Thorin III Stonehelm, Glorfindel, Taurernal’s groups & PontoTook
  2. Wolf Gate: Being guarded from the outside.
  3. Far Mine: Dwarves + Elladan + Eagles watching closely.
  4. New Back Door: Dwarves + Gil-Gandel’s Party + Falcon Master’s party.
  5. Grave Door: Being guarded from the outside
  6. Secret Exit: Being guarded from the outside with a Giant.
  7. Deep Valley: Dwarves
    Rapid reinforcements: 2 groups of 32 Elves led by Elanwë and Captain Celepen.

The remaining 32 are either at the Base Camp or on guard duty at 2,5 & 6
Deor:
C: Tie, Unlock, Firefinger, Bee, Mute, Hide, Shine, Distract
1: Sleep, Magic Missile, Enlarge, Shield
2: Levitate, Web
3: Fireball

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: 60 Curing doses (3hp each): 35 Blowpipe dart paralysing venom: 10
Ghân used many berries yesterday to help cure but was given extra herbal curing that is prepared for use.

*Gilraen’s Spells: 5/5/2 **
1st: Cure Lights of double affect; Purify Food & Drink; Detect Magic; Detect Evil, Special singing spell known as the Song of Estë that will give all of my friends a +1 Save and -1 to be hit and damage will discourage others from attacking me even more. It lasts as long as I sing. It is similar to the second level chant.
2nd: Goodberries, Hold Person, Find Traps, Slow Poison Resist Fire
3rd: Estë Prayer song: 12”r, last 2r/lvl after done singing, Dispel Magic
Herbology: 83%+10% She has dozens of herb remedies and even seeds of all sort. She is exceptional with Athelas.
Herbal Supplies: She is out of Goodberries. She has a wide variety of herbal cures.

Miron: Carrying a wide variety of herbal cures also.

1011

Following up on Gilraen’s suggestion, the knight-errant will see if anyone is available to guard the two goblins while our party is inside. He or she should be reliable, skilled in arms and not so hateful of goblins that we’ll emerge to find our prisoners “killed while trying to escape.” If no one is available, Thoroncir himself will guard them, although he’d obviously prefer to remain with Gilraen and the rest of his companions.

1012

Gilraen, would you mind terribly loading your light spell today? If there are still undead crawling around those caves my helms blast is one of our best defenses, and it would be handy to be able to use it more than once without having to spend an hour in actual sunlight.

1013

“Guarding goblins is a waste of your abilities. The shield wall needs your strong arm underground.”

1014

I’m ready to go- let’s find Klun and see what he can tell us about the situation here.

1015

**At close to 11:00am **the parties arrive at the camp and they are directed to Klun. The camp has many wagons, tents and maybe 20 Dwarves, 20 Elves and 20 humans. There are also some injured in camp that Gilraen, Moron and Thoroncir were tending too. There are 15 Dwarves and 3 Hobbits injured. The Dwarves lost 6 so far.

In review:
In terms of warfare it has been a major victory and success. Goblin Gate just was not ready for this type of systematic attack and the Dwarves took the time to build up a huge supply of exceptional gear and did the training for this war. They recruited very well. You are a prime example. They even timed it out with a spring and summer campaign by the Elves and Rangers in Angmar and raids near Gundabad. This had the orcs thoroughly distracted. A small raid led by Taurenal in fact resulted in the death of a Wizard from Gundabad who was too sure of his powers and got a nasty surprise that led to the loss of his Wyvern and then his life.

In his command tent he has 8 large maps. One is of the immediate area and you have a rough copy of it. One includes south to Moria and North to Gundabad. The other six are in the process of being updated. They show an overall underground map and 5 maps for the immediate area. The information has been collected by spying, scrying, interrogation of prisoners and exploration by skilled miners among the Dwarven army.

This area is an older satellite. It is small in population compared to Goblin town but as it includes both a excellent copper vein and a coal mine it is active and has many layers, levels and passages. It also has at least 5 dead ends of old exits that have been collapsed. It is feared that the goblins have one or more of these ready to reopen or perhaps an unknown tunnel. Additionally word from the Front Porch and Deep Valley is that a large number of goblins are headed for the backdoor. It could be as many as 300 fighters. The locals have already been killed or they are hiding deep and scattered. There may well be a nest of trolls to handle still. There is a pocket of undead along an easy to use natural cavern leading to the copper vein from the lower inhabited levels. They are happy your group included healers and treasure finders. They are short on both.

You might have noticed that the Secret Exit is now being guarded by a giant. Bella the Beorning arranged this. She (the Giantess) has agreed to help if the goblins pour out of this exit and if it is too many she will collapse the exit. She is ready to stomp goblin. She stands 30’ tall by report.

Falcon Master offers to lead a group against the Trolls. Faramir Took pulls out his Troll’s Bane that his father Peregrin gave him. I’ll try to put this to good use.

Klun asks, “What do you feel most comfortable doing? You could lead a company through the undead area and help route out an area where the Goblins are held up. You can join the main army to fight the incoming army. You can explore and check the status of one of the old exits.
There is one change to the spells for Gilraen to make better use of Gwaelur’s helm.

Deor:
C: Tie, Unlock, Firefinger, Bee, Mute, Hide, Shine, Distract
1: Sleep, Magic Missile, Enlarge, Shield
2: Levitate, Web
3: Fireball

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: 60 Curing doses (3hp each): 35 Blowpipe dart paralysing venom: 10
Ghân used many berries yesterday to help cure but was given extra herbal curing that is prepared for use.

*Gilraen’s Spells: 5/5/2 **
1st: Cure Lights of double affect; Purify Food & Drink; Detect Magic; Detect Evil, Special singing spell known as the Song of Estë that will give all of my friends a +1 Save and -1 to be hit and damage will discourage others from attacking me even more. It lasts as long as I sing. It is similar to the second level chant.
2nd: Goodberries, Hold Person, Find Traps, Slow Poison, Long Light
3rd: Estë Prayer song: 12”r, last 2r/lvl after done singing, Dispel Magic
Herbology: 83%+10% She has dozens of herb remedies and even seeds of all sort. She is exceptional with Athelas.
Herbal Supplies: She is out of Goodberries. She has a wide variety of herbal cures.

Miron: Carrying a wide variety of herbal cures also.

1016

“I think we are uniquely suited to cleansing this area of vile undead, but will gladly go wherever there are evil creatures to be destroyed.”

1017

You are right - we have more specific talents against the undead than the common run of our allies have, while there are many stout hearts well able to deal with goblins and so on; and we may as well go where we can do the most good.

1018

So long as our goblin prisoners are guarded as I suggested earlier, I agree.

1019

Sorry, rest easy. The Elves of Greenwood are guarding the goblins.

1020

Bitur has no preference, but agrees that our band has proven itself well in handling undead.

And he also thinks to himself that the nice thing about undead is that the issue of what to with any that surrender doesn’t have to come up.