I would suggest Elfstan and I wedge the doors shut invisibly before the others pile in and take out the goblins quickly. Some quick archer work should sort the majority of it out.
Who wants to stay at the cross roads so we are not jumped from behind?
Elfstan will take another moment to see if there are any signs of use in the room, keeping an open mind about possible hidden doors. He will then report his findings back to the party.
Eflstan looks around but with the low light cannot see any signs of recent disturbance. He thinks to himself, maybe the rangers could do better and more light would help. The Dwarves might need to check the rock fall and of course the more eyes looking for secret doors the quicker it is.
Mulligan does report back to the main group and they may wonder where Elfstan is.
“I like Mulligan’s plan of blocking the exit doors. 6 nervous goblins are likely to try to flee and warn others, so we should prevent that if we can. Meanwhile, perhaps someone should check on Elfstan, since he seems to be delayed.”
Well good then. You probably don’t need Miron or myself in that case. Mop up the goblins quickly and then head after Miron and myself in search of Elfstan.
Miron leads Gwaelur to the west Chamber. Miron is very quiet but Elfstan hears Gwaelur of course. Miron checks for tracks and usage and believes after much checking that the door is rarely used and the room rarely used. Gwaelur takes the torch and checks the rock fall. It looks old as does the room itself. It is rough hewn. There is little of note in the room accept the torch itself. It is a little odd that it was in here at all.
Mulligan sneaks back in the east chamber and wedges all three doors* closed as Gil-Gandel observes from a dark spot in the hall.
Brin waits just in sight of Gil-Gandel to signal the rest of the party. It takes Mulligan but 3 rounds and Gil-Gandel gives the signal and Brin relays it.
Gil-Gandel and Brin step into the room, one left and one right and let fly arrows and two goblins die. Hraedsig beats Thoroncir in and runs one through as Thoroncir kills a fourth. Bitur is joyful to reach one before Gil-Gandel’s second arrow kills the last.
I believe I failed to mention the door in the west wall of the east room and I got my compass directions screwed up before. I promise a first map soon.
Looking at the rock juttings, Bitur mutters a choice Dwarven epithet about Goblins and their stoneworking, or more appropriately, lack thereof. He then heads to where Miron and Gwaelur should be.
Hrmm. We should make note of this room. There is something wrong here, but I don’t seem to be able to detect it. Elfstan, Miron, what say you we head back to the rest of the party. They should be done with the goblins by now. We can get one of those folks who is able to detect the evil undead to take a closer look at this room.
Elfstan whispers to Gwaelur, “it may just be that goblins do things that don’t make sense to us. I still wonder about the torch though. Let’s meet up with the others and maybe give this room more look like you say.”
The goblins seem ill-equipped. The have older short swords with some pitting and rust. The have basic studded leather in poor shape and rusty studs. Some of the armor has holes and poorly repaired cuts.
Does the party want to leave some guards here and more thoroughly investigate the other room or just check out the doors in this room with the dead goblins?
I would suggest leaving two of the doors wedged to give us some minor protection while we investigate a single door.
At the same time, it is probably worth some of the party going back and checking out the other room. See if anything interesting pops up.
Ghan, Elfstan, Bitur, Brin and Hraedsig check out the far room
Gil-Gandel, Mulligan, Miron, Thoroncir, Gilraen and Gwaelur check out the doors in this room.
Ghân, Elfstan, Bitur, Brin, Deor and Hraedsig check out the west room with Deor handing the party’s torch to Bitur to use. They fail to find anything of interest except that Deor notices that **the torch **in the room is burning very cool and without ash or smoke. Hraedsig detects no evil and Elfstan can confirm via Sting that there are still Goblins about. Bitur confirms that the rock fall looks old, as does the room. This leaves the door heading east. It is roughly 70’ from the west door in the east room.
In the east room the rest check the doors and walls. None appear trapped and no secrets are found. In the southeast part of the chamber the room juts out around 20’ and it appears the goblins had some simple beds here, enough for 8. They are little more than slightly raised planks of rough-hewn wood with thin rag stuffed smelly stained mattresses. Searching these disgusting heaps reveal only parasitic insects and rags.
The door to the west opens to a wide but rough passage running about 70’ to another door. This should place it close to the west room. The door is not trapped or locked and opens to the west room.
This leaves the two doors in the east room that face north. They are roughly 20’ apart and in a smooth stone wall. Leaving the left (west) one wedged Mulligan gets the right (east) one open and sneaks through with Elfstan and than Gil-Gandel trailing behind. The passage is rough but at least 10’ wide and up to 6’ tall. It runs about 20’ slightly to the west and then sharply to the northeast where it opens up wide to a well-lit, well-hewn passage with good reinforcements. This passage runs far to the east and west and has one door on the north wall and many passages leading north. A quick check by the invisible Hobbits going each way reveal the other door in the room also comes directly to this long passage.
Well, while you lot play with the magical torch, it’s time for Elfstan and I to earn our keep.
Elfstan, if you go right and down the corridor and see what you can find in terms of Goblins and undead, I will do the same going left. Perhaps our noble leader, Gil-Gandel, would like to put his skills to use and check the door opposite?
Quietly to Elfstan. “The best thing you can do is to put it behind you and go straight back into it. Don’t be afraid, but be careful, ok?”
Everyone else, would you like to relax here and wait for us to run into trouble and need rescuing.