I’d say, send in the hobbits as scouts, backed up by Miron or Gil-Gandel. Have the rest of us stay under cover. If a troll can be tripped or brought to its knees, a knight-errant’s longsword to its tiny little brain should do the trick.
Are we playing critical hits?
These guys seem really tough - [COLOR=“Blue”]Summon Insects has no effect on them…[/COLOR]
What do you mean by critical hits?
On a 20, if a 20 was not required I am giving double damage.
As to Summon Insects, their skin and nerve center don’t allow for such to hurt at all.
I just had a thought. Do I have time to take a quick look at the tunnel to look for structural weak points? Maybe we can collapse a portion of it while Ghan summons lightning(or before Ghan does, or both).
I just want to make sure I am able to be back in position by the time night falls.
I think **Elendil’s Heir **was waxing lyrical and **glee **took it at face value.
Let the main party retire to set up somewhere to retreat to and let the scouts venture forth to see what is before us. I suggest Elfstan be invisible.
Considering that the trolls have difficulty getting through the tunnel, if we could get them out far out into the open, we could try getting the party into the keep and collapsing it behind us.
Or we ambush them as they come out. Possibly only room for one to appear at a time.
Anyway, we will not know until we look further.
There is time to check the tunnel and look to collapse it before the Storm makes the skies dark enough for Trolls at around 2pm. It is now noon and cloudy.
Ghân needs to be within 360 yards of the tower and probably should be within 360 yards of the tunnel exit. He probably should be a bit closer to both.
Don’t assume you won’t be observed as you approach either the tower or tunnel. Especially Gwaelur. The high windows allow for a commanding view of the surrounding area; probably up to a mile out.
Let’s firm up this plan. Who is going where. There appears to be three places. Tunnel, Tower and camp with plant growth and Ghân casting Call Lightning within 360 yards of both. Where are trip lines being set? What is the invisible Elfstan investigating?
We’re close to a plan, can we finalize it?
Ok, I believe the plan is for invisible Elfstan to explore the tunnel, Miron and Mulligan to try and stealthily make their way to the fort, the rest of the party to retire and make preperations.
Trip lines - To be decided.
At about 12:10 pm Deor casts invisibility on Elfstan who immediately heads out to check the tunnel by the tree due north of the hill fort. He checks Sting very carefully and determines on his way in that the goblins are in the tower and not the tunnel by when it starts to glow. He finds the tunnel and it looks like he can stand up going in but that a troll would have to crawl out of it. He notes it is roughly 200’ from the tower and nearly 200’ lower. The tunnel must climb a lot. Checking for traps and listening for noise he cautiously enters. The tunnel has the light scent of smoke wafting out. He proceeds in roughly 5’ and the tunnel opens up into a natural and large cave. It is very dark in the cavern, too dark for Hobbit eyes. He hears the plink, plink, plink of water dropping. He chances pulling Sting out and Sting is glowing as expected for almost 300’ from Goblins. He holds Sting high and makes his way along the cavern. He makes out that it runs about 60’ southwest and gently climbs.
He finds the far end has another opening that is too small for a troll to walk through but it looks to have been widened to allow crawling. The cavern itself glitters at times and has several stalactites and stalagmites. He sheaths Sting and cautiously walks through the Goblin hewn tunnel. It goes but 5’ and opens up to another taller tunnel. This one looks well built and reinforced. Elfstan guesses Human built and not Goblin. It is a good size chamber that is 10’ tall and 25’ wide and 60’ long. It should only be another 70’ to the tower but he must still be over 150’ lower. The chamber has a large doorway on the far side that is dimly lit by and unseen source from beyond it. He does smell more smoke in the air.
Elfstan goes through the doorway and finds a small landing and steep stairs climbing to the tower. The stairs are 6’ wide and 10’ tall. It looks like a very tight fit for the trolls. Up he goes, the stairs are tough on Elfstan they rise 8” and are only 5” deep. There are 200 steps and but 4 landings. Each landing has a single torch lit. The final landing has a large wooded door that is 8’ wide and 12’ tall. He guesses he is 20’ below the tower at this point. Nearly 20 minutes have passed putting Elfstan at 12:30. **What does he do? **
At the camp, Ghân casts a plant growth to protect the party and the horses. The camp needs to be at the foot of the hill, near where the path starts up. Being 50’ north of the path puts the tunnel 350’ away and the tower only 344’. The drawback is no direct sight of the door. I imagine that is where Folca becomes vital with Deor relaying information. The hill is very steep and going up the path will be required for rapid climbing when needed.
Mulligan and Miron have worked their way stealthily around to the northwest side and climb through the tree line. They then cut through the rubble of the northwest wall tower and approach the door slowly using trees and bushes for cover. They see the tower is indeed in fairly good shape and that the stone house is in very good shape. The path and the roads were actually well placed stone. The outer walls are in poor shape and there are some signs of ruined structures long gone within the walls. They see the single door to the tower is large and made of heavy wood. The door is 8’ wide and 12’ tall. There are no windows on the ground floor of the tower but starting at 20’ up there are many. The tower is 60’ tall. Miron thinks he saw movement near one of the upper windows. It is now getting close to 12:30. What does the pair do?
Miron, It’s time for me to put some new toys into action. I’m going to climb up and look through the windows using my new gloves. 
I would suggest checking the door out.
Miron carefully checks around the tower and door and believes that last night 4 trolls left through the door and that they returned in two pairs at 2:00am and 3:45am. He sees no signs the goblins were out this door recently.
Mulligan climbs the tower with her 95% chance. she get to a low window with ease and discovers enough handholds in this very old tower for her chances to improve to 99.6% (+10%). The windows are actually large enough for her to slip through or maybe Elfstan but no one else. (Well maybe Gilraen.)
Elfstan cautiously approachs the door. He checks to see if he could open it quietly while listening for any sounds coming from beyond it.
I’m guessing it opens inward?
Elfstan does hear muffled noise beyond the door and it does open in. He thinks the noise is goblins. He does not think he could get such a large door open.
Time to go look around then. Hopefully, the current inhabitants are fast asleep, it being the middle of the day.
If possible head downstairs and see if I can open the door for Miron.
Quick question. If Elfstan was going in there with the idea of setting some traps, did he take any extra rope with him or anything else?
Mulligan quietly goes in and hears some noise from high up in the tower. Very muffled. She finds the floor and ceiling are rough hewn logs. The way down and up are also wooden and more of a large ladder then stairs. Peering below into the gloom, she sees no one on the ground level. She heads down cautiously and sees the door has a giant 12’ log barring that she has no hope of budging. There is a large troll sleeping in front of the door. There is a gaping pit in the floor with another ladder like stair heading down. she hears a loud voice from below.
“Wad-joo wake me fer? Sun still up”
**Elfstan **could have borrowed some normal ropes I believe. I don’t think there was anything else to borrow. Mulligan is oddly enough the one skilled in setting snares. I would assume that she would loan you 100’ of cord and Miron could loan you 50’ of silk rope.
I’m fine with the 100’ of cord, I have better but I don’t want it damaged.
Ok, a large troll sleeping in front of the door. That’s not good.
I seriously have no chance of a coup de grace against it, do I?
Head back to the window and bird whistle for Miron to let him know what I found. After that, it’s time to head upstairs.
Mulligan is correct in thinking her knife is nearly useless for a coup de grace though the eyes are vulnerable but that would be noisy and still potential dangerous. Even with Sting I would hesitate for a coup de grace on a troll.
Heading back up, as she gets to the 1st floor, a Goblin is coming down the steep stairs backwards.
Are the stairs below the tower made of stone?
If I think I can get to the window and hide outside it before the goblin gets down, I will do that.
Otherwise, it will be one hand over its mouth and backstab before it knows what hit it. The body will then wind up out the window instead of me.