4E Meta: This encounter, as written, includes a couple of kobold variations that don't appear in the MM. If we were at the table using pencil & paper, that would be no big deal since the stats and information for these new creatures are provided in the encounter text. However, since we're using FGII now, and I currently have only MM creatures available for me to drag-and-drop, I am very thankful for 4E's NPC "role" designations. It made it quite simple for me to swap out NPC's while still keeping the encounter balanced, and without changing its flavor. For example, Dungeon Magazine called for a Kobold Pikeman, which isn't in FGII's MM module. But, since I knew that the Kobold Pikeman was a level 2 brute, I was able to easily swap it out with another level 2 brute which was able to serve the same purpose in the battle. In this case, I used a Guard Drake. Likewise, Dungeon's Kobold Hurler--a level 2 artillery--was easily replaced with a Goblin Sharpshooter with little-to-no impact.
The friends departed Winterhaven through the east gate, and followed the road back towards their campsite from the night before. After about a mile, they came to the place where Lord Padraig's map notes indicated they should start looking for a wagon trail. After a few minutes, the group found the winding trail, and they turned south off of the main road. The road was filled with rocks and ruts, but it was easy enough to follow--especially with Paget in the lead practically dragging the others along. After another mile, or so, Paget came to a spot where the worn dirt road curved to the southwest, bounded by an increasingly steep escarpment on the east and southeast. A large copse of birches clustered east of the road, and barrels and bags seemed to have tumbled from two wagons that had been overturned. The horses that once drew these wagons were nowhere to be seen.
Paget halted, and raised a hand in warning. Phoebe inched forward and, taking in the scene, wondered aloud if these were, in fact, the ill-fated supply wagons that were bound for the Wrafton Inn. Urging the others into silence, Phoebe concentrated and heard sibilant whispers coming from behind the wagons. She nodded to Paget, and the grim-faced companions drew their weapons. Instantly, they all heard scrabbling and hissing from behind the wagons as kobolds leaped from cover to attack!
Without hesitation, Phoebe called upon Bahamut to protect her friends from harm with a Beacon of Hope. The companions, comforted and encouraged by the blessing of the Platinum Dragon, rushed forward into battle. An armored kobold, twirling twin short swords in a dizzying fashion, stepped out from behind one of the overturned wagons and began to advance towards the party. At the same time, something large rumbled out from behind a stack of overturned barrels at the top of the ledge which overlooked the road, and slowly lumbered in Paget's direction. The halfling was stunned at the site. "Is that... a dragon?!" Paget could barely contain his excitement. "Oh, he's SO mine," he yelled.
Guard DrakeTwo squeaking kobold minions pushed past their sword-wielding master to take jabs at Bakbuk with their javelins. The dwarf grinned as he easily swatted their weapons aside and, with a mighty swing of his two-handed maul, he smashed through both reptiles as if they were nothing more than a pair of ripe melons, ending both of their lives in a spray of pink mist. A third minion circled around the wagon, but stopped dead in its tracks when it saw what the mighty Bakbuk had just done to its two allies.
With a mighty war cry, Paget rushed across the road and attempted to scramble up the escarpment, determined to face the approaching drake head on. But, the loose stones and dirt gave way, and the halfling was dumped ignominiously back onto the road. He growled with frustration when yet another minion's head appeared at the top of the ledge, and the creature chuckled at his misfortune. Paget jumped up to threaten the irritating little lizard, when suddenly a goblin stood up from behind a couple of well-placed barrels at the top of the ledge and fired a crossbow bolt into the hapless rogue's hip. Paget cried out in surprise and pain as the green-skinned assailant ducked back down behind the barrels to load another bolt into his weapon.
PagetKobold minions truly seemed to be crawling out of the woodwork, as another circled around the back of the wagon in the road, and leveled its javelin at the wounded halfling. Without hesitation, Gildras stepped forward and skewered the beast with a quick Viper's Strike from his longsword. Raxil moved forward to stand beside his wounded friend, and unleashed a Scorching Burst over the ledge and into the face of the approaching drake. The beast screeched with pain and rage as the flames washed over its hide, and singed the goblin sharpshooter in the process. Meanwhile, on the road, two more minions stepped out to replace their fallen comrades, and flanked their dual sword-wielding master.
Relief was felt by all of the friends as another wave of Bahamut's healing power washed over them. The cleric, Phoebe, stepped into the fray and unleashed a Lance of Faith towards one of the minions near the cart. Unfortunately, the slyblade kobold rushed forward and managed to knock Phoebe's aim wide with one sword, and cut a gash across her arm with the other. It hissed out an unintelligible threat, and shifted back between its minions, both of whom stepped forward to protect their master from harm. As Phoebe winced in pain, she turned her head just in time to see the drake come barreling over the edge of the escarpment and into the road behind her, its beady eyes focused on the wizard that had brought it pain. The creature opened its jaws, and chomped down hard on Raxil's shoulder, opening a painful gash across the frail wizard's upper chest. Paget reacted instantly. Drawing both daggers, he flanked the scaly beast between himself and Raxil, and tore chunks out of its hide with a sneaky Sly Flourish.
In blind panic, Raxil shoved the drake away with a fiery arcane blast from his Burning Hands spell, not realizing that two of his friends were so close. The drake roared as the wizard burned it a second time, but Gildras and Paget were also engulfed in the sudden gout of flame. The tiefling managed to absorb most of the assault stoically, but Paget was already badly wounded, and Raxil's fire left him in a bloody state. While it was distracted, Gildras attempted to charge at the furious drake with two precision attacks from his longsword, but the heat of the blast and the loose gravel on the road threw the warlord off balance, and it was all he could do to remain on his feet. Meanwhile, the goblin sharpshooter seized the opportunity to launch another bolt into Paget's back, leaving the poor halfing very near to death's door.
Heedless of the chaos and carnage behind him, Bakbuk squared off against the pair of minions near the cart. Both of them tried, once again, to break through the fighter's defenses, but Bakbuk was able to hold them off. However, their coordinated attack caught him off guard to the point where he wasn't able to land a blow on either of them before they shifted, snickering, back to their master's side. Phoebe noted that Bakbuk seemed to be handling himself nicely, so she turned her attention to the melee with the drake. As another healing wave from the cleric's Beacon of Hope rejuvenated the companions, Phoebe uttered a Healing Word on Gildras' behalf, and managed to launch a divinely aimed Lance of Faith into the reptile's flank. With her focus diverted, Phoebe didn't see the slyblade step forward with his twin blades, and slice a chunk of flesh out of Bakbuk's cheek. She turned when the dwarf cried out, and she saw Bakbuk's scowl of pain turn into a look of fear and horror as the drake lunged at Paget, picked him up and shook him in its jaws, and dropped the unconscious and dying halfing onto the rocky road.
Determined to save his friend, Bakbuk tried to break away from the slyblade with a Spinning Sweep, but failed to trip his opponent and was forced to stay locked in melee in order to defend himself when one of the minions lunged forward with its javelin.
Paget gasped for air, and collapsed back into the dirt as the minion from the top of the ledge slid down the embankment and leveled its javelin for the killing blow. The kobold's timing was unfortunate, as at that very moment the goblin re-appeared from behind the barrels and fired its crossbow at the dying halfling, only to pierce the minion through the back of the head, killing it instantly.
4E Meta: On his turn, Paget made a Save vs. Death and failed. A PC that suffers three Save vs. Death failures before being healed or stabilized will die. Fortunately, the goblin rolled a natural 1 on its ranged attack on that round, and I took that as an opportunity to toss a little bit of good fortune the halfling's way and have the stray bolt toast the minion.
Seeing their friend fall renewed Gildras' and Raxil's determination to end the threat of the guard drake. Uttering an Inspiring Word to heal himself of some of his wounds, Gildras pierced the beast with a well-aimed Viper's Strike while Raxil charred more of its flesh with another Scorching Burst. Meanwhile, Bakbuk suffered another painful blow from javelin to the ribs, courtesy of one of the kobold minions, as he tried to claw his way towards Paget and the drake.
Phoebe's Beacon of Hope, blessedly, was able to revive Paget before the Raven Queen took him, and the pure adrenaline of the conflict brought the halfling back to his feet and ready to fight. The drake caught the movement out of the corner of its scorched eye, and lashed out with its teeth, bloodying the poor halfling once more. Realizing that Bakbuk would be invaluable in dispatching the giant lizard, Phoebe turned her attention back to aiding the dwarf. She blasted the advancing slyblade with a Lance of Faith, which invigorated Bakbuk. The dual-wielding kobold reacted with a vicious twin-bladed attack against the dwarf, slashing him with both weapons, and leaving him badly wounded and bleeding. Bakbuk's injuries thwarted his counterattack against the slyblade kobold, but he was able to shake off the effects of his wounds and staunch the bleeding as if by a shear act of will. His grim determination wasn't enough to thwart another painful stab from a minion's javelin.
Meanwhile, Gildras backed away from the enraged guard drake and charged at it with his longsword. The goblin sharpshooter launched a bolt in the tiefling's direction and missed, but Gildras had to side-step the attack to avoid being hit and his own assault failed as a result. Raxil, growing weary of this episode, drew out his wand, and launched a sizzling Magic Missile into the drake's hide, finally slaying the beast! Without waiting for the monster to stop twitching, Raxil ran towards the embankment towards the goblin bowman. But, like Paget, the loose side of the escarpment thwarted his attempt to climb it, and he slid back down into the road behind the overturned wagon as a kobold minion chucked a javelin over the wizard's head.
As Phoebe's opening prayer continued to infuse her companions with divine healing, she blessed Bakbuk with an additional Healing Word, and turned to face the slyblade and its two minion lackeys. With Phoebe calling on the power of Bahamut, a bright glow formed at the slyblade's feet and exploded up and outwards. When the Divine Glow faded, the slyblade was left standing, but the two minions had essentially evaporated. In an act of retaliatory rage, the slyblade launched a whirling assault at the cleric, opening multiple bleeding gashes across her arms and torso. At that moment, refreshed from his double dose of healing, Bakbuk stepped in and slammed the slyblade in the side of the neck with a wicked Reaping Strike from his massive maul. The creature was still standing, but obviously getting shaky on its feet.
PhoebeConfused and disoriented from all the excitement, his various wounds, and brief brush with death, Paget grabbed his dagger and launched himself quite aimlessly towards the slyblade, but his weak attack was easily knocked aside. Just then, the halfling felt a rush of healing power surge through him as Phoebe's Beacon of Hope once again took effect. The enraged cleric nudged the rogue aside as she lunged at the slyblade with a powerful Healing Strike. While the creature was badly wounded, the divine backlash revived Paget even further. Hurt and confused, the slyblade swung wildly at Phoebe, but was unable to connect. Bakbuk lashed out at the kobold with another Reaping Strike, but the floundering reptile ducked beneath the blow, and Bakbuk only managed to shatter the rear wheel of the wagon, spilling more boxes and crates onto the road. Paget, a sly grin on his face, was fully back in the action as he flipped his daggers around in his hands and, with a powerful reversed Deft Strike, plunged them into both sides of the slyblade's neck, extinguishing its life.
Up on the ledge, the goblin sharpshooter stood up from its hiding place and fired a bolt into Raxil's chest, hurting him severely. Gildras scrambled up the crumbling slope and jabbed his longsword downward behind the barrels. Steel found flesh, and the goblin bellowed in fear and pain. Fighting past the agony of his wound, Raxil lobbed a Ray of Frost at the goblin, freezing and cracking its flesh. The greenskin dropped its bow on the ground, drew its short sword and lashed out at Gildras, who easily ducked out of the way, and frowned at the creature with a look of amused contempt. Realizing all hope was lost, the goblin turned and fled down the hill. Gildras snapped his longsword out towards the fleeing creature's hind side, but missed.
DM Note: Allowing the goblin to run away was a minor failure on my part. One of the effects of X's Ray of Frost is to Slow the target on a successful hit. The goblin should not have been able to move more than 2 squares. Oh well. It turned out okay, as you are about to see.
Undaunted, the tiefling jumped over the barrels and gave chase. With a maniacal screech, and sword upraised, Gildras came bearing down on the poor, lone goblin. Faced with certain death, the creature flipped over on its back, began kicking its legs in the air, and begged piteously for its life. With much restraint, the furious warlord sheathed his sword, and punted the goblin all the way back to the road.
The exhausted and injured companions surrounded the unfortunate creature and interrogated it. While Gildras and Raxil resorted to brute force and intimidation, Phoebe attempted to reason with the goblin through the use of kind words and diplomacy. Out of fear for the men, and an attempt to earn the favor of the lady, the greenskin revealed that a goblin named Irontooth had hired him and the kobolds to harass passing travelers on the road. Irontooth resided in a cave behind a waterfall, in the location indicated by Lord Padraig on Raxil's map. The camp was well protected by Irontooth's cronies. The goblin also sputtered an apology about an archaeologist, who was apparently kidnapped from the wagon caravan by an unknown third party. While the goblin claimed not to know anything about the prisoner, or the reason why he was taken, he did share that the man was taken to the site of a "big dig," west of the party's present location. When it was apparent that the goblin wouldn't be useful in producing any more information, Gildras provided him with a merciful death.
4E Meta: This was our first use of a Skill Challenge. I made the interrogation a simple challenge, requiring 4 successes before 3 failures. A success could be earned with an Intimidate DC 12, or Diplomacy DC 15. It was an interesting role-play opportunity that we failed to take total advantage of. As it was a brand new mechanic to us, we focused more on the rolls and the final outcome. In the future, I'll see to it that skill challenges are played out in more depth and detail.
The party took a moment to rest, briefly, and discussed their options. It was decided that, even though there was a possibility of a living hostage, the friends would have a better chance to rescue him without the added threat of the kobolds from Irontooth's camp constantly threatening trouble. Besides, they weren't one hundred percent certain that they could trust the goblin's story. After scavenging a few measly gold pieces from their kobold attackers, the party headed south towards the waterfall.
DM Note: The "kidnapped archaeologist" is part of an alternate adventure hook, provided in the module. I tossed that little nugget the party's way to provide an extra encounter's worth of XP before they get to the Keep. I thought they might need it, with the near-death experiences they had on the first two combat encounters!
