Solo Play Session 4: Orcs!

 

Proving Grounds Level 3

Introduction

Sadly I've fallen behind with documenting my solo adventures with the Evil Elf Gang. After success in Session 3; the two new Assassins, Neldor & Zeno, were training along with the Fighter Magic User Fingar. Meanwhile, Voldar the Fighter reached level 2 not long after Beldroth, Morthil & Ilphar also reached this milestone, and they decided that the four of them were sufficient for another delve.

Timekeeping

This session took place on 01/10/2023, and the Characters adventured for 5 days.

Characters Present

Beldroth (Level 2 Elf Magic User)

Ilphar  (Level 2 Elf Assassin)

Morthil  (Level 2 Elf Assassin)

Voldar (Level 2 Elf Fighter)

Downtime 

Beldroth worked her charms on the captured Celadyde (Fighter/Cleric/Magic User Level 1), trying to get him to join their cause. He eventually agreed to exorbitant terms (and will remain an NPC).

Session Report

The party arrived at the Proving Grounds of the Chaz Overlord dungeon without incident.

As they methodically explored and mapped level 3 they found the place to be fairly empty, the biggest threat being a pit trap that caught Morphil for 1 hit point. Finally a one-way door led into a room with 10 Piercers (A). Given the way this party is travelling silently in the dark and using infravision, I figure they would have a good chance to spot the piercers in a normal dungeon room; however, my rule of thumb in solo play is that they have to encounter a situation at least once before they can develop counter measures, so, in this case, they went forward until a piercer dropped towards Ilphar. It missed and now they could look up and find the others (which I had randomly allocated to each of the 4 squares in the 20' by 20' chamber).

Beldroth dropped Sleep on the ones between them and the nearest exit so they could move out and take up a position to wipe the slow creatures out. They expended quite a few arrows, but the party prevailed before the slowly moving monsters could reach them. 

A thorough search revealed a trunk hidden behind an illusion, with thousands of sp and cp inside. Too heavy for this crowd to bother collecting. A poisoned arrow trap in room (B) hit Voldar for 3 hit points, but he shrugged off the poison on it, and finally they found 3000 more copper pieces at room (C). So this level, with the exception what might be over the river (and there could be little beyond that feature given the configuration) seemed to be a bust after mapping just a quarter of the page.

Proving Grounds Level 1

They returned to level 1 and in room (A) run into group of 8 Orcs; disaster, the Orcs surprised the elves for 1 segment. It could have been worse; since Voldar and Morphil have high dexterity, they were not surprised (they were in front for precisely this reason). Since it was orcs vs elves I didn't roll for the monsters' reaction, they were in for a killing spree.

Now I had some thinking to do (this was probably the most interesting thing to happen this delve). Since two non-surprised characters held the entrance and were standing between the surprised characters and the orcs, I ruled that only missile weapon attacks to the surprised characters at the rear could happen during the surprise segment. Using the Monster Manual entry percentages I worked out that three orcs had crossbows; which now could fire 3 times each in the segment. So they could fire nine shots at Ilphar and Beldroth, really bad news for the magic user in particular. 

However, again, since the non surprised guys were in the way, I wanted to treat them as partial concealment, I could also treat them as cover; but then that would imply that misses would count as hits against them, which makes no sense since they cannot be targeted in the surprise segment. 

On the other hand, it also makes no sense that the non-surprised PCs can effectively block the surprised ones without the possibility of getting hit themselves. So, in the end I decided that the Orcs could only choose to aim at Ilphar and Beldroth, but who they actually targeted would be decided randomly as per DMG p.63. 

On the other hand, the two unsurprised elves could have just jumped clear and left the other two at the Orcs' mercy, but I didn't think of that at the time.

Ilphar had 50% cover so a +4 bonus to AC and Beldroth, behind him, had 90% cover, so a +10 bonus to AC. Note that these benefits do not help mitigate against the weapon vs ac modifier of light crossbows (+3 vs the two PC's AC types of 10 and 8 respectively). Beldroth was then hit once for 2 hit points and Ilphar hit twice for 5 hit points. Voldar and Morthil also caught a hit each for 3 & 4 hp respectively.

Maybe this could be interpreted as the Voldar and Morthil using their dexterity to try and deflect the orcs crossbow bolts?

The surprise segment over, Beldroth went for broke and began casting Sleep, the others were going to lead with Fingar and the assassins using bows. The party then won a crucial TPK preventing initiative, and the sleep spell effected all 8 Orcs, whew! The party killed and looted the Orcs then called it quits, making it back to Elf Town safely. They rested for 5 days and then returned for delve 5 on October 7th.

Treasure and XP

Monetary Treasure

60 EP

Monsters

10 Piercers

8 Orcs

Items

none

Monsters Total:  670XP

Treasure Total:  30XP

XP & GP Assignment 

Fingar (Level 2/2 Elf Fighter Magic User) 190 XP &  8GP

Neldor (Level 3 Elf Assassin) 190 XP & 8 GP

Voldar (Level 2 Elf Fighter)   127 XP & 6 GP

Zeno (Level 3 Elf Assassin)  190 XP & 8 GP

Graveyard

Empty so far

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 51 (Machodor #26); The Master of Winter, Attacks!

     

Timekeeping

This session took place on 21/12/2023, and the PCs adventured for 5 days. 

Player Characters Present

Giuseppe (Level 6 Paladin of Rome, Brovenloft, E)

Sever (Level 6 Pegasus Corps Ranger of Machodor, E)

Deltacron (Level Dwarf 1 Fighter/Thief, E ) 

Godleve (Level 5 Cleric of Machodor, E )

Sheamus(Level 6 Irish Fighter from Brovenloft, E ) 

Introduction 

This was a really incredible session. A huge number of background things all came together at the one time and the players had absolute autonomy to choose what to do about them. The time flew by and I would have loved to have another four hours for the players to capitalise on everything they learned while it was fresh in their minds. 

This was also a session where I very much felt a paradigm shift into DM as Referee. I could have nudged or even tried to steer this session in any number of directions where the players were "supposed" to do various things, but instead I relayed information based on their position in the mountains and adjudicated their actions from there. Did that result in more fun for the players I wonder, or just for me? 

Downtime

The Master of Winter, first encountered back in session #4, has been patiently building and preparing his forces for some time. Now, on the morning of the Winter Solstice, his army was in position to strike Gimmelwald in the south east part of the Bandit Mountains. Although he proved victorious, not everything went as planned, including being challenged to a duel by a fellow monk. It just so happened that the winter solstice was on a session day.

Two of the Dervish who joined the party and became Giuseppe's henchmen were taken to Minas Mandalf to be properly sworn in and equipped. Then the trio, along with Sever the ranger and his pegasus, travelled around the bandit mountains chasing various leads.

Session Report

With it being a few sessions since this particular group of characters had been together, and even longer since they were in Machodor proper, there were a number of loose threads and doings learned of in downtime. In fact there were hooks aplenty:

• The Black Knight was roaming around challenging all comers, but was also maddeningly difficult to find. Similarly armoured figures were seen guarding the entrance to Castle Von Necro 

• The fear gas in the Valley of Fear, below the Robopriest's fortress complex, had become inert following the PC's actions in Brovenloft. This allowed the Robopriest's men to find a route leading into the same lava tube the PCs had spent so much time exploring; was this a short cut to Lord Inferno's lair?

• The Dragon Cultists; they certainly exist, but further evidence is hopelessly mixed with hearsay and the superstitions of the common folk 

•  The Ice Pyramid, still sitting there unexplored by PCs since its discovery months ago 

•  The Hawkmen of the crashed Sky City were still in need of help recovering power crystal gems. 

There was all this on offer and, as yet, they had no idea what was going on in Gimmelwald just that morning. However, by choosing to travel via Castle Irish to the the Valley of Fear, with a side trek into the area the Black Knight had been reported in, they were to going find out. 

It was a cold clear day and they made good time to Castle Irish without any encounters, and then continued on south west. On this route they eventually ran into the first of many refugees from Gimmelwald; led by Staadtman Krellard (who they had rescued from Castle Von Necro in session #2) a group of sixty or so riders were pushing hard in their direction. Recognising the flags and such these riders were carrying, the party hailed them and got a brief run down of the events of that morning: Gimmelwald had fallen. However, Krellard was more interested in debriefing behind the walls of Castle Irish, so the PCs returned with him.

Once in audience with the lord of the Castle, Sir Trolland the Paladin, Krellard detailed the morning's disaster.

The enemy's forces included: Scores of Ice Toads, two White Dragons, and dozens of Ice Trolls. These latter monsters were immune to non-magical weapons. There were also normal human troops numbering around two hundred. The enemy had simply rolled into the valley from the south east, destroyed the palisade and watch tower there, then moved in and enveloped the town. At this point the defenders were too busy to be concerned with the identity of their attackers; but, when the enemy had broken through the eastern gate and threatened to run amok, something incredible happened.  A monk, calling himself the Master of the East Wind, who had somehow being staying undetected in Gimmelwald, thwarted the breakthrough with the help of a Djinni; then bellowed a challenge to the Master of Winter. The Master of Winter, who up until then had stayed well out of the fray, accepted the challenge and flew into the town on his own White Dragon. While the enemy was distracted with this fight Krellard and a few supporters slipped out of the town and escaped.

Monk fight

not of lot of people know this

Later a younger member of Krellard's entourage, who had managed to witness the entire fight and still escape, gave a blow by blow account of the duel. 

"Hear tale of the battle like no other I witnessed,"

In summary:

• The two masters exchanged opening blows without either one gaining an advantage. 
• Then, on round 3 they tied initiative. They both had 3 attacks that round, evaluated simultaneously; the first missed, then the Master of Winter rolled 20, more than 5 better than his target to hit; meaning that the other monk was stunned for 1d6 rounds. The d6 came up with 5. Then the Master of the East Wind also rolled 20, also stunning his opponent; for SIX rounds! 
• So they were both punch drunk for five rounds, then the MoEW had a full round with a bonus of +4 to his attack, meaning not only a better chance of hitting but a better chance of stunning (and perhaps killing). He did hit one time out of three for significant damage, but the MoW was still standing and had time to recover his senses. 
• Next round the MoW won initiative, stunned the MoEW again, but this time rolled a 01 on the d100...

"Battered, lungs heaving for air, the Master of Winter thrusts himself up from the blood spattered snow.  Again the two masters leap across the town square and exchange a flurry of blows, but this time experience overcomes raw speed.  With the scream that echoes with the sound of a hurricane wind, the man in white lands a stunning palm to his challenger's sternum that leaves the younger man frozen in shocked silence.

A moment passes.  Confusion flickers across the visage of the Master of Winter, replaced instantly by one of concern.  Again, he rushes to the Master of East Wind's side, this time to catch him as he falls to the paving stones.  Words escape his lips, just a soft whisper at the light slips from his fallen foe's eyes.

The Master of Winter gently closes the dead man's eyes, rises, and bows deeply to a foe worthy of his skill.  He walks back past his general, "Did I not tell you the day of the solstice belongs to the Master of Winter?" He mounts his great white wyrm and departs through the clouds to the west."

Now, relating all this might be a big chunk of the session report, but it did not take up much time in session. If this other monk didn't happen to be at Gimmelwald, then probably no one would have known who was behind the attack. The party were soon set to scheming.

Having no love for the Master of Winter at the best of times, they set about their preparations to respond to his shameless attack on a peaceful town. Shaemus appealed to the leader of the Irish, Connor MacGregor (Patron Irish Fighter level 7) who was able to immediately call a hundred men to arms; a mixture of light cavalry and longbowmen. I started drawing up my squares for a mass battle, which was beginning to look like a possibility. With these troops and twenty riders from Gimmelwald, the party set out from the castle once again; first to help look for the expected evacuee column, and then more if they could. 

Sever mounted up and flew over to investigate Gimmelwald, and found it looted and abandoned. It was easy to see that the bulk of the population had been rounded up and marched out of the valley to the south east. He followed and caught up with them; managing to approach the white dragon and its rider, who was directing the movement of the throng from the air, without being noticed, resulting in 3 segments of surprise. The encounter distance was 150 yards, and the ranger had come in well above the dragon in altitude. After some calculations I determined that, if his pegasus dived, the pair could cover that distance in two segments and still attack, with one further segment afterwards. 

I was only egging him on a little (alright a lot), a bold strike certainly could have resulted in a significant loss for the enemy, but in the end Sever chose discretion and prioritised getting the information back to the rest of the party. By the time he returned they had intercepted the refugees and chosen to push on towards Castle Irish as evening fell.

With the information Sever brought with him, the party had plenty of options open to them. But they were also suspicious there might be dragon cultists within the group of refugees. This was great, since I had established already that this was the case and could simply adjudicate their efforts to find them.

As they trudged on towards the Castle, the party offered first aid to the evacuees and lined them up to receive it. Off to the side they had Giuseppe subtly employ his paladin detect evil ability. The idea was that eventually everyone would have been checked, but, just as the Paladin thought he was on to something, a wild scream of terror came from down the line; a group of Wights emerging from the darkness had decided to pick off some humans for their evening meal. 

The players weren't about to stand by and let that happened, they moved to intercept the monsters. We had to ToTM the relative positions of the party with Giuseppe, then it was on. The PCs won initiative, which was crucial, and they got between the monsters and the humans. Godleve then successfully turned 4 out of 7 of the Wights, which the undead never recovered from (even though the remainder lasted a few more rounds and had a some level draining chances).

After this skirmish, the PCs returned to their original plan, but this time tried a different tactic and had Giuseppe ride down the line of evacuees and stare menacingly at them. Finally, one man suddenly ran off away from the paladin. He was a huge farmer type, nearly seven feet tall. In the dark he only had to get out of sight and he would have a good chance to escape. Sever heard Giuseppe's yell and charged across on Convess to overbear the human. Even though it was a huge man, the Pegasus hit him hard enough to knock him unconscious. Finally, they had a prisoner! The man had apparently been heading towards a cave entrance in the nearby mountain side.

They re-joined the evacuees and the group made it back to Castle Irish around 10pm, exhausted. The party focussed on their new prisoner and began working on a plan to interrogate him the next day while Sever went out to get an update on the Master of Winter's troops. However, the next morning a massive blizzard blanketed the area and made it impossible for the Pegasus to get airborne.

Unable to get much else done, there was a lot of interesting in character role playing from Godleve and the others with the locals. Players actually remembered some of the NPCs in this location, can you imagine? The next day the blizzard had faded to heavy rain, visibility was poor; but, Convess could fly, and so he and Sever went off in the direction of the Master of Winter's valley. Once there they found no sign of movement outdoors, and circled around trying to get an idea of the defences. Unfortunately for him, the main fortification, atop a mesa in the middle of the valley, was completely enclosed and so it was not possible to estimate how many defenders might actually be inside; certainly it looked big enough to hold up to 500 men. The nearby cave city was populated by around 2000 souls, many of whom could be seen through the large, glass like outer walls that were a feature of the place.

The Master of Winter's base

Continuing south, Sever found that the prisoners from Gimmelwald and the army column were only a few hours south of their destination; somehow the blizzard of the day before had not slowed their progress and, in their confidence they no longer employed the dragon air support. Alas, any chance to bring a force to engage them outside of the valley was lost. Narrowly avoiding a random encounter with a Hieracosphinx, Sever returned to Castle Irish to report his findings; just as the interrogation was getting warmed up.

The prisoner was not answering any questions, but they had confirmed he possessed a tattoo under his right eyelid; of a red dragon. This was a sure sign they were not simply dealing with an evil villager, but a member of the dragon cult. Godleve, using detect magic, found that the tattoo was indeed magical. After this a Dispel Magic was cast in the hope of removing any charm and the like that might be preventing him cooperating. This did have the effect of removing the tattoo, but otherwise the huge farmer was uncooperative and gave them nothing. 

Finally they called up the castle's magic user; Sarumin the Beast Master. He was known for his ability to use charm magic, and he was only too happy to oblige the party. The farmer, Baronik, was soon spilling his guts about everything he knew.

Contents of guts:

• he was recruiting into the ranks of the cult by a certain Talman, recently arrived from Grindlewald
• he joined because of the power he hoped to obtain, "Even the great Macho Mandalf fears to challenge Lord Inferno" (yeah right)
• he tried to escape because his handler told him too (a ruse to divert the PC's attention?)
• within the cave he was making for is a long natural passage leading to a chamber where the cult conducts various rites; there is a statue of a dragon in there, that, if a certain gem is placed in its claws (a topaz), allows access to a shrine area. (When it was pointed out he had no such gem, Baronik realised he had been betrayed)

The party added this information to what they had learned already, and, with the winter weather again closing in, made plans to spend the Christmas period at Castle Irish.

Treasure and XP

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 51 (Machodor #26)

Monetary Treasure

0

Monsters

3 Wights 

Items

Monsters Total: 2000 XP

XP & GP Assignment N/A 

Giuseppe (Level 6, E )  400 XP

Sheamus(Level 6, E )  400 XP 

Sever (Level 6, E )  400 XP 

Godleve (Level 5, E ) 400  XP 

Deltacron (Level 1, E )  400 XP

Graveyard

Jacques Ocular (Level 1 Magic User), a fat green worm burrowed into his head and turned him into a Son Of Kyuss in Brovenloft in Session #43

Pino (Dwarf Footman level 0), Killed by a Frost Giant axe in the head in session #39

Paro (Dwarf Fighter/Thief level 2/2) , Killed by Winter Wolves and frozen in session #39

Zabib (1/2 Elf Fighter/Magic User level 1/1), Killed by Frost Giant rocks in downtime prior to session #39

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 52 (Machodor #27); The Hidden Altar

       

Timekeeping

This session took place on 29/12/2023, and the PCs adventured for 4 days. 

Player Characters Present

Lance Errant (Level 1 Paladin of Minas Mandalf, E)

Marty O'Tool (Level 1 Cleric of Dublin, Brovenloft, E)

Larrinod "Larry" Blackmantle (Level 1 Magic User/Cleric, bastard son of an elf, E)

Comfort Rod (Level 1 Cleric, E ) 

Introduction 

This was another really fun session to referee, with lots of interaction by the players with the environment in interesting ways, and it was also a big change of pace from last week's session (#26 which I'm still grappling with writing up as of this moment).

Session Report

Again travelling by river barge to their destination, the party reached the River Dungeon without incident.

River Dungeon Level Session 3 Delve 1

Since this is a heavily Appendix A driven session, I'm experimenting with showing the party's route on the map.

The party beached the barge at the same spot and tasked two of the bargemen to keep watch, as usual. There was some discussion about how bright the light was out here and whether it would be a problem for any goblins that came along; but it was established that with the shear walls the light was only bright enough to bother them for about three hours around noon. The bargemen would have be on alert.

The party went straight in directly west, back to the room with the well (A) that was the highlight of their previous visit. The well had been filled in; I had given this room some thought as part of my overall idea of restocking that might have happened since the previous time the PCs had visited. However, my restocking roll turned up more than this; upon checking, it was only a trick! The goblins had fashioned a rudimentary trap door at the top of the well. When Lance gave it a wrap with his spear the ready goblins threw it open and achieved two segment of surprise. At first I didn't realise this as nearly every session we've had a ranger available, but not this time!

Even with this advantage, the goblins felt the effects of the Lance's Protection from Evil. They reacted immediately (word must have got around about this adventuring party). "Pal'din Pal'din Pal'din!" they cried, and retreated back down into the well. Thinking this might be a trap; rather than pursue, Lance closed the makeshift trapdoor and the PCs used Comfort Rod's rope and other items to secure it in place so that the goblins could not push it open again to follow them.

This done, they went through the south door and into uncharted territory; and immediately they found two small chests just sitting there undefended. This was actually a chamber; but as it had a two doors and no archways, how would anyone know? I found this bit of Appendix A trivia interesting enough to mention; but it didn't draw a response, I guess the prospect of two treasure chests was more compelling.

Larrinod cast Detect Magic, but found nothing magical in the chests or in the area nearby. Marty borrowed a spear and leveraged open one chest, finding and amazing 100 platinum coins inside, then followed up with the same result in the other chest. The coinage was supported by a certain amount of worthless dross, the meaning of which I have since forgotten. They spilled the contents out without touching the chests themselves, and this caution turned out to be justified when Larry found small needle tips, embedded in the chests' handles, that would have injected poison into anyone foolish enough to try and pick them up. It was then decided that although this coinage was quite a score, it was not enough to consider calling it a day.

Further exploring led first into a square room (B) with empty packing crates in the corner, the symbol on their sides was of an oil lamp; then into an empty trapezoidal room with a single exit in the south, that went far off into the unknown. Instead of going further that way they back tracked to (B) and went east. This led to a winding corridor, which eventually spilled into a small chamber; here the entire eastern wall incorporated an altar below a fresco of giant creatures worshiping even larger beings.

This display of paganism incensed Lance and Marty, prompting the later to smash the ledge-like section of altar that protruded from the wall. The stone was not as thick nor as sturdy as it seemed and Marty's mace made short work of it; but, within the debris was a hollowed out area containing hundreds of electrum pieces, which now spilled out onto the floor, and, a mace.

Marty, seeing this as a good omen, reached down and grabbed up the weapon; while Larry bemoaned his use of detect magic already, and Lance began to detect evil. The paladin did detect evil, but not from the mace; it was coming out of the wall, accompanied by a ghostly, spectral figure towering fifteen feet tall. 

With three clerics in the party, the call went out to turn undead; but, Marty felt another urge, somehow coming from the mace itself. It wanted him to hit the Spectral being. Though he believed he could have ignored the urge, Marty decided to go with it. This was just as well as none of the three clerics had a chance of being successful at turning the monster. However, the party lost initiative and Marty would have to wait his turn.

The Spectre had his chance to draw first blood (and levels), but, given the room was so small, all the PCs were bunched up inside Lance's Protection from Evil 10' radius, so, given that the Spectre was both evil and summoned, it could not approach close enough to lay a hand on them. How this would have played out next round I leave as an exercise for the reader. Anyway, as it happened there was no next round; Marty stepped forward and laid into the Spectre with the mace (which at AC 2 was no easy feat)  and the creature simply disintegrated. There was much rejoicing.

They gathered up the loose coins (at some point having picked up the 200pp from the earlier chests) and kept exploring south, finding behind a door a small 10' square room filled with goblin excrement, which for some reason they chose not to search. East they found, confusingly to those who had mapped previously, a triangular room just south of one they had explored before. This one had copper coins spread more or less evenly across the floor, which they avoided, and a heavy stone doorway in the south east corner. This proved to be trapped to fall outwards, which it did with a crash; but was of no danger when opened from their side.

Finding themselves in a familiar area, near where previously goblins had dropped oil from a concealed murder hole, they were careful to skirt it and and continued on until they reached the beach, and from there looped back to the barge to stash their loot before going back in. The bargemen reported no encounters (in fact I didn't roll a single random encounter all day).

Delve 2, this time with shoes on.

This time the party's goal was corridor they had been to previously but not fully explored. They quickly moved past familiar rooms and into a room (A) more or less behind the "tapestry room".

There were no apparent exists, but there was a barred pit in the northwest section of the 30' square room. At the bottom of the 15' deep pit was the body of a large humanoid, perhaps an Ogre. The bars were set in a hinged frame, but this was locked down in place. While this was being examined, Larrinod's superior elf senses detected a secret door in the north west of the room; but, as it only went back into the tapestry room, this discovery was not greatly appreciated by his fellows. Further east in room (B) was another sign of the goblins mistreating their captives, in the corner was an Iron Maiden; but I made the players work hard to come to this realisation. 

Within was the body of a human adult, by his clothes perhaps a merchant; they decided to remove it and carry the remains back to the barge for safe keeping and future burial at Minas Mandalf.

Once again, though some hours of delving had passed and they were into the afternoon (carefully tracked with my spindown dice) no random encounters had arrived to disturb them. There was a quick discussion and they all agreed to check out "one more room".

Delve 3

They figured they had the resources for another combat, and Lance led them beyond the "tapestry room" and into the room with lots of empty crates and three south exits they had only partially explored. As they peered south down the middle passage their torch light just picked up that there were goblins entering the same passage from the west. Lance declared a charge and the others backed him up, Comfort Rod joined the front rank with Rowan, Marty stayed ready in the middle; and Larry stayed in the rear, casting Sanctuary. Although you can't go wrong with Cure Light Wounds, I really like it when clerics use utility spells. Would this one pay off?

I hastily had to work out what weapons the goblins had and their planned actions. Then the party won initiative and much of that was moot. Two goblins with spears would have set them against a charge but did not have time to, however weapon length might have still given them the advantage, if it wasn't for the fact that Lance and Rowen had spears of their own (human spears would be longer than goblin spears, right?). 

The two sides crashed into each other and Lance put a goblin down instantly, and another was wounded. Return attacks from the goblins were miserably ineffective. At the end of the round the rear rank of goblins ran off west shouting "Pal'din Pal'din!"; but was there a different tone than before?

Next round it was tied initiative; with the mix of weapons both sides had, the attacks came first mostly from the goblin side; but they again missed their marks. Meanwhile Larrinod had moved down the corridor to stay close to his fellows. One more goblin was down and another injured; but then Larry saw that the ones that had run off earlier had simply circled around and were now behind the party at the other end of the corridor, and they had flasks of oil!

All four goblins wanted to throw their oil at the closest enemy, which was Larrinod, but he was protected with Sanctuary. I ruled that they were not smart enough to consider a different target and instead had them roll versus spells (as per the spell description); none of them passed so none of them threw their oil that round (though they might next round). Given the close proximity to four flasks of oil, even had the goblins missed, each PC would have had to make up to four saves vs splash damage; so Larry's spell probably saved a death or two. You love to see it.

Next round the party adjusted to this new threat; but, thanks to winning initiative and getting another kill in, the goblins had to make a morale check before they could attack again. They failed and fled, in the end only three of them got away. Rowan counted the goblin ears; and the party, having spent about five hours in the dungeon, now went back outside, loaded their loot on the barge, and pushed off. They made it back home safely, with their only encounter being Pegasus borne magical light displays over Minas Mandalf to welcome the Year of our Lord 2024.

Treasure and XP

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 52 (Machodor #27)

Monetary Treasure

750 ep

200 pp

  80 sp (from goblins)

Treasure Total: 1379 GP/XP

Items

Magical Mace, dubbed the Mace of Saint Patrick 1750 XP

8 Goblin ears (collected by Rowan the Man-at-arms and given to the merchant guild): 8 GP. 

Reward for returning the merchant's body (found in the Iron maiden): 100 GP

Rowan has an odd habit of calling out the number of Goblins getting killed in the language used by the Weeb Army.

Total: 1750XP 108 GP

Monsters

8 Goblins 128XP

1 Spectre 2000XP

Monsters Total: 2128XP

XP & GP Assignment 5257 XP,  1375 GP

Lance Errant (Level 1, E)   1314XP & 365 GP 15 SP

Marty O'Tool (Level 1, E)  1314XP & 365 GP 15 SP

Larrinod (Level 1/1 , E )    1314 XP & 365 GP 15 SP

Comfort Rod (Level 1, E ) 1314 XP & 365 GP 15 SP

Graveyard

Jacques Ocular (Level 1 Magic User), a fat green worm burrowed into his head and turned him into a Son Of Kyuss in Brovenloft in Session #43

Pino (Dwarf Footman level 0), Killed by a Frost Giant axe in the head in session #39

Paro (Dwarf Fighter/Thief level 2/2) , Killed by Winter Wolves and frozen in session #39

Zabib (1/2 Elf Fighter/Magic User level 1/1), Killed by Frost Giant rocks in downtime prior to session #39