Solo RPG Campaign 8. The Final Goblin Solution

Preparations

The past two sessions had low XP returns because I had not completely cleared out the goblin lair -- partly because I was playing cautiously to avoid character deaths, partly because I did some limited restocking, and partly because I was trying to keep sessions short and manageable so as to not have too large a downtime pass in-world between adventures (due to 1:1 timekeeping). At any rate, the low XP return had me frustrated and disappointed, so I was intent on taking out the goblin lair for good this time, so I could get the treasure and get back to exploration. 

As a result, I kinda just let this session go on for a while. Normally my sessions last anywhere from a few days to a week and a half, depending on how often I'm able to sit down and play. But this one lasted over a month, and there was at least one period where I set the session down for a few weeks before coming back to it. In-game the adventure only lasted 3 days (4/25 to 4/27) but IRL, it ran from 4/25 to 5/30.

There wasn't much to do in preparation for this delve. Just return to the dungeon and keep fighting more goblins. Chadonius did receive his heavy helm during downtime before the adventure, which will make him more likely to survive if he gets mortally wounded (though his Chainmail is still being delivered) and Zephira purchased some additional Comfrey. Four gangs of goblins remain in the dungeon (including various leaders, for a total of 30 goblins), and I decided not to restock anything in the dungeon.

There is no encounter en route, and the safe haven provides a restful night.

Delve

Learning to Disarm the Traps

Last time, Jelyssa critically failed to disarm the goblins' pit traps and fell in. This time she ties a rope around her so the party can catch her if the trap activates. As before, they take their time methodically searching for traps (I know that the goblins haven't dug any new traps in the dungeon, but the party wouldn't know that), and after 40 minutes, they've made it back to the door between rooms #2 and #5, where there is the pit trap that the war dog fell into. Jelyssa is unable to disarm it in 10 minutes, so the party rests before she gives it another attempt.

As they finish resting, however, they are assaulted by a goblin patrol. The goblins are firing arrows from the far side of the pit trap, where the party cannot melee them without risking triggering the trap, and the party's ranged damage output isn't very good. They start to pull back, hoping to lure the goblins after them (the goblins know how to cross the pit traps without triggering them), but a reaction roll for the goblins determines that they also fall back.

The party realizes that they can head back south into corridor #3 and spike the door shut. When the goblins realize what they are doing, they attempt to follow the party, and an arrow wizzes through the door just before its shut. The goblins attempt to bash the door open (or perhaps they were battering it? There is a difference in the rules, but it's not clearly explained, and I don't recall which is which), but I quickly realize they aren't going to be able to make it through.

It is going to take Jelyssa 1 turn (10 rounds) to disarm the trap, but the roll throw is successful. Meanwhile, the goblins spend those 10 turns going around the long way, through rooms #2, #5, #13, and into #4. I made a mistake as the GM here, and had the goblins just use their regular move action each round. I could have had them take a second move action (to go twice as fast), or used a full-round action to run (and go thrice as fast). This wasn't a deliberate nerf to give my players a chance, I just forgot that those were options. 

This means that the goblins arrive at the end of hallway #4 three turns before Jelyssa has finished picking the lock. I had to redo parts of this battle because I kept forgetting about distance and lighting and LOS. The goblins are able to fire at the party by firing towards the lantern light, but the party cannot fire back or cast spells on the goblins, as the goblins are outside the lantern's radius. However, Edelweiss grabs the lantern from Zephira and shuts it, while Zephira casts Sanctuary on Jelyssa. This allows her to continue working on the trap in the dark (yay for Shadowy Senses!), and it forces the goblins to advance to within 30' for their lightless vision to work. Several attempt to fire on Jelyssa, but the Sanctuary spell does it's job well. Others attempt to fire on Chadonius, but he has his shield up and is taking defensive action.

The spell wears off right as Jelyssa finishes disarming the trap, and at this point, Zephira flips the lantern back open and the party rushes the goblins. Movement is tight in the corridor, and there are generally a lot of misses on both sides. This part of the combat takes around 5 rounds or so. Edelweiss snipes the champion. Chadonius gets hit twice, taking 8 damage (of 10 hp) before coming back and taking out two goblins with a successful cleave. The war dog also takes some damage. In general, this combat was a bit of a hot mess. I have several spots in my notes crossed out or saying that things shouldn't have happened a certain way. I'm still learning, apparently.

Pressing Deeper in

After resting, and providing what healing can be done for Chadonius, the party continues. It's been about an hour and a half so far, but Jelyssa has learned to disarm the pit traps now. They retrace their steps into room #2 (un-spiking the door as they go) then disarm the pit at the entrance to room #5, and methodically search that room for traps. They find one just in front of room #6. I've been determining these trap placements by die roll, but the dice have decided that the goblins like putting traps in front of doors, and other choke points, which is a good strategy. Jelyssa is able to disarm this one as well, but not without a second accident, nearly falling in, and being caught by her rope. They continue north through room #6 without incident. It's now been over three hours, because methodically searching for traps is extremely slow (essentially one square per 10 minutes). Oddly, no more goblin patrols have shown up.

Jelyssa listens at the door to room #16, and when they hear nothing, they take another quick rest, and Radnor spikes the door to room #15. When they finally open the door to room #16, they are confronted with yet another pit trap, which Jelyssa is able to hastily disarm. 

In a previous a delve, I rolled that this room had a treasure, but I decided it was hidden and the party didn't find it (specifically, Jelyssa failed an automatic hasty search). This time, because they are taking their time to methodically search for traps, they do, in fact find the treasure, hidden in a small hole under a loose floor stone. There they find 17,000 cp, 12,000 sp, 4 ornamental gems with a total worth of 175gp, and a potion which Marzipan identifies as Cure Serious Injury -- my first magic item! I had left a proficiency slot open for Marzipan during the ACKS character conversion, and decided it made sense for him to have Alchemy, which gives him a bonus for such identifications. For now, they pocket the gems and give the potion to Chadonius; the copper and silver they will have to come back for later. 

Combat with the Subchieftain

It has now been four hours, and Zephira has just finished adding a new flask of oil to the lantern when the door to room #17 opens, and in comes another gang of goblins. In addition to a champion, they are led by the subchieftain (for a total of 9 goblins), but the chief is not present here. At this point, I rolled for magic items on the lair's treasure table, and determined that there is a magic weapon of some sort in the lair. However, the chief will actually have this on his person, which means there is no other magic item for use by the subchieftain. I also made a quick oracle roll to determine if the captive farmer family was present in this lair room, but they were not. Logically, that probably means they are with the chief.

I rolled for surprise on an individual basis, instead of once for the whole party, and most of the party is surprised, except for Edelweiss and the war dogs. Edelweiss snipes the champion, kills him, and cleaves to (but does not kill) the subchieftain. Wuldric also stabs the subcheiftain but fails to kill him. Marzipan and Zephira each attempt to cast a spell on the subchieftain (Choking Grip and Shatter Blade respectively) but he successfully saves against them. This guy is one tough cookie!

One of the new rule sections that I read before this encounter was the special combat maneuvers, and the one that stood out to me as useful was the Sweep Attack, which lets you make multiple attack throws, splitting the total damage among the number of targets attempted (regardless of the number hit). This works well for large numbers of low-hp targets, which is the case here. Radnor and Chadonius are able to use this ability with some success, and between sweeps and cleaves, the goblins begin dropping. Chadonius kills the subchieftain on the third  round with a cleave, and the two remaining goblins (with 1hp and 4hp) are so frightened they retreat back into the lair (room #17), where the party is able to subdue them and restrain them. This room contains a chthonic goblin idol, as well as the lair treasure: 18,000 cp (which they leave for now) and some gems and jewelry totaling 385gp (which they take). They also return to room #16 and distribute the silver pieces , staying under encumbrance limits.  Additionally, Jelyssa notices the secret door on the south wall of room #17 into room #15.

From their prisoners, they learn that the chief is with the captives in the secret room (#11) so they force the goblin prisoners to walk in front of them to set off (or warn them) of any traps ahead of them. The arrow trap in the hallway had been reset.

Confrontation with the Goblin Chief

The delve has lasted over four and a half hours when the party arrives at the secret room, pushing their goblin prisoners ahead of them. Instead of fighting, which might result in the killing of the prisoners, Chadonius attempts to intimidate the goblins into accepting a prisoner swap, a move which may not end so well, as Chadonius is not skilled in intimidation, and the goblin chief is in his lair and does not want to lose face. But with a stunning 12 on the reaction roll, the chief is in fact intimidated, and after a round of further threats, an unbelievable second 12! on the reaction roll indicates that the goblins have become overawed. Not only do they release the human prisoners, but they will cower in fear and be vulnerable if attacked.

It's at this point, I ask the oracle whether all 5 prisoners were still alive, or if some had been killed. As it turns out, the goblins had already killed the two parents, so only the three children were released. Radnor flies into a rage, and charges the goblins, while Marzipan takes the children out into the hallway so they won't witness the carnage. With the goblins all cowering in fear and unable to fight back, it's a massacre, and there is no escape route for the goblins. I don't even need to roll to know that all the goblins in this room are slain in retaliation. Chadonius takes the chief's magic sword -- my first magic weapon of the campaign -- which turns out to be a Sword +1(+3 vs. Vermin). No wonder the goblins were able to clear out the dungeon's previous inhabitants so easily.

Aftermath

Technically, there is one more gang of 5 goblins somewhere (one of whom is a champion) but I'm not going to worry about them. Either I made a fiat ruling, or I asked an oracle, and determined that they were either not present in the dungeon at the moment, or were not foolish enough to engage with the party that just killed the rest of their warband. Perhaps they will take news of the massacre back to a goblin faction somewhere.

The party returns to the goblin lair and smashes up the idol. They take as much of the copper and silver as they can, and hide the rest (23kcp) in the cubby hole in the wall in corridor 3. All told, the delve has lasted over 5 hours, not leaving enough time to return to town during daylight. So the party spends a second night at the safe haven, and returns to town the next day. By this point, over a month has passed in the real-world since I started the session, so I decide by GM fiat not to bother rolling an encounter on the return trip.

Chadonius and the war dog will take a few days to fully heal up. The party pays their monthly upkeep, and visits the bank to trade up some of their silver pieces to gold. Additional downtime actions will be resolved in a future post, as there is a substantial amount of time to kill, given how long this session took me.

All told, the party has earned just shy of 300 XP for this adventure. Much better than the previous two delves, but still not enough for anyone to level yet. It's worth mentioning that, although there was no reward posted for the rescue of the farmers, I was able to look up in the ACKS Monsterous Manual that the monetary value of a juvenile human is 8gp. And since 1gp of treasure recovered from a dungeon yields 1 XP, rescuing the three children has an inherent value of 24 XP. But really, who can place a cost on the value of human life?