Session 4
The party takes time to rest and
recover, packed in with the rest of the refined refugees. Pendegrast
shares the various maps and pieces of maps which have been assembled, none of
which are confidence-inspiring. He also shares with them his sigil,
should they need proof of their authority on this mission. He suggests
they might start by asking "Agatha" for advice on how to find the
peasants, described as "kinda like a rat" by one of his guards.
A heated debate ensues, splitting the party along gender lines, over whether stopping to talk to
this creature is worthwhile. Eventually a "play it by ear"
compromise is reached, and the party heads out laden with food, ammunition and
other supplies. Breen casts "Identify" on the sigil,
discovering that it is also a magic device capable of giving vision to another
through the eye emblazoned upon it and generally functioning as a mystical
Lojack. Breen wraps it up to limit its vision to the inside of a pouch.
The party leaves the sanctuary of
the nobles' wing and descends to the floor below, immediately finding
themselves in a bizzare gobliny cabaret. Lit by makeshift paper lanterns
and soothed by the dulcet tones of a broken accordion, a collection of both
goblins and humanfolk sit before a stage. A dwarf wearing a tiara and
pink skirt introduces a magic act, two goblins performing the old
saw-the-assistant-in-half routine, which goes exactly as expected.
Digger, glad to finally see another Dwarf, helps stop the bleeding. Jack
sidles up to a woman, "Kelly," and after some initial standoffishness
his confident masculinity leads Kelly to open up about the traumatic events of
the past few days, clutching Jack and ugly-crying on his shoulder (Jack appears
to have seen this going differently.) "Agatha" then steps
onstage, a wizened gnome-like creature who reads the first few pages of a
children's alphabet book to great acclaim. She stops around "C is
for Cat" to invite Mefilicent to tea - apparently the party was
expected. Eventually the entire party follows Agatha into her room behind
the stage, a bright space covered by hook rugs, needlepoint, and assorted
quilts. Seven teacups are sitting out; Agatha pours tea for everyone
present, sits down, and begins to chat as she sips her tea. Asked about
the peasants, she responds, somewhat expectedly, with a riddle - something
about a boat. She then goes on for some time about meaning and purpose,
("Be patient with my children - they are quite young, and have a great
ways to go yet to reach their purpose") which is universally judged to be the
sort of trite claptrap best reserved for motivational posters. Feeling
their purpose was clear enough for the moment, the party leaves Agatha and
exits the cabaret. To Jack's great relief, Kelly stays behind to assist
Agatha.
The party soon comes across the
dwarf from the cabaret seated on a bed, smoking something from a substantial
hookah, along with several other denizens of the manor. Digger and the
Dwarf engage in a very technical discussion of the proper way to escape a
collapsed tower with limited tools. Jack takes a puff from the hookah,
while the others hold back. After a short while, the Prince walks
in. Digger decides everything he wants to say to the Prince can be
summarized by the sharp end of his axe, and immediately attacks. Jack, suspecting
something is amiss, draws on inner resources to shake off this
hallucination. Digger, seeing the Prince's nonplussed reaction to being
savaged with an axe, relies on his hardy constitution to do the same.
They leave the room with the rest of the party, who notice something attempting
to break in from beneath the floorboards on their way out.
The bedroom opens into a large art
gallery, occupied by a single goblin who seems to have managed to decorate
every one of the priceless paintings with a mustache or a penis. Proud of
his work, he runs off at the sound of a large patrol of goblins coming from the
next hallway. A pair of goblin riders emerges, trailed by a number
of others with crossbows and a well-dressed goblin in a cage. Jack and Digger
stop them before they can enter the gallery, and they demand proper
documentation and an account of how many individuals are in tow. Jack
bluffs, "Twenty." The goblin leader responds, after a brief
consultation, "Okay, give nine." (Apparently there was an
incident of some sort that completely decimated the goblins' kitchen staff, and
they need to compensate for the disruption in food production.) Judging
that negotiations had come to an end, Jack attacks without warning, dropping
the leader instantly. Two goblins fire harpoons from behind the
bird-beasts, missing harmlessly. A third fires a harpoon directly into
the tuckus of the now-riderless bird-beast, which panics and charges into the
gallery, dragging the goblin behind. (Mefilicent stomps on it for good
measure.) Breen manages to leap on the creatures' back and spends the
rest of the combat riding it in circles, attempting to regain control.
Jack whips out two hand crossbows and fires, managing to dispatch a goblin with
each bolt. Digger swings his axe, and Mefilicent transforms into a
giant-she bear, barreling into the fray. The bear decisively ends the
combat, finishing off the last bird-beast with a vicious bite. The party
considers questioning the goblin in the cage, but thinks better of it and fires
their crossbows into the cage.
The party proceeds down the hallway,
passing by a small theater where a collection of goblins and humans watches a
grisly sort of puppet show, the goblin actors holding up severed human
heads. Realizing the passage feeds into the "Dining Hall" they
skirted earlier (and thus hundreds of hungry goblins), they turn into an
apparently abandoned chapel.
Goblin Manor, Session 5
The party proceeds into the
abandoned chapel, a strange relic for a kingdom which has largely left such things
behind. Their keen eyes pick out a suspicious arrangement of tarps and
pallets near the rafters, mixed in with other half-completed but long-abandoned
renovation. A voice demands that they stop, and an uneasy truce is
negotiated. The party offers some of their surplus food and water to a
rugged-looking pistoleer who descends from the rafters. Sensing that she
is withholding something, Breen draws upon her Bardic powers and discerns a
number of guarded secrets: The woman, Jenessa, was not here for the
party, but on some sort of mission, apparently convinced something sinister had
been occurring in the manor (perhaps not a great surprise at this point).
She is also protecting something or someone, still hidden in the rafters.
Breen, unsatisfied, decides to climb up and see for herself. Conversation
abruptly halts, as Jenessa draws her pistols and aims them at the gnome.
A tense standoff ensues, with lots of yelling, which is resolved when Breen
decides to keep on climbing. Jenessa fires both pistols, instantly
blowing Breen to the ground, rendering her unconscious and dying.
Mefilicent causes the floorboards to warp around Jenessa, rendering her
immobile, while Digger employs a Mancatcher lifted from the goblins to pin her
to the ground. Jenessa fires again, only to have one of the primitive
firearms explode in her face. Meflicent resolves the situation by once
more transforming into a bear and restraining Jenessa, who is disarmed by
Jack. Digger rushes over to save the dying Breen, employing his
Ranger-craft to heal her. The party attempts to assure Jenessa of their
good intentions to no avail, as Breen, ever-curious, explores what Jenessa was
hiding.
She discovers a young-woman,
unconscious but alive, who seems to have been half-converted into some sort of
mechanical harpy. Digger, annoyed at having been placed in this situation
and preferring Jenessa to Breen for the moment, attempts to hurl Breen off the
scaffolding. She leaps away, and the two run around in circles for some time.
The party, feeling guilty about their actions but unable to make amends, leaves
the Pistoleer and her charge, perhaps sobered and certainly contemplating their
position on the alignment chart.
A door in the back of the chapel
opens into a richly appointed parlor, with a finely dressed family sitting
motionless. It quickly becomes clear that they are all dead, having
either died or been posed in this position. Jack finds some jewelry,
which he pockets. Leading off from this room is an elegant office, seemingly
untouched save a dark, wet spot on the rug leading in. Ever-curious (and
perhaps wanting to atone for the climbing incident), Breen steps into the room,
only to have the floor beneath her rocket into the ceiling. In an
impressive display of agility she manages to tumble off and avoid being
crushed. Now inside, the trap becomes clear, as the ceiling is caked with
the gory remains of less-nimble explorers. Noting the windows, though
barred, are unusually (for the manor) unboarded, she looks outside. She
sees a goblin army encamped around the manor, but this view is interrupted by a
woman's face which inexplicably appears in the window. The woman tilts
her head quizzically and asks "Would you please give me a
hand?" The party, somewhat creeped out, quickly discerns this will
not end well, and that this strange woman is almost certainly one of the
harpies Pendegrast described. They leave, but not before Breen rummages
through the desk for writing supplies and a few stray coins.
The parlor leads out into a hallway,
covered in rich tapestries and with several doors leading off. The end of
the hall is covered in some sort of foul-smelling green substance, marked by a
sign with elegant script, "Please excuse our mess." Digger
searches the tapestries for images of boats and quickly finds one, discovering
a hidden passage behind it. The party set off down the passage to find a
goblin standing in front of a barricade, arguing with two humans ensconced
behind said barricade. "Just send one out!" it pleads, apparently
thinking supper may be immanent. With a word and gesture Mefilicent
paralyzes the goblin, who growls in frustration as it is taken away.
Returning to the barricade, the party finds a man wearing a metal pot for a
helmet and a woman in a scullery maid's dress, both aiming crossbows at
them. When asked, "Can we come in?" they discuss with one
another, then ask that the party wait while a decision is made. After
well over an hour, none other than Reginald appears at the barricade, lowering
down a rope ladder and welcoming them in.
Reginald leads them to a room where
a dozen or so men and women sit in a circle. One holds up a spoon and
offers words of welcome. Another, a woman with fierce black hair, takes
issue with some of his word choices, but is momentarily prevented from speaking
by the others, who insist that she wear the "hat of dissent." A
well-dressed young man takes the spoon and shares his feelings about the new
arrivals and the other things he has feelings about. A painfully circular
discussion quickly emerges on the cruciality of a correct, fully democratic
process, the need to be vigilant against the formation of new systems of rank
and privilege, and a series of similar issues. Mefilicent, finding her
place in the conversation, takes the spoon and introduces herself, ingratiating
herself and the party through both using the correct process and her
infectious, relentless positivity. Other party members attempt to raise
issues of plans and priorities, only to have such concerns swiftly tabled in
favor of more pressing procedural issues. Disguising their lack of
appreciation for the peasants' prefigurative politics, the party extracts
themselves from the meeting and asks Reginald to show them around the compound.
Goblin Manor, Session 6
The party explores the wing seized
by the peasant revolutionaries, finding an abundance of art supplies and a
dearth of ways out. Bypassing the art room, the jeweler's workshop, and
the tailoring areas, their attention is drawn to a parlor where three earnest
peasants have formed the "Get the fuck out committee." As they
pour over makeshift maps the most striking suggestion is repeatedly advanced by
Berthold, a hulking gentleman with an excellent mustache, who proposes the
construction and firing of a catapult. The identification of numerous
logistical problems does nothing to dampen Berthold's spirit. Rachel,
last seen in the Goblin market, is also in this small group, alongside a
combative young man named Sean.
Weary from fighting, the party decides
to take time to rest, some in the clothing-optional communal sleeping area, and
some in more private quarters. Mefilicent turns into a bear, but before
she can doze off she is set upon by Steve, who was impressed by her enthusiasm
in the open meeting. He leads her to the art room and shows her his
"vision board," a "little magic of my own."
Mefilicent, still a bear, makes her own vision board, shredding paper and
textiles with her massive claws and clumsily pushing them around. She
finally heads to bed, odd pieces of cloth still affixed to her snout.
It is not long the following morning
before a tremendous crash is heard, and bedlam ensues as the peasants rush to
respond. Apparently the nobles are outside the barricade, having been led
here by the players, and are demanding that the peasants quit all this nonsense
and make more rational choices. Negotiations seem difficult - "The
only thing you have to offer, and all we need, is your submission" - and
are definitively ended when Digger makes an improbable crossbow shot, the bolt
arcing over the ranks of armored foes and imbedding itself in Lord Pendegrast's
(the Elder) shoulder. Horribly offended, the tall woman declares,
"How rude! You all stink!" Through some arcane
incantation, the area behind the barricade fills with a noxious gas, making
many of the would-be defenders sick. Panic ensues, and makeshift weapons
are readied. One woman tells Breen, "Don't let this die here...tell
the story, of what we made, of what we achieved, in this brief, glorious
time!"
The barricade finally falls and
armored guards begin to pour through. A vicious battle ensues, with
several of the idealistic peasants meeting gruesome ends. Mefilicent
works her magic and traps many in the hallway; one of the guards in mechanical
armor is trapped and immobilized as some key part of his suit breaks. The
other storms in, now a cruel iron helm making him appear utterly inhuman.
A gas pours out from the helm's snout, and several of the defenders - including
Breen - find themselves immobilized. His fists swing with frightening
power, bringing down defenders with every blow.
Digger seizes a piece of fabric art
from the art room and waves it like a flag, attempting to lead a retreat
through the rear door. Some join, but others proclaim that they would
rather die here, free. These fight on, and while a number of guards fall,
more pour in. Recognizing immanent defeat, Jack runs to join Digger,
slinging the immobilized Breen over his shoulder as he runs (Breen continues firing
her crossbow on the way out). Mefilicent, bear-raging, charges in the
opposite direction, offering her back to the peasants cut off from
escape. Several of them grab on, and she charges back towards Digger,
taking a savage blow from the mechanical guard in the process.
The party, along with a dozen
survivors, make their way down the spiral staircase to the lower level,
disassembling the back barricade and preparing an ambush around the
stairs. A fearful calm ensues, as they hear shuffling and shouting
above. Pendegrast makes a plea for a reasonable resolution to this
situation, and the party suggests he is welcome to come down and discuss
things. A guard begins to descend the staircase, and is immediately cut
down by the waiting defenders. The party insists that Pendegrast himself
comes down, which he firmly rejects, citing the negative experience of the
guard. Realizing this stalemate will not end in their favor, the party
begins leading the peasants out the back door and down the corridor, as Breen
buys time by engaging Pendegrast in debate. Finding his architectural
skills once again useful, Digger manages to collapse the archway after the last
of the group is securely in the hallway.
The party knows that "Strong's
goblins" lie ahead, but little more. Having made their choice, they
proceed into the darkness...
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