The session began as Crow Dance dragged unconscious Monty out of the castle to safety in the woods while the rest of the party stole a rest in the tower of the castle they had just cleared. Unfortunately, their rest gave the enemy time to prepare, and they were awoken by a kobold unstealthily unbarring the downstairs door. When most of the party had gone downstairs to deal with the furry little infiltrators, the two upstairs doors were similarly opened, revealing a kobold, a hobgoblin, and a bugbear at each door. The fight was tough going for the party, but they pulled through and the devious enemies were defeated. Sir Hardrig, the rescued prisoner from last session, spent the last of his lay on hands paladin ability to heal himself (just enough) and his friends. He told them how he had grown accustomed to keeping this divine healing in reserve, for when he used it on himself in the cage his tormentors would just beat him some more. Now it was time to move on to the main keep.
They entered through a hole that had been knocked in the wall by the collapse of the northeast tower, and found themselves in a hallway with stairs going up, and a door to the south. When they opened the door, they saw a room dominated by a stone throne on a raised platform. The kobold sitting on the throne quickly jumped off, thrust his roughly-made copper crown onto the head of the kobold next to him, and yipped "It was him!" before realizing that the intruders were enemies, not their hobgoblin masters. The battle was swift, complicated only slightly by one of the kobold's sorcerous abilities. Daphne, with natural rogue talent, located a secret compartment in the throne that held a valuable jeweled scepter.
Next the party tried the stairs, only to be met by hobgoblin archers firing down them. After a failed volley, our heroes charged up the stairs and found four hobgoblins guarding the floor, a number which soon swelled as another door opened and let in the three hobgoblin archers who had been firing down on the courtyard in the last session. Then Thornos, King of the Hobgoblins, made his appearance. He bided his time as the party struggled to get past his bodyguards. Only when a vengeful Sir Hardrig and an enlarged Sigurd made their way toward him did he begin lashing out with his deadly bardiche.
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| Upper floor of the castle |
As hobgoblins fell and began to spread out, drawing the party into a number of different corners of the castle, Sigurd and Sir Hardrig were essentially alone against King Thornos, who was himself taking quite a beating, and withdrew to another room to drink potions while a bodyguard kept the Lawful do-Gooders at bay. Hardrig was reeling from his wounds as well, and retreated to Thornos' treasure room where he retrieved his own longsword before returning to the fight out of a sense of duty. He pushed a suit of armour down on the hobgoblin bodyguard, giving Sigurd the opportunity to finish him off. And then Thornos re-entered the fight.
Meanwhile, Kat was in a one-on-one fight with a hobgoblin. The hobgoblin bent his sword against the wall thanks to a critical fumble, but still managed to knock the bard out of the fight, at which point her twin sister rushed in to finish the foul creature off. Zel and Cameo were busy dealing with hobgoblin archers while Rikkit shot acid at anything that moved.
Sigurd, with only 3 hp remaining, withdrew from the fight in the hopes of finding a healing potion in Thornos' treasure room, leaving Sir Hardrig alone with the hobgoblin king. What the party did not know at the time was that Sir Hardrig had the Die Hard feat, and was at below 0 health for most of the fights he joined them in. Sir Hardrig had -11 hp when Thornos struck him one last time with his bardiche, killing him outright. Distraught, Sigurd rushed back to the fight, issuing a challenge to Thornos and slashing down at him over the head of Rikkit, who had valiantly - if foolishly - taken Sir Hardrig's place in combat. Sigurd's blow felled the hobgoblin king.
The party then finished mopping up and sweeping the rest of the castle. They cleverly avoided a room marked "Out of Order - Use Moat Instead." Sigurd buried Sir Hardrig in his armour and Thornos' crown, then led the way in drinking mournfully to his memory in the southeast tower.
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One thing comes to mind as I recount this session: hobgoblins are great villains. As Lawful Evil creatures with decent intelligence for goblinoids, they lend themselves well to strategy and organization, making them particularly dangerous. I'm sure any given player would rather fight a hobgoblin than an orc one-on-one, but hobgoblins are a much more dangerous looming threat or dungeon denizen\than stupid, chaotic orcs. Hobgoblins have the minds for recruiting and making use of other races, such as kobolds, goblins, and bugbears. And they are more likely to take a tactical approach than orcs, as seen in the last session, when they used the castle's existing defenses and some added ones of their own to hinder the party's entrance to the castle and keep them in danger and themselves out of danger for as long as possible. This can also be seen in this session, as the hobgoblins made use of the castle interior to draw the players to separate corners and keep them from stacking damage on King Thornos.
That's why hobgoblins fill the "dangerous omnipresent monster race" slot in my campaign setting, rather than the oft-used orcs.
I would also like to take the time to mention that Sir Hardrig had the best stat block of any character, PC or NPC, that I have ever rolled. I do like to brag about the time I rolled 17, 16, 17, 16, 17, 10 using just 3d6 in order (he was a swashbuckler that I was, unfortunately, only able to play once), but Hardrig clocked in at 16, 16, 17, 16, 15, 15 for a net positive modifier of +16. After the human +2 bonus, he had 16 Str, Con, and Wis, 15 Dex and Int, and 19 Cha. Unfortunately, he was hobbled by having only 4 hp when the party met him, and only four uses of lay on hands remaining as well, plus none of his armour or weapons.
-your crowned d20 despot
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