Editing Journal - Goblins West of Freeport (section)

==Goblin Pit==

We finally found the original track further south, and only had to follow it for about half a mile before reaching a small natural clearing in the woods. There were clear signs of excavation in the centre that suggested something had dug a hole here, and the tracks led right to it.

I started moving quietly towards the hole as Arad and Falcor covered me with their bows. A goblin head poked up, but its lazy scan around missed me. Falcor whispered "what was that", but I didn't want to make any sound, so I just pointed down and ran my finger across my throat, hoping that he would understand that they were the enemy we sought. I kept moving forward, but just before I was able to reach the edge the head popped up again and looked straight at me! It dropped straight down, with a startled look (at least I think that's what the look was, hard to tell with a goblin). I ran forward, hoping to catch it, but the hole dropped steeply at first before becoming a more gradual slope and the goblin had clearly slid quickly out of view.

I called for my friends to join me, with Arad jogging up followed by Falcor who was trying to rummage through his backpack for something that might provide light. Not waiting, I leapt into the hole, somersaulting over the lip and then dropping onto the slope and sliding quickly out of view. Arad was a little more cautious, offering a rope to Falcor to lower him down in case he needed pulling out of danger.

I (very quickly) emerged into a crudely hacked-out dirt room about fifty feet square with large ten-foot wide and six-foot high exit tunnels to our right and in the far-right corner. A low smouldering firepit in the centre provided enough light to see by, and the reek of goblin shit and erm... "pork" (they had probably been cooking humans) hit me like a physical blow to the face. There was a pile of body parts and bones in the far left corner, but the more immediate concern was about half a dozen goblins in a loose semi-circle watching the entrance, presumably warned by the lookout.

They probably didn't expect a fast-moving halfling to come charging straight at them, though, and I continued with my momentum, charging ahead and slightly left to close with a goblin I picked, running it through with my short sword before it could react. Arad followed at a slower pace, but then dropped his shoulder and charged the one nearest the fire, causing it to stumble back and its clothes to catch alight. He then turned to attack the one next to it, but his swing was put off by the rope attached to him going tight and it went wide.

The goblins seemed shaken, attacking but only half-heartedly and not managing to land a blow. I worked my way down the line to the left, skewering another vermin with sword and dagger. There were goblin reinforcements coming now, though, from both tunnels. Probably half a dozen more came to aid their kin, and Arad shouted to fall back to the entrance. The burning goblin collapsed, removing another threat, but I was stabbed by the last goblin on the left. I flipped backwards, moving too fast for his stab to connect, and saw that Arad had also been hit and was moving back towards me.

Falcor finally squeezed through the gap, which to be fair was a bit narrow for a giant like him, and moved ahead of me. Arad cut one goblin down, but was being surrounded. He killed another and managed to move back into the entranceway, which was much more defensible. Unfortunately he backed into my thrown dagger, aimed at a goblin attacking Falcor, but thankfully it bounced off his shield. Falcor caught the goblin's dagger in some kind of spiked guard on his off-hand weapon, ripping it out of the goblin's hand. Arad was frantically parrying blows, clearly hurt.

Falcor was raked across the face by the goblin that had lost its weapon, but this exposed it to a riposte and Falcor cut it down. Interestingly he then sheathed his sword and dropped his other weapon, instead pulling out a book and started to chant. A fan-shaped dazzling array of bright coloured light appeared, enveloping Arad and the goblins around him. All of the goblins fell unconscious at his feet - incredible! Almost as shocking was Falcor's armour disappearing as soon as the lights appeared... and from the terrified look on Falcor's face, I guess that it wasn't part of his plan. It would have been comical had our lives not been in danger. Fortunately, for all of us, as another goblin attacked the armour reappeared just in time to turn the blow aside. Phew! The sapphire on the armour flashed with light, no doubt playing some part in this weird magic.

Arad also started chanting, dropping his weapons and touching himself, which hardly seemed like an appropriate time. There was no immediate effect as far as I could see, but I noticed afterwards that the goblins started to shy away from him, focusing instead on Falcor.

Falcor quickly stooped to pick up his dropped weapon, then used the swing of his shoulders to cut up into the belly of a goblin, almost cleaving it in two. Arad called upon the "great creator" (whoever that is) to heal Falcor's wounds, which started to miraculously disappear, and then some of his own. Falcor was raked again by a goblin, but the gouges almost disappeared as they were made, such was the power of Arad's healing.

Falcor finally moved forward so that I could get back in the fight - it was great having a giant friend to fight with you, but he did tend to take up a lot of space and get in the way! Falcor killed a goblin to his left, so I moved to the right and stabbed a goblin that was intent on attacking Falcor, sadly only getting its attention rather than finishing it off. I dodged a blow and followed up with my short sword, which did the trick. Arad killed another, using the advantage that his prayers had given him to get behind them. Falcor slayed another, and now only two were left - one fighting Falcor and the other running for its life!

Arad charged into the one fighting Falcor from the side, cutting it down just as Falcor was trying to shout to stay his hand. I guess he wanted to interrogate it about what lay ahead, but it wasn't to be as it fell before Arad's onslaught. Arad tried to treat both of our wounds, which stemmed the bleeding but it still hurt like buggery.

With two tunnels ahead we could not move forward without the risk of being surrounded, and Falcor and I violently agreed that we needed to do something with one of the tunnels before we could proceed. Falcor offered to set a trap on the tunnel to our right, as I kept watch on the other exit to the front. I helped to move some bodies to disguise the trap as he set it, although it took what seemed like forever and used the rope that Arad had brought. I used a little oil and set fire to a faggot of wood that Falcor randomly had attacked to his backpack. I rolled it down the tunnel to give me better warning of anything trying to approach, although there didn't seem to be any movement.

Well, there was no movement to the front, but behind me something was stirring. The first I knew was when a giant centipede thing with tentacles and teeth dropped from the ceiling beside me! I screamed a warning as the tentacles lashed out. A couple hit me, causing my skin to go numb in places, but thankfully I was able to keep it at a distance, although I also couldn't land a blow on it. Falcor rushed over to help, swinging with a strong attack that sent fountain of goo spurting up from its torso. Arad followed, getting behind it and finishing it off before it could do any damage.

Before we did anything else we paused to talk seriously about what we would do next and why, especially as we didn't know the danger we were yet to face. We also had to face the possibility, especially given the remains in this room, that the captive humans might all be dead anyway. Falcor was particularly concerned about pressing on when we could be cut off from escape as there were two tunnels, a concern that I certainly shared! I pleaded with him to continue - I needed to find out what evil was driving these goblins to raid villages like this, and highlighted the horrible sacrifices and bloody marks left on previous victims. There was more to this than simple goblin hunger, and this was the only lead I had that might allow us to discover more! If we left and returned in greater strength we would risk the goblins moving on, destroying this hole, and lose our only chance to dig deeper into their motivation. What finally swung it was Arad noticing that there were marks leading down the tunnel we had not trapped that might have been made by feet being dragged, so we should at least try to determine what had happened to them before abandoning them to their grisly fate.

I was still holding the wound in my side, with blood down my leg, and Falcor offered to help me. He muttered something with his eyes closed and then I felt the wound knit - being fully restored as if never scratched; miraculous! He said that he was blessed by Milada, which was not a name I recognised, and had been enhanced such that things he was good at before had become far more powerful.

Turning our attention back to the threat here, we planned to move cautiously forward, spread out to avoid ambushes. As the smallest and sneakiest, I went first, moving up to the corner of the next open area. It was pitch black, but I could see heat sources over to my right that seemed to be goblin-sized. There was a pile of something in the centre of the area, but no obvious threat there, and some exits or alcoves on the far side. I indicate danger with hand signals for Falcor's benefit, about thirty feet behind me, and then sneaked round to my left, trying to keep my distance from the goblins.

Falcor moved up to where I had entered, picking up the faggot I had rolled there earlier and tossing it into the centre of this new room. It landed on a pile of bones that had been picked clean, making an eerie rattle and sparking slightly. Then he looked over to where I had seen the goblins and started to freak out, blinking his eyes, rubbing them, and swatting around in front of him! I couldn't see anything wrong from where I was, and as I continued to sneak around I lost sight of him - the burning faggot coming between us.

Whatever had happened to Falcor, I heard him shout to Arad to be ready as the foe might be coming his way and then saw him step into room and into the edge of the light, I think aiming to keep the goblins' attention (still assuming that's what I had seen) on him. I continued sneaking, reaching one of the exits I had seen, which seemed to lead to another room, again in darkness. The heat sources were backing into a tunnel and out of the room away from Falcor.

I decided that now was the time to strike, starting to run at the retreating goblins and shouting to Falcor to charge them. But as I shouted, I heard answering voices from the tunnel behind me, so I checked my run, instead setting myself in a defensive position and listening. The voices were in common, and certainly sounded human, crying out "who is there", "please help us", "save us" - there were captives alive after all! Falcor moved ahead of me, keeping between me and the goblins, and shouted that I should investigate the source of the cries.

I made my way around the corner, seeing a huddle of heat to my right - there were lots of them! I asked them to identify themselves, but despite claiming not to be goblins they were strangely reluctant to reveal who they actually were.  I moved forward cautiously, sweeping ahead with a dagger, expecting to find bars at some point. As I got within a few feet I sheathed my dagger and felt ahead with my hand, eventually feeling some crude wooden bars with the people inside pressed up against them.  I felt hands, which were human, and they noticed that mine were smaller - asking if I was a child. I rolled my eyes and sighed, used to this sort of thing, and replied that yes, I was a child, but who were they and where were they from?  The bloody ignorant humans seemed to get quite offended by being questioned, despite their dire situation, and for a moment I thought about just leaving them, but I couldn't do that. For one thing the whining would be endless whilst we were here. I started to cut at the bonds holding the bars together, trying to weaken them.

Falcor moved into the centre of the other room, getting out a second faggot of wood (who carries around faggots of wood, anyway?) and set light to it in the flames of the first, a little wary of the pile of bones in case any more tentacle monsters appeared. He then threw the faggots, one towards me and one towards the foe, to give him more light. This showed that there were indeed goblins in the tunnel, as we suspected, including one noticeably bigger and stockier than the others. After initially flinching away from the light, the goblins (including the big one) rushed at Falcor, landing one hit on him even as he parried other blows. I shouted "wait!" to the captives and ran to aid Falcor, ignoring their cries not to leave them, and Arad also moved into the room to help. Falcor was nearly surrounded, parrying and dodging madly. A couple charged at Arad as he entered, screaming unintelligibly. As the first one clawed at him, Arad loosed his notched arrow straight into its chest and it dropped gurgling to the floor. The second shot was not on target though, deflecting off some bit of the other creature's armour.

Falcor shouted to Arad to dispatch them and move back to cover our rear. He caught a dagger in his guard, breaking it, but the goblin dropped it anyway. I ran forward, throwing a couple of daggers as I got closer, and sticking one into the side of a goblin. Falcor cut deeply into one on his right, killing it, but was still hard pressed. Arad loosed another arrow, felling the other foe attacking him, but then heard a squeal as Falcor's trap was sprung near the entryway. The disarmed goblin scratched at Falcor, but only marked his helmet. The other goblin, though got a dagger into his ribs, and with spurt of blood Falcor dropped back onto one knee, visibly hurt. Arad paused, putting an arrow into the goblin that had hurt Falcor, allowing Falcor to finish it off with a grunt of pain.

Arad, seeing Falcor in mortal danger, left his post and charged forward to help. I also ignored the large goblin to my flank and tried to help Falcor with the other goblin. Fortunately my armour saved me from a swinging sword.. was that a cutlass? It scraped down my side, glancing off the metal studs as I engaged the other goblin, who was now trying to physically leap onto Falcor to stab him. Falcor gathered his strength somehow and managed to shrug off the goblin just in time to avoid being stabbed. Arad ran it through as it landed in front of him. I turned my attention to big guy, cutting it with my sword, but not able to get close enough to get a dagger blow in. Falcor shouted again to Arad to get back to passage, seemingly well again despite his obvious wounds earlier. Was he some sort of demigod, sent to carry out a divine mission here on Karmana?

Arad suddenly grew in height and size to almost as big as Falcor, was this all just some weird dream I would wake from? It was not so, as here I am writing this afterwards! Arad ran to where he dropped his bow, shouting "flee vermin!" in a deep voice down the tunnel. He could just make out some heat sources in the distance, back in the first room. The big goblin swung at me again, but I dodged to the side just in time. Falcor caught the weapon before he could use it again, trying to penetrate his layers of armour, and eventually found a weak spot, plunging his blade deep. The thing fell to the ground with its foul ichor spurting as Falcor pulled his sword free.

There were no more foes in the room with us, but Arad shouted that there were three in the entrance room, and roared semi-scarily at them, trying to get them to flee. Falcor shouted at me to help the survivors, and then ran up the tunnel the goblins had been in, hoping to flank the foe, picking up the burning faggot up as he went. He reached another room, which stank of shit and piss, but found no foes there. He had discovered the goblin latrine.

Falcor continued his flanking move, although possibly holding his breath, and saw that his trap had been sprung but then hacked at to free whatever had been caught. I moved back towards the captives, quickly for a halfling, testing the bars and then going to work with a dagger again - it helped that there was a burning faggot I could move closer to see with. I could also see that they were definitely human. I told them that we DO have to deal with the fucking goblins, so stop fucking whining!

Arad advanced on the goblins in the entrance room, but as he did so there was a great crashing sound and the entrance behind them collapsed, trapping them in with us. With no other option, they rushed to attack Arad and Falcor. Arad killed one of the two attacking him, fending off the blows of the other one, the blows seemed frenzied more than focused so he had no real trouble. Falcor caught the blade of his attacker and quickly ran it through, hardly pausing his advance. Arad shrank down to his normal size, which might have freaked the goblin out if it wasn't already foaming at the mouth.

The last goblin panicked so much that it broke its own weapon on the wall as he wildly swung at Arad! Arad, remembering that Falcor wanted to keep one alive last time, sheathed one weapon and dropped the other, then tried to wrestle the goblin to the ground. It squirmed around, bit, and scratched and wriggled free of his grasp, though. Arad was determined, and tried again, but still couldn't get a good grip on it. Falcor ran up behind, swinging the flat of his sword at it, and immediately knocked it to the floor, bleeding and out cold. He continued moving, heading back towards me and the captives. Arad tried to keep it alive, applying bandages to its wound, but also used some of the cut rope from the trap to tie it up, and removed any weapons from its vicinity. He then came down the tunnel into the room behind us to retrieve his bow.