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The A-Team has been travelling to Biel, the capital city of Iounin, in order to seek a wizard’s assistance identifying the nature of a mysterious goblin artifact. On the road, the party came across a group of mercenaries who claimed they were hired by the Hearing House in Biel to drive out goblin tribes in the south. They initially agreed to assist them in their mission until they discovered the goblins they were pursuing worshipped a deity of pacifism, compassion, and understanding. Outraged, the A-Team turned on the mercenaries, killing them, and making camp with the goblins to celebrate a new friendship.

That night, Shump dreamed of a dark spire spilling blood and calling for him to feed it, then foresaw a vision of the totem’s true owner finding them. The A-Team sent the goblin camp ahead while they stayed behind to fight, finding themselves on the wrong end of a powerful hobgoblin spellcaster named Klaas Shrillbeast. Klaas fled before they could finish him, but the A-Team captured two of his minions for interrogation.

Shelby tried to interrogate one of the goblins, but ended up knocking him unconscious as a powerplay to try to convince the other goblin to talk. When that didn’t work, she tried to convince him to follow in the footsteps of Fric and his tribe, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. The goblin spat at her, calling Fric’s tribe traitors and weak. He described the government of Biel, and the governments of all of Tandaree, as oppressors deserving to be overthrown. The more he talked, the more the party realized that Klaas was using the various governments’ poor treatment of goblins to bolster unrest and convince the tribes to rise up against them.

Their goblin prisoner tried to escape, going for a knife on his belt. Although Shelby tried to stop him, Shadyboi killed him with a barrage of magic missiles. Rather than kill the remaining goblin, they left him tied up and unconscious so he couldn’t follow and kill them later while they slept. They decided to leave him with a dagger so that he might have a chance of survival.

Back on the road to Biel, on their fourth night, an owlbear and her cub wandered into the camp. With some quick thinking, Rose cast Speak with Animals and convinced them to leave the camp undisturbed by bribing them with some spoiled meat taken from one of Klaas’s henchmen.

The next day, the party finally arrived at Biel. They drew up short when they realized the city guards were checking paperwork as people entered the city. They eavesdropped and learned there was heightened security due to the increased goblin raiding. Shadyboi attempted to forge a duplicate paper of the contract they found on the mercenaries, but although a valiant effort, it didn’t quite pass scrutiny.

The guards at the gate took their papers and agreed to let them into the city as long as they knew where in the city they’d be staying–implying they would be under watch while in town. In the meantime, the guards would have the Grand Chancellor of the Hearing House, Marianne Ravenswood validate their documents before they’d be granted unrestricted access to the city.

The A-Team agreed to the guards’ terms and informed them that they would be staying at The Fisherman’s Inn in the merchant district. They did not go to the Fisherman’s Inn, however, instead paying for rooms in The Dragon’s Hide, an inn located in lower Wakenat, the seedier district of Biel, where people would ask fewer questions. With lodging procured, they all made their way to their rooms and took a long, well-deserved rest.

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Interrogations make me nervous. I try to be impartial, but I really didn’t want to run a game where the characters suddenly go all Daredevil and start inserting knives in people’s faces. That said, I thought things turned out pretty well, all things considered. My wife, Stephanie, made a really impassioned plea to the goblin to change his ways, and we had a great bit of roleplay where I got to play a character who feels totally justified in his actions due to the oppressive empire. I love this dynamic, and I can’t wait to explore it even further.

Justin killing the one prisoner didn’t bother me. I had no plans for the goblin to attack them, just try to escape, but given that he was chaotic neutral, and given the situation, I couldn’t blame him for killing the goblin

One thing that I was afraid of doing was setting up Fric as a sort of “one of the good ones” situation, so I felt it was important to establish a decent reason why these goblins would be rising up in the first place. It wasn’t much, but I hope I have the chance to build in more and different representations of goblins to really paint a picture of the varying schools of thought. That said, I don’t want this game to become “The Nuances of Goblin Sociology and their Role in the Greater Iounin Empire” so it’ll come in between other missions. Just gotta figure out how to squeeze it in.

It was really inspired of Danae to use that rotten food that I think she originally kept as a joke to convince some wild animals not to attack them. I don’t know that she’s got a solid grasp on how to play her bard yet, but that was an inspired moment and earned her some extra XP–as did Steph’s great roleplay with that goblin prisoner.

The fact that these guys didn’t get arrested right at the gate of the city is me going easy on them, frankly. They tried to forge official documentation, rolled low, and then didn’t even stay in the Inn they agreed to stay in. I’ll have to think about exactly how to play this out further. They’ve left me with a lot of things to think about.

Oscar missed this week again.  Justin, Danae, Stephanie, and I had a birthday dinner at Cici’s for Steph, and Oscar said he didn’t think we were playing because of the dinner. It won’t surprise me if he drops before we play again. It’s a bummer, but it happens.

Next time, I think the A-Team can FINALLY start looking for their wizard.

*rubs hands* Excellent. /burnsvoice

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