With the faint sound of a rush of air Team Arda-Nuff suddenly appears in a darkened laneway in the ruined city of Gorna. The spot was well chosen as the 15ft by 15ft space between the walls is barely wide enough to accommodate the whole group. In addition to the six members of Team Arda-Nuff themselves they are accompanied by Rog the dire bat, a dire wolf summoned by Moffdust, a dozen female goblins and three large treasure chests.

The team has arrived in an alleyway on the eastern side of a six foot high stone wall surrounding a stone temple. The eastern side of the alleyway consists of the outer walls of a series of buildings with other alleyways occasionally leading off between those buildings.

The starlight from the night sky is sufficient for Raven to see clearly, so she does not need to draw her glowing rapier. Everyone else has darkvision and is not troubled by the darkness of night. Distant sounds of life on the streets of the city can be faintly heard but there are no sounds or lights from the nearby buildings.

OOC: Main game map updated.

Failing to remember what he had for breakfast Minmorc will try to remember the safe way into the temple. Moving to o,p,4,5 he will enlarge himself with the aid of a pearl of power and will reach up to drag the ladder closer. "Guys, youse want the ladder ter gets up or yous wants me ter lifts yous up sos you can use der ladder later?"

Jurz grins at Bully, and climbs up on Rog's back, before taking to the air and flying over the  wall.  He keeps Rog low, so as not to stand out against the night sky, and does an aerial reconnaissance of both the graveyard and the temple.

He is particularly looking for signs of activity in the graveyard and inside the temple, as well as for ways into the temple.

Once of Rog's back, Jurz quickly flies around the temple and back to the team again.

While aloft, Jurz looks to see if Rog can get through the window, or if he will have to smash it open a bit more.

"Der ladder goes in from da norf." Jurz reminds everyone, "Den its easier ..."

Rog would need to land on the windowsill and fold his wings to enter through the broken window.

Can Rog land on the window sill, and there still be room for a goblin to climb through?

Yes

Not at all concerned by the fact that the group only barely escaped materialising inside some solid looking stone walls, Dregz stands in stunned silence, content to watch Jurz do his aerial reconnaissance, and trying to work out which way is North.

"Lets all get inside den work out here we're gonna eat and where Shroomza an da girls are goin."  After Jurz scouts the way and Min lifts gobbos over the wall, Bulldust can help them get across the tombstones and into the church, if Jurz signals that its safe.

"Its looks OK.  Dere's no lights inside, an de outsides looks OK." Jurz reports.  "Shalls I goes first?  Just to makes sure it is safe insides de temple?"

If the female goblins are happy to use the ladder, Jurz doesn't say anything, but he might be able to get Rog to ferry them across as well.

Minmorc will usher Bully over to lead the way and will say "You goes first an den hold der ladder for der gobbos ter gets in." He'll then start lifting goblins onto the crypt so they can cross the graves the the ladder into the temple. Once everyone is safely across he will follow and bring the ladder in behind them.

"I wanna go see der queen. Wot loot we got ter sell an wadya all wanna do?"

After Jurz has completed his flying reconnaissance of the outside of the temple, Minmorc helps everyone up over the 6-foot stone wall of the temple grounds onto the solid stone roof of one of the mausoleums constructed around the temple grounds.

In fact the whole grounds of the temple are dotted with mausoleums of various size and row after row of graves covered by stone slabs and marked with headstones. Dry bones lie scattered in various places and are clearly visible from this vantage point.

In the middle of the grounds stands the temple itself. The structure is still intact and still has its roof but every window in the place has been smashed.

As Minmorc grabs the end of a long ladder that was lying on the roof of the mausoleum and pushes it out until it swings down to rest on the closest grave slab to the west, Raven gathers the goblin girls and gives them careful instructions.

"Listen up, girlz, this is important. Inside the temple is all safe. Standing on the graves is safe. Our friend Slipsnotz says they is blesseded by the priesties or somethink like dat. But don't steps on the ground anywhere here. Dat's not safe. Not safe at all! Only steps on the ladder and on the graveses. We's gotta brings the ladder with us too, to climbs across into the big window at that end of the temples."

Then everyone carefully makes their way westwards along the line of graves jumping from one to the next all the way until they are directly opposite the large broken window in the northern wing of the temple. Minmorc sets the ladder in place to span the gap from the grave to the window and he cheerfully leads the way inside. It takes a bit of effort for the sharper brains in the group to coordinate the available muscle to carry the treasure chests across the ladder and in through the window (not to mention the dire wolf) but they manage in the end. Raven recalls Slipsnotz’s instruction that the ladder must be pulled in too so no one will notice if they are passing on the street in front of the temple.

The temple has been stripped of any valuable furnishings and even anything that could identify which God it was dedicated too but the three wooden altars and a score of long wooden bench seats or pews are still in place in the temple. The only other feature of note are two large fire pits in the north and south wings of the temple, although both contain nothing but cold ashes now.

The really good news is there is no one in the temple and no sign of any other visitors since Team Arda-Nuff stayed here, about two-and-a-half weeks ago.

OOC: Main game map updated.

"Mmmm... home sweet home!" Bulldust sniffs around to check whether anyone else has been here, although it doesn't look likely.  He explains to Shroomza that this is a safe place they can come to even if Team Ardenuff isn't here.

"I don't need ta see da queen."  Bulldust shrugs.  "I need ta get some new armour.  An maybe a haircut?"  He has a list.  "An Moffa was gonna make us some magic stuff.  But first, where do youse girls wanna go?" he looks to Shroomza then to Jurz.  "If its here in da city den maybe we should find Slipknotz?  If its in da woods den maybe Dregzie an Furiuz and take youse dere wiv Jurzie?"

Minmorc has a sudden thought "Now dat wees back in Gorna we can buy stuff ter eat... FOOOOD! Anyone else hungry?" Minmorc will wait to see if anyone else is going shopping and will suggest now is a good time to split the loot. He will head with them to the vendors and once he has eaten he will then leave the group and go see the Queen.

From your previous visit you recall that Queen Moldavite’s palace is in the centre of the city and the marketplace is somewhere near the centre of the city, too. Your dealings with the halforc trader Two-fer-one occurred at night at his shop in the marketplace. Your first meeting with the queen was at night, as well, when she sent a squad of ogres to fetch you from the marketplace to the palace.

Minmorc's mention of food reminds you that food is scarce in Gorna. Rats are plentiful, fortunately, but many of the local residents would be quite happy to kill and eat anything (or anyone) else they can overcome, too. That just adds spice to city life, at least as far as the survivors are concerned.

The question to the 12 goblin girlz sends them scurrying away to a corner of the temple for a lengthy discussion before they finally come back with an answer.

"What us girlz wants is pretty simples, really. We wants to be wid udder goblins, where there's lots of strong goblin boyz to look after us," Shroomza explains. She points at Jurz and Dregz. "Yous boyz is gooduns but there's only two of yous and lots of us girlz. We don't minds where we goes as long as the boyz are there, too. Maybe inna forest? Maybe inna mountains? Maybe inna city like dis one? Does yous knows is there goblin boyz here inna city or we gotta looks somewheres else?"

Moffdust looks around the ruined church. She licks her lips remembering the where Shelby Wright stood. She gives Shooomza the extra loot from orcs defeated by her Howler and Hellhound (and Dregz well placed crossbow bolt!) to add to their pile (so the party loot is what was decided a few months ago). She only know Slipsknotz in this city, but will introduce the goblins t him if they decide to stay here.

When the party heads out she will buy materials to make the world's first Summoner's Leather Pants of Bareback Riding so she can ride more of the creatures she summons. And he will enchant items with Protection From Evil for herself and Bully. Does anyone else want this as a continuous item? She can make them for the party at her cost to make. These are the cost options:
1000gp for a cloak, cape, mantle, amulet, brooch, medallion, necklace, periapt or scarab ('protection' type items).
1500gp to add PfE to an existing enchanted item of the type above (x1.5 for multiple different abilities).
1500gp for an other types of items (x1.5 other than the 'protection' type items listed above)
2250gp for existing enchanted item of an other types (x1.5 x1.5 ...)

Even though he's pretty sure his own tribe was wiped out by the last recruitment drive conducted by the Forces of Evil, and the subsequent debacle of a battle, Dregz goes into huddle with Moffa, Jurz and Bully to see if between them they can't think of anywhere their kinsfolk might be gathered.

Moffa's generous offer interests him greatly - while he already has a nice cloak, the priest considers it would be well worth the coin to get it made even more protective, however since feature creep isn't just a description of a moveable landscape ...

"Dose youse fink youse cud do a protections from goods as well as from evils ?" he asks her greedily, hoping for the best of both worlds.

OOC: would that be 1500 x 2 = 3000GP to add PfG and PfE to an existing Cloak of Resistance +1 ?   :>

OOC: nice idea! Moffdust is pleased to make that (and PfE,G is sooo cheap because its a 0 level cantrip for Summoner) but will need GM ruling to confirm the price please Mr Wyrm :)

Jurz suddenly looks interested when Dregz mentions PfE and PfG, thinking that sounds like a good thing to have, but waits before he says anything about that.

However, he follows up on the conversation about where the goblin girls will go.  He starts off looking all excited when they point out two boys and twelve girls, as a vision of a harem flits through his mind, only to be disappointed in Shroomie's very next breath.  "Dera's was lots of gobbos in der woods by de edge of de Crystalmist Mountains.  Dere will still be some of dose dere."

OOC: If you pay 1000gp to enchant a cloak, cape, mantle, amulet, brooch, medallion, necklace, periapt or scarab ('protection' type items) with Protection from Evil, adding Protection from Good as well will cost Moffa 1500gp, bringing total cost to 2500gp.

If you wanted to add Protection from Evil and Protection from Good to an existing Cloak of Resistance, they would cost Moffa 1500gp each, meaning a total cost of +3000gp. Note a cloak of resistance gives a resistance bonus to saving throws. Protection from Evil and Protection from Good each include a resistance bonus to saving throws (vs effects from evil and good creatures, respectively, as well as numerous other benefits) but as it is a named (resistance) bonus they would not stack with the bonus provided by the cloak of resistance.

Or 2250gp each for adding PfE and PfG to other (non-protection) types of items.

---

Jurz can indeed describe several locations in the woods at the edge of the Crystalmist Mountains where there were already goblin villages established before the evil humanoid invasion of the Duchy of Geoff, so they would almost certainly still be there.

OOC:  Just checking

Jurz has a cloak of resistance+1 - it would cost 3k to add both PfE and PfG.  Which would give +1 to saves normally, and would improve to +2 for things that are significantly Good or Evil?

So here's all the mentions of loot that I could find:

Helm of wounding sight = 6,500 gp
Gauntlets of destruction = 6,610 gp
Breastplate of terror = 13,200 gp
+1 greataxe = 2,320gp
Amulet of Natural Armor +1 = 2,000gp
2 potions of cure moderate wounds = 2 x 300 = 600gp
+1 mighty composite longbow (+4 Strength) = 2,800gp
30,000gp in coins, gems and jewellery
Total value is 47,015gp in cash and sell price of items, so that equates to 7,835gp each

OOC: In addition, the treasure from the frost giant and clear crystal gemstones yesterday, after paying 10,000gp to the crystal dragon for Forya en' i' Leitha, gave everyone another 821gp each.

The first orc that fled (o4) dropped a masterwork greataxe. (320gps)
The orc leader had a +1 greataxe (2320gps) and was wearing a +1 breastplate. (1550gps)

So I think each party member has 9,354 gps each.

If no one wants the potions of cure moderate wounds Minmorc will take them as part of his share but would prefer those without healing spells got them. There isn't anything else that interests him.

OOC: I would suggest that the amulet of natural armor is worth taking and if anyone doesn't have a +1 magic weapon it would be worth taking the 2x +1 great axes and trade them for their weapon of choice.

Minmorc will take off his cloak and will offer it to Moffa. "Moffa, I wanna make sure our enemies can't get in my head, can yous protects me from good guys and bad guys. Err, takes der monies yer needs, too. I forgots ders no food here but Nuffle likes me more so if we has a nap I can poof sum food an water fer us, Nuffle is happy ter cater fer fans."

If the group heads out he will go with them, If they stay and rest he will take the create food and water spell and will provide food and water to satisfy 15 medium creatures for 24 hours.

OOC:  If no one else wants the Amulet of Natural Armour, Jurz will take it.

"Der exitsing magicses wud still 'elp agenst fings dat are neiver guds nor evils," Dregz nods sagely, smiling as he passes over his cloak and three thousand gold coins to Moffa with his fanks.

Moffdust offers no resistance to offers of cloaks. She takes them all magics the lot! Even gets them all drycleaned (well shakes out the lice). This will take her 1 day per 1000gp spent ... so lots of days :)

OOC: Jurz just checking - yep dats right. An +2 AC vs good and evil tings too.

OOC:  Jurz  stumps up 3k for the PfE/G combo on his cloak, and takes the Amulet of Natural armour as part of his share then  :P
This message was last edited by the player at 08:59, Sat 01 Apr 2023.

OOC: Min ... I think you added the full item price for the MW axe, +1 axe and +1 breastplate, instead of /2 for sale price ?  If so, we'd get 'only' 9005GP ea ?  :>

OOC: I think you're right Dregz, cheers :)

OOC: OK, 9005gp each is the value of everyone's share of the loot (excluding the goblin girls - just assume they have sufficient money to buy whatever mundane items they want in the market.)

If Jurz takes the +1 amulet of natural armour as 1000gp of his share of the loot (i.e. share = sale price = half of the 2000gp cost to buy that type of amulet) then the party has other magic items with a total value of 35,900gp cost price (17,950gp sale price).

From the last time you were in Gorna, you know you can trade any magic items with the merchant Two-fer-one, on a two for one basis. He can supply any item you want (with a delivery time of usually 24 hours) but he only deals in magic items, not cash or other valuables.

There will be a few other merchants selling a limited assortment of magic items for cash or other valuables, but the range of items available will be quite limited.

Moffa will be able to use cash to buy all the materials she needs for the magic item creation tasks she has planned.

---

So, the list of things that people want to do so far is as follows (in no particular order):

• Shopping in the market (Moffa and the goblin girls + ?)
• Trade magic items with Two-fer-one (whole team?)
• Teleport the goblin girls to join a goblin tribe near the Crystalmist Mountains (Jurz and Dregz + ?)
• Visit Queen Moldavite in Gorna (Minmorc + ?)

We can fast forward over the basic shopping and teleporting the goblin girls, unless you particularly want to play those out?

If only Minmorc wants to see the queen, we can deal with that in a separate private thread?

The trading with Two-fer-one probably should be played out in this thread as you will have to decide who is trading your magic item loot and what items they are trading for. If you want to use your cash to buy less useful magic items from other merchants to trade with Two-fer-one, we should play that out here as well.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:22, Sun 02 Apr 2023.

OOC: Dregz will give 3000GP of his share to Moffa for the cloak enchantments ... and would like a Heward's Handy Haversack (list price 2000GP) if there's one to be found in the market.   :>

Happy to go with the fast forward as suggested, doesn't want to meet with the Queen, and isn't the best at haggling.  <grins>

Minmorc will give Moffa 3000 gps for the upgrades and will take his share of the treasure in jewelry, gems and higher value coins if possible.

If no one else wants anything from the queen I'm happy to sort that in a private thread.

Jurz, will stump up the 3k for cloak upgrades and take the Amulet of Natural Armour +1.  He too will take the rest of his share as gems, jewellery and coin - that retain their value.

Happy to Fast Forward - and happy to help take the Goblin  girls to a 'country' tribe.

Moffdust happily takes everyone's cash and runs sets to work on the cloaks, which will take a couple weeks. She helps Shroomza with shopping and waves her off with the boyz.

Bulldust seeks out Two-fer-one to get the new armour he wants, and gives Moffa his cloak for magicking too.  He gives the goblin girls a bunch of black candles with Continual Flame that he and Moffa found in the Necromancer's Spire down in the Underdark.

Minmorc will head back to the temple and alternate between loafing around and eating and breaking pews into firewood with his bare hands (like how a cat keeps its claws sharp but louder.) When team Ardanuff has reassembled he'll tell them what he remembers from talking with the queen, that the city is fairly secure but needs food, that team Ardanuff could help by going to a nearby forest and killing its guardian elves so that Gornas hunters can forage there.

EEEEEEEEEE    LL                 FFFFFFFFFF        SSSSSS       !!!!
EEEEEEEEEE    LL                 FFFFFFFFFF      SSSSSSSS    !!!!!!
EE                  LL                 FF                  SS          SS   !!!!!!
EE                  LL                 FF                  SS                 !!!!!!
EEEEEE           LL                 FFFFFF              SSSSS         !!!!!
EEEEEE           LL                 FFFFFF                  SSSSS      !!!
EE                  LL                 FF                                SS     !!
EE                  LL                 FF                  SS          SS
EEEEEEEEEE    LLLLLLLLLL    FF                   SSSSSSSS     !!!!
EEEEEEEEEE    LLLLLLLLLL    FF                     SSSSSS       !!!!


OOC: it either says ELFS! or jumble-of-letters depending what device you're reading on :-)

"Oo Oo!  If deres elfs den we gottta kill dem all!  Tell da queen i'll do em fer free!"   Bulldust spends the rest of his time in Gorna practising elf slaying ... its a lot of swinging the chainflail at tombstones and hopping across the roofs of mausoleums ... but its joyful and anyone can join in.

"Moffa, if we gets yer some drinks an sum snacks would you likes ter work on der cloaks while we goes hunting? Or you wants us ter wait til yer dun?"

"Furyuz sez wese 'av ter kilt dose uvver elvses too," Dregz recalls.  "Dis'll be gud practises !  Dose elves will appreci ... aperk ... be pleasededs tah knows dat dey're bein' kilt properly !"

Moffdust frowns at Minmorc. "Why should youse has all de funs while I has ter stays in der camps an does de mendings? Anyways, I's bought new pants ter wears, so I's comin!" She stamps her foot. "An i'll have dose snacks an drinks ter go!"

"Is it dere in yer book, Dregzie, about properly killin da elfs?"  Bulldust cranes his neck to peek.  "Is dis a holy mishun?"

Raven squawks angrily when Bully says he'll kill the elves for free.

"Don't yous tells the queen anything like that! If she offered to pays us, we gotta let her and say thank you, your mage-isty. If yous don't wants it, the rest of us will be happy to shares it between us instead," she tells Bully.

"Did she actually say she'd pay us to kill those elves?" she asks Minmorc.

Bulldust ducks his head contritely and nods profusely at Raven.  "Yer right, Birdie Girl, I wanna kill all da elfs and get paid too!"

Bully does pose some interesting spiritual dilemmas.

"Der elfses iz menshuned," the priest allows, "an' der elfses iz consideredses immoral, but ..."

Bargrivyek exhorts his followers to devote themselves to uniting the goblinoid tribes and is remarkably silent on the exact subject of any specific methods for slaying the hated elves, though there are a couple of garishly festive looking pages in his Holy Book, which gives Dregz cause to believe ...

"I fink dat id iz in factses a holly mission !"

Minmorc Will grin at Moffa "Ya, ya sister if yer gots travellin pants yer gots ter travel. I was finking der blokes coulds do all der walkin an when we finds dem Dregz could use der uber stick ter pick yer up. We gotta go walk fer a bit cross der flats an den walk fer a bit in der forrests an when der elves starts shootin us we founds dem."

Birdy girl makes a lot of sense and when she starts talking Minmorc stops cold. "Err... wells I gave der queen a present an we talked about Nuffle and der plans ter have a big Nuffle game an I asked if I could help her wid anyfing an she said dese Elves wazza problems... she didn't say about payin us... hmmm... errr... I fink I paid her fer me ter go kill elves..."

"Woohoo!  A holy mishun!  We're da paluduns ov Bargriefyuk on a quest!"

He redoubles his training with religious fervour, building wood elves from broken pews, high elves on rooftops, grave elves from stray ghouls and dark elves with his eyes shut ... anyone loafing around the church will be 'invited' to train.

Moffdust screws up her face in contemplation then replies to Min "Well I tinks makin magic cloakses is more funs den walkin, but I's not plannin on walkins anyways. I'll stays here wid my animals while youse finds de elves, den Dregzies comes an gets us." She looks at Dregz and shrugs. "Dese travel plans okays wid youse Dregzies?"

OOC: it will take her 3 days to make each item: her new pants, her amulet, Bully's amulet, Dregz's cloak, Jurz's cloak, Min's cloak (in the order they were paid). 18 days to make everything. Items complete at the time of the elf battle will be given to their owners.

Minmorc screws his eyes up in concentration "I jus membered der Queen said if we killed elves der reward would be great. I'm hopin dese elves is der same as Forya's elves, dat would be two elves wid one spear. If not we gets ter spread out der elf killin over lotsa trips which is good too. I dunt wanna be a palidunce, when we played orks an palidunces I always made der little orks be der palidunces. I fink right now I'm der Queens nite or Nuffles Ref."

All the same Minmorc will happily help Bully make wood elves and smash them until everyone's ready to head out.

"I fink evrywun in Gorna iz gonna bese ver' 'ungry ifs dey're waitin' ayteen," an unfathomably large number to a goblin, "days ter go 'untin' an' ged fedses," Dregz laments.

"Wese can find der elves, mebee in free days, mebee in  ... too timeses free days," den ged Furyuz ter bring uz all backses, den takes Moffa backses wiv uz wen she 'as finishedses up on sumfin' an' before she does startses on der next !"

The priest seems happy with this arrangement, as it wouldn't be fair for Moffa to miss out on killin' Elves, and he's certain that if any of the tribe stayed to help her it'd take twice as long !

"A paladindin iz a holly nite," he adds thoughtfully.

Bulldust is really focussed now that Dregz has agreed to the travel plan and he only has a few nights to train.  He's stoked when Min joins in and learns all he can from the veteran orc.  He doesn't mind that the orc doesn't want to be a paladindin "Le's jus be pals makin a din!"

Minmorc will happily make a din with Bully then have a nap. He is keen to set out around dusk so that they can travel by night. He will follow the Queens instructions, 5 miles north east and then straight into the forest until they hit elves.

OOC: the distance involved might be substanially less than Dregz had come to believe when making his plans !  :P

"Dats in da Oyt woods."  Bulldust says happily.  "Dems good elfs fer killin, lived dere too long.  Anyfing else lives in dere Jurzie?" he wonders looking towards the druid.

OOC:  Sorry.  I missed the direct question, then got distracted by holidays  :P

Jurz wracks his small brain for an answer to Bully's question.

OOC:  11:06, Today: Jurz rolled 17 using 1d20.  Know stuff.

Knowledge Nature + 15
Gather Info +1

Not sure anything else is of value, except perhaps ...

+2 circumstance bonus for any knowledge (local) or knowledge (nature) checks
 in the foothills/forest fringe around the edge of the Hornwood adjacent to
the Crystalmist Mountains, Barrier Peaks or Stark Mounds.

My player Knowledge of the area is very limited  :)

OOC: Welcome back!!  Hope you had a good holiday :-)

OOC.  Thank you.  The last six weeks has seen ...  A weekend training on cannons, an English Civil War re-enactment weekend, a weekend away at the seaside, a trip to Naples (inc Pompeii and Herculaneum), and I am just back from a weekend fighting pirates!  I have a weekend at home, then a forest camping trip.  BUT, that finishes my trips away for a few weeks.

Not quite ... still to come is a weekend stalking elfs in da woods :-)

With Minmorc as noisy bait. His idea of stalking elves would be to walk straight into the woods and yell "come out, come out, I want ter kill you."

I must admit, I had sort of assumed that would be the plan  :)