Party:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (313 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (294 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (298 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (299 points)
Day 27 (Cont.)
Weather: Perfect
The party finally introduced themselves to the bard ("I'm Zaxod the Axe-God"), and learned that his name was Farric. Mor'ath choked out the tied-up hobgoblin prisoner (again), and Farric led them towards the hobgoblin camp. Once they were close, Mor'ath, Zaxod, and Aurum decided to sneak closer and check out the hobgoblin defences.
The hobgoblin prisoner's intelligence turned out to be accurate; there was indeed a cave on the side of the hill, there were hobgoblins around the cave and on an elevated platform keeping watch, there was a 20m clearing that the hobgoblins were working on expanding, the sides of the hill had been collapsed to make climbing treacherous, and there were many large stakes around the perimeter which would make charging difficult.
In addition, Mor'ath noted several horns by the hobgoblins keeping watch and reasoned they would be used to sound an alarm, while Zaxod used his spyglass to see a human, probably the missing hunter, digging a pit further up the hill from the cave entrance.
The scouts retreated back to the party and they decided to begin their assault immediately. Aurum cast Great Haste on Zaxod, then Mor'ath, losing Zaxod 3 seconds, and then Arc cast Armor 5 on both of them and they charged out of the forest. The horns were sounded, and bows were readied, but both combatants had jumped the stakes and entered melee before a shot could be fired. Arc, Aurum, and Farric moved out into the clearing as the last hobgoblin died, and Zaxod noticed that the human who had been digging wasn't there any more.
Mor'ath moved to the cave mouth and Zaxod ran to the hole the human had been digging to check for a body, while the rest of the party finished making it over the stakes. Inside the cave, Mor'ath found a whole platoon of hobgoblins, lead by one wearing full bronze plate and wielding a spear that crackled with lightning, while Zaxod found that there was no body in the hole and suddenly lost 5FP as Great Haste wore off.
Mor'ath moved further into the cave to a bottleneck, and noticed a tripwire that would activate a net overhead, which he avoided as the new group of hobgoblins pushed past him. Zaxod began moving at his normal pace (which suddenly seemed very slow) back to the cave mouth, which the rest of the party had just made it to, and the hobgoblin leader slowed down as one of his soldiers cast a series of spells on him.
Three of the new hobgoblins attacked Mor'ath, but he parried two attacks, absorbed one thanks to Arc's Armor 5, killed two, and moved to plug the gap, preventing any more from making it through. Aurum charged a Fireball and killed one hobgoblin outright (his fourth kill of the campaign!), while the surviving hobgoblin who had made it through moved to attack the squishies, and the leader engaged Mor'ath.
Zaxod finally made it to the cave mouth and Slam'd through the hobgoblin attacking the rear guard to join Mor'ath against the leader, but the battle continued to be a stalemate, nobody able to land a hit. Arc landed a light blow on the lone hobgoblin, while Farric caught up, and another hobgoblin spellcaster failed to cast a spell 5 times in a row.
Mor'ath was critically blocked twice, ended up dropping his weapon and took the leader's electric spear to the face, but made the stunning roll. The lone hobgoblin landed a big hit on Aurum, knocking him down to 1HP, and then knocked Farric into the negatives. The leader stepped back to allow more of his soldiers through, but luckily Zaxod was able to cripple one of his legs, knocking him to the ground and potentially ending the fight.
Notes:
Pretty much 3 hours of combat.
Fighting in the cave was terrible for everyone except for Zaxod thanks to the -3 for poor lighting.
If it hadn't been for Arc's spells, Mor'ath would have been knocked well into the negatives.
Forgot the hobgoblin leader had tactics rerolls, which it really should have used to avoid that nasty axe to the leg. Oh well.
All the team's casters are either FP-empty or almost dead, so it's looking grim.
It's funny to me that one hobgoblin is actually a threat to three characters, even though 2/3 are better than it in melee combat, in addition to being spellcasters.
Used the wrong penalties for sustained spells (-3 instead of -1), which is part of why no more spells were cast beyond the initial buffs.
XP:
0 for no progress
1 for roleplaying
0 for the hardest fight (it wasn't over yet)
0 for loot
0 for quests
MVP went to Mor'ath for holding the line.
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