The Battle of Hobgoblin Cavern

The party had discovered a great cavern deep beneath the House of Withered Blossoms that served as home to a small army of hobgoblins serving the oni of the Five Storms. After exchanging ranged fire for a while from the ledge high above the cavern floor (and getting fried by some very potent Fireballs), Marie had teleported down with Sawyer and Sandoval to take the fight to the enemy. Bella followed, courtesy of her Ring of Feather Falling, and Zhustin started scrambling down the ladder.

Sawyer, Sandoval, and Marie quickly found themselves surrounded by hobgoblins who came pouring out of a nearby cave mouth. Marie unfurled her angelic wings and took to the air, scouting for more spellcasters. She spotted one on a bridge extending off the roof of the odd stone keep far to the south. Not wanting to deal with any more of those nasty Fireballs, she cast Silence on the walkway beneath his feet. Clearly frustrated, he dashed off the bridge and disappeared behind the keep’s peaked roof.

Hill Giant

Unfortunately, becoming airborne made Marie the target of choice for every hobgoblin with a bow, and arrows filled the air around her. As she darted this way and that, trying to dodge the incoming fire, she heard the thunder of pounding feet, as a quartet of hill giants came lumbering from the far side of the keep. They took up positions on the slopes leading down to the pair of bridges crossing a chasm that split the cavern, and began throwing small boulders at any likely target – meaning primarily Marie.

Sawyer and Sandoval were still battling the horde of hobgoblins, and despite taking some deep cuts, it seemed that Sawyer couldn’t swing Suishen without killing at least a couple of the nasty buggers. Bella charged in to help, and soon the only enemies left were the Withered Blossom Warriors, who were much tougher than the run-of-the-mill hobgoblin. Sandoval took advantage of the thinning crowd to use his Jaunt Boots to dash out of the press. Seeing the new threat from the giants, he cast Pyrotechnics on a small campfire near them. Within seconds, the area was filled with thick, greasy smoke, and the giants were forced to relocate, coughing and wheezing.

Zhustin reached the bottom of the ladder, and decided that being outnumbered was no fun. To help even the odds, he Summoned a Large Earth Elemental, which quickly dispatched one of the last surviving hobgoblin grunts. Zhustin then sent it lumbering towards the western-most bridge, following along in its wake. The guards on that side refocused their arrow fire on the elemental, as did some of the giants, but it seemed to be able to absorb their hits with impunity. It Bull Rushed the bridge, sending the Withered Blossom Warrior guarding its approach hurtling back into the chasm with a surprised scream. He could be heard trying to scramble back up the walls, before those sounds were replaced with a cacophony of high-pitched squeaks and screams of pain; apparently the chasm served as home to swarms of ravenous rats. Sandoval also cast Grease on that bridge, and one of the hobgoblins lost his footing and fell prone, only to be mashed into mush by the elemental. The earth elemental then sank into the stone floor and disappeared from view.

Nicki was still up on the ledge, pressed back against the far wall out of sight. He’d taken a lot of damage from the initial Fireballs, and then had become a pincushion for arrows as he’d fired back at the Hobgoblin Warcasters; now he was gulping healing potions as fast as he could swallow. He cast Invisibility on himself, and stepped out off the ledge, floating slowly down on his Boots of Levitation. On the leisurely ride down, he quaffed a few more potions and plotted his revenge.

Shinjiro also leapt off the ledge, riding down on his own Ring of Feather Fall. He reached the bottom and prepared to charge into the fray. Unfortunately, his descent brought him down right in front of the Rainbow Pattern that Sandoval had cast a few minutes earlier, and the monk immediately found himself fascinated by the swirling colors. When Sandoval realized that his spell had caught one of his allies, he immediately dispelled it, freeing not only Shinjiro, but the Withered Blossom Warrior who had also been staring into it. It now charged at Shinjiro, and two began trading blows. Unfortunately, the usually deadly monk seemed to still be a little cross-eyed from staring at the pattern, because almost all his blows missed the warrior.

There was still one hobgoblin warcaster left on this side of the bridges. He’d retreated behind the cover of an outcropping after taking repeated hits from Nicki’s Lightning Bolts, but now he poked his head back out and conjured a Flaming Sphere (of acid) to harass Bella, who was able to dodge it easily. Marie tried to hit it with her starknife, but missed. But then the relentless barrage of fire from the ground became too much for her, and Marie was forced to retreat out behind a wall herself. She was pretty much out of healing spells, so she quaffed a potion of her own and read a Scroll of Cure Moderate Wounds, trying to keep herself alive until the end of the fight. Bella finished off the warrior she was playing with, and then charged the warcaster, intending to finish him, too. Her rapier should have taken off his head, but instead, one of his Mirror Images simply winked out.

Zhustin really liked all the attention his earth elemental was getting from the enemies, so he decided to add to the fun. He cast another Summoning spell, and three large Air Elementals appeared near the eastern bridge. One slammed the warcaster against the cavern wall, finally finishing him off for good, while the others attacked the warriors guarding the bridge. Seeing this new threat, the hill giants dropped their boulders and moved to attack with clubs. One crossed the western bridge to come at the air elementals from behind, while another took a protective position astride the bridge itself. Sandoval moved forward, and bellowed a Shout at the enemy, killing a hobgoblin, deafening one of the warriors, and injuring everyone (including one of the air elementals). Sawyer charged forward, using his Lunge ability to strike a the giant who’d crossed the bridge at the extreme limit of his reach. Bella took a hit from another of the warriors, but the petite rogue was still dishing out far more damage than she was taking. Zhustin zapped one of the giants with a Ray of Enfeeblement, dropping him to barely human strength. Sandoval stabbed an enemy with his echoblade, but unfortunately, the weapon's sonic attack had no effect on the deafened warrior.

The smoke from Sandoval’s Pyrotechnics spell was still thick on the far side of the chasm screening everything on the eastern side from view. Suddenly, a half dozen more Withered Blossom Warriors came charging out of the smoke. They were moving like bats out of hell, clearly Hasted – the hobgoblin warcaster who’d been on the roof must have come back into play.

It was time to get serious. Marie reentered the fray, flying out from her hiding place to cast her last Flame Strike against the cluster of enemies at the eastern bridge. She killed one hobgoblin and scorched two giants, but the Withered Blossom Warriors all dodged her flames. That offended Nicki, so he launched an Empowered Fireball at the same group. One of the giants toppled into the chasm, and two of the warriors were very badly scorched.

The missing hobgoblin warcaster responded in kind. He poked his head out from around a corner at the western side of the keep, and cast his own Empowered Fireball, catching Sawyer, Bella, and two of the air elementals in the explosion (along with one of the hill giants – c’est la vie).

Zhustin’s air elementals transformed into Whirlwinds. Two of them engulfed the warriors still guarding the eastern bridge. One died instantly. The other was picked up by the miniature tornado and hurled off into the chasm; whether he died from the fall or was killed by the rats in the pit, no one would ever know. The third elemental tried to engulf the hill giant who had crossed the bridge, but the giant was too big to be affected by its winds. However, it was blinded by the cloud of dust the whirlwind kicked up, although that didn’t impeded it from hitting the elemental with its club. That gave Sawyer the opening he needed. Suishen flashed, and the giant collapsed to the ground.

The enemy's ranks were thinning, but many of those remaining were the tough Withered Blossom Warriors, fresh to the fight and Hasted to boot, while the party was bruised, battered, and running low on magical resources. And they heard another bleat of a warhorn from somewhere behind the smoke screen, suggesting that more reinforcements were on the way.

Still no XP this week, as this epic encounter is still in progress. We’ll be at Joette & Rich’s next week, and I’ll be there in person.