Expedition - Carchannoi/Return to the Ogres - 08 May 2021

[sirravd]

I submit, and ask my followers to do likewise. "Do not worry. They will examine my bow, and the truth will be revealed."

Dammit, I should have left the day later. If only I had a Charm Person...

[Marullus]

I merely say, in as flat a voice as I can muster: "My lady, if you doubt that I loathe dwarves and wish their blood, simply bring my longbow to one of your court mages. You will see that it is enchanted to kill dwarves. We share an enemy. If I speak falsely of my bow, kill me where I stand."

The goblin guards step forward and swiftly bind you with tight knots, practiced work for their nimble fingers. Your four charmed companions object and end up bound, too. The guards poke and jeer, jabbing you in the sides. Your bow is taken swiftly after you review it is magical. "Thank you for the gift," grins Guhra.

You are abruptly hauled from the room, pushed fast to ensure you stumble as you go down the stairs, and finally deposited into a solid stonework cell with iron floor-it-ceiling bars in a sub-level beneath the building. Clearly of dwarven construction and intended to have the bars narrow enough to prevent even goblin or kobold escape, it will be difficult to break. You and the four charmed goblins are together in the same cell, your backpacks and weapons (including your spellbook) stripped and left in the guard room on the other side of the solid ironwood door.

Dammit, I should have left the day later. If only I had a Charm Person...

Casting in the room as the center of attention would've been obvious.

You haven't cast any spells yet today, though. You presumably memorized them when you woke after sleeping six days, so you used one Read Magic spell on the door, but have two Charm Person spells in memory. You can cast both and rememorize when you recover your spellbook, or cast one and keep the other in memory to scribe into a new spellbook if this one isn't recovered.

[sirravd]

No, I only memorized R.M.

Can I try a Bend Bars/Lift Gates roll?

[Marullus]

Okay, if you say so.

Carchannoi and his companions all combine their strength, trying to force loose one of the dwarven-made iron bars on the cell. With much straining and pushing, nothing has budged.
[1d6] = 5

It is a few hours before a guard comes in, a sneering goblin with a wooden bucket full of brownish stew and one shared ladle. "Compliments of 'my lady's table' for you," he sneers and then laughs. He sets down the bucket on the outside of the bars so that the ladle needs to be used between them to try and get something to eat.

[sirravd]

"Let's eat", I say. "After, we should wait another day or two to ensure there is no chance of parleying with Guhra."

[Marullus]

You take a few ladles, the goblins greedily fight each other over the remainder of the bucket. You sleep fitfully, for what you assume is a night, having no sense of the passage of time in your present condition.

You are next intruded upon by your warg rider retainer. He comes to visit on the other side of the bars, looking uncomfortable and apologetic. "Dwarf-time will come. Guhra needs your subservience. A pet wizard is better than a leader-threat."

[sirravd]

"So is she going to keep me in here until she thinks I'm cowed and submissive? Or will she just let me out when I've gotten the message not to fuck with her? If it's the first, you go tell her I'm scared shitless. Cringing, terrified, the works."

[Marullus]

Receiving your request, he departs. A few hours, another bucket of brownish stew. A few hours, and the original guards return, pushing/escorting you back up the stairs to the audience chamber. You once again stand before Guhra, but now with you and your entire band disarmed. She looks at you expectantly, allowing a long silence to fall.

If you get to a request in your response, roll a 4d6 with it.

[sirravd]

I simply say: "We have always been loyal to goblindom. Give us back our equipment, and let us fight the dwarves for you."

[4d6] = 12

[Marullus]

Tog and Smurk plead as well in their own language, joining your protestations of loyalty. She gives a nod and your equipment is brought up, placed just out of reach, but at least here.

"Tell me of this. Where have you found evidence of the dwarves? If you only go to destroy them, why do you come to my Hall?"

[sirravd]

"I have been a friend of goblinkind for years, as my friends can attest; they told me of the hidden dwarves. I approached you because I know the dwarves are formidable, and thought it would be best if I could join forces with your warband."

[Marullus]

She smirks, which might be a sign of pleasure. "Yes, you elf, you work for Duhrga." She let's that soak in for those around her. "That means you do what I say, not take my goblins to go fight your dwarves. You go into the underneath. If you're strong, you make it safe." She motions to asnivling, skinny goblin near her. Lickspittle goes, and tells me if you do the job or a coward."

[sirravd]

"Fine. Direct me and my friends to the cavern entrance." Lickspittle will be watching me, so I might as well ask: "How much of the dwarves' treasure will go to you?"

[Marullus]

Guhra laughs, echoes by the the henchmen around her. "If you do good, maybe you keep something." They all laugh harder, meaner, clearly making fun in their own language.

[sirravd]

"I'm going to need to prepare my spells; then I will leave." Assuming she grants me permission to prepare spells, I return to my cell with spellbook in hand, and impress three Charm Persons into my brain.

Once I return to Guhra's throne room with the Charms memorized, I look carefully at her and her guards to see if any appear to be spellcasters. If the answer is no, then I tell them I need to pray to Sdubok the Flaming for guidance; my "prayer", of course, is the sounds and gestures of the three Charm Persons, one of which I expend on Guhra, two on her guards.

[Marullus]

CHA [4d6] = 17

Carchannoi requests time to prepare, and then offer supplications to Sdubok. Guhra laughs again. "No, you show you are a powerful wizard below, not here."

You are once again pushed-escorted down the spiral staircase at the center of the tower to the bottom level. A heavy iron door is unbolted in the floor and you and your four companions are pushed in -- Lickspittle complaining the most bitterly as they laugh. Coils of rope lay on the floor above but they don't use them to allow you to gently descend... you hold a faint hope that they will use the ropes to help you ascend later.

Your fall is broken by the heaps of trash that lie below the trap door. It appears the goblins throw everything they don't want or understand down this hole, then keep it bolted. You have all of your gear - except your longbow, which Guhra has kept above.

You and the goblins can all see well enough to fight and explore with your infravision, but it is difficult to do detailed tasks (like searching the contents of the room) without a proper light of some kind. This room is about 50 feet by 40 feet, with four doors; the stonework is utilitarian but of fine worksmanship - the clear handiwork of dwarves. There is a solid stone door in the center of the south wall. There is an iron door on the east wall, left of center (20 feet from the north wall). There is a wooden door on the north wall, left of center. A simple wooden door - the only one without a visible lock, is on the west wall, all the way in the south corner.

[sirravd]

I send all the goblins to guard the wooden door, then impress a Charm Person into my mind as quickly as I can (unless doing so takes over an hour). I do not memorize more, for fear of wandering monsters (unless I can memorize three spells in an hour or less). Once done, I join my goblins at the wooden door. I ask the warg rider how much he knows about the dungeon.

[Marullus]

With you are Smurk, Tog, Gurzlak, and Guhrt. Tog and Gurzlak are the ones who speak Common and can converse with you. The warg-rider didn't stand with you against Guhrsa, which is why he was able to come down and express his apologies from outside the cell, relaying your contrition back up to the goblin mistress. So, he's not present. Lickspittle is here, however, and rather put-out about it.

Tog relays your direction to the others and Tog, Gurzlak, and Guhrt go and guard the wooden door. Smurk lights a torch for you from his ragged pack, holding it while you study. Lickspittle watches curiously, trying to see the pages over your shoulder, then (growing bored) begins to complain and whine about the degradation of being given such an assignment, then begins to pick absently through the mounds of trash which fill this room. After an hour, Smurk's torch is a dim flicker and you've memorized three Charm Person spells. (It takes one hour to memorize a day's worth of spells.) Lickspittle catches your attention as you notice a series of quick, furtive movements - he's shoving something in his pockets and trying to be discreet.

[sirravd]

"Lickspittle!" I shout. "What have you found?"

[Marullus]

He reaches down and picks up a large coin off the ground, about the size of his small fist. "Oh... Why gold, is all." He smiles innocently. "Mighty wizard's might not need it, but it is good gift for Guhra."