Goblin Campaign

[Steerpike]

[ic=Episode 14: Eavesdropping]Kraashgar clambers up onto a bench and pulls open the grate that covers the shaft.  He pulls himself up and into the tunnel; he has to crouch a little to enter, but doesn't have to crawl on his hands and knees '" one of the few advantages to being a goblin.  He straps on the goggles, readies his syringe, and beings to creep through the shafts.  The hunt begins!

The shafts are even more confusing than the rest of the dungeon.  Kraashgar creeps through them slowly, pausing frequently to listen.  He encounters a few other tunnel denizens that obviously aren't the thing he's looking for '" a large rat and a bloated, oversized spider '" but dispatches them without too much trouble, though he dose sustain a nasty bite from the rat.  He looks through a hole in one wall where a flagstone is missing and briefly taunts an elf prisoner in the cells before moving on in search of whatever creature escaped from the Slaad's lair.  Wish he'd been more specific about what this thing looked like.

He attempt to navigate by peering through the grills that intersperse the stone corridors, looking down onto guard-rooms and into what look like the bottom of the pit-traps '" he sees a multi-headed dragon-like creature and a pack of quilled, wolfish predators prowling about the floors of these.  He descends ladders and sloped chutes, carefully maneuvering down the rusted rungs and narrow, slanting passages.

Kraashgar hears heavy booted footsteps echoing down one tunnel and scuttles over to a grill to peer inside, more curious than anything.  Through the shaft's small grill he can see a hexagonal chamber whose walls and floor are covered in glowing runes, surrounding an ornate series of concentric circles at the chamber's center.  There's a pair of huge double doors on one wall and a smaller doorway on another.  Obraxus the Ogre Mage, Kraashgar's Boss, stands at the center of the room, alone.  He speaks an incantation and a creature suddenly materializes in a puff of sulphurous smoke: a bat-winged imp with a barbed tail and a toothy grin on its face.

'What have you learned, Shez?'

'Ill news, master,' the imp replies.  'The townsfolk have hired another party to, um, dispose of your eminence.  It's a vicious cycle: the adventurers show up, pump the local economy full of gold, get hired, die, and then use all the gold the adventurers spent on drinks and weapons and what-have-you to hire another party!  The mayor's a canny one, he's only been giving them a quarter pay in advance, so the town's still making a net profit out of all this, and the taxes are so high that the mayor sees a good portion of it himself.  It might be wise to, ah, remove him from power.'

'Good work, Shez.  It may be time to contact that dreadfully useful tiefling again, he did excellent work last time.'

Suddenly there's a booming knock at the doors.  Kraashgar tenses and edges to one side '" he doesn't want to risk being spotted.  He can still hear, though.

'Enter!'  Obraxus bellows.

He hears the doors open, and then a high, raspy voice speaks.

'I'm ever so sorry to bother you, master, but '" '

'Get to the point, Morkoth.'

'Yes, well, Chalsezce is here and he's upset about something and he said he'd only meet with you.  He's in a bit of a mood, you know how he can get.  Called me, a sycophantic newt.  Told me I smelled like grick cheese.'

'Ha!  He was being generous.  Show him in.'

'I'm coming in and I don't care if you want me or not,' a new voice says, nasal and unpleasant.  'I've got a bone to pick with you, Ogre Mage, and I'm not leaving till this gets settled.'

'What is it this time, Chalsezce?'

'Some of your filthy employees have been using the fifth level fountains for baths, and who knows what else.  You agreed at the last dungeon-inhabitants meeting that the fountain was a shared space.  You know the sound of running water soothes me, and all I've got on my levels is that bloody cistern, doesn't do the trick at all.  But it smells horrible now, Obraxus, and it looks like something was drowned in the damn thing. The water's filthy!'

'Look, Chalsezce, I sympathize, I really do, but I don't really have time for this right now.  I'm in the middle of a crisis here, I'm seriously understaffed and I've got dwarves attacking level three and this damn surface town keeps sending packs of bloody adventurers in through the front door.  You don't have to worry about them, you only need to perk up if they make it down to level six, and let's face it, that's not very likely.  Can't this wait till the next meeting?'

'No, it can't, Obraxus, and I don't give a high elf's fart about any adventurers, that's your problem and the price you pay for having access to the Overworld.  I want the fountain cleaned, by your workers, and I want it made clear that the fountain is not for bathing, or drinking, or anything else!  It's purely decorative!'  The voice sounds increasingly shrill.

'Fine, fine.  I'll ask Caustic to refresh everyone on the fifth floor etiquette policies, and we just hired a new minion so we'll have him muck out the fountain.  Okay?'

'Alright.  You can tell Caustic that it'd better be done and done quickly, and the next time I catch someone befouling that fountain I'm going to personally float up here and petrify her.  I'll use her as a bloody hat-rack!'

'Yes, yes, I'll pass it on.'

The doors clank shut.  Kraashgar hears the Ogre Mage thud out of the room, grumbling under his breath.  The goblin lets out a breath and continues his hunt.[/ic]

[Steerpike]

[ic=Episode 15: Cyborg]Kraashgar continues his hunt through the dungeon's ventilation shafts, pausing and listening frequently.  He hears a skittering sound down a side-shaft, and steals as quietly as he can towards the sound.  He rounds a corner and a  shape resolves out of the darkness: a small, scrawny creature with the lower body of an insect and the upper body of a tiny, delicately featured humanoid.  It clutches a stained scalpel in one hand.  Its left arm, he notes, has been replaced with a strange, whirring clockwork appendage, stitched and wired into its flesh.  Heh, I don't think these things breed down here.

Kraashgar lunges towards it with the syringe, and it squeals in terror, flinging a weft or net of magical threads towards our hero!  Kraashgar attempts to evade, but the shaft is too tight '" he is entangled in the eldritch threads!  He struggles and squirms, attempting to escape, but Thollom's experiment has already scurried off down the tunnel.

After several minutes the arcane threads dissolve and Kraashgar is freed.  He sets out again in search of the bizarre hybrid of creature and machine, scrambling down more ladders and through the confusing knot of passageways.  He seems to have lost the trail, and curses the little beast silently.

Finally he hears the familiar skittering again and darts towards it, as silent as possible.  The thing has its back turned as he comes up behind it.  He aims carefully with the syringe, thrusts hard, and depresses the plunger.  The cyborg squeaks, half turns, and then falls to the floor, unconscious.

Kraashgar throws the fey over his shoulder.  Rather than attempting to get back the way he came he kicks open the nearest grate and drops into the room below '" a shrine, smelling strongly of burnt flesh.  A pair of braziers flare at the far wall, flanking a charred altar set before a gibbering clay idol depicting some bestial, monstrous-looking deity; some remnants of what might be dwarven ancestor-gods or something similar can be seen in niches about the room's periphery, but most have been smashed, beheaded, or otherwise defaced, and spidery graffiti covers the walls.

A gray-furred gnoll seems to minister this shrine.  When Kraashgar drops into the room she bristles, then relaxes.

'Uh, sorry about that,' Kraashgar says sheepishly.  'I'm the new guy here.'

'What is that thing?'  The gnoll priestess asks.

'No idea.  It escaped from Thollom's lab.'

'Typical.  Are you wounded?'

'No '" although I did get bitten by a big rat back there.'

Hm.  Not much damage, but it could have infected you with something.'  She mutters a spell.

'Thanks.'

'Don't mention it.'

Our hero heads back towards the lab, getting lost only a couple of times before he finds his way to the cell block and the Slaad's rooms.  He hefts the cyborg fey onto the ground.

'What is that?'  Thollom asks, squinting, while his familiar sniffs at the unconscious creature.

'Uh '" isn't this the thing you wanted?'

'Never seen it before in my life.'

'What?!  You mean I have to go back there?'

'Kidding!  Kidding!  Yes, that's Subject E47-J.  Here, I'll recharge that wand.'[/ic][ooc]I allowed the grig to use entangle without the presence of plants.  I can always say it's a function of the clockwork/bionic arm.  It certainly increased the player's annoyance with the grig (already high), so just for that it was worth it '" made it a lot more satisfying to catch it in the end.

I'm trying to begin ramping up both the humor and the horror in the campaign.  I sort of want to take the story in dark directions, but while maintaining a very comic, madcap sort of approach.[/ooc]

[Nomadic]

I'm trying to begin ramping up both the humor and the horror in the campaign.  I sort of want to take the story in dark directions, but while maintaining a very comic, madcap sort of approach.

so in other words... a goblin story :P

[LD]

http://planet-thirteen.com/Dungeon.aspx (How to Host a Dungeon)

It seems to have similar inspirations to what you are doing here. (Especially with the adventurers and the Dwarven Civilization)

On another note; if you advertise this at some other sites/places (where it is appropriate), it may drive in new blood and new creators to the site-- you missed a thread a few months back where we were discussing a bit about population here (which is very appropriate- but which I was wondering why it was so low considering the great technology, the good community, and the useful feedback)

Good luck!
~LD

[LordVreeg]

You?  Humor and Horror?  Perish the thought.

[Steerpike]

[ooc][blockquote=Nomadic]so in other words... a goblin story[/blockquote]Heh that's the idea.[blockquote=Light Dragon]URL (How to Host a Dungeon)

It seems to have similar inspirations to what you are doing here.[/blockquote]It's like a pen and paper version of  dwarf fortress! [blockquote=Vreeg]You? Humor and Horror? Perish the thought.[/blockquote]Glad it's still somewhat resonant with my other stuff, despite the more "vanilla" trappings.[/ooc]

[Nomadic]

dwarf fortress![/url]

I wonder what the stat block would look like for a war carp.

[Steerpike]

[ic=Episode 16: Rock-And-A-Sharp-Place]His wand recharged, Kraashgar heads back to level one to finish resetting the traps there.  He bypasses the crushing-room trap and the pit traps and heads up a spiral staircase towards the rock-and-a-sharp-place trap.  As he scuttles up the stairs he meets another dungeon denizen '" the drow woman he saw before, in Obraxus' Map Room.

'Hey, you '" you're the new guy, right,' the dark elf demands.

'Yeah, that's me.  Kraashgar.'

'I'm Caustic.  Number two round here.  You do what I say, and don't ask questions, we won't have any problems.  Now what are you doing?'

'Skelus asked me to reset the first level traps.  I've done everything but the rock-and-a-sharp place.'

'Well, carry on, but after that go down to the fifth level and scrub out the fountain there, got it?'

'Will do.'  (Yes sir?)

Caustic seems satisfied with this and heads down the stairwell without another word, so our hero hurries up to the slab blocking the corridor.  He uses his wand, and this time an arcane mark appears.  He presses the relevant flagstone and enters the maintenance corridor.

The console for this trap is complex: three levers, a winch, and a crank.  The eye-hole reveals each relevant piece of the trap: a stone slab and a section of spring-loaded floor that flips up against it, studded with spikes that bury themselves in holes on the side of the slab.

He tries the winch.  No luck.  None with the crank, either.  He tries the first lever and the spikes retract.  Good so far.  He pulls the other two levers, but they just click.  He tries the winch and crank again but they're still stuck.

Focusing, Kraashgar reasons that the two latter levers are probably safety locks, so he disengages them.  This time the winch works, so with tiny muscles straining from the effort he winches back the huge stone slab, back into its position in the ceiling.  Now he cranks back the spring-loaded floor section, resetting the trap.

Mission accomplished!  There's nothing Kraashgar would like more than to settle in for a hot meal and a rest, but he still has to scrub out the fifth level fountain.  He trudges back, making sure that the pit traps have been activated on his way, and double-checking the crushing-room.

He's barely made it to the second floor entrance when an alarm blares over some unseen magical speaker system.  Caustic's voice resounds from a nearby dwarf statue.

'Alright everyone, we've got incoming adventurers.  Repeat, incoming adventurers.  Everyone to stations!'

Looks like Kraashgar finished resetting the traps just in time!  He wonders what he should do.  Go to a guard-room?  Continue with his allotted tasks?  He hasn't been prepped for this yet!

He looks back towards where he knows the secret door to the crushing-room trap is.  He spent all this time resetting the traps, why shouldn't he get to watch them in action?  Making sure that the coast is clear, he uses his wand to discern the arcane mark, then enters the maintenance room behind the trap, to watch through the peephole.  Hopefully some intruders are going to get pancaked![/ic][ooc]Thought I'd provide a dungeon map in lieu of the usual illustration.[/ooc]

[Nomadic]

This is getting good, keep it up.

[Steerpike]

[ic=Episode 17: The Crawl]Our heroes pause at the mouth of the fell Ogre Mage, Obarxus the Accursed.  The huge, rune-etched doors of the monster's Lair stand before them on the mountainside, a flight of stone steps leading upwards around the cliff-face.  Tul, the half-orc fighter-rogue, spots some arrow-slits carved into the cliff along the stairway.

'Best we press ourselves against the rock,' he advises his companions, the canny half-elf sorcerer Kenneth and the formidable human cleric Cal.  'Avoid their archers.'

The three stalwart adventurers thus approach the front doors, sidling against the walls, directly below and thus out of reach of any archers above.

The front door is sealed with a lock of ingenious dwarf make.  Tul checks for any traps but finds none.  Despite his best efforts the half-orc is unable to tease open the prolix tumblers within.  He turns to Cal, who calls up the untold powers of his deity and offers up a mystic prayer.  The Power answers, and Tul is blessed with Bull's Strength.  Combined with his Gauntlets of Ogre Power and his natural half-orc brawn, the mighty Tul manages to force open one half of the double-doors, his massive green biceps straining with the effort.

The door gives, exposing a dark room beyond.  With his darkvision Tul can discern a few details: another door at the fair end, some loose rubble, decapitated dwarven statues, and a graffiti-marred mosaic on the floor.  He sticks his head in to get a better look and is almost skewered by arrows, as hidden archers in an unseen gallery let fly!  Their arrows clatter of the iron door and Tul jerks his head back.

'One-Eye's Empty Socket!'  Tul curses.  'More bloody archers!'

'I'll take care of them,' Kenneth proclaims, rolling up the sleeves of his robe.  Ioun stones swirl about his head, and his palms crackle with eldritch puissance as he swaggers into the chamber, already intoning an arcane incantation.  He channels raw magical energy and a swarm of magic missiles burst from his hands, squirting with uncanny accuracy through the arrow-slits.  There are yelps of pain and sounds of sizzling flesh.

The other two enter the front chamber and Tul rushes to the far door, lest reinforcements arrive.  While Cal and Kenneth cast divine and arcane shields on themselves Tul busies himself with the next lock, and this time manages to defeat the dwarven mechanisms.  The doors swing open, revealing a huge, pillared hall beyond.  More arrow slits are evident along the walls, and an impressive wooden door is evident at the end.

'Okay, guys,' Tul growls.  'Get ready to run.  I'm going to charge that door.  You guys follow and draw their fire.'  His companions nod.  Tul braces himself, then launches into the hall.

Arrows whiz past him as he darts between pillars towards the far end.  One grazes his head and others bounce off his enchanted chain shirt.  He hears Kenneth grunt in pain and looks back to see the half-elf wrench an arrow from his side while others bounce harmlessly off his arcane shield.

Tul works up as much momentum as he can and rams the door, shattering it from its hinges, just as an arrow buries itself in a shoulder-joint.  He yowls with pain and ducks into the room beyond, his companions close behind.

'Looks like we're safe here,' Cal notes, before mouthing a few low-level healing spells to close the arrow-wounds of his companions.

The room our heroes find themselves in is small and spare, with a single exit.  This they take, all three straining for a moment to batter it down before it yields in a burst of splinters.

The corridor beyond is crooked.  Tul gestures that he will scout ahead and begins searching for traps along the passage's walls and floor.  He's made it halfway through when he hears an ominous clicking sound, and a section of the ceiling descends rapidly towards him!  He attempts to use his rogue's reflexes to avoid the trap, but is too slow, just barely stopping the block from crushing him entirely by using his immense strength, still augmented magically, to hold the block up; pain hammers through his arms and down through his body, and he can feel his bones jarred nearly to the point of snapping.  A section of the floor swings up and spikes pop out, but fortunately Tul is too far away to be impaled, and his companions are too far back.  With prodigious effort Tul pushes the block back into the ceiling, then carefully forces the floor-panel back into place.  His companions follow after him, Cal already speaking another healing spell.

The descend a flight of spiral steps and pass down a corridor, Tul now checking for traps with typical adventurer's obsessiveness.  The three eventually pass through a small pillared hall and into another corridor.  Tul spots two tripwires and slinks forward.  He cuts the first expertly, rolling backwards to avoid any danger, but nothing happens.

'Clever trick,' the half-orc mutters, now groping for a seam or pressure-plate.  He finds one and gingerly depresses it, so that a pit gapes open harmlessly in the floor.  The three easily make the jump across, and Tul repeats the process with the second trap, spitting derisively into the latter pit before pressing forward.

He kicks down the door and discovers a guard-room.  Three gnolls and an orc stand in the room, tables overturned, weapons drawn!  The half-orc unsheathes his greatsword and his companions ready their own weapons.

The melee is short and bloody.  Two gnolls head for Tul, obviously the strong-man of the group, while the orc and remaining gnoll focus on the cleric and sorcerer.  Kenneth attacks with a sheet of flame, searing one gnoll, while Cal swings his massive mace, crushing the orcs skull, though not before taking a wound of his own.  The burnt gnoll howls with pain and rage and swings its flail, nearly breaking Kenneth's concentration as the sorcerer finishes him off with a Scorching Ray.

Tul's armour protects him from the gnolls' attacks as he lays about with his enormous blade.  He overpowers one gnoll's parry and wounds the creature badly, parries its counter-attack and ripostes with a vicious sweep that cuts the bestial humanoid in two!  He cleaves, allowing his inertia to carry him forward, and lops off the other gnoll's arm.  The horrible creature growls and slashes madly before Tul decapitates it.

The minions lie dead.  They loot the bodies swiftly, adding some imperceptible increment to the huge hoard of gold they already possess, tucked safely inside Kenneth's Bag of Holding.  Now Tul turns to the door the creatures were guarding: iron, again, though unlocked.  He checks for traps, but finds none.

Still breathing hard, Tul enters the chamber beyond: a hexagonal one, with slightly stained floors.  He hears a click, and turns back to find the doors suddenly closing '" he must have missed  another trap!  This is not the half-orc's day.  He hurls himself back towards the closing door but bounces off as it snaps shut with grim finality.  He hears muffled voices behind the door as his companions attempt to breach it with magic, just as he notices that the floor is rising and the ceiling dropping.  He feels an upwelling of panic.  This can't be the end '" not like this!  Claimed by some wretched trap?  Surely if he was to die it would be in single combat with the Ogre Mage itself, just after dealing the evil thing a mortal wound!

Tul has a few brief moments of pure terror and regret before the crushing room reduces him to a pulpy greenish-red paste.

Peering through a peephole in a hidden corridor, a goblin chuckles with satisfaction.[/ic][ooc]The player played Tul this session, a half-orc Rogue 3/Fighter 7.  It was something of a challenge for him not to meta-game, but he did fairly well (yeah he searched for traps, but he did so whether he knew there was a trap or not, and when he failed a Search check he plowed straight on through.  Hence the squishage).  Kraashgar will return next Episode, when he finds out how Caustic got her name.[/ooc]

[Steerpike]

[ic=Episode 18: Charm Person]Kraashgar smirks with pleasure, the screams of the foolish adventurer still echoing through the dungeon halls.  Suddenly he hears a sound at the secret door entrance '" voices, in a language he doesn't understand, followed by the sound of the door grinding open!  The goblin grits his teeth, raises his morningstar, and charges down towards the secret door, hurtling out of the darkness like a small, furious, green missile.  He strikes the first opponent he sees '" a half-elf in blue robes.  The adventurer yells in surprise and pain as Kraashgar prepares for another blow!

Before Kraashgar can attack again the sorcerer has retaliated, spitting forth a quick incantation.  Our hero feels a strange sensation overcome him which he tries and fails to resist.  Suddenly he realizes something obvious: the half-elf isn't his enemy, but his friend!  He knows this intuitively and indisputably: the sorcerer is his eternal ally, and he must do all he can to assist him.  The strange creature speaks '" if only Kraashgar could understand him!  The other intruder '" an armoured human '" says somtheing else, again in an unfamiliar tongue, and the sorcerer speaks again, touching Kraashgar lightly.  Suddenly their gibberish resolves into speech.

'Goblin!  We need to find the Ogre Mage Obraxus.  Lead us to him!'

'Uh, why do you need to find him?'

'We have come to slay the hideous beast and cleanse the land of his foulness,' the human declares.

Kraashgar considers this.  On the one hand, the half-elf is his friend, and the human is his companion.  On the other hand, Obraxus is his boss, and he just got this job.  He wrestles with the decision.

'No way I could persuade you to, maybe, turn around?'

'My friend Cal is just joking,' the half-elf says, glaring at the human.  'We just need to talk with your master.  First, deactivate the trap.'

'Okay, sure.'  Kraashgar pulls the lever and the trap opens.  He locks the crushing room for good measure '" he wouldn't want his new friend to activate it by mistake!

'Now come with us, goblin,' the half-elf commands.  Kraashgar doesn't feel compelled to obey, but it seems much easier to just go along with what the adventurer tells him.  The three enter the room: the gory remains of the half-orc glisten on the floor.

'Not enough to raise,' the human notes.  'Gods, not enough to bury.'  The Overworlder glares at Kraashgar with barely restrained malice.

'Well, he could be sort of an oaf anyway.'  The half-elf shrugs.  'We can take the Ogre Mage by ourselves.  Now, goblin, lead on!'

Kraashgar thinks long and hard.  Part of him doesn't believe the half-elf.  Maybe the creature cast some sort of '" but no.  The adventurer is his friend; he wouldn't wish Kraashgar any harm.

'Okay, I'll try.  It's my first day, though,' the goblin says sheepishly.

'Great,' the human grumbles.  'Of all the minions we could have picked, we got the new guy.'

'Come on, let's just follow him' the half-elf says.

Kraashgar leads the intruders through the maintenance corridor and out into the cross-section.  He guard-room is up ahead.  He's sure if he just explains that the half-elf and the human aren't a real threat, the guards will understand'¦

He opens the door.  The adventurers push past him as the troglodytes, orcs, and kobolds inside charge forwards.

Kraashgar's shrieks of protest are quickly drowned out as the battle begins.  He slinks to a corner, paralyzed with indecision, while the adventurers and the dungeon guards engage one another.  Spells fly, weapons clash, and blood spatters the flagstone floors.  For a moment it looks like the intruders will overcome the defenders '" and then Caustic ascends the from the second level, a pair of minions beside her, glowing with a greenish aura.  She speaks a spell and the green glow extends to the remaining minions (including Kraashgar); then, as the adventurers begin mouthing their own incantations, she makes a furious gesture and an acidic green cloud erupts from her fingers, filling the guard-room!  The half-elf manages to squeeze off a quick spell, but it rebounds off Caustic, repelled by some unseen force.  The sorcerer and cleric scream in pain as their flesh blisters and melts, sloughing off their bones.  The corrosive gas reduces them to piles of bones; the other minions, protected from the spell's effects, are unharmed.

Caustic grimaces and strides over to Kraashgar, speaking another spell.  The goblin's horror and intense sorrow at his friend's demise dissolves instantly, and he realizes with an epiphany of self-disgust that he had been duped and ensorcelled.

'The Boss is going to have to hear about this,' Caustic declares, his voice dripping venom.  'You lot, clean up this mess and check to see if they have anything valuable.  And someone rest the bloody traps.  And you '" ' she looks down at our hero ' '" are coming with me.'

Gulp.[/ic]

[Steerpike]

[ic=Dramatis Personae]In Order of Appearance

 Kraashgar '" Our hero.  A young goblin warrior from the Great Below, his tribe has been slaughtered by adventurers.

 Ysshera '" Ettercap merchant.  Gave Kraashgar a lift to Ool-Nacha.

 Rancid '" Troglodyte and wealthy merchant.  Runs Ool-Nacha.

 Alastor '" Tiefling bounty hunter and assassin.  Kraashgar impressed him by killing a derro in a knife-fight at the Blind Beholder tavern.

 Shub '" Unusually friendly roper.  Bartender at the Blind Beholder in Ool-Nacha.

 Grognash '" Orc minion of Obraxus, in charge of recruitment.  Poor speller, but smart for an orc.

 Veth '" Barghest Ranger.  Minion of Obraxus.  Helped Kraashgar kill some magmins and escorted him to the Lair.

 Obraxus '" Ogre Mage.  Kraashgar's Boss as of Episode 11.  Rents the top five levels of a former dwarven stronghold from Illithids.  Quite intimidating.

 Caustic '" Drow Wizardess.  Obraxus' second-in-command.  Specializes in acid magic.  Hard-ass.

 Kurlok '" Irritable kobold weaponmaster.  Minion of Obraxus.

Skelus '" Absentminded kobold trapsmith.  Minion of Obraxus.

 Thollom '" Gray Slaad.  Sublets a laboratory in Obraxus' Lair.  Had Kraashgar catch an escaped grig he was experimenting on.

 Shez '" Imp familiar of Obraxus.

 Chalsezce the Mad '" Cantankerous Beholder that rents the dungeon levels below Obraxus' Lair from the Mind Flayers.  Germophobe.

 Tul '" Half-orc Fighter/Rogue and adventurer.  The party strong-man and skill-monkey.  Squashed by a crushing-room trap on level one.

 Kenneth '" Half-elf Sorcerer and adventurer.  Party mage.  Charmed Kraashgar.  Slain by Caustic by a maximized Acid Fog spell.

 Cal '" Human cleric and adventurer.  Party medic.  A trifle grumpy.  Slain by Caustic.[/ic][ic=The Story So Far]Fleeing from the adventurers that destroyed his home, Kraashgar the goblin warrior found himself lost and hungry in the endless maze of caverns known as the Great Below.  He had a few near misses with some cavern denizens (a troll and some grimlocks) before straying into kobold territory, where he triggered a trap and slew several kobold guards on his way through a fungal village.  While in the nearby caverns he also discovered a former kuo-toan shrine and pocketed a holy symbol there, and found some fish and clean water.

The goblin eventually found his way to a subterranean highway, where he hitched a ride with an ettercap merchant called Ysshera, in exchange for the kuo-toan symbol.  She took him to the troglodyte-run town of Ool-Nacha, a former duerger outpost, by way of Mazinkor's Shaft.  Once in the town, he cleaned out a nest of stirges in a kuo-toan temple in exchange for healing.

Woozy from blood-loss but otherwise unharmed, Kraashgar made some gold at the local fighting pits, then  headed to the tavern, an establishment called the Blind Beholder owned by a roper named Shub.  After killing a drunken derro in a knife-fight he attracted the attention of a tiefling named Alastor, who recommended Kraashgar look into a job opportunity as an Ogre Mage's minion.

After a rest and some food, Kraashgar headed to the bazaar, where he found Grognash the orc, a recruiter for the Ogre Mage Obraxus.  After a short interview and a practical test that left him nearly dead (he had to fight a gnome zombie, to prove that hiring him alive was more cost-effective than killing and raising him), he was hired and sent to the local trog temple to find another employee of Obraxus, Veth the barghest.

Veth took Kraashgar up Mazinkor's Shaft to a series of caverns en route to Obarxus' Lair.  Here they fought off a few magmins, then took a grimlock-operated gondola/lift through to a set of Illithid-owned Mithril Mines.  From here they ascended to the Lair proper, where Kraashgar met his new boss, Obraxus, and became acquainted with some of the dungeon personalities, such as the drow Wizardess Caustic, the weaponmaster Kurlok (from whom he acquired new equipment), and the kobold trapsmith Skelus.  His first tasks required him to reset the traps on the first level, since an adventuring party set them off before being stopped.  He was given a Wand of Detect Magic to reveal arcane glyphs that mark secret doors in the dungeon.

After resetting most of the traps on level one, Kraashgar's wand ran out of charges and he was forced to seek the assistance of another dungeon denizen, a Gray Slaad called Thollom, in order to get it recharged.  Thollom had Kraashgar catch an escaped experiment of his, a cyborg grig that got into the dungeon ventilation shafts.  While hunting the grig Kraashgar overhead a conversation between Obraxus, his imp familiar Shez, and a beholder called Chalsezces the Mad, a neighbor.  He ascertained that a local Overworld town is hiring parties of adventurers to attempt to rid themselves of the Ogre Mage.

After getting his wand recharged, Kraashgar finished resetting the traps '" and just in time!  A party of adventurers hired by the town of Gloamwood arrived at the dungeon's front door and quickly penetrated the outer defenses.  They lost their Fighter/Rogue, a half-orc named Tul, to a crushing-room trap, before discovering Kraashgar ina  secret passage.  The party's half-elf Sorcerer, Kenneth, cast Charm Person and thus enchanted our goblin hero forcing him to lead the party deeper into the dungeon.

Fortunately, the party was stopped before they were able to descend any further, as Caustic, Obraxus' second-in-command, appeared in the first level's main guard-room and laid waste to the remaining party members (Kenneth and the party Cleric, a human named Cal) with a maximized Acid Fog spell, while sparing Kraashgar and the other minions.

Kraashgar is now being taken downstairs to give his report to Obraxus'¦[/ic][ooc]I thought a synopsis might be in order to help anyone just starting out who doesn't want to wade through a wall o' text, plus the campaign is starting to reach a more intricate level at which it migth be helpful to summarize the story and present the characters so far.[/ooc]

[LD]

Re: Last Update (Oh no!)

2. When will the next update be?

[Steerpike]

[ooc]Soon, once I get some illustrations finished.[/ooc]

[Steerpike]

[ic=Episode 19: Redemption]Kraashgar is shown into the map-room; Obraxus glowers as the goblin delivers his report.

'In the future,' the Ogre Mage rumbles, 'report to the nearest guard-room instead of skulking around the maintenance corridors.  The next time, you will not be shown clemency.  Now, Caustic, take this little wretch down to the fifth level fountain.  That'll get Chalsecze off my back.'

The drow lieutenant nods and Kraashgar scuttles from the room behind her, filled with a mixture of terror and relief.  The two head down several levels to the fifth floor; Kraashgar notes an old dwarven council-chamber filled with carven thrones, and another room containing what looks like a free-standing doorway, covered in inscrutable runes, but they pass by both chambers, arriving at a hexagonal room with a central fountain, a tiered thing with fish-like statues spouting murky-looking water.

'The valve controls are over there,' Caustic says, gesturing.  'You'll find cleaning supplies down the corridor.  When you're done you can get a meal in the mess hall on the second level.  Disappoint me again and your ass is out of here.'  She strides away.

Kraashgar hurriedly begins cleaning, first draining the fountain's water supply, then fetching a brush and cleaning agents to scrub out the foul stains encrusting the fountain.  He is almost finished when a strange warbling resonates through the air behind him.  He turns.

Floating towards our hero is an enormous levitating orb with a mass of writhing eyestalks and a huge, bloodshot, central eye, accompanied by a scuttling duergar; they emerge from the gloom of an arched doorway.

'Ah, you must be Obraxus' new peon.'  The Beholder proclaims.

'Uh, yeah.'

'Well, allow me to introduce myself.  I'm Chalsecze, and this is my servitor, Nhazgar.'

'Kraashgar.'  The goblin gulps.

'Were those alarms I heard earlier?  More adventurers, I suppose?'

'Yes.  Three of them '" a human, a half-elf, and a half-orc.'

'And how did they fare?  Snared by the defenses, were they?'

'The first level traps had just been reset, so the half-orc got caught in the crushing room.  Caustic took care of the other two.'

'Of course she did '" such a capable woman!'  The Beholder blinks its huge eye.  'Mm, yes, well, I'm glad we had this little chat.  Thank you for humoring me, Kraashgar.  And indeed, for cleaning the fountain!  Nhazgar, throw him a tip, for gods-sake!'  The Beholder winks at the goblin with one of its eyestalks while the somber duegar flips something shiny through the air.  Kraashgar catches it and examines it: a small, golden ring, set with a central jewel like a staring eye.

'A token of my appreciation.  Well, ta then, Kraashgar'¦'  Chalsecze floats away, leaving the goblin to complete his task.

After turning the water back on Kraashgar makes his way back up to level two and locates the mess hall, where he is served a salty stew of some sort filled with lumps of meat, which some of the other denizens joke must be the remains of the adventurers.  Kraashgar avoids the noisy table of the gnolls, the reeking table of the troglodytes, the table filled with burly orcs and ogres, or the one with snooty-looking drow and heads to a table where kobolds, goblins, and several others are gathered, including the barghest Veth (who he has indeitfy the ring - it carries a minor protective charm!).  After the meal card-games are played; Kraahsgar loses a few silver pieces.  Finally he staggers to his barracks and falls asleep almost immediately.

He is awakened by a kobold he doesn't know.

'Caustic wants to see you, new guy,' the reptilian yaps.  'Something about a special assignment.  She and a bunch of others are up in the front hall on level one.  She said to give you these keys so you can get up there.'

It hands Kraashgar a ring of keys.

'Better hurry.'

Anxious not to ruffle any more feathers Kraashgar hastens upstairs, circumventing the traps.  Finally he arrives at the front hall.

Caustic stands in the center of the hall, addressing a small group of dungeon denizens: two gnolls, a troglodyte, and an orc.  Beside her is a much stranger creature: a massive beast with thick chitin armour, glistening mandibles, and meaty limbs, somewhere between a gigantic ape and an insect.  Perched atop this monstrosity is a small, spindly creature like a giant spider but with a long, sinuous neck and an evil-looking, eel-like visage.

'Ah, Kraashgar, glad you could join us.'  Caustic does not sound glad at all.  'I've decided to give you a chance for redemption after the charm fiasco.  You're going to be part of a surface raid.

'Now, most of you here know Zetch and his associate, Mr. Pincer.  They're going to be leading your raiding party.  The target is a merchant caravan heading to the Overworlders' town and carrying what we think is a shipment of dwarf-made firearms and ammunition, all Gearhead make.  It's coming from the dwarf's citadel, but it's going to much simpler to ambush the caravan once it makes it topside, rather than trying to intercept it while it's still Below.

'You'll head out at night.  Zetch will lead you to where the caravan should be if our intelligence is correct.  You'll strike hard and fast, taking the dwarves by surprise.  They'll be well-armed, but they'll be skittish about using firearms around such a large supply of blackpowder.

'If those weapons reach Gloamwood, our raids are going to get a lot more complicated.  Conversely, if we manage to obtain the weapons for ourselves, we stand a much better chance dealing with the humans' militia, and with any intruders.'

'Thank you, Caustic,' Zetch whines, in flawless Undercommon.  'We're going to move fast and we're going to move quietly.  We're aiming to kill, but ideally we want to keep at least one of the dwarves alive for questioning.  We'll be moving at night, so sunlight shouldn't be a problem.

"Any questions?'[/ic]