Min/Max Boards

Okay, after a month of dead air due to working on a university thing I'm back at this. If you were still interested and the other players are still in favor, the party is now in town, where it would be highly plausible for them to run into someone eager and able to help out.

Beat up but victorious, you continue on the trail without further incident. The rutted track emerges from a wooded hillside, and you catch your first glimpse of Phandalin. The town consists of forty or fifty simple log buildings, some built on old fieldstone foundations. More old ruins - crumbling stone walls covered in ivy and briars - surround the newer houses and shops, showing how this must have been a much larger town in centuries past. Most of the newer buildings are set on the sides of the cart track, which widens into a muddy main street of sorts as it climbs towards a ruined manor house on a hillside at the east side of town.

As you approach, you see children playing on the town green and townsfolk tending to chores or running errands at shops. Many people look up at you, but all return to their business as you go by.

The supplies you're guarding are meant for Barthen's Provisions, a trading post you find quickly - it's conveniently one of the first buildings on the road into town. A young man hauling crates in front of the building looks up as you approach, and runs inside as it becomes clear you're headed for the shop. He comes back out followed by a mellow-looking older human, and both run up to your cart as Kovoir stops the oxen.

The older man is lean and balding, and there is concern in his voice when he greets you. "Are you here to deliver Gundren Rockseeker's supplies? You look plain frightening. Bandits on the road?" This must be Elmar Barthen, a friend of your employer's who is supposed to pay you the agreed money for delivery of the supplies. From his look, it's clear things have not been going right.

None of the goblins have wealth of note on them: Each of them was clothed in tattered scraps with basic pieces of hardened leather covering sword arms and the most vital parts, and carrying a wooden shield, a long curved knife, and a hunting bow with some dozen-odd black-feathered arrows. The dead horses have their saddles still on, but any saddle sacks have been removed. If these bandits have been making regular attacks on the road, they'll have their ill-gotten gains stashed in a hideout somewhere and normally travel light.

Your current mission, though, is to get your cargo safely to Phandalin, and Pieron and Zuzie are both injured. Moving the horses' carcasses is quite some effort, but proceeds without interruptions.

The javelin strikes the goblin square in the back and sends it stumbling forward with its momentum! It still patters forward, barely, scrambling to reach the treeline and hide. Most likely, it won't make it far - but will you take the risk?

The goblin visibly hesitates for a split second when the apparently-goblin shout comes out of the woods - then,it darts away from that spot, running towards the trees further away. Clearly, it is not expecting any allies to come to its help and likely suspects a trap.

The less said of the goblin's remains after encountering the zenith of Pieron's rage, the better. Silence falls upon the battlefield following this final stroke for several heavy moments. No more arrows rain from the foliage - but the sound of snapping twigs betrays the last goblin's presence, who has sneaked around the ox-cart in the cover of vegetation and is now taking its heels, darting north as fast as its feet will carry it. What will you do with the final straggler?

I dunno, look for the hidden goblin?

To actively look for the hidden goblin, roll a Wisdom (Perception) check, and it's Pieron's turn.

The goblin is in the middle of maneuvering around the warrior's maul, trying to stay inside his reach, as the ground suddenly turns unstable under its feet. It slips backwards and lands flat on its rear, looking up at the much larger human and his weapon!

The goblin's cackle dies in its throat as Zuzie's dagger silences it the hard way. Permanently. The other goblin in sight is visibly jarred and misses its own swings for looking more at the pair by the cart than Pieron. More black-feathered arrows thunk into the ox-cart, but the sniper remains hidden. Only one goblin is visible, and it seems to suddenly feel very alone.