Turn 33: The Thrappled Lemmings and an Infestation of Goblins (Five Leagues from the Borderlands)

 The Thrappled Lemmings were feted by the owner of The Battered Broo after dealing with the sneaky thieves. Apparently, the thieves had been making a nuisance of themselves and everyone wanted to buy the Lemmings a drink for their help. The Lemmings were very happy to let others pick up their bar tab for a while. The Lemmings took this opportunity to get to know the locals and to let their story grow. Each time it was retold, there were more and bigger bandits being defeated, and this suited the Lemmings nicely. Meanwhile, Fulrad spent time practising. He did not want a headache like last time. Fulrad aslo went to the market to sell some of the loot they had acquired, and promptly spent his earnings on a fine shield. He figured he needed better armour than he currently had after last time.

"Right, lads," announced Sir Thiebault as they all sipped a restorative ale early one morning, "We're heading back to Gamla Utstein. We made a good haul last time and I think we need more of that sort of thing. Once we have everything we can from there, I think we should deal with the Hooded Men, but first we need a nice little nest egg to see us through."

The whole dungeon. Thrappled Lemmings entering from the left. The dice indicate which exploration marker each Goblin group is heading towards.

The Thrappled Lemmings packed up their gear and made their way to the old ruins, where they quickly descended through the crypts to the levels below. Fulrad scouted ahead of the group. The crypt was quiet  but for the faint, squeaky tones of Goblins. The occupants were clearly not on their guard. He waved the others forward humming to himself as he moved to take up a guard position.

"See the little Goblin.
See his little feet.
See his little nosey, wosey.
Isn't the Goblin sweet?"

Fulrad soon caught sight of a group of Goblins with a leader. He loosed a shot that went wide as the others moved quickly to catch up with him.

Fulrad and Onesipe shot but only stunned the Goblin leader, and then the melee began. It was a hard fight and the Goblins were tougher than expected, but eventually Wido's war spear pierced the breast of one of the Goblins and it bled out on the ground in front of him. He followed up by killing the Goblin leader and then the remaining Goblin in the group in very quick succession.

Goblins guarding a stash of treasure and about to be scragged

Sir Thiebault moved quickly forward to examine something glinting in the dark and quickly found himself facing a group of Goblin guards. Clearly this was a stash worth protecting. Sir Thiebault and Drogo charged and cut down the guards in seconds. Lysanthir took this opportunity to race forward and check the treasure which comprised fine light armour, a large quiver and a balanced staff. Not exactly great, but Fulrad could use the quiver and the rest could be sold.

More Goblins were now approaching so Sir Thiebault charged and cut one down. Lysanthir raced around them towards an interesting looking chamber but soon found himself facing and wounded by a Goblin. The others moved up to support their comrades.

Groups of Goblins converge on the Thrappled Lemmings' position. The cotton wool marks the noxious gas cloud that Drogo triggered

Lysanthir retreated to bandage his wounds and Drogo charged in to face the Goblin which put up a tough fight. The Lemmings could hear the chatter of even more Goblins approaching. It was about to get hairy! Sir Thiebault raced in and slew the Goblin Drogo was fighting. Drogo took up a position to face the oncoming Goblins that conveniently allowed him to check out the chamber Lysanthir had spotted. As he stepped closer, a stone clicked under his foot and suddenly the area was filled with noxious gas. He leapt back just in time, as Fulrad moved up and, in an unprecedented display of accuracy, put a shot straight through the eye of the closest Goblin, alerting its comrades to his presence.

The subsequent fight saw all of the remaining visible Goblins flee the fight. The Lemmings advanced further to explore and find the beautiful beer tokens they sought. Lysanthir and Wido split off from the others to explore a large chamber that one group of Goblins had emerged from. The others headed further into the tunnels. A lone Goblin challenged them, eager for revenge for its fellows. Unfortunately for the poor wee fellow, it was outmatched and outnumbered. It died there and then.

With the tunnels to themselves, the Thrappled Lemmings began to explore methodically, splitting up to cover more ground more quickly and gathering up their loot. As Drogo moved towards a promising looking crypt, he suddenly realised that it was guarded by a group of Goblins. The Goblins cackled as they ganged up on Drogo and quickly felled him. Unfortunately for them, Onesipe and Sir Thiebault had heard Drogo's cry and raced to the scene of the crime. Onesipe shot two of them in quick succession and Sir Thiebault slew the third. They checked their comrade-in-arms to see how he fared and were relieved to see that he was not dead.

Drogo has fallen!

There were no further routes deeper into this delve, so there was nothing left to do but take Drogo home to tend to his wounds, grab the treasure the Goblins were guarding and return to raise a horn of ale or three in their own honour. As they did so, a merchant approached them to ask if they would help guard his wagons. Haitabu was short of supplies and he was planning on heading there to profit from their need. The deal sounded sweet and the Lemmings were already planning on heading in that direction anyway, so it made sense to get paid for it.

Drogo was nearly the first fatality of the campaign! I used the Silvertree Leaf that they Lemmings found in the dungeon for a reroll that was also a Dead result, and then spent a Story Point for another reroll on the injuries table which resulted in Light Wounds instead. Phew, that was close!

I've been using these dungeon episodes to edge the dungeon tiles as I go along, trying to choose ones I have not finished, so that they will all eventually get done. We'll be returning to the wilderness next, I think, so I should aim to get more terrain made for that. I've started by making some rock pillars that looked like nothing so much as several wee jobbies on my painting table after the base coat. Sigh! Hopefully they will look better with a few shades and highlights applied. Either that or there will be Jurassic Park sized dragon poos on my gaming table.