Session 20: Hobgoblin hordes in the Temple Report

General Summary

Picking up where we last left them, our heroes are battling hobgoblins within the old temple. At least 10 or more of the cunning brutes had taken up positions behind pillars and a spell caster hobgoblin hid in the back casting lighting bolts and fireballs.   The heroes advanced slowing up the temple, hiding behind pillars, casting spells, firing ranged weapons. Displaying their tactical prowess, they only engaged in melee near the end where they corned the spell caster and the hobgoblin captain. After Beaufort De Montague enlarged Garadin with a spell, the now massive half-elf paladin launched deadly attacks. However, the captain was finally killed by one of Beafort's well-placed darts. The spell-caster was kept alive and questioned and he stated that the Hobgoblin troop had nothing to do with the Temple or the clerics of the Dark God; this was merely a convenient base of operations. Midnight Snow killed him after she had decided his usefulness had run its course. Do not cross a cat!   Checking out the ground level the party found stairs descending but choked with impassable rubble, some converted living quarters, a small band of goblin slaves, and one human slave, a carpenter named Tiadden, who was captured by the hobgoblins on the road to Zelbross. What was the apparently the spell-caster's room was covered in strange runes, written in blood, bundles of herbs, dead animals hanging from the ceiling on wires, melted candles and other arcana. A locked chest held 110 gp.   A vestry next to the main altar comprised the makeshift hobgoblin captain's quarters. The troop's loot was here, several bags of coins (845 cp, 698 sp, 572 gp), a heavy (200 lbs) bronze statue of an elf warrior, a suit of full plate mail (taken by Garadin), a bolt of cloth with gold embroidery, a locked chest with a obsidian inlaid golden flagon (200 gp), a silver platter (75 gp), and a painting of a green dragon (120 gp).   From other areas of the temple ground floor a picture of the evil rituals enacted here emerged: a central pool in an area with white pillars struck through with ugly read was fronted by an altar block of pinkish white marble, its surface covered by a humanoid depression, a hollow fit for a sacrificial victim, the central pool now used for a hobgoblin latrine; a bronze and copper high alter at the far end of the temple,before a throne, and worked into a dish with bits of blackened bone and a chain from the ceiling dangling over it; the throne itself, of purple basalt and covered in leering demon faces, raised on a dias of pinkish stone; above the throne were carved the words

Brings mortals low

But raises the Nameless One High

The interior of the temple was replete with scenes of varying horror. Demons crushing humanoid races underfoot, savage acts of torture, genocidal destruction of armies, and other quite nasty stuff.   Finally, a grand staircase leading down ended in smashed and broken bronze doors, like those at the temple entrance covered in indecipherable runes, continued into a collapsed corridor, now home to a giant ape. This creature chased the adventurers up to the ground floor but met his demise under a hail of sword blows.   The battle with the hobgoblins complete (for the moment), the heroes must decide what to do? Examine the temple outbuildings, return to Secomber, bypass Mooresedge? What news will the bring back and where will they turn next?

Rewards Granted

Hobgoblin spell caster: 1100 XP
Hobgoblin captain: 700 XP
10 x hobgoblins: 1000 xp
Giant ape: 450
Adventure advancement 4000 xp

1,000 xp per PC