039 - Room: Goblin Riddles

Region Map 34x50Region Map 34x50 (no grid)Region Key (w/Elevations)

VTT tokens

About ten minutes walk past the mushrooms, the party smells smoke, then sees a campfire up ahead through the gaps in a wooden barricade that has been erected across the corridor.

As the party grows close, they will see that three goblin guards man the defenses, long spears at the ready. Beyond this menace, they can see that just a little ways past the barricade, the corridor itself comes to an abrupt end at a wall of rock.

The three goblins recognize that the party overmatches them, and are at something of a loss, because they have received difficult orders involving the party. If the party triggered the shrieking mushroom (Entry 038), then about five minutes ago their commander ordered them to stall the party here until reinforcements can arrive. If the party did not, then the commander issues that order mere seconds after the party’s approach is noticed, and scampers up some collapsed masonry to the breach in the corridor wall that grants entrance to the goblin caves.

Encounter

The goblin guards’ names are Frit, Yekkik, and Vez, yearmates from the same goblin rearing pit. Frit is a warrior, and Yekkik is an archer, and Vez, a female, is an apprentice sorcerer with a smattering of cantrips to her name.

If the goblins have an opportunity to set the tone of engagement, Frit, the fastest on his mental feet, (and best at the common tongue) improvises and pulls from a story he once heard and sort of remembers in an attempt to follow his orders and stall the party. He says “We are the goblin guards three! One of us speaks only truth, and and one of us tells only lies.” He then pauses, then hastily adds “One of us speaks only half truths! If you wish to pass this gate, you must ask questions three, of us!!”

To the extent that this is a riddle at all, it is one that Frit is improvising on the fly, he has no answer in mind, and did not consult in advance with Yekkik and Vez to prepare them for the encounter. Yekkik’s command of common is not particularly good, but if a party member speaks goblin and makes an easy perception check, they can hear him ask Frit “which one am I?”.

If the party members ask a question of one of the three, Frit will try and take on the role of half-truth, while both Yekkik and Vez will self-assign answering with lies. Vez’s answers will relate to the question asked, but Yekkik, bad at common and not really understanding the game, will answer all questions with the phrase in common “I have fish”, which to his mind is a perfectly serviceable untruth.

If the party asks questions of the group, instead of individually, roll a d3, and that many goblins answer simultaneously, speaking over each other if more than one.

At some point, Frit will realize that the riddle he’s mangling is supposed to involve two doors, and he will attempt to substitute two bottles from his bag, saying that drinking one means certain death, and that drinking the other will get them past the barricade, but even as he is saying this aloud, he will realize A) even if true, there’s not enough potions for the party, and B) the mechanism by which drinking the second potion would bypass the barricade is extremely unclear.

Regardless of how the party handles this, after a little time (three minutes if they activated the shrieker, closer to five minutes if they didn’t) the commander returns with 5 more goblin warriors, at which point he will order the attack if combat has not yet started. If more than half of the goblins are killed, the rest will try to run away through the breach. If the party runs, the goblins will jeer, but not pursue.

The barricades are heavy only by goblin standards, a human-sized adventurer can grab and drag one out of position using a single turn.

Findings

Easy perception check - The Nexus corridor does in fact end in stone here, but closer examination reveals that it as if the earth has twisted, broken and shifted along a long fault line crossing the way. By leaning against the wall and looking along the gap in the stone, one can see that the Nexus corridor continues, about 40 feet to the right. The crack is probably too thin to be navigable, at its narrow points, it is often less than five inches in width. Other openings are also visible, suggesting that some sort of cave network has also been offset by the fault line.

Medium perception check - From both the breach in the wall, and the crack of the shear line, the party can hear a variety of goblin voices in the distance, and fire-colored light can be seen.

Rewards

The goblins have nothing of particular value, but during the interactions, it is possible that the party will learn quite a few things.

• The Breach leads to goblin warrens where the “goblin king” dwells
• The warrens recently experienced a sizable earthquake.
• That earthquake killed many, disrupted the layout of the warrens, and cut off the warrens from the rest of the goblin kingdom.
• Previous to that event, the goblins had never seen the Nexus corridors, and were not aware they were in proximity to them.
• The warrens now connect to the Nexus corridor in multiple places.
• In one of those places, there is a human settlement of some kind that they have been raiding.