The Goblin King

...What they saw when they opened the door came as a small shock to them. Small because they knew that there were goblins waiting for them and one of them must be the king, but the layout of the room was strange and....as they looked around - they did not see the humans they were supposed to find.

Instead, they found two large barricades set up and what looked like a large hole in the center of the room. Standing behind the barricades were about 5 hobgoblins, 6 regular goblins and what looked like the Goblin king and another large goblin, which was (as Kasas pointed out) probably they goblin queen.

They did not look happy.

But Ropin, being as diplomatic as ever, did not shoot first and decided to talk to them. He mentioned that they were only looking for the humans that had come this way and he did not want to fight anymore. The goblin king looked at the humans hiding in the doorway and started to talk to them, which was remarkable.

However, he was upset that the adventurers had killed most of his front soldiers, who were trying to stop the kobolds and that we must be helping the kobolds. Ropin did not say anything at that point and the King continued to say that if they wanted to see those other humans - which were down with Belak - the goblins would agree to let them go down without fighting only if they returned to the kobolds, killed the kobold queen and returned with her head.

Ropin and the others actually started talking about their options and were about to make a decision when Relord mentioned that it was probably better to deal with things now - here - and to fight the goblins. Unfortunately, he said this in a loud voice and the king overheard.....

...so a fight broke out.

Basically, it was difficult to hit the goblins over the barricades that they had prepared so for awhile, the fight consisted of arrows and javelins shooting back and forth without much progress. Then the queen seemed to cast a spell and Relord, Ropin, Kasas and Erky all felt much weaker and vuneralble. What did she do to them!? They did not know, but it seemed from that point on they were easier to hit.

However, Kasas's eagle - Steropes - flew inside the room to discharge a spell at the king but failed. However, he did see the hole in the ground and told Kasas that it was very deep with vines growing up from below. Basically, if you fell in, you were in trouble.

After a few goblins were killed and Ropin and Relord were hit a few times with arrows, they decided to go into the room to finish them off. Ropin was first and he rushed into the room to then get cover behind the door. However, as he looked in the corner, there was another of those strange walking tree blights in a pot that he had to deal with.

At this point, the goblin king wanted to jump over the barricade himself to fight head on, but somehow he slipped and fell into the hole (making him look silly). However, he luckily caught onto one of the vines and tried to climb back up. The queen also rushed over to help him but then Relord, Kasas, and Masiry all tried to push her into the pit as well, and after a big push, finally they succeeded! Now, both the king and queen were dangling in the vines in the pit and were trying to climb up.

The rest of the goblins were taken care off quickly and it was pretty easy to shoot at the king and queen as they tried to climb up. It looked like they were starting to climb down when one of the vines snapped and the king fell into the darkness. And with a few well placed shots, the queen soon followed. However, they did not know if they were really dead or not and wanted to go check.

Ropin reminded them that perhaps they should rest now and regain their spells and health so that if they 'were' still alive, it would be easier to deal with them. So they decided to rest and watch the hole for anyone coming up.

Only a little bit into their rest, Masiry heard some sounds coming from the room they had entered before the throne room and went to go see. He saw the young and elderly goblins being lead away through the long corridor. He called the others to look and they went to confront them, but the goblins were scared and did not want to cause trouble and then Ropin decided not to kill them.

They then went back to rest, but before doing so, they also looked around the room to see what kind of treasure there was. They were not disappointed since most of the hobgoblins and goblins (that had not fallen into the hole) all carried money and they found a chest near the king's chair. Relord went to open it, but Ropin immediately stood back a few feet saying "Be......"

But it was too late. "...careful!"

As Relord opened the chest, 2 tiny darts hit him in the shoulders and while it did not hurt much, he knew immediately that he was poisoned with strong poison! He was about to heal himself when Erky, who had been looking over his shoulders, noticed two bottles in the chest as well and mentioned it to Relord. Relord grabbed one and opened the cork and smelled. It did not smell like a regular potion he was used to and started to logically think: the chest has poison, goblins are not smart and may forget, these bottles may contain anti-toxin or poison remover!

He was right and drank one quickly.

Then it was time to rest before they headed down into the hole!