RP: Postgame 2010-04-09

After our Hobbgoblin Massacre

Game Master describes:

You strip the bodies and take a moment to cover them in some cursory concealment before continuing on and making camp later in the evening. You check in with   Naprid and report your encounter and progress, indicating that you should be able to make the canyon late tomorrow with a forced march.

"By then they will surely have noticed their scout party has not returned. Considering the circumstances, I don't think their suspicions will be immedately aroused. More likely, they will send out a second - probably more substantal - party to investigate the loss of the first. If they find the bodies killed and discarded so close to their canyon, they might begin to suspect something. Or if they encounter you, obviously. In either case, I suggest the same course of action. . . quick and efficent extermination.

Now, you do not have to take my advice, but I would not recommend approach the canyon until you take care of the likely second party. If you arrive before the scouts learn of you, then you would be at maximum advantage, but if they somehow caught wind of your presence - either with their own trackers, finding remains, or spotting you with or without engagement - the camp would be on full alert.

However, if you find the group and eliminate them, you have a window where you could be guaranteed maximum advantage, although it would mean your strike against the hobgoblins would have to be without the benefit of any rest and recuperation, as you would have to move Immediately, before suspicions are inevitably aroused by the loss of TWO scouting parties.

It is a much more dangerous and exacting course of action, but one which - if successful - allows you to dictate the engagement. Your other alternative - avoiding the outriders and moving on the canyon at full strength - has its own dangers. I expect with foresight and good planning, you should be able to eliminate the scouting party with minimal damage. It will have to be so, actually, because if you end up suffering too much at their hands, the mission against the canyon might as well be called off : they'll be on maximum alert and penetration will be impossible.

Remember, your mission is simply to affect the recall of the hobgoblin auxiliaries. I believe the best way to do this is not simply to ransack the town or engage in wholesale slaughter, but rather to neutralize whatever leadership structure is in place while the bulk of their forces are away. Hobgoblins are disciplined and organized, to be sure, but their command chains are far more fragile than those of goodly armies - rigidity, not flexibility, is the hobgoblins' strength - and a crippling attack on the leadership will leave the camp in disarray.

At the end of the affair, as long as you succeed, your methods were sound. After all, if you are successful, at worst, the auxiliaries will be out of the picture for several weeks, and much in lesser strength on their return. Or, if we're lucky, they abandon the Odessans entirely, compounding the misfortunes your team has been able to pile on them so far.

Party Discusses the Plans

 Germain: Well, I'm a little wary of how easy it will be to locate and ambush the follow-up scouting party, but I definitely agree that an all-out assault is the wrong way to go. Until we weaken their most trained military, I think attacking their cities will just get us slaughtered. I say we stick to the outskirts, maybe six hours out of town by foot, and use traps and ambushes to wear down any parties the send out after us.

 Al: Dude, finding and tracking a dozen or two hobgoblins shouldn't be much trouble, especially if they're not expecting to be tracked. And I'd be happy to chase down anyone who escapes from an ambush. Hobgoblins are tasty.

 Mose: Yeah, I look forward to ambushing unsuspecting hobgoblins before they can kill some other family like Bok's. Your mention of the outskirts and scaring the hobgoblins out of the Odessan army, made me think it might make sense to use some sort of big fire around the canyon to send the message far across the land. I know how disheartened I was to see Wydmoor aflame as we came back. If we set fire to the forest around them, seems it would probably also scare and worry the vile creatures remaining in the canyon. Not sure how to set fire to woods on that scale. (riding ahead of Al and talking back to him) Al, you're in the woods a lot, do you know an easy way to set a big fire to the forest? Maybe with your lightning? (realizing suddenly that Al might not like this boneheaded question) Umm, fire is natural, right?

 Al: ... (appalled pause) ... Uh, dude, you set fire to the forest without a good reason, I might just turn you over to the hobgoblins.

 Germain laughs heartily: That's a great idea Mose! Insensitive, but great! Still, I wouldn't do that to Al. Perhaps if we can round up enough dead wood a signal fire might serve the same purposes. That said, perhaps we shouldn't terrify the locals just yet--it might cause them to get desperate and root in and fight harder. Better to keep them as unaware as we can for now. But we should definitely keep in mind when and how to send a signal to the Odessan hobgoblins... perhaps we can even leverage it to make it easier to harrass them as they return.