Session 15 -- The Dance of Death

The party decided that the best way to assault the Bloodfang Tribe fortification is was to send in Vedica, invisible, to climb the walls and shoot arrows tipped with tarantella venom into the hobgoblins, causing the cursed dancing to spread and (theoretically) making them easier to fight once they dropped from exhaustion.

The plan worked well, right up until they saw Vedica materialize on the walls, shooting down into three separate areas. Failing her own saving throw, Vedica began to dance and then fell off the wall into the fortress below.

The party didn’t see that, however, as they didn’t want to risk seeing her dance, so they just waited for her to return, only realizing much later that she wasn’t coming back around the bend.

Once they figured out what happened, they knew they needed to go in to rescue her right away.

They began by attacking the hobgoblins they could see on the outside of the walls. This caused the alarm to be raised, and the fortress gates began to close. Ceangal unleashed a fireball into the doorway, decimating the wooden gates and all hobgoblins on the other side.

As the party, along with its Ironclaw hobgoblin allies, rushed the walls, a ballista atop the citadel tower took out several of the hobgoblins and wounded some of the party.

The party wanted to charge in, but there was a problem: if they saw any of the dancing hobgoblins, they would start to uncontrollably dance, too. Despite their best efforts to use blades and shields as mirrors, the party did catch sight of a hobgoblin cursed with the dance. All but Tiv started to dance as well, but Tiv was able to dispel magic to cure them.

After that, the party progressed slowly through the various enclosures along with their Ironclaw Tribe allies, and their Shadowfoot ally, Shac. At times, they had to fight with their eyes closed to avoid seeing dancing hobgoblins.  Ceangal cast wizard eye and used it to scout ahead, calling out what he saw.  The Ironclaw hobgoblin allies slaughtered Bloodfang hobgoblins wherever they found them unconscious from the dancing.

After a long and winding running battle, the party eventually reached the entrance to the citadel tower at the rear of the fortification. The wizard eye located Vedica, unconscious and badly beaten, upstairs.

The party rushed the ballista room and fought the hobgoblins up there. Shac managed to kill Lurg, the Bloodfang chieftain, claiming Gobrender, his magical axe.  While they were in the citadel, they also found an emissary from the Ironclaw tribe, and an argument ensued between the hobgoblins, making it clear that the Ironclaw had been playing both sides in the Bloodfang-Shadowfoot war.

In the end, Vedica was rescued, and the Bloodfang were neutralized.

Some in the party weren’t happy with the looks of the power imbalance now, but the majority felt they had achieved their objective, and the affairs of hobgoblins were not their problem.

Next stop (hopefully):  The Cave At The World’s End...