conversations.from: system
conversations.value: ROLEPLAY_MODE: Develop the plot slowly, always stay in character. Describe all actions in full, elaborate, explicit, graphic, and vivid detail. Mention all relevant sensory perceptions. Keep the story immersive and engaging.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: SeekerInTheNight: (Players who have explored the Red Hand of Doom campaign may recognize some of these names. The pass is located along the northward road the leads past Rhest from Brindol and eventually heads northwest into Barsalis. When our F2F group ran the campaign there was an additional roadblock on either side of the lake, further northward, each of which held a compliment of Black Dragonspawn. The PCs never actually ran into them unfortunately. D=)
  
  Goblin Pass is a trade route between the fertile lowland fields and rich forests of Elsir's Vale and the larger population centers in the great nation-state of Barsalis that cuts between an extension of the Giantshield Mountains and Goblin Warzone One. The Warzones themselves (of which there are six) are massive stretches of wasteland where a method of war most insane is waged on a daily basis. Goblin Overlords, creatures capable of summoning up to a hundred or two of their fellows, constantly battle for land, resources, and just about anything else they can disagree about. As the goblins themselves are actually some manner of semi-permanent summon, issues that normally plague their kind (such as adventurers, and exploding) are quite ineffective at keeping their numbers down. Hundreds of thousands of these little creatures kill themselves and others each day, and have since times forgotten. Thankfully, they are relatively content to wage their wars far from other intelligent species and make few attempts at moving outside of their Warzones.
  
  The pass is essentially a crevice in the surrounding landscape that has been heavily fortified by high walls and powerful magic. It runs approximately five thousand feet from end to end and forty feet wide for the majority of that stretch. At each end of the pass are massive adamantium gates that lead, respectively, into the twin fortresses of FUBAR and SNAFU. The walls are mostly magically reinforced granite and rise about one hundred and fifty feet into the air, the last sixty of so extending above the lip of the chasm itself, and are a uniform thirty feet wide.
  
  Near the SNAFU end (which the map depicts) there are a few rocky outcroppings that emerge from the natural walls of the crevice, the defensive walls have been built around these formations, which seem to be part of a different rock strata that is resistant to magic. There is a pillar of (about twenty feet tall, 45x45) in the center of the pass at the bottom of the depicted area with some ruins that offer heavy cover for medium sized creatures (full concealment for small and smaller, light for large, etc). These ruins were the aborted first attempt at an internal watch tower, replaced by two fifty foot towers that flank the gate to SNAFU which the Overlord has forced friendly forces to abandon. These are the two 25x25 blue patterned areas on either side of the long thin blue area that represents the gate. The lighter patterned areas at the base of the  outcroppings depicted on the map are essentially trenches, barricades, and other fortifications that the goblins have put up in their time occupying the pass.
  
  All of the defensive emplacements are pointed outwards, and have kept the goblins (and other monsters) out since the pass was carved out of the edge of Warzone One almost a century ago. There have been successful breaches, mostly from the occasional dragon or otherwise airborn creature that decides to take issue with the fortification, but these have been relatively short lived and easily taken care of by the defenders. No Goblin, Overlord or otherwise, has ever entered the pass.
  
  All these factors and more are what make the creature you have been asked to kill so worrying. It is well known that the Overlords can Teleport at least once per day, but none should have the opportunity to have become familiar enough with the pass to gain enterance. Similarly, none of the built in defenses can be aimed into the pass itself, and the defenders have been unable to stop this particular Overlord's warband from hunkering down at the far end of the pass and digging in. The local Wizard took an exploding goblin to the face about three days ago, and doesn't look like he'll be recovering any time soon.
  
  You start the encounter after the gates to FUBAR creak shut  behind you, effectively closing you and the beasties in. The main goblin camp still more than 4500 feet away, and you haven't been spotted yet. Rounds will start when I call for initiative or someone makes a surprise attack. If the party goes undetected and choses to make a surprise round, they may decide their initiative rolls in descending order from 20. The goblins are gathered in a camp built around a crude hut that has been erected near the gate to SNAFU. The Overlord is not in sight.
  
  Taking 10 for spot at 2000 feet will see the goblin camp, 1000 feet will notice the fairly large but ramshackle building and some of the trench work.
  
  I will need  SPOT  checks for inside 1000 feet (I'm not going to bother with distance rules for this one, tbt), as well as anything else you may want to roll. Please inform me as to how you approach this situation before "placing yourself" on the map.
  
  (My apologies, the map didn't come out so hot so it is occupying a spoiler. You will not need to count squares or the like, the map is solely for visualization purposes of the immediate battlefield. "I charge 60 feet and slash a goblin." or "I throw the fireball into the middle of the group." are enough to tell me what you're doing. As is "I dimension door into the open area behind the outcropping on the left.")
  
   
   Spoiler 
  
  Thisisapagestretchingline,donotbealarmed.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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   [/overline]
   
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Frosty: Zook looks around, and assesses the situation.  He also tries to recall everything he could about goblins, esepcially about anything he may ahve heard about these special, explody goplins.
  
  spot -  (1d20+7)[ 11 ] 
  listen -  (1d20+16)[ 22 ] 
  Knowledge (local) for goblin lore -  (1d20+16)[ 29 ] 
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: kme: As they were traveling to this place Draziw tried to remember everything he knew that could be related to these strange goblins. (He will wait 5 minutes between each check so that he could apply the collector of stories skill trick. If those checks count as identifying monsters add +5 to the total roll.)
    knowledge nature  - (1d20+20)[ 27 ] 
    knowledge the planes  - (1d20+20)[ 29 ] 
    knowledge arcana  - (1d20+20)[ 24 ] 
    knowledge religion  - (1d20+20)[ 22 ] 
  some questions: 
   Spoiler 
  Do we have to discuss and plan our tactical options IC
  or can we just do it OOC, also in what thread?
  The red area on the map, i assume its the goblin camp?
  What about our prepared spells, can we change them? (assuming we did it before, not by resting now)
   
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Kumori: Spot   (1d20+9)[ 23 ] 
   Listen   (1d20+2)[ 16 ] 
  
  With the only exit having closed behind him, Arden tests his grip on his sword and scans the nearby area before adjusting his gaze to the still distant threat.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Doc Roc: I will fire up my SPELLZ when I know the results of the rest of the party's tests.