Bone Hill Castle, Interior

The Troupe, investigating rumours of hobgoblins building an encampment, have made their way to Bone Hill Castle. After clearing the castle walls of hobgoblin warriors, they now make their way inside the castle to face what lies within.

10 Flamerule 1368

As soon as we enter the castle we are accosted by a hobgoblin archer.

A few bolts and arrows knock it down, but not before it hits me with one of its poisoned arrows.

I swallow an Elixir of Health and we continue along the hallway where we find hobgoblin that fled inside finishing a Potion of Healing.

We rush it again and it flees back into the courtyard.

Before we follow it out we check the corpse of the hobgoblin we killed. It was wearing a simple silver necklace.

We go back out to the courtyard and find the hobgoblin captain again. Seeing that we have closed the gate it turns to fight us again.

Xan weakens it with his Wand of Magic Missiles.

It drinks another Potion of Healing and fights its way through us, making its way back inside the castle.

Rose follows it through the door and impales it on her spear before it can escape again.

We search the corpse and find a couple of divine scrolls stuffed into a pouch on its belt. The first is a Scroll of Spike Stones.

The other summons a symbol of pain.

We have found a few of these scrolls among the tougher hobgoblins. They must be part of some standard equipment, and if they have a standard kit, they may be part of an army.

In this corridor there is a chest that Mur’Neth is able to open.

Inside we find 450 gold, 6 Antidotes, and an enchanted short sword.

None of us have use for the short sword, but the Antidotes will prove useful. The hobgoblins in this castle are making heavy use of poisonous arrows.

We continue along the corridors and find the central room, a dining room, full of hobgoblins. They rise from their seats and pick up their bows as soon as they see us.

Rose gets a kill as we take up positions around the dining hall. Xan prepares to put them to Sleep.

Viconia charges the hobgoblins and I get hit by another poisoned arrow.

An Elixir of Health keeps me alive. Viconia ends up looking like a pincushion with the amount of arrows that hit her. Fabio uses his Lute to confuse the hobgoblins.

Viconia drinks an Elixir and we start by killing the hobgoblins that are still a threat to us.

One of the hobgoblins takes aim at Xan. He can’t avoid the shot and is killed instantly.

We press on, killing more of the hobgoblins when an arrow sticks in my back. Reinforcements are flanking us!

I almost die but I save myself with another Elixir. We move out into the corridor to get the reinforcements.

Once they are killed we hunt down the last couple of hobgoblins in the dining room.

The hobgoblins have some basic equipment and a lot of gems and jewellery. Viconia’s helmet broke during the fight, so she replaces it with a hobgoblin’s helmet.

A few of them carry scrolls. A scroll of Grease that can cause enemies to stumble around. I copy this spell to my spellbook.

Another scroll contains a spell that can help resist the elements. Rose attempts to copy this one to her spell book, but ends up destroying the scroll instead.

There is also a scroll of Identify that we use on the boots we found in the fort outside the castle. They are boots of my kin, allowing the wearer greater agility. Mur’Neth likes them so he replaces his Boots of Stealth.

Mur’Neth has a high enough Move Silently skill that he doesn’t need the extra 40%. We can give the boots to someone else who would benefit later.

There is also a scroll of Mage Armor here. Fabio attempts to write the spell, but he fails and the scroll is lost.

Xan is dead. We need to return to a temple and raise him before it is too late. We hold off on our assault, and make our way back to Restenford once more.

11 Flamerule 1368

After a day’s travel we return to the Abbey of Phaulkon in Restenford. It costs us 600 gold for them to return Xan to us.

We return to Falco’s Tavern once again to rest and heal ourselves. In the morning I ask the Weave to tell us what the horn we found near the castle can be used for. It looks like it can summon a warrior from a realm known as Valhalla, though there appears to be some damage. Xan takes the horn for now.

We leave the inn and the town. Time for our third raid on the Castle.

On our way back to Bone Hill we are accosted by another party of female adventurers. For some reason they seem familiar. And dangerous.

I’ve had this encounter a couple of times already, but usually when the party is limping back to Restenford, which resulted in a party wipe.

Xan sighs.

Xan: What kind of land is this where your name alone can cause you to be slaughtered by brutes?

At least these particular ones do not look all that bright.

My under-qualified leader, why won’t you give this mob the sweet sounding name of Gavelenties Mordabintius Celebrantus?

Aegon: Lighten up, girl. We’re not going to tell you our name, so why don’t you and your little amazons wander back to wherever you came from?

Lamalha: You insolent pigs! You know not who you speak to. Your arrogance will cost you your lives.

Xan raises one of his wands and throws out a Fireball. They start to burn, filling the air with the smell of leather and flesh. Unfortunately Rose is also caught in the flames.

I follow up with some fire of my own.

Fabio uses his wand to launch some Magic Missiles at the would-be assassins.

The missiles hit and one of the assassins drops. We have lost track of one of the assassins, so Rose uses her Truth Perception to find them.

That is when Mur’Neth, Fabio, and Cat are Silenced. Thankfully the rest of us can still use our magic.

Rose draws her spear to engage the assassin trying to sneak behind us, and Fabio uses up his wand for some more Magic Missiles.

Xan follows suit with the assassin’s leader and two more drop dead. Only one assassin left now, Rose and Cat chasing her down.

Without the support of her allies, she falls to our weapons.

How? How are assassins still finding us here? We’re on a small island far away from the Sword Coast. Is there nowhere we can hide from them? I’ve been doubting we’re even still on Toril lately. If that’s the case, whoever has been hunting me down is more dangerous than we can know.

These assassins are well armed, so we take a look through their equipment. The first assassin wears some leather armor we can’t identify.

She also has some barbed darts that she failed to use during the fight.

They also carry an Oil of Fiery Burning which Mur’Neth adds to its collection.

As well as a Potion of Magic Dispelling, which the ooze also takes.

The assassin’s leader has heavy armour and a sword, as well as some Potions of Healing. She also has a couple of other potions, one for defense.

And the other potion is for offense.

She also carries a scroll with a fiery spell of her own.

The next assassin we search is wearing full plate mail, and has some bracers for defense. Rose replaces her bracers with these, as they offer more protection, and hands her old ones down to Xan.

A weird combination – the bracers don’t offer any extra protection over the plate mail.

She also has a sword which Fabio tells us is the Harrower. He says he prefers his Varscona so we store this sword in our Bag of Holding.

She also carries a staff that can easily shatter bones. We have no staff fighters in our troupe so we store this in the Bag as well.

She also has 3 Potions of Extra Healing. Being the one on point, Viconia keeps these on her.

The fourth and final assassin wears some enchanted studded leather armour, and has an extra set of armour in her pack.

She also carries a bow that is warm to the touch. Being an archer, Xan replaces his short bow with this one.

Unfortunately Xan’s THAC0 is still pretty low even with this bow, but he has infinite +1 arrows so he should still be able to pack a bit of a punch.

She also has some Arrows of Fire that Xan adds to his quiver.

Having taken everything of value from the would-be assassins, we continue on our way to Bone Hill, leaving their corpses to rot in the sun.

12 Flamerule 1368

It takes us almost a full day to get back to the castle. Wary of reinforcements we make our way back inside. It seems they haven’t had a chance to set up new guards since we left a couple of days ago.

Inside we quickly check the dining room is still clear, and start checking other rooms in the castle. We find a bedroom with a hobgoblin waiting for us.

Viconia and Cat lead the charge and we learn it has a friend.

One of the hobgoblins is near death after being hit by a few missiles, but it calls upon its god for some healing.

We keep the pressure on it until it is no longer confident enough to fight.

Cat and Viconia turn to the other hobgoblin and the rest of us keep pelting its frightened ally. The other is also able to call upon its deity for help.

The frightened hobgoblin flees the room, while Viconia stuns the other with her Stupefier.

Cat finishes it off while it is stunned and we turn to the other hobgoblin, now trying to hide in the dining room.

Fabio slings a bullet at it, smashing into its face and further into its skull.

We search the bodies and find scrolls of Spike Stones and Symbol, Pain amongst their possessions.

Hobgoblins are usually easy kills with characters this level, but here they are just about challenging enough to make you think a bit, while still feeling like weak opponents. This is the fun that mods can bring to the game.

We go into the bedroom to look around. We find some magical bullets and some scrolls on the table in here.

One of the scrolls has a spell that can remove curses.

Another creates protection from evil forces.

A priest scroll that can Cure Serious Wounds. These hobgoblins have access to divine magic so it makes sense to find these.

There are also two scrolls that can protect against the undead. These should help next time we come across a necromancer. I suspect, though I hope I am wrong, that a necromancer lies in wait for us within this castle.

We find some ammo in the other chests in this room. Including some magical bolts.

And some slightly less powerful bolts.

We also find some bolts we cannot identify.

There are also some more enchanted bullets.

We also find some enchanted darts.

We distribute the ammo amongst ourselves.

Searching the room further, we find two secret doors.

One of them leads outside the castle, so we decide to see what’s behind that one first. We find a storage area full of crates, sacks, and barrels.

Searching through the crates we find a Potion of Defense.

As well as an enchanted light crossbow.

We also find another suit of the leather armour we can’t identify. Among the sacks we find a couple of coins, six Potions of Extra Healing, and another Scroll of Melf’s Fiery Missiles. Xan tries to write the spell to his spellbook, but he fails and destroys the scroll.

There is another door here, but it is locked. Thankfully we have a slimy thief with us.

This room appears to be a wine cellar, and we don’t find anything useful in here. There is another door leading away from the room, but it turns out just to be a closet.

We return to the sleeping quarters and try the other secret door to find ourselves in an armoury.

Searching the weapons racks we find two enchanted bows, one a composite long bow.

The other a normal long bow. Xan is comfortable with his current bow so we put these in the Bag of Holding.

There are also some Arrows of Fire and enchanted bolts that we add to our quivers. Along the rack, Rose sees an enchanted heavy crossbow that she finds to fit well in her hands.

Along some of the other racks we find some enchanted bullets, an enchanted spear, an enchanted staff, as well as some new kind of bolts we also can’t identify.

There are two doors leading out of this room. One leads back to the hallway but it is locked. Even Mur’Neth can’t get through it.

The other is locked using a complex mechanism, possibly locked from the other side.

We notice there is another, hidden, door in this room. Going through it leads to another corridor, more secret doors, and finally some kind of forge. I wonder if the hobgoblins know about this room and if they are forging weapons for a coming battle.

Mur’Neth finds a chest here containing a silver necklace and some coins, as well as a necromantic scroll. I hope I am wrong, but the signs of necromancy are becoming harder to ignore. I copy the spell to my spellbook, though I am wary of using the magic of a necromancer.

Another secret door leading out of the forge leads us to a room full of animal statues.

We have no idea what this room is for, but among one of the statues we find nearly a thousand gold pieces and a magical ring with unknown properties.

We return to the corridor around the dining room only to find and kill another hobgoblin.

It has allies in the sleeping quarters next to it. Another small force of hobgoblins.

We decide our best option is to draw them out of the room. They follow us out, arrows flying toward me. Xan uses the Weave to send some of them to Sleep, while Fabio uses his Lute to confuse the rest.

I am hit, but another Elixir prevents my death. Viconia starts crushing the hobgoblins’ necks.

We force our way into the room where Fabio eats an arrow. More hobgoblins join the fight from the latrine next door

We kill the hobgoblins remaining in the sleeping quarters, and Fabio confuses the hobgoblins in the latrine with his Lute.

The fight doesn’t last very long after that.

Among the equipment carried by the hobgoblins we find the usual gems and jewellery, as well as a Scroll of Obscuring Mist that Rose adds to her spellbook.

There is also a Scroll of Find Familiar which I store in the scroll case, as well as Protection from Evil which I add to my spellbook.

We also find a scroll that can protect from non-magical weapons.

As well as a spell to break through magical protections.

Searching through the chests here we find some ammo and a few gems. In the latrine, however, we find a strange looking gemstone that was hidden away. We cannot identify it, but it’s rainbow colours means it might be worth a lot of coin.