Recon mission

For Matt, who wasn't there, and for the record, this is what happened in on Thursday's session.

Zumm, the goblin monk, selected Skardash and Thurzar from Castle Granis's goblins and went to scout out Jalahand's village. They managed to bluff their way past the ogre guards and temporarily threw the whole village into chaos searching for a non-existant Silver Flame agent.

Zumm managed to sneak in to a guarded hut in which an ancient crone, apparently the object of some reverence among the village, was muttering in her sleep. She muttered something about the guardian having been killed and a great evil rising from below the earth, and "you must take them alive as she'll pay good money for them," before Zumm slit her throat.

In the chaos, Zumm also got in to Jalahand's throne room and found a kind of hangar cave where ten dire bats lived, along with a rack of ten exotic riding saddles. One of the bat-riders was there, and Zumm just managed to kill him before he could raise the alarm.  He also sabotaged the bat saddles.

Meanwhile, Skardash managed to sneak into Jalahand's prison and free a Silver Flame missionary who had been captured by one of Jalahand's tribute collection parties and whom Jalahand was planning to hold for ransom. The missionary, Merred Nastor, had entered Droaam after he had heard that some people from Breland had taken over a castle and were trying to civilize the goblins there.

When the death of the crone was discovered, Jalahand locked down the village and searched it for the culprit, but Zumm managed to escape detection in the village. Skardash and Thurzar were both outside the village, and headed back to Castle Granis with the missionary. Jalahand punished the ogres who had been guarding the crone's hut by freezing them to death. During the night, Zumm managed to escape and make his own way back to Castle Granis.

The party is allowing Merred Nastor to stay in Castle Granis and has ordered him to start training an apprentice healer. Meanwhile, the party is planning a campaign of geurrilla warfare against the villages under Jalahand's control.

According to what Zumm, Skardash and Thurzar saw, Jalahand's forces consist of:

• Jalahand, ogre mage
  
• At least two elite ogres: one with a greataxe similar to the one who tried to demand tribute (probably a fighter), and with a warhammer in the shape of a fist (probably a barbarian).
• About a dozen other ogres.
• Ten dire bats, and nine bat-riders (assuming there were ten before Zumm killed one).
• About 180 goblin warriors (200, minus the bat-riders and the 10 who are now at Castle Granis).
• One goblin who is able to brew potions (when you saw her she was brewing a potion of mage armour).

Exact numbers are unknown, since it is likely that some of the inhabitants were away from the village on tribute-collecting or trading missions.

The village itself is in a valley and built against a cliff.  A river emerges from the cliff and leaves the village through a gap in the wall, and Jalahand's throne room and the bat hangar are built into the cliff.  On top of the cliff is a small wooden watch-tower normally manned by three goblins, and connected to the village by a crude ogre-powered lift.