Huh, 'hangy swingy' trap. Seraphine studies the spot indicated by their guide, trying to spot the trap so she will have an idea of what to look out for in the future.

Survival: 15

You notice a particularly well-hidden snare underneath the leaf litter. No step in. Step hurty.

Quote from God_of_Mischief_3579 >>

As it struggles to hobble onwards, it screams Bree-yark!

[[ Just read about "Bree-yark!" the other day. Apparently the word comes from an older module, Easter-egged in the MM. Interesting timing. :D ]]

Phait nods with an impressed look at Marcus' exquisite intimidation techniques. "A dozen goblin tracks." he muses aloud and turns to the goblin, "What does your kind's base look like?" Turning to the rest of the party, "Wouldn't do to fight them all at once if we can help it."

As Seraphine waits for the goblin’s answer to Phait's question, she glances at her companions. "We might need to split up and find a way to thin their numbers. Perhaps we can use their own traps against them." She tightens her grip on her sword. "Either way, we’ll need a plan. If Sildar’s in there, we can’t risk too much delay."

"I don't think splittin up is a good idea. From my knowledge of em, goblins breed quick so who knows how many if em we might find waitin to fill us full of arrows." Brungir says as he moves to step around the trap the goblin mentioned, having kept his crossbow trained on them the entire time. 

"But yer right. We need to find Sildar and find out what happened to Gundren. If anything happened to him then by Moradin's beard ye can bet me entire clan will be gathering to put an end to any goblins they can find from here to the far ends of the Sword Coast." 

Treela adds, "I require practice in combatting goblins, thus this situation is fortuitous. However, I concur that fragmenting our group would be disadvantageous. Our objective should be to devise a strategy to divide the goblin forces, thereby preventing an overwhelming confrontation."

Less dan two tens of me friends here. All the rest are in big castle in wood. Boss here is mean bugbear Klarg. He bully me for bad speaky. No hurty nobody though! Another 10 minutes past the snare, the intimidated goblin stops in his tracks, saying Big hole in 10 walky tings maybe? As he says that, he points at his feet. If you go hurty goblins, goblins hurty you!

Seraphine halts abruptly, her eyes immediately shifting to the ground where the goblin is pointing. "Big hole, huh?" Her expression hardens as she considers the goblin’s words. "We need to be extra careful from here on out. If they’ve rigged traps like this, they’ll be expecting us to charge in recklessly."

"Let’s take it slow. Ten goblins with traps could get messy real fast if we’re not careful. Treela, can you scout ahead a little, see if you spot anything from above?"

Treela replied "Certainly," as she took to the air. She looked at the path ahead, but even more so, she looked to either side of the path for hidden archers!

Perception 13

As Treela takes to the sky to investigate, Marcus slowly makes his way to the edge of the hole, and then around the edge to the other side. "He said two tens. That could get messy even without traps. Are we sure about this? Even just the four goblins on the trail got pretty messy." 

When Marcus finishes speaking, Seraphine nods, her voice thoughtful but cautious. "You’re right, Marcus. This could get ugly fast if we’re not careful."

She glances over at the goblin for a moment, an idea forming. "But Klarg doesn’t sound like he’s exactly loved by his people. If he’s bullying the goblins under him, maybe some of them wouldn’t mind seeing him gone. That could be our way in—convince them we’re not here for all of them, just Klarg."

"Divide et impera." muses Phait as Seraphine speaks. "Certainly a worthy idea to turn our adversaries' numerical advantage into our own strength." He pauses for a moment, "If that fails, perhaps we could gather some towards an ambush of our own too? Find a place where we can take the high ground and have someone draw them to us."

As Treela takes to the sky, she spots no goblins hidden in the brush, but, about a 2 minute walk ahead, she can see an intimidating cave entrance the appears to lead to the goblin's lair. A stream flows into the cave. No hurty none of my friends! They're all inside and sleeping now while we out! Defenceless!

In response to Seraphine's idea, he says Yeemik thinkin bout overthrowin. Maybe help?

"I'm not one for trusting goblins. Even if we do get them to help in dealin with this Klarg then they're just as soon to turn on us and we'll be outnumbered." Brungir says as he gives the captured goblin the stink eye the entire time he is speaking. He crosses his arms and lets out a sigh, looking in the direction of the cave.

"But since I don't got much to add to what has already been said it won't hurt to keep that plan in mind. If they're asleep like that one claims we could attempt to sneak past em and try to find Sildar without havin to deal with any fighting."

Seraphine listens carefully to Phait’s musings and Brungir’s concerns, her eyes flickering between the group and the captured goblin. She nods in agreement with Brungir’s wariness but sees the potential in turning the goblins against each other.

She glances at the cave entrance in the distance, considering the options. "Alright. Let’s find a good place for an ambush, just in case things go south. And if we can get inside quietly, we focus on finding Sildar first. Once he’s safe, we can try to get the goblins on our-- or Yeemik's side, to deal with Klarg and whatever’s left."

Treela comes back and tells the group that the cave in nearby (which I think was already assumed).

"I find the proposition of retrieving Sildar without engaging in further conflict with goblins to be quite appealing." 

Marcus frowns a bit. "I still don't think we should split up, which we would have to do to lead them into an ambush. It's one cave entrance, and one path, so there's not really anywhere to lead them anyway. We should just go in quietly, together, right now. If we find any goblins awake, we can either try to talk them into helping, or we can take care of them as quickly as possible. Theoretically it should quickly become apparent which of those plans is more worthwhile. The longer we sit here debating, the more likely it is that when we eventually act, we find Sildar's remains instead of Sildar."

Treela agrees, "I perceive that to be a commendable course of action."

Phait nods at Marcus' words, "Sildar is a good man." He grasps his staff and is ready to head on.