Ardana waits patiently, alert to her surroundings, as Ilwythe engages the goblins.

Quote from Tordon38 >>

 

Ardana waits patiently, alert to her surroundings, as Ilwythe engages the goblins.

Ardana on the one hand is aware that goblins are generally cowardly creatures and, singularly, not excessively dangerous, but by examining the surroundings he also understands that their environment on the plateau is definitely in their favor...

If it came to physical confrontation, from above, if they were equipped (as they often are) with ranged weapons, they could attack from top to bottom, leaning out only the bare minimum; while you, from below, perhaps only with a Longbow would be able (barely) to threaten them and hitting them would certainly be difficult. And climbing up to the plateau to engage them in melee would take you time - time during which they could undoubtedly target you.

The paladin actually finds herself hoping that the interaction doesn't escalate into violence.

Ardana:  "If it comes to violence, a fighting retreat I think is our strongest option"

Walking slightly ahead of Ilwythe, Engelhart stops immediately once she knows they're being watched. She raises her empty hands into the sky and adopts as much of a non-threatening stance as she can. "We aren't here to fight!" she yells. "We fear the power of Rukuz the Merciless and ... their tribe," she lies, her mind weighing different avenues of diplomacy and what she's learned about goblins. "We have only come to ask a question. We are looking for a marble ... a white arch. If you can tell us where it is, we will leave and never bother you again." Her eyes shift constantly, looking for any movement that might indicate danger.

If anything flies at them, she'll jump out of the way (dodge).

You hear a lot of excited talk in goblin language, even more heated near the end, as the creatures finally switch back to Common to reply:

"Woman smart, very smart! She fear us, so she tries to trick us!"

"But no smart enough for us! We know that hills have no marble arches!"

"We no stupid goblins!"

"We greatest hill-experts ever!"

"We don't fall for your tricks!"

"You want to lure us down to see a marble arch, then no marble arch and your ftiends run for the kill!"

"Go away, smart woman! We smarter than you!"

"Nobody messes with the goblins of Rukuz the Merciless!"

Can I roll an insight check? 12

OOC: I assume that won't tell me much.

Engelhart talks out of the side of her mouth to Ilwythe, "I think this is a dead end. We probably should leave before their paranoia turns into violence."

If Ilwythe agrees, Engelhart will back away, her hands still raised, until she feels they're far enough away to turn and walk normally back to the group.

If Ilwythe wants to try something else, she's game to stay and let him try.

For Engelhart:

Tarysaa slapped her thigh as she faintly heard the exchange up ahead.  Turning to the other three, she told them what she had heard and hastened to pull out a bit of parchment and a charcoal stick.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uSe9Rtj8kdmf73R4GVh9tHhv39zsm_0X/view?usp=drive_link    <<< (( OOC: sorry, I haven't got 'paste an image' to work in this stupid forum))

"If we skit each hill like this (the orange lines), we can check the south side of several hills in short order.  That is, if there are no goblins or OTHER creatures hunting us in the lower hillsides and woods."

“Yes, we fear Rukuz very much. We seek only passage as we do not wish to stay”

He moves besides Tarysaa and whispers “I’ll stall then follow you all. I can buy you maybe 30 seconds.”

The series of excited voices that respond continues:

"Big ugly wants passage!"

"We don't want big ugly! We have chief Rukuz big and ugly enough already! Noo! Chief Rukuz, wait, sorry, what I meant... OUCH!"

"No passage through village! Village is ours!"

"Pass elsewhere, big ugly! Follow smart woman! Can't you see that smart woman did understand she is not smart enough to pass here? Be smart you too and follow her!"

In short, it seems that the goblins do not intend to allow you to go up to their village - not even just to pass through. But they don't seem too eager to get off the village either... so, at least for now, if you turn around but don't go up, you should get away without a fight.

Quote from Kol_Drake >>

Tarysaa slapped her thigh as she faintly heard the exchange up ahead.  Turning to the other three, she told them what she had heard and hastened to pull out a bit of parchment and a charcoal stick.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uSe9Rtj8kdmf73R4GVh9tHhv39zsm_0X/view?usp=drive_link    <<< (( OOC: sorry, I haven't got 'paste an image' to work in this stupid forum))

"If we skit each hill like this (the orange lines), we can check the south side of several hills in short order.  That is, if there are no goblins or OTHER creatures hunting us in the lower hillsides and woods."

To add an image to a post, it must be an image with a full url, an url to a file that has an image extension... I usually upload images to imgur (a site that allows you to do that), then i use the link to the uploaded image and it works.

This is the image you tried to post:

...and, by the way, if you decide to go that route, since you do not threaten goblin village, the goblins should leave you alone.

Do you want to go that way?

Now with two people to focus on, Tyrgram had better luck seeing what was unfolding.

'I don't know much about goblins,' he started, 'but I don't think we'll be invited into the village any time soon.' He kept his crossbow at the ready just in case. He addressed Tarysaa to his side. 'Not tangling with goblins has my vote.'

Ilwythe looks for the others.

”We might as well just go around. This will be more effort than it’s worth.”

Ardana:  "It doesn't seem like the goblins know anything.    They seem to stick to the hilltops, we can search the southern edges of the hills."

Abandoning the hope of having useful indications from the village of the goblin tribe of Rukuz the Merciless, you all begin to follow the path studied by Tarysaa, the eminent elven wizard of the University of Silverymoon.

However, while you are crossing the stretch of forest where I have marked the new position of the P...

...you come across a small group of goblins (there are 5 of them) emerging from the thick vegetation. Each side sees the other at virtually the same time - neither side is surprised.

Roll initiative!

(This doesn't mean you'll have to fight... I'll let you roll initiative to see who's the first to react - and therefore decide what to do. If whoever wins initiative decides, instead of attacking, to try to do something else e.g. running away, talking, just watching... it's all right - each one, when it's his turn, decides what their character does).

This is the detailed map of the zone of the encounter

In this detail maps, square dimension is 5'.
green =dense vegetation (movement costs double)
brown = tree (stops movement - it's solid, can't pass through it)
G1 - G5 =goblins
Ar = Ardana
Ty: =Tyrgram
Da = Daisy
Ta =Tarysaa
En =Engelhart
Il = Ilwythe

Ilwythe’s Initiative: 5

Tyrgram's initiative: 4 (campaign log)

Tarysaa's initiative: 8 (campaign log)

Sōlus utters an expletive in a foreign tongue as she whips around to see the cluster of goblins.  Yelling over her shoulder, she addresses the rest of the party, "Anybody feeling super diplomatic right now?"

 "It's not the ones you SEE that are a worry.  It is the handful you DO NOT see that you should be concerned about."

“They seem a bit murder-y right now!”

(Initiative: 19 in log)

     "Well, great!" Daisy snorts. "Let's hope this group is smart enough to just let us pass." The druid reaches into a pocket to find a handful of small rocks.