Cody >> Kodar the drunk sailor bard (lvl 4)
Scott >> Gensher tiefling paladin (lvl 4)
Brian >> Yvelda orc monk diva (lvl 4)
Kevin >> Elmond human bard (lvl 4)
Daniel >> Nadar half-dragon paladin of deceit (lvl 4)
No encounters on the way to the caves and the group decided to go back to where they had left off, the goblin entrance and head towards the hobgoblin den. I had a surprise in for them though, since they had let the Redcap goblin chieftain leave on his own accord, I had it in mind they had contacted their bugbear buddies to set up trap to retake their part of the caves. Obviously the bugbears do not work for keep and the chieftain had given over several of his tribe to become slaves or meals for the bugbears.
I had set up the immediate entrance to the goblin caves with a burning oil trap and barricaded both sides of the cavern to hopefully trap even nosy adventurers between a crossfire of ranged attacks while actually on fire. And bingo! The group decided to go this exact route. The encounter wasn't much an issue and they finally killed off the goblin chieftain before he could retreat back to the hobgoblin lair in a last ditch effort, but resources were tapped and this would come into play before the end.
The group then made their way towards the hobgoblin lair via the connection in the goblin caves. The hobgoblin had not had a chance to resupply from the previous days encounter when the group had freed their prisoners, but they were expecting them. The group battled through a couple of encounters and they actually managed to take a one hobgoblin, Pookit as prisoner.
There was some pretty hilarious roleplay as the group questioned him in a good cop / bad cop manner, and it was decided that they would bind and gag him and take him along....as a mascot....The group barricaded themselves in a cleared room and took a short rest. This is where something fortuitous would occur thanks to the random encounter table. During the rest I hit twice on the table >> 1d4 gnomes and 1 carrion crawler. I decided to have the gnomes be a rival adventuring group and I placed the carrion crawler near the hobgoblin caves entrance to the ravine. Gnomes slew the crawler and proceeded into the caves in a different route than the group. The group decided not to investigate the commotion down the hall.
The group finally made their way to the lair of the hobgoblin warlord overseeing the clan in this cave. Impressed by their ability to make this way, I had him attempt to parlay with the group to help expand the hobgoblin interests in the Caves of Chaos, notably in killing the bugbears. In the midst of this, Yvelda lost patience and attacked the warlord and off we went with the final encounter of the night....
So, I had not previously run hobgoblins in 5E previously, but they have a bonkers ability which can make for a pretty deadly encounter, Martial Prowess: once per turn can choose to deal additional damage when a melee attack hits an opponent with 5' range of an ally, dealing an additional 2d6 damage. Damn, that some brutal stuff. On top of this, the hobgoblin warlord has 3 attacks per round, along with the same martial prowess ability, on top of that the hobgoblin had planned for just this situation in case the party did not take the deal and placed two additional guards outside of the room.
This encounter was a bloodbath, for both sides really. Their rolls were really poor which did not help and the warlord slowly beat them down focusing on the softer player characters who for some reason were in range of him despite being restrained by one of the paladin's abilities. When things looked their darkest, Cody's character Kodar made a break for it while Gensher the surviving up right member slew 1 of the 2 remaining hobgoblins before being dropped as well.
I mentioned that Kodar saw the gnome party as he was fleeing from the caves. He decided to plea with them to help and they agreed for a share of the loot. We ended the session with people in the midst of their death saving throws, but I noted that the other group arrived in time to stabilize those who were down...next session will reveal just how "good" this gnomish group may or may not be, but this was essentially a TPK and the first one I'd DM'd in 5E.
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