Need advice on a reaction of a certain hobgoblin warchief

[Balor01]

Hey guys,

I need an idea on how a certain hobgoblin warchief would react.

Up to a year ago, this tribe was at war with several other tribes (orc, ogre, goblin) in the Valley, up to a moment when Angel visited the warchiefs of these tribes. He united them, they agreed on peace and time of prosperity came for the tribes.

Then Evil cultists kidnapped angel. They hid him in an underground dungeon nearby the Valley and demanded for the warchiefs to start raiding human villages and get them slaves. Slaves were eventually sacrificed to Dark god and that would boost the Evil cults' power.

Now warchiefs dared not attack the Cultist stronghold in fear of Cultists killing the angel, but tribes attacked the villages and got many hundred humans to be sacrificed.

A while ago a band of powerful adventurers entered the Valley. Ogres, orcs and goblins ambushed them thrice, suffering great casualties every time. Tribes did that, because they expected for the adventurers to be killed swiftly, also, Evil cultists might kill the Angel if they got wind of tribes letting adventurers to live.

Adventurers however, are pretty much alive. They have little clue of what is actually happening in the valley, but they have slain about 200 orcs, goblins and ogres so far.

In our last session, they reached hogoblin tribe. Hobgoblin warchief, aware of the slaughter they did in other ambushes, still launched a limited attack on them (30 warriors), but only 2 survived.

Now, adventurers did try to communicate with the tribe. (Rogue generously offered them "to surrender").

I guess after adventurers have proven to be able to kill many dozens of enemies and tribes being unable to kill them, hobgoblin warchief might be willing to do something other then just send wave after wave of his underlings toward them.

What is for a warchief to do, /tg/, taken into account that Cultists still have the Angel captive and he is afraid they might kill him?

thanks

PS: Metagame-wise, angel permanently Charmed all the warchiefs.

[Rhynn]

What is for a warchief to do, /tg/, taken into account that Cultists still have the Angel captive and he is afraid they might kill him?

Cross-posted, huh?

This is the sort of thing I like to have tables for (reaction rolls and morale checks in old D&D and retroclones work perfectly), to generate results and surprise myself. However...

Seems to me that the obvious thing to do would be to negotiate with the adventurers and try to use them. They're obviously incredibly capable, yet a small group. It's clear that they might stand a chance at saving the angel from the cult. If the hobgoblin explains that this would result in a cessation of humanoid aggression - no more enslaving people to be sacrificed to dark deities - the adventurers probably have a pretty good motivation. The promise of loot from the cult should sway them the rest of the way.

[Balor01]

Actually ... got banned for 2 days due to "too graphic material" and had to come here. Puritans.

[Balor01]

If the hobgoblin explains that this would result in a cessation of humanoid aggression - no more enslaving people to be sacrificed to dark deities - the adventurers probably have a pretty good motivation. The promise of loot from the cult should sway them the rest of the way.

Woah what a good idea :D Chance for glory for our warchief! He could actually promise the end to the raids and keep his word, sincE Angel would be returned, be The-Hobgoblin-who-made-a-truce, offer adventurers loot ... awesome.

There is just one more question to answer. Warchief knows he is being watched by cult lackeys. How does he arrange a meeting so that Cultists do not suspect anything? That even his trie suspects nothing?

[Rhynn]

There is just one more question to answer. Warchief knows he is being watched by cult lackeys. How does he arrange a meeting so that Cultists do not suspect anything? That even his trie suspects nothing?

Depending on how good the watchers are, he could send a secret emissary or sneak out himself. Something that popped into my mind was faking capturing the adventurers, negotiating while they're "prisoners," and then they "break out" and escape (the warchief might be perfectly willing to let them actually kill their guards; sacrifices for the greater good and all that)... but the adventurers probably wouldn't go along with this, as they're very unlikely to trust a hobgoblin like that! If you can provide them a reason to actually trust him, or if the warchief can actually come up with a foolproof ruse to really capture them and then enact the rest of the plan, it could work.

[lytokk]

He could always sacrifice a warrior who was carrying some sort of message from one village to the other. "Don't let the adventurers get to the (cultists base), All of our power is there and if we lose that we wouldn't be able to fight back" I'd think typical adventurers would take the bait, and then the angel, once rescued, could explain the whole situation to them.

[madtinker]

He could try to sneak out, even if they are watching him. The watchers see the meeting, the PCs have a chance to defend the hobos or let them die. Or try to kill the watchers before they can report. If the cultists kill the angel they have nothing with which to persuade the tribes to continue providing slaves (unless the angel is already gone, in which case they are just bluffing). This could go any number of ways. If it were my campaign, the chief would try to sneak out and then we'd see what the consequences were.