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== Tonight in the Windward Marches: In the Halls of the Orc King ==
There have been 3 major battles here in the recent past.  There are horrifying remains and bits scattered about and no amount of scrabbling about yields any viable lootz.

Just as Skipia thinks that this is a good room in which to make a final stand, Hydrazine opines that we should expect to find a hobgoblin somewhere in this cave complex, and Vellum hears portentous footsteps without.

A voice speaks: a hissing & clicking language that none of us know (Unseelie of some sort).  The hobgoblin, most like.  Once he realizes we are not who he was expecting, he speaks to us in Common.  He tells us he wants to come collect his brother's fingers.  Skipia Diplomacizes at him, telling him that there are hobgoblin bodies in here, and that if he wants to take his dead, he can.  He says if we let him pass in he will not strike first.

3 Orc warriors, enslaved by the cruel cold iron headbands approach, followed by 2 attenuated-looking goblin-types that are 6 feet tall and armed with horrible whips.  These lean fellas are hobgoblins.  We let these 5 into the room.

The brother hobgoblin, comes in and says Unseelie words over the body and cuts off the fingers.  He completes the ritual and stuff the bits in his pocket.

Vellum and Edric come to a silent agreement that these guys can't be allowed to live, and surprise strike!  The bro-ho-go cries "Treachery! Ah hahahaha" and flexes his whip.  He is soon howling in outrage as his ho-go buddy is laid low.  Corvus trips him and we dog-pile on him.  He succumbs quickly.

2 of us took actual damage that lasted through the end of the fight.  Skipia Exhorts Vellum and herself for healsies.

=== Lootz ===
One hobgoblin carries an astral diamond: 10,000 gp-worth

=== XP ===
* Previous XP Total: 54,687
** +100 XP for cookies
** (+3,960 / 5) for 3 enslaved orcs
** (+12,800 / 5) for 2 hobgoblin tortureres
* New XP Total: 58,139
**<ding> for Level 7!