Chapter 1: Blood and Lightning

Commander Ameliefor points at a small building off to the side. "That is where food is prepared, such as where meat is butchered and stored. The food is served inside of the tower, but I can have food brought to the guest building as eating in the tower would get you killed if that is what you are requesting."

The commander stands firm and looks directly at Hrafe. "This is all business. I take my job extremely seriously. I don't even eat with my own men. I find eating with someone of a lower rank causes those below to think of themselves as equals with you. You may use the facilities, but I will not be joining."

The commander returns to the tower with her second in command. Time passes as sundown comes. The group reforms and heads out as instructed. After about an hour along the path given, the party starts to see flashes in the distance. Based on the directions, the party is still about 15 minutes away from their destination. After a quick talk amongst the members, the party continues, still having a job to do.

When they arrive, they don't find a group of hobgolins and goblins, but the aftermath of a war zone. Stone arches that were likely part of an old ruin lay scattered as if recently forced apart in an explosion. Plants seem singed as if strike by some kind of energy. Corpses lay on the floor. The fight seemed rather one-sided, as there is no corpse beyond hobgoblins and goblins. The corpses have familiar features of withered limbs and skull tattooed faces.

A pea-sized ball of flame pops up from the
eye of a dragon painted on the floor that was partly hidden by a corpse and explodes into a fireball

You learn that the traps were triggered the way they were supposed to, using the command word

You examine the bodies. You are confident that they will not rise. It looks as of lightning struck them so hard that they could not rise the way the goblins before did. There do seem to be a few bodies that looked to be running away and almost made it to the tree line, and a few seem to have made it but were killed by heavy spears. You would need to roll some kind of knowledge check to discern who they would belong to.

Converging lines of force flicker for a moment as Makasi steps on a tile that failed to activate earlier (see attack below).

Once the energy settles, you get a good look at the spears and realize that they belong to lizardmen. This comes to you easily, but you can't recall why lizardmen, who normally only attack if people invade their territory, would attack these hobgoblins and goblins who are clearly not invading their territory.

You manage to confirm that there are no more traps to be set off in the battlefield....after one last one. You do notice that the traps you have been triggering would not have gone off if not armed by the command word you were given.

Looking around these seems to be a few things worth looking into.

There seem to be footprints of Varius sizes in the nearby mud, some surprisingly large.

You may try to find the hobgoblin leader's corpse for anything they may have.

You see signs of lizardmen involved in the attack. There may be evidence of why they were involved.

The force that cleaned up after the traps likely wasn't here to do this and this only, especially if they knew how to trigger the traps. There may be evidence as to where the attacking force went and what their goals were.