NPC Generator Update v128

 

NPC Generator Update v128

 

 

V128

Added new races - Minotaur and Goblins
Made the melee weapons more sensible
Added racial favoured weapons
Small / Large size attack mods  

To use the Generator go here:

http://www.roztov.epizy.com/dd/NPCDD.html

 

 

 

(G460 14/08/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) LR42

[More on the big pickle I had got myself into on Yacg'harr Island.]

DAY 537 (22nd Eleasis) (August) cont ...

I must say Yacg'harr Island is an odd sort of place - well the small town that we've been calling 'Pirate Town' is anyway. I want to find out who these people are - so that we know how to deal with them, but so far I can't pin them down to a generalisation.

There are 'retired' pirates here, there are thieves, murderers and the scum of the sea waves, but there are also farmers, tradesmen, sail makers, chandlers - as reasonable  people as you would hope to find in any decent port.

It's almost as if some sort of capricious drunken god has thrown them all together for his  (or her) own amusement. How did the island get like this? Did it start with settlers who then started attending to pirate ships out of fear or avarice? Or did it start as a pirate port  that slowly go more 'gentrified' as commoners came to cater to the needs of the pirates?

Who knows? Certainly not the people that live here, or at least no one will tell me. It's hard to say, if this is the work of a 'capricious drunken god' or just a strange set of circumstance that led to such an odd mix of people living together.

From what I remember of Chult, ports such as Renkrue might trade with a pirate out of fear or ignorance, but on the whole the inhabitants were good, honest people. In short Renkrue was a port. So what is Yacg'harr Island? Is it a pirate port (as I was told) or is it a regular port? But with a name like 'Yar-harr' Island and the reputation it has it can hardly be the later. But if it is the former it does not fully fit the bill.

Somewhere in between then, and I will have to leave it at that. Suffice to say that of the dozen or so corpses we saw littering the street where the skulls had beencausing chaos, some were scum of the sea, and some were honest folk who had just been trying to defend their homes.

We were all in disguise when we got there, except Dak who wanted, at all times, for everyone to know who he was and dam the consequences. The youthful exuberance of a fellow who had, as yet, not built up a back catalogue of powerful enemies. In my experience, enemies came not for you, but for your friends and family, so it was best to keep as hidden as possible.

So, back on the street by the captain's house we were attacked by another one of those annoying skills. Sylvia took it out straight away. A fireball hit us from somewhere. This was the third time that night I had been fireballed and it was getting incredibly tiresome. I'd have to shave my beard in the morning as there would only be patches of it left, but thank Silvanus for my dragon-hide armour.

I started summoning wave after wave of hippogriffs that then flew over and aided Dak who had found the second one and was attacking it. Jiggles had found the third one - it was back inside the captain's house. I remained outside, directing the hippogriffs I had summoned. Sylvia went in and located it in the kitchen where she eventually destroyed it with a Turn Undead.

Outside the last of the skulls still on the go got a lucky shot on Irritator that nearly knocked him flat, but we got the blighter in the end, between Dak, Irritator and half a dozen hippogriffs.

With that all over then, we stuffed the skull dust back into the captain's box, then went to attend to the wounded and the dead.
Myself and Sylvia posing as 'Clerics of Ilmater' healed those that still lived and arranged  the dead into two (for want of a better word) piles - those that were scum that no-one  would miss and those that were decent people that were deserving of a resurrection.

In total we healed 5 injured people, left 8 dead, and planned to resurrect 7.

While we were doing that, I was approached by a man who said;
'Thanks for helping out. You are one of the folks from up at the barrow, aye?'
He was jumping to (in this case correct) conclusions I thought, so I said;
'No, we are Clerics of Ilmater.'
'Oh,' he insisted. 'But...! How did you get here then? You must be one of that lot!'
'No,' I growled in an intimidating manner. 'We teleported in yesterday. We are Clerics  of Ilmater.'
Who knows what he thought of that, but he ran off to tell people what I had told him.

Perhaps it would have been good to get some good will from the people of the town,  but at what cost? Anything that alerted my enemies to my location would endanger  my family. We had to be careful. Better not to boost my ego at the expense of putting people at risk. The secrets I held of Midpoint Island were huge, the more hidden my identity the better.

After the arrangements were made in town, with the innkeeper, we teleported back to the Barrow with the box. Irritator told me that the box had 'dampening magic' on it that stopped the skulls from regenerating. That would do for now.

We spend hours back at the Barrow making plans. Sylvia will continue to pose as a Cleric of Ilmater over the next couple of days until the resurrections are done. The 35,000 gold it will cost will come out of my share as Dak is too much in love with his wealth.

I didn't ask him for any gold of course, I was well aware he would not contribute, but unbidden I was treated to a long oration on his thoughts on how male and female half-orcs interacted with each other and the complications around calling half-orcs "half-orcs" around humans and calling them "half-humans" around orcs and how it got even more complicated with half-orcs who either leaned one way or the other and how it was so easy to annoy and even provoke violence by using the wrong noun to
describe yourself.

It was interesting, but went on for some time.
What an odd fellow he is.

(G459 07/08/2021 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), KT, AD) HOM2

 (G459 07/08/2021 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), KT, AD) HOM2

[We return now to Hommlet, and the adventures of Griffolk Ethyn the Dragon-Shaman, Sparkledingle the Gnome Wizard, Fangorino the Barbarian and their reluctant cleric Beaver Boggins.]

DAY 1 (Summer 1377DR) cont...

The brave adventurers interviewed their four prisoners. They had:

Danny - a middle-aged man with many more tattoos than teeth.
Benny - a young half-orc that smelled of goats
Eggy - a fat, short middle-aged man with the sweaty appearance of someone who spent too much time hanging out in privies
"Froggy not Frog" - a tall, green-skinned "human" who ate nothing but giant frog flesh, or so he said

Tempting as it was to either kill them or throw them to the giant lizard that lurked in one of the unexplored rooms, they decided to bring them back to Hommlet and hand them over to the Militia Captain - Elem Oats. Once this was done they went back to the tavern and found Mr Pin, who happily handed over the rest of their agreed payment of gold.

Their pockets jingling with their profits, they went to the local Merchant's shop to sell loot and buy more equipment and supplies from their newfound wealth. The shop was run by two men called Rannos Davl and Gremag.

Later in the afternoon they went to talk to Mr Pin again, about the lower levels of the Moathouse.
He said to them,
'Feel tree to explore the cellars, but I've had no word about it from my patron, so I'd not have any payment to give you. She just told me to arrange the removal of the bandits. Just watch out when you are down there, you'll definitely need a healer, but you'll never persuade Beaver to go with you.
Oh, and right at the back there is a certain thing... Oh, nevermind, I've said too much, forget I said anything. Well, just leave it alone is my advice.'

Still, he treated them to a slap up feast at the Welcome Wench and as much ale as they could drink. Suitably refreshed, they decided to go look for a healer to replace Beaver. They had heard of Jaroo, the local druid who had a grove nearby. The locals warned of his fiery temper though and they told them a favourite story of the time Cale the Dervish who had very unwisely poked his bear and had died as a result.

It was thought best that Sparkledingle do the talking, as he was by far the lest threatening of the three of them.
'Let's see,' grumbled the old man. 'You might try a gnome cleric called Allyoop, she lives in a small house a mile or so to the north. She's not looking for adventure as far as I know, but perhaps you being a gnome and all, you might be able to talk her into it. Then there is a tiefling druid name of Oriuphis Benvolio. She's a tough one, and looking for work so you'd have no trouble persuading her to join you.'

The others thought the druid more practical, but Sparkledingle seemed to be already half in love with this gnome wench he had never even seen before.
'Allyoop,' he crooned. 'Such a lovely name. We should definitely call on her first!'

He could not be dissuaded, so by around six in the evening they turned up at her house. The tiny cottage was guarded by two large dire wolves though, that started barking as they approached.

(As an interesting side note - wolves do not bark (or rather - generally choose not to),  as we all know, but I am led to understand that Allyoop had somehow found and tamed two  Copper Mountain Barking Wolves, famous for the huge bellows that they use to call to each  other across the valleys. Excellent guard-dogs if you are not overly concerned about burst eardrums.)

A little gnome lady came to the door.
'Down Groucho!' she yelled at one wolf.
'Down Harpo!' she yelled at the other.

Eventually the wolves ceased their noise and slumped back down onto their bellies. Sparkledingle stepped forward gingerly and with lovehearts in his eyes explained his request.

Initially she was not interested, but whatever was driving Sparkledingle seemed impossible for anyone to resist.
'There are undead in the Moathouse,' he insisted, although he had no idea. 'Is it not the kindest thing to lay them to rest? As you are a cleric after all.'
'Very well,' she said eventually. 'Meet me at the Welcome Wench tomorrow lunchtime.'

That evening they returned to the Inn. Sparkledingle went to his room and studied but the two young men did what all young adventurers with coin in their pocket do, ate, drank and made merry.

Late on in the evening a fine lady known as Baroness Partik arrived, with her servants,  and booked rooms. She seemed in a hurry and was rude to the innkeeper as she made  arrangements. Both the young men tried to engage with her, but she brushed them off.
Fangorino even made a drunken pass at her, but she side-stepped his advances then gave him a very loud piece of her mind.
The young barbarian beat a retreat back to his table.


DAY 2 (Summer 1377DR)

Allyoop met them for lunch as she had promised.

Now, gnomish courtship is all about playing practical jokes on each other. I have seen this from Urol Forol, when he was making his clumsy advances on Nobby.
Buckets of water balanced on doors, hand buzzers, boot polish on the ends of telescopes, all the classic japes.

Sparkledingle, still smitten with Allyoop pulled up a bench for her to sit at, then pulled it away at the last minute. She noticed though, and pretended to stumble, knocking a jug of water in the direction of Sparkledingle's head.
It was going to miss him, but he leapt right under it, making sure he got drenched. He laughed and gave her his most charming smile as he wiped the water from his eyes.

Seeing that the whole inn was now watching them though, they pulled themselves together, sat down and got to business. Once they had eaten, they left, heading towards the Moathouse.

At the last minute though, Griffolk, mysteriously declared;
'You all go ahead, I'm just going to the shop for some last minute supplies!'

With unbridled curiosity Sparkledingle followed him. All that the gnome saw though, was the young man hand over some coins and receive two mysterious packages. One the size of a jam jar, the other the size of a shoe box.

They arrived at the Moathouse after two hours walk and made their way to the cellar steps without incident. They made their way down the steps to a stone walled chamber with two doors to the west and a long corridor that turned to the south to their east.

It had been decided back at the tavern that Fangorino, the strongest of them, would be the one to go first.
'Pick a door!' said Sparkledingle gesturing at the two western doors.
The young barbarian, perhaps taking exception to receiving orders from someone that only came up to his knee, turned and headed east, to a door down the corridor he had just spotted.

'Don't split the par... eek!' squealed the gnome as Fangorino opened the door he had taken a liking to and a pile of zombies fell out on top of him.

There were more doors down the hall and they all opened as more zombies joined the crush in the corridor until there was a tidal wave of them.

Fangorino and Griffolk quickly formed a defensive line. Allyoop used her Turn Undead powers and turned the front rank of the zombies, causing confusion in their ranks. Sparkledingle cast Grease, causing many of the ungainly undead to fall over. Then Fangorino really got swinging. As the others fell back, he stood alone, wielding his axe left and right, a  whirlwind of destruction.

Luckily, many of the zombies were in poor shape, held together by brittle tendons, and they easily fell with just one blow. Others, fresher, gave the barbarian more of a challenge, but working together they eventually cleared the corridor of undead and the battle was won.

'I told you there was undead here!' squeaked Sparkledingle to his lady-love as she went around them, healing their wounds.
He just wondered how many more there would be!

(G458 31/07/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) LR41

(G458 31/07/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) LR41

[And now back to big pickle I was getting myself into on Yacg'harr Island.]


DAY 537 (22nd Eleasis) (August) cont ...

It had seemed such a straight-forward thing to do. Before starting to fortify the Barrow, and draw attention to ourselves, first check how many baddies there were on the island and deal with them. The last thing we needed was a horde of pirates turning up while we were in the middle of building walls around the place.

No big baddies had been much in evidence, but I had decided to check out the scholar, the inn keeper and the retired pirate captain. And now here I was blundering right into a huge mess that I will now record here before I put my head down for a few hours to recover my spells.

Anyway, you may remember I had just opened the chest in the 'magical' room of the pirate captain. Well, firstly I was hit by whirling poisoned blades, which wasn't much fun, then three flaming skulls flew out.

Now, I've battled these things before, they were defending a library in the Plane of Shadow, but in the heat of the moment I forgot everything that I had previously recorded or read about them.

As the skulls swept about the room I left and closed the door behind me. I heard voices so peaked back in, only to be attacked by the annoying things. I shut the door again, but they started blasting away at it, then something pretty serious happened and it exploded from its hinges.

I unlocked the front door, but when I saw the pirate captain come into the hall and shout, 'Who are you?!' I turned (note that I was in the disguise of a sort of ninja type person) and hissed 'You know who I am!' hoping this would confuse him.
'What have you done, you half-wit!' he yelled.
'I opened the chest in that room,' I replied honestly.
'You half-wit!'
He fumbled with his sword and scabbard then made to come at me.
I couldn't be bothered with any more of this carry on, so I left the house.
'Come back and help tidy up your mess!' he yelled at me again.

That was pretty much what I planned to do, but I wasn't taking orders from a man who kept such dangerous undead beings in a populated area. Out of sight I teleported to where the others were and we all double-timed it to 'Skull House'.

So the clean-up crew were me, Jiggles, Sylvia, Dak and Irritator. The others (Lavinia, Molly and Rolanda) were guarding the Barrow.
Jiggles was the first to spot one and she shot an arrow at it. It responded with a fireball that hit some of us in a painful explosion of fire.
We staggered, but came on, with Dak rushing up to the skull and giving it a swipe with his two-handed falchion.

Sylvia then Turned Undead and the skull crumbled to dust. Dak muttered as he turned to look at her with a shrug. Another fireball then hit me and Irritator.
That was twice I had been fireballed! My new dragon armour was holding up well, but that was my eyebrows and most of my beard gone. It was just as well I had all my healing bit-and-bobs - nuts, belts and the like.

Jiggles shot off more arrows and Dak charged in once more. Irritator, as always, shot off volleys of Empowered Magic Missiles. This time Dak got the kill, sending the skull flying into pieces with a mighty sweep of his weapon.

The third skull was nowhere to be seen so we entered the house again.
'Who the hell are you?' screamed the captain when he saw the hulking form of Dak in the doorway. 'Get out of my house!'

I changed my disguise to that of an Adept of Silvanus and in this guise I entered to try and calm things down a bit. Dak really wanted to fight the pirate though, and he was now in the habit of provoking his pet snake (that I gave him, you may remember, when it was Polymorphed from being a goblin) to strike at people he was about to attack.

'Please, brothers!' I cried, so sadly that the captain faltered. Dak went to grapple the old fellow and I joined in. Together we wrestled him to the ground then bonked him on the head. Once he was out cold we tied him to a chair and left him there.

Meanwhile Sylvia and Irritator had found the other skull. We joined them as it was being cornered and dealt with. Once it too was rendered to dust we decided what to do next.

After some discussion we all teleported back to the Barrow and threw the old captain into one of the side chambers for safe keeping.

It looked like it was all over, but then Rolanda, who was on watch came and told me;
'Err, boss, sounds like trouble in town. Lots of screams and explosions!'

We rushed down to see what was going on. Those blasted skulls were back! I then remembered that when we had destroyed skulls like these in the Plane of Shadow that they had regenerated after a short while.

'Gods dam them!' I cursed and rushed back to the Barrow, while the others continued into town.
I roused the captain and asked him, 'how do you destroy those skulls?'
'I dunno,' he snickered. 'That's why I keeps 'em in a box.'
'Old smart arse!' I snarled and shock my fist at him.

I then went to my books and flicking furiously found an entry in  "Rasirh's Fantastycle and Mythycle Beasts of Lore" that was what I was looking for.

I ran to catch up with the others, gasping 'Holy water!. It's Holy Water we need lads!'
 

(G457 26/06/2021 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), KT, AD) HOM1

 (G457 26/06/2021 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), KT, AD) HOM1


[I cannot resist collecting stories from the Village of Hommlet! So apologies dear reader, here is another one that I have heard recently, of a band of adventurers that fell in with 'Mr Pin' who you may remember was none other than Mathmoss, a former member of the crew of the Sea Wyvern and more recently an agent working for the mysterious Gertrude the White. I really must visit Hommlet one day, at it seems a very interesting place, or at least some interesting things have happened there.]

It is my understanding that this tale begins in the summer of 1377 DR. So about the time I was on Yacg'harr Island, and round about the same time Fenrir and his friends were down in the Underdark, so while I can not place an exact date to these events, for now let us start at;

DAY 1 (Summer 1377DR)

As so often is the way, the story starts in a tavern, namely the Inn of the Welcoming Wench in the village square of Hommlet.

The three fellows of this tale are:

Griffolk Ethyn - a human dragon shaman. A young red-headed man.
Corhim Sparkledingle - a gnome wizard. Very friendly and outgoing.
Fangornio - a human barbarian. A tall young man.

Mr Pin, I can only assume, had received an urgent request from his patron to hire some people to clear out the Moathouse, yet again, as it had just been taken over by a group of bandits.

Looking around the tavern he spotted Fangornio, a huge barbarian with a great-axe that he kept close to him.
'Buy you a drink, fellow traveller?' he asked.
Fangornio was looking for adventure, and together they talked to Corhim and Griffolk and convinced them to join in.
'You'll need a cleric though,' said Mr Pin. 'Get your stuff together and meet me outside in an hour. Then we'll see about getting you one.'

They did just that, and then all together they went to the small house of Beaver Baggons, a halfling cleric of Moradin. At first he did not want to join them, and even went as far as running out his back door! But they caught him and persuaded him to join in the enterprise.
'My nerves can't take it after last time, Mr Pin!' he quivered.
'Nonsense, it will be fine!' replied Mr Pin patting him on the shoulder.

Before they left he gave them 150 gold each, with a promise of more to come if they were successful and finally warned them, 'Don't go into the cellar!'

It is only a couple of hours of walk through the forest from Hommlet to get to the ruins of the Moathouse. Baggons, wearing his full-plate armour, did rather slow them down as he clanked along, tripping on roots and getting stuck in puddles.

They got there without incident though, and approached the fortified gates of the ruins. As they got closer six giant frogs of various colour leapt out of the surrounding pond water and attacked them.
This was the groups first test as a fighting unit, and while there was some confusion as to who had what job to do, in general it went well, with Fangornio taking on the biggest frogs, Sparkledingle using his magic from further back, while Griffolk took on the smaller frogs and Baggons applied his healing magic where it was needed.
Even so, Sparkledingle was badly bitten by a frog and with screams of terror managed to kill it with a blast of magic. Once Baggons had healed him, he regained his composure.

Once the frogs were defeated they entered the Moathouse and began to explore it. They went to the nearest tower and snuck inside. A giant spider dropped on them from the rafters above and attacked them. It was a brutal struggle to slay the creature and they were all badly mauled. Baggons handed out healing potions after they had killed it.

During the combat Sparkledingle kept to the back, at each moment wondering if he should cast a spell, but then deciding not to, in case there might be more powerful foes further in to the Moathouse. This is a dilemma faced by all young users of magic, but unlike most others he carried no melee weapon to defend himself with. Perhaps because he had never had to defend himself before! Even a knife on the belt or a wooden staff in the hand is something comforting to have, I have found, when you are walking into dangerous places.

The next chamber they came to, as they went around the ruins, contained bats that swirled around their heads in a multitudinous swarm until they left the room. The next chamber, at the end of a hallway contained a large snake that coiled up and attacked as soon as they entered.

Here Sparkledingle tried some of his magic, a Grease spell, which is commonly used to trip and slow people down. Snakes can't trip, but the snake was slowed down and this made it easier for Fangornio to chop it up with his axe.

After some discussion they decided to go back outside and walk around the Moathouse to get an idea of how large it was. When they returned to the gate though, the bandits were fully aware of their presence and eight fully armed men were waiting for them in the courtyard.

Fangornio charged at them, flying into a berserker rage, followed by Griffolk, while Sparkledingle and Baggons tentatively followed behind.

Initially they were met with a withering hail of crossbow bolts, but the ferocity of  Fangornio's attack forced them back up the steps into the main hall, where one by one the bandits were killed or so badly injured they could not fight.

Sparkledingle cast a Sleep spell which knocked some of the bandits off their feet for enough time for the others to push the assault and finally slay the bandit leader.

At the end of their first epic battle four bandits lay dead, including the leader, and four had been captured alive and after some searching of the area they found a rather interesting looking entrance to the cellars of the Moathouse...

(G456 19/06/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) WA88

 (G456 19/06/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) WA88

[Back in the Underdark, young Reinward is about to have an unexpected adventure. This account is translated from the original Undercommon.
Note that Shooh Oak is a Slyth druid. She is a native of the Underdark and her second name 'Oak' is rather like an Overworlder calling their daughter Ruby. Note that Slyths can turn into puddles of mud and move around as such, any time they like.]

DAY 503(18th Flamerule)(July)

Letter from Shooh Oak to her brother:

Dear Wynstone,

Peace be upon you.

I hope you and your family are well. I continue my work of finding hobgoblin mines and doing my best to prevent the destruction that they cause.

As you well know it is just gone 800 days since the wanton foolishness and aggression of the hobgoblins destroyed our home and cast the remains of our tribe to the four corners.

The 'summer' months as they call this time of the year in the Overworld often brings the surface dwellers down here into our Underdark, and this may account for the strange encounter that I recently had, which I will now relate to you.

Chauntea, blessed Earth Mother, had guided me to an area west of the troglodyte city of Pool. I was below it, in the ancient tunnels carved by the drow in times past, following behind a gang of hobgoblin tomb raiders.

They had been tunnelling upwards, close to where the Eight Ways Inn is located. I found their  mineshaft abandoned and dangerously unstable. The shaft led up to directly below a room of the in so I discombobulated and entered through a crack in the floor.

Here I found a young human sleeping. I roused him and warned that he should leave the room as floor  was unstable. He heeded my warning, but as he stepped onto the floor from the bed the floor collapsed and we fell down into the shaft.

It was a fall of a hundred feet, down into the small cave I had come from, and the hobgoblin mineworks fell down on top of us as the shaft collapsed in on itself. I slithered out of the rubble though, then pulled out the human and found that he yet lived. His name was Reinward.

Once he was revived and I had explained what had just happened he asked about getting back to the Inn.

'There is no way back up that way my friend,' I told him. 'Not after all the rock just came  down. But I know a way back to the Eight Ways. We'll need to go through the Hobgoblin City of Marek E'sith though.'

It was half a mile to Marek, that network of sewers that the Hobgoblins call a city. I took him to the entrance and told him;
'Follow this canal, it bends and turns, but it leads to a tunnel that will take us up to the Eight Ways. I have my own modes of travel, but if you keep to the shadows the hobgoblins will not cause you much trouble.'

This proved to be incorrect. I had hoped the young man would be able to skulk through the city without much incident, but I had forgotten that humans do not know the ways of the Underdark and attract danger like magnetite attracts rust monsters.

At all times I was ready to step in if need be, but as he bumbled around, at each moment I hesitated, never sure what chaos might be provoked next.

At least, as he walked up the tunnel to the first Hobgoblin gate house he had the sense to pull his hood up to hide his white skin. There is not much light in the city, but the water (if you can call it that) in the canal glows with phosphor and gives off a dull green illumination.

Initially things looked promising as young Reinward moved silently around the guardhouse and into the city. We had not reckoned on their being an ankheg fight in the street beyond though, which had drawn a big crowd as they baited the two beasts that were chained up at either side of the road.

This pretty well blocked Reinward's progress and I could see that he hesitated. How convenient it is to be able to turn into a fluid, I cannot begin to imagine what it must be like to be unable to do so. I am astounded that beings such as these humans ever make it into adulthood!

But perhaps they are blessed by the gods? The hobgoblin crowd were gambling, roaring, shouting, pushing and shoving. Reinward threw a gold coin into the crowd in front of him. A melee ensued and a female was trampled to death. Some of them turned to see who had thrown the coin, causing Reinward to jump abruptly through the doorway of a nearby house.

Inside the house he caused as much chaos as you would expect, moving from room to room surprising its occupants. When a hobgoblin wench went to grab him, he snarled at her with a mouthful of bear's teeth, which made her scream and flee.

I do not know if bear teeth is an affectation of his tribe, I never found out, but perhaps this is not so uncommon among his people? The ways of humans are of great mystery.
 
Reinward then took to the roofs, and he then noticed the chains holding the ankhegs were attached to giant cogs on the walls of the houses that some of the hobgoblins were using to adjust the chain. They were using a lever and latch to lengthen or shorten the chains  to manage the fight, and I presume, the safety of the spectators.

The young man swung down from the roof and freed the latch on the cog and the  chain ran free. Chaos ensued as the ankheg on the right hand side of the street suddenly found it had free reign. It promptly charged into the crowd, sending  hobgoblins fleeing in all directions.

Some had seen the human though, and pointed up at the roofs as he leapt away into the shadows. He jumped from one roof to another, then made a very ambitious leap for the nearby bridge. It was far too far though and he went straight into the river.

Finding that their were some large nasty fish in it, he swam under the bridge and pulled himself up under it. Here, luckily, he found a small door that led into a narrow tunnel that was being used as a home by a Kuo-toa. As you know these beings are evil, insane, and not given to unexpected guests. It attacked the human who easily killed it with a few thrusts of his sword.

The tunnel lead to the underside of another bridge further along the canal. From here he threw his grappling hook many times at the other side until he got it attached to something on the other side of the canal. Once over he kept to the bank, avoiding the road that ran along the side water. He lost his footing though and fell in. An old, half-blind hobgoblin helped him back out again.

Now back on the street, he was about halfway across the city, he kept to the shadows of the buildings and crept onwards. Moving from alley to alley, he made slow, but careful progress.

Between the houses he was accosted by a young hobgoblin wench who was standing in her doorway.
'Here you!' she yelped. 'What are you doing?'
He muttered a reply and she replied. 'Keep yer voice down you idiot!'
She ushered him inside.

Sensing that she was open to bribery he offered her a handful of gold.
'Very nice,' she said, 'but your Overworld money isn't worth much here.
Got any food?'
He admitted he did not.
'Well, I like that,' she said pointing at his potion belt. 'Real leather is it?'
'Yes,' said Reinward with a sigh as he unstrapped it.
'Ooh lovely!' she said gleefully as she put it on.
Like many Underdark races, hobgoblins of this region treasure Overworld things  such as wood, leather, bread, cheese and the like. Things from the Overworld.

Reinward moved on, until he got to the final guardhouse, at the other end of the city. This was much more heavily guarded than the other one though, with well armed hobgoblins at the door and on the battlements.

The young human was in the possession of some powerful, but unpredictable magical effects. I think he had recently peed on the grave outside the Eight Ways Inn.
Not something I would recommend as I understand there is a small, but significant, chance doing so will eat your soul, but that is by the by.

He pointed a finger at a nearby giant mushroom and while light sparked in his hand, not much else happened. This was enough to draw the attention of the guards and several of them came over to see what he was about.

Needless to say it quickly turned violent. The young man was useful with his sword and held them off smartly, but when a hobgoblin wizard came out of the gatehouse and started shooting him with Magic Missiles things started to look bad.

I was thinking of stepping in to help, but then Reinward used another of his magic fingers and pointed it at the wizard. I felt a wave of death course though my body and the wizard fell, instantly dead, along with all the hobgoblin guards that had been standing around him.

All the other hobgoblins fled, in fear of the dreadful necromancy wielded by the young man and he walked through the gate with no further molestation.

I recombobulated and met him in the tunnels outside the city, and as promised led him up from here through some ancient drow corridors that eventually lead up to near the Eight Ways Inn.

Such a strange encounter, brother! But all in all, a good one, as the destruction that was reigned down on the hobgoblins is bound to bamboozle them for a while, and who knows? Perhaps it will mean that one less Slyth tribe is decimated.