Our attempts to enter the building through the tower has proved in the end to be foolish. We were just fannying around with string and rope when they heard us and sent guards out. The general alarm was raised, and we now prepared for the fight.
The mansion building that we were sneaking around, and which we'd at last begun assaulting, was infested with goblins and despite all our precautions we had finally attracted their attention.
They came out of the front door. As they moved around the building, Excretia opened fire with her bow, but they were not deterred and kept closing with us. As they got close to our position and walked round the corner of the building right next to where we were hiding Bob Frapples, our Dwarf fighter, stepped into hand to hand range and chopped deeply into one of them.
A short fight then ensued - and ended with an anti-climax as we finished off all four of them with some ease. Unfortunately this fight wasn't quiet, and we picked up our guard duties while we tended our wounds and prepared for the next step - to get into the building.
We tried to finish getting the rope on the tower. We had already shot a thread through it using a bow and we'd planned to use that to pull a proper rope through. Now the alarm was raised, however, there seemed little point in more stealth. Redamber tried to climb the tower using a grappling hook. We found also that the thread had become snagged in the tower top, and would have made attaching a rope into a major operation.
It only took three goes for Redamber to clatter his grabbling hook into the building before he hit the top of the tower. Up he went, climbing the rope.
Once at the top, his next task ws to tie the grappling hook rope, and another length of it properly. He threw the two ropes down so the rest of us could scurry up. With the exception, of course of Excretia whose problem with heights meant that climbing this tower was out of the question. She chose to wait for us hidden in the bushes near the building. Our target is to open the back door, and she said she'd wait for us to achieve that. I was first of the rest of our band to climb the tower, then Redamber an I haul the dwarf up. Next it was Bernie climbing up to join us. He needed little assistance.
We prepare quickly for a fight, standing around a trapdoor in the floor - the dwarf flung it open while we guard. There were goblin guards waiting for us beneath that trapdoor - but it was only ten feet down so the dwarf jumped straight in.
Again we defeated them quickly. Bob and Redamber knocked the Goblins down the stairs here and gave chase. As the dust of the fight settles, I opened the door at the top of the tower. Here in a small room was the girl we were sent to rescue.