The adventure: the heroes invade a hobgoblin lair in a hilly woodland and fight their way to the very heart of it: the chieftain’s chamber. But the chieftain is a wily one.

If alerted that intruders are too powerful, the chieftain will slip behind the tapestry with his day-to-day valuables and take the right fork to escape.

Right Fork: Escape Chute

This features a short, crude ladder up to a platform, which he’ll pull up after him. On the platform is a secret door to the small, hidden vault holding the bulk of his treasure. To the right of the platform is a long, steep chute down to a hidden exit. With his bag of swag, the chieftain will slide down the chute on the ladder to make his escape while intruders puzzle over his route.

If, upon first arrival, the heroes search around for an alternative entrance, they’re unlikely to find this small, camouflaged cave (hidden, and the heroes have to be in the right area to even have a hope). And even if they find it, it would be very difficult to climb up the long, steep chute to the platform to invade the hobgoblin lair from behind.

Left Fork: Secret Back Entrance

The left fork is a short, steep chute that curves left, out of sight. It has a rope lying on it that’s attached to the wall just inside the chieftain’s chamber, where small bells are attached to it. At the muddy bottom of this chute, around the corner, is a long, steep slope upward to a secret back entrance.

If, upon first arrival, the heroes search for an alternative entrance, it would be extra unlikely that they would find this little camouflaged hole (natural 20 on a search of the correct location near the top of the hill). Having found it, it would be easy enough (altho very daunting) to slide down the chute, since occasional rain intrusion keeps it somewhat slick. Intruders taking this route would crawl into the hole and find themselves sliding quickly down into darkness—head-first, unless they backed in. Then they’d face a tricky climb up the short, steep chute; the rope would help, but of course it would shake the bells on the end and alert anyone in the chieftain’s chamber.

The chieftain, of course, simple crawls in backwards, slides down the chute, then uses the rope to climb the short chute, not minding that his entrance to his own chamber is being announced.

The Trick

The idea is that any intruders will likely think the chieftain went down the chute in the left fork and, attempting to follow, find themselves at the bottom of a long climb up. Meanwhile, he’s actually gone to the right with his loot and his ladder.

If the intruders are completely fooled, they might make the arduous climb up the secret entrance chute to find themselves near the top of a bleak, rocky hill covered in thorny shrubs.

In actuality, the chieftain has exited his escape hatch at the bottom of the wooded side of the hill—altho covered in thorny shrubs—near a small river he can walk along to obscure which direction he went.

Clues

There should still be clues and small traces of the chieftain’s passage that might give away his route if the heroes get lucky on searches:

• The lack of bell noise from the rope down the left fork chute.
• Scrape marks on the wall of the right fork, where the ladder was hauled up. (Concealed)
• The secret vault door slightly ajar, with a small amount of missed treasure. (Concealed)
• Obvious fresh marks where the chieftain slid down the escape chute on the ladder.
• Tracks in the mud at the river’s edge. (Concealed)
• A barely discernible disturbance in the river bottom in his direction of travel. (Hidden)
• Tracks somewhere down the river, where he stepped on shore for a moment. (Concealed)

Visions

If the players so desire, you can reveal to them the whole nature of the chieftain’s clever secret entrance and escape route in a dream vision provided by the gods… after a substantial donation to the church.