Well, there had been a map.  I can no longer see it.  I will try again shortly.  

The yellow line is the "path" that goes up to the flat area.  It isn't an easy path, but appears to have seen a fair amount of use recently and is not too hard.  It is still difficult terrain - half movement speed.  Going off the path is doable but might result in slightly slower movement.  The blobs on the map represent large boulders.  The other things are pine trees.  The party is marked by circled letters going up the path.  Distances are noted in the game thread.  The terrain further to the sides is similar but you haven't actually seen it up close.  Remember that the part you are on is also a fairly steep climb - just not a verticle cliff like at the top.  Reference the picture in the previous post.  The bugbears are not marked on the map as you can not currently see them.  The one that threw the log did so from the spot where the path reaches the flat area.  

I hope the images help!  Ask questions if you have them.

This was the image posted earlier to give you an idea of what you are clibing.  The bugbears are NOT ON TOP of the big cliff.  They are on a flat space at the base of the massive cliff.  You are climbing up that really rugged lower section.  While there is no arch in the cliff where you are - image a flat area under that.  That is where the enemy is.  And you are going up rough terrain to get there.  You also don't have to stay on the "path" to get there - it is just the easiest path.  

Sorry for the delay - I have had some real life issues demanding my attention.  I will try and get a map up shortly.  

Monsters as characters - The rules don't usually provide for it but it could be done.  And there are some settings that have have information on some of these races - I think the Reavnica book based around a Magic The Gathering world has a goblin race.  But I probably wouldn't allow it here for a variety of reasons.  I also tend to discourage evil characters as a personal preference.  But you can do a lot of things if the DM and group want to make it work.  

The ledge - the flat ledge above you can be reached through some moderate climbing.  The "path" of sorts that you are on goes all the way up to it.  You can move up this terrain at half normal speed (difficult terrain ruls) all the way until you are on the ledge.  No spider climb needed.  But I would allow you to move up at a normal speed with spider climb.  The spell essentially allows you to walk around on surfaces like a spider.  You could walk on the ceiling of a room and just dangle there from your feet - with your hands completely free to do whatever.  It would be just like walking on the floow only, well, upside down. So in this case - there is a vertical wall behind the shelf they are on (Note the pitcher posted recently) and if you got ot it you could simply walk straight up with hands free.  It is a pretty cool spell.  And if that didn't make it obvious- yes, your hands would be free to use a quarterstaff. 

One other detail to note about this situation.  The bugbears are on a ledge above you - you can look up and see the edge of the ledge, but not them unless the approach the edge like the one did when it threw down the log.  They have cover while up there and would have partial cover (disadvantage on attacks) even at the edge.  But there are also lots of trees and boulders where you are climbing up potentially granting those approaching the ledge some cover as well.  As I said I will try to get a map up.

If you were wondering what a bugbear looked like . . .nice fellows.  They are pretty big humanoids.

The group continued their attempt finish off the monsters at the pyre without allowing them to raise the alarm back at the Vargolg.  So far six goblins had been silenced and lost their right ears to the bounty hunters.  Dok claimed the ears with Soledad and Silver watching.  They glared at the goblin on the far side of the river and then turned and followed the rest of them up the path towards the pyre.

               Lily had the early lead but slowed her pace when she lost sight of one of the bugbears.  Wary of an ambush she continued upwards.  As she advanced, she thought she saw both, but the creatures looked the same and she never saw more than one at a time so she couldn’t be sure.  What she did know was that nothing ambushed her as she advanced. 

               At the hallway point Uthal and Thaoran passed the Kendar and continued upwards as quickly as they could, determined to catch their enemy.  As they got to within about 30’ or so of what looked like a stone ledge a large bugbear suddenly appeared at the edge above them and hurled a large, still burning, log down towards them.  It flew towards the pair but struck a tree branch before it got there and went tumbling on down the hill surprising those in the party who followed but not hitting anyone.  They looked up at the ledge and wondered what exactly was up there.  All they could see was some smoke from further back heading skyward.  The bugbear had pulled back from the ledge. 

Overview

 You took two rounds to move up the hill.  Right now you are below the ledge – you are listed below with your current distance below the edge of the ledge/flat area where the pyre presumably burns. 

Thaoran and Uthal – 30’

Lily and Gerdar – 50’

Hornet – 60’

Silver, Dok and Soledad – 75’

Remember that this is difficult terrain so you move at half normal speed.  I will try to get a map out with in a day or so, but right now you all have partial cover behind trees, brush and rocks on the ridge.  Think of it as looking up at a shelf.  You can see the lip of it, but not onto it unless something looks over the edge of it.  (Or moves to the edge to throw a burning branch down.)  It is hard to tell how big the shelf is but it seems to extend about 40’ or so to both the left and right.  If you had to guess it is around 30’ deep, but you can’t tell for sure – that is a guess based on the large cliff wall that looms above it.  (Reference the previously posted picture of that Ridge.)

A couple of you are close enough to potentially reach the ridge if you sashed for it.  But the rest have a longer climb still.  When you post please indicate how you want to deal with he ledge when you get there.  If you want to coordinate the timing as a group you need to talk about it and be clear about that timing. 

Posts Needed.  One so far.  

With the goblins down in front of the them, the party was of two minds.  Thaoran, Hornet, Uthal and Lily all saw the bugbears as a danger in need of being dealt with quickly.  They sprinted forward and sped past the goblins, turning and heading up the ridge towards the presumed flat area where the pyre would be.  As they ran Lily thought she caught a glimpse of one of the bugbears moving quickly upward ahead of her.  The Kender yelled at them as she ran, hoping to make it seem like an army was charging in pursuit.  It was also moving as quickly as possible, but the steep ridge line was slowing everyone down. 

               That left Silver, Soledad and the two dwarves to deal with the sleeping goblins.  Soledad looked with disgust at the first one and wished she could mage hand to dispatch it, but knew that the spell would likely not deliver enough force behind the blow to do the job.  Grimacing she plunged her dagger into the creatures eye.  It’s sleep became a more permanent version of unconsciousness.  Gerdar and Dok each finished off another goblin leaving none of them alive.  The group also cut off the ears of the ones they killed.  As he stood up Gerdar was surprised to see a goblin dragging itself out of the river on the far shore – about 30’ down stream of their current location.  It looked injured and struggled to reach shore, but it go there, climbed out, and looked back meeting the dwarf’s gaze. 

Overview

All of the goblins are dead – you collected 3 ears.  There are 3 more goblins whose ears have not yet been taken.  To do so would take your action for a turn.  If you are staying to do this please tell me what you want to do when done with this so I can do a couple of rounds at once – depending on what happens.

The goblin on the far side of the river is about 100’ away from you total.

Travel up the ridge counts as difficult terrain.  So one you head upwards your movement will be slowed to half speed.  This means that if you dash you will go at your normal speed and if you don’t you will travel at half of that.  Lily is about 20’ up the ridge – so just into the trees obscuring your view.  The other three headed up the ridge are 10’ behind her.  She had a bit of head start.

Lets get some posts going!

You faced some goblins early on along the ridge road - just above the bridge.  You got the ears there.  But nowhere else have they been mentioned post-combat.  Plus, you fled from the major battle and presumably most of those ears are currently on the pyre. 

Remember to read the oerview at the end of all of my posts.  They do outline in words all the details I can give.  

The goblins on the path are all either asleep or dead.  They are 25' in front of Lily and 50' in front of the rest of the party.  Lily is ahead of the others because she is the only one that specifically said that she moved on the previous turn.  Since nobody else said anything I assumed they stood where they were.  

On a given turn characters get an action and a movement.  (Sometimes a bonus action as well and technically an item interaction.)  The "normal" think is to move, 25' for example is Lily's movement, and then do something like make an attack.  However for your action you can do some things instead of attack such as dash, dodge or disengage.  To dash is to run.  If you dash you can run twice your normal distance.  So, in Lily's case, if she used her action to dash she she could move 50' in one round.  (Her normal 25' and then the additional 25'.)  But then that would take her action and she wouldn't be able to attack.  

If you take the dodge action it would also replace your attack - so no attack that turn.  But then any attack made against you that turn has disadvantage - which means that for any attack targeting you I roll two 20-sided dice and then use the lowr of the two numbers rolled.  It can be quite handy, but does mean you don't get to attack.

Using your bonus action to disengage means that instead of attacking you move away from an opponent for the round.  (At normal movement rate.)  Why do this?  Because normally such a movment would mean any opponent engaged with you would get a free attack - an attack of opportunity.  But if you disengage as your action they don't get those free attacks.  But again, you don't get to attack yourself.  

I will try to do maps in the future.  The only reason I hadn't inthe past is that the image sourcing site I was using crashed.

Maybe this will help clarify how things are going.  And if I get it figured out, images n the future may make things easier.  

FYI - the scribbly looking things around the party are trees.  Not huge ones.

I am testing to try and be able to post pictures.  If it works this is what the Blacktooth Ridge looks like.  There is no cave like entrance where you are, but notice the very rough rock and scrub climbing up at the lower levels to a verticle wall.  The pyre is at a flat space right at the base of that verticle wall.  I hope to get a hand drawn map out soon as well.

The Hresuen River runs parallel to your path on the left.  

Both sides seemed to expect the enemy to be in the area, but neither appeared to expect the meeting to arrive so suddenly and with so much skidding, sliding and crashing.  Six goblins now stared and yelled at the group.  Silence, it seemed, was no longer called for. 

               The first to act was Thaoran who drew and fired an arrow in one smooth motion.  At only 50’ it wasn’t a hard shot and the goblin took the shaft right in the eye.  It stopped screaming and dropped to the ground.

The next to move was Soledad who decided that the best goblin was a sleeping goblin.  Well, maybe not the best, but an acceptable one in the short term anyway.  Three of them were obliging and dropped with a snore to her sleep spell.  There were now only two left.  

With the 4 in the middle of the group down Lily ran forward 25’ and planted her hoopak on the ground and loosed a stone at the leftmost creature.  The stone smacked it square in the head, not taking it down but staggering the hardheaded little creature.  But a hard head did not save it from Hornet’s bolt that quickly buried itself in the goblin’s chest.  Between the bolt and the stone, the creature collapsed next to its companions. 

Dok stood at the front of the group and grinned as his adventuring friends tore the goblins in front of him to bits.  There was one left standing.  As that goblin gawked at its collapsed comrades a bolt of light flashed towards it from the dwarf’s hand and struck it square in the chest.  The creature was lifted off of its feet and thrown backwards against a tree where it crumpled into a burned-out pile. 

Uthal stood holding his waterskin preparing to cast Ice Knife but found himself staring at a path devoid of upright foes.  He looked at Gerdar and the two of them shrugged.  “Efficient.” 

But that wasn’t quite all of the enemy.  Two bugbears appeared at the spot where the goblins had just tumbled from a moment before.  It appeared they were also on there way down the path in a hurry.  But seeing the goblins all scattered around on the ground before them they grabbed trees to stop their descent and spun around.  Both quickly moved back up the ridge away from the party and back the way they had come.  They appeared to be heading back towards the pyre.  They disappeared into the trees, rock and scrub. 

Overview

*I decided to change Thaoran’s attack to an arrow since he wasn’t in rapier range, and it seemed the obvious move. 

There are 3 dead goblins and 3 sleeping goblins on the path in front of you.  They are about 50’ in front of the party.  (25’ from Lily who moved forward.)  The path runs North/South parallel to the river.  At the spot where the goblins lay there is a pseudo path up the ridge.  You can only see about 15’ of it due to rocks, brush and the steep incline.  Approximately 100’ up from that location (Presumably up the path the goblins came down, but you can’t actually see that.) is the ledge on which the pyre still puts out smoke.  The 2 bugbears presumably went back up that path. 

Thus, you would need to go 50’ forward to reach the goblins.  Then turn right and go about 100’ up the ridge to reach that plateau.  Going up will be difficult terrain and be at ½ movement speed. 

               You can no longer see the bugbears.

Good questions.

Since Lily is small her normal movement is 25' per round.  So she can move 25' and perform any one action.  So, in this case - 25' and then fire a sling stone, for example.  

Talking does not use up an action (usually it isn't more than just adding color to the post anyway.).  Unless you are specifically attempting to convince some about something or explain something super complicated.  Generally no - it would take a really extreme situation for me to say it would be your action.  So assume that you can just babble away as much as you want. 

You get one action per round unless some condition changes that.  So assume one.  Typically you would just state that one action.  However, given that we are playing by post and not sitting around a table where we can talk and adjust on the fly, there is some flexibility.  If you wanted you could post your basic plan and then after that add a note that says something like, "If when it is Lily's turn the goblins have actually done X or all of them are dead, then Lily the Wondrous will do Y."  Generally keep it to just one turns worth of action (So not, target this one this time, then that one next time, then run up the hill, then aim there.)  But a couple of clariflying comments at the end of your post is perfectly reasonable.  People often put OOC:  (Out-of-Character) in front of such clarifying bits.  Rereading your post - yes, I think I am describing something like what you called a primary and secondary action.  It is just that since you only get one action per round the secondary action only happens if your first does not for some reason.  Also, you do get one "item interaction" per round as well - things like opening a door, picking up an item or whatever.  Not that Lily would ever need to do things with items.  

I roll initiative for the characters and keep track of it.  There is a definite order in which things occur.  It is not determined by the order in which players post on the thread - it is the initiative order of the round.  I know it, you don't.  However, if you look back at previous fight sequences you will find that I generally always had characters acting in a certain order in my posts.  So you can figure it out if you want.  I'm not hiding it and will tell you if you ask - around the table we would all have access to this information.  But since in real life such information isn't know I don't post it here.  Initiative order is determined by a dice roll and will change for each conflict.  

Notes on rapiers:  Rapiers are hand held blades.  They are usually a bit under 3 feet in length.  When a goblin is 50' away from you it would take a very long rapier to be able to attack them this turn.  Just sayin'.  

At 50' you can run towards them using your action and movement to get there - and not be able to attack once you arrive.

You could move 30' and then do some sort of attack.

You could stay here and do something.

Of course, they might move before you which means they might meet you in the middle or they might not.  You don't know the order of movement yet, so that is all guesswork for the moment.  

Dok is easily within range for guiding bolt.

The next move (go forward) was pretty straight forward so I didn't see a point in waiting longer.  Glad to see you posting!  Be the first for the next turn!

With the goblin in the rocks dead the group was hopeful that they could move forward unannounced, but the sounding of a horn seems to have shattered that dream.  Ahead of them at the pyre it seems someone was making noise.  Was it about them?  They didn’t know, but the timing did not bode well.

               Hornet quickly called for action and indicated that they should move forward.  Most of the others quickly indicated approval and the group moved forward.  The dwarves (who were already at the front on the path) and Hornet took the lead.  The rest followed.  They didn’t have far to go since if there was a path leading up to the pyre it could only be about 300’ ahead. 

               The group moved at a moderate pace – trying for some speed but generally maintaining a careful and quiet approach.  After about 250’ there was a burst of noise in front of them and a rush of movement.  With a few small yelps and a fair amount of crashing a goblin suddenly came tumbling down the ridge 50’ in front of them.  The creature bounced off of the ground a couple of times down the last 15’ or so (all of the path up the group could see), careened off of a tree at the bottom and pinwheeled into the river with a splash.  It didn’t appear intentional, and a group of other goblins stumbled down quickly after it – not falling, but not precisely in control of their momentum either.  Reaching the bottom, they staggered to a halt and looked in your direction.  As one, several of them screamed and pointed at the group.

               Six goblins stand 50’ before you on the path.

Overview

You are 50’ away from the goblins.  You are on a path running parallel to the river – at this point the path is close to the river – varying from 10’ to as little as 1-2 feet from the water edge.  The path here is wide enough that the 8 of you can maneuver however you wish.  The path runs straight ahead to the goblins.  At that point a path seems to go straight to the right and up the ridge.  You can’t see much on the sides by you or near the goblins and the other path because of vegetation, rocks and the overall incline of the ridge.  You are really just assuming there is a path ahead because the goblins came down there.  Smoke does still rise from the pyre over 100’ above your heads. 

*I assumed you did not run forward as nobody indicated that you did so and that requires you to take the dash action.

**Not mentioned above, but Soledad did cast Mage Armor.

That makes 5 posts.  I will get a post up tonight (Monday) or tomorrow.  

I typically post on Sunday but I have nothing to work with!

Eol can be in stealth mode because he isn't acutally in this game - the rest of you can't!

That post on goblins and hobgoblins was about right.

The question is . . . which one is a sneaky Eol who pops in for a random post?!!

The group was both pleased and angered with their sneak attack.  The nearer goblin in the tree was dad and crushed on the ground in front of them, but the one in the rocks above remained.  The group turned their attention to the remaining guard in an attempt to silence the creature before it could alert those at the pyre. 

               The first to act were Hornet and Soledad who both turned and fired at the guard.  Hornet’s bolt came close, but the concealing rocks saved the creature, as they did from Soledad’s firebolt.  The witch was again angered to see her fire splash harmlessly against the rocks and not into the face of her target.  Lily ran up the hill a bit and fired her sling but shooting uphill and still 75’ away, her shot did not do any good.  Uthal moved forward as well and decided that instead of taking out the creature immediately he would pin it where it was with the spell grow spikes – which caused spikes to suddenly emerge all around the goblin in such a way that any movement it made would almost certainly result in a very unpleasant experience.  (I assume this is the spell you meant since “spider growth” is not a spell I am familiar with, you have this spell, and it makes sense.)  The little goblin shrieked at its new predicament. 

               But the creature didn’t have long to shriek as Thaoran and Silver both struck it with arrows at the same time.  Tharoan’s hit it in the shoulder and Silver’s flew straight into the creature’s eye.  It stopped making noise as it fell over and was skewered by one of Uthal’s spikes.  It lay there unmoving above the party on the ridge. 

               That left the two dwarves.  Gerdar moved forward to the dead goblin and retrieved his javelin.  Dok also moved forward and passed Gerdar in order to take a forward position facing the pyre – the most likely place from which more enemies might show themselves.   (Dok spoke about “rear-guard” but also about protecting from reinforcements – as the source of likely reinforcements are forward – I moved him there.  I hope that is ok.) 

               As the group repositioned themselves they wondered if their assault had been noticed – and they did not have long to wait in order to find out.  Only moments after the goblin above them had gotten spiked a horn of some sort sounded on the ridge – forward and above the group.  Almost certainly it came from about where the pyre was located.  What those who were up there were doing nobody could tell, but that they were doing something now seemed obvious. 

               But the groups tally now included two more goblins. 

Overview

The goblin guards are dead.  All directly around you is quiet.  The ridge climbs to your right.  You could get about 100’ up (To where the dead goblin is) but after that it is a shear cliff straight up.  Moving laterally along the ridge would (below that 100’ mark) be difficult going and quite slow but possible. 

               To your left the Hreusen River flows.  Fairly clear paths (thanks to goblins gathering firewood) go forward (North) along the river.  Movement there looks easy.  To get to the pyre’s location you would need to go about 100 yards (300 feet) forward – a bit less for Gerdar and Dok who are ahead of the rest.  From there you would need to turn right – and go about 100’ up the ridge to reach the pyre.  At about the same level that the goblin guard’s body is at Boris told you there would be a flat space where they have built the pyre.  From where you are at you cannot see that flat space – just the tower of smoke emanating from it.  Behind it the cliff rises several hundred feet straight up.  All you know about what is there is that you heard a horn. 

Tann/Silver - FYI, you are no where near the cave right now that you know about.  The Vargolg is a mile away.  One goblin is hiding in the rocks above you.  There are likely others at the pyre above and forward of your position.

I'm working on the post now.  Up soon.