Seized or Stopped?
We travel by coach for two days north, to the village where the crime occurred. We get most of the way there before being ambushed by goblins, which is pretty good going, and even the ambush is pretty half-hearted. It seems that there is a fairly peaceful coexistence of goblins and humans, and that these little fellows just shakedown passers-by for a bit of food occasionally. But not this time.
The goblins are more keen to take our gold and other possessions than a few food rations, although when the runts see that our possessions primarily consist of a rapier, greatsword, greataxe, and battleaxe they get nervous. They weren't expecting to hold up anyone who would fight back. And fight back we do.
Our cavalier readies for any attack that comes his way, whereas Davor, our brutish 'half'-orc, steams his way out of the coach and directly in to melee. Quite sensibly and without showing any lack of awareness as to the situation, Davor strikes the lead goblin with his massive axe, instead of perhaps aiming for the obviously bigger goblin at the back who has clearly been goading the other, more nervous goblins in to attacking. Good job, Davor!
The meeker goblins throw down their weapons when they see what one hit from such an axe can do to them. Unsurprisingly, the burley goblin doesn't give up and moves to attack, running straight in to our cavalier who uses his own axe to score a suitably timed critical hit. The big goblin drops dead.
'If I were the goblins', says Davor, 'this would be the best time to surrender'.
'Are you sure you're not half-orc, half-goblin? They have already surrendered, you buffoon.'
We make sure the big goblin is dead and then tend the wounds of the smaller one as best we can, after finding out that he's known to the locals and is little more than a scamp. He should be fine with some bed rest, and we try to convince his pals of that. Then we head on our way.
At the next waypoint we ask about any increased activity with the goblins, and are told about how the goblins seem to be getting more aggressive. 'Yes, we encountered one larger goblin that didn't appear to be part of a local tribe. We suspect he was a ringleader, probably one of many, perhaps coordinated by a separate boss who has larger plans for the goblins here.'
'A ringleader, you say? Did you arrest him?'
'In a certain sense of the word, yes.'