The druid and rogue rejoined their comrades in the passageway, and the party pressed on to their final objective. They made their way uneventfully to Krumple's secret door and, finding it apparently undiscovered by the goblins, made their way into what was a dead-end portion of tunnel inside the lair.
(This was a "draft" version of the lair; the final version was a bit different but followed the same general footprint.)
Up to this point, gameplay had been mostly "theater of the mind" as far as maps go, but now we broke out the toys.
The party cautiously made their way down the tunnel until the rogue took a stealthy peek around a bend and saw that the tunnel led to a more open area, and that there were two goblins up ahead talking to each other. They were facing the chamber up ahead (away from the party), and the rogue watched as one of the goblins wandered off a short distance to take a piss against the wall.
There was no hesitation in the rogue -- he wanted to make a stealth check to sneak up on the remaining goblin so he could attack with advantage (also enabling him to make a sneak attack with his rapier). The dice were to be cold for everyone later on -- most especially for the rogue -- but not yet:
First blood.
After this one-hit kill, general melee ensued. The plan of attack for the goblins was to use their innate "disengage" ability to draw the party out into space and in different directions so our heroes could be surrounded and taken out piecemeal or, barring that, put up a good show until the big bad hobgoblin made it on the scene. But this battle plan was unnecessary -- what followed would include little that could be described as "small unit tactics."
One fighter drew a bow and used ranged attacks throughout the battle, while every other member of the party (except NPC Krumple) rushed forward and spread out, which was what the goblins wanted. The party successfully dispatched a couple of goblins pretty quickly, and a couple of goblins started to break off and make a run for it -- due to the conditions Krumple had described earlier, their morale was low even for goblins -- but just then the big bad arrived on the scene and rearranged their priorities. They re-engaged.
But some of the goblins had already done some damage, and just as the big bad was making his entrance our druid found herself at 2 hit points -- she made a strategic withdrawal for some healing.
Around the same time, the cleric took a hit and -- remember, she is completely new to DnD -- asked whether losing hit points had any effect on fighting ability, which of course it doesn't. I mentioned that this was also true for their enemies: a hurt goblin hits just as hard as a healthy one. After that they figured out pretty quickly that rather than spreading their damage out over multiple targets, the best way to reduce the amount of potential damage coming their way was to concentrate their efforts. They began prioritizing enemies that had already been hurt to finish them off.
I used colored rings to help me keep track of individual goblins. This was about midway through the fight, when things were looking fairly grim for the party. The big bad was just off to the left (I somehow managed to leave him out the photos) and in the background you can just about make out the druid who is healing herself. Standing next to her is Krumple who is saying to the druid: "I bet you are fighting really well!" (big grin, two thumbs up).
It was at about this point that the dice went cold for everyone, most especially me; the rogue was engaged in a one-one-one combat in which neither could hit the other. The hobgoblin boss waded in and hit the cleric but rolled a 1 for damage; this was to be the only damage he did.
The druid, now back in action, cast Entangle on an area that included the hobgoblin and also the goblin the rogue was fighting; they would spend the rest of the fight stuck in place flailing about ineffectively. Everyone except the rogue -- his duel with the goblin had become personal -- now targeted the hobgoblin, who still lasted a while because the players were rolling almost as badly as I was. Still, eventually they wore down the boss and down he went; the remaining goblins who were able immediately fled, or (as was the case with the goblin caught by Entangle) laid down submissively and surrendered.
The rogue didn't miss a beat: "if he's lying down, doesn't that mean I get to attack with advantage?" He rolled a 4 on his first die, and another 4 with the second. "Swish, swish" went his rapier, much to everyone's amusement. He didn't press his attack after that, and (just to rub it in) the goblins who witnessed it mistook his flailings for some sort of salute, a sign of respect for a worthy opponent.
And so it was that our brave heroes rescued the halfling slave, Nana
McGuffin Harbuckle, who was understandably overjoyed at this turn in her fortune; but not so full of joy that she couldn't pick up a ladle and take particular and long-dreamed-for revenge on the kitchen staff: "Repeat after me: mud {whack} is not {whack} a spice!"
And that's where we wrapped things up. It came in at about 3 hours of gameplay, and as my wife and I left some of the players were talking about what they wanted to do next.