Moonday, Sarenith 4, 4718 night
Churlwood The Bramblemouth Goblins’ Den

We have actually made camp underground in the heart of the local goblins’ den. How awesome is that? It’s just like the stories I’ve read about explorers on grand quests: they always end up underground — sometimes for days on end.

Of course one thing those accounts don’t dwell on is just how cramped it is, although being inside a goblin burrow may account for that. Nor how smelly it can be… although again: the goblins. I am thankful for the small fire we’ve kept going both for the light and because the smoke helps mask the odor of these foul smelling pests.

It is hard to believe that just this morning we were rummaging through Sir Roderic’s wreck of a manor house. How did we end up here?

It started when we returned to town from the haunted house and reported our findings to Audrahni. She was as puzzled as we were about what Roderic’s ghost had said — especially about finding “his map.” She did mention that the town kept (or used to) a collection of his maps and perhaps we should start there.

Our adventures at the house convinced me that I needed to upgrade my bow, and so I made my way over to Cove Armory to see if I could order something more capable from Lyndwyn. She was busy talking with a pair of dwarves when I arrived with some of my companions in tow.

I like to be aware of what is being said around me, but in this case there was no need to eavesdrop. The conversation was loud and full of woe. The dwarves were suppliers of the weapons and armor that Lyndwyn provided, and on their way here their small caravan had been ambushed by a troop of goblins and two of her party kidnapped.

Everybody along the Lost Coast Highway from Magnimar to Riddlesport knows about goblins. These small pesky creatures typically go for easy prey and small time thievery. Acts of organized attacks were rare: their little greasy heads just don’t have enough space to formulate, much less hold onto thoughts that complex for very long.

And yet there are stories of goblins being incited to act in such ways, and Takkad’s journal mentions two such incidents. My guess was that the Bramblemouth Goblins (our local infestation) had fallen in with someone or something behind these actions. This did not bode well of Roderic’s Cove and we already had enough problems as things were.

I asked Galds, the leader of the dwarven weapon-smiths, where they had been ambushed and how long ago. I indicated that we might be able to head out and find her missing companions and find out what the goblins were up to (it is always easier to head off trouble rather than waiting for it to come to you).

We learned they had been waylaid the day before, and that the town guard had been alerted and sent someone to investigate. Clearly our first stop was to check with Captain Freson. As soon as Galds realized we were going to help she told us if we could rescue her comrades then she would craft for each of us a high quality weapon of our choice.

Well, who could say no to that?

Captain Freson, as it turned out, was looking for someone to go out and investigate why the guards she had sent out yesterday had not returned.

“We’re already heading out that way to find the dwarves, and so we’ll keep an eye open for the guards as well,” I said.

She appeared to relax, but this was short lived because a villager came racing in at that moment screaming, “Monsters have invaded the northern end of town, and citizens have been hurt!”

Freson gave us a what now? sort of look and we said we’d look into that before looking for the dwarves. Our first stop was to gather the rest of our team from the Creekside and we then quickly made our way along the north road out of town.

We didn’t have to go far to go before a pair of… things came shambling out from the woods toward us. They were like someone had taken a collection of body parts and fused them together in a lumpy humanoid form.

We took them down with ranged and up close attacks. Yanor thought they might have been constructed using ancient Runelord magic. This combined with what we found out about local Runelord artifacts just earlier in the day could not be a coincidence.

We followed the blobby things’ tracks into the woods where we found Svacy, the local kennel keeper, unconscious. She came to after some healing and we helped her find her dogs and then continued to follow the tracks.

The creatures appear to have come from town itself, but we lost the trail on the road’s hard surface. Right by Peacock Manor.

Hmm. Rumor had it that the folks who lived in the manor we mostly intellectuals researching ancient lore. I wondered out loud if their pursuits extended beyond merely the theoretical, and if one of their experiments had gotten loose.

We brought a creature up to the manor and knocked, explaining to the extravagantly dressed fop who opened the door where we had found it, and claiming we hoped they could research what it was for the town guard.

They had us store the body in an outbuilding, but were told to “shove it in and close the door fast.” Sure enough, Vlad and I saw something large and spider-like scuttle across the floor with a sound that reminded me of the giant zombie cock roaches we had encountered at Roderick’s Wreck.

There was just too much going on here.

We reported back to both the captain and Audrahni and then took the ferry into the Churlwood. Or to be more accurate up to the Churlwood, where a party of Roadkeepers waited for us.

Bandits in the Churlwood are a known problem. Traders and caravans passing through had two choices: pay the “protection fee” these land pirates demanded, or go through heavily armed. It was from the latter that I earned a living.

The leader of the bandits introduced herself as Lullaby and demanded ten gold pieces each for “safe passage” through the Churlwood. We countered that we were there on town business because traders who passed through just the day before came to harm, despite having paid the Roadkeepers for “safe passage.”

This logic was wasted on these numbskulls, and when it became obvious we had no intention to pay their extortion fees they attacked. Things did not go especially well for them and so when Shura offered them a chance to break off their attack and live to see another day they (surprisingly to me) took it.

We continued on our way into the woods following the tracks of the guards through the branching trails. By late afternoon we found them laying at the foot of a large, dead oak. The oak was on a mound that was encircled by a well tended gravel road. Odd. Something glittered from the lower branches, and Jigu said it was a magical item.

We warily approached the three recumbent forms when a bloated zombie like creature stumbled out from around the tree and toward us. We attacked it from a distance and it moved to the other side of the tree. As we pursued it, pressing our attacks, it dove into a hole in the ground and eventually appeared on our side of the road, where we quickly killed it.

My companions thought it was a form of undead that could not cross over roads. This made the circular road with magical trinket in the middle look suspiciously like a fiendish trap. The guards were dead, and they too would turn if they left sight of a road. We left them next to the road and took the amulet that was hanging from the tree (it was a holy symbol of Desna that conferred some special protection from mind control).

We continued into the woods where we came upon an ever increasing number of goblin tracks. We followed these to a clearing and an entrance to a cave in the hillside. There a trio of goblin sentinels attacked us and promptly died.

Jigu and I searched the area for a back entrance while Vlad memorized a new spell, but we found nothing.

There was nothing for it but to head in. As I already mentioned the space was cramped, and dark, and filled with smoke.

A handful of goblins and goblin dogs resisted our attempt to enter, and so we killed some of them before there was a whistle from deeper within and the dogs ran away.

Further in was a roughly circular chamber with a fire burning and there we met more goblin resistance, but after killing most of these guards the survivers fled down a long and narrow passage.

Using magic and just plain stealth two of us (it was hard to tell just who in the smoke and dimness — I know it wasn’t me) crept down the passageway and discovered it opened into a much larger chamber where more goblins waited.

“We’ll need more magic than what we have available today to make it through without being massacred,” Vlad said. We all agreed and have set up camp with a guard watching the cave entrance and a another by the passage leading further in.