Moonday, Sarenith 4, 4718 late night
Churlwood The Bramblemouth Goblins’ Den
Change of plan: we decided to not sleep until after we had purged the goblins from their nest. This meant advancing down the narrow and short tunnel to where the remainder of the horde had fled. In the dark. With an unknown number of goblins waiting for us at the far side.
This was not a good strategic plan, especially with our magic users low on spells. Despite my misgivings we pushed forward.
It did not go well.
A little more than halfway down the death trap — by that I mean tunnel — we, or more precisely the person in front, Shimsa, was blocked by a very large snake. Surprisingly the snake spoke common, but unsurprisingly it was able to projectile vomit (with good accuracy) toxic phlegm. A light spell was cast on a stone so that those of us able to assist could see, and a short while later we were filing past the ex-snake.
Shimsa reached the end of the tunnel where proceded to enact our plan, which was to get as many of us out into the large chamber so we could engage in the goblins before they cut down those of us in front.
It worked, but only barely, and we used up the last bit of healing magic we possessed just to survive. There were a lot more goblins here than expected and the only thing that saved us was their relative incompetence, or perhaps overconfidence. Had they simply swarmed us all at once or released their dogs right away I would not be writing this now.
We scrounged what useful items we could from the two better equipped goblins and then searched the area.
We quickly realized that we were in the ruins of what had once been an above ground collection of buildings, which had been buried over time. The goblins must have burrowed in and set up their den amidst the ruins.
A recently excavated passageway led east. I suddenly realized why the goblins had captured the dwarves and exclaimed, “The turds brought the dwarves here to dig for them because, as far as they were concerned, every dwarf was an expert on mining.”
The passageway quickly dead ended, but a door in the north wall was exposed and beyond that was a room with a very highly magical circle — a teleportation portal of some sort. Thassilonian runes encircling the portal proclaimed that it was dedicated to Alasnist, the Runelord of Wrath.
Both Yanor and I were excited by the fact that these were Thassilonian ruins associated with a specific Runelord — the same one for which the ancient ruins beneath Sandpoint were built. I had visited those back when I was last there, but they had been picked over and sanitized years before, whereas these ruins were pristine and waiting to be explored!
We tossed a goblin body into the circle and it vanished, as expected. But we were unprepared to follow. Who knows if we could get back or what awaited us on the other side.
Instead we followed the main passage south, which is where we discovered that one goblin remained. She was some sort of spell caster and she was guarding the two dwarves.
After another unpleasant, but relatively brief, fight we dispatched the threat and freed the dwarves.
They were happy to be free and they confirmed my suspicion about why the goblins had captured them. Apparently the goblins were looking for treasure because the “long shanks” (their word for anything on two legs taller than three feet) were excavating another ruin close by.
That got our attention, and we wondered who they were and what they were looking for. It seemed likely that Sir Roderic’s words about his map and mysterious artifacts he had found were tied up in all of this.
We are thoroughly exhausted and are camping inside the inner, larger cavern near the (closed and spiked) teleport room door.
Toilday, Sarenith 4, 4718 afternoon
Roderic’s Cove The Creekside
The night passed without event and in the morning light we hauled the goblin bodies out from their den and tossed them over the ridge. We knew we’d probably return in the not too distant future, and goblins smelled ripe enough even when they haven’t been rotting for several days.
We escorted the dwarves back to town, picking up the bodies of the guards we had discovered yesterday.
As we crossed over the ferry Hallem said we had made an enemy with Lullaby from our humiliation of her in front of her team the day before. Yeah, we kind of figured that out for ourselves, and I was half expecting her to ambush us this morning. No doubt she was still licking her wounds and making big plans for her revenge. We will need to come back this way through the forest again, and we’ll need to be prepared to deal with the bandits — and my vote is to remove them as a threat once and for all.
Back in Roderic’s Cove we brought the bodies to Captain Freson, warning her about how to properly keep them from turning into undead. Next we briefed Audrahni about our adventure.
And lastly we visited Galds, the leader of the dwarven caravan. She was true to her word and took orders from each of us for a master work weapon of our choice. I paid extra for a compound longbow that would utilize my strength to deal extra damage.
As uncomfortable and awkward as it was to fight the goblins in such cramped quarters, I have found that the encounter has improved my ability with a bow at close range.
Next up was town hall, where we searched through the collection of regional maps that Sir Roderic had drawn. We found one of the Churlwood on which someone had drawn a Thassilonian rune — it highlighted a ridge very much like (and close to) the ridge into which the Bramblemouth’s had dug their den. On the back of this map was the sihedron rune — the primary symbol of the Runelords!
Yep, we’d be heading back into the Churlwood. But we need to proceed with caution. We already knew another party was already digging in the area, and we now had to deal with Lullaby’s wounded pride as well.
I purchased some extra arrows, a nice rope, and a lantern — the latter would have proved useful in the day before, and I am sure will prove useful very soon.