The Harrowed Land entry 3: Leaving Ryek; Derrick joins the party

After clearing the catacombs, the party decided to head back to Ryek and report back to the Reeve. Upon arrival back to town, it was decided that we would go to the tavern for drinks and some food before meeting with the reeve in the morning. Piplic drank 4 ales – a frightening amount for someone of her size – and began dining on some of the tavern’s pottage, served in that (probably very filthy) gong at her request. As the drunken Piplic hit the gong with each spoonful, Emen became more visibly irritated in her own drunken state. As Piplic succumbed to the ale, Arlineli seemed more than happy to let the half-ork disappear out of the tavern with the gong. I was far too tired to intervene, and soon joined Arlineli in sleeping in the tavern hall.
In the morning I awoke to Emen walking into the tavern soaking wet, and Piplic being devastated over her now missing gong. We eventually made our way to the Reeve, and informed her about the sad news regarding the missing people. We learned that the man wearing antlers was named Hroll, and was the tomb’s caretaker. Tana gave us our promised payment – and 50 silver extra for our silence - and asked us to leave immediately. After privately speaking to the others, it was decided that we should do as we were asked – I do feel a bit nervous leaving those people alone without defence - we don’t know if we got rid of all the cultists, and I couldn’t bare anyone else suffering the same fate as those who had gone missing prior.
On the way out of Rylek, we came across a travel merchant and his guards. It soon became apparent that they had been robbed, judging by the state of their cart and the two dead goblins near the site. It turns out they were robbed by a group of goblins in the night and were unable to prevent them from taking a box of bronze bars (and a special sword, but the merchant told us to keep this a secret). The merchant asked us to retrieve the bars and the sword in return for a portion of what we recover. One of the guards named Derrick joined us. I was able to find the tracks of 10 goblins and follow them to what appeared to be a small 5’5 wide hole in a cliff. As we were figuring out how to proceed, Arlineli heard a squeal coming from above him, which turned out to be a goblin hiding in a tree, looking terrified. Emen of course - no questions asked - began to storm up the tree. After a short chase, Emen clumsily landed at the base of the tree, terrified goblin in hand. Because the scared goblin was screaming, Emen decided to beat it to death (this fact was confirmed by Arlineli’s medical knowledge) while it hung in her hand – a very grisly sight to say the least. Before moving on, Derrick mentioned his family history with the sword and how the merchant left his brother to die in in order to escape and keep it for himself. We decided that since he seemed to be genuinely the rightful owner of the sword that we would let him keep it, and keep all the bronze to divide amongst ourselves (instead of returning to the merchant). Then it came to the small, dark path in the mountain. Emen certainly looked uncomfortable, which is especially understandable for a creature of her size. Derrick suggested he lead with his torch to light the way, but I (hopefully calmly) insisted that I wouldn’t be going into that enclosed passage with a fire lit inside it. Arlineli instead used his magic to illuminate our way through. We came across an opening that was lit by firelight, and discovered a group of goblins inside. Suddenly we were attacked by the goblins and it wasn’t looking good – the goblins were landing blows onto the group, eventually sending Derrick unconscious. Arlineli appeared to heal Derrick, who then got up and swung his sword, skillfully killing two goblins in one swift motion. I was able to shoot at one too. I heard the hexgoblin mutter something and I began to feel a cold chill, however I was able to shake it off without breaking my focus. Said creature then ran off through a door with his goblin companion, as three rats and two glowing beetles emerged from rubble. In the chaos to get rid of these creatures, a beetle spewed a liquid onto Derrick and Piplic causing their skin to burn horribly and I was bitten by the rats. Arlineli cast a spell on one of the beetles, killing it – as it died it spurted at the other beetle, killing it too. Emen then came along, helping me by killing the rats. We searched the room, and after extinguishing a fire I found a blue gem hidden inside. After finishing our search we decided to proceed through the door, barging in all at once. We quickly realised that this area was occupied by goblins and some wolves. Piplic began by insulting the hexgoblin, which promptly cast a spell on her and Emen to put them to sleep. I ran forward to attack the hexgoblin, landing a shot with my longbow before being surrounded by three goblins who proceeded to attack. As I fumbled for protection, everything went black.
…
White light surrounded me and I woke with a gasp – I assume Arlineli healed me with his magic. Before I had the chance to orient myself again, I was pushed by a magic wind down a 10ft pit, landing with a painful thud. I tried to climb up the walls to no avail. I heard Arlineli say something and then saw goblin intestines spill down into the pit; I decided to use them to help me climb up to assist the others. As I was climbing up I heard a click and then a low growl – reaching the top I first saw derrick slicing through a goblin with a glowing blue sword, and then it became apparent that the party was surrounded by wolves and goblins, with a direwolf approaching. Emen struck a fatal blow to a wolf, her axe cutting clean through its head, and then Piplic swiftly slid under a goblin, fatally stabbing it through the throat from below. As I neared the group I shot the direwolf in the back with an arrow and it roared horribly. Arlineli then used his magical skills to kill the last goblin with a fast acting necrotic spell, leaving us to deal with the direwolf last. Derrick slices one of its ears clean off with his glowing blue sword, with trails of ice being left along the wound. Emen then cleaved into the wolf’s side with her axe, cracking its rib as blood poured from the side of the animal. Piplic delivered a harsh insult to the wolf before it lunged at derrick – by this time I had drawn another arrow and was able to shoot the wolf, landing my arrow through its ears and hopefully ending its suffering in the battle swiftly. The wolf’s corpse fell on top of Derrick. Emen lifted the wolf to help Derrick out, and then started skinning it for its fur. We then searched the room for the stolen goods - I searched the body of the hexgoblin, finding a bone amulet and 5 silver. Arlineli and Derrick then found a door leading into a small room which the party then chose to investigate. It contained a goblin chained up to the wall and what appeared to be a symbol. In broken Roltan, the goblin said “no kill Darluk” – we listened as it explained how he was locked up for stealing. His group belonged to the Durbuluk tribe that lives in a sunken citadel located South-East near a long lake amongst mountains (which also house a Roltan town which serves as a trading hub with the Kartian). These goblins, led by Durnn the hobgoblin, apparently fled from a previous tribe as they were being subjugated by an evil druid who forced them to distribute magic apples to the area in hopes of summoning forth something – the goblins fled because he succeeded, seemingly awakening something in the area. Darluk then led us to 20 bars of bronze which we divided evenly (with the exception of Derrick as he retrieved his sword). The party decided to let Darluk the goblin leave, as he had been helpful and seemed to pose no threat. Exhausted from the battle, we all decided to take a short rest where we were, being sung to sleep by Piplic, who had a surprisingly soothing voice this time… perhaps I’d just lost too much blood in the battle.
To remember:
While she doesn’t look it, Piplic can do far more than just insult and play music – she turns out to be very skilled in physical combat with her sword.
Arlineli has stronger powers than I’d first realised – I doubt we’d have made it this far without them
Derrick seems to be a trustworthy character. I wonder if he’ll hang around now that he achieved his goal of finding his family sword.
-Adrie