After the recent tremors, I came across the Lady Ilene while we were both tending to the townsfolk of Gravesend. She expressed her concern for the villagers who were captured by the Blackwater Bandits. I, too, have had these poor lost souls on my mind, and I took the opportunity to promise to take action for Lady Ilene. To this end I gathered a small group to wreak holy havoc on the unclean little goblin folk that have taken up residence in the town around the bandits. Thus it was that Mr. Stiks, Aunt Robin, Mr. Ryth, and myself made for the Hellhole to set up forward operations.
We were all pleased to find the camp better manned and looked after than our last journey there. Some miners from the Goodgub mine and townsfolk have been taking shifts guarding it, and we also found Sir Pellodin and Sir Faldric there to lend aid. Sir Faldric saw fit to accompany us on our mission, no doubt owing to its importance. We questioned those in the camp for any intelligence they could offer, and they told us of the three distinct Goblin factions:
- Tuskers: strange goblins with control over massive war boars, described as having iron grafted to their skin and painted with evil runes
- Demon worshippers: We had tangled with their ilk before when searching for the Black Fox. Like their brethren they were marked with a three-horned crown.
- Red Bird: They all bore a brand of a red bird, just like the bandits. We knew the least about these greenskins.
Our party set out following Faldric, who had been to a hidden promontory from which we could observe the town. We watched both day and night, and I even sent Gloria, my bat familiar, to see what she could see- and she was almost brought down by another bat. From our observations there were three massive bonfires, and several other smaller fires. The Goblins cavorted and held evil vigil by these large fires, seemingly dragging everything not nailed down to be burnt. The Tuskers were just outside town on the southeast, the demon worshippers were to the southwest controlling the docks, and the Red Birds were to the northeast.
During the wee hours of the morning we crept down to the Tusker camp, where Aunt Robin spoke with one of the smaller boars, who told us of its mother and father, and grandfather. We took grandfather to be the leader of the Goblins, and knew we must take his staff away from him (it appears to be of elven make). A cunning plan was set to action, where Ryth infiltrated their leader’s tent, and overcame powerful smoke which put the Goblins into a trance. Through divine luck he managed to retrieve the staff without alerting any of them. Certainly they would have a harder time dominating their war boars.
Next we moved to the Demon-worshippers. We cunningly sabotaged their canoes and rafts, hopefully disrupting the supply chain to this infested town. Next we scaled a tower, slew many goblins, and then decided to go after a massive stone totem near their bonfire. Ryth and Faldric skirted to the south and set several buildings ablaze to distract them. Then using a powerful magic ring I blasted it over, then summoned a spectral boar to finish the job. Unfortunately the Goblins overwhelmed the boar, but I had to run. Stiks and Aunt Robin stayed behind, well hidden, and Stiks was able to knock out the gems which were amplifying the goblins’ necrotic damage. I led the goblins on a chase through the city, and through luck and cunning found a place to hide. Ryth and I joined back up, slew more goblins, and then we were able to meet back up with Stiks and Aunt Robin. Unfortunately Faldric had gotten separated, and did not even manage to meet back up with us at our agreed upon rendezvous.
Not wanting to give the goblins too much time to recover, we moved on to the final camp. Our first stop was a storehouse. We managed to slay about 10% of their number by luring them in with the promise of treasure. We also stole some potions and other detritus that may have been worth something. It was at this point that it was getting close to morning, and we knew our time was short. There was one other building of note, and we entered it cautiously. A quick investigation revealed 5 children taken from Blackwater. My heart said that there may be more and we should look further… but my mind knew that even retrieving these 5 would be worth the effort, and continuing to search would put their lives in danger.
As we began to leave the town, the betrayer goblin Rishi-visha appeared and united the demon worshippers and red brand goblins: He struck down their leaders in red lightning, then called upon them to serve his new master in the “Great Stone Burrow.” That was when some of the goblins spotted us. We could not flee with the 5 weakened children, until Mr Stiks had the brilliant idea of drinking an enlarging potion, and then he managed to carry four of them himself. I took the smallest one on my back and we ran for our lives. Eventually we crossed a river, and I was able to blast some of them at a distance with powerful spells.
On our way back to Gravesend we spoke with some of the children, who were: Brona Montress, Tad Kirkwood, Hannah Malbach, Pip and Gilly Gambol. We learned from Pip that it was Tad who had lead the bandits to Blackwater in return for promises of money. We briefly discussed how to handle this, but it was quite clear that Tad had suffered for his foolishness. More troubling was the fact that they said one of the adults from Blackwater (Brenda Norris) had been turned into a demon. If this is true, then we must act quickly to save those that we can.
-Penned by Jene Dark
Adventuring Party: Jene Dark, Robin Foster, Stiks, Ryth Venali,
Faldric the Archer
Date: 23OCT21
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