Chapter I - Trouble on the Road
General Summary
On the 14th of Sharpening in the 764th year of the Silver Epoch, four adventurers met with Gundren Grimnir in the Morogari harbour city of Glenglass. They had been asking around for work, three of them because they were low on money in a foreign country and needed an easy gig, and one, Bramblebrow, because she wanted passage to Killian's Rest to search for a druid.
The bartender at the notorious watering hole "The Fish Hook" directed them all to Gundren Grimnir, a dwarf who was looking for competent people to escort some wares to Killian's Rest, and perhaps help out further upon arrival, if they were interested. In the evening they met up with him, and he was very impressed with them. He wanted them to drive a cart to Killian's Rest and meet him there. He then departed that same evening, followed by his friend Uthor of Dunbourne, a middleaged Sarkaran nobleman.
On the 15th, the four set out east along the Ember Road, and a day and a half later they turned north up the Miner's Trail to Killian's Rest. The cart was drawn by two docile oxen, and was filled with food and supplies for what looked to be a mining expedition. On the 17th, in the early afternoon, the party came across the dead mounts of Uthor and Gundren, a horse and a rygan goat, lying in the middle of the road. Smelling an ambush, they aproached with caution, and got attacked by four goblins, two of them riding leer hounds. They dispatched them with ease, but not before Ranulf took an arrow above the collarbone and several bite-wounds.
They picked up the trail of goblins who had apparently abducted Gundren and Uthor, and taken them west into Shinferric Forest. They left the cart and the oxen hidden on the edge of the forest and followed the trail, with the help of Casimir's uncanny tracking skills. A few hours later they found a cave in a cliffside, whose entrance had been carved by a stream. They attempted to sneak up on two goblins standing guard outside, but got discovered, and Hagakure (who had introduced himself to the party as "Haku") used his strange magic to burn the minds of the goblins before they could alert the others inside. Bramblebrow decided to enter the cave, and discovered three leer hounds in a room to the right. Her and Ranulf tried to intimidate the animals, and while they succeeded in scaring them, it only agitated them further, as they were chained to the wall and could not escape. The noise made Casimir, Ranulf and Haku run south into the cave, to try and retain the element of surprise before the whole cave was alerted, while Bramblebrow dispatched the three chained hounds.
As the three others ran south, they came upon a room in the cave where several goblins had holed up, with the severely wounded and unconscious Uthor. The goblins had heard the commotion, but had only had time to arm themselves when Haku and then Casimir and Ranulf fell upon them. A particularly large and well armoured goblin threatened to kill Uthor with his own sword, but in that moment, some goblins deeper in the cave activated a trap: the water from the stream had been dammed up in a reservoir at the back of the cave, and the goblins broke the dam to flood the cave and wash out any invaders. An enormous noise rushed through the cave and Bramblebrow saw the wall of water rush out of the entrance, but none of the party where in harms way when the flood came. Instead, they used the moment of confusion to act, and in the space of a few frantic seconds most of the goblins fell, but not before their leader succeeded in cutting Uthor's throat. Casimir quickly shot him through the viewing slit in his helmet, hitting him so hard that he was pinned to the wall, while Ranulf rushed to Uthor's side and managed to stop him bleeding out in the nick of time.
Bramblebrow joined the others in the south of the cave and for a moment they rallied and rested, while Ranulf tended to the wounded knight. When she saw a goblin sneaking up to spy on them she quickly chased after him, north into the room where the reservoir had been. She managed to catch him, but he broke free and instead she turned him to pulp, smashing his body against the wall of the cave with her stone maul. The others rushed after her just in time to meet the rest of the foes of the cave: two goblins and a huge, nasty looking orc, followed by his mangy direwolf pet. A desperate battle ensued on the banks of the rushing stream, where Ranulf and Bramblebrow on the frontline got pummeled by the orc and his minions, enough that the barbarian fell unconscious for a moment. Casimir was quick to rush to her side and heal her, while Haku slipped past the defenders and attacked them from behind.
Surrounded, the four enemies quickly fell, and the cave was cleared of hostiles. The party gathered up the still unconscious Uthor, whom the goblins had very literally disarmed, at least on his right side. They looked around and found some coins, potions and a trinket, spoils of war that presumably the orc had gathered on his travels. There was also a large collection of stolen crates with tradegoods, marked with a brand of a lion's head on a shield. The party had observed that all the goblins, as well as the orc, had replaced their right canine with a gold tooth, and they spoke Thualian, suggesting they could be a clan from much further east.
Meanwhile, in Cair Gallin, a young gnomish wizard, Mosi, had visited the library of Hastor there, in hopes of finding a book of poetry mentioned in his master's journal, that could possibly help decipher some of his master's codes. He had found the book, but had to spend 650v on it, and so, was now rather low on travel cash. He visited a local shop of antiquities and magical items, in hopes of finding work helping to identify and categorize, but while the owner, Marlowe, said he did not need any help himself, his friend Tharden Grimnir had asked him to help with a mining expedition in Killian's Rest. Marlowe was too old to go on treasure hunts, but Tharden and his brothers Nundro and Gundren were honest and reliable people, and perhaps Mosi could travel to Killian's Rest in Marlowe's stead, and then the Grimnir brothers were sure to be able to pay him for services rendered. Killian's Rest was only a few days south, so Mosi decided to look into this opportunity, arriving in Killian's Rest on the evening of the 17th of Sharpening, shortly after the party had cleared the cave and saved Uthor of Dunbourne.
Rewards Granted
Milestone to level 3.
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Report Date
09 Jun 2024
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