The Little Man and the Octopus

Today I decided to quit the crew of the Phantom's Kiss, after a guard informed me it was a pirate ship, and not, as I thought, a ship engaging in negotiations with aggressive merchants plaguing the surface of the seas. I was sad that I had given all my help to the crew of the Phantom's Kiss, especially it's captain, Mae "Devil's Grin" Merrick. She seemed like such a nice lady, she always made sure we had hard biscuits and ale.
I carried my rucksack into the first place that had a picture of ale on the outside. I found out there that if I gave the shiny copper discs to the woman there, she would give me food and drink. I asked for some raw octopus, I remember enjoying that.
The tavern was very full and so a tall blue man with no ears or hair sat next to me. At first I thought he was a Triton, like me, and would know something about where I came from, but he said he was Veldaken. I've never heard of them, but I haven't heard of many things here on the surface. He even made a whole new LIVING octopus appear on my plate! I couldn't grab it to eat it though, and it leapt at me, knocking me over the bench and onto the ground. I definitely did NOT wet myself in surprise.
Another, not as tall, man sat across from us. He didn't have much to say, but mentioned his name was Luke Bloodrayne. He seems very nimble and was good with a sword. I think I saw him grab a few drinks from the other table when no one else was looking.
Anyway, after a few drinks, we were approached by a very small and squat man with a great big bushy beard. He said he wanted to hire us to guard a wagonload of supplies going to Phandalin, he would pay each of us 50 gold pieces (oh...so they're gold pieces, not discs!) for guarding the mules and the wagon on it's way to the town. Pollish seemed suspicious and demanded we get half the payment before we did anything. It seemed odd that would get paid before doing anything, but these surface dwellers' ways are very strange. Gundren, the very small man, said he would meet us in Phandalin, he was going to head out at night to make better time.
After that, we went to bed so we could leave at first light. I still am amazed at the big glowing circle in the sky. I don't remember much about my life back home, but I know that we always had to use glowing kelp and fish to keep our rooms lit. It could get very dark back home....there's so much light up here.
We rode in the wagon for most of the day, the mules seemed happy to be on the move again....at least sea horses drop pearls when they are happy. Though these mule pearls were brown, squishy and smelled bad. However, the happiness was short lived. We soon came across two dead horses on the road (they looked just like land sea horses!)
We all went to investigate and I could see that the horses were killed recently, still warm. There was a trail of trampled grass and broken twigs, like some very small men had carried a large load towards the north. Pollish concluded that the riders had been knocked unconscious and drug away, probably by goblins or some other small green men.
No sooner had we decided to follow them then a group of small green men attacked! Two drew swords and two more hid in the woods and shot arrows at us. (I never will get used to the arrows, the things the surface dwellers can come up with....one time I tried shooting a crossbow underwater, let's just say it works much better on land)
Thanks to Pollish's magic and Luke's use of the sword, we managed to defeat the small green men, even though I was shot through the neck with an arrow. After I recovered, we moved quickly to follow the rest of the small men, hoping to save whoever was riding the horses.
We followed them right into a trap! Luke fell into a pit covered with branches and leaves! Fortunately, he wasn't badly hurt and climbed out of the hole. Not much later, we came across a cave built underneath the crumbling ruins of a castle. We surprised the two guards outside and got information about them and their friends. They told us that the small man, Gundren, was sent to to another castle and that his bodyguard was in the eating room. They also said there were about twenty other goblins (that's what the little green men are called) inside the cave, as well as wolves!