Another Goblin attack. Rescue the family!

Having killed the undead hideout, we debated where to go next and realized that the delta was our only lead into Erde's task. We spent a day travelling northwest. The next morning, a bird came and chirped a message into Uvarum's ear. It was from Fandae, and it said that another goblin attack had captured a family from their farm west of Ramoth Creek. We realized that if they were heading to the delta, they would be passing somewhere near us, but in the forest it would be easy to miss them. We spent the rest of the day crossing our area waiting and searching for signs of them moving through our area. We found a giant spider, but no signs of goblins. Just as day was ending, Putzmeister climbed the tallest tree nearby and looked over the forest. He spotted a thin trail of smoke rising to our east. Were they travelling north instead of northwest to lose anyone trying to follow them? We had to investigate.
 
We left even before dawn and moved east. After some difficulty we picked up their trail, now heading northwest. We followed and in our haste to catch up, they heard us and set an ambush. Eight goblins attacked and quickly dropped Uvarum. We rallied and killed them all, but most of the party was wounded in doing so, and our only healer was unconscious. Realizing the futility in chasing the others in our condition, we went back to town, Ramoth Creek, for healing. A part of me almost lost hope that we could ever catch the goblins and rescue the family now.
 
We found the farm outside Ramoth Creek and learned a bit of the attack. One teenaged boy was dead, but inside the house we found enough beds to learn that the family consisted of two parents, three children and a baby. It appeared that they were captured in their sleep, and there was no evidence of more death. We picked up a draft horse and cart and brought the boy's body, Uvarum, and some goblin bodies back to Ramoth Creek, arriving just before night fell.
 
In Ramoth Creek, we were aided very quickly by both the clerics at the temple and by the town constable. The temple healed all our party members and took the bodies from us to be buried. They also sold us as many potions of healing as we could afford. I bought 4 with all my money. The constable told us the Baron wanted to meet with us to thank us and learn about what was going on. We had no time for that, but we did pick up 5 men willing to go with us to try again to rescue the family. Two were archers and three spearmen. We left a message for the Baron, and set out to travel during the night. I tried to speak to the constable about not fearing magic-using humans, but I wasn't very convincing.
 
Anyway, by nightfall we were back at the homestead. We found two trails leading from it, one northward (the first 8 orcs we had met) and a larger party heading east through more civilized territory. The going would be faster, but more likely to encounter others. We hadn't expected that, and I will learn not to underestimate their leader's intelligence again. We travelled through most of the night and only got a couple hours sleep, and I still have few spells. Still, at dawn we resumed following the goblin trail. We could see human tracks among the goblin ones, which spurred us onward all the more.
 
Twice we encountered traps set to cover anyone on the goblins' trail, one snare and one trap with alchemist's fire. We saw the second before it triggered, climbed the tree and recovered 4 alchemist fires. I got two of the vials, since I have little combat ability right now. A second day of travelling while short on sleep, and we can smell the sea and wonder if we will lose this race. We are less than half a day behind, according to the trackers.
 
Suddenly we see the teenage boy running in our direction and shouting. He ran into our group and gasped about goblins and running away, but was panicked and mostly incoherent. Our people in front stepped off the trail expecting an ambush while I tried to calm the boy and get his story. Before I could do so, four goblins charged into us, still chasing the boy. We managed to kill them quickly and none got away to warn the rest of the goblins. With little information from the boy yet but now believing he wasn't a trap but had actually gotten away, we sent one spearman and the boy back half a mile (to safety) and told them to flee if we weren't back within half an hour.
 
With that, we went forward and saw them waiting for the 4 to return. Bawdy scouted them out a bit and came back reporting them to be alert and wary. We tried to sneak towards them, but of course they must have seen us. Most of us have no skill in sneaking in the woods. Finally Kursk charged into the goblins and the battle started.
 
The goblins had been ready and quickly surrounded Kursk. He was wounded and unconscious far too quickly. Bawdy was also dropped shortly after. I threw both of the alchemist's fires, hitting twice, and then fell myself to their archers and the two mages in the trees. Thankfully we had more people and the goblins were dropping also. It was going to be a very close battle. Uvarum probably saved us, first by healing me, and then I used potions to get Kursk and Bawdy back up. With the numbers now on our side, we were dropping the goblins quickly, Putzmeister and his two archers did most of the damage while Luthar and two spearmen, along with our wolf, held the line. The last wizard in a tree, wounded and entangled, surrounded after his final spell was foiled by our attacks.
 
One goblin was holding the family. It raised the baby in its hands and talked to Bawdy, who speaks Goblin. I'm not sure Bawdy was translating correctly, because it then spoke broken common, saying Me die, baby die, me go, baby go. I agreed, and demanded Bawdy retreat. She did so reluctantly, and the goblin set the baby down and ran off, and we let it go. Thank you Vasha for this mercy.