Goblin Clues

After bidding farewell to the local lord, the newly-formed party decided quickly our first course of action was to follow the goblin trail back to its source; hopefully to find clues as to who was the mastermind behind the goblin raid. Fortunately, we have a ranger in our midst who would be able to follow the trail back to its source. Turns out, Dagos likes his sauce, and what I originally mistook for swagger was actually stagger. I don't know when he found time to have a dram, but it became evident that he was on the gargle for a while.
 
"Hey, look, I found the trail!"
"No, wait, I lost the trail."
"Hey, look, I found the trail again" <starts marching back the way we came>
"Oh, wait, now there's fresh tracks over the Goblin tracks."
 
It went like this for a while, but credit where it's due: While I wouldn't say he led us to the goblin camp unswervingly, I will say he led us there swervingly. He did his unlevel best, polluted as he was.
 
The camp was at the opening of a ravine, with two goblins engaged in a pissing match, and one bugbear sleeping at his post. The party dispatched the group quickly and efficiently, only having to point Dagos in the right direction a couple of times. Perhaps overconfidently, we decided to press on to scope out what lay ahead of us in the ravine. Just past the opening, there was a cave with several giant wolves, which we decided to take on: We put the ranger in front to lead the sneak attack, which would have been more successful if Dagos hadn't stopped every three feet or so, giggle, and then say "Shhh!" to himself in a not sneaky way.
 
Despite what, as Barton called "sudden gusts of incompetence" from our gee-eyed ranger, we managed to dispatch the wolves, and despite some goblins telling the wolves to shut up, we managed to not draw attention in the form of additional attackers. Which was good, because we all sort of realized we used up several spells trying to impress the lord. (I was guilty of this as well.)
 
Griswold had the idea of dragging off the wolves and then the bodies of the goblins to hide away. It was a good idea, and we made relatively quick work of it, trying to hide our trail as best we could. We then retreated back to a fairly safe-looking space, made a cold camp, rested up, and decided to reapporach the caves in the light of the morning.
 
There were several guards and scouts out front, and, lacking a better plan, we simply started attacking them. We set up a massively successful kill zone just outside the ravine, as goblins came pouring out, only to be doubly flanked by our party. It wasn't until some hobgoblins showed up to marshal their troops did we face real trouble. We started waging an ineffective ranged weapon war, but it became clear that we were going to have to take the battle to them again, as Verxatatis fell in front of me. I fed him a goodberry (and popped the remaining four in my mouth), and he performed an act he described as "laying hands on myself." It didn't seem appropriate to battle, but it seemed to revive him.
 
I pause here to inform you that Barton, our minstrel, has an astonishingly, shockingly, foul mouth, hurling insults that would make a sailor blush. I wasn't sure what he was up to and started to wonder if perhaps he'd gotten into the liquor as well, but as I watched, Barton *literally* mocked someone to death. I swear I'm not making this up.
 
At any rate, in we pressed, and again Barton had some surprises up his sleeve. He dashed ahead and let off one of his explosive thunder attacks, and goblins could be seen flying all over, mostly into walls, and mostly to their death. I think we were all thunderstruck, but Dagos summed up our astonishment best, as he exclaimed, "What the fuck is an acoustic gelatinous cube?" What indeed, my friend. What indeed.
 
We surrounded the remaining enemies and were able to dispatch them despite deep injuries to several in our party. As we swept the rest of the compound, we found several items of interest -- most notably, an order to the goblins to keep making attacks and to start taking prisoners -- it was closed with a wax seal bearing the symbol of the rose. I believe this will be an important clue in helping us track who is masterminding the operation, and will hopefully lead us closer to the blight that is besetting the world. We also found a prisoner -- a trader -- along with his gear. We offered to escort him back to town where he could gather a cart and oxen to reclaim what he lost here. That may also prove to be a source of work for us to keep us going as I continue to search for signs of any Druid enclaves in the area.