A Taste of the Shadow

General Summary

After the companions convinced Popo to forsake his life of adventure, they returned the hapless Hobbit to his mother and the red gem to its rightful owner. All in all, a successful turn of events despite Rooty's close brush with Momma Whitbottom's not so subtle attempts at matchmaking.
Following the Greenway north, the group eventually made its way into the rugged country just south of the North Downs. While Damian kept his eyes to the road, Rooty searched the nearby woods and spied a farmstead that raised her feeling of alarm. As night closed in, Hamish and Rooty crept forward through the woods for a better look and saw that the house was dark with no sign of life within. Even worse, the doors of the nearby barn were left wide open.
Damian and Rooty moved toward the front of the house while Hamish circled around the side. Elbereth stayed behind at the fence line to guard the group's back. Moving closer to the front door, Damian moved past a stack of hay bales and found the corpse of a farmer who had been badly butchered. Wrenching an arrow from the dead man's body, the ranger recognized the work of goblins.
Elbereth, hidden in the woods, picked up movement to her left and watched as two goblins left the shadows of the trees and raised their bows to fire upon her unsuspecting friends. The elf shouted a warning to her friends as she fired an arrow into the nearest goblin. Rooty, seeing one of the goblins break from cover to flee north, unshouldered her bow and shot the little pest in its arse, killing the creature. Elbereth dispatched the other goblin with an expert shot through its heart.
A search of the house revealed that a young family lived here, two parents and their infant child. The body Damian found was obviously the father. In the barn, the group discovered the body of the mother, mutilated like the father. No sign of the infant child, living or dead, could be found of the child. Based on the condition of the bodies, the party calculated that the attack had occurred the day before.
Damian found tracks leaving the farmstead heading north. Orcs and goblins.
And something larger. Heavier.

Report Date

04 Nov 2023