Golden Mountain Trading Company: Expedition Log

8th of Brynholm, 28 AoR - The adventure was successfully completed by Abel, Darth, Spark, and Trothar.

General Summary

Notes - ask for requirements before accepting a guild posting on the board. Send contracts to involved parties when possible with clearly outlined payment and party requirements.
Upon speaking with the Golden Mountain Trading Company, we were made aware of a hole in their storage area which led to a tunnel into the sewers. After a bit of arguing with Dasalia Flintheart about our rate, the group decided to do the job and hope for a reasonable reward for our efforts. A guard took us to their storage area and pointed out the tunnel. At first glance I expected something to have been stolen, however, the guard informed us that nothing was taken.
On that suspicious note, we decided to investigate the tunnel further. After traversing a poorly formed tunnel we made our way into the sewers. The tunnel was obviously not made by a professional and meandered a little bit in random directions. This told me that whoever had made this tunnel was planning on robbing the guild, but did not know exactly where it was. Trothar noticed some strange tracks in the "mud" and we decided to follow them. Our routine investigation turned rather interesting at this point. To our surprise we had found our tunneler, however, he was long dead. From my surmising, he had been dead for at least two weeks. The poor soul with his ambitious dreams of heists and thievery had been torn to shreds. Various flaw marks and bites could easily be perceived and his footprints did not match the ones we had been previously following. The group decided that anything which can do this much damage must be exterminated immediately. After following the sewers for a few hours, we came across two notable areas. The first area being a locked door with a special gnomish lock attached. This lock requires both a key and a key word. With vocal recognition, the lock is pretty difficult to pick. Could be an interesting area for future expeditions, however, the legality of breaking this lock is murky as it most likely leads into a royal quarter.
The other notable find was a breach in the sewers near the river sewer exit. The strange tracks lead to this breach, so the group decided to proceed into the breach with caution. In the breach we found another tunnel, this one seeming more natural than the previously mentioned one. I even had trouble getting through this one, I can't imagine the discomfort my larger companions must have had traversing through this tunnel. Eventually the tunnel led to a larger cavern and near the entrance I spied a suspicious individual. Abel decided to go talk with this strange cavern dwelling tiefling and eventually decided, while suspicious, he was not a threat.
The tiefling explained his name was "Drillen" Oscar and that he was planning on participating in the heist with his now deceased friend. After finding his friend dead in the sewers, he bravely decided to try to avenge his death. This endeavor would prove to be rather foolish when Oscar ran into cave creatures which he had to run from. Upon his hasty retreat poor Oscar slipped and broke his leg. We found him clinging to life two weeks later. After a bit of medical intervention and some charitable rationing, I helped Oscar leave the caves insisting he leave his life of crime and try to make something of his life.
After meeting back up with the group, we decided to clear this cavern of it's carnivorous creatures. Our simple investigation had turned into a spelunking adventure. After a bit of travel down the cave, I was shocked to hear my companions battling with a few stirges and cave piercers. After returning to help them dispatch these baddies I was impressed to see how efficiently the party handled the encounter. After giving some medical attention to our light headed Darth, who had had a significant amount of blood lifted from his person by one of the stirges, we pressed on further down the cavern.

I decided to check ahead because my small stature and goggles of night made it much easier for me to see and move in the darkness. Up ahead I spotted multiple disgusting creatures which looked somewhat like lizard folk, but smelled many times worse. We had stumbled upon a troglodyte burrow. After reporting my findings to the group, we planned a surprise attack. We quickly dismantled the two monsters at the front of the burrow. A small amount of noise was made and three more small troglodytes and a really big one we assumed to be their chief approached us with grunts. To my surprise Trothar took this opportunity to transform into a brown bear! I'm not sure why, but for some reason I expected Trothar to exhibit some refrain from dismembering these troglodytes because they seemed like distant relatives. However on the contrary, the similarities must have enraged Trothar because he took a massive bite out of their chief. This apparently gave Darth false confidence, because he soon asked for my goggles of night and ran head first into all four of the enemy creatures. After landing some blows on the chief, the three smaller ones dug into Darth ferociously. A very strong bite and claw from Trothar, many blows from Darth and Abel, and an acidic blast from myself made quick work of our adversaries and soon the battle was over with us emerging victorious.
After the combat our group examined the claws on these beast and discovered that they were indeed the culprits guilty of the haynes murder of our poor criminal tunneler. I had noticed before the fight that two of the troglodytes were trying to block a smaller passage at the head of their burrow. After going through the opening, I found more dismembered troglodytes. They appeared to be ripped in half by some other beast of massive stature. Travelling further I spotted a very scary monstrous creature at the end of the cave. It was a hooked horror which I have heard terrible stories about. Knowing that they are extremely dangerous if approached in their territory, I went back and reported my findings to the group. After further discussion and a bit of calculation on my part, we decided to take note of the hooked horror den and come back another time with a more rested party.
If another party does go back down in the cavern, they may find the markings on the walls of interest. While I could not discern any information from the markings, they did seem worth noting. Some of them were drawn in blood, others carved, while another drawn in with dung. Another one of these markings was seen in the sewers at the body of the tunnel criminal. Also be very carious of the hooked horror as I said they are incredibly territorial and can be extremely dangerous if provoked.
-Spark Mechani

Report Date

17 Jan 2021