The Dripping Caves
Played on April 7, 2019
16 Tarsakh, The Year of Twelve Warnings (1494 DR)
Village of Nightstone, The Sword Coast
After defeating the Zhentarim agents, Grat Ur’Gray tasked the surviving guards of Nightstone with burning all the goblin and Zhentarim bodies. He had the remaining Zhentarim agents who surrendered imprisoned in Nander Keep’s dungeon. He then instructed the guards to find all of the dead villagers and bury them in the village cemetery. Lady Velrosa Nandar’s body, however, was to be buried after the villagers had all been rescued. Grat insisted that Lady Nandar be given the proper noble’s burial she rightfully deserved.
Meanwhile, two of the guards spotted a lone traveler at the village entrance. The figure was armored in plate, wielded a halberd, and carried a quiver of javelins on his back. He also had a backpack filled with adventuring supplies strapped to his back.
When directed to speak to Grat, whom the guards regarded as the village’s leader following the death of Lady Nandar, the traveler introduced himself as Austen Rayburton, a cleric of Lathander. He said he had traveled to Nightstone to meet with Hiral Mystrum, the village’s acolyte of Lathander.
“What happened here?” Austen asked Grat shocked at the devastation he was seeing around him. Austen was also suprised to see a bugbear living among humans and even regarded as a leader by the villagers. His family originated from Cormyr, the Forest Kingdom, although they now called Daggerford home. Austen was still a young boy when his family moved to Cormyr. In all of his years, he had never personally met a bugbear. In the stories he had heard while growing up or in his adventures, bugbears were always compared to goblins and hobgoblins; they were considered monsters to be feared.
Grat told Austen all that had happened, from the giants’ attack upon Nightstone to the score of goblins who later arrived to pillage the helpless village. He added that many of the villagers had fled during the night of the attack and were now hiding in the Dripping Caves, a mile north of the village. However, a goblin Grat had questioned but who later escaped, mentioned that a goblin tribe had moved into the Dripping Caves a month ago. A particulary powerful goblin named Hark led the tribe and had even allied himself with other humanoids from the area.
After hearing what Grat said, Austen introduced himself to the others and offered to help rescue the villagers. But first, he asked if he could have something to eat since he had been traveling for some time.
***
Together, the four adventurers made up of Daemarr Sirius, an elf ranger, Belton Cutpurse, a halfling rogue, and Austen Rayburton, all led by Grat Ur’Gray, readied themselves and left Nightstone bound for the Dripping Caves.
The tracks left behind by the fleeing villagers were not hard to follow. Daemarr, after carefully examining the villagers’ tracks, deduced that over thirty villagers made up of men, women, and children of various races from Nightstone had escaped the giants’ attack upon the village.
One set of prints found belonged to a heavyset dwarf.
Grat took it as a good omen that his father, Morak, may still be alive.
Halfway to the caves, they came upon a lone ogre who had been chasing a wild hare. The ogre spotted the group from a distance and, although outnumbered, attacked the party.
The encounter didn’t last long. The ogre threw its only javelin at the group but had missed. Still far enough away, Daemarr and Belton shot at the ogre. Grat threw an axe at the ogre and struck it. He then summoned his bonded weapon back to his hand.
Belton had struck the ogre once. But it was Daemarr who, using only four arrows, had easily slain the ogre. After searching the ogre and finding no other threat in the area, the group continued on their way.
Once they arrived at the Dripping Caves, the adventurers spotted a large entrance, some fifteen feet wide and twenty feet high, leading into the caves.
After Belton suggested scouting the area for other possible entrances or exits, Daemarr offered to scout the area.
After an hour, the ranger returned to the group, who were hiding far enough away to avoid being seen. He reported finding three other entrances leading into the caves.
Daemarr said at the base of the hill, on the west side, was a narrow tunnel into which a stream flowed into the caves. On the east side of the hill, he came upon a dry, long tunnel that gently sloped down into the caves. He said the tunnel went on for some distance, beyond the sixty foot range of his darkvision. Finally, Daemar said that if everyone climbed to the top of the hill they could enter the caves through a natural chimney made up of a 5-foot-diameter shaft that descended fifty feet into the caves. The chimney had abundant handholds and could be climbed with some ease, although he said the climb would be safer with a rope or climbing gear.
“None of the entrances were guarded,” Daemarr reported.
After spending some time discussing the options Daemarr presented, the group collectively agreed to enter the caves through the dry tunnel on the east side. They hoped to quietly enter the Dripping Caves, but knew they knew they would have to use a light source since Belton and Austen could not see in the dark. The light would easily give them away to anyone inside the caves, but they had no other choice.
The group made their way to the east side of the hill. As the group readied themselve to enter the Dripping Caves, Austen cast the spell, light, on a copper coin and held it in one hand, spreading his fingers just enought to shed light a few feet in front of him. He then took the lead, holding the halberd in one hand and the illuminated coin in the other. Daemarr followed close behind him, his deadly longbow drawn. Grat, his axes in his hands, trailed behind Daemarr. Belton took up the rear, a light crossbow held in both hands.
After following the tunnel for some time, the group entered a small fifteen-foot wide twenty-foot high circular cave. Stalactites and stalagmites crowded the cave.
Rising up from the middle of the floor was a particularly large ten-foot-tall stalagmite riddled with hundreds of four-inch diameter holes that seemed to go into it for several or more inches.
The group noticed a pair of badly corroded goblin scimitars lying at the base of the stalagmite.
Closer inspection suggested the holes were somehow naturally made, but how no one was certain. The corroded scimitars also pointed to whatever had made the holes had damaged the swords as well.
Not wanting to risk encountering whatever had made the holes or corroded the goblin blades, the adventurers pressed on. Two narrow tunnels led out of the cave. Down one tunnel, they heard sound like that of running water. The other tunnel was quieter so they chose it.
The tunnel opened into a vast main cavern with a forest of stalagmites in its center and ten-foot-high ledges along its walls. Water dripped from the stalactite-covered ceiling, which rose to a height of thirty feet in the middle of the cavern. Six naturally formed tunnels led from the central cavern to other parts of the cave complex. The floor was littered with broken spears, broken shields, and drops of bat guano.
Grat, using his darkvision, could see farther into the main cavern. He spotted goblin sentries on top of the ledges. Each was armed with a shortbow and a scimitar. Grat also spotted a male ogre bathing in a pool of mud, its greatclub resting at the edge of the pool within arms’s reach.
Occasionally, a bubble rose from deep in the mudpool where the ogre sat. When it burst, the ogre let out a chuckle and covered his nose, which made the goblins laugh and roll on the ledges.
“Ah, must be human I eaten,” the ogre said in common.
“Better not wake up your mate, Nob,” one goblin said in common to the ogre.
“Nah, Thog no wake for nothin’,” Nob said. “It why I luvs her.”
Grat quickly told everyone what he saw.
Austen flipped the copper coin into the cavern.
The brightly lit coin landed a short distance away and bathed the cavern in bright light.
The light revealed a female ogre, asleep inside the forest of stalagmites in the cavern’s center. A few large javelins were within reach of the sleeping ogre.
Alerted by the bright light, the goblins yelled “Bree-yark”. Hearing the goblins, the ogre in the pool of mud roared, grabbed his greatclub, and stepped out of the pool.
The group was shocked–to say the least–to see a mud-caked naked ogre sporting a large…greatclub rushing at them while the goblins drew their bows, ready to rain arrows down on the party.
The battle was fierce.
The male ogre didn’t last long but had managed to deal some damage before he was slain. The female ogre roared in anger at the sight of her mate being slain. She pressed the attack but, along with the goblins on the ledges, was ultimately killed by the brave and skilled adventurers.
All but one goblin on the ledges had been killed. The farthest goblin on a ledge, with no more fight left in it, tried to climb down but lost its footing. It fell some ten feet and broke its foot. It quick got up and limped
The adventurers went to where the goblin fell. Traces of blood could be seen leading into a side tunnel which led deeper into the cave complex.
“The goblin injured itself when it fell,” Austen said. “Let’s follow the tracks. Hopefully, it’ll lead us right to the villagers.”
The group agreed and entered the side tunnel. There was still the tribe’s leader, Hark, to deal with.
More important, the adventurers worried about being able to successfully rescue the villagers.
Relations
Protagonists
Austen Rayburton (Male Human Cleric of Lathander/Fighter)
Belton Cutpurse (Male Lightfoot Halfling Rogue)
Daemarr Sirius (Male Elf Ranger)
Grat Ur’Gray (Male bugbear Eldritch Knight)
Plot type
Chapter
Parent Plot
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