The Ambush
Our Adventurers set off on 3rd of Sumnar 5756 AGD after they were hired by Gundren Rockseeker to bring some supplies to Barthen’s Provisions in Flanting following a few days of banter the group the group encountered a strange figure, the Astral Elf known as Yasear Dreamwalker who was looking for where the party is, after a few suggestions Kreig suggested he join them, and so he did. Later on they encountered some dead horses with arrows in their bodies on the Tailwind trail and they were ambushed on the Tailwind trail by a group of 6 Goblins catching everyone off guard except Yasear. the goblins instantly knocked down Hugo, who only regained consciousness after Yasear healed him and misdirected the goblins while waiting for the others to make sense of the situation, the fighting was bitter with both side taking hits until once again Hugo was knocked down but to his delight was once again saved by the new Astral friend who then retaliated by frying the weakest Goblin with thunder, with Kreig following his lead by smashing the goblin attacking him with his greatsword Jeanne. Ramen seeing his chance went straight for the leader dealing a great blow which was however answered back with a massive strike from his poisoned weapon, Tet would be using his size to fight the goblin coming up their flank as Kreig took a poison hit, as all seemed lost Ramen would deal the mortal blow to the goblin leader, finishing him and leaving the other goblins demoralised and giving Tet the chance to heal Ramens wounds and a Hugo the chance to slit the throat of the goblin harassing Kreig from behind. The goblins seeing the tide turn start to turn and run, with one of them instantly being skull crushed by the bardbarian in front of Tets eyes and the other Immolated by Yasear and writhing to death in pain finally ending fight. after combat had ended the group investigated the remains of the goblins and the area, with Ramen finding goblin teeth on the goblins and Kreig finding an empty map case on the dead horses where Hugo noticed these were the horses Gundren set off on. The group eventually started talking amongst themselves and discovered more about eachother including the history of elves and Tets Phase disease. Hugos investigation found a some footprints leading into a bush filled trail but opted to take a shot break to heal from the wounds of the battle, entertain themselves with stories and song and hide the oxen cart, eventually proceeding down the thicket they encountered many traps with Ramen falling into a pitfall trap with Hugo helping him recover. they soon came out of the thicket to a clearing, and in this clearing they found a cave.
Into the Cave
The party had come across Stonetooth cave, treading lightly, Tet spotted goblins and alerted the party but also alerted the goblins Yasear threw and illuminated stone with intention to distract but all this did was alert them of the parties presence, Ramen unaware of the situation was informed by me and he sprang into action and leapt across the stream blocking their way out the bushes they hid behind, one moved towards Ramen only to be crushed with his maul "there is one goblin here" Ramen said, Hugo attempted to trick the remaining goblin but failed and Tet attempted to burn it with his magic which he did but not enough to kill. The goblin was scared and began to run to the stream in panic and launched an attack on tet with strong results while resisting all attempts to stop him until Hugo finished him with a massive fireball leaving the goblin unable to cool his burns with in the stream. Hugo noted that these goblins seemed to be on guard for some reason and would most likely have alerted their friends and ramen not been in the way. The group decided to tread more carefully and Hugo stole the form of one of the goblins as a disguise and Yasear picked up his light stone. The group soon pressed on into the cave, I could hear snarling in the cave so went in stealthily and we soon encountered 3 wolves chained up in the cave, Ramen decided to tear a goblin arm from the fallen goblin at the entrance and threw it to the wolves for them to eat which proved a great distraction, moving on they came to a second passageway in the cavern splitting from the trail following the stream, as they discussed their options a massive roar and water and the entire passage way was flooded with all managing to avoid with only myself getting caught into the flood and thrown out of the cave and shots from the dark hit Ramen causing him pain as Hugo dropped his disguise, Hugo used his magic to create an image of Ramen while Tet summoned a magical flame in an attempt to light the way. Yasear seeing the goblins on the bridge fired a bolt from hiss crossbow hitting it square in the middle of its eyes, killing it instantly with its body falling in the water and floating down the stream. Ramen was still recovering from the arrows lit a torch himself only to once more hear a roar with water rushing him from his feet and sending him to the mouth of the cave extinguishing his torch, Hugo would drop his illusion of Ramen and take its form in an attempt to convince the goblins he was an illusion. with Yasear continuing his fire as I and Ramen charged into the cave only to be met with a hail of arrows, Hugo tricking the goblins with his magic got the jump on one of them and immolated him with his fire. Ramen took a strike from a charging goblin but the goblin was smashed against the wall in retaliation mangling him and then taking cover under the bridge as I threw a hand axe at the last goblin on the bridge splitting his head in 2 and giving the party a chance to breath.
Klarg and Rippers lair
The party resumed following the stream and found steps into a large open area of the cave with 2 large almost empty basins with a small waterfall falling into the first. proceeding they found a room full of provisions and a smouldering campfire and were ambushed by another group of goblins including a bugbear and wolf, the bugbear immediately rushed Ramen and took him down while 2 of the goblins rushed me and started slashing at me hard. hugo startled the bugbear and attempted a slash at him with the dagger, Tet healed Ramen to consciousness as I held back the majority of the group of goblins screaming at the group to handle the bugbear, the fighting was tense with Ramen enraging and striking the bugbear hard taking his eye and Hugo hitting the goblin that is attacking at range with his fireballs, Tet using his fire attacks to immolate the bugbear. I held fast against the large group but was bitten by the bugbears wolf, angry I decapitated the wolf as its master was immolated to death by Yasear and his radiant flame. Seeing their master go down in flames one of the goblins attempted to run and hit Hugo along the way, Ramen moved in and bludgeoned one of the goblins attacking me as Hugo burnt the other one attacking me to death. for a moment the group fought it was over but they heard the rattling of chains echo through the cave, Tet followed the goblin however and set him alight, catching the wolves scent and distracting them from the party.
After the battle the party surveyed a room, the room included a box with a blue lion indicating it came from the blue lions and a treasure chest, opening the chest the party found 600 copper pieces, 110 Silver pieces, 2 potions of healing and jade frog statue, blue lion company crates full of weapons that could be part of the weapons he was sent to find, I also found a necklace on the bugbears corpse, the group left Hugo to guard the weapons as they sought to clear the rest of the cave, proceeding across the wooden bridge and walking through a tunnel in the cave the party soon encountered more goblins and attempted to sneak up on them but my armor proved our undoing and we were seen after taking out a goblin quickly Tet spotted Silvar, the man who rode out with their employer earlier and resolved to save him. more goblins soo entered their line of sight and started to volley the group with arrows and knock down Tet with their bolas, after withstanding the arrows Ramen charged in crushing the goblin in front of him with his strength as I also ran in and after kissing my sword Jeanne for good luck and sliced downward cutting the creature in half, seeing half his men cut down the goblin leader decided to parlay, offering Sildars life in exchange for killing Klarg, however the party had already killed Klarg so the leader asked for gold instead, I was unimpressed with him changing the deal upon discovery of his leaders demise, after a short haggle the goblins agreed to let the man go for the previous killing of Klarg and the group started making their way back to Klargs cavern Sildar told them gundrne was taken to the goblins castle so the group went back to talk to the goblins, the leader was angry they had returned and were demanding more, however Yasears intimidation attempts as I tried to persuade the Goblin failed and the party walked back to the Hugo, Sildar and the weapons.
It took us a while to get the weapons back to the ox drawn cart and by the time we did it was almost midnight so the party decided to set up camp, as the night went on the everyone conversed and ate and Sildar gathered everyone round the fire to tell them the true reason for their hiring lay in the discovery of Wave Echo Cave and regaled us with its history saying,
"More than five hundred years ago, clans of dwarves and gnomes made an agreement known as the Flandelver Pact, by which they would share a rich mine in a wondrous cavern known as Wave Echo Cave. In addition to its wealth of Demi-Ore and other minerals, the mine contained great magical power. Human spellcasters allied themselves with the dwarves and gnomes to channel and bind that energy into a great forge (called the Forge of Spells), where magic items could be crafted. Times were good, and the nearby human town of Flanting prospered as well. But then disaster struck when orcs swept through the North and laid waste to all in their path.
A powerful force of orcs reinforced by evil mercenary wizards attacked Wave Echo Cave to seize its riches and magic treasures. Human wizards fought alongside their dwarf and gnome allies to defend the Forge of Spells, and the ensuing spell battle destroyed much of the cavern. Few survived the cave-ins and tremors, and the location of Wave Echo Cave was lost.
For centuries, rumours of buried riches have attracted treasure seekers and opportunists to the area around Flanting, but no one has ever succeeded in locating the lost mine. Until the the Rockseeker brothers found the entrance recently."
Upon the End of his story Sildar urged the adventurers to help find Gundren and not knowing where to start looking for Stonetooth Castle the group decided to make their way to their original destination of Flanting in order to ask around for info on where such a castle may be.
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