6. Cragmaw Castle

At dawn, the four adventurers awoke after a long rest in Daran Edermath's home. Revitalized, they traveled a path south into Phandalin proper to restock at the Lionshield Coster. They found villagers, at Sister Garaele's direction, cleaning up the mess from the prior evening: splintered tables and wagons, burned thatch buildings, and the blood of the dead. Hoping to speak to Sildar Hallwinter before their departure, they found that the Lord had already left the village for Bordertown with his prisoner, Iarno Albrek, in tow. Without another moment to lose, Azan Antar, Iron Bars, Skinnej-Yorel, and Zanrith Lucaryn began their journey east into the thick of Phandalin Forest.
After two and a half days' travel, the party came upon a small clearing in the oppressive canopy. A green bluff rose gently up to a plateau upon which rest an imposing, though crumbling castle. The fortress was rather large, boasting six round towers. In its day, it would have been a stalwart rampart. Zanrith and Iron Bars, hoping to secure an operable survey of the fortress, left the dwarf and half-orc behind in the cover of the trees. They crept quietly and slowly around the full perimeter of the structure finding three entrances: an apparent main gate that had long since been destroyed, a large, locked door of solid stone on the south-facing side, and a hidden entrance obscured by rubble and canvas on the north side. As they crept around the castle's walls, they found arrow slits carved into each of the towers.
The two sleuths brought the intel back to Azan and Skinnej and discussed the possible plans of action. They decided to make for the locked door on the south side - it was closest and presented the least risk of alerting any guards or sentries that might dwell within the outward-facing towers. Exposing themselves for a brief moment, the party of four rushed across a patch of green incline and sidled up along the large stone staircase leading up to the door. Taking a moment to listen, the four concluded that their excursion had gone unnoticed. Zanrith used Iron Bars' thieves' tools to unlock the heavy postern and the four entered. The interior looked much the same: old and ruined, but its scale betrayed a brighter and grander past.
A door rested immediately to the party's left. They opened it to find a mess hall filled with some nine goblins, one fatter than the rest. The air inside was stale and stunk of rotting meat. When the goblins became aware of the adventurer on the far side of the room, they nearly trampled each other to get a chance at some action. They didn't expect to see an additional three combatants and were taken by surprise. As the goblins were funneled into a bottleneck at the side door, the adventurers slew them easily. The party continued on through the cramped hallways of the castle, encountering several more goblins and slaying them before the alarm could be raised. Skinnej fell victim to a trapped floor as he opened a door covered in dust. He was briefly engulfed in a crash of rubble. The sound of the crash alerted several goblins on the north side to the party's presence in the castle and the four fighters were forced to kill them quickly for fear of discovery.
After slaying some eighteen goblins in total, the party came across a room of bugbears. The furry brutes were in various stages of distraction and lazy dozing when they were confronted. The creatures put up a better fight than the piteous goblins, but were slain all the same. It wasn't until the party had passed through a makeshift shrine to Maglubiyet that they encountered any significant resistance. An alpha grick, lurking in the shadows on a ledge above them, leapt from its perch to consume its next meal. The slithering creature got in a few good strikes with its beak, claws, and tail, but was ultimately dispatched by the seasoned veterans.
Eventually the party managed to double back around to the south postern through which they had entered. Recalling the basic geometry of the structure from their earlier survey, they concluded that the largest of the extruding towers must house the chief of the Cragmaw goblins, King Grol. As three of the adventurers dealt with a couple more bugbears, Iron Bars ran off with an elvish and monkish speed to find a heavy wooden door, gilded with reinforcing iron brackets. He pushed the door open and found a massive bugbear wearing a tarnished crown speaking with a slender drow elf. Flanking the bugbear was a peckish-looking wolf, and in the corner of the room lay a beaten and bloody dwarf. The two in dialogue noticed the monk - Iron Bars heard the drow elf say, "we seem to have unwelcome guests. Perhaps we can finish brokering this mutually beneficial agreement after we deal with them." Iron Bars left as quickly as he had entered. Passing the nearest threshold, he called out left down the hallway to Azan, "drow elf, big furball, large cat right behind me." Azan let out an exasperated sigh as he extricated his battleaxe from the rent breastbone of the last and recently deceased bugbear.
King Grol and the drow elf pursued the monk out the door and down the hallway. The drow stopped and turned, noticing Azan Antar to his left, while the bugbear continued after Iron Bars. At the start, Skinnej and Iron Bars were left to combat the bugbear while Azan soloed the drow and Zanrith was left to deal with the wolf. Blows were exchanged all around. King Grol hammered Skinnej while the drow plunged her knives deep into the chinks in Azan's armor. The fighters answered in turn, dishing out damage with their magical weapons. Azan nearly slew the drow outright, charging and smashing her with his shield. Out of breath, she fled down back down the hallway.
Finding the tight corners of the castle's interior difficult to manage, by a stroke of bad luck, Zanrith ended up in front of King Grol who nearly beat him into unconsciousness with a single bone-crunching blow. Azan, lacing his speech with divine magic, provoked the massive bugbear into a one-on-one challenge. King Grol was slain like the rest, and as the drow fled into the room where Gundren lay bloodied and beaten, Iron Bars charged a blast of eldritch energy, firing like a canon at the dark elf and severing both her legs.
When all was said and done, the adventurers found not a drow elf, but a featureless, androgynous humanoid with blue skin. In their questioning, they learned that the creature had been dispatched to Cragmaw Castle to treat with the goblin tribe. After waylaying Gundren, the goblins had held onto the map to Wave Echo Cave that the dwarf kept so close and so secret. The blue humanoid was meant to secure that map by any means. The adventurers learned what they could from the paraplegic foe and executed it. They revived Gundren, and, after a brief and gruff reunion (in which the dwarf presented a particularly surly attitude), the party finished looting the castle, securing a number of quality weapons, a quarterstaff of ancient craft, and Sildar's gear, and departed for Phandalin.