Session Two : Into the Mines

The group talks to the crownsguard captain, Cullen Cepeda, and give him all the information they have, including the ransom note that they found. He informs them that the goblin attacking force kidnapped three citizens from the town: Van Jurado, Tremayne Wilson, and Magnolia Shaw. He asked the group to take two of his crownsguard as help, if they are willing to go to the caves and rescue the prisoners. He mentions that they arrested a large half-orc the night before, if they want to inquire at the jail about maybe bringing them along as well. The captain offers them 50 GP per goblin ear, and another 50 per each living citizen they save. The group accepts the offer, and after Arhjan purchases a short sword from the blacksmith, they take a night’s rest at The Sleepy Cat, and they start their journey to the northeast the following morning.
On the path north, as night falls, the group sees a bright glow and a plume of smoke to the east of them, about half a mile into the forest. Ramathorn, Phelorna and a crownsguard go to investigate while the rest of the group waits on the trail. Upon reaching a clearing, they discover the source of the fire. It is a small fire, with what looks like a recently used campsight, and a chest full of various items that could fetch a pretty penny if sold to the right vendor, as well as a long sword. The crownsguard inspects the campsite, but finds nothing else of note. Ramathorn sends a magical signal into the sky, leading the rest of the group to go into the forest, where they eventually rendezvous with the others.
Upon arriving, Arhjan slowly approaches the chest, and once he picks it up, the air beyond him begins to quiver and the chest disappears, as there is a hideous high-pitched laugh that erupts all around the group. Suddenly, a green hag leaps over Arhjan, striking one of the crownsguard with her claw. The crownsguard is seriously wounded, Arhjan then goes to stand over the wounded crownsguard to protect him. The rest of the group rushes out of the forest to help the other two companions. Several rounds of combat ensue, where it is apparent the witch did not expect a large group to attack her. The witch turns invisible, which causes the other crownsguard to run away in terror, however Arhjan sees her with his truesight, since she is standing right next to him. He slices her with his shortsword, causing her invisibility effect to disappear. Nordak attacks her with his sword as well, cleaving an arm off of her body. Ramathorn casts firebolt, which finishes the hag once and for all. As she falls to the ground, her body fades, and a green plume of smoke drifts off to the northwest. They search her hut, where they discover some GP, and also discover half of a torn map of a cave.
After taking a long rest, the continue onto the caves. Arriving just before dusk, Ramathorn notices goblin tracks leading into and out of the cave, towards the surrounding forest. The group enters, avoiding the traps the goblins have laid. They kill a goblin guard, where the discover another piece of map, however, it is hard to make heads or tails of the map at that point, and they aren’t even sure if it is even a map of the cave they are in. The group picks the lock into a side room, where they find two healing potions. Ramathorn decides to walk back to the front of the cave to try and decipher the map. Rounding the corner, he sees a goblin patrol entering the cave, he rushes back to the group to inform them, and they decide to hide in the room that they unlocked. The goblin patrol eventually passes.
Continuing into the cave, they come across a large dining hall of sorts. Inside there are four goblins, a humanoid creature, one of the kidnapped Halflings, and curiously, a crownsguard who seems to be conversing with the other humanoid creature. They devise a plan to split up, with half the group hiding in the unlocked room waiting to ambush, and the other half luring as many goblins out of the dining hall as possible. The plan succeeds, and they kill two goblins that ran out of the dining hall, and capture the crownsguard to question him about what he is doing there. While the rest of the group then proceeds into the dining hall to engage the remaining enemies, Kilmeros questions the captured crownsguard. He reveals that some fancy dressed person in green and gold robes approached him late in the night, and offered him a large amount of gold to help kidnap the Halflings, and to give as much information about the town’s defenses and plans for the festival. Upon discovering that he knows nothing else of value, Kilmeros kills the crownsguard.
Kilmeros then joins the group in the dining hall, where after seeing the humanoid escape down a passage on the far end of the dining hall, she decides to go and block that door so nothing can go in or come out. The group then quickly kills the remaining enemies, and tells the Halfling to go hide in the unlocked room closer to the entrance. Ramathorn surveys the room, and determines several things: first, that this seems to be more of an old abandoned mining operation, more than a cave. Second, he sees some curious markings on the wall. There is a symbol of a dragon, a golden ring, a werewold, and an odd bronze to seafoam green staining of sorts, arranged vertically from top to bottom. He also finds a Platinum piece, a silver piece and a copper piece on the goblins in the hall.
The group continues on down the path towards where the humanoid figure went. At the end of the hallway there is a mining shaft. The group rappels down, and while walking through the room that follows, they discover several traps, however the only one that is hurt by the traps is Phelorna. Continuing on, the path begins to descend, eventually reaching a large open circular room, where the bulk of the goblin force is hiding, as well as the other Halfling. A large fight ensues, with Phelorna coming close to being knocked unconscious. Nordak kills the goblin who is about to attack her, cleaving him into three pieces with his dual swords. Ramathorn and Kilmeros defeat the remaining goblins, and the humanoid creature begins fleeing while knocking out the supporting structures in the room. As he leaves the room, he hits a hidden switch, activating a flooding mechanism, and destroying the doorway where the group entered. The only option is to follow the humanoid.
They eventually reach a dead-end room, where the humanoid creature has locked them in and buried them from outside. The group desperately searching the room, with Phelorna eventually feeling a draft on the western wall of the room. Ramathorn inspects the area, and suspecting it is a magic door, places his hand on the wall. Four circles begin to appear, arranged from top to bottom, with the same symbols that they saw in the dining hall. After some talking, and with the water up to their knees, the group figures out that they need to place a PP, GP, SP, CP into the circles into the wall. The door opens and the group rushes out, Ramathorn quickly grabbing the PP as he leaps through the door, nearly being crushed by it as it slams shut. The group continue down the path and slowly ascend as they see moonlight ahead.
The group decides to press on towards town after retrieving the other Halfling, however, as midnight approaches, they cut through the forest into a clearing. As they reach the center of the clearing, the air grows still, and six hands reach from the ground, grabbing onto the adventurers and one of their Halfling charges…

Date

Freve 21, 200 - Freve 23, 200

Dragonguard Members:

Arhjan

Kilmeros

Phelorna

Ramathorn