Session 1 - Goblin Ambush

General Summary

Date: 10th Day of Mirtul 1491 DR

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The Party:
Aether – Level 1 Human Druid
Duncun – Level 1 Human Fighter
Kailo - Level 1 Wood Elf Monk

Report:

The Party's dwarf friend, Gundren Rockseeker, hires them to escort a wagon of supplies to Phandalin. Gundren along with a warrior from Waterdeep named Sildar Hallwinter, go on ahead as the supply wagon is going to take a couple of days to be ready.

Our party: a young druid named Aether eager for adventure, a fighter by the name of Duncun who has earned some renown on the docks of Neverwinter, and a traveling Wood Elf monk by the name of Kailo -set off from Neverwinter to Phandalin traveling down The High Road without incident for a couple of days. On the third day, they make their way to the Triboar Trail and travel on it for about half a day when they come around a bend and spot two dead horses sprawled on the road ahead of them.

Duncun jumps off the wagon and goes to investigate the horses and notices that they belong to Gundren Rockseeker and Sildar Hallwinter. They are covered in arrows and seem to have been dead for about a day. As Duncun inspects the scene, Aether and Kailo notice goblins in the thickets with bows drawn ready to attack. Our party jumps into action to defend themselves - with Aether using her druidic magic to spray the goblins with poison, Kailo using his martial arts and Duncun drawing his longbow.

After the skirmish, the party takes a short rest, then inspects the area and find a trail on the north side of the road hidden behind the thickets. Goblin tracks show traffick coming up and down the trail as well as evidence that two human-sized objects were hauled away from the ambush site. The party decides that their friend must have been kidnapped and decide to follow the trail after hiding the cart of supplies off the road in the thickets. Duncun leads the way down the trail and after about ten minutes triggers a snare and goes flying into the air by the ankle - becoming suspended ten feet off the ground. Aether carefully lowers Duncun to the ground and recovers the rope used in the trap. Kailo then decides to take the lead and after another ten minutes down the trail easily spots a poorly camouflaged pit. The party easily evade the trap by simply walking around it and continue down the trail.

Five miles down the trail they come across a large cave in a hillside, with a shallow stream flowing out of the mouth of the cave. The party notices a couple of goblins hidden in the thickets outside of the cave mouth and attempt to stealthy move in to ambush them. While Kailo silently makes his way across the stream to close the distance between him and the goblins, Aether and Duncun loudly make their way north closer to the mouth cave to get a better angle for range attacks. The goblins hearing the commotion lookout, one of them making eye contact with Kailo who is ten feet away from the goblin. A skirmish ensues and the party makes quick work of the two lookouts in front of the cave.

The party makes its way to the cave entrance, upon seeing the lack of light inside the cave and Kailo advising Aether and Duncun not to light any torches as it would give away the fact that they are there - goes in alone to sneakily do some scouting. He finds a dark chamber with three aggressive looking wolves chained into the base of a stalagmite, he feeds them some rations to appease and distract the wolfs, and continues to move through the cave noticing more passageways and a bridge 20 feet above the stream about 50 feet from the cave entrance as well as the sound of a waterfall growing louder as he moves deeper into the caves main passage. Kailo moves past the bridge and notices a pool of water plus said waterfall. He then returns to the entrance to inform his companions of what he has seen and advises them to follow him in and hug the right wall of the cave as they make their way in the dark.

When the party make their way to where the bridge is suspending above them they suddenly hear a mighty roar, as a huge surge of rushing water pours down the main passage, The party manages to hold their ground and prevent themselves from being swept away. After this Kailo tells his two human friends to stay put as he moves on ahead to see what lies further down the passage. As Kailo makes his way thirty feet ahead of the rest of the party another surge of rushing water pours down the passage, Kailo manages to jump out of the way into a side passage where he becomes face to face with a goblin who is standing up a flight of roughly cut steps. Aether and Duncun, however, are caught off-guard by the second surge and are swept away to the entrance of the cave. Kailo becomes entangled in combat with the goblin on the steps while Duncun and Aether make a mad dash back into the dark cave to reach their friend. As they make their way down the main passage a goblin on the bridge shoots at them and they feel the rush of air as the arrow passes by their heads. Duncun takes a shot in the dark and hears the smacking of flesh hitting the hard cave floor. Meanwhile with the goblin having the high ground in their skirmish and Kailo badly injured, retreats back to his friends. Aether produces some fire so that her and Duncun can see and heals the badly injured Kailo. With a light source, Duncun easily makes quick work of a second goblin as it runs onto the bridge to aim and shoot at the party. Our heroes then make their way back to the stair passageway and fight to make their way into the chamber. Now together they are able to make a stand against the goblins, slaying them and making their way into the chamber with the waterfall.

Bruised and battered our party makes their way to a chamber directly south of the one they fought so hard to get in. Seeing a firelight emitting from the southern chamber, they decide to head in and have a rest around the fire. Aether notices a wolf hiding and goes up to it begins to pet it the thing. Duncun & Kailo seeing that there looted provisions piled up against the southern and eastern walls as well as a chest go rummaging around. Opening up the chest Duncun finds a beautiful Jade statuette of a frog with tiny golden orbs for eyes and puts it in his prison pocket while Kailo grabs two red potions from the chest. Just then a bloodied Goblin jumps out of the crates near Kailo screaming and attacks him. The goblin stabs Kailo, and Kailo in return kills the goblin with a well-placed hit. As the party gets over the shock of this Aether hears a deep voice in common say "Ripper attack" and the placid wolf that Aether is petting suddenly and viciously attacks her, as a Tall bulky, very hairy goblinoid emerges from behind one the stalagmites, laughs at the party and says "You dare to defy Klarg?" A battle ensues and Klarg makes short work of our party easily taking out Duncun, then Aether. Kailo in desperation downs one of the unknown potions and is healed, but it is not enough as Klarg laughing the whole time and his wolf Ripper make short work of him as well.......

Rewards Granted

Jade statuette of a frog with tiny golden orbs for eyes (40 gp)
Two Potions of Healing.

Missions/Quests Completed

Deliver wagon of supplies to Phandalin - Ongoing - Reward: 10gp per person.
Find Gundren Rockseeker and Sildar Hallwinter - Ongoing

Character(s) interacted with

Cragmaw Goblin tribe
Klarg - Leader of the Cragmaw bandits
Ripper - Klarg's pet wolf

Report Date

23 Sep 2019

Primary Location

Triboar Trail

Secondary Location

Cragmaw Hideout