DM: @Jacksus
Players:
Bran (Paladin 2, Warlock 1) [@Waylander322]
GarGot (Druid 3) [@Tim]
Destiny (Sorcerer 3) [@Troy]
Gottlieb (Paladin 3) [@LtAugie]
Julijonas (Bard 4) [@RedIron]
Minago (Barbarian 1, Monk 1) [@D20 NERD]
Summary for the impatient
– We went on a rescue mission to save a local family from goblins and were able to bring 5 back and 1 goblin prisoner
– Didn’t clear all of the goblin cave, so something is still left to do there including an ogre and a goblin shaman? (Landra)
– According to a woodsman a large undead was seen near the fork of the road 5 hexes away from Ruined Oak
– Pietrov Kovachi had some of his goods stolen by another goblin tribe. He pays good coins to get it back.
– Towards the end of the log you’ll find a summary of events happening in the Ruined Oak graveyard after the goblin who got taken prisoner was executed and buried there
The beginning of the mission:
We are in the morning in Ruined Oak as a young girl rides hard into town seemingly in distress and in need of help. Crying she tells us of an ambush during the night on the road. Her dad put her on a horse and send her off. According to the girl this happened only a few hours ago and that there are 6 people missing.
We let the guards bring the girl to a warm place and rush out to the east of town from where she came. As we are hurrying down the road we don’t see anything unusual though one or two hours later we find a group of workers who tell us of rumors of bandits and goblins past the fork of the road up ahead.
A few more hours pass until we reach the fork of the road where we immediately see a demolished wagon that has been hit several times by something very heavy. Potentially the one armed ogre the girl mentioned?
Besides the wagon we also notice a woodsman by the name of Eric (Ehrick) who answers some questions and mentions that there is a large undead creature in the area. Something about him seems to be off though.
Following the tracks in the snow
To not loose any more time we then follow the tracks that are very clearly visible in the snow. These lead us to a bearcave, that previously was owned by some bandits but according to Eric was conquered by the goblins recently driving the bandits out.
Minago tells us about some smoke rising from up the hill though we decide to go through the cave entrance.
Close to the entrance Julijonas, who turns invisible and stays that way during our time in the cave, spots two bears sleeping but nothing else so we focus on the southern part of the cave.
We do hear scream coming from somewhere back in the cave and try to move closer to find the missing family members.
Finding the goblins in the cave
We spot broken pieces of pottery on the floor mixed with a bit of blood. As Minago steps over the pieces he manages to dodge a large log that swings through the narrow tunnel. That would have knocked him out for sure otherwise!
At that point drums are sounding in the cave and we are highly alarmed by these sounds.
At the end of one of the tunnels where the sound of the drums is coming from is a large curtain of some kind. Behind that we find a horrible sight of a large bonfire on a higher level in the small cave behind the curtain and a man who is apparently being eaten alive. His screams of pain wake us of our stupor and we fight the 6 goblins and 1 bugbear in this cave.
Later on there are 3 swarms of rats coming and another 5 goblins. At the end of the fight we take one goblin as our prisoner while another one gets away to a part to the back of the cave. A bit confusing was that Destiny got very big towards the end of the fight but shrunk back a minute later or so.
Attempting to heal the man who was being eaten alive and who has half of his leg missing we find out that one of their friends is still missing somewhere in this cave.
The search for the missing person
We are walking carefully towards the way the one goblin escaped to. Julijonas who we still can’t see tells us to stay here and scouts up ahead. She reports of an overwhelming smell of death and decay. We decide to go further nonetheless and hear some scream in the distance and something heavy hitting the floor that sounds like a dead body meeting the floor.
We look each other in the eye and decide to not risk another ambush or something even worse and have been already bruised in the previous fight. To not risk the just rescued familiy members and assuming that the last missing person is dead we decide to leave the cave instead.
However it should be noted that the one armed ogre was not found and that there is a goblin named Landra who seems to be some kind of priestess for some evil entity.
We did get rid of 11 of the twelve goblins we knew of in these caves.
Maybe someone has some time to clear the rest of the cave soon?
Also there was a symbol tattooed on each of the goblins on different parts of their body. I have no idea what it means but I will try to recreate it in case it becomes important at some point.
Leaving the cave and meeting the Kovachi family
We are then leaving the cave with the 5 family members and the one goblin we found. On our way back to Ruined Oak we make some good progress. A few hours later we find a group of traveling merchants.
The leader of the group named Pietrov Kovachi offers us to stay at their camp for the night and are a very helpful sight for the exhausted group of ours. In total the Kovachi consist of 6 members. Pietrov, Alenka, Bela, Lela, Damia and Sorvia Kovachi.
Pietrov clearly values his family very high and asks us to put a good word in for them in Ruined Oak. He also mentions that they have been robbed by a group of goblins and based upon what he tells us it was not the same group that we slew today. However he is willing to pay good money to get his stuff back or if not possible for the heads of these goblins. So adventurer who you read this – maybe this is an opportunity for you?
Returning to Ruined Oak
Some of the wounded people we have brougth back from the cave are offered to rest inside the warm tent of the Kovachis. After an uneventful night we are able to reach Ruined Oak the next morning and are able to reunite the little girl with her father.
From the rescued dad we receive a letter that reads “A77” which must be some encrypted content as we are told to bring that to his wife and to receive something for it.
We find a woman that sells pottery in town and give her the paper. She recognizes these kinds of messages and gives us a small chest full of coins.
And by this our adventure ends though we couldn’t accomplish everything that there might have been. But this just means that more adventures and work for us, the people of the AFK are to be had!
Appendix: Scenes at the Ruined Oak graveyard
According to the guards Medici, Sammy and their leader Whitham the goblin that was buried in the graveyard after being executed appears to have risen a few days later. Another guard was on the graveyard and was slain by the creature. According to the report the goblin clearly shows marks of decay and the mortal wound from execution has not closed. However the claws of it appear to have grown since death and the body appears to be more resilient than before.
Maybe this has something to do with the strange tattoo on the goblin? I wonder what happened to the other corpses that we left behind in the cave. In the worst case there could be up to eleven creatures like this one still in there. Someone needs to check…
