This meeting entailed a lot of clean up and return to Shakun - plus some sandboxing in order to find the goblins that might or might not be involved with the goblinwater. I realized that this group does not have the make up for sandbox style play and after the next few meeting will be putting some rails down and measurable goals to bookend adventures. There are 7 players at the table and many of them are still newish.
Write up follows:
While at the magistrate we talked to him about the deeds and Letters of Credit we had found on the bandits. The signatures were not real, but each LOC was from a respective high council member in Timberton, Shakun, and Ferron. They were for a few hundred crowns each but under normal circumstances, if they were presented, the supposed signors would not honor them. As for the deeds, they were for fairly crappy sections of town and would revert back to the local lord if the tax responsibility was not maintained. From what we were able to learn, the taxes were paid for 7 seasons starting roughly last year and would continue until this winter. As for who paid them, we would not be able to learn that until later.
We then went off to the Flying Pegasus Inn where we divided up treasure and talked about what we would be selling the following day. The group rested and we sold off armor, weaponry, and other plundered goods from the bandits, adding the proceeds to our growing pile of coins. We also had a few extra questions of the bandit leaders and had the magistrate ask the captured pair for us. We learned that there were a total of 5 bandit camps all under the umbrella of the “Grey Havens” and eventually we go the rough locations of the other 4 camps and relative strengths.
From here we rented a pony and cart and left. Eventually we returned to the bandit camp, got the bodies of our fallen companions (Device and Ironboar) and headed back for the road. We were “called out” to while travelling and figured out that a hunter and his son had stumbled upon us and wanted nothing to do with us, making sure they were gone and on the way. We eventually reached the Roaring Treant at 8:30 that night, got a room, and slept.
We arrived at Shakun the next afternoon, the 20th where we turned in the pony and cart and eventually sat with Baron Taugis and the council on what we had achieved to date. They were happy with our efforts and our dispatching of the bandits had not gone unnoticed as travelers from Ferron had reported how surprising it was not to be accosted on the road.
We buried our companions on the 21st and then had a wake afterwards at the Hall of Heroes. From there we talked about what was next. We had many options but decided to pursue the one that the Baron had asked of us first: seek out the source of the goblinwater elixir and disrupt it if at all possible.
For the next almost 2 weeks we researched the area and scouted what natural caves we could find, as well as any and all rumors that local hunters and trappers had about any cave at all. The idea was that according to Falag and Thagorek while we were questioning them, there WAS a goblin group near (relatively) to Shakun and it was in some cave.
It was deduced that there were 3 caverns that had some sort of goblin sign near them, and on the 2nd of Birthmonth we set off to the closest one, some 3 miles north through the low plains and scrub around Shakun. Eventually we reached the cavern mouth, a natural cleft in the side of a mounded hill, maybe 8’ tall and 15’ wide. Loose dirt filled the early places but a further look revealed limestone and goblin clan markings. We lit torches and entered with care.
The was some walking involved before the slope evened out and we came to a worked area of the cave. The floors and walls were fairly smooth and stood up to 8’ in height, perhaps the same or more in width. Flimflam sent off a burst of dancing lights ahead and revealed a split in the corridor, to the right and straight ahead. A goblin voice did squeak in surprise and we proceeded with care, weapons drawn.
At the split to the right the corridor went perhaps 8 paces and then down some steps, while straight ahead it came to a right hand turn. We opted to go straight, towards the goblin sounds we heard.
And then as one we rounded the corner and engaged the 5 goblins there. Arrows flew and own warriors surged forward, bringing the fight to the greenskins standing firm. Long spear met bastard sword and shields were raised. The sound of splintering wood grew heavy as the goblins struggled to hold the fighters back. Meanwhile down the other corridor the rest of the group heard goblin voices in the dark, sibilant and whispering. They readied arrows to hold off the soon to be assumed charge from other direction – prepared to make the greenskins pay dearly for their possible encroachment.
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