Meet 17, Adv 1, 11/17/12

Not sure when I wanted the group to learn about the goblins in the area and their larger over-reaching goals, but it did come up this meeting from a friendly socialist goblin with an eastern European accent and a willingness to talk (after the damned Charm spell hit him). So this filled in some of the gaps in their knowledge of the area - including the biggie - Hadesnium is the equivalent of Plutonium (Hades = Pluto) and the gobbos are mining it here. In an old Blue Dragon Cave.

The same cave that a group of RL friends had adventured in and defeated the original dragon some 18 years ago in the really real world.

I like to tie in my world and how it grows to the history that the players around the table have affected it - it gives it a growing tapestry of history that no amount of pre-writing could ever achieve.

Now they have to figure out how to combat what seems to be radiation sickness in the party's elven wizard. :)

Write up follows:

The party spent the rest of the day outfitting themselves for another trip to the nearest caves: torches, spikes, ropes, even some goodberries prepped for impromptu healing along the way. What was discussed was which cave to hit and we opted to go for the one that ALSO was marked on the dubious map as an old dragon lair with 50 million gold pieces to be found within. The truth was we were not expecting to find anything along that line but figured that this cavern would be the better choice.

 

The herbalist was then consulted and Flimflam spent some time going over the many ingredients we had brought back, selling the bulk of it for a tidy profit.

 

On the morning of the 3^rd of Birthmonth, we noted that Enthir seemed sick – the elven mage was drawn and pale. Blaming it on poor sleep we did what we could to get ready and wanted to bring a stablehand to watch the horses for us while we were in the caves. This led us to hiring Johan to watch the steeds – 15 years old and mostly elbows, the stable master was to be paid 10 commons for the single day or 25 commons for 2 days of taking Johan with us. We agreed and the young man was told to get ready.

 

That led us to the next point – do we need to hire someone to keep the stable boy alive? We went to the guildhall and spoke with Zarik for a bit, eventually him authorizing us the use of two of his students: Codron and Thrish (19 and 17 respectively). We noted what they had for equipment and outfitted most of them with shields and padded armor from our stores as well as a few weapons to augment what they had. And on the 3^rd of Birthmonth at 10 AM we set off.

 

The map was accurate in the distances to get to the caves as well as a number of the landmarks along the way. It was when we arrived at the hilly area to the west of the ancient battleground that we took our time and eventually located to goblin lair. A thick scree of vegetation had been grown over the cave mouth and we would need to spend some time clearing it away before entering.

 

We took Codron, Thrish, and Johan east a few hills and set them up where they would not be easily visible and told them to watch the horses, keep each other safe, and no let themselves be caught by goblins. With that we returned to the cavern and began working our way in, 2:30 in the afternoon. We expected 3 and a half hours of day light and wanted to explore some now and then if need be, leave and come back again tomorrow @ sun up.

 

The entrance was strange , canted roughly 25 degrees into the base of the hill and was oval at 15’ in width and maybe 10’ in height. Also odd gouges ran along the right wall, half a thumb’s depth into the limestone and over 15’ in length. There was some goblin sign in the area, but it was about half what we had seen at the other cave which made the party confident.

 

However the cavern went down over 300’ which was NOT at all expected and we deduced that the cavern although might be goblinoid now, was not originally – lending credence to the fact the original inhabitant might have been draconic in nature.

 

The cavern eventually opened to a decent sized natural chamber with 3 passages out of here that had been outfitted with a frame and door. Fergus let us know that the area had a low aura of evil upon it but nothing distinctive, and there was a metallic smell to the air. We spent time over the three passages and decided that the 1^st one on the southern wall was the proper place to start. It opened to reveal a corridor that T’d to the left and right. The left went maybe 12 paces and turned to the south, while the right went as far as torch and infravision could see with some sort of fading foot prints on the floor. There was a door catty-corner across the hall.

 

We opted to go across the hall and investigate. Goblin voices on the other side. Weapons at the ready we broke in and took them down with spell swiftly. Binding them up we made sure the rest of the doors were locked and them spoke to one of them who identified himself as Umgarth. He spoke goblinish fine and understood Common as well and he was a font of information – especially after Marcus whacked him with a Charm Person spell.

 

The cave here was used for mining, of a mineral called Hadesnium. What did it do? What DIDN’T it do was the way Umgarth explained it. In the dark it glowed faintly purple and greenish and was a primary component in many of the goblin machineries made. Also it was ground up fine and added to the goblinwater. It also had the tendency to make weaker people feel sick, get pale, their hair fall out, and get strange growths across their bodies. The party began to feel ill after hearing this and Enthir was particularly worried.

 

As for the cave, it was the cave of a Blew. Blew? You know, blue dragon. Was an egg, hatched some time ago, been eating Hadesnium and getting bigger. So wait - there was a DRAGON here in this cave right now? Umgarth nodded vigorously and told us where to find the dragon – literally around the corner and through a door.

 

The goblins were using three caves in the area: one for mining Hadesnium – there are other sites of it, but this one (even though VERY close to Shakun) has been a decent source for them for the last few years and the Duuk Sarithian goblin lords did not want to abandon it as of yet. A second cave was where the goblinwater was being actually finished brewing and a goblin alchemist named Bonalak was handling it. Again, close to Shakun because supposedly there were some herbs that needed to be grown under special circumstances and Bonalak was trading with local non-goblin personages to get them. The last cave was a bit away from here and was headed by a goblin priest named Malven.

 

Malven’s claim to fame was the fact that they had roughly 5 elves there and Malven would ritually stab them in the heart, milk their dying blood for the goblinwater ritual, and then have them healed, brought back to health, and then a few days later the process repeated. Needless to say the elves in the party were horrified to hear this.

 

We decided to leave the Blew Cavern and then make our way back to our young men and then march out to the Malven cave and free the elves currently held there.