The group ran for the exit, charging east as quick as they could. Grendel and Micah worked together, the elven scion limping hard but the fighter dragging him along. The Shaman was shouting out commands and the Hobgoblins were getting ready to stop the party when Connal whipped out the Nornian Skein, flipped it around, turned back to the hobgoblins, and pulled the enchanted air catcher open.
Releasing the storm force winds they had captured on top of Furtham’s Peak almost 8 or 9 months ago directly at the goblinoids. 80 mile per hour winds upended the hobgoblins, knocking many of them down, and at 1 point hurled the rat into the Shaman, smacking him in the head. Even the Lynx released its claws and sailed up, slamming into the hobgoblin shaman and ripping through his brigandine, drawing blood and pissing them off. As the wind was dying down, Connal turned and ran after the rest of the party who were charging away.
At the next larger chamber, Gryg held back as the party ran down into the cavern's depths and not towards the exit. The ranger made sure to use some old blankets and methodically obscured their tracks as they ran away. At the base of the slope, the party moved off to the east and the group slowed down and grew silent, waiting. It sounded like the hobgoblins were regrouping and were going to give some chase.
We went off into the dark eventually getting to the chamber that we had faced the female Grue earlier. The concealed cavern was here and we looked up the slope. It was 60 degrees and not going to be easy for most of the group. Gryg, Terkin, and Connal volunteered to go up to the top where once there saw that the chamber had a number of barrels in here, two of them empty. A passage went north. We could hear nothing nearby. Feeling safe enough, we dropped rope down to the rest of the party and once they came up, one at a time, we took stock of the situation.
Grendel was moving at half speed with an aching leg. Eoghan was missing his left hand at the wrist and seemed worn out. We had lost the paladin Darrien and Jessie was down to 2 hirelings. Most of the party was low on spells but we passed out what healing we could for now. We were filthy, tired, wired, and the goblin tribe was alerted to our presence.
Gryg and Eoghan did what they could to scout out and we went north. There was a side passage where it looked like the hobgoblins had ceased mining at some point, looking it over we could find a number of natural flint deposits in the area. Mining would have made a number of sparks and maybe ignited gasses. We went on. The passage eventually came to a larger chamber where we knew it went north and joined up with the dead female. Scouting the area out, we could tell the two young Grues came through here, heading west. Eoghan led the way and we came to the bedroom area. 2 of the beds were pulled about 3’ from the wall.
The party fanned out, looking around, as Eoghan went up to the bed area and knelt down…and was hit by the immature Grues hiding in the hollow back there. He screamed, tried to hold it all together, was badly hurt, and flipped himself up and over the side of the bed, rolling away, blood spraying about him. Buddy, Connal, and Gryg were right there and engaged one of them, Wilhelm firing an arrow into the fight. The other Grue tried to follow the sobbing and seriously hurt Eoghan, getting stopped by a snarling and furious Grin.
The fight was on.
Hits and slashes followed, the young grues blows shredding armor and buffeting the party. Arnax got a last CLW on Eoghan as Jessie shot off a ray of frost and Micah joined Grin assaulting the one on the bed. Terkin tried to help and had one of the hirelings throw a flask of lit oil but it went wide and blasted into the bed, setting the frame ablaze instead. Buddy took a serious shred from the Grue and the wild boar went down, guts spooling out. Most spells fired and one Grue fell and then finally the other.
As it ended we quickly extinguished the flames, took stock of the area, and listened expecting to hear goblins approaching. Although we could hear them echo of an echo in the distance, none of them were alerted to the combat for now. We took the two young with us and we went up to the adult Grue. Once there we filled flasks and vials with some of the adult’s blood and then retreated all the way back to the cavern with the barrels at the top of the slope. It was late and we were exhausted and hurting. We did not trust being able to escape with goblins all over so decided to hole up for now and rest. We arranged the watch so that most of us could get a good night’s rest and we turned in.
During the night, looking around we did discover a section of wall on the north east part of the room that was stones and dirt, concealing a corridor that most likely led back to the main chamber! Nice! We awoke on the 9th of Airmonth, ate and prayed, and then got ready. We dismantled the wall and went down the passage to another concealed wall. Hearing no goblins, we took it apart and emerged at the base of the long sloping passage below the Barrow. We went up, no goblins, and went outside.
We found the travois Jessie’s people had sent up and then proceeded to drag the dead male to the hollow the boar had used 2 days ago. We made sure the bear traps were ok (they were), and Dizzy removed enough parts from the ballista that the hobgoblins would be hard pressed to ever use it again. We then dared to go back to the barrow and down again, a 2nd travois brought with us.
It took some time to get to the dead female and we loaded her up, using Dizzy’s throw away blankets as cushions to keep the dragging wood quiet. We slowly made our way out of the caves, and STILL no goblins heard us or came to investigate (great set of wandering monster checks!). At the base of the long slope, Gryg shoved a blanket up the grue’s butt as she had been making some noises and leaking a bit. Wilhelm hit the 2 dwarves with a strength spell and Connal and Micah from the top – 4 of them proceeded to get the female grue up the 70’ slope eventually to the top of the Barrow again.
Outside we gathered up the male and then it was 4 and a half hours of slow dragging before exhausted, we managed to get the dead bodies to Falcon’s Nest at long last. Some drinks were shared and we all felt pretty good about what we had done. There was some cross talk between Gryg, Jessie, and Eoghan about the rings. Eoghan had his original wedding band on his now severed hand. Jessie had the ring her partner had found that fateful night 18 months ago – a reminder of the terror she faced. He wanted it back; it was his dead wife’s. She wasn’t doing that it was a reminder of her dead adopted family.
They settled on the grue’s were dead – whoever/whatever had killed them was now dead. The rings and all the grue bits could and should be buried – marked with his family and her lost family. They agreed and decided the rings would be buried on his former farm, next to the plot of his wife and son. They shook on it and the group was ready to turn in, filthy, dirty, and yet triumphant for now. Tomorrow, we’d see about getting the bodies to Stivil and getting our reward.
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