Session 2 - The One Where They Wandered Randomly
13th Sep 2020 19:45 - 22:15
In-game timeline: DR1489 Elesias 2 - Eleasias 4
A short while was spent re-investigating the dead kobolds and checking the area for tracks. The only obvious tracks were from a single kobold, heading south-east, seemingly at a quick pace.
Our 'Heroes' decided to follow these tracks, in the absence of finding any Dragonborn tracks. The tracks led through the wood to the edge, and off towards some hills in the near distance. As the party approached the edge of the wood, they came upon a cut-scene strange event evolving before them. The group hid in the trees, some hiding a lot better than others, but luckily the group of creatures they had seen ahead of them were too distracted to notice even the glinting armour of a certain paladin, clanking around the bushes.
At the base of the hills ahead of them, a group of four large and well-armoured goblin-oids were carrying a covered palanquin between them and were jogging northwards. Behind them was a small group of goblins, looking behind them as they ran. As these groups headed north, suddenly a small number of kobolds appeared, wielding weapons and shouting. Our 'Heroes' looked on as the kobolds engaged the goblins in battle. The goblins looked far more battle-ready than the kobolds, and the battle progressed predictably.
The large creatures carried the palanquin out of sight to the north, and the goblins proceeded to pick off the kobolds one by one. Eventually only one kobold was left standing, and he fled off to the south, back the way they had come. The goblins, having lost only one of their number, did not pursue the kobold, but instead turned and ran to catch up with their bigger brethren, disappearing out of sight.
The party waited until the coast was clear, and then Máhtis looked over the scene of battle, looting bodies and checking for any clues - and finding none. Meanwhile Carro ran off along the treeline, trying to track the fleeing kobold, and eventually spotting him, but keeping out of sight. Kandi and then Thomas followed too, one after the other. The four members of the party were now in 4 different places. "Don't split the party" is obviously something this group had never heard before. The DM sighed.
Carro spotted the kobold approach a stream emerging from the hillside, and then disappear. He waited for Kandi and Thomas to catch up, and they all decided to head back to find Máhtis, though not before Kandi had spotted what looked like a cave entrance in the hillside near to where Carro reported the kobold had disappeared.
Meanwhile, back at the battle scene, Máhtis was putting her girl-guide experience to good use, fashioning an arrow symbol out of three straight twigs, to indicate where she was going, and headed off after the goblins, following the obvious tracks northward. The other three arrived soon after and spotted the perfectly crafted direction sign and followed, and eventually the group was one again.
The party continued to track the goblins, but towards nightfall the tracks were getting harder to follow as the ground was becoming hard and stony at the edge of the hills. They decided to rest for the night.
An eventful night, as it happened. Two boars, possibly attracted by the smell of earlier cooking, emerged from the trees and attacked Carro and Kandi, who at that time were the only ones awake. Both boars charged and made fateful contact with their tusks, doing considerable goring damage to both Carro and Kandi. As the other two woke up to the screams from the elves, Carro managed to bring down his boar, but Kandi took another tusk to the stomach and went down. Máhtis took care of the second boar as Carro and Thomas managed to revive Kandi before he bled out. The rest of the night passed without further drama, though Kandi remained somewhat exhausted from his ordeal.
The following day the party decided to hunt for signs of this rumoured Fortress, assuming that the goblins were probably headed in that general direction. Despite having no map, no real idea exactly where they were, or exactly where this fortress may be, they still spent the day looking. And, much to everybody's surprise, not least the DM, they did find an old, overgrown track heading in the general direction of where they had heard the fortress may lie.
However, having spent the day looking for this sort of sign, and finally finding it, they thought back to the fact that one of their number was almost killed by a boar recently, and the size and armour of the goblin-oids, plus the number of other goblins accompanying them, made them wonder what they would be able to actually do if they found this fortress, assuming it held these, and possibly more, creatures. They decided to note the location of this track, and maybe return to it when they have better health, better experience, and potentially more means of healing themselves. And then they turned back, aiming to return to Oakhurst town, via the place where the kobold had disappeared, to check out whether there was anything of interest there.
After an uneventful night, they eventually came upon a cave entrance near to a stream. The entrance was next to a couple of sticks upon which were mounted a pair of old, decaying goblin heads, and a sign saying "CEEP OOT". Carro and Kandi went in anyway.
Inside the cave was a tattered and filthy blue curtain, seemingly pegged to the sides and roof and floor of the tunnel. Kandi listened out for what was the other side of the curtain and detected the familiar-to-him sound of large insects scuttling around on the other side. Furnished with this information, the party decided to ignore the curtain and instead head into the second entrance, from which the stream was emerging.
Leaving the two members without darkvision - Thomas and Máhtis - behind, the two elves progresses into the tunnel to see what they could see. Kandi waded through the shallow, but fast flowing, stream, Carro meanwhile took the damp and slippery path next to it - and promptly walked into some thin strings that seemed to be hanging down the path, and head off to the north into the bedrock - possibly some sort of basic alarm system. Feeling that their presence here was possibly no longer a surprise, they went back to collect the other two, and all four of them walked up the tunnel, now carrying a torch so they all could see.
A short while down this path, as the path itself rose higher above the stream, they came upon the source of the stream - a small waterfall of water emerging from a hole in the rock, and tumbling to the stream below before flowing out of the cave. A short way in front of this waterfall was a small, wooden bridge crossing above the waters below. Kandi checked out the bridge and declared it to be safe. Máhtis decide to jump it anyway, and did so relatively easily, followed by Thomas who did so less easily, but without incident.
Not trusting his own assessment of the bridge, Kandi tied a rope around him and threw the end to Máhtis, to catch him if he fell, and he walked across the bridge. Which promptly collapsed beneath him. The rope prevented him from falling onto the sharp rocks below, but he did smash into the rock face opposite, taking a little damage, before clambering up the other side. Carro decided to take the 'safe' option of climbing down the rock face, crossing the stream and climbing back up the other side. With the aid of a rope to help him, he managed this without problems, noting as he clambered down that the bridge seemed to be designed to collapse under weight, and that it actually looked like it could be reset - the 'collapse' was very structured and non-destructive.
And so we leave our 'Heroes' on the far side of a collapsed bridge, in the darkness of a cave system, hoping to find, and (current intentions, at any rate) befriend some kobolds to find out what the hell is going on around here, and why some people are in comas, some kobolds are dead, some past adventurers missing, amongst other unanswered questions.