Campaign One: Chapter II - Clearing the Cave

Luctoras 7th Concord, 30 Fifth Age

After recovering from his injuries and inspecting the magical elven blade found in the rubble, Callidus and the newly-formed party decided to return to the cave, having been drawn there by a screaming girl they had yet to find. The dead sentries had been piled outside the cave mouth, beside the felled bridge, the flies already buzzing about their corpses. In the central tunnel, Lancion eliminated the goblin on the bridge with an bolt of eldritch glass, knocking its body over the waterfall. The rest of the Needlefangs' dead were found at the foot of the goblins' bizarre divine effigy. Together, Lancion and Visimar scouted the Chieftain's throne-cave, and Lancion expressed his respect for the stoic dhampir.

The group decided to enter the prison first, where three cages hung from counterweighted chains above crocodile-infested waters. One cage contained a middle-aged bearded man; the second contained a girl of nineteen years; the third held a corpse in a yellow cloak. The group rushed into the room, killing the ambushers attempting to hide under the precipices, and Visimar dropped the cage holding the corpse. The goblins' vicious gaoler - armed with a wicked triple-switched whip - was crushed under the falling metal, before being finished by Lancion. With the crocodile distracted by the gaoler's corpse, the group freed the living prisoners from their cages. The first was Byron, blacksmith of Correnwald, and the second was Alice, his mute daughter. Ordering the grateful pair to wait for them outside, Visimar took the cloak from the corpse and sank his teeth into its neck, draining the last of its dwindling blood.

In the throne-cave, the party's surprise attack caught the goblins off-guard. The goblin's poorly-made 'ratapult' failed, releasing a swarm of rats into the room, and all of the goblins - including the shaman and the chief's albino pet crocodile - were quickly killed. Only Chief Spittlebrick was spared, and he eagerly threw himself prostrate before his new captors. In his hoard, the party found a letter addressed from a 'Luther M.', speaking of a deal made between the Needlefangs and the writer, with a 'reward' for harrying travellers on the Stumpmarsh Trail due the following Faustas. Disarmed, gagged and strapped to Vilwyn's back, Spittlebrick was taken from the cave and dumped in the cart, where the group reunited with Byron and Alice. Byron recognised Luther M. as Luther Maldrud, Chancellor of the Lord's Lodge in Correnwald, and suggested he and Lord Larassan were raising defence taxes on the town under false pretences.

With this new intrigue in hand, the group continued their journey onwards to Correnwald. 

And so it is written.

His Almighty Girthness, Chief Spittlebrick