Players: Misty, Ignatius, Ducan, Kaen, Puddin'
DM: Brian
The party continued their adventures in exploring the Cragmaw Hideout and decided not to continue onward past the bridge. Instead, the party back tracked and took a left turn into a narrower passage. The ground was covered in heavy rocks which made their movement through this area more difficult, and they could hear sounds in the direction they were heading. The end of the passageway lead them to a large cavern room.
This large cave was divided in half by a ten-foot-high escarpment. A steep natural staircase leads from the lower portion to an upper ledge. The air was hazy with the smoke of a cooking fire, and pungent from the smell of poorly cured hides and unwashed goblins.
Coming to the end of the tunnel, they were attacked by three goblins. The characters pushed their way further into the room as the battle continued so everyone could help in the battle.
When the battle began, they were on the lower level but could see a short stairway that led up to the higher plateau. There were three goblins, one of which was wearing much better equipment and seemed to be in charge. The other two goblins fired arrows from their short bows at the party. The battle continued and the three goblins on the lower level were slain.
The group now moved forward, ascending the stairs to the upper level and attacked the two closest goblins, killing one. The second one was severely injured and collapsed to the ground. It was at this time that the goblin leader shouted “Truce, or this human dies!”. He stepped aside, and the group could now clearly see a human behind him. He was bound and chained up to the back wall and the goblin had he sword pressed into his neck, ready to kill him with a swift jab. It was clear he had was being tortured and beaten - he was barely alive at this point. The group recognized him as Sildar, who was accompanying Gundren when they had left for Phandelver ahead of the group.
The goblin identified himself as Yeemik. He was the second in command and his king was named Klarg. He told them that if they found Klarg, killed him and returned with his head as proof he was dead, he would let the human go. As the party was weighing his offer, Sildar spoke up the best he could and managed to say "Don't trust goblins..."
The group decided they had little choice but to follow his command and save Sildar. Yeemik told them they could find Klarg by passing over the bridge and heading towards the water dams.
The group headed out of the cavern room, taking the northern tunnel and soon came to the wooden bridge. All the party members had dark vision, except for Duncan. She relied on the light Ignatius created for her to see in the total darkness of the caves. The group decided that having a bright light coming from their position might open them up to a surprise attack, so the light was extinguished. Duncan, who could not at all in the darkness, held onto the back of Puddin' as he led her across the bridge. They soon came to another much larger room, seeing the two vast dams where the water had been stored. It was from here that the flood originated. As they moved further into the room, they could see another set of ascending narrow stairs.
As soon as they stepped on the stairs, they heard a mighty voice - “Who dares defy Klarg?” Then, two party members at the end of the stairs were attacked by two goblins. The other two were not able to join in as the fighting was happening on the stairway and they were behind them. The fighting continued as the goblins pushed the party backwards, towards the pools of water where the dams once stood. A wolf bolted down the stairway and engaged the characters as well. After slaughtering one of the goblins, they again heard a boom voice - “Klarg will build a throne from your bones, puny ones!” as a large bugbear descended the stairs, drew his giant morningstar and attacked Ignatius, as he was closest to the stairs.
A fierce battle ensued with all the group joining in to kill the remaining goblin, wolf and Klarg. After Klarg was weakened and injured, Ignatius thrust his scimitar into the bugbear, just below his ribs. Klarg screamed out in pain and collapsed dead. It was at this point that Ignatius reached down and severed Klarg's head from the body, so the group had proof he was in fact dead.
The group went up the stairs into another large room which they realized was Klarg's lair. As they searched the room, they could see common, everyday items that one might bring along when traveling. Also, there were many creates, and barrels stacked up along the walls. Each one was marked with a blue lion. As Kaen was searching, he found a descending, narrow opening on the west side of the room, which he determined was a chimney. He could hear growling and chains raddling and determined that opening led down to the room where they encountered the three wolves from before.
Along the east wall, under a raw bear skin they discover an unlocked chest, which contained:
They gathered up the items from the chest and headed back to the cave room where Sildar was being held. The group shows Yeemik the head of Klarg, proclaimed they had killed him and expected him to honor their agreement. With a sly smile, Yeemik told them that he now wanted all Klarg's treasure, particularly the statuette as he had seen Klarg display it to him many times. The group decided to give Yeemik the statuette, one potion of healing and many of the copper and silver pieces in exchange for Sildars release. Yeemik agreed and the group gave the items to Yeemik and his underlings. They stepped to the back of the room as Yeemik, and his followers cautiously maneuvered by them and headed out the tunnel.
As they were leaving, Ignatius used his Produce Flame spell to send a flaming bold directly through the back of the head of one of the goblins, instantly killing him. As he fell to the ground the sack of copper pieces, he was carrying fail to the ground and busted open. The coins went everywhere and made it difficult to advance. The other guard turned around and readied his weapon, still clutching his bag. Duncan could see the Yeemik had started to run faster and was already out of site. She quickly maneuvered around the other Goblin who blocked the path, in pursuit of Yeemik, but quickly lost sight as she moved out of the light behind her. The other members of the group attacked and killed the guard as he was trying to both defend himself and hold his bag of coins. Duncan backtracked to join the rest of her party. The group then spent a considerable amount of time picking up the loose coins before proceeding.
Sensing no more danger, the group commenced loading up the supplies and goods found in Klarg's lair onto their wagon parked outside of the caves. After everything was loaded and tied down, the adventurers went back to where the wolves were chained up. Ignatius gave them food and the group pulled the iron stake from boulder, releasing the chains. The wolves were preoccupied with the food, so they did not attack the party.
The group made their way, with their wagon in tow to the city of Phandalin. After resting at the town's inn, the group soon located a large merchant warehouse, bringing along the wagon. A sign hanging above the front door of the modest trading post was a sign shaped like a wooden shield with a blue lion painted on it. The group recognized the blue lion as being the same they found on the barrels recovered from Klarg’s lair. Several of the workers saw them approaching and alerted the owner who came out to meet the group. They told her they had killed the goblins who were ambushing travelers and had recovered some of her goods.
The owner introduced herself as Linene Graywind and her merchant company was based in Yartar, over a hundred miles to the east. They had been shipping goods to Phandalin, but the outpost was being hard hit by bandits. Her last shipment never arrived and thinks the items the group have brought to her could be from that shipment. The group took off the tarps on the wagon and she confirmed the goods were the ones that had never arrived.
Seeing that the group had only just arrived in Phandalin, she told them where different merchants and important locations could be found. Additionally, she said to not do any business with a group known as the 'Redbrands' as they are ruffians who are trouble and advises them to avoid the Sleeping Giant tap house.
After leaving Linene and her crew, the party guided the wagon to Barthen's Provisions to collect their payment for bringing the wagon to Phandalin.
Maps: