Bridewealth #1: Goblin Ambush

For the first session of The Bridewealth Horde campaign, everyone was present. Our handful of adventure seekers includes:
Rory Calhoun, human rogue
Tarkan Inuligone, goliath barbarian
Wyzavere Kuyt, dragonborn cleric
Deadfool, human bard
Varity, elf bard

The first adventure begins as the PCs are escorting a wagon full of provisions and supplies from Redding to Weaverville. The journey takes them west along Eureka Way past the hamlet of Shasta (pop. 104), past Whiskeytown Lake, and will take them through Douglas (pop. 86) to the Mainway Trail, which heads north. When they reached Vitzthum Gulch, a half-day’s travel from Weaverville, they run into trouble with goblin raiders from the Cragmaw tribe.

To recap the set-up:

In the city of Redding (pop. 9,203), a denwar named Gundren Rockseeker asked his group of friends to bring a wagonload of provisions to the rough-and-tumble settlement of Weaverville (pop. 980), a couple of days’ travel west of the city. Gundren was clearly excited and more than a little secretive about his reasons for the trip, saying that he and his brothers had found “something big,” the lost mine, and that he’d pay them ten gold pieces each for escorting his supplies safely to Barthen’s Provisions, a trading post in Weaverville. And cut them in on the find if they stuck around to help secure the find. He then set out ahead of them on horse, along with a warrior escort named Sildar Hallwinter, claiming he needed to arrive early to “take care of business.”

The wagon packed with supplies turned the two day ride into a three day affair. Late in the first day a traveller they had seen closing the distance behind them finally caught up with them and begged companionship with them through the mountain trails as she made her way to Eureka.

Lúthien Nezznar, an aelfar traveling to Eureka to parlay with the wizard, Keledek the Unspoken. She seemed nervous and shy where her business was concerned, but was eager to hear all about such a strange band of travelling companions and the adventures they were about. She overnighted twice with the group and quizzed them at length regarding their identities, allegiances, interests, and goals. When asked about herself, she confessed to being known in Redding and Eureka as The Spider, due to her extensive web of business contacts and influences. She showed off a repertoire of magical tricks, and was a fine traveling companion if a bit shy and short tempered. She asked the group to seek her out when ever they had delivered all this mining equipment.

The third day dawned, clear and fair. The trip had been slow, due to the heavy wagon and discontented oxen, but no trouble had been encountered so far. But this territory can be dangerous, reports of scro raiders, goblin bandits, and other outlaws prowl the wildlands and are known to lurk along the trail. But the group was large, well armed, carrying little of real value, and confident in their abilities.

The group was closing in on the thorp of Douglas and about a half day from their destination when they came around a bend and spotted two dead horses sprawled in the road ahead of them, blocking the path. Each of the horses had several black-feathered arrows sticking out of it. The woods pressed close to the trail here and a steep embankment and dense thickets were to either side. An opportune place for an ambush, luckily they’d not come along any sooner or those horses could have been their own oxen.

Tarkan took to dragging the horses from the road and noted that the saddlebags had been looted of anything valuable. There was an empty leather map case tossed a short way off. More disturbingly, the horses were familiar and identifiable as the same that had been carrying Gundren and Sildar Hallwinter when last they’d been seen and they’d been dead for about a day. Slain by arrows, but not the heavy scro arrows that were left in their corpses.

Several goblins watching from the trees, spooked when they were discovered, launched a volley of arrows and insults at the group, and raced for new hiding places among the trees. The adventurers took out the bandits, save one or two that escaped their wrath. No goblins were captured, but investigation proved that the goblins had been using the place to stage ambushes for some time. A trail hidden behind some thickets was found on the north side of the road and showed signs that it was well used and that a pair of bleeding bodies had been dragged away using the path. The party tied off the oxen, gathered their equipment, and decided to investigate a rescue of their friend.

During the chaos of the attack and ensuing battle, Lúthien Nezznar and her horse ran off, but not before pilfering Gundren’s letter from Varity’s pack and making a mess of Wyzavere’s papers and notes. They’d been pilfered by the Spider while they battled the goblins.

The trail lead north for five miles and ended at a large cave in the side of a hill. The goblins had left a snare trap at the start of the trail and a concealed pit a little further on, but the party was traveling cautiously and expecting trouble. They found the traps without falling victim to them. A pair of goblins in the briars on the far side of the stream emerging from the cave, were watching for them and attempted a disorganized and ineffective ambush. One of them racing into the cave, presumably to warn it’s fellows.

The group dodged the poorly aimed arrows of the goblin in the blind and entered the cave. Inside the cave they found a wide, steeply sloping passage running alongside the the wide, shallow stream. The ceiling was high above and dripping with stalactites, the light of the midday sun did not reach far into the cave, and the sound of the water was loud enough to muffled the noises of everything within.

As they entered the cave, an excited barking of dogs made discerning sounds even more difficult. As just inside the cave mouth, a few uneven stone steps led up to a small, dank chamber on the east side of the passage. The cave narrowed to a steep fissure at the far end, and was full of the stench of animals. Savage snarls, barking, and the sounds of rattling chains issued from three wolf-dogs chained up just inside the opening. Tarkan attempted to loose the dogs by pulling free the iron rod driven into the base of a stalagmite to which the chains attatched. But the animals were vicious and the group had to deal harshly with them.

Proceeding further into the cave, following the slick passage along the stream, they noticed a rickey bridge spanning a passage above them. A goblin watched them from that bride, and with a shout to an unseen ally the trap was sprung on our brave heroes.

The passage was suddenly filled with a mighty roar and a huge surge of rushing water poured down from above. Several of the characters were washed away in the flood and swept out of the cave. Everyone was wet.

And with that thorough soaking, the session was called to an end. Come back and find out how the adventurers deal with a hole full of goblins and a missing friend.