The Triboar Trail & Cragmaw Hideout

DM Summary: The rest of Gundren's supplies had arrived and been loaded onto the wagon. Yulia, feeling unsure of herself and having found a menter in the Archmage Unwin, decides to stay on at the Wyrmspine to see if she can learn more from the master before venturing out into the wilds of the Swordcoast.

Before everyone else leaves to travel on to Phandalin, Unwin pulls Ossian aside: "You're a Firebrand, aren't you? I met one of your kin once, many years ago. I've heard rumours that the family sword was misplaced. If that's true, I advise you to seek out the druid near Phandalin. He might have some good news for you."

With Triactis driving the wagon, since he had been to Phandalin before (the Stonehill Inn was one of his regular stops), they left. The trip was uneventful along the High Road, but after they had turned off onto the Triboar Trail and come around a bend, they spotted two dead horses in the road, riddled with arrows. The saddlebags had been looted and an empty map case lay abandoned.

Gildyjig noticed that the horses looked familiar -- they'd last seen them when Gundren and Sildar left Wyrmspine. As they were inspecting what was clearly an ambush, a gaggle of goblins attacked. The group dealt with them, though it was touch and go. In the end, the area was covered in exploded bits of goblin. 

While the others were a bit distracted, Arianwen does some tracking and realises that there is a goblin trail leading to the north and at least a dozen or so of the vile creatures had been using it regularly. She can also tell that it appears that two humanoid bodies had recently been dragged in that direction...

Leaving Ashildr to watch the cart of supplies, the others head north. Luckily, they sent Pili Pala ahead and she discovered two traps and was able to lead them around. Following the goblins’ trail, they came across a large cave in a hillside five miles from the scene of the ambush. A shallow stream flowed out of the cave mouth, which was screened by dense briar thickets. A narrow dry path leads into the cave on the right-hand side of the stream.

They all attempt to peer into the thicket, but it was eagle-eyed Ossian who catches a glimpse of at least one goblin inside, apparently taking a nap. Not willing to wait to see if it woke up, Sherick strode forward briskly -- all the way to the mouth of the cave! She sees two goblins, both asleep, but the splashing awakens one of them. 

Triactis handily took one down and then Sherick, striding even farther into the cave, and sees that just inside the cave mouth, up a few uneven stone steps lead is a small, dank chamber on the east side of the passage. The cave narrows to a steep fissure at the far end, and it is filled with the stench of animals. Savage snarls and the sounds of rattling chains greet her where three wolves are chained up just inside the opening. Each wolf’s chain leads to an iron rod driven into the base of a stalagmite.

Sherick casts Radiance of the Dawn, immediately killing two of the wolves and the last remaining goblin outside. The remaining wolf, wounded, whimpered in fear.

The main passage from the cave mouth climbs steeply upward, the stream plunging and splashing down its west side. In the shadows, a side passage leads west across the other side of the stream.

Ossian rushes into the room and puts the wounded wolf out of its misery. He notices a chimney or passage of sorts against the far wall that leads up.

Ahead of Sherick, in the shadows of the ceiling to the north, she just makes out the dim shape of a rickety bridge of wood and rope crossing over the passage ahead. Another passage intersects this one, twenty feet above the floor. Peering at the bridge, Sherick notices a goblin guard, who is idly wandering back and forth and not doing a very good job at guard duty.

She casts sacred flame at him and manages to both wound him and knock him off the rickety bridge. He falls -- to his death with a splash quickly swallowed up in the sounds of rushing water throughout the caves.

Ossian further explores the chimney-like passage and manages to climb up it into another room -- sacks and crates of looted provisions are piled up in the south end of the large cave. To the west, the floor slopes toward a narrow opening that descends into darkness (which is where Ossian emerges from). A larger opening leads north down a set of natural stone steps, the roar of falling water echoing from beyond. In the middle of the cavern, the coals of a large fire smolder. They cast enough light that Ossian sees that the room contains a rather large bugbear, a couple of goblins, and a mangy wolf. 

Alerted by the scrape of Ossian's armour on the tight walls of the chimney, the bugbear, Klarg, turns in that direction. "You dare!" he bellows. "In Klarg's own house!" and rushes to attack with his morningstar. But he slips on some loose rocks and hits a stalagmite instead.

Ossian breaths fire upon the two goblins and one is immediately burned to a crisp and the other looks very singed. 

Triactis climbs up behind Ossian and wedges himself in the opening. Pili Pala attempts the climb as well, but the tiny little sprite and corgi don't make it very far and fall back into the rubbish piled up at the bottom. Herio shakes off the yuck as much as he can. Arianwen, however, manages the climb readily and squeezes next to Triactis. 

Sherick, realising that it might be faster to get to where Ossian is by going around, runs up a natural ramp into a cavern half filled with two large pools of water. A narrow waterfall high in the eastern wall feeds the pool, which drains out the western end of the chamber to form the stream that flows out of the cave mouth below. Low fieldstone walls serve as dams holding the water in. A wide exit stands to the south, while two smaller passages lead west. The sound of the waterfall echoes through the cavern, making it difficult to hear. Two goblins are stunned to see her appear. Jig follows after the cleric as fast as her little legs will take her.

The goblins attempt to attack, but seeing as how they'd just been playing knucklebones, they fumble as they get to their feet. 

In the other room, Triactis attempted to attack Klarg with little success. He moved past the bugbear in hopes of getting a better angle on him in the future, but the bugbear managed to score a hit on him as he went by, severely wounding the bard. 

Ossian retaliates in defence of the bard and manages to bloody the bugbear, which enrages Klarg's pet wolf, who attacks in turn. 

Arianwen manages to heal Triactis and take him back from the brink of death and cast Poison Spray upon Klarg, who suddenly looks green with illness. 

In the water room, Sherick and Jig manage to kill one of the goblins, while the last remaining goblin in Klarg's office hightails it out...only to stop short when he sees Jig and Sherick standing over the dead body of one of his clan. 

But soon, all is quiet except for the unceasing splash of the water -- all the goblins, as well as Klarg and the wolf -- lie dead. 

Everyone piles into Klarg's room to take stock of themselves and have a short rest before they continue their exploration. The battle, while short, was bloody. As they take their rest in Klarg's former headquarters, Triactis takes a good look at the crates of supplies. He's been to Phandalin before and has performed at the Inn there. He recognises the the crates as being marked with the image of a blue lion-the symbol of the Lionshield Coster, a merchant company with a warehouse and trading post in Phandalin. He doesn't know much about Linene, who runs it, but he had heard rumours of them being beset by bandits who had stolen supplies -- it looks like you've come across all the stolen goods.

They also find a chest with Klarg's personal treasure which contains 600 cp, 110 sp, two potions of healing, and a jade statuette of a frog with tiny golden orbs for eyes (40 gp). The frog statuette is small enough to fit in a pocket or pouch.

Triactis thinks it likely you might be able to collect a reward for returning the supplies, if you cart them to Phandalin on your ox cart. Jig, meanwhile, whilst rummaging through the supplies and what looks like a crate that Klarg might have been using as a desk of sorts, finds a scrap of parchment with a sketchy map that shows Triboar Trail (the road they were on when they were waylaid) and Phandalin. It's written in goblin, but she can make out a name in Common that piques her interest -- Gundren. It seems to be signed by someone named King Grol. If only someone spoke goblin...

XP: 75 xp each for making it through the goblin ambush and locating Cragmaw Hideout. (Additional XP to be awarded after completing the Hideout...)