The guards warn us that something is not right because there are no villagers in sight, they should be there, but they are not.
We enter the caverns with caution, inspecting every corner and every sound. In the middle of the cavern hall there is a BLUP-ing mud (BLUP BLUP) that is harmless as the guards tell us. It seems they are unaware of the danger that we will soon find out.
While the party carefully advances into the cavern a shout in the darkness will start the battle. Goblins from above start attacking us from range, while from the BLUP-ing mud a Troll emerges. We are not surprised by the attack, because as I said, we were warned by the guards that something doesn’t seem right, so we are prepared for the worst.
The troll engages the guards first and dispose of them with no sweat* but he will soon find out that the adventurers are much more dangerous than some pitiful village guards. After a tough fight we manage to kill the troll and most of the goblins. One goblin manages to escape and flees deeper into the cave.
With no guards to guide us further this cave looks like a labyrinth with two corridors that will lead to more corridors. Our druid elf, Ireth, hears some screams and groans from one of the tunnels, so there is where we go.
We find some improvised rooms with lots of old goblins and goblin kids, fortunately for them the only ones that inspect the rooms due to their dark vision capabilities are the cleric and the monk. They decide not to kill the helpless creatures (not sure if the right decision here but Groin is a cleric of Life so…).** After more searching in the caverns we find some loot stashed or buried in a chest behind a big boulder.
Many tunnels and minutes after we finally find the remaining fighting forces of the goblins, one of them is the goblin that managed to escape our first fight. These goblins look much more battle ready than the previous ones and we know that only by the look of their armour***. The leader is equipped even with the magic item Ren had thrown into the wind. We find ourselves bargaining for the magic item instead of picking a fight due to the fact that our mages are already exhausted from the fight we had with the troll (meaning the spell slots are almost already consumed for today) and not knowing what the rest of the day will bring us.
The goblin is more than reasonable in his bargain: We get all the living/remaining villagers and Ren’s magic item if we clear the caverns of the “death bringing creatures” that is killing his army in a very specific part of the cavern. To ensure we keep our part of the deal he send two of his bodyguards with us.
Behind a waterfall we find that the “death bringing creatures” are in fact two oozes that are damaging our weapons and armors with some kind of acid. With some gear damaged or even destroyed it was a hard fight, but we manage to kill the two oozes sealing our part of the deal.
Impressed by our brave performance the goblins also keep their part of the deal and release the villagers.
We all return to the village and get our paychecks (two diamonds) and we all get an offer to join the Zhentarim faction.**** Good to the heart the cleric, Groin, refuses as the morals of this faction doesn’t seem to fit his style. Also the druid Ireth, the ranger Tari and the sorceress Szivem refuse but the monk Ren, the paladin Solid and the sorceress Selene will accept to join the “big happy family” that the Zhentarim will become for them. What this means on the long run we remain to find out…
With our loot in our pockets we head to Sundabar, our initial destination. After 3 days walking the elves' eyes see a floating castle on a cloud that seems to head exactly towards us. The cloud stops above us and some magic stairs descend from the cloud almost like inviting us to climb.*****
After hundreds of stairs we reach the top of the cloud and find ourselves in front of a magic puzzle door. The puzzle is somehow alive, it has 4 animals that each need to be handled correctly in order to open one seal. Each animal on the door will punish us by biting or hitting us if handled incorrectly.
After many tries and lots of HP lost and regained we manage to solve the puzzle and get past the door where a most impressive blue GIANT maiden named as Zephira promises us to get us where we want to go free of charge. To be continued...
* How brave of the adventurers to let them go in first.
** Selene's player skipped this session. Her first question the next time: "Why did you not kill them all?"
*** I went to great length detailing the black armor plates and strings of ears (elven, human and beast) around their necks.
**** Of which Kella seems to be an officer of.
***** The adventurers bravely hid in the bushes around the road and waited for something bad to happen. After a while they decided to take the stairs.
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