Lacking Natural Simplicity

Evening of July 29

Droston lay sorely wounded.

Brock confirmed that the dwarven ruins dated from the last time the goblin Horde descended upon the land. That war lasted until almost no one on either side was left.

Brock went off to town on his pony to get dwarven powder to blow up the bridge. When he returned [Was on the night of 29th or was it not until the next day, the 30th?], he had Whaler in bag, and told us that the little maggot had been caught stealing. Bartha immediately began indignant protestations, but the rest of us reluctantly convinced Brock that — regardless of Whaler's character flaws — he was a friend of the Lady of the Valley and our guide to the next stage in our perilous quest, so Brock eventually threw the bag to Bartha, with a warning about what Whaler could expect if he was caught thieving again.

Droston, meanwhile, drifted in and out of consciousness. Luckily, Brock had brought some Dwarven elixir. It had quite a kick, but after drinking it Droston was feeling fine. And it healed him, too.

July 30

To get to the elves, we have to travel through some caverns infested by evil goblinoids, to find a long passage in the underdark that will bring us to the elves, who can help us drive the goblinoids back through the Chasm.

Somebody [Brock, or Whaler?] told us:

Durgeddin, master smith, driven out of his caverns by hobgoblins, lead his folk south into the wilderness to new caverns, from which he planned to take the fight to the evil goblinoids. Unforutnately, that complex was also overrun, and Durgeddin vanished from history.

So, we needed to head southeast, back towards the goblinoid horde, and then take one of the ravines running south from the main river valley, following it up to the mountain, then up and over the saddle in the mountains, to the entrance to the caverns. Whaler promised to lead us there.

As we headed southeast along the river valley, we paralleled the road further up on the mountainside, in the forest. We soon found two goblin scouts approaching us, forerunners of a goblinoid caravan along the Stone Road. We hid, and the lower scout went past, but the upper one was too close, so Bartha attacked him and pinned him, and Droston hacked his throat out.

A short time later we hid from another scout. At some point it began to rain. We pushed on.

Later in the day we came to a place where the goblinoids had a large camp. They had cut down and burned or destroyed everything in the valley, from the river clear up the steep side of the valley. As we were crossing the camp [At a small stream coming down to join the river?] there was a mudslide on the wall of the valley which came crashing and splashing down the stream. Bartha made it across to solid ground and Droston made it back to solid ground, but both Onchu and Polonius were caught by the mudslide and were barely able to catch hold before they were washed over the cliff into the river. Droston was able to throw a rope to Polonius and pull him out and then together they pulled Onchu out. Bartha tied and untied ropes.

July 31 and August 1

Whaler warned us about an oncoming goblin scout, so we hid again until it went by.

August 2nd

We come to stream, rushing down to the river from the south-east, and that is the way we go. There is no road, and we continue traveling through the forest. Eventually we see a hill that looks like a tooth, with smoke from the hillside. There is a road that leads north east, which Whaler said goes back to the dwarven road in the river valley, but Whaler told us we have to follow the road up the hillside and over a saddle, to the entrance to the caverns on the other side of the hill. And then he fled as fast as his little wings could take him.

We follow the road up the saddle as fast and as quietly as we can, hoping to elude any watchers. Two hobgoblins were watching not far beyond the saddle. We came around the corner and everybody shot, killing one hobgoblin in the first round and the second hobgoblin in the second round. This got us 2 light crossbows with 20 bolts each, 2 long swords, good quality studded leather, and 2 light shields.

We could see that entrance to the caverns was up a small ravine in the hillside, with a door ajar at the far end. Droston snuck up to the open door, while the others came behind more slowly. They were attacked by archers behind slits in the rock. Droston flung the doors wide and yelled at the others to come quickly, and began loosing arrows at the two hobgoblins beyond the rope bridge over the chasm.

Here followed a long melee, with Polonius and Onchu fighting on the bridge. A hobgoblin pushes Polonius off the bridge, but Onchu grabs him. Bartha rushes the hobgoblin over the edge, but he grabs the bridge, but breaks, swinging them across the chasm and bashing them against the wall, 30 feet below. Two more [goblins, hobgoblins] approach from the other side. Everybody on the bridge trying to climb and fight. The hobgoblin and Polonius grapple, Bartha kills the hobgoblin, and [Polonius, Onchu] avoids the falling body.

The other goblinoids flee the room and bar the far door.

We end with Onchu and Polonius on one side of the chasm, and Bartha and Droston on the other side, next to the exit.