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[howandwhy99]

Unnerved by the ogre’s retreat, the goblins following it fell back too. Ben, Mirel, and Kayla shimmied down their trees and ran inside the first cave entrance. Once inside they saw the fight was not quite over. Dram and Darius were still attacking two goblins down the right tunnel and Dalin was having trouble pulling three more off of Rogg. Ben ran back down towards the fight he had abandoned. Rogg was cut fairly badly as was Dalin. Ormand the Redd had backed up preparing to shoot in case any goblins ran. “Darius! We need your help”, called out the cleric. Filling with divine power, Ben reached out and healed Rogg. Unfortunately, only some of the wounds healed. Darius ran in a few seconds later and channeled healing power into Dalin. All the combatants looked very tired. Another minute passed and Igor and Mirel arrived to help too. Finishing off the last three goblins did not take much longer. Dram had also managed to kill the two goblins, which had been dogging him down the right tunnel. Ormand the Redd was set on guard duty just inside the front entrance in case anything approached from inside or out. The others began looking for any more secret doors down the left and center passages.

Igor found one at the rear of the left guardroom. After disarming a trap and listening for noise within, he opened it. Stairs led upwards. Darius pulled out his map and asked Igor to close the secret door. He began sketching the tunnels they knew about. The others were ordered to start gathering what gear they could find. Igor pulled out the sacks he found in the ogre’s bed and began checking their contents and weight. “’bout three ‘undred silver coin. ‘bout three ‘undred copper. Same in lead. ‘nother in…ooh, gold!” The others looked over at the chef counting his sacks. “We will split it later,” said Darius. “For now we need to know what we have.” Another sack had a mix of copper coins and what Darius called ‘electrum’. One had a keg of brandy and the last a large wheel of hard cheese.

Searching the dead goblins revealed very little: eleven torches in the sconces and just over fifty coppers. Ben pocketed the dice he found. They were loaded and he did not like the idea of Dalin getting a hold of them. The group started talking about what to do next. As they saw it, there were two options: head after the escaped goblin near the ogre’s lair, or travel up the stairs. Some did not want to head deeper into the caves as they feared being penned in once the ogre returned. The other option was hoping the door at the top of the stairs eventually connected to another cave exit higher up. They decided to head up. “Higher ground is easier to defend anyways”, said Darius.

All of the heavy supplies were placed back into Igor’s pack for easy carrying. Opening back up the secret door, he went up the steps and examined the door at the top. It was locked. He could hear voices behind it too, but could not make out the words. Doing his best to mimic in the goblin-tongue Igor barked out, “We have been attacked! Please let me in. We must run!” The response he got was short and sounded like an order. He could understand the words separately, but they were strung together in a way, which made no sense to him. “Very odd”, he thought as Darius bounded up the stairs behind him. And then, to his amazement, Igor realized the keyhole actually had the key stuck into it from the other side. An idea went off in his head like an explosion.

Slipping a piece of parchment under the doorframe he pushed the key out from his side before anyone could be stop him. The key clanged to the stone floor on the other side. The voices within stopped. Darius groaned. Pulling the parchment back Igor smiled as he picked up the key, which had fallen on top of it. Running footsteps could be heard from the other side of the door. Darius gave an order to prepare for a fight as the rest of the party advanced up the stairs. Carefully, Igor turned the key and unlocked the door. Opening it, he immediately backed away. With only torchlight, Darius could see farthest into the long dark room. No creature stirred within, but he saw a closed door in an alcove on the far side. “Be ready for anything,” he said.