Session 2 – Wednesday, October 10, 2001.
We repaired the barge and an hour before midnight we arrived in Feather Falls. To my great surprise there was an inn in this thorp. We took three rooms in the White Salmon Inn and went straight to bed. Cadrach was unpleasantly surprised to learn that there was only a single one-person room, which Anrod, as our employer, was of course entitled to. I’d say that part of the charm of travelling the realms is roughing it, and three-person rooms are still quite luxurious compared to some of the cheaper inns in most cities.
11 Hammer
At breakfast Calim pointed out three men in black leathers sitting a few tables away. Calim thinks they are quite suspicious, I don’t really see why this should be so. Granted, they are the only ones, apart from us, who are well armed and armoured. One of them has decidedly orcish looks and when I mentioned this Borric immediately turned to scrutinise this fellow. It’s a good thing the three were involved in their own conversation or we would have gotten some strange looks.
Anrod decided that he would look around town for some merchandise and he sent Cadrach, Calim and me to the local farms to procure any possible produce. Celedor, Varsk and Borric accompanied Anrod, Borric only after we managed to pry him away from the table where he still sat observing the half-orc. At two of the four farms we visited we found some reasonably priced foodstuffs, Anrod had less success in the village I gathered.
During dinner the three in black were back. Calim started speculating what or who they were and what they were doing. After dinner he even followed them outside. What he found out is hardly shocking; they went to a carpenter and a leatherworker. That they stayed over half an hour at both establishments is somewhat intriguing. Borric overheard them when they came back talking about ‘going to the stonemason and another blacksmith.’ I still don’t see what all the fuss is about. So when Calim asked me if I wanted to check out what they had been up to, I told him I could find no good reason to go and ask prying questions at two local craftsmen.
12 Hammer
Some of us were woken before night’s end by a scream. When I finally was woken I learned that some small humanoids had stolen Anrod’s money chest! I rushed down the stairs and out of the door. At the same moment, Anrod and Calim were shooting from the windows. When I arrived outside something came crashing down not to far from me. I later learned this was Borric who had done something quite stupendous. He had taken the feather mattress from a Anrod’s bed and had tried to jump out of the window with it. He nearly succeeded but then got stuck, gravity helped and in the end he and the ground renewed their acquaintance.
On the grounds in front of the inn I found a sparsely dressed Varsk guarding two peacefully snoring goblins. Celedor had done it again; his spell had taken out half of the burglars. When everybody had arrived, and Varsk was given some items of clothing, we spread out and started looking for either the thieves or the chest. We found some tracks of the chest being dragged along, but these disappeared quickly. I took the time to ask Anrod what exactly was inside the chest, and he told me it was five hundred gold pieces worth of trade bars.
I later learned that during our search Borric and Varsk had taken the two sleeping goblins to the stable. Borric then apparently beat one of them merciless to get information about the stolen gold. I certainly don’t agree with his course of action and I have told him so in no uncertain terms. He just mumbled something in his beard about ‘it being a goblin’ and walked away. I don’t see how he can defend what he did, torturing the poor creature just to find back some money, it’s horrible.
Fortunately, the constable found Borric and the others before long and he stopped Borric from further hurting the creature. He then took them to his office where he talked to goblin, who promptly spilled the beans. According to Varsk he then took both goblins outside and executed them. That seems to be a harsh penalty, but in rural regions theft can be as bad as murder, particularly in winter when food is scarce. I can understand the town folks point of view, but I keep wondering what they would have done if the thieves had been humans.
Calim uncovered a tunnel and he came back to report on the fact. When we all got back together the constable told us he knew of the goblins as they live in a warren near the city, but that they usually stick to stealing some food or grain from the outlying farms. He has tried to flush them from their warren but he lost two of the local militia in the process. He warned us that the goblins have some kind of ‘pet’ that has attacked his forces. Anrod wanted his money back of course so he ordered us to go into the tunnels and get it back. The constable and his militia did not want to go in with us, but we did get them to guard all the know entrances to the warren. The constable was only aware of two entrances, one in an old warehouse and one in the town’s garbage pit. He did not know of the tunnel Calim discovered. We have decided that the six of us will go into the new tunnel and try to follow any tracks that might be there.
I am really not happy about the proposed plan, I do not particularly like dark tunnels and these are very small, two, three feet wide and high at most. Unfortunately I also can’t see how I can avoid entering the tunnels. I could of course quit the guard job, here and now, but I don’t like doing that. I also think that I owe the guys; we have already been in a fight together. It’s with a heavy mind that I enter the tunnels, I just hope I won’t get spooked by some noise and flee straight for the exit. Cadrach has cast some kind of spell on his mace so that it lights up, we will have something to see by. I just hope the spell won’t fail; my hands are sweating just thinking about being in those dark tunnels. I will give this journal to Anrod and ask him to try and get it back to family should I not return. I will enter the tunnels on my own volition, there is no one to blame for anything that might happen but me.
We made it! What we have been through is incredible, but we all survived and that’s what’s important. My hands are still shaking, just thinking about everything that has happened; I hope these lines will stay legible. I’m not quite sure how much I’ll correctly remember, but I’ll start at the beginning. A lot of the following is also from what the others remembered, I couldn’t see much of what happened, especially in the beginning of our foray.
We enter the tunnel just as dawn approaches. The tunnel is exceedingly small but it grows somewhat bigger after the first forty feet, even so we still have to hunch over to be able to walk. We come to an intersection but we continue onwards. Then Borric, who is walking in front, halts and he whispers that he can hear goblins talking. Thinking they might be able to use a spell, Borric and Celedor sneak forward. However, the goblins detect them and attack. Two goblins thrust their spears at Borric but both fail to hit the stocky dwarf. A third goblin runs away and Borric swings at one of the goblins. He hits them several times and in the end the goblins lie dead on the floor and Borric is still unscathed. We enter the tunnel the fleeing goblin went in to. Suddenly the dirt floor gives way under Borric’s feet and he falls into a more than twenty feet deep pit. [This is where Calim’s player says to Borric’s player: ‘Don’t you wish you had burrowing +5 now?’]
We use a rope to get Borric out of the pit, but the way in front of us is blocked now. Jumping the pit is impossible; the ceiling is still only about 5 feet high. Cadrach invokes the power of Waukeen to somewhat heal the dwarf’s wounds he sustained in the fall. We reverse direction and go into another tunnel. Here Varsk, who’s walking up front now, spots a very thin rope stretched across the tunnel close to the floor. There is some discussion whether we should disarm this trap or just step over it. In the end we leave it be and mark its position with a torch. The tunnel ends in the warehouse and one the militia stationed there almost skewers Varsk’s head when he comes out of the tunnel. We go back in the tunnel and we try another junction, here Varsk fails to see another rope crossing the tunnel and he trips over it. My heart misses a couple of beats when I see him fall down, but luckily the only result is that we hear some bells tolling in the distance. The ropes are a warning device, not some kind of lethal trap.
The tunnel ends in a room where Varsk spots two goblins. He charges one of the creatures, but when he enters the room he finds there are more of them and one hits him with his javelin. They can’t stop his charge and he brings one down with his handaxe. Calim then fires an arrow at a goblin and hits, another goblin goes down. Borric charges in and with a mighty swing of his warhammer he crushes the skull of a third goblin. The way in front of me is empty then and there are still two comrades behind me. I have no choice but to enter the room, I move next to Varsk who is fighting another goblin. I try to hit the creature, but at that moment I forget everything I was ever taught about swordsmanship. Fighting someone who wants to kill you is not the same as practice against a swordmaster. Fear is a powerful force, and I am fully in its power at that moment. Not surprisingly, my thrust goes wide of the goblin. A javelin then hits the wall next to me and the goblin I am trying to hit; it seems his colleague behind us is also not aiming very well. Celedor and Cadrach then enter the room. They both fail to hit a goblin, Calim and Borric are more successful and manage to kill on goblin each. There is only one goblin left then, the one Varsk and I are fighting. We both try to hit it, but once again I fail miserably, Varsk to this time. Cadrach then joins the fray and now we have the critter completely surrounded. However, Cadrach’s light emitting mace is no more successful than my rapier or Varsk’s handaxe. Then Varsk and I are roughly jostled away, as Borric pushes through our line and crushes the poor goblin’s skull.
Varsk and I start shouting at Borric; it’s very irresponsive and dangerous what he just did! He could have pushed either one of us in the path of the goblin’s thrusts thereby killing or severely wounding us. Borric does exactly what I’ve come to expect of him lately; he mumbles something about him killing goblins and he walks away into one of the tunnels. He might call himself Borric the Unstoppable, but I think Borric the Irresponsive is closer to the mark. We quickly decide that Calim and Celedor should follow Borric; and Cadrach, Varsk and I will search the dead goblins and the room. The three report back a short time later, they have heard some kind of growling in the tunnel. Suspecting this might be the ‘pet’ the constable spoke of, we decide to enter another tunnel and leave this ‘pet’ well alone.
We walk down another tunnel and all of a sudden Celedor tells us to halt. He feels along the wall and he opens a hidden door! No one had seen anything to suggest a door might be there, but Celedor found it straight away. I wonder what kind of spell he used, not one I have ever heard of. We go through the door and up the corridor behind it. Borric triggers another rope trap and again we hear a bell ringing in the distance. Even though it is the second time for this to happen, my heart misses another couple of beats. We then get to a curtain hanging in the corridor. Celedor then cast’s a Mage Hand spell and pushes the curtains aside from a safe distance. There is nothing dangerous behind the curtains as far as we can tell so we move on. Before we move I tell Borric to pay attention to the floor just behind the curtain. The obstinate dwarf does not heed my advice, and what I feared happens.
Another tripwire is sprung and almost at once, three crossbow bolts come flying out of the darkness. Two harmlessly strike the wall, but one lodges itself in Borric’s shoulder with an audible ‘thump.’ [Cadrach’s player then says to Borric’s player: ‘Let me help you, does it hurt when I do this?’ And he mimics wrenching the bolt around.] Calim goes to front and leads us towards where the bolts came from. We then hear excited talking in Goblin. Varsk charges at the source of the sounds and in the dark he gets hit by a goblin spear. Another nearby goblin also attacks but misses. Walking closer to Varsk, I see the two goblins he’s fighting. I snap my left hand wrist and the dagger I was holding squarely hits one of the goblins in the chest! It’s an amazing throw, made purely by luck and not by skill, I am afraid to say. The others move closer but they have no chance to hit any of the goblins. Celedor then casts some Dancing Lights into the corridor so we can finally see what’s happening. There is one goblin standing close by, the one I hit with my dagger. I move up to him and this time calm comes over me. I drive my rapier through the goblin’s throat and I stand there watching the life drain from his beady little eyes.
At that moment I had no time to think about it, but now that I’m writing it down, it comes back with such clarity. That haunting look of, what? Regret, sorrow, a final peace perhaps? I can’t say, but I know I killed an intelligent creature today and I feel terrible about it. I know that it was kill or be killed, but taking a life is not something done lightly. I know that when I’m the same position I will do it again, but I won’t like it any better. I think it might not be such a bad idea to go back to Waterdeep and go and work for my uncle. I will think (and dream I’m sure) more about this.
Returning to the story. We move closer and we see a wooden construction holding what appear to be heavy crossbows. One goblin jumps of the construction and Varsk charges him. He just manages to reach the goblin, his swing is on target and he opens up the goblin from crown to crotch. It’s another image I’m afraid will haunt my dreams for some time to come. We then hear one of the goblins say something and Varsk shouts: ‘Down!’ Varsk drops to the floor, but before I have a chance to react crossbow bolts are whizzing past me. Tymora must have been with me, none of the bolts strike home. Celedor moves closer and he casts another of his now famous Sleep spells. Three of the four remaining goblins fall in a deep stupor and the fourth runs away. Varsk runs after him, but in the dark the goblin is a lot faster then the brave barbarian.
I start to inspect the wooden construction and when I turn around I see that Calim has killed the three sleeping goblins. I start to speak but he gives me a look that makes me swallow my words. I guess this is a goblin’s faith. Calim later told me I might not quite appreciate the damage these creatures do to villages all over Faerûn. Having lived in Waterdeep all my live gives me quite another look on life than the Dale folk might have, I think. It’s too bad I have never learnt much about goblins, orcs I know quite a bit about, but goblins were just never mentioned for some reason.
Back at the intersection Calim mentions that four of the heavy crossbows in the wooden frame look quite new and that they might be worth a tidy sum of money. Most of those present are interested in earning some extra money, so we decide that Borric and Celedor will take the crossbows from the frame and bring them back to the surface. The rest of us are going to explore some more of the tunnel system. I nearly volunteer to help the elf and the dwarf, just to get out of the caves. But I can’t leave the others behind to face possible danger. I won’t leave them like I once left another group.
We find another exit and then we enter a tunnel that slopes down into a cave containing a shallow pool. On the other end of the cave is another tunnel, sloping up again. The tunnel quickly opens up to a big cave and we can hear goblins talking. Inside, about a dozen goblins, mostly women and children are crawling through a partly collapsed tunnel, they can just about squeeze through the rocks blocking the tunnel. Two goblins with shortbows are standing behind towershields and they try to protect the retreat of the others. There are some pillars in the room and using them as cover we run closer. Calim shoots two arrows at the fleeing goblins and hits both, killing them instantly. Cadrach, Varsk and I rush towards the two goblin guards and close in melee. The battle is swift and furious, in the end the goblins are dead and we are not. I killed one of the two goblin guards, and it frightens me to say this, but the second time is easier than the first. I had hoped this would not be the case, but unfortunately it is. How could one get used to something as terrible as killing, I wish I knew.
With the goblins dead we have time to look around the room and it’s quite different from what we have seen so far. This cave is much older and it’s certainly not made by goblins. There are two statues along the wall. After studying them closely I think I can positively identify them as depictions of Chauntea and Uthgar! I’m gob smacked, what is a statue of Uthgar doing over a thousand miles from The North? The writing on the pillars is in a Thorass script, most likely some old form of Illuskan or something related to it. The statue must be very old, because as far as I know the Utgardt worship the animal totem aspects of Uthgar since Oghma knows when. Varsk confirms my theories so far, but the only way I can imagine a (part of a) tribe, coming to the dales in centuries past, is by magic. I know that the Uthgar despise magic making it very unlikely, Varsk dismisses my theory out of hand when I tell him about it.
We decide to leave the theorising for later and move on, there are two very big stone doors at one end of the cave. The doors are barred but the four of us manage to break open the doors after a couple of minutes. Sadly, the room behind the doors is not empty, five goblins, four of them wearing armour are waiting for us. Battle commences and everything seems to move much slower, the battle was very short but it seemed to last an eternity. I can see in my mind’s eye everything so clearly as if it were happening again.
Two of the goblins fire their bows but both miss their targets. One of the goblins is wielding a stone warhammer that is much too big for him, he charges Varsk none the less, but his swing misses accuracy. The one goblin not wearing armour is standing at the back, I throw a dagger at him and at the same time he starts casting a spell. My dagger comes nowhere close to hitting him, his Magic Missile spell however, strikes me squarely in the chest. Ever so slowly the blue dart comes at me and when it strikes pain burns through my body and I nearly lose my balance. Cadrach swings his mace at the hammer wielding goblin but his strike goes just wide. Varsk charges one of the goblin archers and he too fails to hit, the confidence that I had is now quickly leaving my body. Calim has a clear shot and he fires at the wizard; an arrow slams into the goblin, but the wizard does not go down. One of the goblin archers then hits Calim. I hit ‘Warhammer’ in his side with my rapier, but he doesn’t even seem to notice. He swings the warhammer at Calim but once again he can not connect. Cadrach tries to hit ‘Warhammer’ again, and again his mace bounces harmlessly of the goblin’s armour. Varsk now charges the goblin spellcaster, but at the same time the wizard casts another Magic Missile, this one at Varsk! The barbarian chops the mage down, but the Magic Missile is already in the air and it strikes home! The unthinkable happens, Varsk slumps to the floor! But the battle rages on, there is no time to rescue him. One goblin panics and runs away through the doors we came in through. Calim shoots another two arrows at ‘Warhammer,’ one arrow hits the feisty goblin in the chest and he is now severely wounded. My training is coming back to me and I see an opening in the goblin’s defence; I pierce him straight through the eye, ‘Warhammer’ falls. What I didn’t see was that the two remaining archers had been covering their leader, the moment I killed him they both snarled with rage and fired at me. One arrow lodges itself in my side, and I am pushed backwards by the force. I am now severely wounded; I am what one would call at death’s door. Cadrach now charges one of the archers but Besheba must have put a curse on him, he misses again. Calim no fires two arrows, one at each goblin and both arrows fly wide. Things are looking grim. Its decision time and I have two choices. I can charge the archers and hope I take one down, one more enemy arrow and I myself am dead. Or, I can go to Varsk’s body and see if he’s still alive and try to rescue him, although I have no healing skills whatsoever. I don’t know why I do what I do, but I run towards Varsk and somehow I stabilise his condition! Tymora be favoured, I owe the Lady Luck more than a debt of gratitude today. Our Smiling Lady is now firmly on our side; Cadrach hits one of the goblins and an arrow from Calim finishes him off.
The last goblin does the smart thing and he surrenders. In broken common he talks to Cadrach: ‘I live?’ ‘You no breed?’ asks Cadrach and the goblin looks unhappily at him. After he tells where the stolen money is, Cadrach releases him. The goblin kisses Cadrach’s hands profusely, much to the dismay of the Sembian cleric, before running off. I ask Cadrach to take a look at our felled barbarian and he tells me he has no healing spells left!
The treasure should be under the chief’s bed according to the just released goblin. The bed however is an old sarcophagus with a straw mattress on top. We manage to move the lid and inside lie two ancient skeletons. Next to them is the money chest we came all this way for. Also in the sarcophagus are some crude silver jewellery, a pouch containing about 30 gold pieces worth of money and an ancient necklace. Calim puts forward the theory that the chest we found might not be THE chest, and since we are allowed to keep spoils of war… The others quickly assure him that, no, in fact this is the correct chest. Calim is somewhat disappointed and he asks Cadrach for an appraisal of the jewellery and the necklace. The cleric merchant thinks the jewellery might be sold for around eighty gold pieces. The necklace might be worth about seven hundred and fifty gold pieces if correctly treated! However, I point out, to a collector it might be worth a lot more, Cadrach agrees. We move everything, including one unconscious barbarian, back to the surface and I kiss the ground, happy to be back outside. Tomorrow we might go back inside to explore the tunnels we haven’t been in yet. Most of us need to get healed first and I’m not jumping to go back in to the darkness, but we’ll see, I am curious about that ‘pet.’
