* Missing Items - a crate of Dwarven Steel Weapons, mostly axes and short swords. All would bear the mark of the same dwarven smith.
* Caves are the same distance as the lair you were seeking more or less.
* The group that took them was another bandit group, of a less honest variety. They are called the Followers of the Ghost path. They are led by a man who claims to have trained in the dwarven assassin traditions.
In the interest of moving the plot a bit...
You continue on, you have a few run ins with local wildlife but nothing serious.
You meet with Warden Kade somewhere along the road, he looks exhausted, the increase in monstrous activity coupled with the bandits has been running him ragged. He is in the process of trying to convince some of the more isolated thorpes to band together and stay temporarily in one of the villages for protection.
He has a "dark feeling" that all of this activity is tied together, assuming you relate the troubles of the elves, he nods his head knowingly and feels this is further proof. He suggests that after you deal with your mission you swing back through after he has had a chance to talk with an old friend of a more arcane bent. He hopes that together he and his friend can determine what the heck is making the area so deadly recently.
He calls in a favor with a river boat captain he knows, the captain relates much the same story as you continue to hear. Times are tough everywhere he says, tougher here than most though. In fact had the favor not have been called in he would have sailed closer toward civilization.
If there are any messages you want to send back he will take them. He also has decent stock of gear, I assume you pick up any mundane equipment you might want/need.
You cross the river, and ride toward the cave system. Moon Wolf suggests you scout the area a bit, turns out there are three main entrances to this cave system.
The west entrance seems to be the most direct, it is also the most well traveled. You spot signs of recent humanoid traffic and suspect this entrace is heavily guarded. This is probably the lair of the Ghost Path bandits.
Toward the east is what you suspect was the entrance to the original dragon lair (the size of the exits would support a fairly large creature. You spot tracks that appear to be human sized clawed feet. You also find some reptile scales in the prints.
You almost missed the third entrace in your scouting, it is somewhat between the two main entrances, it is a vertical shaft that drops about 40 feet into the cave system. You see no signs of traffic.
It is a safe bet that all three entrances lead to the same cave system. You can also surmise that attacking once section runs a risk of alerting the other.
Decide:
1) Which entrance to use
2) Your Approach, Stealth, Bravo, other?
3) Moving forward if we run into a dm called for check or a fight that you guys don't really see coming Ill just roll init for you. That way we don't waste a day on something minor.
Any questions?
FYI once you go in it will start a dungeon crawly section which will not have nearly as many discuss/think encounters. It will be pretty crunchy for a bit.
