Our adventure begins with Nefresil and Gareth guarding a wagon of mining supplies and food as it ambles down The High Road. Nefresil, an Elf Ranger, is originally from the Neverwinter Wood, but had come to spend time in the city of Neverwinter. Gareth, a Human Sorcerer, was born in Neverwinter. When his wild magic started to manifest at an early age, his parents abandoned him, and he grew up as a street urchin.
Nefresil and Gareth had known each other for a time, and took the guard job together. Gundren Rockseeker, a dwarf, hired the two to guard a wagon with supplies on its way to Phandalin. He and the Human Warrior, Sildar Hallwinter, would leave 2 days earlier and ride down to town. Gundren, seemed excited about something, but would not divulge what, except to say that it was something big.
They departed from Neverwinter a few days ago, and turned onto The Triboar Trail half a day prior. As the session started, they came upon a pair of dead horses, peppered with black fletched arrows, blocking the road. They halted the wagon and moved forward to investigate. Nefresil went a little ways into the woods to check for an ambush. He heard some words in Goblin and was immediately on guard. The two adventurers snuck through the woods towards where the sounds were heard. They happened upon a pair of Goblins. A fierce battle ensued, which saw both adventurers injured, and one of the goblins beheaded, while the other Goblin quickly surrendered.
After interrogating the Goblin, and convincing him to show them to his cave hideout, Nefresil and Gareth, told the wagon driver to continue on to the town of Phandalin. The Goblin pointed out the path to the cave, and along the way helped to avoid a snare trap and a pit trap. Once at the mouth of the cave the goblin whispered to Nefresil that there was probably a guard outside the cave watching. Nefresil and Gareth discussed how to proceed, since the Goblin told them that Gundren was not in the cave. The leader of the Cragmaws in the cave, a Bugbear named Klarg, had sent him on to King Grol in Cragmaw Castle. After a bit of discussion, an arrow flew between the pair, but hit neither. The adventurers, moved out of bowshot range knowing that they have been spotted, and threatened the Goblin into taking them to Cragmaw Castle. As they departed for the castle they heard a mighty roar emanating from the cave. They turned as saw a huge wave of water come rushing out of the cave.
Upon finding the castle, Nefresil no longer saw a benefit in keeping the Goblin around, and Gareth agreed. The Goblin began to plead to be spared, but Nefresil was not swayed and quickly beheaded the Goblin. The adventurers then began to circle around the castle out of bowshot to see if there was any way in, other than the front door on the west side of the castle. They found a door on the south, but could not tell whether or not it was locked. They also came across some rubble with a piece of canvas hanging across in on the north side. After darkness began to fall they snuck to the canvas, and peeked inside. They found an empty room filled with crates and barrels signifying that at one point in time this was probably a storage room. There was a heavy curtain on the south wall blocking an opening and a closed door on the east wall. Due to the late hour Nefresil and Gareth decided to head back to Phandalin.
Once there, they noticed the wagon and oxen from there trip safe and sound, and the wagon appeared to have been unloaded. They made there way to the Stonehill Inn where the met the owner, Toblen Stonehill. He mentioned that there have not been any Goblin attacks on the city. When queried about other adventurers in the area, he pointed out a table of four people, all of which appeared slightly out of place. Nefresil and Gareth paid for a room for the night and went to meet the other adventurers. They found themselves talking to an interesting group. There was the Dwarf Dhugal, with a 2 headed battle axe and wearing chainmail. He was joined by a half elf named Nigel, also in chainmail with a long sword at his hip. Next to him was Connal, a human, dressed in priest robes and with a golden chain around his neck. On the chain was a circle of gold and inlayed in silver was a pair of hand that were bound at the wrist with a cord and the cord was painted red. He had no visible weapons. The fourth was an Elf, named Adran. He was wearing leather armor, and had a staff leaning against the table. When Nefresil told the about what had happened today, and asked for help, Adran made it clear that he would not fight Hobgoblins. He said they killed his family, and in his rage he tried to get vengeance. He was unable to do so, and now wishes for no interaction with Hobgoblins, regardless of the situation. He quickly left the table for bed. The other three though, having no knowledge of the goblin tribe, or Cragmaw Castle said they would join with Nefresil and Gareth, to rescue Gundren, for the price of 100 gold each. Nefresil mentioned that Gundren is rich and they would be handsomely rewarded. The group of five agreed to meet in the morning to set off for Cragmaw Castle. Our session ended with the group of five in the common room of the Stonehill Inn getting ready to leave.
DM Recap
This was everyone’s first session playing Fifth Edition. In addition, it was my first session DMing. Overall I think it went well. The players got into the game, and I don’t think the mechanics got in the way of the roleplaying. We had a few discussions about the rules, but a quick check of the PHB solved them for us. I learned some valuable lessons about what to have prepared as we had to stop the session when I had to create a few NPC characters from scratch.
Loot and XP
No loot was found during the session. 75 XP is awarded to both characters for the Goblin ambush.
No comments:
Post a Comment