Date in Real Life: Sunday, 19 February, 2023
In Game Day: Akhat the 19th of Sawol and Shta’im the 20th.
The team assessed their wounds, then decided to take a day of rest at the docks to heal up more. They rested for the day. They were due for a day of rest anyway. Dwarves guarded the elevator, and reported seeing a few goblins, which they were able to kill. During the day, dwarven women came with the Cacus Troll skins, freshly sewn into two fire-proof suits. The team discussed this briefly, and gave them to Philip and Edward, as they were the most likely to be in harm’s way when fighting any fire breathing enemies, like a dragon.
On Shta’im, the team entered the goblin tunnels. They came across a pitfall trap, which they spotted and avoided. They found some goblins in a mushroom cave. They killed the goblins. They looked around at the mushrooms. Hector was able to identify a poison mushroom, and carefully took a few. They explored more and found goblin alchemists, who had a set up that looked like a crude imitation of the troll potion lab. There were three goblins with lab coats working at the cauldrons, and a fourth asleep in the corner. Philip wandered in and tried to use his Persuade Foe ability to talk to the goblins. The goblins revealed that they were experimenting, and had dumped a bunch of sleeping powder into one of the vats. Philip tossed some mushrooms into the vat and suggested they taste it. They didn’t agree. Philip then killed them all with Edward’s help. The team searched the room and found three bottles of flaming oil, and three bottles of the green fizzy potion that had made one of the goblins fall asleep. They also found 3 packets of sleeping powder. Philip mixed some of the sleeping potion with some metamorph potion and stowed it away. The team continued exploring the confusing cave system and found themselves back at the mushroom cave. There was another goblin there, whom they killed. They kept exploring. At one point, Edward called for everyone to stop and be quiet. They drew their weapons and looked around. 8 goblins tried to ambush them. None of the goblins survived.
By this point, they had been wandering around in the goblin tunnels all morning. They warily ate some food, but no other goblins came.
They continued exploring and came upon evidence of digging. The dwarves with the team pointed out that the tunnels didn’t have support braces, and were unstable. There was a bucket nearby, full of rocks.
“Are they seriously mining for rocks?” Hector asked.
“Maybe they plan to paint them,” Edward shrugged.
“Let’s just collapse this tunnel and move on,” Icemane suggested, winding up with his war hammer to hit the walls. The rest of the team backed up a safe distance.
Whack! Thump! Dirt came pouring down in front of them. “Told you it was unstable,” Icemane said. The team turned to go.
They continued to explore, coming to the mushroom cave again.
Moving on, they tried a different tunnel, and this time came to a trap. Philip spotted a trip wire and carefully stepped over it.
“Hey, there’s a crude catapult here, with a cream pie on it!” Philip called back.
“Any goblins?” Edward’s voice called back.
“Nope,” Philip poked the catapult. A spring snapped and the pie went hurtling down the tunnel.
“Whoa!” Starflower said, moving quickly to the side.
“Hey!” Hector said, ducking.
“Ack!” William said as the pie splatted into him. “Philip! You’ll pay for that!” he moved forward angrily.
“Stop, stop!” Hector and Starflower restrained him. “Watch for sin enchantments. Control your anger.”
“It was just a pie!” Hector cried out.
“Sorry!” Philip called out. William stopped struggling. Bill came over and licked him off, and ate the rest of the pie on the ground.
Philip bent to remove the trip wire.
“Come on, Philip,” Edward said, stepping over him.
“But a bit of wire might come in useful!” Philip protested.
“Stick with your battle axe,” William mumbled, moving past him.
“Philip! You coming?” Hector called over his shoulder as they team continued down the trail.
“Yea, just need another moment. I’ll be right with you!” Philip replied, not looking up.
Philip worked for another moment. Just a little longer. Got it! He held up the wire triumphantly. The team had already moved on. Philip frowned, coiling the wife. “So impatient,” he mumbled. He put the wire away in his pack. He padded down the trail, expecting to see the team right away. Just how long had he been working on that wire? He came to another fork in the road. Which way had they gone? There was no way to tell. He turned left, feeling like he was wandering aimlessly. He eventually arrived at a pile of garbage. He poked through it a bit to see if there was anything useful. Dirty rags. Rotting wood. Nothing of value, really. He shrugged and moved on.
Philip crept forward until he heard some noise ahead. He listened carefully. Goblin voices. Philip took out his Jawbone of Whacking and held it casually at his side as he stepped around the corner. He saw several goblins sitting around, painting rocks.
“Hi, guys!” He greeted them.
“Are we seriously back at the mushrooms again?” Starflower said. “Edward, do you even know where you’re going?”
“Of course I do. I’m a Knight of the Way. We’re heading north!”
“Ach, laddie,” Battlemaker shook his head, “You’ve been leading us east!”
“Knight of the Way of the Forest,” William finished the title. “We’re not in a forest. We’ve been underground for five or six days, now. Maybe you’re a little turned around?”
Edward sighed in defeat. “Perhaps one of you dwarves should be leading us?”
“Ack, I’ll try,” Battlemaker said, “But these goblins have no rhyme or reason to their tunnels.” The dwarf led them out of the room and they wandered the tunnels again. At last he held up a hand. “More new tunnels. Sounds of digging. I say we collapse this section and bury them.”
Sometime later, the team came across a set of double doors, with two goblin guards standing out front. They were arguing with Philip.
“Let me in!” Philip was saying.
“No!” the guard’s high pitched voice screeched.
“Philip!” Starflower cried in surprise.
Philip glanced up, then whacked both guards with his jawbone. They crumpled to the ground. “Oh hey, guys, there you are. I was practising my Persuade Foe ability and trying to convince these goblins to let me in. They say it’s the treasury.”
Edward rolled his eyes, “A goblin treasury,” he said dryly. “Is it going to be full of painted rocks, I wonder?” Philip bent down to search the bodies.
“No, I already found some goblins painting rocks. I killed them and took their can of paint. That’s not treasure to them. They were giving them to the cave trolls.” Philip stood up, holding a key. “Let’s find out!”
A moment later, he was pushing the door open.
“Okay, maybe not painted rocks, but shiny rocks,” William said as they looked around.
“Quartz. Granite. Pyrite,” Starflower identified looking around. “They’re pretty, but basically worthless as far as treasure goes.”
“Okay, so waste of time,” Hector agreed. “Let’s keep moving,”
The team wandered the maze of corridors the rest of the day and into the night. They met more goblins, found the treasury again, killed more goblins, and found themselves at the pile of garbage again. Hector picked up a couple of dirty rags.
“You fancy garbage?” Edward asked.
“I fancy burnables we can light on fire,” Hector replied, stowing a few rags away. Philip grabbed a few as well.
The team continued to wander. They found the mushroom cave again, found the entrance to the troll caves a few times, more goblins painting rocks, more diggers. They came to the pit trap again, and Philip fell in. They decided to paint warnings on the wall to make the pit easier to see. They kept searching until they heard voices up ahead.
“You bully! Give that back!” a voice screeched.
“Take that!”
Philip peeked around the corner, then leaned back to face the others. “Four goblins,” he whispered, holding up four fingers. “They’re fighting each other, let’s wait a moment.”
At last, the noise died down. Philip peeked again and saw them sitting and breathing hard, eyeing each other warily. Philip threw a rock, hitting one in the side of the head.
“Hey! Enough already!” the goblin said, rubbing his head.
“It wasn’t me!” came a reply.
“Liar!”
“No, really! Call me a liar, will you!” The fight broke out again.
Edward leaned in close to Philip, “how long are we going to let this go on for?”
Philip shrugged. “I suppose it’s been long enough.”
“I threw the rock!” Philip announced, stepping out from behind cover.
“What! Who are you?” The four goblins drew their swords and advanced on Philip.
Philip grinned as they came closer. At the last moment, he ducked around the corner. The goblins chased him, running blindly around the corner, where Edward’s swords were waiting. That, and a bit of assistance from Philip’s Jawbone of Whacking and Bill’s claws, and the goblins didn’t stand a chance.
“Is that light?” Starflower asked as they advanced.
“This might be the entrance,” Hector said, looking at a catapult facing away from them. “These traps are pointed in that direction.” He pointed to the faint glow ahead.
“Shoddy goblin construction,” Warheart muttered as he looked at the catapult. The dwarf pulled out a throwing axe. “I bet if I cut this rope here, this whole thing will fall apart.”
Chop! Sure enough, the contraption collapsed in a heap.
“Guys, come see this,” Starflower called.
The others came to the end of the tunnel.
“I smell water,” Regulus commented.
They looked and saw the tunnel opened into a large cavern. There was water in the cavern, and moonlight being reflected on the water from an opening across the cavern.
“We’re not alone,” Hector said.
Starflower turned to him.
“I sense evil in the water,” Hector finished, pointing.
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