Chapter 2
The Goblin Caves
With weapons still held ready, the over cautious group of heroes approach the dead horses only to find they had belonged to Gundren and Sildar, their patrons they were meant to be meeting in Phandalin. Silverglide’s groaning for the loss of his cousin Gundren breaks the groups silence as Silverglide begins looking around for any sign of where they had been taken, his anger welling up inside. Upon the horses there was also an empty map case, their patrons had obviously been up to something more than what they had revealed in the inn and had been attacked because of it. Silverglide starts to strongly assert the importance of a dwarf’s family links insisting that the group go down the forest path he had found to the side of where they had been ambushed. He would not be able to live with himself if he left his cousin to the torturous ways of the Goblin kind.
With the path being incredibly thin the group had to once again work out the best marching order as they were still getting used to each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Silverglide deliberately cut the discussions short by barging through, taking the lead and shouting in rage for his cousin, ‘Gundren!’ Fortunately, Cora is able to quickly point out that she could scout ahead to ensure there are no more ambushes and therefore no more captured dwarves to be saved! With Gundren’s agreement she disappears down the path with the rest of the group following carefully behind. A short while later a faint strangled cry is heard from the path ahead. Gundren barges forward not caring now what lay ahead but stumbles through the undergrowth till he is confronted by an upside down Cora swinging in the air. Quickly cutting her down he catches her and is about to recklessly charge forward again as Cora shouts for him to stop as his foot hovers over a large pit spiked pit trap.
The heroes eventually come to a rocky outcrop with a stream trickling down from a cave mouth and on through to a clearing in front of them. There are some suspiciously large thickets to the side of the clearing, which everyone agrees need to be checked out as there is just too obvious an ambush here. Cora creeps up to the thickets and discovers two goblins talking quietly. Paelia’s decision to creep up to discern what the goblins were saying backfires as his noisy approach alerts the goblins to the heroes presence. With one of Coras arrows immediately imbedded in the back of a goblin’s throat only one goblin manages to charge forward through the thicket towards the group. Dorn’s arrow and Olga’s Javelin fail to stop his charge as a ray of frost freezes the goblin in his tracks so he falls forward and shatters into a thousand pieces. The heroes had gained entrance to the cave as they steal through the entrance with confidence in their natural night vision. All apart from Dorn, who blindly stumbles in after them to hoping to maintain some sense of surprise should they meet any more goblins. The initial cavern shows a set of artificial steps ascending to the right and another passage way to the west. With Paelias having the best natural vision he creeps up the steps and around a corner into another dark cavern. Savage snarls break the stillness in the air as Paelias comes face to face with two wolves chained to a rod driven in to a stalagmite. Their eyes pierce the darkness as they catch Paelias scent. Cora agrees to creep past them and on the the other side finds a 15ft deep fissure with a way up at the top. Suddenly impatient to move on, Silverglide tries to approach the wolves throwing them some food from his pack to stop the barks that had just started to echo through the chamber. ‘I’m coming for you Gundren!’ Silverglide shouts as he charges towards Cora at the fissure.
Pushing past Cora, Silverglide climbs up the fissure focusing only on the light ahead, could it be this easy to find his Cousin? Suddenly realising the danger he might be in as he reaches the opening he carefully puts his head through to see what was making the light. Staring intently at the vision of goblins, wolves and a bugbear in front on him he tries to descend back down only to find he is stuck in the fissure at the top. Fortunately the rest of the companions had been focused on his ascent so upon seeing his dilemma they manage to pull him back down. The heroes decide to not attempt the death of the bugbear as in Silverglide’s view the beast could well be their death and there was no sign of Gundren, why risk your life when your goal is not there, right? In agreement the heroes carefully return to cave entrance to try the other western passage.
A little way down the passage the outline of a bridge comes into view above their head, with a shadow moving on the side of the bridge. Although Dorn’s arrow clatters off the side of the cave alerting the shadow to their presence, Silverglide’s fiery magic and Paelias’ freeze spell manage to encase the shadow revealing the tortured outline of a soon to be dead goblin. Continuing down the passage to a T-junction Cora stealthy peeps round one of the corners only to see another large cave! Silverglide’s murmuring of ‘Why are there always more bloody caves!’ can be heard as Cora informs the heroes that 5 goblins seem to be guarding someone chained to a massive stalagmite in the middle of the cave. With everyone now feeling the need to shed some goblin blood the heroes decide to charge as one around the corner. Arrows loosed slam into one of the goblins killing it outright as Silverglide’s warhammer smashes through the body of a second, his simmering anger at his cousins’ plight now finding a suitable outlet. Rays of frost flash over the goblins heads as more arrows slam into a third goblin. Disengaging from the goblin in front of him Silverglide pushes past another goblin to get to a slightly bigger goblin standing by the strung up prison on the stalagmite. Charging forward his overhead smash on the goblin’s shoulder is deflected off his armor. Olga charges in too, swinging her massive axe which bites deep into the goblin slicing off one of his arms and bringing him to his knees and also his death. Although one of the remaining goblins attempts to charge Olga’s exposed back Dorn’s long sword slashes through the goblin tearing his life away in less than a second, while Cora’s short word finds the heart of the last goblin as he attempts to run. With Sildar Hallwinter’s gruff but thankful voice echoing in their ears the heroes leave the caves carrying him with them as the make their way back to the path and from there on to Phandalin.