The Wagon Escort – Part 1

So lets begin with my very first quest after leaving the confines of the ship.  I found myself in the city of NeverWinter exploring the place and hoping to be able to earn some coin to continue with finding the gang that stole from our ship.

I had met Gundrun whilst on my travels delivering goods to him from far off shores.  He approached me as he had a job that he thought I would be suitable for.  As the job was so critical he was going to get a group of us together “band of misfits” he called us.  He knew that we would be the best fit for the job.

Having been a part of a crew I knew that I could get along with the others my concern was whether or not the rest of the group would be able to provide the differing skills that were required to get this quest done.  I trusted Gundrun to select the right skills for this.  So aside from myself the Monk, I met Seraphina a Halfling Rogue, she appeared to have recently left her guild as there were a few things that she disagreed with, a Paladin Dwarf called Dain seeking revenge on a band of Orcs and an Aarakorca Wizard named Urk, she had left her library in search of new things to research.

We certainly were a band of misfits.  I’d never met anyone from Aarakorca before and her strange features are quite unusual.  She is a kind of humanoid bird, so she has arms but also wings so that she can fly.  Her legs are bird like with talons and claws.  The other 2 were just the usual kind of characters that you would meet in NeverWinter.  We didn’t have much time to get to know each other as we had to set off.

Gundrun wanted us to escort a wagon to Phandolin.  The wagon is to be delivered to Sildar Horewinter in Phandolin.  We were advised that we needed to be cautious as often Bandits are found along the road on the way to the village.  So with that little information we set off on the road to Phandolin.  The wagon was large and slow as it was loaded with supplies.  2 Oxen were pulling the wagon and the Paladin had decided to drive the wagon.  Myself and the Rogue were scouting ahead.  Urk was flying in the air overhead keeping an eye out for what could be coming up ahead.  On both sides of the road were thick woods and low rolling hills.

Up ahead Urk spots a bend in the road and swoops down to tell the rest of the us about the bend ahead.  Seraphina goes quietly into the woods to scout and see if there is anyone in the woods ahead.  Meanwhile the rest of the party stops when they spot 2 dead horses on the road ahead, they have been peppered with feather arrows which raises a concern for us.  The Rogue continues up the road to see if she can spot anything on the embankment.

The whilst she is moving along the embankment she spots 2 goblins lying in wait in the woods.  She quietly moves back and reports her findings back to the party.  So we then formalise a plan of action, myself and the Rogue are to sneak back into the woods and take out the goblins.  Urk is to take to the skies and fly overhead to see if she can spot anything else.

So Seraphina quietly approaches one of the goblins and stabs him in the back, the unsuspecting goblin dies instantly, the look of shock on his face is obvious.  I am very impressed with this Rogues stealth and killing abilities, it appears that Gundrun was correct in choosing her to join our party.  Whilst she had taken down that goblin the other goblin starts to attack her and shouts to warn the other goblins.  The other 2 goblins start to cross the road to assist.  Seraphina then stabs the second goblin but he’s not quite dead just unsteady on his feet.  I then come around and finish the goblin off by chopping his arm off and the goblin bleeds to death.

From the air Urk manages to throw acid splash at the goblins, however as she is in the air it misses one of the goblins, it does however catch the other one.  The paladin attempts to strike the goblin but fails.  The goblin that got splashed with the acid is trying to fire his arrows at Urk, I think he was lucky as he manages to clip her wing.

The Rogue then throws a dagger at that goblin and he keels over dead too.  Seraphina appears to be some killing machine!  I try and hit the other goblin with the hilt of my short-sword as we want one of them for questioning.  However the scoundrel manages to dodge out of the way.  The paladin attempts the same thing with the edge of his war-hammer and has more success than myself and the goblin is now very woozy.  As Urk is trying to land the downdraught from her wings make the goblin fall over.  Dain grapples the goblin to the ground without success initially, however with my help the goblin is wrestled to the ground and tied up.  The goblin is now placed on the wagon.

Dain tries to speak with the goblin and asks him who he is expecting to find on the road.  At first the goblin refuses to talk.  But with a bit of coercion he tells us that the dead horses belong to Gundrun and Sildar.  We want to know where they are being held again he is nervous about revealing too much but in the end responds with

King Groll has taken them captive.  King Groll is the Goblin King.  The King is in his hideout at Cragmaw Castle, it’s a long way from here.

With a few more threats the goblin also announces that there is a goblin lair nearby with 20 goblins inside, however there is no other raiding party coming to check on them.  We search the dead goblins for loot.  It always seems like a sensible thing to do, I would hate to think of some unsuspecting person picking up dangerous weapons and causing accidents, plus if we sell them we can actually make some money out of it and improve our own things.

The horses have already been searched and an empty map-bag is found which means that a map has been stolen.

We decide to follow the goblin trail towards the lair.  The wagon is hidden in the woods and tied up so that no one can see it from the road and steal anything, we are still trying to protect the cargo we are transporting!  The tied up Goblin is called Gurick.  Dain asks if there are any traps along the trail.  Gurick says that there is a snare and pit along the trail and that he will guide the party around the traps.  The Rogue attempts to disarm the trap carefully and as it takes too long decides to help the party move around the trap instead.  Seraphina still decides to scout ahead and check for traps anyway as we are still a little bit wary of the Goblin.

The Goblin cackles as the Rogue falls 20 feet through a pit.  Seraphina climbs out of the pit as Dain hits the Goblin and knocks him out.  Who would have thought that goblins were so devious!!  Seraphina is angry and wants to stab the Goblin but we stop her from doing that.  Instead she throws the tied up Goblin into the pit and he is told to be quiet.

The party continue to walk along the path for another hour.  There is a narrow dry path that leads past the thickets.  However there is no way that we can hide in the thickets as it is too dense.

Before we head into the next battle we decide that it would be a good idea to get our strength and some energy back and get some rest before the next battle.

As you can see the story is unfolding quite nicely and I have set you up for the next assault.  This is where I leave you until the next journal entry.

S x