June 29, Saturday [day 4 underground] - After an uneventful night in a side cavern, the party continues west from the location called Giant Steps toward the location called Junction, on the way to High Cliff. Not far into their day's journey, the party arrived in a large cavern and heard the sounds of others.
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| Shearingvale Underdark |
Successfully sneaking forward, the party scouted out a group of goblins and another creature that were camped and watching over a large group of captives. The party launched a surprise assault, and quickly got the upper hand on the enemy; a group which included a goblin boss, a shaman, an owlbear pet, and nine goblin warriors. The fight was bloody but brief, and the party received unexpected help in the form of one of the captives, who would prove to be a gnome apprentice wizard named Lily Copperknock.
Once saved from the goblin tribe, the captives were able to tell their story. They were all part of a small caravan traveling the north end of the High Road, between Crygar and Turil, when they were set upon by a group of human bandits. Some were slain, and the remainder were taken prisoner. They were taken east from their capture point, into the northwestern fringes of the Greenreach Woods. They were taken to some ruins and into a nearby cave complex. Once a little ways underground, the human captors met up with a group of lizardmen, and the captives were sold and left to their fate. After 3 days with the trogs, the lizardmen were ambushed and killed by a troop of goblins. They had been with the goblins for 3 days (for a total of 6 days underground, and 9 days since the caravan ambush).
The captives were Lily Copperknock (a level 1 gnome wizard), two caravan guard fighters (Rogan and Thomas), 11 civilians, and a merchant captain from the High Riders Company (based in the city of Jasla on the High Plateau) named Marlena Berkor. Marlena was badly wounded and needed healing from the group. She was very grateful, and promised rewards for the party's help.
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| Northwestern Greenreach (Hexographer, 6 mile scale) |
The party decided to end their expedition, and spent most of the day heading back toward Fulcher's Hold. The group marched hard.
June 30, Sunday [day 5 underground] - An uneventful (but hard and long) day's journey brought them safely to the underground entrance to Fulcher's Hold...
GM Commentary - The main reminder for me here, although it wouldn't be driven home completely for a few more sessions (see also session 25 in particular...), is that you better have a good idea of what a plot event thrown at the characters is likely to result in, especially if it will derail what you had planned. In other words, understand that "if I do this, the party will most likely do that". Presenting a good aligned party (and good people in real life) with a band of 15 or so captives saved from Underdark slavery means that they will stop what they were doing and get the captives back to the safety of the surface world. They aren't going to save the captives, then ignore them and head off further into the Underdark. If you don't want them going back to the surface...don't give them 15 saved captives. And once they have returned the captives to the surface, they are likely to want to deal with who was responsible. But that is the story of sessions 24-27...
