The nights and days passed without incident. A work crew arrived to remove the Dragon Head and improve the building. During this week howling wolves could be heard at night.
One evening the adventurers met a character with a large dog. His name was Darragorn. An interesting man who spent most of time hunting they learnt. He made income from exotic furs and explained his dislike for towns and cities and prefers life in the outdoors. He was staying the night at the Inn.
The next morning the Party was awoken very early. The went to the Inn and found a scene of panic and shock. A staff member was injured and bleeding. They found out that part of the Inn compound had been raided by Goblins with some riding large Wolves. The Goblins fled into a forest but had abducted some of the workers and even one of Larry's younger sons.
Darragorn offered himself as a tracker to help find the abducted people. The party did not hesitate in offering the chance to help as well.
They soon set of in pursuit through the forest with Darragorn and his Dog named Bill leading the way. They came to a large clearing that contained an ancient stone circle with gigantic trees at its centre. Goblins had been hiding behind the stones and showered the group with poorly aimed arrows. The morning sunlight affected their vision. A large fight took place and it was then that the group discovered that Bill the dog was in fact a Blink Dog. A dog who could magically teleport short distances. He ripped out many Goblin throats and as they all fought they also found themselves attacked from behind. Two large Dire-Wolves with goblin riders leapt from the trail they had just come from.
This ambush started to look rather grim for the group but something unexpected happened. Emerging from the three enormous trees that occupied the centre of the Stone Circle was what looked like Tree people of varying size (Dryads and Tree Ents). These creatures grabbed the Goblins from behind and dragged them towards the giant trees that now had small openings appearing. The Goblins met a shocking end as they were shoved into the holes that closed on them silencing their screams. The group managed to wound a Dire Wolf as it fled around the stone circle to make an exit on the other side.
After narrowly avoiding being killed by the weight of so many Goblins in the ambush the party recovered aided by a Cure Light Wounds spell from the Cleric and a Potion of Healing. The pursuit continued with Darragorn and Bill easily picking up the trail again.
The forest ended at an old wooden, rope suspended bridge. This spanned a rocky cliff sided gorge with a small creek at it's centre. At the opposite side of the bridge Goblins laughed at the pursuers and cut the ropes that supported the bridge.
The group had no choice but to descend the cliff using ropes they had with them. Once at the bottom the Thief skilfully climbed halfway up the other side and found himself on a flat area. This small area however was occupied by a mangy group of Kobolds. As they closed in the Thief thought they looked severely underfed even though it was the first encounter with Kobolds. He threw them some rations and they stopped and leapt on the food. Using the Dwarfs understanding of the Kobold language the party found out that the Kobolds had been deprived of food due to the very same Goblins they were pursuing. After a discussion the Kobolds led the party to their cave on the ledge which had a tunnel that took them to the surface not far from the place they last saw the Goblins. The pursuit continued. The landscape began to rise and the trees became less.
The next encounter was when the group became alerted to a Goblin lookout who was asleep snoring loudly. Drunk on stolen beer they captured him easily. He revealed another ambush lay ahead. It was a cautious measure in case the party found some way to follow despite the broken bridge. They decided to ambush the ambush. A vicious fight took place and among the partially drunk Goblins was two brutal large Bug-Bears.
The captured Goblin pleaded for his life and said he would show the party a hidden entrance to the tribes dungeon home. This turned out to be truthful. Darragorn said "I don't do Dungeons and neither does Bill." So he opted to stay at the entrance with Bill and the captured Goblin.
They entered the Dungeon and came across a room with many sleeping Dire-Wolves and a Bug-Bear. The Wizard used her SLEEP spell as it was clear they thought they would not win if it came to a a fight. They dispatched them all and continued to explore and search the Dungeon. They came across a disgusting Goblin kitchen which had a chained Kobold. They freed the Kobold who fled rather quickly. They came across another Kobold slave being whipped in a cave with the Goblins water supply.
They eventually found the hostages and freed them. In the process they faced the Goblin chief and killed him. A search revealed two strange scroll cases and a red robe with a small black cloth. The Cleric had to be carried out by them as he had taken a brutal amount of injuries. He was lucky to survive fighting with the Goblin Chief and his Bug-Bear companions.
When they reunited with Darragorn he told them he came under attack by a small group of Goblins while they were in the Dungeon. Between him and Bill they managed to kill them all along with the captured Goblin.
Darragorn led them away to a road and they managed to negotiate a ride with a travelling merchant from a faraway land for some of the return journey.
Without further incident everyone was reunited at the Inn. Larry was incredibly grateful and offered to further extend the hospitality of the Inn to the party.
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