Session 3: Battle in the Goblin Prison

**"Battle in the Goblin Prison"** was the third session of Campaign 1. Having slain the shaman and captured Chief Spittlebrick, the party moved into the final chamber of the Needlefang Cave, finding the source of the scream, and encountering a strange new ally...

## The Story So Far

*In the town of Stonecross, the Armathainian paladin – Cedric Harold Vermilion Poppy Goodfellow, 6th Viscount of Marchamp – hired a ragtag band of sellswords – Arashi the aasimar sorcerer, Dilern the elvish druid, John the loxodon monk and Malaxus the tiefling bard – to accompany him on a clerical endeavour to Correnwald in the swamps of Alagost, a nation of storm-wracked coasts and murky marshland.*

*The mission found the newly-formed adventuring party – and Cedric’s three retainers – delving into the swamp-choked Fenmarrow Forest in the back of a wagon driven by a talkative man named Arvin. The journey was dangerous, as the path grew thick with gnarled roots and strangling vines – however, it was a goblin ambush that killed Arvin and alerted the party to the presence of a tribe nearby. The party slew their attackers, but heard a girl’s shriek in the woods and rushed to the source: a cave packed to the brim with vicious goblinoids.*

*You evaded the traps, slew the guards and discovered a glowing shortsword in the rubble before being set upon by squid-like darkmantles in the central cavern. After a gruelling fight that left Cedric and Arashi unconscious, John slew one while the other escaped upstream. You took a short rest before climbing a rubble-filled passage that John collapsed with some shoddy acrobatics.*

*After battling through a bugbear and his minions, hastily reviving a fallen Cedric, you found the chief’s cavern, where the obese Almighty Girthness Chief Spittlebrick watched a trio of goblin performers alongside his pet crocodile and his shaman. You killed the shaman, but Cedric and Arashi were taken out by a makeshift bomb while the crocodile mauled Malaxus, leaving John the last man standing. He crushed the crocodile’s head with his boot, beat the goblin chief into submission, and healed his party members with some hasty potions of healing and the final serving of gobsgog. Where we left off, John stands with his newly-revived companions, with the bloodied goblin chief cowering atop his pile of loot, and holds a mysterious and incriminating letter that he found in the Chief’s pile.*

## **Session Notes**

### **Clearing Up**

Having bested the goblins in the chieftain's chamber, John tied up the pleading Chief Spittlebrick while Malaxus pushed the remaining triplet into the campfire. Cedric skinned Spittlebrick's pet albino crocodile, obtaining a high-quality pelt. In need of recuperation, the party settled down for a rest, rotating watches to make sure no other goblins ambushed them in the night.

In the morning, the group started up the steeply-sloping northern passageway in approach of the final unexplored room of the cave. They peered inside to see a large, waterlogged chamber with a ceiling covered in tooth-like stalactites. Hanging above the eastern bank from counterweighted chains were three cubic cages: the first contained a middle-aged, bearded human man, the second a quaking girl with long dark hair, and the third a squat, brightly-coloured frog-like being. Beneath the cages, two crocodiles basked on the waterline, occasionally snapping at the prisoners overhead, and three goblins, one of which carried a nasty barbed whip in one hand.

### **The Battle**

Their observation was interrupted by Cedric's clanking armour, and the goblins turned to see the party in the tunnel. Arashi cloaked himself with a shimmering *mage armour* spell and rushed into the room. Seeing rescue on the horizon, the frog-man reached from his cage and impaled a goblin with an *ice knife* before picking the lock of his cage. Malaxus' *thunderwave* blasted the goblins into the water while John killed Poog, the goblin gaoler. Cedric used *shield of faith* and destroyed one of the counterweights, dropping the cage containing the bearded man.

Despite gaining the upper hand, the tide of the combat shifted when the escaped darkmantle from the waterfall chamber appeared, engulfing John's head. The frog-man leapt from his open cage and landed on the darkmantle, his toxic skin seeping poison into the creature. One of the crocodiles charged from the water and attacked Dilern before being slain by his *ice knife*, while the other crocodile was impaled by Cedric before attempting to flee into the water, finally being killed by a dagger thrown by Malaxus. Reeling from poison damage, the darkmantle released John and belched out magical darkness in an effort to flee, but a lucky *fire bolt* from Arashi slew it mid-flight.

Looting the prison uncovered three gold teeth, 15sp and a keyring on the gaoler, as well as 6cp and a flask of gobsgog from the dead goblins.

### **A Correnwald Conspiracy**

The party freed the remaining prisoners from their cages. John, Arashi and the frog-man - introducing himself as Mallim of the Marshsingers - all made flirtatious comments towards the young woman, Alice, but Cedric gave her a blanket to warm her and shared his rations with the bearded man: Byron, her father and Correnwald's blacksmith.

After reviewing the incriminating letter, the party interrogated Spittlebrick, who revealed that Chancellor Luther Maldrud was making him harry travellers on the road. Byron recognised the name as that of a well-respected treasurer in service to the Lord of Correnwald. With this new knowledge, the party made plans to move on to Correnwald, find their lodgings and bring the captured Spittlebrick as proof to take down Maldrud.

## **Appearances**

### **The Party**

* Arashi Fulgar
* Cedric Goodfellow
* Dilern Lousseaghymn
* John
* Malaxus

### **New**

* Alice
* Byron
* Mallim
* Poog †

### **Deaths**

* **Goblins:** killed by the party
	+ Poog: killed by John
* **2 crocodiles:** killed by Dilern's *ice knife* and Malaxus' dagger