Liarel, Danak, Raslin, Mella, and Never had each come to Neverwinter on their own business when they met Gundren Rockseeker, an affable dwarf. Gundren arranged for the five adventurers to help transport some supplies to Phandelin for him, but was too excited to wait for the crew to leave and headed out on horseback with a warrior escort named Sildar Hallwinter. The following day the adventurers left with the wagon of mining supplies. Over the course of a few days they made their way south on the High Road before turning east onto the Triboar trail. This less traveled trail is known for lawlessness occasional trouble from bandits and outlaws. After a few miles the group encountered the first sign of trouble as they came upon two dead horses in the road.
Danak saw the horses first and signaled for the wagon to stop. We notice arrows sticking out of the horses and ready ourselves for an ambush. Liarel and Mella move to scout either side of the forest as Danak moved up the road to the horses. The silence was broken by the twang of arrows firing from both sides at Danak as a small goblinoid rushes out of the bushes towards Danak. Another rushes Liarel in the forested area to the south of the road. Two more pop in and out of bushes firing arrows on the sides of the road.
After a short bout of nearly everyone missing their intended targets, Liarel, Raslin, and Mella each take out a goblin. There is a brief skirmish before Never kills the remaining goblin. Liarel, wounded, lays on the ox to rest. Danak searches for any other enemies and in doing so happens upon a trail heading to the north. Raslin inspects the horses and concludes that they have been dead for about one day.
Raslin and Mella head off to scout ahead on the northern trail. They notice dragging marks and the tracks of maybe a dozen small creatures. As they continue they happen upon a rope trap (which Raslin marks with a handkerchief) and a pit trap (which Mella does not allow him to mark with a handkerchief) both of which are easily spotted by Mella and avoided. After about thirty minutes Mella climbs a tree and sees a hillside about another thirty minutes north. They notice a faint smoke smell coming from that direction.
Meanwhile, back on the main trail, Never chats up Liarel as she rests while Danak searches the goblins’ bodies. He pockets a scroll case, a few swords, and a collection of teeth. Raslin and Mella return to the group and tell them about the smoke coming from the hillside. The group hides the cart while Mella buries the goblins, then everyone heads up the northern trail.
Danak disables the first trap, taking the rope, and we continue up the path until we come to an opening. There is a hillside with a large cave out of which flows a stream. Across the stream is a brier. We smell smoke and notice the dragging marks continue in the direction of the stream.
Liarel and Never cross the stream and approach the brier, finding two goblins. Never panics and throws a dagger at the nearest goblin before being shot. Raslin runs up and shoots the wounded goblin, killing it. Mella wounds the remaining goblin, which starts to run. Mella kills the fleeing goblin and finds a small rodent skull on its person. Liarel recovers Never’s dagger and returns it to her. Mella buries the bodies.
Raslin and Mella take a brief trip into the cave to find guard wolves chained in a room to the right side of the path which follows the stream into the interior. They return to the group and Mella wanders off to walk around the entirety of the hillside while the group rests.
After resting the group heads into the cave moving quick past the three growling wolves. Mella spots a bridge above us and notices movement running across it. Mella and Roslin climb up the side of the wall, making their way toward the bridge. Suddenly, a wave of water comes flooding in, knocking Liarel and Never back to the cave’s entrance. As the party scrambling to regroup and climb up to the bridge using a rope Raslin lowered, Mella sees a goblin walk into view from the passage way on the right of the bridge but it quickly retreated out of view. Mella runs down the opposite passageway across the bridge and finds that it curves to the left and opens up to an area on the right which is lite by some fire which was out of his view. There was also a small passageway on the left side leading to darkness. Mella returns to the bridge and with the whole party together they following the movement Mella saw.
We come upon a room with two large pools of water, one of which has been emptied. There are four goblins hiding behind stalagmites looking toward us. Danak rushes the first one but is then shot by several arrows from the other three and drops to the ground dying. The rest of the party attacks and kills three of the goblins but one flees to the other side of the room out of view. Raslin rushes after and find there are natural steps that lead up to another chamber which the goblin is running towards. She fires a bolt of flame towards him but misses. As she does she sees the natural chamber has a fire burning in the center and the far side of the room contains stacks of creates. A huge goblinoid standing a good six to seven feet tall stand up, a mangy wolf growls at his side and two other goblins turn to look at the disturbance.