Kromnir Ragnulfson - Dwarf Barbarian - Harry Ghazni
Sacralis - Half-Elf Monk - Natalie Dickson
Sung Jin-woo - Human Rogue - Dwayne Codling
Game Master - Joshua Flanagan
More than five hundred years ago, clans of dwarves and gnomes made an agreement known as the Phandelver’s Pact, by which they would share a rich mine in a wondrous cavern known as Wave Echo Cave. In addition to its mineral wealth, the mine contained great magical power. Human spellcasters allied themselves with the dwarves and gnomes to channel and bind that energy into a great forge (called the Forge of Spells), where magic items could be crafted. Times were good, and the nearby human town of Phandalin (pronounced fan-duh-lin) prospered as well. But then disaster struck when orcs swept through the North and laid waste to all in their path.
A powerful force of orcs reinforced by evil mercenary wizards attacked Wave Echo Cave to seize its riches and magic treasures. Human wizards fought alongside their dwarf and gnome allies to defend the Forge of Spells, and the ensuing spell battle destroyed much of the cavern. Few survived the cave-ins and tremors, and the location of Wave Echo Cave was lost.
For centuries, rumors of buried riches have attracted treasure seekers and opportunists to the area around Phandalin, but no one has ever succeeded in locating the lost mine. In recent years, people have resettled the area. Phandalin is now a rough-and-tumble frontier town. More important, the Rockseeker brothers — a trio of dwarves — have discovered the entrance to Wave Echo Cave, and they intend to reopen the mines.
Unfortunately for the Rockseekers, they are not the only ones interested in Wave Echo Cave. A mysterious villain known as the Black Spider controls a network of bandit gangs and goblin tribes in the area, and his agents have followed the Rockseekers to their prize. Now the Black Spider wants Wave Echo Cave for himself, and he is taking steps to make sure no one else knows where it is.
In the city of Neverwinter, a dwarf named Gundren Rockseeker asked a band of adventurers to bring a wagonload of provisions to the rough-and-tumble settlement of Phandalin, a couple of days’ travel southeast of the city. Gundren was clearly excited and more than a little secretive about his reasons for the trip, saying only that he and his brothers had found “something big,” and that he’d pay them ten gold pieces each for escorting his supplies safely to Barthen’s Provisions, a trading post in Phandalin. He then set out ahead on horse, along with a warrior escort named Sildar Hallwinter, claiming he needed to arrive early to “take care of business.”
The heroes have spent the last few days following the High Road south from Neverwinter, and have just recently veered east along the Triboar Trail. They’ve encountered no trouble so far, but this territory can be dangerous. Bandits and outlaws have been known to lurk along the trail.
Kromnir realises at this point that the group have not actually introduced themselves to each other properly, and asks their names. The group consists of Kronmir Ragnulfson himself - a dwarven barbarian, Sung Jin-Woo - a human rogue, Sacralis - a half elven monk and Gendris a wood-elf druid.
All four currently hail from Neverwinter itself, Kronmir looking for revenge on the 'Shadowhand' clan that have taken everything from him, Sung wanting to earn a living after leaving the Neverwinter Guard due to "personal differences" and Sacralis, never really having a true place in the world and wanting to earn her own way after leaving a monastery.
Sacralis, being the most capable of the group with reins to a horse, has been driving the caravan since they left Neverwinter, with the other two in tow on foot. The group continue down the trail and notice two dead horses lieing in the road next to an overturned caravan, with dark black arrows sticking out of their corpses. Now that their path is blocked, the group stop and mull over how to proceed.
They exercise caution and begin to survey the surrounding area, the woods press close to the trail here, with a steep embankment and dense thickets on either side.
Sung decides to sneak around in the bushes to left of the caravan to see if he can flush out any would-be ambushers.
As luck would have it, he sees an unsuspecting goblin hiding behind a bush, giggling away to itself, facing the remaining two adventurers. Sung silently unsheathes his sword, the blades edge flashes briefly in the midday sun. Slowly, he approaches the creature, and raises his sword above his head, high.
As quick as he dares, he plunges the blade down into the neck of the goblin, through his collarbone and into it's windpipe. The goblin lets out a muffled cry before being silenced and Sung slowly lowers the goblin's corpse to the ground so as not to alert any other enemies.
Panic sets in and the other members of the group begin to search around the area for more, but find nothing. Kromnir believes he can hear tapping coming from somewhere...
Searching around, Kromnir goes up to the caravan.
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However, the heroes are resilient and are not surprised; Sacralis rushes over the lone goblin and swings at it with her sword. But! The golbin's armor is too strong, and deflects the hit. Furiously, she punches at it with her free hand, but the goblin steps back and she misses.
Kromnir enters in a rage state and readies his greataxe, he lurches towards the goblins on the other side of the trail and slices one in half as if it wasn't even there.
The other goblin panics seeing Kromnir immense strength and begins to flee the scene. The now only remaining goblin retaliates against Sacralis, mortally wounding her with it's sword as it lets out a manic cackle.
Annoyed, Sacralis tries once again to hit the goblin with her sword, but it's armor again deflects the blade. She follows up with a swift left hook, clocking it's bottom jaw and causing it to bleed from the mouth. The goblin spits out a tooth and gives her a creepy smile.
Kromnir rushes over and launches a javelin at the now wounded goblin, the javelin's aim is true and comes down hard on the goblins cranium, piercing it through.
The goblin staggers for a second and looks up at the javelin, now protruding out from it's forehead, then falls down, dead.
Sung looks over to the fleeing goblin, he takes out one of his daggers and sizes up the shot. He flings his dagger upwards and it lands smack onto the goblins calf, the goblin brushes it off and continues to limp away, leaving a trail of blood in it's wake.
The group collects themselves, and inspects the damage to Sacralis, it is severe but decide she can make it to Phandalin, there they can seek to rest and recover.
Sacralis takes up the reins of the caravan once more, the group decide that having her walk might put too much pressure on her wounds.
Kromnir finds a rock on the ground that looks a little like a face and shows it Sung, who picks it up and throws it away, telling him to focus incase more goblins or bandits are waiting to ambush them.
As the caravan continues down the trail a trap is sprung! Clearly intended to snare an unsuspecting traveller, thankfully the caravan triggers it instead and is just rocked slightly by the spring.
After this scare though, Sacralis decides to stop driving the
caravan and Sung takes up the reins instead.
Growing tired as the evening begins to set in, the group turn the final corner towards Phandalin and see the town on the horizon.
Sung hasn't noticed that this is not the end of the traps, and drives straight over a covered pit, and so him and the caravan fall head first into the 10 foot deep pit.
The group ponder for a second as to how they are gonna get out of this mess, and Sacralis takes out her rope and throws it down to Sung.
Sung climbs out with relative ease and realises that the pit isn't as steep as initially thought. He takes his own rope and ties it to the caravan and using all his might, slowly pulls the caravan free of the pit, horses and all!
After this, the group continue around the pit, being extra vigilant to spot any more traps.
A few moments later, the group arrive at the gates of the mining town of Phandalin, cargo safely in tow and in just about one piece!
As the group approach they see rutted track that emerges from a wooded hillside, and they catch their first glimpse of Phandalin. The town consists of forty or fifty simple log buildings, some built on old fieldstone foundations. More old ruins—crumbling stone walls covered in ivy and briars—surround the newer houses and shops, showing how this must have been a much larger town in centuries past. Most of the newer buildings are set on the sides of the cart track, which widens into a muddy main street of sorts as it climbs toward a ruined manor house on a hillside at the east side of town.
As they approach, they see children playing on the town green and townsfolk tending to chores or running errands at shops. Many people look up the group as they approach, but all return to their business.
Once in town, the group head to the nearest building, "Barthen's Provisions" with intent to drop off the caravan of supplies.
Inside, they see a balding man behind the counter greeting them with a hearty hello, the man does not know the party but is expecting a delivery.
The group tell the man, who introduces himself as Elmar Barthen, that they have brought the supplies.
"Ah, good! I was expecting these, where is ol' Gundran, that pesky dwarf?" Elmar asks.
The group look around each other confused.
"You do have Gundran with you... do you not?" Elmar grows more concerned, "He hasn't arrived in town yet..."
Realising that the group have not kept track of their benefactor they decide to leave the caravan with Elmar and head back along the trail they came on to see if they can see any clues as to where Gundran could have gotten too.
Later, the group arrive back at the caravan from before and approach it cautiously.
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Sung points at the blood trail leading to the south and makes a joke about how many adventurers does it take to track a goblin, the group laugh and follow the trail to the south.
Following the goblins’ trail, they come across a large cave in a hillside five miles from the scene of the ambush. A shallow stream flows out of the cave mouth, which is screened by dense briar thickets. A narrow dry path leads into the cave on the right-hand side of the stream.
As the group approach the cave they head over to the east side of the stream, and see a small area in the briar thickets has been hollowed out to form a lookout post or blind. Wooden planks flatten out the briars and provide room for guards to lie hidden and watch the area—including a pair of goblins lurking there right now!
Sung begins to sneak up on one of them, as the goblins have not noticed the adventurers.
Slowly, he gets up right behind the nearest goblin and begins to draw his blade to end the goblin.
But! Gendris has also decided to follow Sung into battle and is not as furtive as the young rogue and the goblins immediately turn around and snarl as Sung - who is now the closest to them!
Panicking, Sung lashes out at one of them with his dagger, but he is caught off guard and only manages to stab one in it's shoulder. The goblin lets out a roar of pain and focuses his attention on Sung and slashes at the rogue with it's schimitar, clenching it's razor sharp teeth and dribbling slightly.
Gendris tries to make up for lost ground by swinging at a goblin with her sword, but does not manage to land much of a hit, the second goblin comes in and also attacks Sung. Sung is knocked to the ground and is in a very bad way.
Kromnir approaches and throws one of his javelins into the fray, and like a missle, the javelin lands straight into one of the goblins. The goblin lets out a muffled yelp and goes limp, being propped up by the javelin.
Kromnir follows up and grabs the other, injured, goblin who tried to flee the scene. He takes it over to the stream and begins to try and drown it, asking it questions.
The goblin looks confused and cannot understand Kromnir's tongue, Sung has begun to stir again, and gets up. He comes over to the goblin and translates what Kromnir is asking, as Sung can speak "Goblin". But, unfortunately, the goblin is far too weak and Kromnir ends up drowning the goblin in the river, before any answers can be given.
Annoyed, Kromnir throws the limp goblin to one side, and a letter falls out of it's pocket.
Please take the other Goblin, "Bronko" outside of the hideout, and camp next to the entrance, near the stream.
Guard the entrance from any would-be intruders! We heard from one of our wounded scouts that a band of adventurers have been causing trouble and escaped one of our ambushes!
We do not want to let them find our "prisoner".
Klarg
After pondering the note, the group head towards the cave entrance, just inside the cave mouth, a few uneven stone steps lead up to a small, dank chamber on the east side of the passage. The cave narrows to a steep fissure at the far end, and is filled with the stench of animals. Savage snarls and the sounds of rattling chains greet their ears where three wolves are chained up just inside the opening. Each wolf’s chain leads to an iron rod driven into the base of a stalagmite.
The group peer into the room, the wolves have already noticed their presence and are tugging on their chains, growling and barking loudly.
Due to the noise, the group decide they need to silence these wolves before they alert someone further inside.
Kromnir takes out his javelin, and throws it at the nearest wolf. The wolf lets out a yelp as it hits him square in the face.
Sung follows up by throwing both of his daggers at another wolf, one misses but the other hits it in it's side and it begins to bleed out.
Gendris produces a fireball in her hand and throws it at the furthest wolf which ignites and bursts into flames.
The wolf nearest to Kromnir tries to bite him, but is old and has no teeth, so Kromnir just gets "gummed" on the leg and recoils in disgust.
Another wolf, continues to run around on fire, and the final wolf attacks Sung but misses.
Sacralis attacks the first wolf with her shortsword and leaves it basically gasping for breath. She follows up with a flurry of blows beating the beast to death. She
kills the wolf by snapping it's neck and gouging
one of it's eyes out and mutters "Don't mess
with Sung Jin-woo again!".
Sung Jin-woo cheers the death of the tied up
animal.
Full of inspiration, Kromnir takes out his
greataxe and lunges at the other wolf
that is not on fire, he jumps up
and stands on it's head
and rams the greataxe
up the beast's behind.
The beast lets out a
whimper and falls
dead.
\page Sung Jin-woo tries to attack the burning wolf with his sword, but due to it running around unpredictably, misses. Gendris also comes in and tries to punch the wolf, but cannot land the hit. She follows up with a left hook and manages to clock the wolf. The wolf is now no longer on fire, but it is in a bad way.
The wolf attacks Gendris and bites her arm, it tries to pull her to the floor but she resists and manages to free her arm, but has a deep wound.
Sacralis goes up to the wolf and puts it down by slicing it's throat with her sword.
The group look around and see the carnage they have caused, all breathing heavily with wolves blood over their faces and the three carcasses beneath them, eyes glazed over where there once was life.
Gendris begins to look around the room and sees the fissure to the eastern end of the room, she peers inside and sees a stone pillar about 5 foot away from the other side, this blocks her view of the room. However, the room must be lit from somewhere behind the pillar.
Sacralis decides to take a torch and throw it into the room Gendris was looking into, this lights up the room slightly and the group can make out more of the stone pillar, but still cannot see around it. Kromnir then looks through the hole and sees the torch, but surrounding it two goblins are looking at it confused.
One of them picks up the torch and snarls, he then looks over to the hole and begins to run towards it, the group panic and run back from the hole just in time to avoid the gaze of the goblin.
They return to the main corridor and follow the stream further north, the stream passage continues up beyond another set of uneven steps ahead, bending eastward as it goes. A waterfall sounds out from a larger cavern somewhere ahead. A rickety bridge spans the passage, connecting two tunnels that are 20 feet above the stream.
Sung notices that a goblin is trying to hide on top of the bridge and alerts the rest of them, the group manage to sneak under the bridge without being noticed.
The group enter a cavern half filled with two large pools of water. A narrow waterfall high in the eastern wall feeds the pool, which drains out the western end of the chamber to form the stream that flows out of the cave mouth below. Low fieldstone walls serve as dams holding the water in. A wide exit stands to the south, while two smaller passages lead west. The sound of the waterfall echoes through the cavern, making it difficult to hear.
Inside, the group see three goblins, who have not noticed their presence. Sung sneaks up behind the closest goblin and gets ready to attack, he swings his shortsword, but the goblin flukily manages to move out of the way. The goblins are suprised that their lookout let all these interlopers past!
Kromnir jumps in with his greataxe but unfortunately falls short and misses.
Sacralis rushes in and attacks a goblin with her shortsword, and slices one in the throat, who begins to bleed out profusely. She swings a fist at it but the goblin ducks out of the way.
Gendris empowers her weapon and swings it at the damaged goblin, smashing its cranium in like nothing. The remaining goblins scramble around and try to ready their weapons, and Sung uses this oppurtunity to repeatedly stab one in the ribs, its intestines fall out and it slumps to the floor in a heap. He turns to the remaining goblin and lands a near mortal blow to the creature.
Kromnir then rushes to Sung's aid and grabs the goblin by the throat and pushes it against the dam wall, he takes his greataxe and slices the goblin's head clean from it's body.
Now that the goblin threat has been dealt with, the group scan around the room, Kromnir notices a crude lever fashioned from old logs in the corner of the room, propping up the dam wall. He deduces that the goblins were maybe planning to use the water to flush intruders out of the cave. The group inspect the dead goblins and take the arrows that they had.
After this, they collect themselves and begin to trudge through this cave further...