#41 - Battle in the Kobold Lair

After the battle with the Cyclops and Dire Wolfs, the party took a short rest to deal with their wounds.

While resting, they smelled the smoke of a camp fire.  At the end of their rest they investigated.

Near a large hill, they found a boulder with crude fortifications built around it.  The camp fire smoke was coming from behind this boulder. 

Behind the boulder, they found a smoldering fire pit, with a spit for cooking.  There was a nest of leaves and dead vegetation, and wolf hairs in the nest. 

They also found a man.  Alive and tied up in a bag.  They freed this man, and he told them how he got there.  He was part of a party of treasure hunters.  They used to seek out sites where people had reported seeing undead.  They had concluded that undead were usually the result of curses placed on important sites by the ancients before the plague came.  And these sites often contain treasures. 

The treasure hunters had come north from Fort Aralan, looking for a mountain where goblins believed that there were undead.  They found this mountain, and they set out across the forest to get there.  But the forest had been stricken by some kind of blight, and aggressive plants attacked them.  They decided to turn back.

Weakened by their battles in the forest, they were no match for the Cyclops and his wolves.  All but two were killed outright.  The last two were taken prisoner.  And the Cyclops ate one of the prisoners for breakfast just this morning. 

The party healed the freed prisoner.  They equipped him with old armor and weapons found in the Cyclops lair.  The prisoner took a pouch from his dead companions equipment and gave it to the party.  To his surprise, this pouch contained a "Portable Hole".  And within the hole was a hoard of treasure. [ 600CP,9000SP,1900GP,60PP,6 250GP
art objects ( Large Gold Bracelet, Brass Mug with Jade Inlay, Gold Bird Cage with Electrum filigree, Bronze Crown, 2 large Tapestries)

Portable Hole]

 

They sent the prisoner on his way, giving him the bronze crown from the hoard.

 

The party continued on to the ridge, where the Bugbear had told them they could find Kobolds. 

 

Samm was still giant from the potion he drank before fighting the Cyclops.  They found the cave entrances, but decided to wait until Samm was normal sized before entering.

 

And while they waiting the Kobolds set an ambush.  Upon entering the cave, the party was blasted by a fireball.  Waiting inside the cave were 4 ordinary kobolds, 4 winged kobolds, and 3 kobold wyrmpriests.  The party won this battle, but took serious damage from the Wyrmpriest's magic.  The last surviving wyrmpriest used Firewall and Stinking Cloud spells to make his escape, through a cave passage on the opposite side from the entrances. 

 

They found a small treasure hoard in the Kobold lair, including many coins, 3 healing potions, 1 "greater healing" potion, and a ranger scroll with "Speak With Animals".    This Kobold lair had obviously once been a goblin lair.  The Kobolds had forced the goblinoids out. 

 

Later the party followed the cave tunnel that the wyrmpriest had used to make his escape.  Far back, and much deeper within the cave, they came to a place where it seemed that the tunnel had been newly excavated.  They speculated on this.  Maybe the Goblins had dug too deep into their cave, and set loose kobolds who were waiting below.  Or maybe the Kobolds had dug their way up to the surface from before. 

 

 

#40 A threat in the north?

This is the first session with the party re-formed, after our switch to version 5 of the rules.

Perra (now re-imagined as a Paladin) was told by Nadarr (the high priest of his temple) that he should meet Sihirbaz (Wizard NPC who runs a magic shop in Alzarad) at the North Gate caravan district in the morning. Sihirbaz was concerned about something and wanted to bring it to the attention of the party.

Perra took along with him to this meeting a new party member, a half-elf bard with wild magic powers named Winsor. The two of them met Sihirbaz as instructed. The old Wizard had brought along with him Jhunter, Samm, and Gevin, three long time members of the party.

At North Gate, Sihirbaz showed the party a wagon full of weapons and armor recovered from a town to the north. A band of goblins and hobgoblins had attacked a town. They were defeated by the townspeople, and this equipment was recovered.

What interested Sihirbaz about this equipment was the trophies that the goblinoids carried with them. They had carried prizes made from the body parts of kobolds. Some from very rare, and until recently unheard of, winged kobolds. They had shrunken skulls and clothing made from wings. It is not unusual for goblins to wear items from enemies defeated in war.

Why were the goblins at war with kobolds in an area where kobolds had never been seen before? This is what Sihirbaz wanted to know. And since the party had frequently encountered kobolds on thier adventures, he came to them.

So the party set off to the north, looking for answers. In a town several days to the north, they met went to a tavern called "The Wandering Spider". Preserved and on display in this tavern were the remains of a kobold. Such a rare creature in these parts was put on display. They learned that this creature had been killed by the bar keepers cousin, a man named Briza. Later the party met Briza. Briza and his sons were awakened one night to find a group of small reptiloids attacking their cattle. They fought them off, killing one. 

Briza said sightings of kobolds were rare still, but attacks by goblins were becoming more common. Because of the war between kobolds and goblins, the goblins were forced to push south into human lands more often.

The party set off to the north-west. Soon they were ambushed by a goblin raiding party (1 bugbear chief, 1 hobgoblin, 5 goblins). They party defeated them quickly, but Samm did take several serious blows.

They captures some of the goblinoids. From them they learned that the kobolds had one day begun to come up from deep within the caves where the goblions make their homes. They were trying to push the goblins out of thier homes. There were kobolds, winged kobolds, and a ruling class of kobold priests. And there were many of them.

The bugbear gave the party directions to a cave recently taken over by kobolds.


Along the way the party was ambushed by a cyclops with 3 dire wolves. Samm used a potion of growth to grow to the size of the cyclops. The party was able to defeat the cyclops and wolves, thanks in large part to Samm's ability to grapple with the cyclops.