#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.