Goblin Arrows

We are in year 4371 AE, of the Second Age. It is the month of Melting, and Grunden Rockseeker has hired four adventures, his acquaintances, to escort a wagon of supplies to the small frontier town of Deepdale. He is very excited about a recent discovery, but evasive about what exactly it is that he has found. He does not accompany the party in their trek though, choosing to leave early to arrive ahead of everyone at Deepdale and “take care of some business”. He leaves in the company of a human warrior, Sildar.

• The party travels along the main road, that follows the Crescent Shores, for a day without incident
• On the second day, they veer off the main road towards the small Boar Trail
• Sometime around midday they notice something blocking their path
  • Two horses lay dead, arrows with black feathers lodged in them
• The party inches forward to investigate, triggering an ambush!
• Four goblins attack the party
  • Two charge forward
  • Two remain in the thicket, and pelt them with arrows
• Kiara is hit in the thigh with an arrow
• Brannus prays for divine intervention to demoralize his foes
• Sigmar and Kiara use spells, Dwolf uses his longbow
  • The party dispatches two of the creatures
• Brannus casts a divine command, forcing the other two goblins to run away
• Investigating the area
  • They recognize that the horses belonged to Grunden and Sildar
  • Everything has been sacked
  • An empty leather map pouch was left on the ground
• Dwolf notices a path leading away from the road, where the goblins ran
  • Furthermore, the party sees what appear to be tracks of humanoids dragging bodies away
• After a short one hour rest, the party finds a suitable place to secure the oxen and the wagon, and gives chase.
• The goblin trail, that started somewhat hidden widens to a visibly maintained path
• After 10 minutes on the trail, Dwolf notices something odd in front of them
  • It turns out there was a snare trap waiting to grab intruders
  • The party triggers it harmlessly
• They move along, but a few minutes later Sigmar and Dwolf – who are leading the way – feel the ground slide below them
  • They jump in the nick of time and narrowly escape falling in a pit
  • Closer inspection reveals that small animals have fallen before, and they’re rotting at the bottom
• After about an hour in total, the trail finally comes to an end, reaching a clearing facing a hillside
  • The hillside is steep and rugged
  • A large cave mouth rests on the base, to the east of the clearing where the party is
  • A shallow stream flows slowly out of the cave’s mouth
  • On the opposite side of the stream, dense thickets abound
• There’s an opening on the thicket, next to the cave mouth
• A narrow dry path leads into the cave on the right-hand side of the stream
• The party notices two shadowy figures beyond the thicket
  • They move in closer, but get spotted
• When the fight breaks out it’s clear these are the two goblins that ran away
  • The party has trouble hitting them through the thicket
  • Sigmar wastes a spell
  • Kiara is hit on her OTHER thigh
• One of the goblins is finally downed, the other moves towards the cave mouth
• Sigmar tries to cut him off
  • He keeps hitting nothing but stream water
• Eventually, after sustaining some injuries, the party succeeds
• They decide to rest for another hour before venturing into the cave