Episode 1.7

Greg, Tony, Ernie, Brad, Kathy

The group spent few days in Stonekeep, mostly resting and relaxing. Kathy swapped a few spells with Gwiand. The group traded in some of their goods for coins. Tony talked a bit with Ceodoc, warning him that humanoids may show up at any moment. Ceodoc told him that he has been expecting that to happen since he built the wall.

The group set out to explore the caves. Gwibaen agreed to escort them to the entrance, but said he would not enter the caves because he felt uncomfortable in closed in spaces. Along the way, they were attacked by a group of four wolves, one of whom seemed far tougher than the rest. The group killed two wolves and drove the other two away, though not without sustaining some damage. Tony assumed that the tough wolf was the goblin-creature they had encountered before, only in another form. He proceeded to call it names as it fled. Gwibaen commented that it was very unusual for a group of wolves to attack a group of people in broad daylight, especially without superior numbers.

The group found the cave entrance and went to Haven to rest. The next day, the began to explore, starting first with the cave of the spirit of the mountain. He was not home. Inside his cave, they found the remains of hill giant that looked as if he had been squashed like some huge bug. Rats were making short work of the corpse.

Traveling into the tunnels beyond the cave, the group ran into a series of battles. The first group they ran into was a foursome of Troglodytes, who introduced themselves by throwing their javelins at Tony from out of the darkness. Their stench made the battle more difficult, but it didn’t take long for the group to defeat them. Continuing on, they encountered a large side tunnel and decided to follow it.

Their next encounter started with a few players hearing a noise off in the darkness. When they stopped to discuss what to do, a group of four grimlocks charged into the light and attacked. While they did not possess the missile weapons that the Troglodytes had, they were much more deadly in hand-to-hand combat, wielding their battleaxes with considerable skill. It took a deadly first attack from Greg and an enlarged Tony (via Kathy’s spell) to defeat the Grimlocks. Brad held his own during the battle as Ernie used his healing magic. Running low on spells and hit points, the group decided to go back and rest.

Unfortunately. They ran into trouble as another group of troglodytes attacked them from the darkness. However, having learned from the previous encounter, they formed a defensive line and waited for the troglodytes to charge. The troglodytes did as expected and charged into the waiting weapons of Tony, Greg and Brad. This gave the party an upper hand, and even with the stench of troglodytes, they defeated this group more easily. One tried to run away, but was chased by Tony and Greg and overtaken by the now speedier Brad. The group limped back to Haven and rested.