Adventure 2: Clearing the Mines
Session 1
This mines clearing mission was posted on a couple of the noticeboards of fighter guilds around Eversham. The party registered for the job, which carried a hefty 1500gp rewards for clearing out an infestation of goblins from a mine and an adjacent goblin lair. The vermin had been preventing mining operations in the whole of the mines site, which is situated not far from Ireby. Walking by road, it is a five day journey from Eversham to Ireby, but the party have plenty of time - their contacts in Ireby will be expecting them in seven days time, and will even wait around for another week before attempting to hire anyone else.
The party spent a day equipping in Eversham before moving on; it’s a full day’s march south to the village of Grigans Fen, which marks the mid-way between Eversham and Ridstock; they couldn’t do their extensive shopping and still hope to get to the village by nightfall.
At Grigans Fen, the party chose to stay at the inn rather than the guard station, the prices are lower, but the rooms are not as clean. During the evening, the party met a farmer who was suffering from problems with sheep thieves; he wanted to hire some tough adventurers to sort the problem out, but instead he offered a reward to the party if they could help. He was quite a poor farmer, and could only offer them 50gp as a reward, but they still accepted the job immediately.
The four adventurers spent the night in the village, before heading off immediately after breakfast in search of this suffering farm. The farmers directions had been accurate and they met him at the farm gates after walking for just an hour. He took them to the farmlands behind his buildings, and showed the party where the sheep thieves had been over his fences. The soft ground here made tracking easy, and Jim soon picked up the train that lead to a small cave a few miles away.
Boldly, the party marched into the cave, and confronted the bandits. Formil took care of the hiding bandits almost single-handedly, three were killed and the last surrendered. Three of the farmers sheep were rescued, but more importantly the culprits were caught. The surviving bandit was handed over to the Kings Guard for sentencing and punishment, and the sheep were returned to their owner.
The farmer was so pleased with the party's efforts, that he invited them all for a meal (of lamb stew), and allowed them to spend the night in his farmstead which they accepted gladly. They were now three days into their journey.
On day four, the party pressed on to the south and reached Ridstock. They seemed concerned about taxation at the gate of the town, but needn’t have been. The next day, day five, was spent travelling without incident south to Ballum Village.
The final stop on the road to Ireby is the village of Stoke Cairn, where the party hoped to reach by the end of day 6. During the afternoon, the party was overtaken by six horsemen, who then used highwaymen tactics to try and rob them. They struggled to fight them at first, but Formil was once again their saviour; he killed four of the riders, while suffering only minor injury himself. The remaining two riders escaped by fleeing on their horses across the plain to the north.
The heroes then pressed on to the village, and upon arrival immediately went to report the problem they had encountered on the road. They were then made aware of a reward available for bringing in the head of the highwayman leader. They told the guard that they’d like to take the mission, as they think they could track their assailants back to their hideout. The Guard are extremely pleased to hear this, and swear the party in as temporary deputies while they carry out the job; this will prevent any legal entanglements if they have to kill anyone.
They rested for the night in the villages busy inn, before heading back to where they had been assaulted the previous day in the hope that they could pick up a trail. In the end the trail was easy to find, it was clear in the soft ground. The party used this to track the bandits back to their hideout.
They tried to sneak close, but were particularly unsuccessful, the alarm was raised, and six of the bandits rode out to meet the party where they were hiding in light woods. Formil and Jim combined well to dispatch five of them; the other struggled to control his horse after it was frightened off by Randy’s magic; he was carried off out onto the plain as he struggled to control his mount
Session 2
The party sneaked a little closer to the house, and was just preparing to set off across the open space between the woodland and the cabin when the lone surviving rider returned. He had not seen how well his comrades had done in their fight with the party, and was surprised to find all the party members alive and ready to fight. He was dealt with swiftly by Formil.
The run across the open space outside the log-cabin hideout was their next challenge. Those inside the house were waiting but clearly they couldn't see the party clearly as they hid under the trees. They made a dash across the open space, and were halfway there when they came under arrow assault from the house. They just put their heads down and ran as fast as they could, making it to the house with minimal injury.
Formil led the charge as they burst inside and engaged in combat with the bandits on the ground floor. During the fight, Formil took a heavy blow and went down badly wounded, but despite this, the others still held out. Insorce the cleric healed Formil, and despite his wounds they collectively suppressed the bandits on the ground floor and the archers who had come down from upstairs. They even captured the bandit leader, who surrendered (along with one of his men) after he saw his bandits being taken apart by the tough party members.
The party rounded up all the equipment and their two prisoners, and rested overnight in the hut. Formil was badly wounded and needed to rest. They kept a close watch over their captives, and made their way back to the village the next day.
Back at the village, they had been asked as part of the mission to return half of any money they found to use as compensation for the victims of these bandits. They did this as agreed, and they received their reward for a job well done. As they had not returned to the village until early afternoon, they did not have time to press on to Ireby and be sure to get there by the end of the day, so they stayed another night in Stoke Cairn, before heading out.
This next day (day nine) passed without incident and they met up with their contact at the Wilson Mining Corporation that same evening. He gave them directions and instructions, and they set out for the mines the following morning.
On the way to the mines the party found themselves ambushed by goblins, not many, but enough to cause some inconvenience to the PC’s as they headed up into the hills.
Session 3
As the party got higher and higher into the hills, more goblin trouble was experienced, but the party dealt with it effectively. They moved up to the mines complex, after finding the villages en-route full of laid-off miner; they rested at the mines security station. They waited overnight, them moved into mine head 5 first thing on day eleven, clearing out a band of goblins from the mines rest room, before moving further into the mine area. They struggled to pass the goblin’s barricade, and made plenty of noise, causing the guard on the other side of the barricade to run off into the tunnels and raise the alarm.
By the time the party moved down into the main mine shaft, the goblins had organised a defence team, sending armed troops back up the corridor to try and stop the party. The shaft is long and straight, the party moved along it for some time before meeting the goblin troops coming the other way. After a heavy fight, they turned back the goblins, but only half the goblins had survived to flee back into the mines.
Session 4
Moving further into the mines proved a minor challenge, as the goblins had erected hasty defences against the invaders at the bottom of the main entry shaft. Their tactic had clearly changed from defeating the invaders to holding them off long enough to evacuate their lair. A small defensive force awaited behind a barricade, armed with light bows. Their job was to hold up the incoming warriors for as long as they could, and they did quite well; the barrier was the most effective defence, though, as the goblins were clearly outclassed by the tough PC’s.
Behind the scenes, the goblins were doing a hasty retreat. In a last-ditch attempt to buy their clan-folk some time, the Goblin Leader and his personal bodyguard assailed the party in the main dwelling hall of the goblin lair. The party were already down to the end of their healing resources from their earlier fights, and suffered at the hands of these tougher goblins. It was a close fight in the end - Formil was subdued in the battle, and fell, badly hurt. And the Pastor soon followed; it seemed the zeal of the dwarves to break the heads of their goblin enemies had made them reckless. The goblin leader was finally killed, however, and his last surviving bodyguard fled to his kin-folk.
Randy, the gnomish sorcerer, helped his injured colleagues into one of the goblin huts and tended them, saving their lives with his healing skill. When everyone was fit enough to move, following a nights rest, the party moved out of the mines and back up to the security station at the mines complex entrance. The goblins appeared to have gone from the region, the security team at the entrance to the mines complex had reported no further goblin activity in the local area for the whole night and all day so far.
Further resting was still in order, however, as the party had a big journey back to Eversham, six days away. The party were more than ready to be trained for more action, but they did not forget to stop in Ireby to collect their reward. They managed to keep their heads down on the return journey, and made a point of accepting no more work until their training was completed.