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The Case of the Misleadingly Named Goblin Caves

Last session, the party rested outside the goblin caves so Pabst Beerbeard could attune to nature for an hour1. During this time, a half-orc named Kelsa and a half-elf named Elodie each separately joined the party and offered to help them defeat the goblins and save the town's food. The party begrudgingly accepted the aid, and together they set off into the caves.

As they entered, Kelsa noticed and narrowly avoided a tripwire set near the entrance of the cave. This proved very useful when the party was immediately set upon by a squad of goblins. The sounds of battle prompted Amanita, a druid resting blissfully in a nearby hidden alcove, to pop his head out and see what was going on. Amanita shouted incoherently at the goblins, which was sort of similar to being helpful, and with his assistance the party defeated the group of goblins and captured the leader. After some discussion, the party decided to let Amanita join them for the time being.

Interrogation revealed that the goblins had brought the food deeper into the cave to wait out the storm. They had placed the food around the edges of a large, murky pool of water and rested. While they were hiding in the cave, a large mysterious creature had come out of the pool, attacked the goblins, and dragged all of the food underwater.

Hearing this, the party explored deeper into the cave to investigate the murky pool up close. Shortly thereafter, they were ambushed by a large mysterious creature that came out of the pool. In the brief moment when the creature was visible, it grabbed Balrox in its mouth, appeared to eat him, was observed to be a black dragon, and dove under the water with Balrox in tow. Amanita dove into the water to save Balrox, but before the dragon could escape, Pabst Beerbeard used powerful earth magic to force it to sink deeper into the water, out of the party's reach2.

Undaunted, Amanita sprinted to another section of the cave with phosphorescent fungus. He quickly gathered up some fungus to take with him. He also gathered the giant plant creature that inhabited that section of the cave, which began following him back towards the rest of the party3. When he arrived back, he threw the glowing fungus into the dark water. This gave the party just enough light to see the dragon break free of Pabst Beerbeard's magic and swim farther away into an underwater tunnel.

The party pondered the wisdom of pursuing the dragon into the dark tunnel with the plant creature approaching. Shortly thereafter, they ran out of the goblin caves to watch from a safe distance and see if anything living emerged4.

Fortunately, Balrox emerged from the cave before long, struggling to carry a large sack on his back. They asked him what had happened. How had he survived being taken? He said that the dragon had captured the town's food, but was willing to return it - if Jed came to talk with him in the cave. The party set off for Orsus to tell Jed the deadly dragon's dark demands.

Join us this week to figure out how on earth the party will stay together without falling into utter dysfunction!

  1. Not to be confused with an hour-long call of nature, which would be quite concerning.
  2. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
  3. To be fair, it followed very slowly. After all, it was a plant.
  4. They were very pragmatic adventurers. Not, you know, heroic, but definitely pragmatic.

Stupid Awards

Amanita Balrox Elodie Kelsa Lorelai Pabst
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