Session #1: Arriving in Cowick

Roggi 6
We continue towards Cowick. The terrain is getting tougher. We're getting into the mountains, and the forest is getting thicker.
 
Cal noticed activities in the treetops. There's a huge (medium size) spider among the branches. It and its spider-babies attacked us. Swarms are hard to fight, but we did pretty well. After the fight, Nathaniel noticed a couple webbed-up bodies off the path. They had a shortsword and a dagger (which the spellcasters said are not magical). There are also a couple horses. There wasn't anything that we could use to identify who they had been.
 
Late that afternoon, we came to a settlement. We presume that it's the hamlet of Cowick. We see some smoke coming out of the town hall's chimney. We approached from the east through a gate saying Cowick (I guess we were right in our presumption). The buildings are looking rough. Some of the buildings look singed.
 
An arrow lands near the cart, apparently fired from the town hall. We hear "Halt! State your intentions." Ham talked with them. They apparently called for guards and asked if we're them. The town hall has been fortified. Bandits have been roaming the area. The loud one said that our Primrose company sounded familiar. We confirmed that the company had sent the miners and that we were sent to rescue the miners. The miners haven't been heard from for 2 weeks.
 
There have been bands of goblins and shapeshifting creatures attacking the town. They didn't seem to be working together. The goblins were looting, and the shapeshifters were kidnapping people. We said that we need to go help the miners first and then we can come back and try to help them.
 
Then something attacked us. Three tiny spiky imp-like creatures were flying into town. They had evil little poisonous swords. They also could go invisible. And they cast spells. I killed one of them (but it wasn't easy), and the others also got one, and one got away. Ham had a hard time with the poison, but he survived. We all survived.
 
After the fight, the townsfolk invited us into the fortified town hall. We secured the horses in the stables. They told us that the goblins would arrive in about 10 minutes. They always did after the shapeshifters attacked. The imp-things are the shapeshifters they were talking about. The goblins come usually in groups in 3 or 4.
 
The guy we have been talking to is called Ivan. There are some women and children huddled in the building. There are also some fighters ready to defend the building. The goblin raids have been getting worse. The goblins come from the north. The imps just appear in the sky, and they can't tell where they're coming from.
 
Then the goblins arrived. It was apparently a single a hobgoblin. The hobgoblin demands the village to give all their things, and then they'd be free to go. The others noticed three other goblins holding torches surrounding the building. Cal shot at the hobgoblin before the goblins could set fire to the town hall, and we fought.
 
This fight was difficult--not the smallest reason was that we were still hurt from the imps. I nearly died. Nathaniel nearly killed me to fix the wounds. After the fight, we recovered a longsword, a hide armor, a shorted bow, a mostly-broken wooden shield, and 10 arrows.
 
Ivan mentioned that they sent two people south to get help. We think they were the ones we found eaten by spiders. He gave a basic map of the area. The miners are probably a day or two away. We offered to take them back to civilization after we find the miners. They didn't want to leave the people who had been kidnapped.
 
Roggi 7
The next morning, we left in search of the miners. We passed through where some miners should have been, but we didn't see anyone.
 
After we passed all the close settlements, we came across a very sick man. He had been poisoned, but Nathaniel managed to treat him, and he recovered. He's one of the miners we're looking for: Nathaniel Hawthorne. He said that they had found a silver vein and had started digging at it. Then there was some kind of gas emission that made them all sick. He got out, but he hasn't seen the rest of the group since.
 
He led us back to their stake. They had dug out an entry area to use as a base. We were attacked by some scorpions and a weird zombie man. He had been infested by some kind of fungus, and now the fungus was controlling him. The fight was tough, but we prevailed.
 
After patching ourselves up, we decided to rest for the evening.