A New Home: Clear and Fortify the Cave

 

Operation Details

Background Information from previous missions to the west: ---- There is a cave to the west, past the town of Ogden, that is of strategic value -- it would be used as a fallback if the fort is ever lost, or an outpost for missions in the area. The last mission attempted to clear it out, but a pack of goblins escaped through a secret entrance (just east of the main entrance). The cave itself was filled with various traps from the goblins, and we expect to encounter the same issue.
  In a previous mission they discovered the town of Ogden; it was overrun by the enemy at one point, and they had been cutting out the tongues of the locals. Since then, a few missions have gone to the town, and they have made an ally in a man named Davos. Most of the houses in the north of Ogden are collapsed and burned down, and the inhabitants are starving. There are still remnants of the Shar Army that are in the area, and sometimes make their way through the town – most of the inhabitants of the town tend to hide and avoid outsiders.
  If you continue west out of Ogden there are two different paths you can end up on. One is a HIGHLY dangerous swamp that should be avoided. DO NOT GO NEAR IT IF AT ALL POSSIBLE. There are dangerous creatures that inhabit it (island in the middle with undead). There is another path that leads to a bridge, that should be found and taken instead. If you end up near the swamp, back-track, and look for the other path with the bridge across.
  Once you cross the bridge, and continue west, you should come to a set of standing stones that has various symbols on it -- including the symbol of the moon. This is the "Solemn Circle of Meeting" where two different elf tribes would come to meet. There are the moon elves (symbol of the moon) and another faction of elves. The moon elves were known to Xion from a previous mission; they have asked for help to free hostages and to help purify/retake their homeland. No one has met the other faction of elves yet, but it is known that they are hostile to humans (don't like them).
  If you continue north from the circle of meeting you will pass the ruins of the moon elves settlement. If you continue north past these ruins, you will come across the cave that we’re looking to fortify.
 
  Mission Details: ------ The plan was to bring 5 of the refugees from the camp to the cave, to allow them to start fortifying the cave as a possible fallback or outpost. We will need to make our way out to the cave, clear out the goblins and anything else that is in the area that is dangerous. We then need to help the refugees get their materials safely inside so they can start clearing traps and fortifying the entrance. The refugees had make-shift studded leather and wood shields, and seemed content with the weapons and armor they had.
  The groups of soldiers made their way west toward the town of Ogden but came across something odd. There was something in the shrubs approximately 60 feet ahead of us. We could make out a silhouette that was 3-4 feet in size. A member of the party called out, and all we heard was coughing and then silence. On approach, we noticed the and was a bloodied woman in torn rags/robes. She was in terrible condition, beaten and bloody, with an eye that had been knocked out. One of the members did a medicine check on her and determined that her leg was shattered and was missing her hand. Her words were jumbled and was unable to properly speak. Xion was able to talk to her telepathically, and learned the following:

Travelling from the south; fled Horsa

Met something on the travels, was attacked, and ran a long way before collapsing in the woods (here)

Name was Emily

Had lost a musket

no weapons on her

  Detect magic showed no Magic on her.
  One of group provided some basic healing magic to her, which seemed to help close some of her wounds. When they went to give her a potion as well, Aceso said to not to use those important resources, and he would use some healing magic instead. After this healing, she asked for Aceso to approach as he was keeping his distance. When he got close, he felt a slight tingle, and then she attempted to bite Aceso. At this point we engaged with "Emily", who seemed to be a trap of the enemy. We aren't sure exactly what she was, but when we did enough damage, she seemed to disappear in a cloud of smoke with no remains left behind (if she really died). All soldiers should be wary of any injured or "helpless" people we come across as this seems to be a reoccurring tactic by the enemy -- we shouldn't ignore injured people we come across by any means, just be cautious in these situations.
 
  Once we got to Ogden, we talked with Davos who was able to provide us a bunch of information that was relevant to our mission:

talked of armed monsters seen in the area of the Goblin cave

Two villagers who went scouting came across a LARGE - 2 legged, 4 armed monsters with sharp teeth; there was also a choking mist that moved with the creature. In the end of them died, and the other returned in terrible state.

- the person who encountered the monster told us that when you are in the mist it seems to make you go numb, and exhausts you (was still exhausted after a day’s rest) - 1/4 of the mile from the caves - heard its foot fall and perused it - choking mist that moved with the creature - when in the most, he went numb and became exhausted (still exhausting now)
  We took a short rest in the town to tend to our wounds and noticed that almost everyone tended to hide or keep well away from us. It seems everyone fears the remnants of the Shar Army. The Shar army worships the goddess of death and crows, and potentially the werewolves swore allegiance to them.
 
  We made our way west of the town, looking for the path that has a bridge, and actively avoiding the highly dangerous swamp. While we did see the swamp, we did manage to avoid it and get to the bridge. We then proceeded north where we came across the "Solemn Circle of Meeting" standing stones. We continued north past the standing stones where we came across the ruins of the Moon Elves. We pushed farther north, where we came to the areas of the caves. As we arrived, we saw 2 monstrosities that matched the descriptions (massive 4 arms, stinking, etc.) outside of the cave entrance. We engaged with them, and shortly into the fight, they started to beat their chests, which seemed to call two specters of fog out from the cave. Without too much trouble, we were able to dispatch of the monstrosities and one of the fogs -- the last fog specter disappeared as the final monstrosity fell.
  At first inspection, we noticed that the hidden entrance to the cave (just east of the main entrance) had been blocked off with rocks. We did an initial check to see if we could easily remove the blockage but were unable to move it. In the process of trying to remove it, one person got stabbed with a spear from a hole in the rocks. We called out to the creatures inside, and they told us to leave. After a short "discussion" they told us to meet them inside using the main entrance. Based on the information from the last mission, we knew that they'd likely set a variety of traps and hoped we would succumb to them, but we saw no other way to get at them.
  Three of the group made their way into the cave, while Dyne and the 5 refugees stayed behind to watch the front entrance, and the secret entrance. We explored the Cave using Forge's construct, which ultimately fell into a pit trap, and was unrecoverable. Overall, the party did take a decent amount of damage as we set off a few of the traps, but we were able to make it to the back of the cave. We quickly realized that they had blocked off all entrances to the east side of the cave. As the part of the group in the cave was in the far back, the goblins started to remove the obstruction from the secret entrance to try to escape. Dyne and the refugees engaged and called out to us to come help. We all ran to get out of the cave.
  Dyne and the refugees fought hard, and soon the rest of the group got back to help. In the end we beat all the goblins, but 2 refugees died in the process. We further investigated the cave and removed the traps. We then helped unload the supplies from the cart into the eastern part of the cave that was blocked off. We then hid the cart and help barricade the secret entrance to the eastern side once again but with the refugees inside.
 
  We need to ensure that ongoing missions go out to the cave and resupply the refugees. They specifically asked for any skilled carpenters to help them out, or to bring them supplies to help survive (rations) and supplies to help further fortify their position. We should provide backup to them on an ongoing basis and SHOULD NOT FORGET ABOUT THEM!
  As a side note: Upon returning to the camp, we talked with Rudy and his monkey. He informed us that he had slayed the vampire to the south that had been causing the “screams” and that a group of adventures had fought a little while ago.