Episode 6

Our heroes resume their battle against Irontooth, a savage and dangerous goblin warrior, and his vassal kobolds: a kobold Wympriest, two tough Dragonshields, and two spear-wielding kobold fighters.

Reinforced now by Flo, John and Xagoth, our wounded heroes took heart. Flo immediately ran into the fray and unleashed her most powerful invocation of her god's healing power. The holy light bathed Aravin, who stirred and arose as if waking from a deep sleep. It washed over Walf, who was almost collapsing from his grievous injuries, and severed sinews knitted and closed his most severe wounds. Irontooth and one Dragonshield were also caught in the holy radiance, but on their evil it shone harshly, and their strength was sapped.

Flinch, a dozen metres away, did not benefit from this miraculous healing, and teetered perilously close to death.

Dexter was heartened by this turn of the tide, and struck viciously at Irontooth, his darting daggerblade digging deceptively deeply into the goblin's flesh.

A massive eruption of demonic flame, enveloping Irontooth, marked Xagoth's return to the battle. Irontooth called out "Kalarel and Lord Orcus — prepare my way!" as he perished in the fires. Xagoth immediately pushed the advantage, firing a dark bolt of energy at a Dragonshield, dropping the creature to the ground.

Not only the most salient threat to the remaining evil creatures, but standing between them and escape through the waterfall, Xagoth was immediately targeted by the remaining kobolds. The Wyrmpriest, eager to win revenge for his fallen commander, stepped in to Xagoth, summoning an orb of energy into his taloned hand and smashing it point blank onto Xagoth's face, burning them both. The two smaller kobold fighters, both landed spear thrusts on the distracted warlock. John spied an opening as one of the lizard creatures moved around Xagoth however, and his shout allowed Xagoth to land a counter attack, killing one of the spear wielders.

The surviving Dragonshield, snarling at the now overwhelming odds, failed to dodge a swift attack from Artin. Walf charged across the cavern floor at the Wyrmpriest, but at the last second his irrational hatred of dragon-like creatures overcame him and he mishandled his sword, striking the kobold with the hilt instead.

The last Dragonshield lost his nerve and fled toward the exit, discovering on his second step the folly of turning your back on an axe-wielding dwarf as Artin smashed her weapon down onto his back. He managed to twist away and sprint to the roaring curtain of water.

Aravin, much recovered, blasted a magical arrow of dripping acid toward the Wyrmpriest, damaging the creature despite his attempt to leap aside. Flo attempted to simultaneously attack the Wyrmpriest and beam a healing force to Flinch, but only the latter succeeded. Undaunted she focussed again on the Wyrmpriest, this time landing a holy blast against the evil creature. This was followed swiftly with an arrow from the swiftly recovered Flinch.

Dexter moved like a shadow through the remaining combat, taking him past the Wyrmpriest who immediately sttempted to skewer the rogue with his spear. Walf had been waiting for this, however, taking advantage of the Wyrmpriest's distraction to slide his sword through the kobold's ribs, finally dispatching the creature. Dexter meanwhile reached his intended target — the second last surviving kobold — and slashed his dagger across the scaled creature's throat, killing it.

The lone surviving kobold sprinted to the nearest exit, trying to shake the dragon scale from his arm as his ran; Xagoth was merciless as he unleashed a final bolt of dark energy from his codpiece, ending the kobold and the battle.

After the fight, the group searched the caves. There was a chest and some scattered coins in a treasure room; the chest was locked but opened to a key Xagoth found on Irontooth's corpse, revealing much gold.

Xagoth also found a scrolled parchment, with the following note scrawled in red ink:

The heroes collected all the loot into the chest (less a few coins Dexter managed to select for his private collection), and Walf carried the entire thing back to Winterhaven on his shoulder.

Back in town, the locals seemed nervous. A bad feeling pervaded the area, infecting our heroes too. They stopped in at Lord Padraig's manor to discuss their encounter at the waterfall, and discovered that Padraig had known that area was a kobold base, and gave them a reward for cleaning it out.

The implication that there was a spy in Winterhaven Padraig took quite seriously. He promised that his information gatherers would be onto it right away.

On leaving the manor, Aravin and Flinch, suspecting that Padraig of some cult complicity or something, hid out and watched the manor entrance. A few minutes later a guardsman walked out, and Flinch tailed him to a small residence, where he entered and talked for a short time to the man inside.

On leaving, the guard nearly caught Flinch listening at the door, but a spectacular leap onto the roof of the house kept her out of sight. Soon the resident also left, and Flinch tailed him to Wrafton's Inn.

While the remainder of the group asked after Ninaran (she had still not returned to her rooms), and listened to Valthrun the Prescient tell the the story of Sir Keegan, Flinch bought drinks for the suspicious townsman, but eventually discovered that he was in fact one of the informers Padraig had referred to, and they had each been trying to get information out of each other to see if they were the spy.

Meanwhile, Valthrun related the story of Sir Keegan, the last lord of the nearby keep.

Eighty years ago, long after the fall of the Nerath Empire that built Shadowfell Keep, Keegan had maintained the place as a bastion against the rising dark. Once an apparently honourable paladin, something changed one night, and Keegan began to slaughter the residents of his keep, starting with his own family. The garrison were eventually able to muster a defence against Keegan's insane attack, and at a great cost of lives were able to drive him into the crypts under the keep, apparently dispatching him there (although his body was never recovered).

Whatever the truth is, the villagers avoid the place, and tell stories of Sir Keegan's ghost and other monsters roaming the ruins.

Hearing this story, Walf announced to general agreement that the group should venture forth to the keep the next morning. And the following morning the group matched actions to words, marching to the keep.

As the party made their way along the northern road, they saw a clearing opening up in the woods on either side. Dominating the clearing, a ruinous fort crouched atop a bare stony knoll, the road passing but a small way to the left of the tumbled masonry. The sense of unease earlier sensed at the town had been steadily growing on the adventurers, and it was now obvious to even the most insensitive among them that the keep was the source of the feeling; an unpleasant aura seemed to radiate from the ruins, and it felt to everyone there that they were constantly being watched by unseen eyes. However, trusting to their more usual senses the party guessed that no one was actually watching, and so crept cautiously from the sparse cover of the trees and made their way to the ruins.

In the centre of the ruined keep they saw that much old rubble and stonework had been piled in the central courtyard, clearing a path to an open doorway at the northern edge of the court which lead down into darkness. At a glance from his friends, Dexter drew his hood low over his face, stepped silently into the doorway, and was instantly lost from sight. After only a few seconds he emerged, and through whispered conversation described a room at the base of the stairs: square, thirty feet to a side, with openings to the north, east, and west. Four pillars supported the high ceiling, set in from the corners of the room; and sconces on the pillars filled the central way with bright light, although the areas behind the pillars were still partially in shadow. Additionally in the northern tunnel, opposite the stair, slouched a goblin, idly tossing a wickerwork ball against the wall.

John immediately assessed the situation, and suggested that the group's ranged strikers, Flinch and Xagoth, should attempt to knock out the goblin, adding that if it couldn't be taken alive and quietly, it should be killed before it could raise an alarm. Flinch and Xagoth crept down the stair as quietly as they could, and simultaneously launched their attack on the oblivious guard; Xagoth summoned demonic forces to grasp the goblin and drag it forward into the room, while Flinch loosed a blunted arrow, striking the goblin as it lurched forward, knocking it unconscious with surgical precision. Its limp form collapsed to the floor before the abandoned ball finished bouncing.

Dexter then snuck down as quickly and quietly as possible into the lighted room and lifted the unconscious form, dragging it back up the stairs. There Walf cast it over his shoulder and made for the woods, out of earshot of the keep. Xagoth, having been in a similar situation before, pushed aside his mighty codpiece, and splashed his water over the goblin's face until it awoke. Then, being the only party member who could speak goblin, he asked it in that vile tongue, "Who do you work for?"

The goblin, disarmed and surrounded by foes, but still very near to its fortress, had no fear, and replied, "The icy hells take you, human." Walf, unable to speak goblin, nevertheless understood the basic intent, and gestured to Dexter who drew his dagger and, moving close, did something to the goblin's fingertips. It shuddered a little, and Xagoth repeated his question.

A second time, the goblin refused to cooperate, and Walf said, "This creature is useless. Kill it." As Dexter stepped forward again, dagger drawn, the goblin called out in the common tongue, "Woah, let's not be too hasty here! I'll tell you everything I know, if you promise to let me go." Walf gestured with his sword, and the goblin proceeded to describe the upper levels of the underkeep, confirming that here was in fact the base of the cult they had long sought. They learned from the miserable captive that the goblins were lead by one Balgron the Fat, who was apparently cruel and not well loved, especially not by this poor soul.

Satisfied, Walf turned back towards the clearing, contemplating their next moves. Flinch immediately drew her blade and stepped towards the goblin, which quailed back in fear, when Aravin grasped her shoulder, saying, "We said we'd let it go."

"Are you out of your mind?" she exclaimed in elvish, "It's a goblin! They're all evil. I don't want it behind me if I'm going into the keep. We must kill it!"

"We could bind it," suggested Aravin in the common tongue.

Florence guessed Flinch's arguments, but agreed with Aravin saying, "Let us tie it to a tree."

"I like that," said Dexter shiftily, "That way there's a chance it could get free, eventually... but not before we're finished with what we're doing here, or at least until it's too late to raise an alarm."

Flinch glared at her party members' foolishness, but stomped off, defeated.

Aravin sacrificed a length of rope from his pack, and bound the goblin tightly to a large tree. The party gathered around Walf, peering at the keep, when John, cupping his hands around his mouth, made a cry like a wolf's howl, and laughed at the sounds of frantic goblin shrieks coming from the woods behind.