Shackled City, Chapter 2: Drakthar’s Way – Aug 28th
I heard a couple of rumors the other day. Someone told me,
“A cloaked figure collided with me in the street and knocked me down. She uttered some horrible curse, glared at me with her ghostly face and hunting blue eyes, then strode off.”
I also heard that Keygan Ghelve is one of the finest locksmiths in the world. It is said that only a skilled rogue or spellcaster could bypass one of his locks without the proper key.
Sir Alek Tercival invited me to join him at the tavern, the Drunken Morkoth. While there I read the local Cauldron Journal newspaper and learned about an adventuring group called the ‘Stormblades’ who recently stopped a plague and saved the mines. There was also an article about some missing orphans being returned thanks to another adventuring group called the Union of Justice.
In the tavern, Sir Alek Tercival introduced me to that very group (the Union of Justice). He suggested that I join with them (if they will have me) to join in their adventures. They seem like a nice group. There is DaVid, who seems to be divine and magical; Tom Riddle, whom I’ve heard Sir Alek speak of, has a very large panther with him; a shadowy figure that I would later find out is ‘The Hawk’ – someone who is wanted by the local authorities; and an elf priest of Fharlanghn.
While we were in the tavern talking, a half-elven bard, Xiloscient approached us and also asked about adventuring with the Union of Justice. It turns out that she used to go to school with DaVid. When we talked about the Stormblades, she didn’t have anything nice to say about them.
DaVid had a slip of paper with a note from the captain of the guard. He wants us to meet with him tomorrow at his office. So after we finished dinner we headed to bed and agreed to meet up the next day.
The next day we met up at the town guards barracks and spoke with Terseon Skellerang, the captain of the town guard. From him we learned about a problem with goblins in town harassing people and causing mischief. He offered a reward of 5 gold pieces per goblin ear that we turn in. There wasn’t much information that he could give other than that the goblin appear during cloudy nights at random in group of 3-6. He said that there have been recent reports of them near Ash Avenue and near the park.
We departed and did some information gathering about the goblins. We were able to discern that there were a few spots with goblin graffiti on the walls. We investigated these spots and, with the help of DaVid’s spell, were able to read the writing. The three phrases were:
“Eyes of Drakthar”
“Drakthar is the fog”
“Hey cagemakers, this is our town too!”
Out of ideas, we decided to wait until nightfall and send DaVid & the bard out into the alleys as decoys to draw out the goblins. As the night progressed, it got very foggy.
The plan worked! Three such goblins ambushed DaVid and the bard and we all attacked them. One goblin hit DaVid and Tom pounded another. After the first goblin went down, the other two ran away. We chased them.
I caught up with one but after exchanging missed blows, it accidentally broke its sword and ran away. I chased it some more but was never able to catch it. Eventually Tom’s panther caught and killed it.
At the same time, the elf chased down the other and killed it as well. The first goblin was unconscious and we decided to interrogate it. Hawk did the talking. The goblin was quite rude and provoked the Hawk. The only thing it would tell is was, “Drakthar is the master”.
Sadly, the goblin must have tripped and fell on Hawk’s sword because it got decapitated.
Next we decided to prop up the dead goblins and make it look as if they are alive in order to try to draw out more goblins. We all hid and waited all night for this. Nothing ever happened.
However, while we were waiting, a stranger approached DaVid with a message. But DaVid was unable to hear her message before she left. It was very late by this point so we all called it a night and agreed to meet up again tomorrow.
The next day we met up and investigated more reports of graffiti. There wasn’t much more valuable information but while we were investigating, a plump young woman with red hair, jade-green eyes approached us and told us that we could find the entrance to the goblin lair at the bath house ran by Orak, a dwarf. Before we could question her further, she departed.
Not everyone in the party trusted the woman and wanted a second opinion. We went to the temple of St. Cuthbert to ask the acting high-priestess to use the Star of Justice, a mace capable of casting the divinations once a week. The Union of Justice had used this mace in the search for the disappearing Cauldronites, evidently. We asked three questions:
Q: Who is that woman who gave us the information?
A: “A harlequin whose heart swoons.”Q: Where are the goblins?
A: “Ask the red-eyed dwarf and he’ll lie.”Q: Who is Drakthar?
A: “Drakthar the bloodmonger controls the goblin caves.”
We are planning on going to the bath house next.