Guardians of the Vale - Session 3 - Raid on Loudwater!

Returning to Loudwater the party brings in the kobold heads as proof of their deed and a the dragon head as well. Gratified, the head of the town watch rewarded them well and included a bonus for slaying the dragon.

Now before they departed the dungeon the team had also cut out some of the dragon's major organs and they soon found a buyer for those and a dragonhide discovered in the lair AND the dragon's head, which was soon mounted over the town's gate. All in all it was quite a profitable expedition for the group.

The team's relaxation and money-counting in the town square was rudely interrupted when a section of the town's defensive wall blew apart and a force of goblins scampered in. Townspeople -and our heroes- stood in place open mouthed then began to run screaming from the scene. The party recovered and moved to engage.

The paladin and the druid moved to engage one cluster of goblins while the dwarf and the elf moved to stop another. A well in the center of the town square along with numerous trade wagons made moving and fighting somewhat more complicated but the goblins were not going to get by without a fight.

The paladin took down a couple of goblins then moved to block a few more. The druid took down one then was wounded and then wounded again and had to drop back out of the fight to recover. The paladin thought the fight was going his way until he was bull-rushed by one of the goblins, pushed back, and went plummeting into the well, crashing into the water 20' down. Wounded, soaked, and generally bedraggled he was very unhappy with this new situation. With the paladin stuck and the druid wounded this side of the fight was not looking good.

Meanwhile the elf ranger was dropping goblins quickly, firing away into the mob swarming through the square from atop a trader's wagon. The dwarf warlord was holding his own in hand to hand, letting the elf's powerful bow do it's work. This worked well until a goblin dressed in robes pointed a rod at the elf and blinded him with some kind of magic while the dwarf faced off with a bigger and meaner goblin who was clearly not afraid of one dwarf.

The combat swirled around the eastern half of the square as the goblins moved towards the curiosity shop. The elf shook off the blindness and jumped into hand to hand combat alongside the dwarf. The druid recovered and moved to join them, shifting into beast form and slashing up some goblins along the way. The three remaining heroes formed a rough line and attempted to block the goblins off but had a rough time of it as the goblin wizard blasted and blinded them, opening a path for his minions to kick down the door to the shop. The fighting raged until only the wizard and one bodyguard were left. The bodyguard toppled over at the hands of the dwarf. Then the goblin wizard tried to escape but was slain, ending the raid.

The Paladin had been trying to climb out for some time and finally he gave up and called for help. Two villagers hiding under a nearby wagon heard him and pulled him up out of the well but the fighting was over before he could rejoin.

In the aftermath of the raid the team talked to Garwain, owner of the shop that had been targeted by the goblins. He identified the item that the Goblins had picked up, a magic item brought in for trade by a wizard who picked it up in a nearby dungeon. Lady Moonfire  showed up as well to survey the damage and find out what had happened. She identified the dungeon as the Barrow of the Ogre King and offered the PC's 100 gold apiece to seek out the barrow and stop the goblins from any further raids. They accepted and prepared to move out.

DM Notes: This is the adventure in the FR Campaign Guide. I thought it would be a good companion to the starter adventure in the DMG and fighting outside would be a nice change to fighting in the tunnels and rooms of Kobold Hall. The incident with the Paladin being shoved into the well nicely illustrated what all those push, pull, and slide powers are for and then it turns out he isn't trained in athletics nor does he have a great STR bonus. He eventually quit trying to climb and used diplomacy which worked better for him although it was a little slower than climbing out directly would have been.

I let the apprentices rebuild their characters when they levelled up to 2 as they now have a better grasp of how the game works and what certain powers do and what is good and what they like. They are much happier now.

So the party has moved up a level, earned some gold, and picked up a few magic items and they are ready for their next big quest. Stay tuned for Session 4 - Into the Barrow of the Ogre King!