Starter Set, Here There Be Goblins, Session 1 Part 2

Two uneventful days had passed, the group of strangers barely saying more than idle chatter to each other.  Whether a lack of trust, or just being lost in thought, the group seemed to have little interest in the goals of the others, at least just yet.

On the morning of the third day, they began their turn off the High Road down the Triboar Trail towards Phandalin.  Just an hour or so along the dirt path, they came upon something in the road.  Two horses, lying dead and filled with black-fletched arrows, blocked the path.

Disembarking the wagon, Durial motioned for the party to hold fast as he scouted the situation.  Suddenly, Lemon spots a rustling in a bush near the horses, but it was too late.  “Durial, look out!” she warned, just as two arrows came flying out of the brush.  Looking down at the protruding arrows in his stomach, Durial fell to his knees and rolled to his back, unconscious.

Four goblins, green skin and sharpened teeth, sprang from the underbrush.

Rushing forward, Lemon attacked with her broadsword, felling one of the small bandits.  Raven brought her maul down upon another, while Eva, calling upon her druidic magic, healed her fallen companion.  As the arrows plopped out of the drow, the wounds magically sealing themselves, the dragonborn Lana flashed a magical ray of frost at one of the remaining two assailants.  The final goblin, quickly realizing it was far outmatched, attempted to flee into the bushes on the north side of the road.  Lemon deftly sent the goblin flying, cleaved in two, along a similar trajectory.

Over in a flash, the group searched the horses to find signs of the riders.  Raven and Lemon attempted to lift a horse enough to pull a saddle bag out from under it, but the shifting weight broke a glass vial held within the bag, destroying what may have been a very useful potion.  The only other object they could find is an empty leather map case, with two letters scrawled on it.

G.R.

Raven recognized the case as having been the one Gundren was carrying several nights ago in the tavern.  The group began to search the goblin corpses, hoping for a sign as to where their employer might be, when Lemon came upon a small path on the north side of the road, hidden behind the bushes, the final goblin ambusher lying in the dirt just beyond.  A cursory inspection shows that several drag marks, likely from a couple of bodies, led into the woods along the trail.

After some discussion, the group decided to hide the oxen and cart to the north of the road, in among trees and bushes.  Satisfied that the supplies could not be seen from the path, and the animals were secured, the five followed the trail north into the woods.

Durial, his confidence unmarred by the injuries from the arrows, took lead.  He easily noticed the shoddy attempts at pit traps and snares placed along the path by the goblins, disarming them before his comrades approached.  A few minutes later, and the sound of running water could be heard ahead.  Carefully, the group approached a clearing just outside the mouth of a cave, out of which a small stream was trickling.