The small farming village in the outskirts of Dawnport called Goldengrove, is preparing for its annual Harvest Fair. The villagers have gathered their crops, merchants have arrived, and families are decorating the town square.
But something has gone terribly wrong...
A group of goblins has stolen a cart carrying the village's harvest supplies, attacked two farmers on the northern road, and taken refuge near an abandoned watchtower. Worse, the goblins have stolen a magical brass bell that protects the village's old irrigation system. Without it, the watermill will stop working, threatening the village's crops.
The village guards are busy protecting the settlement, and the local reeve needs a group of capable adventurers to retrieve the stolen goods before sunset.
Bimo
nayengSpecies: Warforged
Class: Paladin
Please teach me senpai. This is my first game in discord
GM Reward
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Adventures Guild, Goldengrove Village, Forest
-Players- Nephr-ka-ra, H01211X, Bonnibelle, Valkorian
-Non playable Character- Wagon driver, Alden, Maekor the farmer and his wife Tessa
-Enemies- Goblins, goblin leader Barabask, Goblin Jerry, Giant Spiders and Creepy Voice
Goblins have raided the village farm of Goldengrove, stealing harvest supplies, attacking farmers on the northern road, and took a magical brass bell that controls the village's irrigation system.
The local reeve needs a team of adventurers to track the goblins to their hideout near the abandoned watchtower and retrieve the stolen goods before sunset.
Adventurers would be rewarded.
—Alden, Goldengrove’s Spokeperson
The above job posting was posted in the notice board at the adventurers guild. The group of adventurer's Nephr-ka-ra, H01211X, Bonnibelle and Valkorian answers the call. They are met by Alden at the entrance of the guild and they get on the carriage together. After a 2 hours journey, they arrive at the Goldengrove village. A smell of freshly baked good wafts from the nearby stalls, the villagers are preparing for the upcoming fair. Even though the atmosphere is happy on the surface, but Bonni and Valkorian sensed that the villagers are actually very tense and worried. A woman is pleading with a guard to do something about the situation, the situation relating to looking for the magical brass bell. Alden runs up to the group, he needs our help urgently. He says we don't have much time left, we need to deal with the goblins immediately and retrieve the brass bell. The information provided was the goblins had fled to the old watchtower in the woods, and the group needs to head there, following their trail. The main objective is to retrieve the village supplies and the bell together. The group spoke to Maekor the farmer too, who lost his farm goods and in the raid and he said he saw 8 goblins in total, and there was a goblin leader who commands the raid group. The strange thing that he mentioned about the goblins he encountered is that instead of being gleeful and crazy when they were raiding, they had a fearful demeanor (including the leader as well), they kept looking back at the forest, as if scared of something that resides there. Maekor said that there might be a spider infestation in the forest. Lastly, he asked us to follow the tracks of the northern road.
The group gets on the trail and it leads them into a forest clearing. They see footsteps on the trail that stops at a fallen cart with crates around it, the crates have been looted completely. Bonni hops along and suddenly she was caught in an ambush by 5 goblins, including 1 that looks like the leader. They do some damage to the group via arrows and scimitars as the battle begins. Bonni transforms into a big brown bear and she starts mauling the goblin leader, he is donning armor, more well equipped than the rest. Valkorian then pulls out his pipes of haunting and plays a haunting tune, it affected all the goblins except one and they were all frightened! The tides seem to be turning as Nephr whips out his starry wisp and throws it at the goblin leader, hitting him square in the face. Finally, H01211X (pronounced Horlix) walks up to him and decapitates the leader, his head flying clean off. The goblin troops fly into a rage at the sight of their dead leader and continue attacking. They miss all of their attacks, perhaps still being being frightened by Valkorian's song. One of the goblins runs into a nearby bush and hides. Bonni the bear continues to fight and kills another goblin. Horlix takes his sword and kills another goblin while saying "Greetings!" in goblin language. Only two are left now and Bonni takes one of them down easily. The last one tries to run away and jumps off the cliff edge and falls flat on his face. Bonni bonks him non-lethally and subdues the last goblin, knocking him unconscious.
The battle was won. The group managed to loot 50 GP from the fallen goblin leader. They interrogated the last goblin and he told them they took the supplies to the watchtower. The boss is called Barabask and he is at the watchtower. He promises to bring them to the watchtower. As they traverse deeper into the forests, more and more spider webs can be seen on the trees, relating to earlier when Maekor informed the group about the thing that was scaring the goblins. As they headed west, they eventually reached the goblin encampment. Barabask greets the group and admits that they stole the supplies from the village because they were hungry. They only knew a life of thievery and barbarism because it was in their nature. The group together convinced Barabask and his men to stand down and change their occupation of being bandits. They could go to Goldengrove and become guards to protect them, then they won't go hungry anymore. He promised he will return everything to the village but the brass bell is being kept under the watchtower, in the basement. He says there are big creatures with many legs which will appear in the night to hunt his men. In order to retrieve the bell, they will need to fight the big creature. The group took a short rest to recover some health and prepare for the fight below.
An hour goes by and the group enters the watchtower. As they descend down the stairs into the basement, the air grows cold and heavy, and a voice speaks out to the group: "We are famished, and we crave for something tasty and crunchy! hahaha!" The basement is totally covered in cobwebs and dark. There were walls that were totally crumbled to the ground and it reveals some caves behind it that are filled with cobwebs. It seems that the creatures have tunneled in from the outside into the basement and broke down the walls. The group cuts down the webs and moves into the lair and as they stare upward, three giant crawling spiders are on the ceiling, they emerge from the darkness. The spider says: "You want the bell? Well we want your scrumptious little flesh to fill my body!" Battle begins!
Bonni remembers that normal giant spiders do not speak common, so these are some sort of magic spiders! Horlix charges forward together with Barabask and strikes at the first giant spider they see. The spider shoots a web at Bonnibelle, restraining her. Nephr and Valkorian was targeted next by the web too but they successfully saved! Valkorian tried to use suggestion on the main spider but it failed. Bonnibelle tried to cut her restraints and it loosens up a little bit. She uses healing word, combined with Nephr to heal Horlix after he was damaged by the spiders. Nephr tries to throw a starry wisp but misses for now. Horlix was up next and he uses Divine Smite, heavily damaging the giant spider! Barabask follows suit and slashes the spiders too. Valkorian cuts the webs that were holding Bonni down and sets her free. He also uses mantle of inspiration to give the group more health and movement. Bonni uses her Moonbeam spell to damage the spiders. She kills one of them and it shrivels up. Horlix uses another Divine Smite and combo-ed together with Barabask to take down another spider together. The last spider didn't stand a chance as Bonni shifts the moonbeam to kill it. It fell down to the ground in a charred heap. A woman's voice echoes throughout the whole chamber: "I thought they would last longer, I even given them their own voices, useless... but not you guys, you guys are capable... hehehe, I guess I will be seeing you next time, my dearest!" The group recovered the brass bell. Bonnie proceeds to destroy all the spider eggs. After that strange occurrence, they went upstairs to discover a chest and got some items - potion of animal friendship, Bonni receives it. The group and the goblins bring the supplies back to the village. At first, the villagers were scared but they eventually warmed up to Barabask and the gang. Goblin Jerry even signed up to become a farmer under Maekor. The group returns the bell to the Alden and he gives 400 GP to the group. Goldengrove lives happily ever after!
The End!
Operational DTTM: 583D08H47M
Unit: H01211X
Quest giver: Alden
Quest objective: Retrieve Brass Bell
Quest Destination: Goldengrove
Reward: Null
Allies: Valkorian, Nephr, Bonni... New Face Registered
Transportation: Wagon
Log1: Travel to (Quest Destination). idle mode set to true.
Operational DTTM: 583D10H45M
Unit: H01211X
Log1: (Quest giver) verify (Quest object) acquire by Goblins
Log2: Maekor verify subject was attack by Goblins. Goblins directory = Watch tower... Scanning Maekor... injurded
Log3: Tessa rumors Spider Web at Forest
Possible Encounter: Goblins, Spiders
Quest Destination: Goldengrove > watchtower
Log4: Travel to (Quest Destination).
Operational DTTM: 583D11H00M
Unit: H01211X
Log1: Optical scan = abandon cart detected
Log2: Bonni got ambush by Goblins
Encounter: 4 x Goblins, 1 x Hobgolin
Combat Log3: Heavy damage taken... Status: Suboptimal!
Combat Log3: Action Longsword Target Hobgolin... Result: Target Hobgoblin Neutralize!
Combat Log4: Action Lay on Hand (5) Target H01211X... Result: Status: Functional!
Combat Log5: Action Longsword Target Goblin02... Result: Target Goblin01 Neutralize!
Encounter Result: 3 x Goblins, 1 x Hobgoblin Neutralize! 1 x Goblins Captured! 50 x gold Found! 1 x Javelin Retrieved!
Allies: Goblin = Jerry
Log5: Jerry bring Allies to (Quest Destination)
Operational DTTM: 583D11H28M
Unit: H01211X
Log1: Arrive (Quest Destination).
Encounter: Barbakos, Jerry, 4 x Goblins.
Log2: Barbakos and his Allies was Hungry. Result = raid Goldengrove.
Log3: Sympathy Protocol activated. Share Ration to Barbakos and his Allies.
Log4: (Quest Object) under watchtower. guard by Spiders
Log5: Short rest protocol set to true.
Allies: Valkorian, Nephr, Bonni, Barbakos
Quest Destination: watchtower > watchtower basement
Possible Encounter: Spiders
Operational DTTM: 583D12H06M
Unit: H01211X
Log1: Travel to (Quest Destination)
Log2: Bonni pass Lantern to H01211X
Log3: Scanning (Quest objective)... (Quest objective) located... outside crumbling wall with spider webs
Encounter: 3 x Giant Spiders
Combat Log4: Heavy damage taken... Status: Suboptimal!
Combat Log5: Heavy damage taken... Status: Critical!
Combat Log6: Heal wound taken... Status: Suboptimal!
Combat Log7: Heal wound taken... Status: Suboptimal!
Combat Log8: Action Longsword + Divine Smite Target Giant spider01... Result Target Giant spider01 damaged!
Combat Log9: Heavy damage taken... Status: Critical!
Combat Log10: Potion of Healing Taken... Status: Suboptimal!
Combat Log11: Action Longsword + Divine Smite Target Giant spider02... Result Target Giant spider02 damaged!
Encounter Result: 3 x Giant Spider Neutralize!
Rumors: Creepy voice that control Giant Spider
Log12: (Quest objective) Retrieved!
Log13: Travel to Goldengrove
Operational DTTM: 583D13H46M
Unit: H01211X
Quest result: --
Quest objective: Delivered to (quest giver) - Complete!
Sub objective: Barbakos and his allies joining Goldengrove as Guards - Complete!
Reward: Null > 400 x gold
Actual Reward: 112.5 Gold
Gotten the hang of signing up for new jobs.
Together with the bard Valkorian and the paladin H01211X, we decided on the one about a lost bell. Another adventurer named Bonnibelle, was also interested in the job. The contact person soon showed up, and he took us by carriage to the village of Goldengrove.
At the village, it seems like a festival was about to happen, with decorations decked out and the wonderful scent of freshly baked goods filled the air. However, Valkorian and Bonni noticed a heavy tenseness in the air. Nearby, a woman was in disagreement with the village watch about the guards not taking action.
We approached them to find out more, and learnt it was related to the incident. Alden, the person in charge, came up to us and briefed us on the situation. With the local militia occupied, the roads were not as guarded, and the attack was an unfortunate result. Alden then called for Maekor, the farmer that was attacked by the goblins, to tell us more about the incident.
According to Maekor, the goblins attacked while he was traveling to the village with the season’s harvest and the Bell. Maekor added that the goblins were nervous, and kept looking over their shoulders; displaying none of the usual greed and
wantonness. From his following explanation, perhaps more frightening creatures were present in the woods. The farmer did inform us that he noticed webs amidst the trees, signs of arachnid infestation, perhaps…?
Well, goblins and spiders aside, I for one find it curious that an item of such importance would be placed under better security.
Nevertheless, we decided to head into the wilderness to find the goblin raiding party and retrieve the Bell at least, if not most of the stolen goods.
Not long into the wilderness, we came upon the remains of the farmer’s wagon. Broken crates and traces of a fight was seen, and goblin tracks all around. It was too quiet, and we once again prepared for an ambush. The goblins did not disappoint.
Working together, we made quick work of the goblins. Bonnie shape-shifted into a large bear and held the front line. H01211X however, was behaving a little strangely, cutting up the goblin leader but shouting out greetings. This, along with Valkorian’s haunting charm from his magical flute, broke the goblin’s morale and caused them to flounder.
I know I would too if I see a powerful enemy attacking while offering words of greetings.
We decided to keep one goblin alive to interrogate, and from him. From Gerry, the goblin that we subdued, we learnt that they have an encampment in the woods to the west, near an abandoned watchtower, and where their leader, Barabask, can be found. Gerry then led us there.
Arriving at the encampment, we met with Barabask. We managed to have a civil conversation, and the goblin leader told us that they had not been able to hunt in the woods since the vicious monsters took up residence in the basement of the tower. Hungry and desperate, they attacked the farmers. The increased sightings of web-covered trees we saw along the way may have some connection after all.
After more discussion, we found that the goblins were not vicious, only driven by desperation. They were wiling to return the goods they had taken back to the village.
Barabask mentioned of having seen the Bell, and that the monsters have indeed taken it. As a show of sincerity and apology, he offered to go with us to face the monsters and retrieve the brass Bell. After resting for a while at the goblin’s camp, we headed to the watchtower.
We decided to head towards the basement straight away. As we were about to go down into the darkness, we heard a voice stating that we’d make wonderful prey if we go down. We didn’t take it seriously and continued down the stairs.
Underneath, the tunnels were choked with cobwebs, and we no longer heard the voice. In the basement, part of the walls have collapsed, and thick webs have shrouded and blocked the way forward. Cutting through the webs, we discovered natural caverns, and more webbings. And some distance away, the light from our torch and lantern reflected on something metallic. The Bell!
At that precise moment, three large, bulbous creatures with spindly legs descended from the gloom above. Giant spiders! And they were talking! Deciding which amongst us would be eaten first. Bonni, as a druid, finds this to be most strange; spiders, regardless of size, were not supposed to talk.
They tried to trap us with their webs, but we managed to not get caught, except for Bonni. H01211X and Barabask charged forward and attacked the spiders with their blade. One of the spiders gave HO1211X a vicious bite that almost fell the paladin, but thankfully, Bonni and I managed to heal him with words of healing. With our druid trapped, and attacks seemed to be glancing off the spiders, things started to look bleak.
Fortunately, Valkorian was able to break the webbing that trapped Bonni. Following that, he used his fey glamer and inspired the frontliners. Bonni after being released, summoned a radiant moonbeam over the spiders. The tide turned, and the spiders began burning with radiant light one after another. H01211X and Barabask, no longer having to worry about being wounded, continued striking the spiders with blades and holy wrath.
The spiders’ threat soon ended, and as we gathered ourselves, another mysterious voice, echoed in the dark. It said that even after giving them intelligence and ability to speak, they were not able to stay alive. The voice laughed, before going silent.
Perhaps there is a witch about on the loose…
Bonni went about the chamber to destroy any eggs she can find, intent on ending the abomination. We retrieved the Bell, and made our way back to the surface.
We returned to Goldengrove; goods, goblins and all. The villagers were happy, and so were the goblins, given that they now have a proper chance at making a new living. We were rewarded for our effort by Alden.
Well, now I must go and join my friends with the festivities. The bread has tempted me long enough.
