The trail is thick with tracks. The overhead sun filters down through the canopy, providing just enough light to see by. They had been walking for about fifteen minutes when Vaneiros stopped.
“What is it?” Scuttle whispered.
“They’ve laid a trap here. Can you disable it?” Vaneiros points at the ground and Scuttle’s eyes locate a trip wire that ran the length of the trail.
Scuttle nods. “Shouldn’t be a problem”. He pulled his thieves toolkit from his bag and within seconds, has the trap disarmed.
“Thank you.” Scuttle says nothing, just skips his toolkit back into his pack. Vaneiros continues leading the way, watching the forest floor for further traps.
After five more minutes, Vaneiros once more signals Scuttle to stop. The goblin tracks have been moving up the center of the trail for the last few miles but Vaneiros notices that here they move off to one side. Looking ahead, he can see where they rejoin the trail.
“There’s something here”, he whispers to Scuttle and steps back as Scuttle once more moves forward to examine the trail. Examining the ground, Scuttle whispers, “They dug a pit and camouflaged it.” Scuttle stepped off the trail, picked up a dead branch and tossed it onto the ground ahead. With a crash, the branch fell through the thin cover, revealing the pit. Looking in, Vaneiros saw that the pit is roughly six feet deep and about ten feet wide. Not fatal, but enough to break an arm or leg if you landed wrong. Scuttle moved off the trail and circled around, bringing them back onto the trail.
Rounding a bend, they found a cave opening. A stream flowed from this opening. Still moving stealthily, they approached the cave opening, but as they drew near, muttering voices reached their ears. Pausing and listening, they realized that the voices were coming from a grove to the left of the cave. They passed silently and saw that there were two goblins on lookout duty. Vaneiros motioned for Scuttle to take the one on the left while he dealt with the goblin on the right. Scuttle nodded, then moved forward. From the goblins vantage point, they should have been able to see any approaching enemies. However, they were too distracted to notice their stealthy approach. Scuttle slid his daggers from his belt and moved forward from tree to tree, shadow to shadow and it’s only right before he strikes that they notice that something isn’t quiet right. It’s too late. Scuttle drove both blades into the neck of the closest goblin, while Vaneiros’s arrow found its mark in the other’s eye. Both fall to the ground, dead. Scuttle wiped the blood his daggers on the goblins clothes and sheathes the blades back in his belt. Vaneiros plucked the arrow from the goblin’s face and shook off the remaining gore.
They turn their attention back to the cave, approaching it with caution. They step into the cave, weapons drawn, ready for anything. The cave continues back about sixty feet before it fades into darkness. To their immediate right, stairs lead up into another section and just at the edge of their sight, another tunnel branches off to the left.
Vaneiros motioned to the right and Scuttle nodded. As they made their way up the stairs, Vaneiros heard a metallic clink. He paused to listen and the sound repeated. Chains. Something ahead was chained and moving around. Using their darkvision, they peeked around the cavern entrance. Just beyond the stairs, three wolves are chained, a steel collar around each one’s throat. All three chains run to an iron rod driven into the rock floor. The wolves glanced up and seeing movement at the entrance began snarling and growling. Scuttle moved to draw his daggers, but Vaneiros raised his hand and stepped into the room, fully visible to wolves. The Druid moved forward, hands outstretched palms up. He spoke calmly as he approached them and one by one, they settle down. The snarling stopped and they began whining excitedly. Vaneiros reached out a hand and took turns rubbing each under their chins and behind their ears. After a few moments, he motioned Scuttle to enter the room. “Search the back of this cavern, please.”
Scuttle moved about the room, looking for anything of interest as he went. At the back of the cavern he noticed a fissure. The naturally occurring narrow opening in the east wall went up 30 feet and disappeared. At the bottom of the fissure was a pile of garbage. Whatever was up there was using this as a garbage chute. Glancing at the pile, Scuttle didn’t see anything of interest and he returned to where Vaneiros knelt, petting the wolves.
As they left the wolves’ kennel, Vitarri and I arrived.
“There you are. We got worried when you didn’t return.” I looked at them, looking for any sign of injury. “Do either of you require healing?”
Scuttle shook his head “no” as Vaneiros said, “Thank you, but we are fine. I’m glad you’ve arrived. We were getting ready to come get you. We’ve tracked the goblins to this cave. Scuttle and I dispatched two of their guards. Should we got fetch Redium? We might need his help.”
“We left him watching the wagon, told him we’d come look for you and then head back.” Vitarri motioned with his head and I turned to look behind me. Redium was strolling up the path.
“What are you doing here, Redium? I thought you were watching the wagon!”
He glanced at me, surprised. “You didn’t ask me to watch the wagon. You just assumed I would. I thought I might be of more help here in case you ran into trouble.”
Though I had my doubts about whether our wagon would still be there when we returned, I nodded. “I suppose you are right.” Vaneiros quickly filled us in on what they had discovered. “Shall we?” he asked when he had finished, indicating the cave behind us. We nodded and made our way into the cave.