His breathing stopped. Blood pooled on the ground, the dirt fast turning slick to mud. The wound in Ragnar's side was not closing, and no amount of pressure stopped the flow of life from his body. The party sat in silence as they saw the worst result happen for their fallen comrade. Then, a spectacular bright light, fading through all colours of the rainbow, and what appeared to be a translucent blank scroll appeared and unwrapped from him, before disappearing nearly as quickly. Ragnar's eyelid's fluttered open and he coughed the liquid from his lungs. He sat up out of the ichor-ridden dirt painfully, and with help up from his friends, managed their way back to the cart. After noticing a large fallen tree slightly off the road, the party decided it would be worthwhile to make camp for the night behind it, so that everyone could get some rest and recover, before venturing into the cave. If it was true that their employer's were captured, they might be in there, and there was no way the party was going to go through this without any chance at payment.
Twelve hours later the party had fully recovered, with no issues during the night. They swiftly made their way back toward the cave, with the exception of Mytar, who remained with Jurgen and the cart. Again, they passed the pit of spikes, however there was no body to found. A brief moment of engineering, and the party had created a small trap, to prevent anything from exiting the small cave at the bottom.
They continued to the cave mouth, and found that all of the bodies had been removed from the area, however there were no sentries, and the cave was eerily quiet. The party cautiously moved into the cave, though it was dark, and half of the party couldn't see, a lit torch prevented stealth from being an option. The first chamber the group encountered was empty, bar a few beds made of matted fur and straw, encircling a stalagmite in the middle of the room, with three iron rings attached to it. Any attempt at searching was in vain, and nought was discovered among the beds or anywhere else in the room. They continued forth, and the light illuminated a rickety wooden bridge twenty feet above them. They heard a high, raspy little voice shout in goblin (which Galion translated to 'Release the dam!!') and the sound of rushing water filled the cavern. A wall of water rushed down, passing beneath the bridge and toward the party. Vanar fled and dived into the nearby cavern they had recently explored, while the water flooded forth to buffet the rest of the party. Thespus and Galion withstood the force of the water, while Slagathor and Ragnar were flung from their feet and washed out of the cave. They dragged themselves out of the stream (now almost a river) and lay on the ground briefly, chests heaving. Galion, unimpressed now with the soaked state of his robes, prestidigitated the water away, and was much more pleased with his dried clothing, while the two humans were now blind. another torch was lit, and a javelin and arrow from Thespus and Vanar in unison dealt with the goblin on the bridge. Slagathor and Thespus decided it would be worthwhile to explore a newly discovered side tunnel over the other side of the river, up a steep path of single and ledges. They managed their way up and with a brilliant piece of stealth by Slagathor, managed to prevent the heavily armoured noble from being heard. The rest of the party waited below for them to return. This cavern opened up into a massive area, a fire pit in one corner surrounded by five goblins, and one which looked rather similar to the one who had owned the wolves the previous day. The two decided very quickly that this would not be safe with only the two of them, and Thespus retreated back down the shingle, while Slagathor continued around the cave branch to the right of them, which curved back to the bridge.
The halfling crossed the bridge,a candle in hand for light, to scout ahead of the party. As a swift escape route he decided it would be worthwhile to drop a rope off of the bridge, but wasn't so wise as to realise the iron piton he was hammering into the wall would echo through the cave. He had his escape set up, when he heard the sound of a pair of goblins making their way toward him. He dropped down, swinging under the bridge, and holding onto the wall, to hide from the goblins. He was watching above him, the candle snuffed, and he heard the creaking and squabbling of the goblins directly above him. He felt a tug on the rope, and he tugged back, harder, and the goblin stumbled off the bridge, headfirst, and the disturbing crack of goblin skull filled the cavern. This alerted the other to the presence of intruders, and as he was about to yell, another javelin/arrow unison attack from the humans dropped the goblin too. Slagathor then tried to climb up onto the bottom of the bridge by leaping from the wall, and missed, plummeting twenty feet to the cavern floor, winded and in pain. Vanar ran to his side, thankfully Slagathor was still concious, but barely. The group again heard the sound of rushing water fill the cavern, and they knew exactly what was coming. Thespus ducked back into the shingle path, while Vanar reacted swiftly to grab onto the rope beside him, however could not grab onto the halfling at the same time, who was washed out again. Ragnar resisted the flow of water this time, as did Galion. Thespus looked out of his cavern, and had to make the swift decision between the halfling and his javelin, floating past in the body of a goblin. Naturally he picked the weapon over the rogue, who continued out of the cave, where he crawled out and collapsed on the ground beside the stream.
Three goblins took their places atop the bridge, arrows notched and bows drawn, aimed at the party. However, a well-placed arrow from Vanar sliced once of the ropes at the bottom of the bridge, and it collapsed, hanging now vertically, the goblins hanging onto the planks, barely. Galion saw his opportunity and took it, fire sprouting from his fingers, swamping the bridge and the goblins, turning them to a crisp, and the bridge began to smoulder. More goblins charged from around the corner, and above the party, in the cavern that the bridge once lead to, a large hairy goblinoid stood with a wolf at his side. Another blast of fire from Galion dealt with the charging goblins, and an arrow from Vanar sunk into the side of the wolf. It then dived onto the bowman, and sunk its teeth into his shoulder, while the larger enemy swung down the rope, landing menacingly in front of Vanar.
Thespus thought this a good time to try and get the advantage against the enemy, and moved up the shingle path, to try and flank them, though tripped at the top, and landed at the feet of 2 goblins and the armored goblin, who had Sildar in his grasp and a spear at his neck. 'Deal or he dead!'
Vanar and the bugbear tussled, greatsword swinging and colliding with the mace, slashing and bludgeoning each other alike, while Ragnar dealt to the wolf swiftly with his war-hammer and Galion hammered the wall with his rays of frost.
Thespus twirled upward, slicing open one of goblins, and the armored one plunged his spear into Sildar, tossing him aside. Thespus laughed off the other goblins blade, and charged forward, grappling with the armored goblin, and thrusting him into the fire pit, burning him, holding him down, and killing him very quickly. The human rushed to Sildar's side to attempt to stabilise him, while the goblin rushed out of the cave to where he though safety was.
The goblin rushed out, hoping to cross the bridge to Klaarg for protection, but came to a burning bridge, goblinoid bodies littering the floor, and his leader among them. He barely had time to soil himself before an arrow, and a ray of frost hit him in the chest, followed swiftly by a hand-axe. The party regrouped, and they explored the rest of the cave, coming across the cavern which they assumed the bugbear stayed. It was filled with crates and barrels in poor condition, with a blue lion painted on them, and a chest, filled with treasure. The group grabbed some rations, the treasure and some healing supplies, and rested in the safety of the cave, hoping to find out what happened when Sildar regained conciousness.
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