As the fog clears and time resumes once more, we find our heroes entering the cave, searching for the missing villagers of Nightstone.
Upon entering, they could see a bit, thanks to the light of the sun coming in from outside, but most of our heroes were blind, having no darkvision ability. Luckily, Xeric had superb dark vision and could see as clear as day. Goblins and two ogres were scattered throughout the cave. Xeric snuck along in the darkness, killing the goblins one by one before returning to the party. They were ready to fight and decided to try and take out the ogre in the same way Xeric took out the goblins but were prepared in case it failed. Of course, an ogre can withstand a single rapier strike in the back, and the second ogre was now also alerted to the party.
The ogres hit hard, but the party members focused on and took out the first ogre, Nog. As Thog, the remaining ogre, and a female, saw her mate’s dead body hit the ground, tears came to her eyes and she yelled out, “NOOOOO! HUNNYBUN!!!”.
Kida’s heart hurt when she heard this, as she realized these weren’t just evil things but living beings with emotions and feelings. Still, they continued to fight, taking a few hard hits before eventually finishing off the last ogre.
They continued exploring the cave and found the villagers. They were being kept in a side passage., Upon seeing our heroes, they warned them about being loud, as there were bats in the pit below. A dwarf, named Morak Ur’gray, spoke for the villagers, explaining how they were captured by the goblins, and they, and the ogres, were keeping them prisoner. The goblins would come and take one of the villagers. Those taken never returned. (It was later discovered that they were feeding the unfortunate souls to the goblins’ pet rats.l
The heroes started to escort the villagers out of the cave, but some goblins had been alerted by Thog’s earlier cry and had come to investigate. The heroes engaged, telling the villagers to wait for them outside. They defeated the remaining goblins but kept 2 alive, for those 2 begged for their lives after watching their fellows fall. The party knocked them out, at which point discussions started on what to do. Mitsui pointed to the one, which had seemed like the leader, and declared it as “Pet.”
The party tied up the two remaining goblins and headed outside, dragging their captives behind them. Snigbat, one of the goblins, woke up first. Snigbat pleaded with the party for freedom. She said she wanted to become the Goblin Boss and would tell them where the current boss’s treasure was if they let her go and killed the leader. Mitsui declined, saying she wouldn’t kill but would take the former goblin boss with them. She agreed with Xeric’s order that Snigbat could be the new Goblin Boss, if the goblins no longer threatened the villagers. The deal was struck. Snigbat, true to her word, led Xeric to the treasure and was allowed to live.
The party escorted the villagers back to Nightstone and found the drawbridge down. Carefully entering the village, they saw it was littered with dead orcs, their bodies full of arrows. True to their word, the elves had taken care of the orcs and had left the village alone.
Morak, it turned out, was the owner of the Nightstone Inn. Despite the current state of the inn, he offered the heroes free room and board for the night, which they graciously took him up on. Exhausted, our heroes were happy to accept the offer, and as darkness came, they drifted off to sleep.
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