Waking after their adventure against the Undead, the valiant party’s thoughts turned to how they would obtain the next piece of the elf seerstone.
They were summoned by the mayor, who seemed much recovered now he had learnt the fate of his illicit love. The party declined to tell him that they were holding the pendant obtained from the Necromancer, Lazarus Mourn, which Magnus suspected contained part of the foul necromancers essence as he was curious to see what he could do with the pendant in future.
In fairly short order, the mayor asked for the adventurers help in investigating strange goings on in a farmstead near Stromdorf. The investigators, being Servants of Justice, agreed readily and didn’t haggle (much) over the cost of their services….
After an uncharacteristically quiet journey to the farmstead (these are adventurers for whom danger lurks around every corner after all) they discovered that there was foul sheep and cow rustling going on, draining the lifeblood of this vibrant, inbred community.
The plucky adventurers, being partial to spending the odd night alone with livestock, came up with a plan to watch the fields from where the animals were being taken. Ignoring the incompetence of the local farmhands who fell to foul gas from the rustlers, they spied the foul Goblins behind the theft. Taking up the chase they forced the panicked goblins to run as fast as their little green legs would carry them!
It quickly became apparent that the previous night spent drinking thunderwater ale in the Inn was having an impact on the legs of the two Dwarves, so much so that they had to fall, vomiting, by the side of the path created by the goblins flight (but they claimed it had nothing to do with the ale consumption, naturally). Fortunately, the Elf and the wizard had contented themselves with sharing half a bottle of a light, sparkling Elvish wine that Shaft had brought with him from Athel Loren and so their legs carried them inexorably towards the Goblins, eventually catching them and slaying them where they stood.
After the bickering stopped when the Dwarves finally caught up, the somewhat perplexed adventurers eventually agreed that the best course of action was to follow in the direction that the goblins had been fleeing, these not being the brightest of creatures. Luck was with them and they happened upon an occupied farm full to bursting with the foul greenskins.
The dwarves were keen to regain their honour and the Dwarf with no name wanted to wade into the fight to find his doom. The other party member managed to convince him otherwise through the use of Dwarf logic, making pretty lights appear to distract him and treating him with haughty arrogance (no prizes for guessing which party members used which….)
Goblin patrols were out in force and so they hatched a plan that during the coming night, Shaft, being the only one capable of not sounding like an entire regiment of elephants when moving quietly, would create a distraction that the others would use to make their way to the house.
Through some extremely stealthy movement, the Elf managed to get up to the barn and to his relief had remembered his tinderbox and the remaining half bottle of Elvish wine and used them to set fire to the barn.
As a distraction, this was second to none and allowed the adventurers to get into the farmhouse. The sound of their investigation was covered by the racket ourside….. Until they happened across the troll that the goblins were probably trying to keep fed by stealing livestock!
The troll vexed them mightily, with the Dwarf With No Name being made unconscious at least once by the mighty beast. The noise was so high at one point that Goblins in the courtyard started to notice – but Shaft, who, in what was to become his trademark, had kept well away from the close combat action and was keeping an eye on the goblins and took them out calmly as they heard the noise.
Eventually the Troll was slain, but its deathcry alerted the goblins in the courtyard (along with the growing pile of corpses that Shaft was creating around the house) and they stormed the house. The dwarves bravely held the stairs and were knocked unconscious at least once each – but the ministrations of the wizard saved them all. Magnus and Shaft managed to kill the ringleader (a goblin shaman) from their perch at the windows on the first floor and the goblins fled, the heart having left them…..
The adventurers triumphantly took the two remaining parts of the elf waystone and carried them back to Stromdorf (only being struck by lightning once before they remembered the danger).
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