===== Chapter 5 =====
Bad Apples
Earlier during our exploration of the ruins occupied by the goblins, we came upon a closed door with sounds of lots of activity coming from the other side. We deduced that it was some sort of marketplace, and we figured it was full of goblins, including non-combatants. We left that room alone and decided to come back to it at a later point, not wanting to deal with so many goblins at once. Now that time had come and we were ready to see what was on the other side. There was still a lot of noise coming from the other side, so we devised a plan of action before opening up the door.
We decided that our best bet was to get rid of all the non-combatants first before engaging in any kind of fighting. When things were inevitably going to get belligerent, we didn't need distractions like kids or the elderly getting in our way. The others came up with a plan that involved using their magic to scare and drive the goblins away. With any luck, all of them would be completely frightened and flee, or at the very least, the non-combatants would run only leaving the armed guards to face us. It was worth a shot, so we all got into position and prepared to advance.
Part of the plan involved the dead body of the goblin chief that was still in the room we were in. Using magic, the others were going to create a dense fog in the adjacent room and mimic a loud, dragon's voice to pretend that the dragon was back. Then, to add in some flair, we were going to toss in the dead chief's body to further scare the remaining goblins into fleeing. When we were ready, someone grabbed the body while another opened the door. Once the fog and voice commenced, the body was tossed in to punctuate the act. I just prepared an arrow in case anyone tried to get through the door and attack us.
The ruse worked and most of the goblins fled, including all the non-combatants. Out of the thirty or so goblins that were present in the large room, only four armed guards remained. Once the room was mostly cleared out, we charged in and engaged the goblins that were left. During the fight, I managed to take out two of them myself using my bow. With the goblins taken care of, we looked around for anything that was related to producing poison apples.
We searched the room, but we came up empty. No apples. No poison. The poison apple operation had to be elsewhere in the ruins, so we had to continue looking. Before moving on, we rummaged through the area for anything useful. It was a marketplace after all, so there were lots of assorted general goods to be scavenged, most of which were stolen in the first place. I picked up a crowbar, grappling hook, and an empty burlap sack. After everyone had looked around the marketplace, we returned to the room we were just in where we had killed the goblin chief and all the hobgoblins.
In the center of that room, there was a large, deep well with no water in it. We gathered around it and looked down, seeing a chamber at the bottom. There were glowing mushrooms and runes along the sides which provided some light to illuminate things. Curious, we decided to check that out despite it being a hassle to get to. We had to be thorough, though, as we'd mostly been everywhere else in the ruins.
Using my new grappling hook, I took some rope we found in the marketplace and attached it, though, it wasn't long enough to reach the bottom. Destan had some rope with him, so he tied one end of his to the end of mine. Once the rope was long enough, I secured the hook and made sure it was properly anchored. I then threw the combined rope down the well, hearing the end slap the bottom.
Destan volunteered to go first, so he grabbed hold of the rope and began rappelling down the well. Once he reached the bottom, he was immediately attacked by two skeletons that were down there. Hearing his friend in danger, Riardon hurried down the rope to come to his aid. Octavious went after him followed by Oceanus then myself. When I finally got to the bottom, the others had defeated the two skeletons along with two small, wooden tree creatures. I think they were called Twig Blights or something. Destan was looking pretty rough, so I used my Cure Wounds spell on him to heal some of his wounds. The others told me that the skeletons didn't seem to be guards, but were instead gardeners of some sorts.
While we were composing ourselves after the battle, a bugbear and two giant rats came from the adjacent cave to attack us. Oddly enough, the bugbear called out to the rats by name when it gave them orders; one was called Grip and the other was Fang. We focused on the new enemies and defended ourselves. I took aim with my bow and finished off the bugbear along with the rat called Fang. Unfortunately, I lost an arrow as it went right down the rat's throat when I killed it. There was no way I was going to waste my time cutting it open to get it, so I just left it there. After the enemies were all dead, I went over to the bugbear to search for anything useful, but I didn't find anything. After that, we continued on down the cave the bugbear came from.
We kept alert as there could've been more enemies lying in wait further ahead. In the next large opening within the cave, we came across a tent by a campfire, two rat nests, and a bunch of crates that turned out to be a weapons stash. After making sure the area was safe, we began looking around. The others searched the camp while I remained on guard, keeping an eye out for anymore lurking hostiles. While Destan was searching, he found a box containing 54gp and 241sp. He didn't know what to do with it, so he just gave it to me for safekeeping. I reluctantly took it and told him I was going to split it with the group later on.
From there, we continued on down a winding path that looked to be a natural cave formation. It just went on and on with nothing down that way, so we back-tracked and went back to the campsite we found earlier. It was getting late and we were all tired, so we decided to rest down there for a while. Before we all started to get settled in for bed, we came up with a schedule for watch which consisted of two-hour shifts. Octavious went first while I took the last shift; I can't remember who took the two shifts in-between. While we were resting, I took out the box of coins Destan found earlier and split it amongst ourselves. I received a share of 11gp and 48sp, which was nice. I hadn't had that much coin to spend on myself in a while. Most of the coin I got from the Order was spent on the basic necessities like food, travel, and lodging.
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When it was my turn for watch duty, I was woken up by the person before me. I yawned then got up, taking position at the entrance to the cave to keep watch. Nothing happened during my shift, and soon enough, my companions all began waking up one after another. While they were waking up, I went back into the garden at the bottom of the well and looked around. There were two doors on opposite sides of the room, and I checked them both, finding them to be unlocked. I didn't want to open them up just yet, so I waited for the others before doing so.
Once my teammates were all awake, I had them gather around me, and I told them about the doors. Not sure which way to go, Riardon picked one at random and opened it up. We followed him inside and found a large room with several doors on either side of us. In the center, there were tables with alchemy supplies, like mortars and pestles, as well as alchemical ingredients. It looked as if we had found the right place, or at least were close to it.
Riardon branched off from the main group and tried one of the doors in the room, finding some sleeping goblins inside. Seeing them there, he had a mischievous plan up his sleeve and let us know about it. He was going to enter the room and close the door behind him before using his Thunder Clap spell. He wanted to give the sleeping goblins a fright of their life. I rolled my eyes and didn't object, so I nocked an arrow and prepared to fire at any enemies that escaped the room. As we prepared ourselves, Riardon went into the room, and after a few brief moments, a loud, thundering sound was heard. It reverberated throughout the ruins and I felt the ground shake slightly.
Just as the sound was heard, three goblins came out of a different room and attacked us. I didn't think it was wise to just throw away our element of surprise like that before checking all the rooms, but it was too late; what was done was done. I immediately redirected my aim and loosed my nocked arrow at one of the new targets. We finished off the initial goblins followed by the new ones without any problems.
While the others checked the remaining rooms, I watched our backs to make sure no more goblins came by to surprise us. The others ran into a situation regarding goblins experimenting on a rat and Octavious getting pissed at them, but I wasn't completely sure. I only heard about it after the fact. Riardon interrogated one of the goblins that was still alive, and it told him that their leader, Belak, was in a nearby grove. We still didn't know who Belak was exactly and just assumed it was another goblin; we were highly mistaken. Once the situation with the dead rat and Octavious was more or less dealt with, we continued on.
We didn't find any poison, or apples for that matter, so we had to keep looking. We gathered by the door on the far side of the room, and Oceanus volunteered to go first. He kicked open the door and entered into a hallway that intersected another. Right in the middle of the intersection was a female bugbear, having just come out of the room dead ahead of us. Upon seeing us coming through the door, she immediately attacked us. Octavious was right behind Oceanus and moved to assist him, getting the last couple hits on the bugbear.
For some reason, Octavious was mumbling to himself and apologizing profusely as he fought the female bugbear. I think I even caught sight of a few tears of regret, perhaps? It was rather peculiar of him, and I guess he wasn't comfortable with using force on a lady, especially if it meant killing one. I guess it made sense; he seemed like quite the ladies' man to me, but what did I know. It had been many years since I last saw him.
Anyway, after taking care of the minor interruption, we continued through the hallway. We first went to the door the female bugbear came out of. Riardon led the way inside and entered the room, but he didn't find anything worthwhile.
Moving on to another hallway, I took the lead and checked another door, hearing voices inside. I notified the others and they gathered around me. Oceanus took point and barged into the room, finding three goblins inside. They immediately began to attack us after spotting us enter, and we engaged them in combat. I wanted to take one of them alive for questioning, but they were being too hostile and the others just wanted to kill them to get it over with. We took the three out easily and secured the room.
While we were walking around inside the room, a random pit opened up and Riardon fell right into it. The pit was seemingly bottomless and it closed up once Riardon was fully engulfed. We all only caught a glimpse of it and were completely helpless to help him. Destan was especially upset that he had lost his traveling companion, but there was nothing we could do. We just had to hope Riardon was going to be fine, wherever he was.
Leaving the room, we went down another hallway and tried one of the side rooms there. Inside, we spotted three skeletons carrying out some garden work. We didn't feel like fighting them, so Oceanus closed the door while Destan froze it shut using his magic. With the skeletons contained, we moved on.
At the end of the hallway, we came upon a room with several statues including a large, marble red dragon statue. It startled me at first, but once I realized it was a statue, I was relieved. Even if it was a statue, I remained wary and kept my eye on it. The rest of the group followed me and began looking around. Next to the statue, we found another room, so we ventured onward.
We entered into a library of sorts, but it was all messy and disorganized. There were shelves of books and scrolls, but there were also several piles of books on the floor. Looking around the shelves for anything interesting, I found a spell scroll of Scorching Ray and an old tome of dragon lore. The cover of the tome of dragon lore was made from dragon skin, and the contents were all written in draconic, so I couldn't read it. I just stashed everything in my bag to go through later. While we were looking around, Oceanus found a staircase leading downward, so once we were done with the library, we followed him down it.
There were corridors with dragon head statues in alcoves along the walls. We kept alert as we continued to follow Oceanus who was at the head of our group. We entered one of the rooms and found an empty study. I went first and made sure there were no enemies before giving the others the okay to enter. While everyone was looking around, I caught part of a conversation Octavious was having with Oceanus. I was rummaging through a desk when I heard Octavious tell Oceanus about some made-up holiday called "Handsmas", or something. Octavious wanted to hold Oceanus' hand for some reason and conjured up the ploy to do so. When Octavious asked me to back him up in saying that it was a real thing, I just nodded and grunted something, not fully paying attention to their conversation.
There was another door in the room that led to a side room, so I went over to check it out. There were voices coming from the other side, so I had Octavius and Destan head around to flank the room from another side. Based on the layout of the area, I recalled another door that most likely led into the room with the voices. Once we were in position, I kicked opened the door and began my attack. Just as I did, the other team entered as well, though, Oceanus lost his balance and almost fell over. Thankfully, Octavious rushed in and grabbed his hand to keep him on his feet, despite Oceanus' wishes. We all quickly dispatched the four goblins there with me taking one out myself.
After taking a few moments to look around, we continued through a door and entered an underground forested area of sorts. It seemed we had arrived at the grove that previous goblins had mentioned. We remained alert but were attacked by a large group of Twig Blights, about ten of them. They came out from the brush and walls, surrounding us, but we fared all right. I was able to take out three of them while the others handled the rest. Once the fighting had ceased, I walked around and recovered all the arrows I shot.
We continued through the grove, and at the end, we came across a large, towering tree. It was rather evil looking and seemed to have some sort of fruit hanging from its branches. We assumed it was the Gulthias Tree everyone had been talking about. As we approached it, we saw three individuals up ahead of us by the base of the tree. There was an older human male with pale skin, a younger male wearing armor, and a female mage. We had no idea what they were doing there, but they weren't goblins or kobolds, so we assumed that they were friendly, or at least, not hostile. We were wrong.
The older man in the center of the group noticed us approaching and confronted us, asking what we were doing there and what our intentions were. He mentioned his name was Belak and addressed the younger man beside him as Sir Brafford. I can't remember what the woman's name was.
Upon learning that he was Belak, we were immediately suspicious and remained defensive, but we tried to play it off like we didn't know anything. If he was Belak, he was the root cause of everything, and we had to take him out to stop the poisoned apple operation. Octavious and I took the lead, playing ignorant as we talked with Belak and answered all his questions naively. When we got closer to him, we noticed that in addition to his pale skin, he had pitch-black eyes and pieces of tree bark on his exposed skin like armor. Whatever was going on, it seemed to be evil, and all his talk about the tree's origin confirmed that.
While we were talking, a large frog came climbing down from the tree and sat in front of Belak. We asked what the frog's name was, and he said its name was Frogoliath, his pet. We kept wasting time and began talking about the frog, trying to get him to lose his bearing.
Belak began to get annoyed then showed us the evil-looking fruit on the tree. He picked on and tried to make us eat it. It looked like an apple, except it was colored differently and very disgusting in appearance. We obviously weren't going to eat it, but Octavious asked for one anyway. Belak tossed him one and urged him to take a bite. After delaying for too long and wasting even more of his time, Belak got fed up and had his servants attack us.
We drew our weapons and prepared to defend ourselves. Sir Brafford, the female mage, and Frogoliath attacked us head on while Belak remained in the rear, attacking from a distance. Octavious wanted to keep the frog alive, so we did our best not to cause it any mortal wounds. He managed to knock out Frogoliath, so it was still alive and just unconscious. I focused on Belak since he was furthest away while the others handled the rest. We held our own and defeated all the enemies; however, Octavious got injured and went down during it. I managed to get the final hit on Belak while the others took care of the other enemies. Belak was too dangerous to be taken alive, so I had to finish him off. Suddenly, three Twig Blights joined the fight and got on our flanks.
Once the fighting was over with, I hurried over to Octavious and got him back on his feet using some of my healing magic. Once he was okay, I used some magic on myself to heal my wounds. Before dealing with the evil tree, we took some time to loot the bodies of the fallen. I went over to Belak since I had finished him off and crouched down by his dead body. I pulled out my arrows from his corpse and began searching his person for anything useful. I found two vials of antitoxin and three potions of healing in his pockets and in the pouches on his belt. I handed out the healing potions to the others but kept the antitoxin for myself. While I was dealing with Belak's corpse, Octavious searched Sir Brafford, and Destan searched the female mage.
When we were done with the bodies, we directed our attention to the evil Gulthias Tree. Destan and I walked up to it and gave it a closer inspection, wondering what we should do about it. I didn't bother touching it or the fruit and kept my distance. It was a hazard to the common good, and it would've been too dangerous to be left alone. In the end, we figured to just destroy it, so I lit a torch and started setting it ablaze. I also went over to the lone apple that Destan had thrown earlier and crushed it beneath my boot, making sure to destroy all the seeds inside it as well.
After the tree was fully alight and burning, we left the area to make our way back to the well. We had solved the poison apple problem so there was no use sticking around. We left Frogoliath alone and figured he'd make it out just fine on his own. We climbed up the rope and made it out of the well, continuing to make our way to the ruins' entrance. On the way there, we decided to check a few rooms we missed for anything worth taking. While we were doing that, Octavious went to the room that he had thrown the infected goblin from earlier in. When he opened the door, he saw that the infected goblin had turned into some sort of zombie and had killed the other two. He quickly put it out of its misery then closed the door. We found a weapon storeroom where I took a bundle of 40 goblin arrows to sell at Saltmarsh.
We were approaching the entrance when we came across a commotion happening that was blocking our path. There was a large crowd of goblin civilians panicking as they tried to get through the entrance. We presumed this was the same group that escaped from the marketplace, so we didn't act hostile towards them. I took the lead and just pushed my way through the crowd, wanting to leave the ruins as soon as we could. When I broke through and got to the front of the group, I saw Meepo standing in the doorway and waving his slingshot around, threatening all the goblins before him. Once he saw us, he got scared and ran through the doorway to across the courtyard, taking up a position at the bottom of the stairs that led out of the chasm.
As Meepo moved out of the way, the goblins rushed the opening but were once again blocked by him. Meepo continued to harass the goblins while shooting at them with his slingshot. With nowhere to go, the goblins continued to panic in the small courtyard in front of the ruins. Still terrified and confused by what was going on, some fell off the sides of the cliff when they weren't looking where they were going. Seeing what a mess Meepo was causing, I scolded him and grabbed the slingshot out of his hand to make him stop. I tossed the slingshot to Octavious and glared at Meepo, telling him to chill out with the goblin hate.
Having been disarmed of his weapon, Meepo cowered before me and began to cry slightly. He looked so pathetic and I almost felt sorry for the little guy. Unable to bear seeing him blubbering like that, I asked what he planned to do now. He said he wasn't sure since he couldn't go back to his tribe. Thinking about it, I asked him if he wanted to accompany us for the time being, and his face lit up for a moment. That way, he could at least get away from the ruins and decide on what to do later on. He agreed then said that he wanted to stay with us as a permanent member. I thought it over and said sure, figuring he could be trained and made a somewhat productive member of the group. I told him he'd stay on as my squire, and I'd look after him as long as he cooperated.
While I was talking with Meepo, Destan suddenly came running in and fell into the pit trap that the goblins had previously triggered. His sudden appearance startled us, and we all went over to see what happened. We helped him out of the pit, and he said he wasn't in control of his body. He had snuck away from us and had been exploring another part of the ruins we hadn't been to yet. Once he was out of the pit, we followed him back to the part of the ruins where he was poking around in.
We entered the room that Destan got charmed in, thinking the charm magic had dissipated, but we were wrong. Unfortunately, some of us got affected by whatever charmed Destan the first time he was in the room. Oceanus and I managed to prevent from getting charmed, but Octavious and Meepo weren't. Oceanus grabbed Meepo by the tail while I took care of Octavious. I grabbed him by the hand and grappled him in an attempt to prevent him from running off. I continued to hold on to him until the charm wore off, and once it did, I kindly let him go.
Not wanting to get charmed again, Destan went over and destroyed the source of the charm magic, an old orb of some kind. While he was doing that, the rest of us took a break in the room and rested up a bit. After destroying the orb, Destan continued on his own while we continued to rest. He came across a trapped hallway that utilized arrows and got through it, safely making it to the other side. Octavious eventually got bored and followed after him, jumping across the hallway and avoiding the pressure plates that activated the arrow trap. Meanwhile, I stayed behind with Oceanus and Meepo.
Several minutes passed as I waited around for the others to return, but then I heard Destan shouting from down the hallway. I got up and went over to hear what he was shouting about. He said he and Octavious had engaged some flying creature in combat, and he wanted me to activate the arrow trap hallway so it couldn't escape. I quickly looked around for something heavy and picked up my bag full of caltrops. I took the bag and placed it on the first pressure plate in the hallway, activating a wall of arrows that shot forth from one side and disappeared into holes in the other. I had hoped the creature hadn't gotten by yet, but alas, it had. It was invisible and attacked me from behind, almost pushing me into the hallway of arrows. Thankfully, I wasn't alone in the room and had some help.
As I fought the creature along with Oceanus, Octavious and Destan were fighting an enemy of their own where they were at. They had disturbed an old tomb and were fighting an ancient troll. Anyway, the creature I was fighting was some sort of insectoid creature that flew around, but Oceanus and I managed to kill it.
Shortly after Oceanus and I had defeated our enemy, Octavius and Destan had defeated theirs. They looted the room then told me to stop the arrow trap so they could get back to us. I removed the bag of caltrops which halted the arrows from firing. Once the hallway was safe to traverse through, Destan and Octavious regrouped with the rest of us. After dealing with the tomb and troll, we had had enough of exploring and wanted to return to Saltmarsh. We were all tired, so we went back to the front of the ruins.
The goblins were still around but were further ahead of us, huddled around at the top of the stone stairs. We went passed the courtyard and began climbing the stairs. Meepo was being rambunctious and continued to mock the goblins, so I had to tell him to knock it off. He just gave me a huff and remained silent for the time being.
When we got to the top of the stairs, the goblins saw us and began to panic, especially after seeing Meepo. They were trying to climb the rope that led out of the chasm, but they were having a hard time. Wanting to help out the goblins, Octavious moved ahead of us and picked up one of the smaller ones. Even though the goblin was trying to get free, Octavious took aim then hurled him upwards, trying to get the goblin to grab on to the rope. Unfortunately, the plan was flawed and not well thought out. The goblin flew through the air, completely missed the rope, and went over the side of the cliff, falling to its death. Octavious was mortified to say the least. Meepo began laughing and mocking the goblins, so I had to bop him on the top of the head to make him be quiet.
For some reason, Octavious wanted to keep going with his plan to help the goblins and picked up another one against their will. Having learned from his first attempt, the second time he tried, the goblin actually grabbed a hold of the rope and managed to climb all the way up. He continued to toss the goblins until all of them had gotten out of the chasm. I would've given up after killing the first goblin, but I guess Octavious had greater resolve than me.
Once the goblins were out of the way, we made our way up the rope and went back to the horses. Thankfully, the horses where right where we had left them, still tied up to the trees. We passed by Calcryx's corpse and Meepo made sure to put himself as far from it as possible. When we got back to the horses, I went over to the one I mostly bought and had Meepo ride with me. Octavious took a horse while Destan and Oceanus took the other. Looking back towards the ruins one last time, we began riding back to Saltmarsh.