1.1 - Black Arrows

Part 1.1 - Black Arrows
Early Spring, 1491 DR
For another full day you travel south, following the High Road south from Neverwinter. The two wagons maintain a steady pace, the rhythm of wheels and hooves becoming familiar, almost comforting. The weather has the easy kindness of early spring. The sky is a clean, open blue, brushed with only a few thin clouds that drift lazily overhead. Sunlight falls warm but not yet harsh, while a light breeze moves in from the west, carrying the faint scent of salt.

Eventually, the moment comes to part ways.

At a broad junction marked by a weathered signpost, your group turns west onto the Triboar Trail, the land immediately roughening as the wide, well-trodden High Road gives way to a narrower path winding through scrub and broken ground. Jacob and his guards continue south along the High Road, wagon creaking onward toward their destination. He offers a final nod and a raised hand before distance swallows them up.

You’ve encountered no trouble so far, but as the merchant’s wagon disappears from sight, a thought settles in: this territory is less forgiving. The Triboar Trail has a reputation. Bandits and outlaws are known to lurk along its stretches, preying on travelers who no longer enjoy the safety of the main road.

Neverwinter and its vicinity is behind you now. Ahead lies a more uncertain path.

Triboar Trail, Afternoon, the 22nd of Ches
Its late afternoon when the road bends — and a grim sight brings the wagon to a halt. Lying across the path about fifty feet ahead are two dead horses, collapsed in the dust. Black-fletched arrows jut from their bodies.

The trail narrows here, hemmed in by steep banks, trees and thick brush on both sides, making the area feel uncomfortably confined.

Nelly oders the wagon to stop.
She straps on her shield, jumps off the wagon to examine the scene on the road.

Alexander Simonnet Natalis de Bertier du Puy did not like the look of the road ahead. Not at all. Nope. Not one bit. Travel the world, they said. See Phandalin they said. I should have stayed in Waterdeep, or even better, Amphail. We raise horses there, not kill them!

Leaving his pack on the wagon, he grabs his sling and a pouch of stones, leaving his sword and daggers sheathed for now. There isn't anyone—or anything—on the trail, he thinks, which means there is no one in striking distance. He walks slowly behind Nelly, interested in looking at the carnage for himself, but not ignoring the uncanny silence around him.

Igrem cautiously gets out of the wagon, but does not dare to approach the dead horses. He stays a few centimeters ahead of the horses at the front (F16/17), waiting for the first observations of his companions.

Alex takes in the situation at in an instant.

I'm too far from the wagon to get into cover.Anyway, they have a cross fire. The best defense is going to be full on offense, thinks Alex as he starts his sling spinning. Going after the little green bastards on the left, I reckon. Taking aim, he whispers in prayer the barest touch of your luck would serve me most well, my lady.

Nelly raises her shield and charge a goblin. Her iron enforced trunchen makes a satisfying crunching shound when it connect with the goblin head.

The leather cord hums as it spins faster and faster. Alex plants his feet, eyes locked on the goblins to the left, and fires. One stone flies true, cracking into the side of a goblin’s head with a wet thock. The creature shrieks, staggering back, blood and teeth spraying into the brush—but it stays on its feet, furious.

Alex doesn’t slow, already loosing a second shot. That one sails wide, vanishing into the scrub with a useless clatter.

---

On the right, Nelly is already moving.

She brings her shield up as arrows whistle past, boots digging into the slope as she powers up the embankment with grim determination. A goblin squeals in surprise as she closes the distance far faster than it expects.

Her iron-reinforced truncheon comes down in a brutal arc. Crunch. The sound is sickeningly solid. The goblin’s head snaps sideways, leaving the creature alive, but clearly dazed and badly hurt.

HP lost
G3: 11
G5: 11

Alarmed, Igrem looks at the goblins swarm around the road.

Swiftly, the short wizard motions his hands to cast a couple of short cantrips to help his companion Alex and shoot one of the goblins.

Igrem assesses the situation, and seeing as the two goblins on the north side are aiming at Alex, decides to remind them that he, too, has range firepower available!

Igrem snaps a sharp syllable into the air and thrusts his hand forward. Heat blossoms instantly at his fingertips, coalescing into a tight lance of fire.

The flame dart streaks like a shooting star.

It slams straight into one of the goblins—G5—engulfing it in a sudden burst of fire. The creature shrieks once, high and thin, before collapsing backward into the brush, smoke curling up from charred leather and flesh. It's dead.

The other one misses.

HP lost
G1: 2
G3: 11
G5: Dead

Nelly reaises her shield against the shots fired. One arrow is stuck in her shield, while the other sink into her side. The tiefling hisses in pain, but follows one of the goblins to strike it down, but her attack misses.

HP lost
G1: 2
G3: Flees

Alex exhales in satisfaction as he watches his first missile land solidly on the little green pumpkin atop the goblins shoulders. Seconds later, however, he hissed in frustration watching the second stone fly off into the underbrush. Rushed that one I did!

Fortunately, Alex's quick actions drew the attention of the two goblins away from his fellows. Unfortunately, it meant that he was the sole focus of their most lethal intentions. {Thrum} {Twang}, the sounds of two bowstrings cut through the air. Realizing he is in a crossfire, Alex does what he can to make himself a smaller target [(Re)action 1: Defend].

As he tries to spin in such a way as to have the arrow(s) miss him, Alex sees the goblin on which he performed the impromptu dental work burst into flames and drop to the ground. Igrem must have gotten his spell off! Well done, Igrem!, Alex shouts. Serendipitously, just as Alex cheers Igrem, he feels a curious energy envelop him. Everything seemed to slow down and become—brighter?—ever so slightly. He felt as if someone just fed him two pots of the finest espresso in an exclusive Waterdhavian coffee shop [Result of Heart's Fire].

Urrrrgh! Alex exhales in shock and pain as the two arrows slam into him, one grazing hip, somewhat deflected by the armor, but the other right into his left pectoral. SH!T, THAT HURTS he screams as he drops to his knees in pain. Feeling what seems like rivers of warm liquid descending from him, Alex grimly thinks Well, my lady, I may be judged by you sooner than I had wished. Nevertheless, a touch of your divine luck would stand me in good stead. From his knees, Alex snaps off a shot at the remaining goblin which shot him [Action 2: Attack G6].

The forest starts to go gray as his life's blood pours down his body. I have to get into cover he thinks as his vision focuses on the wagon and the horses. With his last strength, Alex crawls-walks-slithers as best he can to interpose the bulk of the wagon between him and the goblins [Actions 3: Move 6 squares from H16 to B16 per OOC above] As he reaches the wagon, Alex collapses against it, vaguely trying to put pressure on his bleeding wounds. Realizing he isn't going to be of much use if anyone even sneezes in his direction, he does his best to maneuver out of sight [Action 4: Hide in Combat].

Alexander Simonnet Natalis de Bertier du Puy, pride of family Bertier, scion of the du Puys, realized he has had better days in his young life. Lying against the wagon, gasping in pain, was not how he envisioned this little walk to Phandalin. Well, as grandpappy Bertier used to say, if regrets were pixies, dust of disappearance would be a copper a pound. For the moment, though, he seems to have faded from the interest of the vicious, green humanoids. Keeping what little pressure he could on the bleeding wound, Alex rolled to his left and tried to see just how desperate was Nelly's predicament. She was engaged in melee with a goblin flashing multiple daggers, dancing back and forth trying to evade the slashes. The other goblin was watching for an opportunity to skewer Nelly with arrows, just as Alex was himself. She cannot hold out on her own much longer, and Igrem may be out of magic-juice. I have to do something!

Praying to Tymora that his luck continues to hold, Alex watches for a moment where the bow-wielding goblin's head was just ever so slightly more exposed [Action 1: Create an Opening]. Unfortunately, between the angle of the hill, the intervening combatants Nelly and goblin, and Alex's grievous wounds, that second goblin didn't come into clear enough focus to provide any advantage. Whispering a prayer, Alex ascends to his knees and whips a shot off against the goblin (G2) [Action 2: Attack G2].The Mistress of Good Fortune clearly heard her devoted servant as Alex watched the sling stone impact directly on the goblin's fleshy eyeball. Sighing in contentment and with a whispered prayer of thanks, Alex crouches behind the wagon once again, getting out of sight [Action 3: Hide in Combat - Full cover - no roll].

There is a wet crack as Alex’s stone punches straight through the goblin’s eye, snapping its head back violently. The creature screams — a lot.

Meanwhile, Nelly kills the other goblin with her glowing mace.

HP lost
G1: Dead
G2: 10
G6: 4

Igrem sees the arrow shot at him go wide, and resolve immediately to strike back, and protect himself. He stays on alert for any more trouble coming his way.

Hearing the sweet, sweet sounds of fleeing goblins, Alex peeks out from behind the wagon. In a strained and pained voice, he calls out to Igrem, the person closest to him, "Blessed be Tyche's Fair-Tressed Daughter, they seem to have fled. Where's Nelly? I need to take a breather. Did those monsters have anything worthwhile on them at least?"

At that, Alex collapses, half-conscious to the ground. We aren't making camp HERE, he thinks morosely, so spends the next ten minutes focusing on bandaging his wounds and keeping his innards where they belong [Catch Breath] hoping that Nelly and Igrem do the same if needed, loot the goblins if not, and get a basic idea of where they are headed.

Nelly also catches her breath as she massages her soar spots.

Afterwards she examines both the dead goblins and the horses

Nelly, once you’re certain that no goblins are circling back and no arrows are waiting to fly, you allow yourself a moment to breathe before turning your attention to the scene around you.

It doesn’t take long to realize the goblins have been using this place to stage ambushes for some time.

The ground is scarred with old scuffs and trampled brush, and faint drag marks cut across the dirt—too deliberate to be coincidence. On the north side of the road, partly concealed behind dense thickets, you spot a narrow trail leading northwest. Although you're not a Hunter, the signs are clear even to you: at least a dozen goblins have passed back and forth along it repeatedly. More unsettling still are the marks of two human-sized bodies dragged away from the dead horses at some earlier time.

You can also identify the horses as belonging to Gundren Rockseeker and Sildar Hallwinter. The horses have been dead for about a day, and the saddlebags have been looted.

Searching the fallen goblins turns up exactly what you’d expect—and probably nothing you would want:
- 2 wicked daggers (1d4+DEX, Melee, Piercing, Light, Thrown 4, sells for 1 gp each)
- 3 shortbows, with quivers and plenty of black arrows (1d6+DEX, Ranged, Piercing, 2-handed, Range 12, sells for 12 gp each)
- Moldy bread (technically food; it may disagree and fight back. Can't be sold).
- Broken human and dwarven teeth, forcibly removed. (Assorted and unsettling dental trophies. Can't be sold)
- Slug Farm (Jar of slimy, wriggling slugs. Can't be sold)
- An empty leather map case (sells for 1 gp)
- Small, cheap, and smelly hides (They smell of rot. Can be sold for 2 gp if cleaned and you succeed on an Influence check after arriving in Phandalin. Inconvenient until then).

Igrem helps search the goblins, and looks at the tracks and marks around the road with concern. "Where do we go now? Do we simply continue?"

The most obvious options, after dividing the loot, are:

You're free to discuss it In Character or try something else, of course. Both choices have potential consequences.

"Those are our patrons horses, are they not? They seem to have been kidnapped by these goblins! We should see what happened, but carefully. I’m not sure I can withstand another ambush like that. Trail them until evening and then make camp?

That sounds like a reasonable plan. We cant diviate to much either, we are committed to delivering goods to Phandalin, but if we can stage a rescue then we should.

After a brief exchange, its decided. The usable gear is collected quickly. The shortbows and quivers are bundled together, the daggers wrapped to keep their edges from biting through packs, and even the leather case is loaded into the wagon. Everything else—teeth, slugs, moldy bread—is left where it fell. Some things aren’t worth carrying.

With Alex stabilized as best as can be managed and the wagon secured, Nelly takes the lead. She parts the brush on the north side of the road, revealing the narrow, half-hidden trail and motioning the others forward. The path is cramped and uneven, clearly not meant for wagons, but it bears the unmistakable signs of frequent goblin traffic.

"Yes, it does make sense to at least inquire if a rescue is possible." agrees Igrem, while helping searching the corpses, piling up the loot and disposing of the goblins' bodies.