Chapter 2
"A Cancerous Secret"
page 9 - 'Caught and Carried Away' part 1 of 2

The PCs saw a few Mu's roaming the plains of the region between Pax Tharkas and Croc's Crossing. The trip was uneventful and the PCs approached Croc's Crossing not seeing any people they went into the town to see a gathering at the Town's Square. Little to Cade and Enutrof's knowledge Myr was pulled aside by a cloaked figure. Cade's curiosity got the better of him as he pushed his way through the crowds' legs while Enutrof stayed back with the horses scouting the crowd. Innster had set up a gallows to hang one of the villagers for plotting against him and when Cade finally got to the front of the crowd Innster thought that Cade was one of his invisible enemies and ordered his Hobgoblin and goblin army to surround him. At the same time Enutrof got pushed by a Hobgoblin who he then pushed back. Cade was surrounded on all sides the only way out would be a terrific tumbling move to get outside the circle of goblins and he failed got a javalin in the leg and got arrested. Enutrof was able to crash through a house and put on a nice chase till he got trapped on a roof. Shooting down a few goblins he became surrounded and thought to give a surprise to two Hobgoblins and their goblin minions. Pulling out his only Exploding Arrow he launched it right into the Hobgoblins head taking out everyone around it. Enutrof then jumped from building to building until he finally fell and was taken down.

Enutrof's body was dumped in the jail with Cade, Celine, and Clive who told them "sorry i wasn't able to warn you about this but i was detained myself". Celine is a peasant who came up from the south when her family was killed by bandits who burned her farm down and left her for dead. Elly, who was the cloaked figure who grabbed Myr off the street, took him to an abandoned building where she had been hiding. Clive told how he went on a scouting mission off to the north after leaving Elly in this town, he was captured upon his entrance back into town a few days ago. Elly continued on with the story of how Innster was a rich, and crazy, merchant of this town up until a month ago when he sold his house and left only to come back about a week ago with his Hobgoblin generals and goblins slaves. Innster easily took the town over and killed a few people without reason letting the Hobgoblins loot as they like he took refuge in his old manor.

Elly told Myr that his friends along with Clive were in the jail and Myr decided to scout it out. So he used ghost sound to make some goblins think there was gold around and walked in to see the Hobgoblin guard captain. Myr didn't get anywhere since he couldn't speak Orcish and instead used his flamming hands to blast the Hobgoblin down. Seeing the distraction Cade picked his cages door to get stuck behind the jail door that lead to where Myr was roasting goblins and magic missiling the Hobgoblin to death. Before Cade could get the door open the goblins took Myr down. Cade let the rest of the prisoners out and the PCs escaped with Celine following them. Enutrof entangled the goblins outside allowing the PCs to take them out and retreat. Clive ran towards Elly with Myr following while the others took Cade (at 1 hp) with them in the opposite direction.

Enutrof, Cade, and Celine took refuge in a barn for the night and escaping to the edge of town in the morning. Cade then reentered town to find Myr finding instead where the goblins have taken up housing. Myr left the saftey of the abandoned house to search for the other group finding instead the Manor where Innster lived at. However later in the day Cade and Myr met and everyone got reunited in the abandoned house.

Cade wanted to burn down the goblins domicile with Enutrof expecting that their weapons were in there, including his wooden bow, thought that it was a bad idea. Celine then suggested that if they take out the leader then the others might run away and said they should go after Innster directly. So Elly volenteered to use her powers again to influtrate the goblin house to get Cade's backpack and Enutrof's Box. With some healing and rest they went to Innster's Manor to see twenty goblins, more then last time, hanging out front guarding. Their option, frontal assault. Myr and Cade walked straight forward to use their burning hands (Cade had a scroll with initially failed to work). Celine and Clive took on five goblins while the rest circled Myr and Cade. Enutrof let loose a volley of arrows taking out a goblin each time while Myr toasted a handful of them. Celine came to Myr's rescue when she and Clive finished off their goblins. Cade was hurt, Myr had almost no spells left, Enutrof was hurt and running low on arrows, Clive was beaten, and Celine was new to fighting. With the last goblin falling to the ground the double doors to the manor opened wide showing four outlined figures who stepped out. Four Hobgoblins were sillouetted in the entryway to Innsters mansion raising their long swords looking for a fight.