Solo LMoP - 04. Cragmaw Hideout

Last we left, our group of adventurers, led by a very grumpy Harbek were making their way through the woods along the trail the goblins left, following their tracks. It is after about half an hour, 10 minutes after the pit trap that they reach the edge of the forest and see the following, as stated by the flavor text in the adventure. 

Following the goblins’ trail, you come across a large cave in a hillside five miles from the scene of the ambush. A shallow stream flows out of the cave mouth, which is screened by dense briar thickets. A narrow dry path leads into the cave on the right-hand side of the stream.

Now at this point the characters have found Cragmaw Hideout, through they don't know the name yet. They are each awarded with 75XP.

Now, Harbek would stop his beating around the bush at this point and a silent discussion would ensue whether or not to advance. Of course they will try their luck in the end but this gives me a moment to consider my lone goblin from the first encounter. Having followed the party this far he now has to make a choice: he can either wait and attack them or try and warn his fellow goblins that lay in waiting near the cave entrance. I'll have him do a combination of both, giving off a warning when the characters are halfway through the clearing. The thicket that parts the stream from where the goblins are hidden looks (and is) impenetrable from this side so advancing directly seems the only option. A loud scream begins the fight. Only Quillathe, who speaks Goblin understands it, coming from the woods behind them: "Intruders! Intruders on their way!"

Download Full Battle Report (including rolls and maps)

From the thicket arrows fly but bounce off armor and shields as a group of goblins attacks. Rushing in with weapons drawn the party quickly cuts down two of them while the third rushes off into the cave, wheezing and drawing breath to shout for help. But Quillathe steps forward, blowing into a palm full of rose petals and muttering an arcane word and the breathing of the goblin calms suddenly and he falls onto his face, snoring softly. 

The goblin who ran away however came close enough to one of it's comrades that this second goblin would be within the radius of Quillathes sleep spell. Since she rolled for 22 HP of creatures to be affected and the fleeing goblin had only 9 left, the other one would fall asleep anyway (given that the max HP it could have would be 12). This secondary goblin however was standing atop a bridge that intersects the main tunnel of the cave. So it might be possible that he fell down. I'll roll a luck check for him, which is a straight d20. 1-10 means bad luck, 11-20 is good luck. 

🎲 Luck Check: 18 (good luck)
So the goblin would have fallen onto the bridge and not taken the tumble down into the tunnel. With 1 minute on the sleep spell Quillathe would quickly enter the tunnel, notice the sleeping goblin on the bridge with her darkvision (maybe a piece of rock he used to whet is teeth with tumbles down with a splash) and would quickly pull her own target out of the tunnel into the clearing where he would quickly be tied down by the party and taken back into the bushes to be interrogated. While doing so she would notice the sound of snarling dogs or wolves from a side-cave near the entrance. 

🎲Intimidation Harbek +3, advantage because of situation and aid (DC 10): 17 (success)

The terrified goblin tells the adventurers everything he knows. The party learn from him that Sildar and Gundren were waylaid by the Cragmaw-Goblins as ordered by their chief, a bugbear called King Groll who presides in the Cragmaw Castle. Quillathe would immediately inquire about it's location and learn that it is roughly 20 miles to the East in Neverwinter Wood. Gundren and a map that was found in his position have been delivered to Groll, while this part of the tribe is holding Sildar captive in the eating cave. Their local leader is another bugbear called Klarg. Also, the goblin mentions someone called 'The Black Spider', who seems to be involved in the proceedings around Gundren and his capture. The wolves are chained up near the entrance, they are Klargs pets. 

All of this is a lot of information, and the party will have to decide what to do with the Goblin, that is sniffeling an begging for his life. The party does know however that he might run away to warn King Groll if they let him live so they'll tie him up as good as they can and leave him at the edge of the forest to be taken to Phandalin where they hope to imprison him if possible (though Egart would prefer just to slit his throat). 

Unsure if this plan works out, we'll roll for the party's attempts to tie the goblin up and give him one attempt to wiggle out of his binds.

🎲Sleight of Hand, Egart +5, with advantage because of help: 16
🎲Dexterity Check, Goblin +2, with disadvantage because of restrained condition: 14 (fail) 

Finally I'll roll for individual loot again.

🎲3 x 1d100: 39, 44 and 26
🎲8d6 silver and 5d6 copper: 25 silver and 19 copper, divided as equally as possible.

With their quarry safely stored near the trail the adventurers move onwards to the dark entrance of the cave. Now the situation is this: They know that the eating cave, where Sildar is being kept is to the left of the entrance. But they also know that there is a sentry on the bridge (Quillate's spell would have faded by now). Also, it is dark inside and only Quillathe and Harbek have Darkvision. So either they need to take out the sentry before he can raise the alarm or they need to sneak in without any light, trying to make as little noise as possible. The other option would be using magic but Harbek does not have any spells prepared that would be useful in this particular situation. 
Quillathe might try Sleep again, which would probably work but that would render her incapable of casting any more spells until a short rest was had. However, failing in subduing the goblin would lead to more problems, so she will sacrifice her last spellslot for another sleep spell. 
To get to the goblin Quillathe will need to sneak past the side-cave containing the wolves again, and since they might come into play, let's get them some HP.

🎲HP Wolves, 2d8+2: 12, 11 and 10
🎲HP Goblin Sentry, 2d6: 7

Now, about the wolves. The flavor text reads as follows: 
Just inside the cave mouth, a few uneven stone steps lead up to a small, dank chamber on the east side
of the passage. The cave narrows to a steep fissure at the far end, and is filled with the stench of animals. Savage snarls and the sounds of rattling chains greet your ears where three wolves are chained up just inside the opening. Each wolf’s chain leads to an iron rod driven into the base of a stalagmite.

Now, the wolves only play a bigger part if a character comes into sight, which is not the plan for the moment.
The main passage from the cave mouth climbs steeply upward, the stream plunging and splashing down its west side. In the shadows, a side passage leads west across the other side of the stream. In the shadows of the ceiling to the north, you can just make out the dim shape of a rickety bridge of wood and rope crossing over the passage ahead of you. Another passage intersects this one, twenty feet above the floor.

Quillathe will sneak by and try to get to the goblin. 
🎲Stealth Quillathe, +2 (DC 9): 17 (success)
🎲Sleep, 5d8: 29
🎲Luck Check Goblin: 1
So Quillathe sneaks up quietly through the tunnel, blows a swirl of rose petals towards the bridge and the goblin softly drifts to sleep... before tumbling down and smashing into the lower tunnel 
🎲Fall Damage, 2d6: 11 

That kills the goblin outright, which is another way of solving the problem, to be honest... 

Now Harbek picks up a small pebble from the stream bed, covers it almost entirely with his fist and casts Light on it. He uses his fingers to control the amount of light the pebble sheds for the moment and guides the other three adventurers inside. Knowing the location of the eating cave to be to the west they would observe this passage and decide to climb it. With Quillathe keeping an eye out it would be up to Harbek to lead the way. 

Now the Western passage is chocked with rubble and has a ledge halfway through that will give way under a weight bigger than 100 pounds. Now, a dwarf cleric in full chain mail would definitely outweigh that so once Harbek is halfway up the slope, it comes tumbling down. 

🎲Dexterity-save Harbek, -1 (DC 10): 17 (success) 

Luckily Harbek avoids a nasty fall, grumbling something about not wanting another tumble today and climbs up to the passage above with the others following him as quickly as possible. 

Now at the top of this slope there is the entrance into the goblin den, with 6 of them being just inside. There are also fires burning here so there is a source of light which would enable Harbek to not have to keep up the light-spell. But, being this close to the goblins he will still need to try and keep quiet.

🎲Stealth check Harbek, -1 disadvantage (DC 9): 2 (fail)

So Harbek climbs up, his armor rattling and a voice in goblin shouts out something from inside the den after which a long-nosed, warty face pokes around the corner, eyes widening as it screeches a warning and the battle starts. 

Download Full Battle Report, including all rolls and maps

It is a hard fight fought. Having to scramble up the rubble-strewn slope the group finds itself welcomed by a hail of goblin arrows as the small monsters retreat to the back of their den. Drusa, pushing herself in front of her comrades is gravely injured and only saved by Harbeks healing magic the first time only for her and the dwarf both falling a moment later as the group advances on the goblins. Arrows and spells taking one goblin after the other the leader of the band suddenly grabs a bound figure by its hair and shouts: "Truce, or this human dies!". 
It is no one but Sildar Hallwinter, his face swollen by blows, wrapped up in ropes and within in inch of his life. But the old knight spits out a clot of blood and groans: "Don't trust him..."
Quickly rushing in Haunua, Egart and Quillathe manage to kill the last of the goblins, but not before Sildar has taken a sword to the throat. A few panic-filled moments pass as the still standing adventurers struggle to save the dying ones but finally it seems that Sildar, Drusa and Harbek will live, though they are unconscious for the moment. 

🎲1d4: 4 hours of unconsciousness for Harbek, Sildar and Drusa

🎲5d100 for individual loot on the goblins: 52, 30, 19, 24 and 47
            => 🎲8d6 silver and 15d6 copper: 31 silver and 49 copper, distributed as evenly as possible
On top of that Yeemik has 3 gold teeth (each worth 1 gold) and 15 silver. The silver is distributed but Egart pockets the teeth.

Now, with no means of healing the unconscious party members and knowledge of this goblin-bands chief still living and possibly nearby the party would need to resolve to quietly retreating from the cave. Now that the passage between the tunnel and the goblin dan has collapsed it is only rough terrain and with Haunui, Egart and Quillathe working together they manage to get the entirety of their party out of the cave. Since the Goblin Sentry has tumbled to his death I am not even rolling for Stealth here, they just manage to escape, carrying the unconscious members of their party one by one down the passage, then out of the cave, back to the trail and finally back to the cart. The entire process would take them about an hour and a half this time and by the time they come back the still very hurt wizard just sits down and refuses to do any more heavy lifting. 

It is up to Haunui and the halfling rogue to use the oxen to pull the horses out of the way, load the wounded onto the cart and hitch the beasts again. 

Finally, it is about three hours later that the party finally makes their way from the scene of the ambush and heads for Phandalin again. When the four hours have passed and Sildar awakes - along with Drusa and Harbek - he agrees with the choice made, a rest is needed for all of them.

One more thing to resolve: With all that has been happening Egart found a quiet moment to kill of the goblin captive they had left behind. Returning with the robes a bit more blood on his hands he just shrugs at his two companions and after the fight they had they all realize that he did what needed to be done. He does ask the party if they are willing to return tomorrow to clear out the caves and put a stop to the raids.