Shadowdark: Bloggah's Blog Parts 2&3: Bugbears and Beat Downs

My tablet disappeared overnight. I thought I'd left it at the brewery, but found it under the couch. Funny. I don't remember writing this document. Hmm...

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Taptaptap. Is this thing on?

Sorry, been out doing stuff. The dwarves I met earlier wanted to get an old mine cleared out so they could use it. Called it the Stone Toad Mine. Promised to pay us some coin, so they could call it Happy Fun Dungeon for all I cared. After all, the goblin camp needs some winter supplies.

So I met up with a few other layabouts in Hounds Head (Elinar, Dermont, and Columbo) to go out and do the deed. We'd gone and checked it out, but some sketchy stuff was going on. Columbo said he could lead us back to town, but kept getting us lost. I don't know about that guy.

Anyway, we eventually got back to Hounds Head and gathered some supplies. Columbo stepped into the woods to take a leak (that guy does it a lot. I think he should talk to a witch-doctor about that) and disappeared. Probably got lost again.

Left the three of us and a few mooks to check out this mine. Cass-Crow agreed to come along. She's a good shot and has my back. Elinar, a witch, has a couple of orphaned boys she found in the woods. I hear witches do that a lot. The boys tend to get a bit stabby. Can be helpful in certain situations...

Got back to the mine good. Found the trail this time. It was pretty obvious.

Damn. Bugbear guarding the mine. Must be why the dwarves were sketchy about it. Maybe we can get him out of the way. Elinar has one of her boys be bait, I mean, distraction, to get the bugbear close to us. It sorta works. We end up attacking him. My finger dart thing fizzles. Bugbear runs back to the mine, so we gotta chase.

Well, that's when things go bad. More bugbears. Of course. They got some goblin kin mining for them. The kin look pretty rough. I imagine the funny shapes that make someone your friend, but it doesn't work on bugbears. Things get bad. The boys are really bad with spears. They need practice. One gets knocked down, but his brother saves him. Dremont can't hit anything with his bow. Even Cass-Crow is missing. Not like her. My fire-hands trick smolders away too. Even I'm going to have to start stabbing! 

We're getting our butts kicked! 

Finally, I call my goblin kin to rise up against their oppressors and join us in fighting the bugbear foe. They've been beaten down, but it works.

They dogpile a couple of the bugbears, and take the heat off of us. 

Somewhere in the middle of this, Elinar does one of her witchy things, and whatever voices in her head she talks to say "not today" and basically this happens:

Dremont does a lay on of hands and gets her back up. Somewhere in this, he remembers he has a big hammer, and is a lot better at hitting things than shooting things. I'm taking his bow away.

Finally, bugbear boss runs away, one bugbear left. He surrenders. That's good. I don't know how much more victory we could survive.

Bugbear says his name is Korgor. We shake him down. Nothing much in the mine but a chest with someone's dinnerware and a couple of casks of ale. Korgor says his boss used to talk to an idol in one cave, but it made him feel squidgy. We go poke at it. Sure enough, it's a stone toad. Must be how the mine got its name. Or maybe someone named the mine, then realized they needed a stone toad. I dunno. Anyway, it's kinda warm, which is unlike a toad. We leave it be.

I have nine new goblin friends to begin my unstoppable goblin legions! I mean, join our little camp. They hand over their mine takings - tin and moonstones. 

We let out a collective breath.

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About this time, Columbo shows up, buttoning up his trousers. Wonders why we all look ten miles down a nine mile road.

Makes some claims about how he would have dealt with the bugbears all short order. Right, pee-boy. He tromps over to the toad to take a look himself. I see him toss a coin in the alms bowl next to it, then he just stares off into space for a while. Nothing unusual.

In the meantime, I talk to the kin. They say the come from another settlement, and were mostly militia, until bugbears and magic overwhelmed them. Give them my vittles, and get a bit of color back in their skin, almost healthy greens and greys.

Columbo stumbles back and says he talked to some old giant dwarf god (that makes no sense) named Osten in a garden full of toads. Are you sure you didn't find some mushrooms out in the woods?

But he shows off a shiny toad ring he found by the statue, that he can't pull off. Sounds like a great gift.

Time to head home. We know the way, this time.

Tromping back, we hear something in the woods ahead of us, so hunker down. Probably an ogre. Or a giant. Or a giant ogre. Nope, a deer. But I swear it had fangs!

We got home to camp without any more wildlife. Cass-Crow and I let folks know that we have new friends. Rig-Rot says he found a book with no writing by a magic tree. Sure, buddy. But he shows me the book that he's been writing stories in. I ask him if he can write down the newcomers' names. Zern the Wist comes out of his tent and basically adopts them. And he doesn't like anybody!

Share some ale, throw together some fixings, and call it a night. 

Next day, we head to Hound's Head. I hand Cass-Crow some copper rings I found when we went poking around in that cave. They should help buy some goods for camp. Looks like a few caravans have come in, traders looking for a last sale before the coming of winter, so everyone is in town plying their wares and making trades. 

The party heads to the Angry Priest Inn. Drinks all around. Check in with the dwarf brothers. Let them know that things are clear at the mine, and about the toad. They offer a business partnership, because they're dwarves. Might be good to have some income that doesn't involve getting stabbed. Columbo lets loose about talking to Osten, and the dwarves make signs and say being touched by Osten is a bad thing for dwarves these days. Well, Columbo want that ring off, so he'd better go find a priest or something. He wanders off, and at least one priest goes pale and stomps off, so he musta smelled something....

Anyway, I find a goblin tinker with a caravan who's happy to craft me a hard silver dagger from some of the coin I recovered. He might even want to winter over with us, as being with kin is good, and we could use someone with that knack.

Elinar sounds like she needed to go off and stare into space for a while, too, since her voices ain't talking to her. Guess we'll all be in town for a bit. Hopefully less stabbing goes on here.

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You may watch The Debacle here: 

And the triumphant return to Hound's Head here: