Chapter 9

The adventurers find themselves standing in a dimly lit cavern, crude torches hanging loosely in poorly made sconces that are part of the stone walls, situated in a semi-circular shape around the altar. The human man chained to the altar looks on in astonishment as the group cautiously enters the cavern. The goblin wearing the ornate vestments loudly proclaims, “You have entered the inner sanctum and now you will be offerings to the Great Mouth!”

Fight choreography

• Goblin leader shoots silver fire from their hands at Gven and hits, causing 7 in fire damage and leaving her in flames.
• Dolor aims his shortbow at the goblin leader and misses.
• Gven takes another 6 in fire damage before dropping to the stone floor and smothering the flames that cover a small portion of her body. She invokes her barbarian rage, jumps to her feet, and charges toward the goblin leader, about 30 feet away.
• Grindlefoot, as a giant constrictor snake, sneaks toward the captive human for a closer look at the rusty chains binding him to the altar, and senses his fear and concern.
• Xantic directs his Flamethrower Eldritch Cannon at a goblin, causing 5 damage.
  • He then fires a crossbow bolt at another goblin, killing it instantly.
• Goblin leader yells out, “Sacrilege!” And with a legendary action says, “To the altar!”, calling more unseen goblins to participate in the battle.
• The goblin attacked by Xantic’s flame-throwing Eldritch Cannon, returns the attack, swinging its rusty shortsword at the cannon for 8 damage.
• A goblin runs up next to the goblin leader, draws its scimitar, and misses Dolor with its swing.

• Goblin leader grabs the shoulder of a goblin close to it and yells, “blessing of the Open Mouth!” The goblin’s body shifts and transforms into a bugbear.
• Out of the connecting tunnels, two more goblins run into the cavern.
• Dolor attacks the closest goblin with his shortsword and misses.
• Gven swigs a healing potion, regaining 10 health, and then attacks the goblin leader with her longsword, causing 10 damage.
• Suddenly, a different goblin is standing where the goblin leader stood.
• Grindlefoot, as a snake, leaps at the goblin who attacked Dolor and grapples them for 8 damage, while also containing them in a hold and causing disadvantage.
• A streak of silver fire barely misses Dolor, coming from the back of the cave where the two other goblins recently entered.
• Xantic fires his crossbow at a goblin, causing 10 damage and killing it.
  • The Flamethrower Eldritch Cannon fires at another goblin, causing 3 damage and killing it.
• The adventurers notice that the goblin leader is now in the back of the room, having switched places with one of the goblins who responded to their leader’s call.
• The goblin tied up by Grindlefoot in snake form tries and fails to break free.
• Bugbear attacks Gven with its claws, causing 8 damage.
• A goblin in the back of the room fires an arrow from its shortbow at Xantic and misses.

• Goblin leader exclaims, “for the Great Mouth” and makes a gesture with its hands. Suddenly, the goblin ensared by Grindlefoot swells up and explodes into pieces, causing Grindlefoot 5 in fire damage.
• Dolor attacks the goblin-turned-bugbear (with advantage because of being within 5 feet of Gven while she is raging) for 5 damage and 5 in sneak attack damage with his shortsword.
• Gven also attacks the bugbear with her longsword, causing 11 damage, and then quickly swigs a healing potion, regaining another 10 health.
• Grindlefoot, still in snake form, slithers over to the other goblin and attempts to grapple them, but misses.
• Xantic fires a crossbow bolt at the goblin leader and misses.
  • The Flamethrower Eldritch Cannon flames a goblin for 11 damage, killing it instantly.
• Only the bugbear and goblin leader remain standing and alive.
• Bugbear attempts to swipe Gven with its claws and misses.

• Goblin leader fires a bolt of silver fire at Xantic and misses.
• Dolor attacks the bugbear with his shortsword, connecting for 5 damage and 10 in sneak attack damage, killing it.
• Grindlefoot slithers towards the goblin leader and grapples them, causing 8 damage.
• Reacting to Grindlefoot’s attack, the goblin leader tries to hit Grindlefoot with their silver fire and misses.
• Xantic tries to free the human by casting Frostbite on the chain, but it doesn’t quite break. Xantic then has McGillicutty cast Force Blast on the chain and it completely blows apart into small bits of rusty metal that fly everywhere. McGillicutty starts happy-dancing.

• Goblin leader sees that they’re alone now, facing four armed and capable warriors, especially the murderous gnome artificer. They scream, “Ever will I serve you!” and its body begins to puff up, expanding its hideous features to comical proportions before exploding into flaming bits of flesh that impact the two closest, Gven and Grindlefoot. Gven takes 15 damage and Grindlefoot is suddenly returned to his halfling form, takes 7 damage, and exclaims “Did you all see that? That was awesome!”

The human is obviously upset and says, “What the fuck did you do? I’ll never see my daughter again!”

After Dolor and Grindlefoot console him, the group is able to surmise that his name is Elar, his daughter is Vera, and they’re Preva’s husband and daughter who have been missing for months. They were captured by the goblins while out hunting, further than they usually venture. Elar was able to keep them from being sacrificed to the Great Mouth by the goblins through his bad jokes and quick-thinking.

The goblin leader found his jokes funny and kept him around for entertainment. Meanwhile, they intended to sacrifice Vera to the Great Mouth, some sort of large creature they worshipped further up in the mountains. The first time the goblins marched them the half-day up to the Great Mouth for Vera’s sacrifice, Elar instructed her to play a game they used to enjoy where she acted like a wind-up doll, hoping the creature would think she’s inedible. It worked and the creature decided to keep her around for its own entertainment. Now, the goblins take Elar up to the Great Mouth every few days for them to provide a sacrifice and him to “wind up” Vera so she can continue to move.

The adventurers convince Elar, even in his distressed state, that they can help him rescue Vera from this large creature, which he believes to be a hill giant. He knows the way out of the caverns and up the mountain to where the hill giant lives. Before they leave, they search the area and find 17 silver, 3 copper, a rusty scimitar, beat up leather armor, a healing potion, a bottle of green goo, and 2 days of rations.

Elar grabs a torch and leads the group out a different path from the cavern, yet they eventually exit the caves at the same place they entered. It’s late afternoon and Dolor recognizes the path that the ranger, Lyra Swiftarrow, used to bring them to the cave. He leads them to the clearing where they can rest safely, under the implied protection of Lyra’s blessing. They make camp with a small fire and Xantic begins pulling together something unusual (and tasty) for their dinner, cooking it slowly over the fire.

Elar provides more details about his and Vera’s capture and imprisonment by the goblins and hill giant. The goblin leader was named Picksmack and Elar was the only one who could make him laugh, which was rare currency in the tribe and kept him alive. He also convinced them that he was the only one who could “wind up” Vera and keep her moving, as though she were alive, which is what the hill giant they knew as the Great Mouth wanted. The goblins frequently waylaid travelers on the Ha-derech, then visit the Great Mouth every two to three days to provide their sacrifices. They took Elar with them so he could keep Vera going, to interact and entertain their so-called deity. As the story progressed, Elar got visibly nervous and revealed that it had been 1-2 days since his last trip up to the hill giant. He’s worried that Vera doesn’t have much time left before she’ll supposedly run out of energy and have to fake being still. Dolor assures him that the group will leave early in the morning, after a night of rest, ready to rescue his daughter.

While the group settles in for the night, Dolor sits quietly with his recently acquired shortsword to gain attunement. He gets the sense that it’s a very old blade and probably missed by someone. After some time, the name “Gleaming Blade” comes to his mind and he suddenly understands it’s history. It was originally wielded by a Paladin in their quest for honor and glory. While being wielded, the blade gives +1 to armor class (AC), resistance to Radiant Damage, and for true strikes (rolling a natural 20) it emits a radiant glow where the target must roll a constitution saving throw or become blinded until their next turn.

Long rest….

The adventurers advance to level 4.