@JessmariJessmari moves carefully through the enormous cave system, quietly building a rough understanding of its layout. Avoiding the goblins is almost effortless. The caves are dark, Jessmari knows how to disappear into places like this, and the goblins make enough noise for half the mountain. Their voices, footsteps, arguments, and careless movements usually announce them long before they could notice someone slipping through the shadows.
The deeper Jessmari goes, the clearer it becomes that this is far more than a simple goblin den. The tunnels seem to stretch through much of the mountain, branching into guard stations, storage areas, treasure rooms, prisoner chambers, and dangerous passages where one wrong step could mean a very long fall. There are signs that people have been captured here, but also evidence that some prisoners have escaped and fought their way deeper into the caves. A few goblins lie dead without the entire nest having been alerted. Whoever did that knew what they were doing.
More troubling are the passages leading farther below. Something about them feels wrong. Goblins are one thing, but there are signs of something else moving behind all of this, something connected to dark magic. One route in particular seems to descend far beyond the normal caves, toward the places Jessmari has only heard about in whispered stories: the Underdark. None of those stories ended pleasantly. Of course, most of them also involved enormous amounts of treasure.
For now, Jessmari remains unnoticed, watching the cave breathe around them. There are riches somewhere inside this mountain, but there are also other capable people moving through it. People clever enough to escape captivity, kill goblins, and avoid bringing the entire cave down on themselves. That presents an interesting problem.
Jessmari came here to fill empty pockets and finally repay a debt. Whether those strangers become useful allies, convenient distractions, or simply people worth watching remains to be seen.
It doesn't look as if I will find anything of value unless I go further in, and that means dealing with something other than goblins...
@Jessmari You can do whatever you want really I am making it up as I go.
Jessmari slips southeast through the tunnels toward the area marked for captives. The goblins remain painfully easy to hear. Their voices bounce through the stone long before their torchlight appears, giving Jessmari plenty of time to flatten into cracks, duck behind formations, or simply take another passage around them.
The prison area is more organized than most of the cave.
A narrow approach opens into a wider chamber with crude wooden cages built against the stone walls. Jessmari counts several prisoners, though darkness and iron bars make it difficult to tell exactly who or how many from this distance. Some lie motionless. Others whisper quietly whenever the goblins move away.
The guards are competent by goblin standards, but hardly disciplined. Two remain near the cages while another watches the main approach. A fourth seems to wander between the prison chamber and a nearby passage, apparently more interested in whatever is being eaten out of a wooden bowl than actually guarding anything. There are enough of them that attacking openly could create noise, but plenty of shadows, blind spots, and distractions for someone with Jessmari's particular talents.
More interestingly, one of the cages stands open.
Its lock isn't broken.
It has been picked.
There are faint traces of blood nearby and several goblin footprints chasing away from the prison area, followed by something much lighter.
Someone already escaped from here.
Jessmari settles into the darkness overlooking the chamber. Whoever these prisoners are, they may be useful. More importantly, somebody else moving through this mountain knows how to handle themselves.
What does Jessmari do?
1. Watch the guards — Learn their movements, rotations, and habits before deciding whether the prisoners are worth the trouble. 2. Get closer to the cages — Slip through the blind spots and quietly find out who has been captured without alerting the guards. 3. Follow the escape trail — Forget the prisoners for the moment. Whoever picked that lock might be far more useful than whoever is still inside.
Six hours later, OogieBoogie opened her eyes feeling absolutely wonderful.
She stretched until her armor creaked, sat up in the little hidden hollow, and smiled at Cupcake. “Good mornin’, handsome. 🥰” As far as Oogie could remember, she had found some very pretty mushrooms. Everything after that was simply... missing. This did not trouble her nearly as much as it probably should have.
She crawled back through the hanging roots and stopped.
The caves looked like they had survived a war. Walls were blackened, timber supports had collapsed, weapons and supplies were scattered across the passages, and great dark stains covered the stone. Farther down, pieces of goblin were distributed across the cavern in ways that strongly suggested putting them back together was no longer an option. The place that had once been crawling with goblins was now eerily quiet.
Oogie stared.
Then she looked at Cupcake.
“Gosh. Somebody had a BUSY night.”
Cupcake climbed onto his usual place on her shoulder. Oogie hefted her poleaxe, perfectly refreshed and entirely unconcerned with the possibility that she might have had anything to do with the devastation around her. Whatever had happened here was somebody else’s mystery. She and Cupcake still had a mission. “C’mon, Sir Cupcake. We got people to find.”
And together they headed deeper into the mountain.
Job Class: Wildcaller – Proficient in nature magic, shapeshifting, animal handling, tracking, and wilderness survival. Capable in both melee and ranged combat and can use healing and offensive magic. Weakness: Can only wear light armor, has limited weapon choices, and their spells are not as powerful as an Arcanist’s. Intelligence: Average to high. Speed: Average to high.
@V00dooLovesTheMoonThe darkness beneath the mountain seems to deepen the farther V00doo looks. Somewhere beyond the broken cage, three goblin voices still echo through the stone, unaware that their prisoner now stands armed and free. Beyond them lies the creature they call the Master, the walking dead, and perhaps other prisoners who were not fortunate enough to escape.
For the moment, V00doo has not been discovered. The tunnels are open before her, and whatever secrets this mountain keeps are waiting in the dark.
@TeirdalinTeirdalin decides curiosity is worth tolerating the smell a little longer.
Teirdalin: “Fine. If your master’s magic is as impressive as you claim, show me what you’re working on.”
The goblins exchange looks.
Goblin 2: “See? Elf gets it.” Goblin 1: “Could be trick.” Goblin 3: “Everything elf says sounds like trick.”
Teirdalin: “Then keep your weapons pointed at me if it makes you feel clever.”
That apparently does.
Charisma: 19 + 2 = 21 — Success.
Goblin 1 reluctantly unlocks the cage himself, while the others crowd around Teirdalin with spears. They do not return his belongings, but they also make no attempt to bind his hands.
They lead Teirdalin deeper through the caves. He quietly memorizes every turn he can. Intelligence: 15 + 3 = 18 — Success
He notices the prison area connects to a broader central passage, with several smaller tunnels branching away. One slopes upward and carries faint cooler air. Another descends deeper into the mountain. The goblins take him down.
The smell changes first.
Rot.
Then Teirdalin sees several goblin corpses laid across crude stone tables. Strange markings have been drawn around them in ash, blood, and something black and waxy. Against the far wall stand three goblins that should very clearly be dead.
None speak. None breathe.
One slowly turns its head toward Teirdalin. Goblin 3: “That’s Gritz.” Goblin 2: “Was Gritz.” Goblin 3: “Still hate when he does that.”
Teirdalin does not need much magical education to recognize that whatever is happening here is tied to death magic.
And somewhere deeper in these caves, someone is doing far more than simply raising dead goblins.
For now, the goblins seem satisfied that Teirdalin is cooperating. They are not locking him back in the cage or dragging him from place to place. A couple of them keep an eye on him, but otherwise he is being allowed to move around the nearby caves and observe what they are doing.
That gives Teirdalin a rare amount of freedom for a prisoner. He can explore, talk to the goblins, look for his belongings, search for other captives, inspect the strange magic being prepared, or test just how far the goblins are willing to let him wander before they stop him.
@DeadOrbit "Are you trying to make Gritz into a zombie, I feel like there's easier methods than,.. whatever this is." he says while motioning to the rituals. "Can I have my things back by the way, I feel silly without my equipment."
WanderingHelplessly does not wait beside the cabin. He picks his ground carefully, strings a shock trap across the goblins’ likely approach, then settles into concealment farther back with his bow already drawn. Before long, voices drift through the trees.
Five goblins.
They come toward the cabin without caution, apparently comfortable enough with this place that they do not bother checking the surrounding woods. Four of them step directly into the trap.
Shock Trap: 2d6 lightning = 8 damage. DC 14 Dexterity saves. The goblins roll 10, 9, 19, and 10. Three fail and take the full 8 damage, leaving them barely standing at 2 HP each. One succeeds and takes 4, leaving it at 6 HP.
The electrical crack tears through the clearing. Goblins shriek, weapons clatter, and the fifth spins toward the trees.
That is when WanderingHelplessly releases the arrow.
Hidden attack with advantage: 10 and 5 + 6 = 16, just enough to beat AC 15. Damage: 5. The arrow punches into the untouched goblin before it even understands where the attack came from, cutting it to half its strength. Then initiative is rolled. WanderingHelplessly gets advantage from his hidden position and rolls 15 and 17 + 4 = 21. The surprised goblins roll with disadvantage; their initiatives come out 17, 11, 10, 10, and 8.
He is faster.
WanderingHelplessly immediately identifies the goblin that handled the shock better than the others. His second arrow flies.
Attack: 9 + 6 = 15. Hit. Damage: 10.
The goblin with 6 HP drops before it gets its bearings.
Then the survivors fire back.
Four shortbows snap toward the trees. Their attack totals are 24, 15, 17, and 15 against WanderingHelplessly's AC 16. Two hit. Worse, the first is a natural 20. The arrows deal 7 and 7 damage. One arrow tears across his side while another punches hard into his armor. WanderingHelplessly loses 14 of his 28 HP.
That settles any temptation to stand there trading arrows.
He disappears.
Instead of firing again, the Pathfinder breaks line of sight, circles behind heavier cover, and melts back into the forest. Stealth roll: 17 + 6 = 23. The goblins scramble after the place they last saw him, but they have lost him completely.
For several moments there is only angry Goblin chatter and the sound of frightened feet shifting through the leaves.
Then something whistles out of the darkness.
An enchanted arrow strikes the earth between them.
The remaining goblins have just enough time to look down.
BOOM.
The explosive arrow rolls 11 damage in its area. Their Dexterity saves are 20, 13, 5, and 7. One manages to partially avoid the blast and takes 5 damage. The others take all 11. It does not matter.
All four were already wounded.
When the smoke rolls away, the clearing is silent again.
WanderingHelplessly remains behind cover for several moments before moving. He has taken a nasty pair of hits and sits at roughly 14/28 HP, but all five goblins are dead. He used one shock trap and one explosive arrow, while preserving his acid arrows, ice arrows, and his ability to summon the dire wolf. More importantly, this little group has confirmed something.
Goblins are using the abandoned cabin.
The five goblins were dangerous enough to wound him, but not enough to force him to abandon the investigation.
he has a first aide skill roll how much it helps heal him Since he has an actual First Aid skill, I’d let it restore HP in Similar Worlds rather than using strict D&D Medicine rules.
He takes cover after the fight, checks the arrow wounds, removes what needs removing, cleans them, and binds them tightly.
First Aid roll: 6 + 4 skill bonus = 10 — Success, but barely. Healing roll: 1d6 + 2 = 6 HP restored.
So WanderingHelplessly goes from 14/28 HP to 20/28 HP.
He has stopped the bleeding and treated the worst of the damage, but he is still noticeably wounded. The injuries will not interfere much with normal movement or shooting yet, though another rough fight could become a problem.
WanderingHelplessly waits until the woods are quiet again before approaching the bodies. He searches each goblin carefully rather than simply stripping everything useful. Loot rolls: 10, 4, 7, 8, and 20. Most carry exactly what he would expect: crude blades, shortbows, battered leather, a handful of coins, and several usable arrows. The last goblin is more interesting. Tucked beneath its armor is a small oilskin packet containing a rough charcoal sketch of the cabin and several branching tunnels beneath it.
The writing is crude, but the meaning is clear enough: bring the living below. Another mark indicates the cabin itself as an entrance point. There are no names and no explanation of who gave the order, but it is the first solid evidence that the disappearances are connected to this place.
Before doing anything else, WanderingHelplessly removes every useful arrow, coin, and small piece of equipment worth carrying. He then drags the bodies well away from the cabin, covers the blood and disturbed earth as best he can, scatters leaves back across the clearing, and removes obvious signs that an ambush happened here. The electrical burns and damaged ground cannot be made completely invisible, but someone casually returning to the cabin would not immediately see five dead goblins lying outside.
He takes shelter inside the abandoned house and prepares for anyone coming back. Near the entrance he sets another trap, this one designed to release a choking poison cloud across the doorway if triggered. It gives him protection while he searches and, if things go badly underground, something unpleasant waiting for anything pursuing him back through the house.
Now that he knows what he is looking for, the cabin gives up its secret quickly. Dust has been disturbed repeatedly near an old bookshelf, and shallow grooves scar the floor beneath it. WanderingHelplessly pulls it aside and reveals a concealed opening leading downward into complete darkness.
Below is not a simple cellar.
It opens into a sprawling natural cave system, tunnels splitting and twisting beyond the reach of the faint light from the cabin. Even here he can make out the difference between heavily traveled passages and quieter ones. Some paths are churned with goblin footprints; others have barely been touched. The busy tunnels probably lead toward whatever the goblins consider important. The quieter ones offer something far more valuable to a Pathfinder: concealment.
Darkness is an advantage.
WanderingHelplessly whispers the familiar words of his summoning spell. Shadow gathers beside him, thickens, and takes shape until a young dire wolf stands silently at his side. Its nose immediately lowers toward the stone, ears turning toward sounds deeper in the cave. Now there are two hunters in the dark.
WanderingHelplessly is still wounded at 20/28 HP, but he has his bow, enchanted arrows, traps, recovered supplies, and his familiar. Ahead of him is an entire goblin cave system, and somewhere inside may be the people he was hired to find.
looking at the map WanderingHelplessly has to decide how he wants to proceeded
@DeadOrbit I'll proceed cautiously. Setting any traps that will help me to detect an ambush. I take my time tracking, looking for a place to set up a safe spot. I feel I may need help, but I will try to get an idea of what I can accomplish alone.
@WanderingHelplesslyWanderingHelplessly moves deeper with patience, never allowing the darkness to convince him that he is alone. Before committing to each new stretch of tunnel, he checks behind him and leaves subtle warning traps along the route. Nothing elaborate enough to announce his presence unless someone actually follows him. He wants to know if the cave closes behind him before the goblins know he was ever there.
His dire wolf moves a few paces ahead, nose close to the stone. Before long, the goblin tracks stop being the only story on the ground.
Human boots.
Several different sizes. Some walking, others stumbling. Scuffed heels cut through the dirt where someone had been dragged or shoved forward, and a frayed length of rope lies caught against a sharp piece of stone. Farther ahead he finds a small smear of dried blood and a torn scrap of cloth that certainly did not come from a goblin.
The missing people came through here.
More importantly, some of these tracks are recent.
WanderingHelplessly finds a recessed shelf of stone overlooking one of the branching passages and quietly establishes it as a fallback point. It is hidden from the main route, difficult to notice from below, and offers more than one way out. From there he can begin learning the rhythm of the cave rather than simply walking into it. The goblins have numbers, but the caves give him something numbers cannot easily overcome: narrow passages.
Five enemies standing shoulder to shoulder in the forest are dangerous. Five enemies trying to push through a tunnel barely wide enough for two are something else entirely. A shock trap could turn a choke point into a killing ground. Poison could fill a confined passage. One explosive arrow placed correctly could strike an entire group, while ice could seal a route or make pursuit almost impossible. Acid in a cramped corridor would give anything behind the first goblin very little room to escape.
He does not need to fight the entire cave at once.
A lone guard disappearing into the darkness might not be noticed immediately. A goblin trailing behind a patrol could be pulled away silently. Small groups could be removed before anyone realizes their numbers are shrinking. And if he can reach the prisoners without raising an alarm, he may not have to clear this place alone at all. Some may be too injured or frightened to fight, but others might be willing to pick up a stolen blade, a bow, or even a rock if it means escaping.
His wolf pauses suddenly. Ears forward. Voices somewhere ahead. Goblin voices. And beneath them, faint enough that most people would miss it, something else. A human cough.
WanderingHelplessly has found what he was looking for. Now the question is how much of this cave he intends to dismantle before the goblins realize there is a hunter inside it.
He could continue scouting and locate the prisoners before risking a fight, begin quietly removing isolated goblins to weaken the cave, start preparing the narrow passages with traps for a larger engagement, or attempt some combination of all three.
Whatever happens next, he still has the greatest advantage a Pathfinder could ask for.
3. She follows him, but keeps her distance. “Fine. I'll come to your camp, but don't mistake that for trust. If my mentor sent you, tell me exactly what he told you. What has changed down there, and who went looking for the source"
@greensnacksDeadOrbit leads Greensnacks away from the exposed cave entrance and toward a small camp hidden beneath an overhang of stone. There is no large fire, only a hooded lantern, a bedroll, several packs of medical supplies, and a rough map weighted down with pieces of rock. His raven leaves his shoulder and settles on a dead branch overlooking the camp. Greensnacks barely has time to look around before she starts again. “You said things have changed. You said people went down there and never came back. Stop being cryptic and tell me what you know.”
DeadOrbit removes one gauntlet and points to several places marked on the map. “The Underdark has always been saturated with old magic. Faerzress. It runs through parts of the stone like veins. It interferes with spells, makes some forms of magic unpredictable, and entire ecosystems below have grown around it. That is normal.” His finger moves across several of the markings. “This is not. Something is changing it. Everywhere I have marked, life is beginning to die. Fungi rot without disease. Insects disappear. Water turns foul. Creatures that have lived below for generations are abandoning their territory and moving toward the surface.”
Greensnacks looks toward the caves. “That is what I have been feeling?”
“I think so.” DeadOrbit finally looks directly at her. “You are feeling the corruption before you are feeling whatever is causing it.”
He reaches into one of his packs and removes a small piece of dark stone wrapped in cloth. Thin pale veins run through it, but several have turned an ugly gray-black. “I took this from one of the affected tunnels. Magic behaves strangely near it. Sometimes a spell becomes harder to hold together. Sometimes it twists. In the worst places, it simply dies.” He wraps it again. “Whatever is happening is not just killing animals. It is beginning to damage the way magic moves through the land. The Weave itself may not be dying yet, but something is wounding it.”
That catches Greensnacks' full attention.
DeadOrbit continues. “Then there are the bodies. Goblins, mostly. At first I thought they were fighting among themselves. Then I found one that had been dead long enough to stink standing in a tunnel several days later.” His expression does not change. “It did not speak. It did not eat. It did not react to pain. It simply followed orders until I destroyed it.”
Greensnacks glances toward his raven. “Necromancy.”
“Yes.”
“But goblins don't know magic like that.”
“They don't.” DeadOrbit taps one of the deeper markings on the map. “That is why I don't think the goblins are responsible. They're workers. Scouts. Raiders. Disposable hands. They can travel to the surface without drawing the attention that an army of undead would, and when one dies…” He pauses. “Apparently its usefulness doesn't end.”
He pulls another object from the pack, this time a broken piece of crude wooden ornamentation taken from somewhere underground. Burned into it is the image of a horned skull. “I've found variations of this symbol in three places.”
Greensnacks studies it. “You recognize it.”
“I serve the Raven Queen. I was taught to recognize those who make enemies of death.” DeadOrbit turns the carving over in his hand. “This resembles symbols used by followers of Orcus. Demon Prince of Undeath. His servants do not simply raise the dead. They believe life itself is an offense that should eventually be extinguished.”
For perhaps the first time since meeting him, Greensnacks doesn't have an immediate sarcastic answer. DeadOrbit puts the carving away. “I don't know if Orcus himself has anything to do with this. I don't know who is commanding the goblins. I don't know how far the corruption has spread. What I do know is that someone with considerable knowledge of necromancy has discovered a way to use the old magic beneath these mountains as a conduit.”
He traces his finger along the cave system.
“If they can corrupt the faerzress deeply enough, they don't need to poison every forest, village, or river individually. They poison the roots and let the corruption spread outward on its own.” Greensnacks looks again toward the distant caves. Suddenly the goblins seem considerably less important than they did an hour ago.
“So that's why people are disappearing?”
“Maybe. Bodies are useful to necromancers. Living prisoners are useful too.” DeadOrbit stands and begins fastening his gauntlet again. “But I am not interested in guessing when we can find out.” The raven gives a low croak from the branch.
DeadOrbit glances toward it. “We start with the goblins in the upper tunnels. If they are serving someone below, they give us a trail. We clear what we can, learn what they know, and go deeper only when we are ready.”
Greensnacks raises an eyebrow. “We?”
DeadOrbit picks up his shield.
“You punched me five minutes after I found you. I'm not letting you wander into the Underdark unsupervised.” What does Greensnacks do? 1. Agree to hunt the goblins first — Follow their activity through the upper tunnels, gather information, and determine who or what is giving them orders before going deeper. 2. Examine the corrupted stone — Greensnacks wants to study the damaged magic herself. If the Weave and faerzress are actually being altered, her Arcanist training may reveal something DeadOrbit couldn't see. 3. Question DeadOrbit about Orcus — Before going anywhere, she wants to know exactly what the Raven Queen's followers know about Orcus, his necromancers, and what might happen if this corruption is allowed to spread.
Greensnacks crouches in front of the stone, studying the warped patterns in its surface without touching it.
“Goblins can wait. If the magic down here is as badly disturbed as you say, I'd rather know what we're walking into than start swinging at the first thing that moves.”
She raises a hand and casts Mage Hand, carefully lifting a small loose fragment away from the corrupted stone. She turns it in the air, examining it from every angle, looking for traces of necromancy, familiar arcane markings, or anything that might explain how the faerzress has been altered. She draws on her Arcanist training to study the magic from a safe distance, watching for any reaction from the fragment.
Without looking at DeadOrbit, she adds, “And before you tell me to stand back, I'm already doing that. You're welcome.”
She finally glances at him, one eyebrow raised.
“Now, let's see if this thing has anything to teach us.”
@Chern0bylplaygr0unds You are welcome! Also you have the freedom to pick what you want to do. just write in your wishes and I will provide you with the scenario and outcome of those decisions. I will also roll dice to see how the scenario plays out.
1) Recover your lost gear — Try to work your way back toward the steep passage where you fell and search for the equipment scattered during the slide. It may be difficult to climb, but continuing deeper without everything you brought could be even worse.
2) Follow the goblins' trail — Use the map to head toward the storage area and guard post. There could be supplies, prisoners, more information about what the goblins are doing here, or more goblins who have no idea what happened to the four in the den.
3) Investigate the Master's mark — Follow the strange pressure deeper toward the old shrine marked “Belongs to the Master.” It is clearly the most dangerous choice, but it may also be the best chance to discover what is disturbing the Nether and why the goblins are behaving so strangely.
