The Red Hand Lair

Allowing the guard (Keira) to recover, she led the party back south to where the goblins entered the forest. The wagons they stole left a broad track and the party easily followed to a point where the trail split; the wagons turned east, whilst the trail of the goblin warriors on foot carried on south. They found a small hillock, heavily overgrown with some sheltering boulders and left Keira there in some safety, before moving on to the lair entrance just beyond. A cave mouth below a small bluff, they decided to circle round and approach the entrance from the sides to minimise alerting any inside.

Entering, they found a wide chamber, partially barricaded with crates and barrels, behind which numerous goblins guarded the lair beyond. The initial assault was tough and it was a hard fight for the party to win through, but they did and moved deeper into the complex. They found several caches of goods that were probably from the recently captured caravan; at a junction they chose a tunnel at random and found a large chamber - dimly lit by glowing algae on the walls, numerous large fungi surrounded a central pool - several goblins lounged around it.

They charged in and engaging a couple of nearby goblins, the bulk of the party moved to the rear of the chamber where 4-5 more were scrambling to prepare for the assault. A few more goblins jumped the party from the algae covered wall, but it didn't help their cause. Defeating them easily, the party explored the chamber - the algae proved to be a screen to a narrow passage leading south, pitch black as they moved down it, the further end brightened slightly with a greenish glow.

They elected instead to explore a chute further round that led steeply down, at the bottom of which they discovered a high vaulted chamber with dim light visible at the top. Several rock columns blocked their view of the full chamber, so they inched slowly in. Once more in the open, they were dived on by several sizeable bats; unable to easily combat the aeriel opponents, the party withdrew and decided to leave the caves to rest overnight and explore further the following day.