Chapter 8: Rescuing the Bodyguard
The Loud Boys in the Lost Mine of Phandelver, a D&D report
The three adventurers stared at the bridge swinging from the hole in the cliff facing them. Below, the burbling stream continued on its merry way, eternally escaping the echoing cave. The gap seemed-
“How wide do you think this gap actually is?” said Kila.
Jake squinted at the flickering torch still laying in the opening opposite. “I don’t think it could be much over ten feet.”
“You mean we can just jump across?” said Uayak.
Kila shrugged to settle his leather armour more comfortably, backed up a bit and starting running. There was a whoosh of air as he took off and a bit of a scramble as he landed on the other side, but he cleared the gap easily.
Jake and Uayak didn’t have any trouble either. They looked back at the other side, and Kila picked up the torch. “I feel like that should have been much harder,” said Uayak.
“Oh well,” said Kila. “Guess we’re just great at adventuring!”
And he sauntered off down the tunnel, torchlight cheerfully brightening his path.
The rock-hewn tunnel curved and twisted but very shortly brought them to a wider cave. A ledge separated the lower level where they had entered from a raised section where a bound human could be seen, thrown like a sack of vegetables against the wall. As they entered boldly, goblins turned in surprise. One, with more bird bones and scraps of leather tied to its jerkin than the others, stepped forward. “Who you?” it demanded. “Where’s boss?”
“Is your boss the bugbear?” said Uayak, ignoring the first question. “Because he’s dead.”
"Boss Klarg dead? Wow! That makes Yeemik boss! You all gotta listen to Yeemik now!”
The goblin turned and puffed its chest out before the other goblins and started strutting. “Yeemik so great! Yeemik gonna boss you all! Yeemik gonna make you an army! We gonna beat the other-”
An arrow came whistling right into the goblin’s mouth. Everyone looked to see where it came from. Kila stood nonchalantly, bow in hand. “No you’re not,” he said. Then, noticing all eyes on him, he frowned. “What? He was being boring.”
The other goblins looked around the cave. With no route of escape other than that the adventurers had entered by, they all rushed in a mob towards them and were shortly dispatched of in a blaze of freezing rays and slicing blades. After brushing off goblin entrails from their faces and picking up the scimitars, the three adventurers turned their attention to the raised platform.
The bound human was huddled against the rough rock. It seemed that he had been disturbed from unconsciousness by the noise of the brief fight and was blinking groggily. He had been stripped to his underwear and the ropes were tied cruelly tight around his limbs.
“I’ve seen you before, haven’t I?” said Uayak.
“My name is Sildar Hallwinter,” mumbled the man through a mouthful of blood.
“I think he was with Gundren Rockseeker,” said Jake.
“That’s the dwarf who hired us, right?” said Kila.
“Mr Rockseeker? Is he all right?” said Sildar, suddenly more alert.
“We don’t know,” said Jake. “It looks like you got ambushed on the way to Phandalin. We found your dead horses on the road.”
Sildar groaned, then winced in pain.
“Here, let’s get you out of those,” said Uayak, and he took out a dagger to start sawing at the ropes. “You can tell us more when we get back to town.”
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Chapter 9 is here:
Chapter 7 is here:
And Chapter 1 is here: