A Mysterious Theft - Group 3, Part 2 Report

The session begins with the party at the mouth of the small cave that the leprechaun Harley DImplegrove has led them to. Harley told them that the gremlins who stole the farmer's tools from him lived inside, and surely the tools would be found somewhere inside as well.

Peering into the cave, the group realized that it was going to be difficult for several of its members - the two halflings, Kleone the Druid and Tom the Bard in particular, to see. Their eyes were not accustomed to seeing in any sort of darkness. Dhraanggh, the half-orc Champion would fare only a little better; his heritage gave him some ability to see in the dark, but not the complete sight that Gambit the Goblin would enjoy. Fortunately, though, they still had the Everburning Torch that they acquired during their last adventure at the Williamson farmstead; Kleone took control of this device.

The party entered the cave warily with Dhraanggh in the lead. Relying on the light being shown ahead by Kleone, but hampered by his own shadow, he inched forward with Gambit just behind. Kleone and Tom brought up the rear.

But as soon as Dhraanggh reached a point where the cave tunnel seemed to open into a larger space, Dhraanggh was surprised by a small, sharp stabbing pain in his right leg. Looking down, he could just make out the shape of a creature a bit smaller than a goblin, who was pulling back the short sword that had just been jabbed into the Champion's leg. The creature then darted back into the darkness. As the half-orc tried to peer into the dark to locate his attacker, another sharp stabbing pain - this time lower down and on his left leg, turned his attention to another, much smaller creature that had attacked him from the other side. This one, too, darted into the darkness and was lost to Dhraanggh's sight.

Hearing the half-orc's yelps, Kleone decided that a little light was in order. Calling upon his primal magic, he conjured up a cluster of Dancing Lights, placed at a point he hoped was near the center of the cave space ahead. He wasn't too far off; the flickering lights illuminated most of the cave. Most importantly, they allowed Dhraanng to spot the two creatures that had attacked him from opposite sides the moment before. Choosing the one on the left, he leapt to the attack. The others made their way into the open space as well and began looking for targets.

The four gremlins - two Mitflits and two tiny, but exceptionally nasty Jinkins, proved to be quite a challenge. Initially, their tactics were to dart out from concealment behind the piles of rubbish that they had amassed in three places in the cave. Leap into view... rush a party member... jab... retreat into hiding... Dhraanngh with his greatsword and Tom with his rapier could do little more than chase them around the cave, hoping to corner them. Gambit had a few more options, being armed with alchemical Acid Flasks.

Eventually, with coordinated maneuvering, a few lucky tosses from Gambit, and a few well-placed slingstones from Kleone, the party managed to bring down three of the creatures. One of the Jinkins managed to escape the cave, but not before taking a few sharp blows from the party. In any event, it did not bother them further.

With the pesky gremlins dealt with, the party set to work searching the cave for the stolen tools. Eventually they found them - buried in the dirt beneath one of the rubbish piles in a hole that contained numerous other old and rusted bits of cold iron: pitons, nails, and a few other scraps so badly rusted they were barely identifiable. This was when Dhraanggh recalled that gremlins are quite averse to "cold iron" - a bit of information that perhaps would have been more helpful before the fight began!

In any event, the party collected the tools, along with a few other interesting "finds": a complete set of splint mail armor whose components were scattered among the debris piles, two vials of liquid that Gambit quickly identified as Darkvision Elixirs, and a handful of gold, silver, and copper coins. Dhraanngh remarked that the Darkvision Elixirs would have been nice to have before the fight, but they would surely prove useful in the future. Returning to the farmstead, Farmer Jennings was true to his word - offering the party a reward of the ten gold pieces that amounted to his entire life savings. The party accepted eight, not wanting to leave the farmer completely penniless.

With another job well done behind them, the party returned to the Bugbear's Head Inn to give their wounds and bruises a chance to heal, to take stock of what their adventures had brought them so far, and to decide on what their next course of action would be.