After their first encounter with the Sapphire Forest goblins, the party decided to take a short rest to nurse their wounds and prepare for the upcoming events. Samara, with the party's two goblin captives Thorneater and Rockbiter, convinced the two goblins to lead the party to their camp. Unfortunately further interrogation about the size of the goblin threat was met with a general air of ignorance on the part of the goblins, both of whom seemed to be less than intelligent, or at least very ignorant. As the party set out again, following the goblins, Samara failed to detect a net trap and was swooped up into the canopy of the forest. She attempted to free herself as her companions tried to figure out where the rope holding her up led to. Being shorter than most of the foliage around the forest paths, Strell was unable to see the rope, as was Nessa who stayed with the goblins to supervise. Trippen managed to spot the rope and, using his new dwarven-made scimitar, cut through the rope causing Samara to fall. She caught herself with excellent acrobatic skills, but still took damage from the falls, feeling the pain in her knees and joints. The party continued on, unaware of threats watching them from the trees and underbrush.
As the party walked onwards with Strell stealthing through the brush beside them, Trippen noticed a rustling in the brush near Strell. As the halfling fighter went to investigate, he came face to face with a wolf-like creature. The creature was slightly larger than a regular wolf, with an ugly, deformed face and a very menacing snarl. He attempted to calm down the creature, only to watch as its goblin rider mounted and looked right in his direction. Trippen then sent his butterflies off in the direction of his companions, warning them of the imminent danger.
As Samara and Nessa noticed the butterflies, a stealthy goblin hand grabbed Thorneater and pulled him into the foliage. Samara and Nessa both moved to confront the assailant, with Nessa showering Rockbiter in dried food rations in order to keep the goblin occupied. They both came face to face with another goblin. Upon attempting to intimidate the enemy goblin, Samara was faced with a vulgar goblin gesture as Thorneater struggled. Nessa landed an arrow and wounded the goblin, but was rewarded with an arrow sprouting from his shoulder from a goblin perched in a tree close to him.
On the other side of the path, Trippen fended off the wolf-creature and its rider as an arrow landed at his feet from yet another tree-perched goblin. Strell, using his new magical abilities, attempted to cast Tasha's hideous laughter upon the tree goblin. The spell cast, Strell watched on as the goblin managed to shake off the spell and continued to focus on Trippen.
Another goblin riding a wolf-creature rode up to the occupied Rockbiter and attempted to abduct the goblin, riding towards the north and towards the presumed goblin camp. Samara then took severe damage from additional goblins who emerged from the bushes and the one perched in the tree, bringing her closer to losing consciousness. Nessa then, grabbing her buttocks one at a time, cast both cure wounds and shield of faith on Samara to keep her standing. As Trippen and Strell both attacked the goblin and creature, Nessa's neck opened with a wound from the very accurate goblin archer, falling unconscious from blood loss.
Thorneater managed to wrestle himself from the enemy goblin's grasp and, with a moment of hesitation, sprinted as far away to the north as his legs could carry him. Rockbiter, suffering what seemed like a similar fate, broke free of the rider and ran back to the pile of rations that he was pulled away from. The rider angrily rode back and ordered his mount to attack Rockbiter, taking a chunk out of the hungry goblin's arm and causing him to scramble backwards into the brush towards Nessa.
The battle continued between Strell, Trippen, and the creature-rider. Dealing the killing blow to the rider, Trippen watched as the wolf-creature snarled and took off into the forest. Strell made his way to help Nessa and Samara as Trippen began to climb the tree supporting the goblin archer. Seeing no targets in sight, the goblin archer clambered down the tree to the base. Trippen, seeing the goblin and consequentially an easy target, climbed up to the nearest branch and took a leap, landing on top of the goblin archer and ending it with two blades impaled through its heart and into the ground.
Unconscious on the ground, Nessa felt nothing as the terrified Rockbiter used him as cover, causing the wolf-creature to attack his elf-shield, forcing Nessa to fail a second death saving throw. Close to death, Strell rushed to his companion and poured a potion of healing into Nessa's mouth, causing his wounds to cauterize and him to regain consciousness. Samara, having withstood several attacks with the help of Nessa's shield of faith and her own mage armor, blasted the attacking goblins with thunderwave, killing a goblin and wounding another. Upon waking up, Nessa attacked the goblin rider and wolf-creature that attacked him, crushing both of their faces and killing both. Samara then blasted the remaining goblin with her ray of frost, causing the goblin to try to escape, but not before Strell landed a thrown dagger in its back and subsequentially decapitated it. With that, the party regrouped and decided to make camp a mile off of the path, where they rested, gathered crafting ingredients and healed from their battle.
To be continued…