41: The Raven Hills

Bezahltag 18^th Sommerzeit

Having buried the body of the hoodlum, you made your way back to Dunkelkiefer, and decided you needed to head west towards Wulfhaven, which was where Agnes had told you that Brambledown was going to sell the painting. You asked about getting to Wulfhaven before nightfall and you were told you wouldn’t be able to get across the Raven Hills in one day from here, especially having started out so late. So you decided that Gart’s Farm would be a good place to stop.

You reached Gart’s Farm well before evening, and if you thought you were in some sort of chase, hot on the hills of your quarry, it felt more like you were on a leisurely stroll. But, not wanting to spend the night up on the hills was probably a wise call.

Gart had a long chat with you about the Raven Hills, and his wife, Bessie, made you some food. You got the impression that travelling across the hills in small groups made you prone to attacks from goblins. So the locals usually waited for larger groups to form before making the journey. And the Raven Hills got its name because ravens were the symbol of death.

And when you told him you were heading for Wulfhaven, he told you they were strange folk there who didn’t like outsiders. And Wulfhaven bay was full of wrecks, and Gart said he wasn’t saying that was because of the people of Wulfhaven, but it was.

Guilstag 19^th Sommerzeit

But you had a decent night’s sleep in the hayloft of Gart’s barn, and Bessie made you egg and bacon for breakfast, and you had to admit it was much better to wake up to than Frau Koester’s gruel.

You travelled up to the hills and it was barren and windswept, and there wasn’t much sun. And along the highest stretch of road you spotted three bodies strung up on stakes. And when you went to cut them down, and inspect them, you found that there was one halfling, a tall guard, and a local-looking guide.

You went through their stuff, and all you found was a note in the halfling’s waistcoat pocket:

From the wounds on the bodies you thought they could well have been killed by goblins, but you wondered why they had been strung up by the side of the road. There were a lot of footprints around the area but you couldn’t really tell which way the attackers had fled.

After a while you decided to climb up to the top of the crag overlooking the area. And from there you could see a small lake on the other side, with what may be some sort of camp next to it, and a discernible trail leading from the stakes to the camp. So you headed there.

When you got close you could see that there wasn’t much left of the camp, but there was a robed figure there, fishing outside his tent. Berta tried to sneak up and have a look in the tent, but the creature heard her and turned to attack. She fended off his first blow, but his second struck her, but before he could land another blow, Max shot him through the head with his hand gun. And you regretted not being able to question the creature.

You decided that the thing was a goblin, and it was wearing long dark blue robes with lots of crude symbols stitched into it. And you had heard about goblins who lived in caves instead of the woods, and this might be one of them. And you saw how most of the camp had already been dismantled. It probably had about six tents originally. And you saw that there was one badly damaged canoe pulled up on the beach, but there were ruts from five others.

The creature had already caught a couple of fish, so Berta decided to fry them on the goblin’s fire, while Max tried to repair the canoe. Max made a spectacularly good job on the canoe, and the fish were a lot tastier than they could have been. Berta had found some mushrooms and put them in, too.

This small lake was about as high up the river as you could get, and so to follow the goblins you decided to head down river. There was barely room for all of you in the canoe, and before you set off Berta reluctantly hid her cart. And just as you set off in the canoe, Max spotted a white figure on the crag you had just used to survey the area. And Berta said it looked like the elf she had seen near Leihafen. And you wondered whether you were being followed.

The lake soon turned into a fast flowing river, and with Max at the front looking out for rocks you navigated the treacherous water. Balden wasn’t much cop at rowing, but Berta guided the boat expertly with her spade. And you just managed to make it through the rapids without wrecking the canoe.

You arrived at a larger lake and canoed across it for a couple of miles. And this ended in a similarly fast and dangerous river and you wondered whether it might be best to carry the canoe for this stretch, but in the end you decided to risk it. And you had obviously got the knack for canoeing now, because you all navigated this stretch expertly, and it was almost actually fun.

You were now in another large lake, and canoeing across it you spotted a load of canoes on the bank. And putting in out of sight, you crept up to look at them, and sure enough, there were five of them. There were no goblins around, though, and so Max used his hammer and spikes to put some holes in each of them.

Berta spotted some tracks heading away from the each, and you followed these and soon came to a fissure in one of the craggy outcrops, and you squeezed through it into a cave. It was soon very dark, and you lit your lanterns, and after a bit of a false start Balden summoned some magical lights to help you.

The cave system was quite tortuous and confusing, and looked like it had been made by an underground river. Max was careful to make a map of where you went, and he felt confident you would be able to find your way back if you needed to.

After some twists and turns you found a cave that contained the remnants of some sort of hideout, and you decided that it must have been used by smugglers or wreckers, but not for a few years.

You went through several junctions, and you saw that some of the caverns flooded. It was impossible to tell how deep the water was, or whether the ways were navigable, without getting wet, and you chose to stay dry.

Then travelling along one of the caverns, Max stepped on something squishy and was engulfed in spores. He started retching, and Berta covered her face, and managed to drag him out of the cloud, but he felt very bad afterwards.

So Balden took over leading the group, and you continued along the cavern, and after a while he found a nice tunic with fashionable slashed sleeves. It was dark blue and rather smart and you decided it had not been here long. It had a blood stain on it and in one of the pockets you found a scrap from what looked like a children's book about pirates.

You had a chat about elves and wondered what they had to do with everything, and why that other elf could be following you. You thought that they might want first dibs on the treasure, whatever that might be.

You came to other waterlogged caverns, and had to make a bit of a detour, and then found a side cavern that was lined with old sails and fishing nets. The cavern was quite circular and there was a circular pool in the middle of it. Many of the sails had symbols painted on them, including, tridents, bidents, sharks, fish, etc. You knew that the trident was a common symbol of Manann, and Max said the shark symbol had something to do with that, but he couldn’t quite remember what.

So you’re in this cave system, and you’ve been wandering around for some time. It’s hard to know if you’re lost or not, and if you’re still on the trail of the painting or not.