6: Chasing Marevak

From The Naskel Keep Scribe's Logs...

The party wakes in the morning to find that someone has snuck into their rooms and left some things behind, a letter for Miresta and a book for Damaia.

As everyone is preparing for the day there is a knock at the door, and a page asks that they meet with Sir Roderic at their earliest possible convenience.

On the way to the Castellan's Keep the party drops in on Delgna at the Merchant's Guild.  They inform her that Lhodis and Laurel have been slain by cultists in the Caves of Chaos, and at her request they return their effects and cargo.

The Castellan has a well appointed spread ready to greet his rescuers, and there is much talk of tensions in the region, theorizing about the disposition of Marevak, and the ongoing needs of Nashkel.  Roderic offers 2000gp for the removal of the minotaur and its lieutenants in the Caves of Chaos, and a reward for stopping Marevak dead or alive, 2500gp and 5000g respectively.

As they leave town they stop into the Screeching Goat for provisions.  While inside they learn of another adventuring group that is active in the area, The Saviors.  When ordering ale for the road, Bogden represents himself as part of The Saviors to get a discount.  They then head to The Shattered Maul to sell off their items, and Khalidd happily buys them for 40% of their regular value.

The group then heads out of town by way of the main gate, when they arrive there they speak with Atham who informs them that Bilfre, along with others, were attacked by a group of adventurers that were running cover for Marevak, and Bilfre was slain in the process.  The group consisted of five human and two elves, including Marevak, and were identified as a group going by the name of The Saviors.

Realizing that this was going to cause him trouble down the road, Bogden, with Miresta close behind, rushes back to The Screeching Goat to set things straight with Dern.  Dern doesn't take the deception well, and asks for double the price of the ale along with telling Bogden to never set foot his establishment again.  After some back and forth, and Miresta persuading Dern to have mercy on Bogden, Bogden gives Dern 20gp and retains access to the tavern.

With this settled the adventurers make their way down the trade road to the northeast, using Miresta's tracking skills they veered to the northwest and made their way to the entrance of Quasqueton, where they find it purposefully caved in, to the point that it would take weeks to dig through it.  When in The Screeching Goat they had heard that this was not the only way into the abandoned base of operations, but that this alternate entrance was more dangerous.  It is decided that they will head northeast towards the Caves of Chaos to see if there is a way through to Quasqueton in one of the monster burrows.

Upon arriving Carric casts invisibility on Damaia, and she proceeds to scout out one of the caves.  While inside she finds a pit trap just inside the entrance and three doors.  She hears nothing at the first door, and as she is about to check the second, it opens, and three bugbears step out.  She stealthily makes her way past them, moving towards the entrance.  When she gets close she is noticed by a particularly perceptive Bugbear guard, who only hears her footsteps.  She ducks outside and makes her way back to the group, and as she arrives three bugbears pop out of the entrance, spotting the party they duck back inside.

 The group decides to take advantage of the remaining time on the invisibility spell, and asks Damaia to search the other cave entrance on this level of the ravine.  Damaia goes inside, finding a few giant spiders and some giant beetles in the northeast and north tunnels.  She then checks the western tunnel, and nearly runs headlong into the Minotaur.  She dashes to the door, and uses her boots of misty step to widen her lead.

The group then decides that they should enter the first cave system, and engage the bugbears.  Upon entering they are attacked by the three bugbears from the eastern guard post, and they quickly take out one of them.  Seeing this the other two retreat into their guard room, and five more bugbears burst from a door to the west falling on the party's rear ranks.  Blows are traded, Damaia is holding the two eastern bugbears at bay by herself.  At this point things are starting to look sour for the party, when Norah casts Shatter on the group of Bugbears using her channel divinity to maximize the damage.  This wipes out three of the western attackers, and the remaining two retreat with a total of 6hp between them.  Bhodi rushes to aid Damaia on the east flank, and the party quickly focuses them down.  As they fall, the western door bursts open again, and the two injured bugbears are back with their Chieftan, his mate, and the Minotaur.    The Chief's mate is dropped relatively quickly by another Shatter from Norah, and the Chief takes out his ire by dropping Bhodi.  The fight goes back and forth with the Minotaur headbutting Carric 10' back into the spiked pit, leaving him with a single hitpoint.  The party focuses on the Minotaur, and Damaia's dagger drops him, and then Norah brings Bhodi back up to drop the Chieftain.