Chapter 6: Behind Enemy Lines
6.1: Killing the Dragon
The PCs took some time to rest and relax, hoping to wait out the worst of the winter storms before their next adventure. Hork, of course, got impatient with all the down time, and found herself in the town jail after an altercation with several off-duty guards at the Black Boar. Jimmy showed up and used his influence with the authorities to get her out, then explained that he had another mission for them. It seemed his new client was rather impatient, and wanted another item retrieved: white dragon blood. Jimmy gave them all rings of warmth on his client's behalf, and revealed that a juvenile white dragon was known to lair in some caverns a few days' journey north of Darktower. Hork and Morgrim both decided to stock up on Alchemists' Fire in anticipation of fighting the white dragon.
This would require getting behind the enemy lines, so Jimmy arranged for a friend of his, an elven ranger/bowyer, to escore the PCs to the safest point at which to sneak past the hobgoblins. Unfortunately, the PCs were spotted and attacked by a tough hobgoblin warband later that day. One of the hobgoblins, a war wizard, escaped, and the PCs high-tailed it further north in case reinforcements were on the way. They made it to the dragon lair without incident.
There, they booby-trapped the tunnel leading down to the dragon's lair with alchemists' fire and lured the dragon out. Unfortunately, the dragon flew over the alchemists' fire after taking a little damage. Even more unfortunately, Morgrim and Hork had neglected to bring ranged weapons with them. Luckily, though, Daergel made good use of his repeating crossbow and explosive bolts, and soon the dragon was severely injured and retreated to circle overhead beyond crossbow range. Once the party started looting his lair however, he returned, making fly-by attacks using his fog cloud ability and breath weapon. After a few such attacks, Daergel managed to hit the dragon with another explosive bolt, and it went crashing to the ground. The party retrieved enough blood to fill a small keg, then returned to the dragon's lair, packed up as much gold and silver as they could carry, and made camp for the night.
6.2: The Black Hand
While Hork and Morgrim slept in the dragon's lair, Daergel kept watch outside, on the ledge overlooking the valley below. Midway through his watch he saw some figures following their trail out of the forest below. It was the hobgoblin equivalent of an adventuring party, a well-balanced elite group that had apparently been sent after the PCs. The group included a burly ogre barbarian, a war wizard covered in intricate tattoos, a hobgoblin ranger with a pet wolf, a hobgoblin cleric, a sneaky goblin with a color-shifting cloak and a black, serrated shortsword, and their leader, a hulking hobgoblin who wielded twin flaming shortswords in battle.
Daergel immediately attacked with his crossbow, getting the group's attention. They charged and he retreated to the cave, waking up Hork and Morgrim. A very bloody battle ensued. The PCs dispatched the ogre barbarian but were unable to drop any of the other foes. Morgrim and Hork both almost died before they were forced to flee through a half-collapsed tunnel in the back of the dragon's lair. They collapsed the tunnel behind them, and started down a spiralling tunnel that led several hundred feet underground. They reached the end of the tunnel, where it dropped off into an underground stream. After exploring further and finding the stream was blocked upstrem and downstream led to a waterfall into a lake containing a large reptilian monster, they made camp back where it was dry.
After a few days of camping in the dark, cramped tunnel, they heard noises. The hobgoblin party was on it's way. The party waited in the stream below. When the goblin climbed down to look around, Morgrim pulled him underwater and drowned him, while the hobgoblins waited above for him to report. The hobgoblins were suspicious that the PCs were below them, but reluctant to jump down into a trap. Their wizard tried a few spells to get at the PCs, but none were effective. Finally, the hobgoblin leader, cleric, and ranger jumped down into the stream. Another close battle ensued, but due mostly to luck, this time the PCs fared better, killing the cleric and the ranger. The leader surrendered, but then fled downstream. The war wizard fled back out of the caves.
The PCs, in dire need of healing, decided to risk fighting the water monster in order to search the leader's body for healing potions. It was sleeping on the shore when they arrived, and Daergel dispatched it with exploding crossbow bolts before it could re-submerge. After searching the lake for the hobgoblin body, Daergel hacked a doorway in the side of the monster and waded into it's innards, eventually finding the hobgoblin body and on it, two healing potions. The PCs looted the body and the other corpses, and returned to camp in the dry tunnel.
6.3: Escape From The North Forest
Unfortunately, it would seem the war wizard that had escaped sent reinforcements. The PCs were forced to flee back to the stream when a cloudkill spell was sent down the tunnel. They were then attacked by the undead remains of the dragon, and a number of skeletal wolves. Eventually, they tore down the rubble blocking the upstream end of the tunnel and narrowly escaped a powerful fireball. Hork picked up Morgrim and Daergel and ran upstream at full speed for about a mile.
The party then made it's way past a lair of troglodytes, and fought their way past two ankhegs before finding tunnels leading upwards, eventually to the surface. Hork was so glad to be out of the claustrophobic tunnels, she fell off the ledge that the tunnel emerged onto, landing on the valley floor 40 feet below, and pulling Morgrim down with her (since the party was tied together with rope to make climbing the tunnels safer for Morgrim).
They survived the fall and made their way carefully south through the forest, covering their tracks as best they could, with Daergel scouting ahead to keep an eye out for hobgoblins.
The next night, they exited the North Forest, a few miles to the west of Thoric. The followed the river to Thoric only to find it overrun by hobgoblins. Exhausted, they retreated to the forest, climbed some trees, tied themselves to branches, and slept. The next day, they snuck east through the forest, hearing the sounds of battle and hobgoblin war drums behind them, until they finally arrived back at Darktower. There they discovered the town had suffered another attack.