Setup

The party returns to the Rusty Spigot around dusk and finds a celebration in progress. Happy to revel in any setback dealt to the Polonians, the citizens of Overtown have seen the explosion at Baron's Isle, heard the subsequent alarms and responded by drinking their faces off. Happy patrons, unaware of the role that the party had in the day's events, press drinks in their hands as they enter the tavern. Finding the sole remaining empty table in the corner of the room, the party settles in to drink, eat, and participate in the merriment.

Relationships Old and New

Looking around the tavern, the party recognizes a handful of faces. Grenn the Bartender is handing out free beers from behind the bar, all traces of drowned rats hidden. The house band, Orc Vomit, is on stage playing one of the newer, popular songs, "Finger Fill the Fudge Funnel". The matronly, half-orc, daytime bartender Batilda sits at the table next to them. Standing out amongst the other regular patrons of the Rusty Spigot is a uncomfortable looking professor, dressed in a tweed coat, unsuccessfully stopping at each table with two hands full of beer flagons, unable to find a seat. The party invites him to sit.

The uncomfortable man turns out to be a Professor of Goblin Studies tenured at the local campus of the Grand Lyceum of the Riding. He introduces the party to his companion Radish that had recently worked at a small silver mine located to the east. The mine had recently been overrun by a pack of goblins. Radish states that he assumes that he had been the only survivor as he heard the screams of the mine workers throughout the night and never saw anyone emerge from the mine. The professor has  a small budget provided by the college for the acquisition of goblin artifacts and is at the bar looking for a party willing to clean out the mines and bring back whatever artifacts they find. A deal is quickly reached where the professor will pay 500 gold pieces as a retainer, 500 gold pieces to be escorted to and through the mine after it has been made safe for inspection, and a final 500 gold pieces for all of the artifacts found within, especially those pertaining to the goblin god, Maglubiyet. Everyone agrees to meet back the following dawn to begin their trip.

Subsequently, Batilda approaches the party with an offer to stay at her boarding house rather than renting expensive rooms at the inn. Her boarding house is less than a minute's walk away and has an attic that the party could use as a base of operations, store their belongings, and keep safe because of an extremely sturdy, locked door. The party agrees and spends their first night at the boarding house, enjoying clean sheets, little candies on their pillows, and a hearty breakfast prepared and waiting for them in the kitchen when they awake.

The Silver Mine

The party enters the mine and quickly begins the task of clearing out any dangerous elements. A small pack of wolves lives in a chamber near the door but is quickly dispatched. Gronth takes point and the party treks further into the mine along a set of old rails used to move mine carts. The party is attacked by wave after wave of goblins that dart in from the darkness, attack, and quickly retreat. Their numbers are great, but they are unable to do notable damage to /wiki/spaces/CAM/pages/74285137. Individual goblins are killed but others continue to retreat further and further into the mine's depths. 

In one encounter, goblins attack with their scimitars from each of two passages and with bows from a small opening twenty feet above, disrupting the party's formation. While goblins continue to be dealt fatal blows, Rhagal is forced into direct combat with a few goblins and is knocked unconscious. Dawngreeter Yornan Hawklight has cast Bless and has been healing the party but is subjected to multiple arrow wounds. /wiki/spaces/CAM/pages/74285137 is single point of steadiness within the mayhem, but it takes a few instances of Shatter cast by Corliss to drive the goblins away. Necklaces made from the teeth and finger bones of their victims are recovered from the goblins, but nothing else of note is scavenged except for a goblin short bow picked up by Gronth.

The party continues deeper into the mine and Gronth unwittingly sets off a trap. A net made of twisted cords and rocks falls from the ceiling, landing on all the party members except Gronth, knocking them to the ground and entangling them. All of the remaining goblins have decided to make their final stand and emerge from the darkness, attacking Gronth and slashing at the defenseless adventurers trapped within the net. As each party member struggles to escape the net, Gronth is racing around the battlefield, dealing powerful blows with his axe and attempting to protect the others.

A successful tactic emerges as Gronth attacks only uninjured goblins, leaving other party members that cause less damage with melee weapons to finish them off. This proves successful until the very end of the battle where a goblin stands over a grievously injured Rhagal and is poised to deal a killing blow. Gronth is too far away to attack with his axe so he calmly drops his weapon, draws his bow, aims across the battlefield, and prepares to take his first ever shot with a bow. 

Perhaps it was luck, undoubtedly the blessing of Amaunator was on the party, and no one knows what role fate played, but the shot from the goblin bow flew true, struck the last goblin in the back of the neck, and killed him.

Aftermath

The party took a few moments to peek ahead down the corridor. For the first time, light was visible and the party saw two larger goblins standing as guards before a small bridge crossing an underground river. Two large torches set in the ground illuminated a ghoulish collection of hacked and decaying severed heads mounted on pikes surrounding the torches. Perhaps the goblins could not see past the bright torchlight, but the party was well aware of the next encounter that faced them.