The goblin boss ducks behind the log with the two other goblins nearby. The first shot whips past them and they breathe a sigh of relief momentarily, when the second arrow strikes one of the three goblins furthest from the wagon. The goblins shout in outrage as Schminke darts out of the woods back to the others near the wagon. Bearhans tries to make it to the treeline, trying to hide much like Schminke did, but falls just short, ducking behind a small shrub that doesn't provide much cover. The goblin boss lifts his shortbow and shouts in goblin, "Kill the priest!"

His shortbow snaps with an angry sharp retort, but the black fletched arrow sticks uselessly in the side of the wagon.

Recovering from her tumble, Jhessana has just enough time to see the movement of the two goblins lurking closer to the wagon for an ambush, and her pistol readily comes up to aim squarely at the nearest one's face.

BANG!!!

The goblin is also able to see Jhess's movement at the same time, allowing it the split second it needs to get its shield up...but that isn't enough. Wood splinters go flying as the shot echoes up and down the path, and the goblin falls to the ground clutching at the hole in its chest where the bullet punched clean through the shield.

"Gotcha!" Jhess mutters under her breath before raising her voice to shout at the others, "Another one here close, everyone watch your back!"

Killian, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, sits up at the thunk of an arrow into the side of the wagon and then the sharp blast of Jhessana's pistol. "Dis a bloody wrahng way to wake oehp," he mutters angrily in a curious accent. The bright sun forces him to squint against the glare and shifting shadows. A quick glance over the side shows three goblins in leather armor and one in a chain shirt still on the battlefield. Killian takes aim at the nearest goblin. The bolt gets caught in the scrub brush, flicking off to the side harmlessly. The small kobold curses and sinks behind the piles of crates, reloading the crossbow.

The nearest goblin charges out of the brush towards Bearhans, scimitar flashing in the sunlight. The glint of steel is all the warning the ranger needs to sidestep the attack smoothly. The goblin curses in its harsh tongue, a mix of pigin common and gobb. The other two lightly armorerd goblins attempt to use the cover between them and the priest, Celeryn, to gain an advantage on their attacks against the half-elf, but his elven heritage proves true and the keen eyes the elves are known for makes it easy for Celeryn to track their movements and avoid the arrows sent his way.

Schminke rolls out from behind the cover of the wagon and lines up Mr. Tough Guy. "Breathe," Schminke recites to herself as she lined up the shot, then after exhaling she let it loose, "Power Shot!" Whizzing across the entire expanse of the battlefield the arrow hit its mark, another head shot! "I never miss the same target twice," and Schminke let out an enormous grin for her fellow party members, it was an impressive act of marksmanship.

Slinking behind the wagon again Schminke composed her excitement. There was still the boss to go, the battle wasn't over yet. She just had to trust in her proficiency with the bow, and most of all her fellow party members.

"Heavens!" exclaimed Celeryn, "of all the armed and dangerous wanderers exchanging arrows, why ever do they seem to be shooting at me?!"
Although, it is right to note that shooting at and hitting were two very distinct verbs, and Celeryn was naturally educated in their differences. The goblins' attempts at sneaking into his blind spot were foiled by his general lack of a blind spot, and by the mercy of the moon their aim was not true.

"Jolly good shot!" he said, watching Schminke fell a mark as casually as if she were buttering a heel of bread. What incredible skill!

There was no better moment than this to take a step of bravery and show his companions that he, too, had mettle in him. In enchanting Elvish, he summoned a Sacred Flame to soften, or at least distract, the goblin showing aggression to Bearhans (those other pesky archers perched neatly outside his effective range).

 He was stunned to see the white fire envelope the monster in its entirety, leaving behind little but ash. Heroics truly were a worthy endeavour!

But, discretion is the better part of valour, and Celeryn ducked his way around the backside of the carriage beside Schminke and Jhess, putting it as best he could between himself and the remaining goblins upon the ridge. No sense banking on his unusually good fortune alone.

[looking to gain half cover from the Goblin Boss by crouching on the far side of the obstructing carriage]

A flash catching in his eye Bearhans quickly side steps out to way of the falling scimitar, the blade passing inches from his face as he spins to the side. He whips his bow across, hoping to bash the goblin with the momentum of his movement, only for it to pass through empty space. Where only moments before had been a short green foe, now there was only a glowing pile of ash and embers. Bearhans looks around for the source of the magic, thrown by it's sudden appearance. In his frantic scan movement above the rocks catches his eyes and his hunter's instincts kick in, the search for the magician all but forgotten. He draws an arrow an knocks it, pulling it up to the corner of his mouth. Exhaling, he releases.

 The shaft flies forwards, fletchings sliding across his fingers on the yew stave, and stays true to its mark. But in the last moment the goblin starts to duck behind the rocks; the arrow hits just high, slamming into it right below the clavicle, just missing it's mark. The force of the arrow throws the goblin back, hiding him behind the rock face. The prey was all but finished, someone would need to go and put it out of his misery. Bearhans rushes forwards towards the target, putting the rock between the others and himself.

[attempting to get half cover from the goblin boss]

Bearhans arrow takes the goblin atop the boulder in the side and it stumbles backwards, nearly falling off the rock. The heavily armored goblin sees this and takes off running, shouting at the remaining goblin, "Run you fool! These stinking pinkskins are stronger than the dwarf and his tin man!" The leader of the goblins quickly vanishes into the shadows beneath the trees, heading northeast.

Hearing the armored goblin's shout, Jhessana turns to face it just in time to see a rustle of leaves as it vanishes under the shadowy eaves of the trees.  Not liking the odds of her actually being able to track down the sneaky little creature, she instead focuses on the injured goblin atop the ridge.  Deciding it's not worth wasting her precious ammunition, she runs forward to close the gap for one of her throwing darts to be effective.

 Flinging the blade just above the angle of the ridge, Jhess hears the satisfyingly squishy THUNK as it strikes true on her target, followed by a louder THUD as the now dead goblin falls from the top of the ridge to the hard ground below.

With the battle over Schminke excitedly runs up to the goblin Jhess had felled with her gun. She sat there awestruck, the shield was in splinters, the bullet had travelled straight through. Inspecting the chest of the goblin Schminke got her hands dirty and pulled the bullet out inspecting it with a morbid curiosity. Hands covered with goblin blood, she turned to Jhess with another grin, "You must tell me more about this gun when you have the chance!"

With her curiosity sated Schminke moved to the dead horse, "Guys, I think you should take a look at this." Schminke ushered for the others to come over. "These horses obviously belong to Sildar and Gundren. Look, there's his scroll case!"

"What an unfortunate pity - and they were so close to Phandalin, too. Something about this doesn't smell right." Celeryn's wariness stems from the ambush of goblins, not bandits as he'd expected, and moreover goblins with strangely-filed teeth, he discovers with no little disdain upon unintentional inspection of the punctured corpses.

 "I've read about these fellows in A Brief and Concise History of the Triboar Trail traveller's companion. Cragmaw clan, dirty goblinoids good for heaps of trouble, that barbaric filing's to make a show of menace. Especially odd that they've taken Gundren's and Sildar's bodies, I wouldn't have expected them to be so, what's the word -- reverent. Unless..." his eyes begin to sparkle with the excitement of revelation, "unless they've taken our friends alive! They must have a hideout or headquarters somewhere around here - Bearhans, any chance you might hunt out the way they've gone?" Celeryn optimistically lays a gentle hand of Guidance on Bearhans' shoulder as a show of good faith, trusting the light of Selûne to illuminate the half-orc's path.

Bearhans watches as Jhessna's dart finishes off the injured goblin. He didn't suffer unnecessarily.

Returning to the cart he pulls back a blanket and shifts a few barrels, a shining nose and warm grey eyes apperaing. The pup, still obediently shuffling in the spot with her tail flicking underneath her, cocks her head at him. He picks her up and walks towards the others by the horses. The wolf licks his face and sniffs in the air taking in all the sudden new smells. ” lgood girl! Thank the gods you weren't hurt.”

He looks down at the dead horses ”such a shame, they were strong beasts.” the half-orc crouches down to inspect the ground around them.

Survival check: 6 +4 = 10

His eyes sweep over the dirt, flicking between details in its shape and position. ”something was dragged here... Too heavy to be just there equipment. They were taken from here up into the trees. dead or alive I don't know, there's too much blood to tell"

A few seconds pass, then he jumps up. Quickly moving to Schminke and points at the scroll case in her hand ”could I.. eh... Do you mind if I borrow that?”. She nods and passes it over and Bearhans, wolf and case in hand, steps away from the road. Once out a bit in the field he plops the pup down who immediately starts to run a round, circling around his feet. He gives a short, low whistle and she thumps down, hugging the ground, and looks up at him. ”good girl. Now let's try something”. He crouches down to her level and holds out the case. Her nose twitches and her ears stand up straight, and she lifts her about into the air searching for more. Bearhans drops his hand and she's off, heading in the direction the armoured Goblin had fled.

Bearhans looks back at the others, and gives a nervous smile. “think she's found something”. And he runs after her....

(The wolf tracking is just RP)

(Sorry on phone so don't have spoiler and colour etc.)

Jhessana takes a moment to remove the empty casing from her pistol, allowing her to slot a new round into the now empty chamber and close the gun back up with a satisfying CLICK, before walking over to the fallen goblin to retrieve her knife.  She drops the spent casing into a pouch at her waist as she goes, then spends just a few moments to examine the body.

"Equipment is pretty shabby," she calls out to the others, "doubt it would be worth even the extra weight to carry it. You said these guys are 'Cragmaws,' Celeryn?  Are they known for laying ambushes or taking prisoners?"

Making her way back over to the wagon, she cocks an eyebrow at Schminke's likely-more-thorough-than-necessary examination of her first kill, then rolls her eyes with an amused sigh when the archer holds up her bullet.

"Well, since you've already gone through the trouble of retrieving it, I can take that back," she says as she holds out a hand.  "I should be able to use that to make another round.  Waste not, want not. And sure, I can definitely tell you more about it at some point, although I think we should sort out this situation first."

She nods in the direction of the horses and the goblin tracks to indicate what she means.

Killian sighs, since he was hoping to get back to sleep... but if Gundren is missing, there goes his pay. The kobold rogue slips out of the wagon and joins the others, his short sword in one hand and freshly reloaded hand crossbow in the other. "Let's git dis over wi' so oi can git back ter sleep." Killian heads down the trail indicated by the others.

The Lost Mine of Phandelver ~ Cragmaw Hideout (Part 1)

Ambiance: http://tabletopaudio.com/index.html?49

The trail wends its way back and forth and between Celeryn and Killian's keen eyes, the party avoids a simple snare and a poorly covered pit trap. A little further down the trail, it joins a winding stream. For several hours you follow this trail and stream, seeing no further traps, but the evidence of brief struggles by the creatures being dragged. It gives you hope that Gundren and Sildar are still alive. Twilight begins to fall and a mist forms in the trees as the weather chills. The shallow stream flows out of the cave mouth, which is screened by dense brier thickets. A narrow dry path leads into the cave on the right-hand side of the stream.

XP Gain: Each member of the party gains 70 xp for the Goblin Ambush

"Stop! Get back here! Come on!". A bundle of grey fur, brown feathers and green leaves crash out of the woods followed shortly by Bearhans. Leaping forwards, he manages to catch the wolf pup, but also manages to roll the both of them into the stream. A brief tussle causes the water to splash and leap about before the half-orc stands victorious, the slightly mangled carcasses of two pheasants in his hand. He is soaked through; so are the birds and the wolf pup. Walking back up the bank, the pup circling at his feet at it tries to nip at the birds tail feathers, Bearhans shakes the water out of his long hair. "I thought I stopped you doing that. Why won't you listen?". He looks down at matted grey rascal as she successfully manages to grab a feather and pull it out of the pheasant, promptly bounding away to show it off to the rest of the group who had just come round the last bend. "You need a name".

Jhess smiles at the pup's antics with the feather, showing it off like a grand trophy.

"You don't have a name for her already?" she asks with a hint of dubiousness.  "That's a bit surprising.  So you've just been calling her...mutt, rascal, or YOU all this time?"

She peers ahead cautiously when the cave and the surrounding thickets come into view.