With Gundren in tow, the party explores the rest of Cragmaw Castle. Lilvari and Dare forge on ahead while Mystic and Mercarri more closely examine the abandoned cathedral, where the party slayed the grick. Lilvari and Dare enter the main hall and Lilvari accidentally triggers a  tripwire. There’s a rush of sound from above. Dare looks up in time to see a large mound of rubble falling down at him. He leaps out of the way just in time. 

The loud sound draws the attention of several goblin guards. They are arguing with each other, each blaming the other not paying attention while these ‘trespassers’ were sneaking by. The goblins decide to take Lilvari, Dare and Gundren to Yarrg, that he’ll know what to do.

Dare interrupts. “That’s me! I’m Yarrg.”

The goblins look at each other, confused. The one closest to them narrows his eyes and prompts them forward. They’re led to a large hall filled with tables. Strangely, there are no goblins. One tells the other to check around. Everyone watches as the goblin heads out the eastern-most door. He’s gone a moment before hurrying back in, pale and sick looking. “Dead!” he mutters quickly. “All dead. Blood bath!”

Lilvari shrugs. “We did that.”

“Yep,” Dare agrees. “We killed all of them.”

Combat ensues. The goblin closest to the door heads north to get help. Another one, the one who saw the carnage left by the adventurers in the next room throws down his short sword and runs away. That leaves just two goblins to take on Lilvari, Dare and Gundren. Mystic and Mercarri are still inside the cathedral. They hear their friends being taken away and devise a plan of their own. They split up and head towards where their friends are from different directions, hoping to surround the goblins.

Lilvari takes a swipe at one of the goblins with CurseBringer, but it ducks underneath. Gundren has better luck. Running full force at him, Gundren smashes him in the eye with his club. The goblin takes the blow, pivots and slashes Gundren’s middle with his scimitar. Gunren falls limp. Dare rushes at the other goblin with Talon. The goblin tries to duck under, but Dare adjusts his swing. The result is that he cleaves the goblins head right off. It sails across the room and lands dead center of the brazier across the room. 

Lilvari finishes off the goblin that struck out at Gundren, stabbing it through the eye. By the time Mystic reaches the party from the opposite direction, there’s no one left to fight. Upon entering, Mercarri sees Gundren lying unconscious and bleeding out from his belly. She hurries to him and staunches the bleeding with a spell. The party decides to split up — Mercarri can head north back through the door that lead to the trapped area. Lilvari, Dare and Mystic will head through the door further to the south.

Mercarri goes north. Reaching the room, she’s too late to intercept the two hobgoblins that are now rushing by. But she’s not too late to take on the goblin who trails them. She swings her mace at it as it runs past, unaware of her hiding there. The mace smashes the goblin right in the mouth. At about the same time, Lilvari enters through the southern door. She’s caught off-guard by the two hobgoblins bearing down at her. One delivers a devastating blow with its longsword, slicing at her middle.

Dare and Mystic hear her scream. They hurry out and take on the hobgoblins. They are a much better match than the goblins before, but the party takes them down. Mystic sprays one with a foul poison. Dare doesn’t manage to land an attack, but his attempt gives Lilvari a chance to get close. She quickly mumbles something and points at the closest hobgoblin. A small green flame leaps from her finger to its body, though it doesn’t seem to do any harm. In an instant she’s on him with CurseBringer, delivering a devastating blow of her own. It cuts through his armor and body, right to the spine. The moment the life leaves its eyes, its body is enveloped in green flame. The flame flashes then leaps to the other hobgoblin, covering him instantly. The hobgoblin screams. As it does, Lilvari follows up with another vicious attack, killing it instantly.

Only one goblin remains. Mystic casts Frostbite, which covers the goblin in a thick layer of ice. The goblin topples and as it does, Mystic follows through with her club. The goblin shatters into pieces. 

The adventurers rest for a short while — long enough for Gundren to awaken. After, they search the rest of the castle. Upon Gundren’s request, they keep an eye out for Sildar’s armor. They find it in one of the storage rooms — chainmail and a long sword with the Lords’ Alliance sigil carved into its pummel. Dare finds something else in the storage room — a strange looking tool of the likes in which he’s never seen. It looks like a cross between a wrench,  a bottle opener and a small knife. Carved on its side is the word, ‘Strat’.

They finally leave Cragmaw Castle and head south through the Neverwinter Woods. Several hours have gone by when Mercarri notices something about fifty feet away, hidden behind the thick foliage. As they get near, they see its an old, rotted shack, standing in the middle of a small clearing. They try peeking in the windows, but the windows are too grimey to offer any substantial view of the inside. Dare tries knocking, but no one answers. Eventually he decides to kick the door in.

The shack is dark and void of life. The smell of burnt hair hits their noses. Looking around, they can tell that horrible things have happened here: The furniture lays around, broken. In one corner is a tall pile of clothes — children’s’ clothes, so many that the pile stands several feet high. All are dirty, some stained with blood. In the other corner, stacked one atop another are two cages. They’re not very large, but definitely large enough to hold a child.

Lilvari moves some of the clothes around with CurseBringer and uncovers part of a white stuffed animal sticking out of the pile. She decides to not dig any further. Dare and Mystic head across the small room to a cast iron oven. Mercarri stands watch by the door. Above the stove is a shelf containing three small, glass bottles. Each is labeled. “Mothers Loathing’, ‘Stillborn’, ‘Wilted Dreams’. Having recognized ‘Mothers Loathing’ as causing its user to temporarily grow long, sharp teeth, Dare keeps it. The other two he smashes. When he opens the oven, a puff of dust and the sharp smell of burnt flesh comes out. The inside is littered with lots of small, charred bones. And there’s something else towards the back, glittering in the dim light of the room. Dare pulls it out. The rest of the party sees the look on his face change. He’s suddenly somber, his eyes glazed with tears.

Lilvari asks him what’s wrong. He holds up what he’s found — a necklace charm in the shape of a heart. it’s burnt and damaged, but everyone can easily see what’s carved onto it. It’s the same word written twice; “Tem Tem”.

“This was my sister’s,” he explains. “Her nickname was Tem Tem. The last night I saw her, I told her to wait outside for me as I went into a cave to deal with a few dangerous thieves. When I came out, she was gone. All that was left was her necklace and a few drops of blood. The charm was missing. But here it is.”

The room grows still. They spend the next several minutes searching for any signs of what else had transpired here and how long ago it might have happened. Given the layer of dust on everything, they decide that this shack has been abandoned for quite some time. Outside, they find a patch of grass a brighter shade than the rest. They start digging, and it isn’t long before they find several bones and skulls — all miniature. Having found nothing else, they eventually leave the shack and continue through the forest. 

Their trek south is uneventful, and they reach the forest’s edge just as night begins to fall. Its as good a place as any to make camp. They do so quietly as they think of their adventure over the last two days — grappling ogres, defeating King Grol and his minions as well as a doppelganger, rescuing Gundren and his map of Wave Echo Cave… and finding the shack and the horrors within. Tomorrow they will reach Phandalin, and at the moment they want nothing more in the world.