Like most nights, they all were gathered at the Laughing Bean Tavern in the Trading District of Neverwinter. That was, after all, the only district of the city where such a diverse group of friends could pass unobserved. Morgan was as usual playing some music and the others were happily drinking.
That day, a dwarf entered the tavern, and he seemed in a rush to find someone. He found the table where the friends were sitting and started talking:
<< My name is Gundren. I heard you are looking for adventure. I have been in the city for a few days and I have seen you guys around, talking about your skills and your desire of adventuring. While this may not seem like a big adventure, it may be a start for you. I am in need of somebody that escorts supplies safely from here to Phandalin.>>
He looked all excited and secretive. Lowering his voice he added: << I can tell you that my brothers and I found something big, something rewarding and I will pay you 10 gold pieces each if you are able to escort my wagon to Phandalin without asking questions.>>
<< I can’t take the supplies myself because I am in a rush and my friend Sildar and I will leave by horse to get there as soon as possible, to take care of some business. I will meet you there>>
Everybody looked a little puzzled but they all were in need of money and they all wanted to adventure out of Neverwinter, even if only to travel without incidents.
So they agreed to go on the mission, and the day after, quite early in the day, they all met at the south gate to start the journey. Gundren left them with the wagon, he told them once again that everything had to arrive safely at the destination to get the money. The cart, trained by two oxen, was full of crates but they couldn’t figure out what was in the crates and Gundren told them not to open them.
Gundren and Sildar rushed away mounting their horses.
That seemed like easy money to the adventurers, and in fact, for a few days they traveled south of Neverwinter following the High Road and nothing noteworthy happened. It was almost too easy. Why was Gundren so secretive? What was in the cart that was so important? And why did he have to go ahead?
On day 4 they turned from East from the High Road, taking the Trail that leads to Phandalin, and it was about lunchtime when Sebastian, driving the cart, and Even, sitting next to him, spotted two dead horses right in front of them on the trail and they stopped the wagon immediately, quite abruptly.. Serafina, Smippeth and Morgan, sitting in the wagon, looking the other way, singing and chatting, were startled. Everybody got off the wagon to go see what happened. Upon close inspection, they found that the horses were the same horses that Gundren and Sildar were riding when leaving Neverwinter. The horses have several black-feathered arrows sticking out of their bodies . The saddlebags were completely empty and nearby lay an empty map case. Whoever did this, was clearly interested not only in Gundren’s possessions but in him personally, or he would be dead there, not kidnapped. They knew something about this big discovery Gundres was talking about. The horses had been dead for 2 days.
The woods were thick here and bandits were said to roam the Trail. The Paladin, always on alert, was the first one to see them. The goblins. 4 of them just jumped out of the bushes and started shooting the same black-feathered arrows they saw on the horses.
The reaction was immediate. Even if our little thief was severely injured, they managed to kill 3 goblins and the last one ran away. A little post-battle investigation revealed goblins tracks that lead into the woods. It looked like that goblins would go there often to ambush travelers, so much that the trail of tracks could be followed into the woods.
Not everybody agreed to follow the goblin, Smippeth and Even wanted to follow the road to Phandalin and bring the cart there like the mission called. But the dwarf that hired them was captured, there was no reward for them. And no adventure. There was still the question of what to do with the cart and the oxen. They decided to open the crates to at least see what kind of provisions and supplies they were talking about and it was all mining supplies. After a heated discussion, Serafina was finally convinced to follow the goblins so in the end they moved the cart aside in the woods and went to follow the goblins tracks.