The Green Beneath the Gutterfang Warren
The Green Beneath the Gutterfang Warren
“End the raids. Find the hidden chamber. Decide what must never hatch.”
— Hook · kill
“The Mayor of Carrick's Ford has placed a bounty on the Gutterfang goblin tribe, whose raids now threaten every road and farm around town. Their lair has been found in the Thelen Wood, and the Mayor wants the tribe broken before the next caravan disappears. She offers coin for proof, but warns that anything strange found beneath the caves should be reported before it is disturbed.”
— Hook · kill
Mayor Elira Venn meets the party in the town hall with a rough map of the Thelen Wood. She explains that three caravans, two travellers, and several farm animals have been attacked in recent months. A woodsman named Nix Soursnout, now hiding in town, followed the goblins to a limestone shelf and can guide the party to the entrance. Venn offers a bounty for proof that the tribe has been defeated, with an additional payment for recovered stolen goods.
Mayor Elira Venn
The Mayor summons the party to the town hall after hearing that they have dealt with local threats before. She presents the bounty as a formal contract and offers Nix Soursnout as a guide. If the party refuses, a farmer whose child was injured in a raid approaches them privately and asks them to help anyway.
Rumours
d5 · table- 01The goblins have started stealing blankets and lamp oil, not just food and weapons.
- 02A caravan guard swears he saw a green light moving beneath the cave floor.
- 03The orc in charge is not the real chief. He is waiting for orders from something farther north.
- 04Some goblins have begun refusing to sleep near the rear passage, even when threatened.
- 05The stolen goods are not all being used. Some disappear into the deepest chamber.
If the party fails, the Gutterfang raids continue and the alien brood may hatch beneath the Thelen Wood. If the party succeeds without dealing with the creche, the immediate goblin threat ends but the region remains exposed to an unknown infestation.
Background Lore
For months, the goblins of the Gutterfang tribe have raided caravans, robbed travellers, and stolen livestock from farms near Carrick's Ford. Their lair lies beneath a moss-covered shelf of limestone in the Thelen Wood. The tribe is nominally ruled by an orc lieutenant serving a distant warboss, but the goblins have learned to exploit his fear and indecision. Their escalating raids are partly opportunistic and partly driven by a hidden order to protect a newly formed alien creche deep beneath the lair.
The Gutterfang goblins have grown bold and violent, raiding caravans and isolated farms around Carrick's Ford. Their lair is hidden in a cave system beneath the Thelen Wood, where a weak-willed orc lieutenant allows the tribe to operate with increasing confidence. The adventurers must end the raids, defeat the tribe's leaders, and determine why the goblins are protecting a forbidden chamber deep within the caves.
