Caislen Campaign Notes

The “Toc Clan Coal Mine Event” happened at an unknown date in the somewhat removed past. In this event the infamous Alden led his force of Zerk Goblins into the Toc Clan Dwarves' mines under the Toc Clan Keep presumably slaying the entire clan. The dwarves, not expecting this onslaught, were sheltering some golden dragon eggs that Alden wanted, which was the reason for this invasion. Alden's plan for these eggs was unknown to anyone but himself at the time.

After the slaughter of dwarves and removal of dragon eggs, the player characters Eyrun, Jules & Urist woke up in the bodies of “The Three”. The Three were Alden's highest ranking goblin underlings who had the sacred task of carrying the Shovel Of Alden when he wasn't using it. In order not to get completely seduced by the shovel's powers, The Three had to trade it around between themselves frequently. Too long in someone's hands or even a short time in their possession for use as a weapon, and issues could arise. The Three wore tunics with a white triangle symbol on them to represent themselves as the three points of this operation. This symbol would later be seen in the future being used by The Cult Of Alden.

The Three goblins essentially had a change of heart, feeling ashamed of their brutal slaughter of the dwarves and for helping Alden's plans move ahead. They vowed to take the Shovel while it is in their possession and hide it away where Alden would never find it again. As the PCs took possession and merged minds with these goblins turned traitor to Alden, the quest to get the shovel out of the very farther recess of the Toc Clan Dwarves' coal mine sprang into action.

The PCs found themselves defaulting(being railroaded by the DM) into having just walled off at the far recess of the mines 500gp and some unspecified treasures for “safekeeping”. They were not told what the unspecified treasures were. This seeded a known treasure horde for a later adventure.

The Plan: Hatched by the The Three before PCs got involved, the plan was simply to get the Shovel Of Alden out of the place and hide it. If one of them died in the process they'd shove it into the Handy Haversack, put The Ring Of Ted on the dead one of them, and have that one arise as a Ted to finish the job.

Finding themselves limited to just their normal skills & hit points but in the bodies(stat blocks) of a Goblin Boss(Jules), Goblin Warrior(Urist) & Goblin Hexer(Eyrun) they did their best to escape. With foggy brains and data from both themselves and the goblins they possessed, they knew the layout and some but not all details of the mines.

A purple haze in many spots in the mines represented some sort of portal to elsewhere, and they knew from Alden telling them at an earlier time to avoid the purple stuff.

A clockwork construct that looks like an oversized lion, named “Gargath The Construct” was their first obstacle. So long as it didn't detect any shenanigans it left them alone, initially. They dodged it and never had to defeat it in battle, leaving it behind.

Much combat and random shenanigans followed, battling through rooms, conning their way past other hexers, finding random loot, and bumping into a few NPCs. Eventually they escaped not through the main entrance to the Toc Clan Dwarves' Keep above, but through a secret set of stairs leading away.

• Jack, a human known as “The Obnoxious Hero” to the Zerk Goblins, turned out to be a kazoo playing adventurer that was visiting the mines when the attack happened. He was held up in one of the mine chambers and at a stalemate with some hexers in the next room, neither side getting past the other. Given that the goblins had killed a friend he came there to visit, he wasn't please. Most notably however is that the PCs already knew Jack, or at least a Jack in the future who is the owner of The Card House. Naturally he didn't recognize them. Jack ultimately somersaults into the purple haze and vanishes.
• Kim, an undead humanoid magic user of some sort with a passion for truth telling was residing in the mine as well, unofficially acting as a form of security guard for the dwarves, but technically a neutral party to any truth tellers. At this time he controlled access to a room via magically manipulated crate shuffling. Is that a grand thing to be doing? No. But like Jack, the PCs had encountered Kim in the future, over at the Necro Cave, enjoying a much grander incarnation of deciding who passes and asking for truths. Kim of course did not recognize the PCs at the current time either, but was forced to believe them when they made wild claims about their real identities because he knows truth.

The goblin occupation of this place is evident at the Old Dwarven Keep. PCs would independently find the shovel hidden near the Shrine Of Hayte in the future, in fact having done that before this ever happened from their perspective. The Goldvale area is full of adventurers looking for Shovel, Ring & Sack alike all the time, so legends were spawned here. Alden has not been seen locally since.

• Scrolls of Demon Summoning
• Purple Haze (portal things)
• Gargath The Construct
• 3x Explosive Mining Orbs
• Gelatinous Cube by stairs.
• Mimic by elevator to keep.
• Many goblins left alive (who eventually become known as the Coal Goblins).
• Jack, Kim, Alden
• The Eye Of Hayte

At a game session¹⁾ the party returned to try and do a thing that doesn't matter, but did fight their way from the stairs past a gelatinous cube, past Gargath(defeated), and killed a Quaggoth. Probably made enemies of the whole Quaggoth tribe for life at least in the process. They got the 500gp behind the wall, misc treasures, and got the hell out. Rest of the place was untouched. Quaggoth now rule the bottom level, coming up through the really deep hole.