One more day of exploring the town, and suddenly there are two more armed people in our group – a tan woman and a dark man, both armed and armored – Tasha and Terak. They have been dismissed from their caravan as not needed now that they are back down from the north. That evening, Tala shares that she met another necromancer who says there is a cult in the caves around an old hidden temple. Slim has found out that in a forest south of the swamp there is a small forest full of giant spiders. And that it is stirges that are by the river. It is all too much, the caves are pulling everyone in.

So, in the morning, we head down the road to find out what all the fuss is about. It is only a couple hours down the road. It is rather a small valley with a variety of caves all around it, rather than a single entrance with labyrinthine tunnels and caves. This might not be as bad as I thought, we should be able to get in and out much easier than delving deep down below the earth unless the all connect and go downward. But it’s a forest, not a mountain. Please, Tymora, just this once.

The first cave to the north looks pretty sturdy from the entrance. But there’s a small helmet peaking out from behind a rock. I call out, but there is no response, so I toss a rock in that direction, but still nothing. I go take a look, and it’s a very shiny, unmoving kobold. What is that? I touch its arm and it explodes worms all over me. I am not embarrassed to say that I screamed, you would too if a dead kobold exploded worms all over you. Tasha burns the worms off me, that hurts! But I have a feeling keeping them would have been worse.

Everyone has come running at my screams, glad to know they still intend to protect me. The Chaka is still paying us, after all. The floor collapses at the first intersection. Was no one looking? Oh, none of them understand about traps and security. I push my way to the front, I hate it here. We find a room full of webs next, coated in lamp oil. Backing carefully out, while Slim uses a big stick to clear the room, just in case there is anything in there, I guess. There isn’t.

The other direction is a greased incline, so we secure a rope to keep the bigger folk from barreling down uncontrolled. There is also a tripwire that would drop a boulder. That could be useful later, so I just secure it to one side. Down the path and around some turns, behind a secret door, there is a room full of treasure! No, not really, just incredibly well-painted rocks, but they are surrounding a real-live copper dragon egg! But they are still incredibly pretty, so I trade out my sling rocks for ones painted like gems and gold. The group is confused about this egg sitting all alone, so we move on. The door had a really nice lock, and I don’t want to put it back just yet.

The next room has really beautiful red, orange, and black paintings covering the walls, showing kobolds worshipping a big dragon who is killing a person – perhaps the mother of the egg. There are a set of double doors here, but Tala finds another secret door, so we try that one first. It leads to a short passage, another door, into a living space with a collection of young kobolds cowering in a corner. Tasha offers them raisins, and the adults up on a ledge do not immediately shoot us. The little ones immediately begin to steal all the food we are carrying with us, as the adults come down to join. They begin dividing it up among the group, as we try to talk to them.

None understands us, but Gideon convinces them to take us to their leader. They take us back to and through the double door, where another couple dozen kobolds wait. One steps forward who can speak Draconic, so Laramond speaks with him, while I listen. Other folk of these caves attack them. They want paints in trade for information, but they already took our food. So they tells us which cave has goblins and hobgoblins, another has dead things, and the nearest cave has humans. We promise them paint and ink when we return, and head back out, resetting the tripwire, and leaving the egg alone.