Danalf steps back and let's Tiny and Divina extend the climbing rope with their own. He gives a thankful nod and begins his descent in earnest...
"Don't slip, boss. We don't want a dislocated corpse to drag back to town," Litsy says helpfully.
As Danalf gets ready to drop over the side, Litsy gives him a some coachable moments, but that doesn't really help the adventurous magician, who despite his general lack of athletic ability, finds the descent fairly easy using the knotted rope.
Once he's over the edge, Danalf suspends for a second as he realizes what he's doing, but before he can completely chicken out (or fall) he scrambles the rest of the way down, finally touching bottom safely.
The hapless wizard looks up at the other two.
See? Not so bad.
"That would make nice last words," Litsy mutters under her breath. It wasn't as if she had no experience with climbing, but she had always hated it. The perspective of breaking a few bones had always spoiled the fun, somehow.
She checks that her backpack is tightly closed, wipes her moist hands on her pants, and gets ready to climb down the cliff.
Divina looked down from the top of the cliff, "I don't suppose you can lift that ladder so we can climb down without issue. Wouldn't want to leave all this rope behind."
Oh, right!
He clumsily lifts it off of the ground and leans it up against the face of the cliff. When he sees how much cliff is left over the top of the ladder he frowns.
The ladies wait until Danalf investigates the ladder. Much to his surprise the ladder is long enough to reach the top of the escarpment, almost as if it were made for that very purpose. It is poorly constructed and very, very rickety. But it is also lightweight, and with some effort, Danalf manhandles the unwieldy thing into place, allowing the other to descend without incident.
The ladder shakes almost frighteningly as Litsy makes her way down, but her foot is as light as her grip is tight, and she safely climbs down the cliff.
Untying and letting the rope fall to the bottom, "Watch out for the rope." She called out.
Once Litsy was safely down, Divina began her descent.
With the practiced ease of climbing the rigging of her parents ship, the Bard skittered down the ladder with graceful speed.
Don't worry Tiny, I'll catch you if you fall!
Danalf shouts earnestly.
At the bottom of the escarpment, the foliage and surroundings change from dense forest to more of a humid swamp. The ground becomes boggy, sometimes slick with mud, other times just really spongy underfoot. More than one thick green snake slithers by, as you press on to the west.
Soon, a trail with deep imprints in the mud is visible. It appears many small humanoids use this path but you can see and hear none at present.
Hmm, I think it's time to tread carefully and quietly. Is anyone good at tracking?
"Sorry Danalf, not really a usable skill on the high seas. How about you Litsy?"
Litsy shrugs.
"Picked up a couple things here and there. Let me see..."
As the group peers at the tracks in the swampy earth, Litsy starts following the trail in clearly the wrong direction, back towards the escarpment. Danalf patiently points this out to her, and shows the proper path, which leads to the west and perhaps a bit to the north. After several minutes of splashing and sliding over the wet and muddy turf, you find a small rise lifting out of the damp ground.
As the group starts to think about the hillock, Litsy stops everyone, pointing out a brush covered man-trap built into the path just in front of where the others were about to step. Covered with fallen leaves and sticks, the man-trap is a 10' deep pit with pointed wooden stakes at the bottom.
Listening careful, you can hear the chatter of voices up on the small hill, but just too far to make out any words.
You hear that? I think we've found them already. I wonder if we could sneak up and kill the leader...
After misleading the group in the wrong direction, Litsy grumpily shuffles along. Fortunately, warning her teammates of the trapped pit cheers her up a little bit.
"You spacing out, boss?" she teases with an incredible bad faith.
When the group finally reaches the goblins, however, she becomes more focused.
"We'd first have to know who the leader is," Litsy whispers back. "I'll try to sneak closer."
Danalf steps aside, yielding the way to her, gesturing with outstretched hand.
Do the sneak, sneaky lady!
"I'll sneak with you," Divina said, "I'll take left, you go right?"
"Let's do that."
The woods leaves plenty of underbrush and growth to hide around and the noisy targets are not paying careful attention. Litsy and Divina both move with deft skill, careful not to snap a branch or step on loose stones, and soon they are looking down, from a wooded hillock, into a clearing filled with what appears to be a village of small green-grey skinned humanoids - you have found the goblin-town!
There are perhaps a dozen poorly constructed lean-tos or shanty buildings in a circle around a large bonfire, which is currently unlit. Moving around the village doing simple domestic tasks are at least 10 goblins. A large tent-like pavilion decorated with what appears to be bloody handprints, stands on the far edge of the village from your position. At least 4 goblins enter that tent while you watch, but how many are inside is impossible to tell from this vantage.
A pair of mangy looking quadrupeds, with snouts more like rats, lie curled in front of the big tent.
Divina looked around but couldn't see Litsy from where she was at. If she had to venture a guess, the Bard figured that the tent would be where the leader stayed. An idea struck her, but she would have to get closer to determine what the tent is made up.
After the ladies skulk off to infiltrate, Danalf plops down where he is and opens his spellbook on his lap to flip through...
Litsy looks down on the tent and the bonfire. These goblin structures looked pretty fragile. Flammable, even. Would be a shame if someone was to throw a couple burning touches on them...
Not so fast, she silently scolds herself. There was still the matter of the pilgrims. Perhaps they could try to bargain with the goblin leader, or force him to surrender. So many possibilities.
The tent being the only thing seemingly of interest, Litsy starts creeping towards it, soon meeting Divina at the back of it.