News from the Western Marches 2022May3

News from the Western Marches! Four adventurers and a dog headed out to investigate the bottom of the Mysterious Sinkhole: Lanar of Un (Fighting-Man), Flatchet the Fearless (Fighting-Man), Karlat the Thief, Valamin (elf Fighter), and Scrappy the Dog. A plume of smoke was sighted mong the hills beyond the sinkhole, and a small hobgoblin camp discovered with tents and two naked captives in cages. Avoiding a clever stratagem to draw the miscreants into our deadly missile fire, they instead ran, along with their captives who were some sort of beast-men. We set fire to these weaklings' baggage, but recovered no treasure. By Crom, they are most worthless curs, and shall donate their skulls the next time we face them! On the bottom of the sinkhole, trapped stone gate was wedged open and a deadly ballista trap deftly avoided. The small tomb beyond hid a magic mouth babbling in a strange tongue; a room of statues that could be rotated; and finally a vault trapped with hidden skewers in the floor! Here, resting on a pedestal, we found a slightly worn orb, pondered its mysteries, and retrieved it from its place without suffering any casualties. Alas, no other treasure was found, but the orb shall be of interest to our Magic-Users, as it glows with an inner light near magic, and can channel spells in some manner.