"Oh, this is neat! Could you teach this to us," Sprig whispers. From the tone of her voice, she's obviously smiling at the thought getting to learn this spell.
Sprig flits down the right tunnel, leaving not a trace.
"There's a room here. It looks like there's a hole in the floor and two tunnels that continue out from it. I can't really tell, but it looks like there's a room off one of them. should I take a look?"
You notice that there's marks on the ground that looks like something heavy, very heavy, was dragged through here recently. From how thin the brambles near the door look, the goblins had to widen the entrance to get it through. The trail heads to the east from the door, then takes the right tunnel at the fork.
Thirzin points to the particulars of the trail and shakes his head, and tries to motion people to the door and then east.
He whispers slowly. "We need to get ourselves in the direction of whatever they were dragging."
Asuriel places her palm on a briar and cries out loudly, She shakes her hand grumpily and calls out, "Are we there yet?!" with absolutely no signs of attempting to conceal her volume or presence in the briars.
Shut your mouth, Asuriel! Olivius hisses. Do you want to get ambushed!
There's nothing but silence for a moment. No alarms being raised, nor startled voices at Asuriel's outburst. It seems that the gates of Hell were still firmly shut. Then, just as Olivius is about to relax a bit, a high-pitching yipping can be heard coming from the north. Goblin dogs, you all recognize from when you helped Aldern Foxglove during the raid on the Swallowtail Festival. And, to make matters worse, there's a loud, rumbling roar that shakes the earth beneath your feet.
Olivius curses under his breath, Asmideus's flaming left testicle, we are about to be covered in Goblin. We need space to move. Follow the trail! Go!
When the sounds of the goblin dogs start up Asuriel clamps her trap shut, eyes widening and fear. She pushes Pavanna's rear with her unhurt hand and says, "Gogogogo!". Her heart rate accelerates when the roar sounds and she blasts, "What was that!?"
"Move!" the dwarf curses under his breath, as he herds the group along, pushing them all verbally to a wider area.
"We have too much at stake to die here. Keep that in mind."
Noro simply glances in the direction of the sounds of the dogs, finally, something to strangle. she mutters under her breath and starts making her way in that direction.
Noro didn't seem to have any reaction to Asuriel's scream, in fact she seemed to enjoy the idea of luring the tribe out to fight.
Horatio hisses a curse under his breath. "Ping, get back here now! Someone just gave away our presence! Sprig, see if you can find anything running at us!" Rapier in hand, he follows Thirzin as quickly as he can.
«Jeśli mamy wyjść z tego cało, mam zamiar znaleźć coś niewiarygodnie gęsta - całkiem prawdopodobnie czaszkę Asuriel w. - I walić głową o nim, aż wyjdę wgniecenie, który pasuje moje rogi.» Pavanna decides, almost absently, as she tries to urge those ahead of her to greater speed. “If there’s a clearing ahead, get there fast. We need fighting room!” Entirely thanks to this Sarenite bonehead behind me who can’t keep her ‘blessed’ mouth shut for two breaths at a time!
Ping comes back form the bend, and skids to a halt. She keeps her voice low, though loud enough to be heard over the racket coming from the north.
"What happened? I thought the idea was to be sneaky-like!"
"Someone didn't listen. Let's move!" Thirzin's hisses in a gruff whisper.
"We need to move faster!"
"I just checked where they keep the yappy things tied up, they're not about to escape," Horatio hears Sprig say, "They're in that chamber that goes off the western path that leaves that room with the hole. The ceiling's higher there, Might not be a bad place to fight, if it weren't for the hole and whatever's down it."
You notice something moving among the thorns to the southeast. Moving quite easily it seems.
To the northwest, you thought you heard something rustle the leaves.
To the northeast, you hear a low, purring growl, like that of a panther.
I'm assuming you guys will want to move into the chamber with the hole that seems to have something monstrous down it.
Asuriel speaks two octaves higher than normal, "What's going on? I can't see anything back here? I heard dogs! There are dogs coming? Can you see anything?
"What's that growling?..." Thirzin says cautiously, once they have the room to move around with a bigger stretch of arms. His signature weapon is one he wraps around his shoulders.
Ping claps a hand over Asuriel's mouth to stem the tide of high-pitched noises.
"Quiet," she hisses, possibly more angry than you've seen her, "or Shelyn help I'll turn you into a shrew! At least then you'll have a reason for being so shrill!"
Noro simply glances in the direction of the sounds of the dogs, finally, something to strangle. she mutters under her breath and starts making her way in that direction.
Noro didn't seem to have any reaction to Asuriel's scream, in fact she seemed to enjoy the idea of luring the tribe out to fight.
You emerge from the cramped tunnel into a room where the ceiling vaults high overhead. Here the canopy of thorns and nettles is thin enough that slivers of sky can be seen. In the middle of the hard packed floor is a ten foot wide hole from which comes the sounds of sloshing seawater far below. To the northeast, the "wall" has two tunnels leading from it. The one further to the northern corner of the room seems to be the one that leads to the kennel the goblin dogs are kept at. The one closer to the eastern corner of the room seems to be the one that leads to Thistletop proper, seeing as that is were the trail leads. The room itself is over sixty feet by eighty feet and roughly, very very roughly, rectangular in shape.
Just before anyone can begin to formulate a plan of defense, much less set one up, the snarling and baying of the goblin dogs intensifies and the creak of fraying rope and straining wooden posts can just be heard through the din.
Perhaps of more immediate concern is the chorus of ten goblin voices coming from the tunnel the party just left.
"Hungry belly's huuuuuuungry!"
Twenty glassy, sunken eyes stare at the party, or rather at Ping. For a brief moment, time stands still. The goblins, daggers and forks in hand look on, drooling from hunger.
Then the moment shatters as they rush the party, their shrill war-cries being backed by a rumbling of bellies that should only be coming from ogres. The first three drop their utensils in favor of hands to grab and hold their meal, Ping!
Meanwhile, four of the goblins look between Pavanna and Asuriel before the one that is obvious the leader points to the oracle and shouts, "grab her! She looks the fattest and juiciest!"
Asuriel finds eight grubby, grimy hands pulling her down to the ground. What was worse, they had apparently not washed their hands yet since they were leaving greasy black palm-prints all over her once pristine robe.
The last three focus on Pavanna. They still wield daggers, but in the other hand for each of them was a bottle of Devil's Milk brand hot-sauce, quite the favorite in Magnimar for it's heat that doesn't mask the flavor of the food, or the peppers used in the sauce.
"Grab her! She looks like she goes well with hot-sauce and ranch dressing!"
Pavanna, unfortunately also finds herself being dragged to the ground by the grimy hands of hungry goblins.
"Get Sprig back here, and we work on getting them free."
Thirzin takes a step south, slinging his weapon with ferocity towards the nearest goblin. If one of these goblins is grappling, then that would be great.
The dwarf's powerful swing strikes through one of the green skins, crushing bone and destroying internal organs with severe consequence.
The goblin that had the best grip on Pavanna suddenly finds her head in her rib cage. She flails about for a moment before dropping to the floor, dead.
Sprig, hearing Thirzin tell someone to get her back with the rest of the group darts through the tunnel and comes to a hover near Thirzin's shoulder. The dwarf can feel her puzzled look as she sees the somewhat bizarre scene playing out.
"Are they trying to coat Pavanna in hot-sauce?"
"Yea, lass, and we're going to prevent that."
"I could hit them with a rainbow, but I might get one of them with it," Sprig says trying to think of a way to be useful, "oh! Wait, I know!"
Sprig points at one of the goblins holding Pavanna and cries out, "Fluffy cotton!"
The goblin looks confused for a second then whirls around to look at Sprig.
"I'll eat you for dessert pixie!"
"Oh for-- I'm a sprite, not a bloody pixie!"
Asuriel screams.
The shrill sound is not a normal plea for help, but more of a feral gutwrenching burst of anger and fear. Memories of the past of being captured by the tieflings flood her mind as the grimy paws of the goblins rake over her. She flails about uselessly on the ground trying to break free but there are simply too many hands pulling her down to do much of anything.
Olivius spins in place and starts hacking goblins to bits with one handed, sweeping strokes.
Noro turns around to see the mayhem that has erupted.
She tries to single out a leader. and ignoring the goblin Hentai scene being played out in front of her, she walks straight to the the supposed leader (well actually #8)
You want hot shaushe?, I got shomething better....
Pavanna flinches as she gets splashed with goblin brains and Magnimar’s #1 brand of hot-sauce. Which is more noisome is an open question. Dammit, I actually had a taste for Devil’s Milk up ’til now! Another memory ruined by revolting associations.
Kicking the earfang’s decapitated corpse aside, she struggles to her feet and immediately turns her sword on Asuriel’s attackers. Oh, no, you don’t. You don’t get to kill her until after I’ve had my turn! “You wouldn’t like her anyway — she’s all stringy and bitter!” she snarls, almost beyond caring whether Asuriel will understand her or not.
Thirzin and Olivius quickly dispatch two of the starving goblins with the ruthless efficiency that has become their hallmark. Noro, delivers what should have been a crushing blow to a third goblin's ribs, but the goblin notices the danger in time to just barely turn it into a glancing blow.
Meanwhile, the baying continues and the snap of a rope can be heard, shortly followed by the sound of one of the goblin's mangy mounts coming from the kennel. The cur charges for Noro, but it hasn't made it to the woman yet. As the goblin dogs begin to make their appearance, Pavanna lopes the head off of a third goblin while Asuriel continues to struggle to free herself.
One of the goblins looks at Pavanna. "You say that like it's a bad thing," she says.
Ping takes a step back and conjures blue, icy flames in her hands before putting them in front of her and blasting the three that had gone after her with a torrent of ice and frost.
"Pav, can we not talk about the culinary merits of our friends, please? Now if you want to comment on her gnomish lack of foresight, then we can have a conversation."