Glaucus wakes with a snort and a roar as Jim shakes him. "I'm all right! I'm all right! Damn that spell! Put me right under, like I was back with the pack." He casts a pair of spells to heal most of his wounds. "I don't know what you're talking about, Elena. I'm ready to punch some more goblin face."
Status:
Jim @ 10/22 HP; Elena @ 15/15 HP; Glaucus @ 16/19 HP; Rugdugh-Mutagen (17 minutes left) @ 7/23 HP; Broon @ 0/20 HP;
"Well, I still feel like dung. But I guess we'd better keep moving. These goblins won't disperse themselves!" Jim says as he stands up and brandishes his weapons once again. "You guys have probably been around this whole place by now, eh? Anything good? Like a washroom maybe?"
"Let's keep looking in this general area. I know your gear must be around here somewhere, Jim. then we can figure out if we want to leave or not!"
"Well, I guess if we're all in uncharted territory, we might as well..." Jim trails off as he prepares to open the northernmost door, checking it for traps (and locks) before bursting through.
Jim bursts through the door and finds a pretty opulent room for a goblin. Several rugs made from dog or horse hide lie strewn over the dirt floor of this room. Against the north wall stands an impressive collection of horseshoes, each nailed to the wall. To the east sits a ragged padded chair next to a rickety desk that may have once been an expensive antique. In the northwest corner sits a canopied bed covered with silk sheets and sporting an elaborately carved headboard that features nymphs and satyrs cavorting in a forest. The bed's sheets are stained with dirt, while the headboard is bashed and battered.
"This probably used to be a nice place. I might just move in here and fix this place up once we're done. You don't think anyone around here has some kind of deed, do you?" Jim says as he wanders the room, poking under rugs and peeking in drawers to look for secrets or valuables.
Jim finds a really nice silver holy symbol under the pillow and a stout iron key wedged into a weird crevasse in the padded chair.
Wincing as he moves, the smalll lizard man seems exhausted... Grumbling all the while Rugdugh sullenly roots around the enemies looking for something useful. His eyes finally settling upon the shiny breastplate that seems to be the perfect size for him. Putting it on, Rugdugh seems to take a deep breath and begins to slowly catch up with the rest of the group.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Jim starts to put the silver symbol in his back before realizing that he doesn't have a pack anymore. He hands it off to Elena. "Here pretty lady, you hold onto this for me, alright?" He loops the key into his belt and moves on.
"Let's try here." he says as he gives the door a once-over and then bursts through it, weapons ready.
This room contains a small armory of crudely made weapons (mostly dogslicers and shortbows) and several small goblin-sized suits of studded leather armor and dented shields. To the south stand a pair of workbenches.
The workbenches are where the goblins cobble together weapons for their tribe. All of the weapons and suits of armor here are Small. In all, there are 23 dogslicers, 11 shortbows, 50 arrows, 11 suits of studded leather, six light wooden shields, and two coiled whips. On the north wall hangs a single masterwork dogslicer. With the exception of this lone dogslicer, the gear stored here is of poor quality, bespeaking typical goblin crafting expertise.
---
Moving to the next door, Jim opens it to find a hallway. In the hallway, there is a door immediately to the north and one at the end. The door to the north is locked and the smell coming from the room is abominable. He is about to break out his tools, when he remembers the key ring from Ripnugget. After trying a few keys, he finds the right one and the lock clicks.
He opens the door and is assaulted by a smell that nearly sickens him to his stomach. This foul-smelling butchery is a horrifying affront to all the senses. Haunches of poorly smoked meat hang from hooks along the ceiling or lie heaped in and atop crates. In some cases, the meat seems to be dog or horse, but in many other cases, the meat has all-too-recognizable features, like feet, hands, or grimacing faces.
This food store contains the goblins' favorite food: the meat of their vanquished enemies. The fate of several missing travelers and merchants is revealed here, although no single body is intact enough to be easily recognizable.
---
The door at the end of the hallway lead to the other tower in the fortress and connects back towards the trophy room where Shalelu is keeping guard.
Two other rooms remain on this side of the fort. One is a set of stairs that leads to a lower level and the other looks like a barracks fit for goblins.
Six poorly constructed bunk beds, little more than hammocks slung from rickety frames, stand along the walls of this room. Each is heaped with a vermin-infested blanket and a lump of straw that serves as a frustrating pillow.
Elena puts the holy symbol on, nodding at Jim. She wasn't much for organized religion, but maybe htis might grant the group some favor, which they certainly hadn't seen so far.
As the group began their exploration, Elena casts Detect Magic, wanting to be sure the goblins hadn't found some nifty treasure and threw it to the side, not realizing the import of it.
Jim walks around, opening doors and getting a feel for the general layout. He returns to the door past the scary horse and notices another door. He looks it over and prepares himself for close combat with hiding goblins.
Jim opens the door and finds a hallway with two more doors! He kicks in the southern door and finds a room with only a table and a few chairs. The group searches the room but finds nothing.
Jim kicks in the northern door and finds another set of stairs leading to the lower level. There is a small room attached to this set of stairs that gives off a particularly pungent odor. Jim opens the door and finds his small, foul-smelling room features little more than a reeking hole in the ground, its rim stained with refuse and waste.
Perception:
+9 for traps
The rest of the group is ready to move on and preserve what little dignity their noses have, but Elena sees something in the back of the room, behind the latrine. It looks like there might be a secret door.
Elena opens the secret door and the group finds a single, extra-large sea chest, likely stolen from a ship. There is a heavy iron padlock on it.
Status:
Jim @ 10/22 HP; Elena @ 15/15 HP; Glaucus @ 16/19 HP; Rugdugh-Mutagen (12 minutes left) @ 7/23 HP; Broon @ 0/20 HP;
"I keep telling you boys, don't get in such a hurry. That thing is way too heavy to move out of the door, I think, but we need to find a way to open it up. With a lock like that, there has to be useful gear in there," she says excitedly.
"Well, if I had my lockpicks I could probably get it open. Otherwise, if you have a needle or a nail or something..."
Jim tries to open the lock and as soon as he fiddles with it a rusty blade of jagged metal springs out of the chest's lid, catching Jim across the face.
Eventually, Jim opens the chest. Inside the chest lies the accumulated
wealth of the Thistletop tribe, culled from junkyards, shipwrecks, ambushed merchants, and unfortunate rival goblin tribes over the past decade or so. This collection consists of an unorganized pile of 7,432 cp, 2,490 sp, 89 gp, 3 pp, a leather pouch of 34 badly flawed malachites worth 1 gp each, a Medium chain shirt, a Medium masterwork scimitar, a pair of masterwork manacles , a gold holy symbol of Sarenrae worth 100 gp, a jade necklace worth 60 gp, and a fine blue silk gown with silver trim worth 150 gp.
Also, you find a well-maintained, leather-bound book (Jim's formula book), a lashing of leaves and bark with weird Draconic scrawlings (Rugdugh's formula book), two alchemy kits and a tube of fish paste.
"Sword for that guy--" Jim says, handing out the scimitar to Glaucus, "armor for me--" he continues, pulling out the chain shirt and setting it next to him, "money for... *sigh* us..." he continues sorting the goods and distributing before standing back up to examine his wounds. "The one time I didn't think to check for a trap..."
He then returns to a larger, less smelly chamber and sets up his alchemy kit. "Let's see what we have to work with." he says to himself as he assesses the state of his portable lab.
"AHH! My erkot leaves! Rugdugh thought he was going to have to find more!"
After safely tying off his bundle to his belt, Rugdugh eyes the chest warily.
"Rugdugh could probably carry the rest if we need to."
The little creature muttered under his breath without much real enthusiasm at the idea.
"Leave the coins in the chest. Put the chest back inside the door. We have the only key, I assume. We can grab it at our leisure after we figure out what's stirring up all these goblins."
"Agreed." Jim nods at the woman's wise words. A few minutes later he removes his gloves and goggles, packing them back into his kit. He folds it up and stashes it back into the secret room. "I'll come back for this when I have my pack."
Now sporting 4 bottles of faintly glowing liquid, Jim drinks a blue one and immediately his wounds seem to stitch back together, the new flesh taking on a dark rusty color.
Broon finally roles over, looking like he'd gone through a night of bum fights in the back allies of Sandpoint. He also looks like he lost the fights and was taken advantage of. "Can we please get out of this place now?", he says with a drunken drawl and reaches for the nearest bottle.
Picking up his sword with a long metallic scrape, he sheathes it with resignation, then looks about the ground for his bow and dignity.
Status:
Jim @ 20/22 HP; Elena @ 15/15 HP; Glaucus @ 16/19 HP; Rugdugh-Mutagen (10 minutes left) @ 7/23 HP; Broon @ 4/20 HP;
"Alright, let's go down one of these staircases. Any ideas which? You guys don't seem to know your way around as much as I'd like."
"Glaucus." the wolf-man grunts as he hooks the scimitar onto his belt. He hands the come potion to Rugdugh and offers his final curing spell to anyone else who needs it before heading down.
Rugdugh drinks the Cure Moderate Wounds potion at Glaucus' insistence.
You boldly head down the stairs that you are already conveniently next to.
As you descend, the mainly wooden architecture begins to turn more towards granite and rough marble. A well-lit room sits at the bottom of the stairs. A large table surrounded by chairs fills much of this room. A slate board to the north is covered with scribblings in chalk, but the map of Sandpoint that has been carefully inscribed on it leaves no doubt as to the purpose of this room-there is no doubt that this is where the recent raid was planned.
Status:
Jim @ 29/31 HP; Elena @ 21/21 HP; Glaucus @ 24/27 HP; Rugdugh-Mutagen (10 minutes left) @ 22/23 HP; Broon @ 4/20 HP;
Jim looks around, noting the chalk writing and the map. "Ah, the war room. I wonder if they've hidden anything about future plans in here..."
Then, still giving a cursory glance to each door he sees, Jim stops in front of one and prepares to burst in weapons drawn as one really ought to when clearing out any goblin stronghold.
An investigation of the slate and the notes written there can confirm this and more. Namely, that once "the whispering beast is tamed," the architects of the plan intend to mount a second raid on the town, one that incorporates not only additional goblin tribes culled from as far as the Fogscar Mountains to the north, but creatures referred to as "sinspawn" who will invade Sandpoint from below. No exact timetable is given for when this second raid is to happen, but close examination reveals that the final assault is scheduled for only a few weeks in the future.
You try to open the door, but it seems barricaded from the inside.
Status:
Jim @ 24/31 HP; Elena @ 21/21 HP; Glaucus @ 24/27 HP; Rugdugh-Mutagen (10 minutes left) @ 22/23 HP; Broon @ 4/20 HP;
Glaucus pushes the others aside and....
Jim makes only the very beginnings of an "Ah-HA!", a barely audible half-syllable escaping his mouth as he bumps into the barred door. He frowns and jiggles the handle a bit, pushing and pulling the door. His shoulders slump as his gusto is stolen by a simple door. "Shoot."
He moves across to the other door and looks it over for a few seconds before trying this one. "Ah--"
Jim pauses, doing a double-take. "Ah, what are you doing there big guy? Did you want to ring a bell and let them all know we're here?"
Being sure that he'll be taking another dirt nap the first sight of a goblin, Broon switches to the lucerne hammer, at least being some usefulness behind Jim and Glaucus.
Glaucus spends the next 18 seconds battering the door before he is able to overcome the barricading on the inside. Finally, he is able to kick the door in as two blasts of magical energy erupt from inside the room at the wildman.
Several women of Osiriani heritage, dark-skinned with gold-bound dreadlocks, scowl at you from inside this room. A large wooden worktable sits in the middle of this room, its surface cluttered with scrolls, books, stone tablets covered with dense, spiky runes, and fragments of carvings that appear to have been chipped off of statues or bas-reliefs. To the north, a floor-to-ceiling set of wooden shelves sags with picks, shovels, brushes, lanterns, and other equipment one might expect to see at an archaeological site.
"Why are you interrupting my research!" they yell in unison.
Initiative:
She growls before she bathes the room in fire.
Status:
1st: Akenja (x5)
2nd: Jim @ 24/31 HP; Elena @ 21/21 HP; Glaucus @ 24/27 HP; Rugdugh-Mutagen (10 minutes left) @ 22/23 HP; Broon @ 4/20 HP;
Reflex
Elena takes the full force of the Flames directly in the face. "Kill all of these b$!#$es," she says, hoping to inspire her comrades for vengeance. She ducks behind the door to get out of line of sight after her action.
Glaucus takes the blast full in the face, leaving his grizzly hair singed. He growls and tries to grab onto the woman's shoulders to give her a head-to-head smash!
”As you wish Elena!”, Broon jams the massive polearm at the caster's nogin.
>>
Jim attacks around the doorway, frustrated at the defensive advantage it provides the woman.
,
,
"Move back!" he commands the tiny lizard in his way.
Jim tries to attack from around the doorway, but his sword only slightly hits one of the clones causing it to burst in a flare of light.
Broon hits one of the clones as well, popping in back into the ether at the same time.
Glaucus, likewise, pops two of the clones as well in his fury.
Status:
1st: Akenja
2nd: Jim @ 18/31 HP; Elena @ 9/21 HP; Glaucus @ 12/27 HP; Rugdugh-Mutagen (7 minutes left) @ 28/29 HP; Broon @ -2?/20 HP;
Rugdugh goes crazy as he leaps around behind the group, unable to reach the Osiriani woman.
Seeing that she isn't quite as prepared as she would like for this, the woman quickly ducks under and punch by Glaucus and turns invisible.
A door to the west hangs ajar and leads to a set of spiral, stone-hewn stairs.
Status:
Jim @ 18/31 HP; Elena @ 9/21 HP; Glaucus @ 12/27 HP; Rugdugh-Mutagen (7 minutes left) @ 22/29 HP; Broon @ -2?/20 HP;
"Where are you?!", Broon steps into the room and swings the pole arm in a wide arc.
>>
A quick inspection of the room, however, finds that the wizard has fled.
"Well, we need to try and track that wizard, or they will let everyone and their mother know we are here.". She casts Detect a Magic, looking for any left behind gear.