Ravboom's stone, flung into the mess of combat misses... but Relas, jaws opening wide and crunching down hard, fells the goblin go stiff... and then utterly limp - like a foul, soggy rag doll...
"Ouch!!! That hurting too much!!! No more biting... No more biting... I tell you what you want.... I promising to be helpful goblin.... Just no more biting!!!"
"Bleh...I have no idea why anything would want to eat a goblin," Relas grimaces. "You guys taste like old sweaty socks smell!" As he moves to allow for the others to tie the goblin up, he gives the creature a curious look. "You heard the lady, why are you and your friends here?"
"Bleedy greeny! You answer da tiny longshanks. Now. If you say good things, maybe we let you live," Globlob barks at the half-dead goblin that the others are moving to tie up as he stomps into the ruined shop. Not that he even considers trying to help. His skill with ropes and such is far from exemplary; Biggun is probably better at that sort of thing.
Ravboom looks at Palo and Relas. "This be why Ravboom no want to come to gobbie town. Warned you Ravboom did." He shakes his head in disgust, making his ears make a floppy sound. He begins searching the room, leaving Palo to question the half-dead gobbie.
Flopping to the floor and muttering about Relas’ breath, the goblin knows better than to struggle or resist as he is bound, ”We come to village after hearing that Brokebags start smashing each other’s heads in… Agrizarga say we can start new tribe here once Brokebags all deaded – but they not all dead yet. Some still stomping around doing smashing, breaking and hurting… and the ones in temple have gone real bad – nasty hurting, not fun hurting!!! They praising new goblin god now… some new god that come from stars or something.”
Meanwhile, looking around the store, Biggun, Ravboom and Globlob find nothing of any value… it seems that, if it was ever used as a shop, it has long since been looted dry…
…and then there is another series of bangs upon the ceiling – something banging on the floor above… and now, looking up, the dark brown stain can be seen in the whitewashed ceiling… a dark brown stain that is echoed on the floor below it.
"Guess need go up stairs. Globby, Biggie, you lead way, protect Solie from danger." He ushers the trio to precede them up the stairs, the epitome of goblin manners as he bows and sweeps his arms to give them the honor of the primary positions.
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"You not even Brokebag? Why you hit us then? We not crazy, you crazy Gobo," Solie said, sticking her tongue out for good measure.
Her ear twitched at the banging sound from above. "...Who is... upstairs..." she asked their captive slowly, eyeing up the brown stain on the ceiling, then looking down to see the matching on on the floor.
There are no stairs to the 'upstairs' of this building... Just a ladder that leads up to a small hatch.
More indignant than it has any right to be given he is still covered in Relas' saliva and is tied up, the goblin huffs at Solie, "This be our village now... Brokebag is gone and we was here first... Us and...", the goblin's eyes flicker upwards, "Agrizarga..."
The war chanter takes a tentative step or three toward the ladder that leads upstairs, his eyes never quite leaving the growing spot on the ceiling. "Who Agrizarga? Why we not just give you to it to make it shuddup?"
”Agrizarga be goblin boss and you gone waking her up – she be all grumpy ‘cos she got bashed on head when we come to village… now she going to bash you on head”, possibly ill-advisedly, the tied-up goblin chuckles at the thought…
"Not if she's smart," Relas replies as he eyes the ladder skeptically. "Palo, I'm not sure how well I'll be able to climb that once Biggun opens it..."
Full of enthusiasm, Biggun scrambles up the ladder to the attic - pushing the hatch open, he sees the space beyond is shrouded in darkness… and, as he waits for his eyes to adjust, a horrific stench wafts from the opening.
His goblin eyes cutting through the dark, Biggun takes in the sight of a long – and mainly empty – attic. Near a straw bed, in the far corner of the attic, a figure is suspended upside down – a simple iron chain looped over a rafter holding it in place…
Ravboom watches the big goblin go up, and will bring up the rear.
"Yeah, yeah," Globlob agrees as he makes for the ladder right behind Biggun, trying to help Solie do some good talking. "We work together good! Run other goblins outta town! No competition from black-eye gobbies!"
"You got it Palo," Relas replies, apparently unperturbed at having to bring up the rear. "But you know...I thought I'd heard stories about wizards shaping their friends into all sort of things, making them bigger, or making them smaller. You should do that the next time you get a chance to open some books," he adds brightly.
As Biggun looks around, he sees nothing dangerous… nothing that explains the strange noises… and then, with a sudden blurring of the air behind him, he is attacked!!! Hitherto invisible, a bugbear – emaciated and with a nasty head wound – stabs at the over-sized goblin.
Screeching as she attacks, ”My home!!! My food!!! My town!!!”
Slashing at Biggun again, the goblin is fortunate when the bugbear swings wildly…
Biggun, too indignant to realise how badly injured he is, slashes at the bugbear... Catching it with a brutal blow...
Ravboom whirs his sling, and sends a stone at bugnut bear!!
The stone thuds solidly into the wooden rafters above Biggun's head.
Unsure of what to do and whether or not anyone else planned to try climbing up the ladder to help Biggun, Relas anxiously watches the battle unfold from the first floor and waits.
Globlob quickly moves to haul himself further up the ladder, climbing over Biggun if he has to, to get up to the second floor. Once there, he hefts his cestus-clad fist in preparation for whatever may come, before belting into song!
"You not da boss; da boss is here!
When we done, you cower in fear!
We gonna smash you 'till nothing left.
And then feed you to my frog, Jeff!"
And with that done, he gets ready to potentially be flattened by the bugbear.
Strangely inspired by Globlob's song, even though the words are crudely pronounced and beyond her knowledge, Palomia manages to steady her aim and... whistling through the hatch... and past Biggun... the bolt embeds itself into the bugbear's skull. As blood starts to trickle down the bolt that's clamping it's jaw closed, the bugbear swipes at Biggun once more...
...and then, crumpling over, tumbles through the hatch - it lands with a crash and, with a horrific snapping sound, comes to rest with it's head at a terribly unnatural angle...
Relas yelps and leaps away from the hatch opening as the bugbear comes crashing down to the floor below. "Wow...nice shot Palo!" he exclaims. Then he gives their prisoner an awkward look. "Well...I guess your tribe has a vacancy for a new chief now..."
No longer guarded by a psychotic bugbear, the gruesome nature of the scene in the attic becomes plain to see – the suspended body, a wizened old goblin, is half-eaten and is starting to attract flies… Also in the attic, a straw bed is positioned near the dead man – and, at the end of the bed, a small horde of valuables has been amassed: 15gp, a decorative darkwood bracelet of elven design (presumably stolen), a small velvet pouch containing five uncut agates and a blood-smeared short sword,
None of the valuables are emitting any magical auras.
The bugbear itself, still twitching as it bleeds out, is carrying nothing of note beyond it's dagger and a necklace of severed longshanks ears...
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"Biggun find pretty shiney things!" Biggun yelled down to the others. Dismissing the body as a probable food source for later, he started going through the various treasures near the bed and body. 'Don't need rocks, maybe give to Solie. Biggun's sword better. Oooh, pretty bracelet, mine!' he thought as he wrapped the jewelry around his wrist.
"Globlob helping!" The war chanter replies back down to Palomia with a broad, wicked grin. When Biggun scurries over to deal with loot, he follows and immediately snatches up the shiny rocks and the gold, stuffing it into a pocket. "Hey! Why you get bracelet?"
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"If you start talking like gobbies now, you never stop," Solie said up to Palo after she mentions longshanks. "Trust me, Solie-- I know. Very hard habit to break once start."
She peeks her head up the hatch to make sure Biggun and Globlob weren't causing a fuss. "Bring it down. We split. No fighting that way. No need to fight more than have to. Too many crazies here for that."
She comes back down and peeks her head out the front door. "Might as well look at other places. Let big cat sniff out best place to start? Maybe one that smells less bad?"
Relas thinks for a moment and nods. Solie's idea made pretty good sense, although he suspected that both places would probably smell equally as bad. "Let's try the not-hideout-for-crazy-goblins temple first Palo; maybe we'll get lucky and find more useful things there like we did in the sheriff's office."
Without really waiting for a response from his summoner, he pads towards the back door. "I'll go try and have a look first; follow behind but not too close okay? Biggun makes an awful lot of noise..." he adds before heading back outside and toward the longshanks temple.
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Globlob grumbles and sticks his tongue out at Biggun before he stomps back over toward the ladder to follow the others. Namely, Relas because he is all sorts of stealthy while the others are really not. And it tends to mean that nobody will try to stop him and take his shinies.
The old Longshanks temple, ruined and burnt out, seems to be devoid of life… blackened bones, of what seem to be goblin skeletons, lie amongst the rubble – and, towards the rear of the ruins where the bones are almost heaped, something shiny glints in the sunlight… but, before anyone can do much about it, the sound of someone approaching breaks the silence. Looking to the left, a goblin is darting between tree stumps… the diminutive figure is attempting to be stealthy however the elaborately feathered hat and the rattling bone necklace that it is wearing puts paid to any ideas of sneakiness…
Thus far, the sartorially challenged goblin doesn’t appear to have notices Relas or Globlob as they sneak towards the temple.