Quickly preparing his magic the half elf sends a ray of ice at one of the goblins.
"Be careful! Goblins are quite dangerous when panicked. Although, I agree: get away from her now or I'll send a fireball up your arses!"
Rahiv levels his crossbow and fires when he can.
With quarters being cramped, Joza draws her trident and kukri instead of her bow and advances on the two goblins with a look of fury on her face. Under ordinary circumstances she might have allowed them to flee, but not after hurting one of her companions.
Between spell,crossbow bolt and trident, the two goblins are down in the blink of an eye.
With the two goblins easily taken care of, Joza starts to turn her attention to the wounded Pekoe before the sound of something odd catches her attention. She cocks her head to one side for a moment and listens...
"Sst!" she hisses, raising her hand in warning. "Do you hear that?"
What on earth could that be?
Voyla speaks in a hushed tone.
"I don't know. Be quiet, maybe we have not been heard. Let's get her and be off."
"But what if it is someone that needs help?" Zinli objected.
"Rahiv, you think you can heal Pekoe?"
The gnome stepped forward, as if to protect her fallen friend. She checked her pistol, verifying if it is loaded, and hold it in a nervous grasp.
"Gobbos don't make that kind of sounds. I don't like that. I don't like that at all."
Voyla thinks at what Zinli said, and nods.
"Be ready to run away from here."
She moves towards the sound as silently as she is able.
Voyla gets back to her new friends, and signals them to leave, quietly. Once they are a prudent distance away she will tell them what she saw.
Joza watches with some concern as Voyla quietly sneaks off to investigate, but she isn't too worried - their new companion seemed plenty capable of being sneaky when the situation called for it. However her expression grows deadly serious as Voyla hastily returns and indicates that they need to leave immediately. Not inclined to argue, Joza simply nods and helps usher the group away from the stairs.
Once they (and Pekoe) are a safe distance away, she frowns as Voyla shares what she saw. "Living dead...I've heard stories but I've never encountered any myself. Their bodies need to be returned to the earth where they belong, but we need to take care of Pekoe first. How does she look?"
When Voyla returned and informed the others of the undead, Dav nodded in concern.
"Seems like my theories have gotten worse. We could be dealing with an alliance of evil! Cults, necromancers, and worse are all working together. What terror was released by these fools that the Azlanti sealed away? Whatever or whoever is leading this alliance must be quite powerful. Or am I just being paranoid and running off at the mouth?"
Returning to the question at hand, the sorcerer answered, "My magic is depleted so we need to rest and get Pekoe help. I suggest the temple of Pharasma as they seem to be the most trustworthy."
Voyla nods.
"That seems wise," Joza agrees. "We can't press on with Pekoe as injured as she is and I think Voyla said she needs some more supplies, too. Let's try to get back to Fort Inevitable quickly."
Dav smiled in agreement.
"As always you are full of wisdom my dear Joza. You are quite the leader. It is an honor to adventure beside you."
He smiled as he praised her.
Rahiv stepped up to Pekoe and examined her for a bit before doing what he could. A pulse of energy filled them room washing over everyone.
Rahiv wiped his brow as he felt the energy leave him. He knew that he was done for the day. He looked at the others expectantly. "I've done all I can for the day, I'm afraid that my reserves are too low to really be of much use apart from a bolt here and there. It would not be unwise to go back to town and resupply as you've said and maybe get a hot meal." he said looking a bit on the pale side.
Voyla feels much better, fully healed by Rahiv.
Well done, Rahiv. The big man places his hand on Rahiv's shoulder
However, I agree that we all could use some repose. Let's make all due haste back to the Fort and pray to all our gods that nothing else happens.
He shifts his eyes to Pekoe lying motionless on the floor.
Here, help me lift her up...
Ekran secures his shield to his back and unsheathes his sword, sticking it into the ground point down. He cradles Pekoe in his off-hand arm and then grasps his sword and rests it on his shoulder.
Gather your things, we shouldn't press our luck. He says the last bit with a pale smile.
"A leader? No...just trying to look out for our survival," Joza replies with a shake of her head. But then her expression softens. "But I thank you just the same."
As Rahiv channels healing energy and Ekran gathers up the still-injured Pekoe, Joza hefts her own weapons and nods. "Good; that should put her out of any immediate danger. Now let's get out of here!"
Zinli nodded.
"Let's go back..."
She got closer to Joza:
"Ya know, Dav is right. You're a wonderful leader, or guide, or whatever makes you feel more comfortable. We're happy to follow you."
Pekoe is still on wobbly legs , but with some help she can walk slowly.
You get out of the Spire, and walk toward the forest, knowing you have a few hours to walk before you get to the Fort.
"Indeed. You're quite skilled Joza," Dav said in reply.
Looking back at Pekoe, he added that it would be best to take her to the temple of Pharasma.
"Thank you," Joza replies simply, knowing that it would be rude to argue any further against genuine praise. "Keep your eyes open as we go; we don't want to tangle with anything else right now if we can help it."
Rahiv uses the magical wand on Pekoe, closing most of her wounds
The tiefling grimaces and starts to talk
I'm sorry, I wanted to do something useful while you were away, and so I wandered alone, trying to scout the place and thinking that our foes were all down. I was wrong. One of the goblins had a lucky strike, and I bled and nearly died.
The forest engulf you as you walk and talk, trees are everywhere.
Everyone spot a big lizard up into a tree, some 15 feet above you.
"A goblin archer!"
Rahiv and Davlamin are hit by arrows send from bushes. Voyla sees a third arrow flying past over her head
Just before Dav could shout out a warning, Voyla had already warned the group. Of course, the goblin probably decided to abandon its plans of amubsh and just attack, for no sooner had the warning been made, arrows flew from the bush; one striking Rahiv, a second struck the half-elf, and a third barely missing Voyla. Still, the group weren't sure where their attackers were.
"By Calistria's vengeful sting and the rage of Gozreh's winds and waves," the sorcerer yelled. He was badly wounded as he clutched the arrow portraying from his chest.
"Damn. This isn't good," he thought to himself.
"ANOTHER AMBUSH!?" Ekran bellows as arrows come flying out of the bushes. "Enough is enough!" Unconcerned with the lizard in the trees, he draws his greatsword and moves to close the distance between himself and the area where the archers are likely hiding.
Voyla is hit by another arrow, and Davlamin too. The wounds are minor, but painful.
The good thing is that you now see the gobelins.
the big lizard stays in the tree, and you notice its rider preparing a kind of vial to throw, looking at Ekran with maleful glee. Not being a masterful tactician, he's giving away his plans
You will burn, Longshanks..Then we will attack you and stab stab stab at you until you die.
Voyla charges against the goblin chief, trying to prevent him from throwing his flask.
Though she knows it's a risk Joza readies her bow and moves off the road towards the south, hoping to draw the goblin arrows her way instead of her more vulnerable companions.
"Don't let him toss that bottle!" she cries, raising her weapon at the goblin rider.
"I'll do my best!"
Dav quickly cast a spell, causing a ray of frost to shoot towards the goblin rider.
Joza arrow miss and get lost in the tree, but Davlamin spell strikes with a deadly accuracy
Voyla gets her shortbow out, and fires against the creature.
Rahiv turns about and aims for the Lizard-rider and fires his crossbow.
Zinli moved forward, and aimed for the lizard.
In Goblin:
Voyla hits her target (and she's the only one), so the lizard rider changes his target, and throw the vial on her
her clothes take fire as the goblin leader shouts to his "troops"
but nothing happens, as the other goblins seem too happy to see Voyla burning..
The lizard rider readies his "lance", so close combat will soon come!
The big fighter moves toward one of the goblins, and strikes, killing it on the spot
He points his bloody sword toward the lizard rider and shouts
Now get down of your tree if you dare, and fight me!
the two remaining goblins tries to hide behind the vegetation, as their leader shouts at them
Cowards! I'll kill big Longshanks!
The lizard mount charges!
Ekran got hits on his leg, and the goblin rider laugh
Zinli grunted when she missed her target. As the goblin leader came nearer, she grabbed the grip of her falchion.
"Right. We'll do it the old-fashioned way!"