Perrin's bite fails to draw blood, but as the kobold comes around to face his attacker, the druid neatly skewers him through the chest. Bleeding seriously, he sinks to the floor and slides off the elf's blade, his spear falling to the side.
Now that you are closer, you can see that the two kobolds closest to the doorway were struggling to move a large chunk of obsidian stone out the doorway and held no obvious weapons. They wear no armor. The four arrayed around their cargo were all carrying spears and wearing armor. They were not participating in the work. Of course, two of them will never participate in anything else, either.
The two kobolds, seeing the attacks, drop the traces to their load and jump up and down and clap, but one of the surviving kobolds growls at them and they stop. Somewhat reluctantly, they each produce a sling and a stone, but they appear to be in no hurry to use them.
Gilgar storms over to the nearest red kobold, and attempts to forcefully disassemble the little buggar...
2-handed Dwarven Waraxe Attack:
Dwarven Waraxe 2-handed damage:
Attack from #4
Damage
Attack from #2
Damage
AC 13 for one round
Gilgar's latest target is rocked back on his heels, but what he lacks in size, he tries to make up for in perseverance as he stands his ground. His wound is too much, however, and he never really threatens to injure the barbarian.
Meanwhile, the last uninjured kobold spear-wielder charges the dwarf, hoping to stick the dwarf with his spear. He almost succeeds, but the point of the spear is deflected by the Gilgar's chain shirt.
Drawing his blade as he moves, Graymoon comes up next to the one that charged the dwarf and strikes, cutting him down.
Attack
Damage
Nox and Perrin are up and can easily reach the last remaining red kobold or either of the blue ones. For their part, the blue kobolds look two parts scared, one part excited at the events.
Perrin launches himself across the room at the last standing combatant to have attacked his pack and rips at the throat of the last red kobold.
perrin bite attack
perrin bite damage
perrin trip attack
Nox turns to the blue kobolds who had somehow managed to not yet raise their weapons.
Nox Diplomacy
You have not yet joined the fray blue ones, and you may survive it. But I would suggest you drop your feeble weapons and raise your palms so that it is clear to my mates that you do not share the intentions of your friends here.
At Nox's remarks, the blue kobolds' eyes bug out for a second that he speaks their language, but there is no hesitation. Without looking at each other, both slings fall to the ground. One bows to Nox and, in common, says, "Great and Wise Wolf-keeper, how does your humble servant please you?"
The other puffs up his chest and says, "Mighty Axey-Axe end you next, Smernak!!" The remaining red kobold snarls in response
Laucian can be heard nearing the bottom of the stairs and has just enough movement to reach the bottom of the stairs and see the carnage. "Wow..."
Gilgar see to the work of doing the last little red runt in...
2-handed Dwarven Waraxe Attack:
Dwarven Waraxe 2-handed damage:
"Teehehe, yes, that's the end of Smernak! No more drag black shiny all the time! How to serve Mighty Axey-Axe? How to serve Great and Wise Wolf-keeper? And their friends?"
Congratulations, you now have two groveling kobolds at your service and four less useful specimens on the floor in front of you.
Turning a rather severe eye towards the two liberated lizards, Gilgar grunts out "Ye know where th' shorty humans is?"
To the west, your darkvision reveals a pair of double doors at the end of the corridor. You can see a hallway leading to the right/north as shown in the map.
To the north, you see an intersection with another corridor. Beyond, something prevents you from seeing, but you can tell that the corridor continues.
To the east, you can see that the corridor opens up into a chamber that glows like the pits of Hell itself. The source of the light is something below floor level (partially visible on the map).
To the north, you can see that there is an intersection of corridors about twenty feet from the room you are in.
The four dead kobolds wore leather armor and carried spears. The two captives carried only slings, which they have dropped.
"Mighty Axey-Axe new boss! What boss want Kibbo do?"
The second captive shoves the first, "No! Pokity Wolf-man new boss! What should Jarrdreg do?"
They begin shoving back and forth.
Not in the mood to put up idiocy, Gilgar begins shaking slightly, his eyes getting more of a wild look as his brow begins to knot up and the muscles of his arms enlarge slightly from his increasingly white-knuckled grip on his axe...
"We ain't fer needin' two uh ye little dolts... Now where be th' shorty humans?" The repeated question comes through gritted teeth, and is punctuated with a growl.
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The first one to speak slugs the other in the shoulder. "Kibbo tell!" He turns toward the dwarf, "We not Truescale, we prisoners! But we know about the pink-skinned, um, the shorty humans."
The second kobold pushes Kibbo aside. "Now Jarrdreg turn! The crown! They need blood for the crown! They take little ones down to crazy shaman." With what would be a comic change to solemnity under other circumstances, he whispers, "Crazy Jekkajak says need to put blood on crown of Merlokrep or whole tribe merk-merks its last."
The first kobold pipes up again, "We help, you let Kibbo and Jarrdreg go back to family, yes? Leave Truescale to merk-merk no more?"
They both point down the western hallway. "This way!"
"Aye..." Gilgar replies. "Lead." and he falls in behind them.
Excitedly, they nod in unison and reach for their slings by their feet, tucking them into their belts before turning and heading west. After a brief spat of shoving, they decide to walk side-by-side toward the double doors that become visible in the distance.
Laucian mutters some arcane formula and four ethereal torches spring into existence. He keeps them near him in the back of the group until/unless Gilgar waves them forward, aware that light down here could give a foe advanced warning of their presence.
wiping the blood from his rapier, Nox call to Perrin
here boy, you'll get the next one
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The kobolds, almost giddy with excitement, lead the party to the west, coming to a hallway that leads north. They turn the corner and proceed for about ten feet before they come to a dead stop in their tracks, suddenly silent.
It's not hard to tell what has the kobold's attention. Slowly advancing toward you is a floating dwarven warrior dragging a wicked axe along behind him. The very air about him glows with a sickly blue light and a hissing noise can be heard as it approaches.
Laucian whispers the obvious, "What is that?"
I am guessing that would be GlintAxe
"Uh, right, sure. What do we know about the glintaxe again?"
Kibbo quavers, "Shiny dwarf-ghost. Very bad. Very bad!"
"Dwarf ghost? I don't know that I have an effective attack for a ghost. Would be better had we a cleric along..."
"My magic is of no use against the dead. It really only works when there are people to fool, if you know what I mean."
knowledge local
diplomacy
Kibbo, Jarrdreg, tell us what you know of this Dwarven ghost. QUICKLY
Graymoon Dungeoneering
Graymoon Perception
Laucian History
"Wait here... I remember something." Graymoon jogs toward the ghost, then backs away as he studies it and it continues to move forward. "I've never seen one of these before, but I've heard of them - it's not a ghost, it's a suit of armor and axe held inside a creature that's almost invisible."
Stowing his bow and drawing his sword as he continues to move backward, he says, "Don't let it touch you - hit it and back away. It's not very intelligent, but if it runs over you, it will absorb you like I bet it did that poor dwarf."
Initiative:
Gilgar has been standing there, seemingly stunned, since the thing showed up... At the proclamation that it's not a ghost, he snaps back to consciousness, grimacing greatly, growling unconsciously as his legs begin to pump as he half hops and half runs in place... The scene would be comical if his growling didn't sound so much like a bear mauling a dragon...
Nox to Perrin Stay Perrin
Nox Initiative
Perrin Initiative
Laucian Initiative
Initiative
Kibbo Init
Jarrdreg Init
Laucian has no ranged weapons and no idea for how to handle this ghost-that-is-not-a-ghost. He delays.
It is apparent that Graymoon is not 100% confident of his strategy, but he moves up close and waits for the creature to approach, sword in hand.
Kibbo loads his sling and lets fly. "Kibbo hear that many Truescale go to fight ghost. None come back."
Perrin growls at the unnatural thing's approach, but holds his ground as Nox instructed.
Nox, to Graymoon You seem to be the learned one regarding this unholy creature, what should we hit it with?
As he says that, he lets go an arrow.
Gilgar fidgets, twitches, and generally looks like he's doing an angry version of the pee-pee dance, but he doesn't move forward...
Jarrdreg lets fly with his sling.
Both stones and Nox's arrow seem to strike something in mid-air about five feet in front of the 'ghost' with a meaty 'thwack'. The arrow begins melting and by the time Nox can fire again, only the arrowhead remains, seemingly floating along the hallway with the 'ghost'.
The 'ghost' continues down the hall toward Graymoon, stopping directly in front of him.
Laucian concentrates on keeping Dancing Lights where they will do the most good. He does discover that he cannot move them through the air around the ghost any more than he can move them through the worked stone walls of the corridor.
Graymoon winds up for a big swing with his curved blade. "Let it move up to you, strike it hard and retreat! If you are firing at it, stay back so Gilgar and I can hit it - kobolds, you need to move back to give us room!"
Attack
Damage
Confirm
Damage
The blade appears to distort as it moves through the air before the ghost, making an odd sucking sound and suddenly springing free as he completes the swing and moves back toward the party. He seems to be carefully gauging the distance as he moves. "Come, my dwarven friend, stand with me up here."
As Graymoon retreats, Kibbo does as he is bid, moving back to the intersection and slinging another stone at the 'ghost'.
Attack
Damage
Gilgar moves up next to Graymoon, somehow able to keep himself under enough control so as not to charge in or fly into a rage, though he half-hops awkwardly from one foot to the other, punctuating each hop with an unconscious "hup" under his breath...
"If'n that thing ain't fer bein' dead," *hup* "why ain't it bleedin'?" *hup*
He seems steeled for battle, but there is no bravado, no indication that Gilgar is looking forward to this.
"Different sort of creature - you've probably heard of gray ooze and brown mold in the dwarven delves you grew up in? This is that sort of creature. Instead of being an animate puddle of acidic good, it's nearly-transparent and shaped like a box. But if we stay too close, it can possibly just run over us and dissolve us like whoever was wearing that armor. Better to make it come to us while wear it down. It shouldn't be smart enough to realize the danger we present." He frowns, "It shouldn't."
Gilgar looks much relieved, his jaw muscles flexing as he grits his teeth.
Nox will cast flaming sphere behind the armor, and roll it up until it meets the resistance of the cube.
Perrin will delay, growling at this enemy without flesh.
As the druid's spell completes, the area around the ghost is suddenly illuminated from behind and the dimensions of the creature are much more obvious. Suddenly, a sizzling sound and the stench of ... something ... burning is obvious and the now-glowing cube shudders.
Jarrdreg slings again.
Damage
The cube continues forward, the glow lessening as it moves away from the druid's fire spell, causing the hair on the dwarf's arms to raise in anticipation and the elf's jaw to clench visibly.
Laucian retreats farther, leaving his floating lights near the ceiling of the intersection.
"Retreat around the corner! Give Gilgar and I room!" Graymoon takes another massive cut at the wall of slime in front of him.
Damage
He moves back, ushering the others before him.
Kibbo lets fly with another stone before scampering after the mage, giggling. "Kibbo help kill big bad blue ghost!!"
Damage
2-handed Dwarven Waraxe Attack:
Dwarven Waraxe 2-handed damage:
Gilgar takes an adrenaline-fueled slash with his axe, the blade ripping through the jelly-like thing, then he back-pedals around the corner to the left.
Nox will move the flaming sphere up against the cube again.
and then will back away around the corner
Following Gilgar's mighty swing, the mass of gelatinous flesh shudders and begins to list to the right. As Nox's fire rolls up against it again and the sizzling is heard once more, the material shrinks and withdraws along the base of the right wall, looking much like seepage water. As Nox runs the ball of fire along the wall, the slimy substance rapidly evaporates, leaving a slightly sticky and acidic residue on the floor and walls. Laying in the middle of the hall is a medium-sized suit of mithral full plate, currently adjusted to fix a dwarven build, and a battleaxe that glows with a soft blue light. The word "Glintaxe" can be seen on the haft.
When Gilgar and Nox do not come immediately around the corner, a worried-looking Graymoon comes back, sword at the ready. The relief is obvious when he realizes that the monster was defeated.
Looking around the corner, Gilgar says, quite sagely... "Huh..."
Nox: Well, Gilgar, I do beleive those are in your size