Kiera once again throws her dagger, but to no avail. Daelric turns and slashes his ax across the creatures carapace, finally opening enough of a hole in the damn crabs carapace that it quivers and drops. Strength quickly fading, its legs scrabble futilely against the bottom of the chamber a few times before falling still.
I flick the blood and gore from my axe and let out a sigh of relief, the turn to face the comrades. "Thank the Oath-Keeper that's over with! That thing had a lot of strength, I could feel it squeezing the life out of me!"
Kiera lets out a breath of relief and says, "Let's see what Mr. Shiny here was sitting on. But first, Daelric, are you going to be all right? That was a nasty, brutal fight!" She worriedly looks over the dwarf and glanced back to Andrezi.
"Um, let's try to avoid anything like that when we head out of this fright." Volkar said with agreement. "But, if this thing liked shiny things, it would be worth seeing what he had hidden Miss Kiera."
"Have no worries, Miss Kiera. I'll see to his wounds." Andrezi says, reaching for his wand.
Orik stays on his ledge maintaining overwatch just in case as the rest of the group clusters around Daelric, making sure that he is well after his brutal encounter. Andrezi pulls out a wand and taps Daelric with it a few times, resulting in a golden glow surrounding the solid dwarf and closing off his wounds before healing them without even a scar to blemish the tough skin.
I nod at Kiera, "It was a scratch, but still a frightful one." I clasp Andrezi's forearm in thanks for the curative magic. Before wading through water, trying to find anything that could be of help or monetary worth. I get a long piece of wood and use it to navigate the water, prodding the ground with it and swishing it backwards and forwards.
Kiera casts detect magic again and looks over the helmet, then scans the chamber for anything that appears to her magical sense.
"Daelric, Volkar, at the risk of stereotyping, what can you tell us about this helmet? You two probably know more about metalworking than I do," she says. "Is it from a giant? Is it valuable?"
I shake my head at Kiera's comment, "I've never worked with metals before, I'm a miner and have spent many years removing precious ores from caves. I've fought Giants before while defending our home, but cannot say much about them other than they hit hard and have killed many of my friends." I look to Volkar, "What about you, any ideas?"
Volkar took a long look at the helmet and scratched his chin. His right hand found the forebeard bed and rubbed it between his fingers. "It's valuable for certain, Mistress Kiera."
He kept evaluating the helmet trying to determine its origins.
Both dwarves, despite their unfamiliarity with actually working metals themselves, can easily tell that the helmet is only plated in solid gold, not wholly constructed of it. However, the immense helmet seems to have been made for a very large giant-kin and just like everything else down here is incredibly old. Trying to shift the thing around to search under the water, you realize that it is incredibly heavy.. and will take quite a bit of work to get it out of there.
Over the course of the next several minutes, the team works together to put together a very nice pile of treasure left behind all these ages. Shaking out the cracked and swamped urns and digging through the soft silt of the chamber floor nets an incredible sum of coins, jewels, and an odd looking Jade amulet.
I look at the large pile of treasure we have uncovered and let out a impressed whistle. Seeing the amulet I pick it up and look carefully at the gem in the setting, "Ah, Jade not Emerald. Still very pretty."
"Not a bad little haul at all." Andrezi says with a grin. Casting a quick magical detection spell he notes that the amulet is magical.
"Not sure what it is, but it is enchanted. Miss Kiera, care to take a look?"
"Never, ever, refuse an offer to carry the heavy load, and one can always trust a dwarf to save every coin,"[b] Volkar nodded at Daelric. [b]"If some be rather ancient, I may want to purchase those from the party to add to my collection, but we did well here, inspite of the damned beastie."
"Of course," says Kiera, as she mutters arcane words while continuing to survey the haul.
"This jade amulet is enchanted. It hardens the wearer's skin to turn blades and strikes aside. I think it would be well-suited to Daelric."
"Could be." Andrezi says, thinking a bit on the matter. "As often as I've had to heal him, this last fight withstanding, I think Volkar could make good use of it too."
"we have been collecting arrows and blades a bit too often, but that could be a dwarven thing?" Volkar said with a laugh.
The team gathers up the treasure they have found, and moves back to safer areas of the ancient complex, dragging the giant helmet along with them.
Volkar helped in dragging the heavy helmet back down the passage way and into the room with the statues. When they got the helmet there, he huffed. "I gotta rest, need to eat some things, and get some sleep. I think we might be in a safer place to do so here. Your thoughts?"
"Sounds like a reasonable plan. Perhaps back by the rooms where we met Orik?"
Kiera bites her lower lip for a moment, then says, "Right. Yeah. That area's set up for short-term habitation anyway. I do want to check on my boat again soon, though."
At the mention of food I hear my stomach grumble, "I didn't realise that I was so hungry! Maybe a rest would be a good idea." I follow the others back to the rooms, if Kiera goes to check on her nauseating contraption, I go with her, to make sure she isn't ambushed on the way.
"That reminds me, we've already spent a night down here, we should check on that horse we liberated from the goblins, too. Make sure it has enough to eat foraging around the area," adds Kiera absently.
The team lugs their treasure back to the rooms one level above them before settling in for the rest of the day and a restful night of sleep. Waking the next morning, you sit around your breakfast rations discussing your course from here.
As we eat I pull out a small barrel, "Stout anyone? Real stuff from Janderhoff, I was saving it for when I reunited with my father and found out what happened to my home, but I feel like we should share some now."
Orik leans over with his arm outstretched. "I'll have some, if the offer includes me.."
I pour everyone who holds out a tankard, half. I then put the stopper back in the barrel and place it in my pouch again, "The rest I'll save for father and home. But we've had a difficult time and us Dwarves like a drink when we need to celebrate." Instead of downing my drink in one, I take small sips between bites, letting the fiery taste spread through my body and warming up my insides.
Orik gratefully accepts his drink and eases back, taking the dwarfs cue and sipping on his own. with surprise he looks at his tankard and then back up to Daelric. "Many thanks for that.. it hits the spot just right. We haven't had anything that fine around here in a while!"
"A true gift, thank you Daelric for sharing," Volkar lifts his tankard after Daelric shared some of the offered stout. He took a slow sip and cherished the fine taste. He chewed in silence and sipped the mead as well. "Mistress Kiera, I think we need to make sure we tackle these things as a group. I would hate to find that we have one of the beasties of this sea stack roaming behind us. It seems that the greenskins don't really have any interest in coming downwards, suspect we have met most of the reasons for that."
Kiera takes a sip of the dwarven beverage and her nose wrinkles and her freckles stand out as her face temporarily reddens. "Ouch. I think my palate isn't tough enough for that," she says. After shaking it off, she says to Volkar, "I guess I agree, I'm just nervous about my boat. I can just imagine some goblin that escaped sneaking down and putting a hole through the hull!"
As the conversation turns to the goblins, Orik pipes in as well. "No.. those mangy grubby bastards weren't allowed down here. Hell, they didn't even know "here" existed until Nualia found it. They all stayed up top in their fortress, and we had the lower levels to ourselves. Thank the gods for that.. its bad enough passing through their areas, we would never have gotten the stink out if they were actually allowed down here!"
"Let's go check on Miss Kiera's boat, to ease her mind if nothing else. Check on the horse, and then one last check below, just to make sure we haven't missed something, and then I say we make our way back to Sandpoint. Thoughts?"
"Aye, we can do that, my fear is that there could still be goblins out there somewhere," Volkar said. "But, if we can leave this place by days end, that would be a great bonus to the gold we are carrying."
I nod in agreement with everyone and finish my breakfast before standing up and shouldering my pack.
"Sounds good," says Kiera with a firm nod of her head that makes her ponytail bob.
With an early start, the team is just able to make their way to the cliff overlooking Kiera's boat and see that not only have the moorling lines held over the last 4 days, but that also it has remained undetected. On your way out of the goblin fortress, you see Orik poking in and around the various nooks and crannies of the place. Seeing your questioning looks, he replies "I know I brought a good amount of money up here to pay off the little buggers.. I just wonder where in the nine hells they hid it. Its got to be Somewhere back here.." he says.
"Where were they getting the gold from? And you took it down below? So, where would it be?" Volkar asked after they checked to make sure the boat was still where it was left.
As the team troupes back through the maze of nettles and across the bridge, you check on the horse, who remains stables in the courtyard. Relief from the constant torture of the goblins has allowed the beast to eat some of the oats and foodstuff left for it, and it seems to have calmed immensely and is regaining its strength. Returning to the fortress, Volkar begins to ask Orik about the gold.
"I don't know where the buggers hid it exactly.." he begins. "I would bring it up from Nualia as a "tribute" to the goblin lord.. Nualia had some kind of agreement with the beast. I would meet him in the meeting room right outside of the stairs away from the prying eyes of the rest of the tribe. Where he would hide it after I left is beyond me.. but it can't be too far from there!"
"I know a spell that can find secret doors," suggests Kiera.
Oriks eyebrows raise at Kiera's words. "By all means then.. give it a try!"
"Alright, then we head to the meeting room and take a look. Miss Kiera can try to find something that might be hidden. Yet, you mentioned Niela brought gold up, so that means she had a stash too, hmhm," Volkar said as they watched back around the building and towards one of the entrances
"You don't think it could be as blatant as to be near the statue of the stack of coins down there, do you?" Andrezi asks quietly as not to disturb Kiera as she uses her spell to help find the goblin chief's stash.
"Maybe? We can sweep the area with spells to detect magic as well," says Kiera. "If this really is an old outpost of a Runelord I wouldn't be surprised if there's still residual magical... stuff... lying around." She consults her spellbook for a few moments, then says, "All right, let's see what we can find."
When I see the boat I get a little queezy as I watch it bobbing up and down. When we leave to give the place one last looking over, I am visibly relieved. I follow everyone else saying little, but giving simple answers to any questions asked. I am spending more time looking for this secret door that may or may not exist.
The group moves back into the meeting room and begins their search. Kiera casts a spell and confirms what Daelrics keen eyes tell him.. There are no secret rooms here. Moving outwards from there, the group is suddenly halted by Kiera as she stops before the foul smelling latrine. As she glanced through the door, the presence of a secret within catches her magically enhanced eye.. but as horrible as goblins themselves are, their refuse and waste is even worse! This small, foul-smelling room features little more than a reeking hole in the ground, its rim stained with refuse and waste. However, Daelric is just able to discern that the back wall is indeed false! Nearly gagging by the overwhelming smell, Kiera spends another moment looking around the room and finds the catch. Releasing this, she reveals a small room (much cleaner) with simply a very large sea chest sitting against the far wall. The chest is encircled by a heavy chain and secured with a very sturdy padlock.
"Disgusting creatures, truly vile beasts," Volkar said with a level of contempt.
When Kiera found the hidden room, he looked in and saw the chained chest with the padlock. "I think we might have the key to that. Where did that key go..."
Volkar begain fishing into the pouches beneath the mail and tunic he wore. "Did I have that, or did you Daelric?"