Engineer bolt hits the wall of the cavern far from his foes.
When Zevon passes the northern corridor, he gets a glimpse to the new corridor. There seem to be two open doors at each side, and the corridor meets the original tunnel from where you entered the dungeon.
Lumen quickly scales the 5ft elevation and dashes through the hallway to attack the goblin in front of her.
Daxur giggles at the other goblins attempts at insulting him and their inept volley, slapping a bolt into his crossbow and firing back...
[ooc]Second Action
Still muffling his laughter at the other goblins ineptitude, Daxur fires again...
Zevon continues down the corridor. Coming up behind the goblin, he takes a mighty swing at the creature.
; if hit
Lummen runs the hallway up and kills the fallen goblin with a tremendous strike of her falchion.
Daxur bolt stabs in between the two yellow eyes of the goblin standing in the western cavern. The body falls unconcious hitting the floor, falling from the opening into the big cavern and falling again 20 feet into the sloppy and rocky floor.
The green goblin is surprised by Zevon from the back. The hit is clear and brings down unconscious and dying the unprepared goblin.
Beauregard loads again his crossbow and moves to the rear line where the party is being still threatened.
The remaining goblin starts shouting in Goblin "Ñiac! A' will burn yar' bones down for that!"
A new arrow flies from his bow towards Daxur.
The arrow is deflected by an invisible force.
Lumen moves forward, seeking to surround the remaining goblins.
Switching to his bow, Zevon takes aim at the remaining goblin on the ledge and lets his arrow fly.
; if hit:
Zevon shot is good, but the arrow finally strikes on one of the walls near the goblin. The creature trembles though due to the surprise.
"One last chance, Goblin. Surrender. "
Engineer manifests entangling ectoplasm at the last enemy.
touch, DC 16 reflex to avoid being stuck in place, entangled for 3 rds.
PP 24/32
Daxur reloads and sights on the remaining goblin, calling out in Goblin "Surrender to your betters! Satisfy our questions and you may yet live!"
"Ya' think ya' can pass? Ya' have nothing ta' do!" shouts back the goblin behind the walls to the West.
Beauregard shots at the remaining goblin.
The creature tries to avoid it, but the bolt stabs on his front leaving him disabled.
You see how the goblin moves his head dizzy, with the bolt stupidly stabbed on his head front. Ignoring the pain he takes another arrow and places it in the air.
The arrow hits the wall behind Beauregard, and the goblin falls then unconscious from the bleeding, falling also from the room above, and hitting against the cavern floor 20 feet underneath.
This area has both rough-hewn walls and masonry walls. A natural passage continues west. Against the east wall rest two large straw pallets hopping with lice. Gnawed animal bones litter the floor, and more bones fill two crude alcoves in the northeast corner.
This cavern is totally different from the rest of the dungeon. Instead of the ancient dwarf architecture, it has clearly been created by nature. There is a slope that descends towards the West direction.
Daxur raises his crossbow to sight on the impertinent last goblin, but sees him wobble and fall.
Lowering his weapon, Daxur looks archly at #3, "You really can't blame them , you know. They come from weaker stock than such as I, can't really help themselves from being a bother."
Shouldering his crossbow, he moves back downwards to loot the bodies there.
Daxur loots the bodies finding 42gp and 47sp. In addition, there are 5 leather armors, 5 short swords, and 5 light crossbows with bolts ammo.
With the last of the goblins defeated, Zevon turns to his companions:
"everybody still fine? I had a feeling these goblins would not give us a free passage like they first seem to offer. Perhaps we should quickly check the rest of their quarters before heading further down, to avoid getting attacked in the back?"
Zevon also quickly checks the goblins near him to see if one of them might still be in a sufficient state for interrogation.
"Daxur, are your goblins dead, or do you think they might still be able to tell us something about what is further down?"
The goblins next to Zevon are just unconscious, thus, they could be interrogated if fully healed first. That would require some magic though as otherwise you will need to wait 8 hours taking healing care of them to naturally recover.
"Perhaps we check out the natural cavern to the east before examining the constructed rooms to the west. I doubt the goblins will provide actionable intelligence but it couldn't hurt to bring one with us for the moment."
Engineer could easily carry a goblin around until it awakens. Unarmed and low on hp it would prove no threat to the warforged.
The party makes its way to the natural cavern at the South before exploring the other goblin dependencies.
The floor of this tunnel is quite uneven, and stalactites cling to the thirty-foot-high ceiling. Narrow ledges jut from the walls at varying heights, but they are bare. A few small bones are scattered here and there making the floor difficult to navigate.
Scattered in the floor you find the ramainings of 2 goblin skirmishers. Among the bones and rusted gear, there are 7gp and 7sp.
Perception
"This would serve as a lair for a sizeable creature. And small bones could easily have come from goblins. I recommend caution."
Engineer places his goblin down, freeing up two hands to train his crossbow around the room.
"Shall we progress? "
Daxur and Beauregard discover in the floor the ramainings of 2 goblin skirmishers. Among the bones and rusted gear, there are 7gp and 7sp.
What they don't realize are the enemy lurking above their heads with the shape of stalactites. While the party is distracted by the finding, the stalactites suddenly open revealing themselves as a group of weird flying dark carpets. They fall above the group trying to hit them.
The one attacking Zevon fails by far it's target, while Engineer is hit by the creature but the slam is deflected by it's armor.
Not that fortunate Beauregard is hit, but he succeeds to remove the attacker from his head before it can grabs him.
The halfling shouts "Argh! Help!"
The creature you are being attacked is a darkmantle, a flying magical beast who likes lurking in caverns for prey. They most remarkably have a constrict attack, and can cast darkness once per day.
After an attempt to stabilize the defeated goblins & tying them up, Zevon follows his companions in the investigation of the rest of the complex.
Surprised by the “flying carpets” – Zevon considered the bones being left-overs from the worg’s meals, he somehow managed to avoid the creature’s attack and instinctively takes a wild swing at his attacker, cursing:
; if hit:
Zevon attacks the creature before he can even get a good look of what it was. Empowered by the surprise stamina, the hit is strong and makes the creature fall dead to the floor. Still trying to recover from the surprise Zevon looks around driven by his instincts he sees how other companions are being attacked just the same.
Engineer swings his battlefist at the creature, charged with humming psionic force.
Psionic fist; ( force damage if hit)
#3 psionic fist is dodged by the creature flying to one side.
Daxur rears back one step, charges and fires his crossbow at the creature flying over Engineer.
The bolt stabs the mantle that dies in the instant by the great precision of the goblin!
The surviving mantle retreats flying away, then an aura of darkness is born from it engulfing everybody but Daxur in solid darkness.
Perception
Engineer takes a defensive stance and readies to bash the critter if it comes close.
Unable to see the enemy Lomen tries to determine it's location.
Zevon caught a quick glance of the fleeing creature before the darkness descended. As fast as he can he tries to stop it from fleeing, trusting his instincts to intercept the creature.
---
if hit -
At the moment the mantle is preparing for another attack, Zevon listens its movement and releases a mace hit that tears down the creature totally destroying it.
You search the room, but you don't find anything else than old bones and a bit of loot from the digested goblins (the previous 7gp and 7sp).
"Well boys, what now?" Lumen asks resting her blade on her shoulder. "Sweep the area, move o or head back?"
With the adrenaline rush slowly draining away:
"what kind of creatures were they? Luckily, we have beaten them easily"
Zevon turns to Lumen:
"Well, Lumen, I propose to continue our investigation of the goblin's hide-out before heading deeper underground - to avoid any surprises in our back. We may even find a good temporary fall back position in case we should need it when we go further down."
He continues, thinking out loud: "Let's see - when we first met the goblins they retreated to the east - let's start our sweep of the area there and continue in a counter-clockwise direction."
You follow the eastern cave until you reach the room where Zevon killed two goblins. Following the corridor further on, you arrive to one door.
Not finding any danger, you go in and find what seems a sleep place for the goblins. An eye-watering stink fills the cavern. Four filthy straw pallets lie heaped amid moldy food, dung, and yellowing bones. Zevon find out the beds are still mildly warmth, but no other track of goblins is found.
Opening the door on that room takes the party to a larder. This room is festooned with a half-dozen hooked chains that dangle from the ceiling. Skinned animal carcasses and large, smelly fish hang from the hooks.
The six carcases include two baboons, two wild boars, and two 6-foot-long-pikes. There's also some cleaned fish.
You hear a conversation in the other side of the door in Goblin, but as you enter to the larder the conversation suddenly stops.
Daxur says "They were saying they have heard combat to the South. I could not heard the end of the conversation, they might have heard us approaching." In fact Engineer #3 metallic steps are reverberating all around the cavern as you walk.
The door suddenly opens, a goblin, shocks at your presence but immediately attacks the first one standing in front, Lumen.
The blade is deflected by Lumen's chain shirt, the goblin steps to the east then.
The other goblins fire their crossbows.
Only one of the bolts hits Lumen in an unprotected area, causing a wound. They then draw their shorswords in their free hands.
Engineer stomps into the room, threatening all the goblins inside.
15' west, end up adjacent to Red.
With a hiss of pain and a few choice expletives, Lumen brigs her blade down on the goblin in front of her, the dark energy surging along the weapon causing her to grit her teeth in pain.
When #3 enters the room, the goblins start yelling things at him.
The blue eyed one tries to stab his shortsword profiting the lowering in the construct defences.
But his armor deflects easily the blow.
Then Lummen attacks the goblin easily splitting his body in two parts. A puddle of very dark blood covers the room, smearing all the goblin beds.
Engineer #3 gets a glimpse of the room to the West, apparently another empty sneaker's lair. He can also see a door to the East behind the green eyed goblin.
In the crowded room it is difficult to position himself in a position to attack the goblins, but Zevon steps behind Lumen and quickly throws a dagger towards the goblin
- if hit:
"I'll try to get behind them" as he leaves the room, followed by the bear.
The dagger hits Engineer #3, his armor deflecting the dagger.
Beauregard shots at the red eyed goblin.
The bolt hits the doorstep.
Daxur does same as the halfling.
The bolt hits the floor before even leaving the room.
The goblins try to hit #3 with their shortswords, but his adamantine plate deflects the blades with ease.
The goblins start shrieking.
"Alarm! Alarm! Indruders in the rest rooms!"
Zevon quickly continues down the hallway and orders his bear to guard his back. He backs up #3 and attacks the goblin, who tries to flank #3.
- if hit:
Zevon mace hits the corner of the tunnels and do not damage the goblin.
Engineer steps back and manifests disable. Cone should hit both goblins.
Up to 4 HD of critters must make will save DC 16 or be disabled for 3 minutes.
The goblins look at you suddenly feeling weird.
Beauregard shots at the red eyed goblin.
The bolt hits the doorstep.
Daxur does same as the halfling.
The bolt stabs in the green goblin shoulder.
The goblins, thinking they are almost to fall unconscious, start shouting and sobbing.
"Nah! Nah! We surrender! Please we surrender, ya' na want ta die!"
The blades of the goblins fail to penetrate #3 plating.
When the psionic power works, they pledge for mercifulness.
"if you want to surrender, drop down your weapons and lay down on the floor with your hands behind your back"
Zevon takes some rope and binds them in a rough manner if they don't obey swiftly enough.
"Can somebody check the door and listen if there are more enemies behind it?"
They do as they are told, dropping their shortswords and letting Zevon to bind them.
"What are you gonna do us?" they say in a fair common.
As you move towards the door they add "It's just the water supply over there. Fresh water." they look at you and say "We are being good goblins ya' see? Ya' can trust us, ya' don't kill us!"
Once you check inside the room you discover the goblins were saying truth. A stone basin fills nearly half of this circular chamber. The lip of the basin is ornately carved, and water pours into it through the mouth of a smiling dwarven face carved bas-relief on the southeast wall.
Although the goblins have taken care not to pollute the water, the basin and the walls are smeared with slime and excrement.
After checking the room with the stone basin, Zevon returns to the captive goblins.
"I've got some questions for you. Answer quickly and truthfully and you'll live, ok?
after a brief moment (but not really waiting for an answer) he continues:
"Are there more of your friends down here? Where are they?
And what do you know about the place further down to the west? Who rules there?"