Alwyn hustles foward, drawing his greatsword as he moves into the goblins' chamber. He smiles appreciatively at the carnage wrought by Vethran and Dravite. More coming up, fellas...
Elisile nods briefly in thanks to Vethran, and draws her rapier. “All fall down,” she murmurs again, lunging forward with the narrow blade, skewering the goblin still standing before her.
Dravite-22
Vethran-20
Lo'j-19
Alwyn-12
Elisile-11
Illes-8
Goblins - 8
Hudak-7
Larken-6
Just an update to bring the chart to this page.
Alwyn hustles foward, drawing his greatsword as he moves into the goblins' chamber. He smiles appreciatively at the carnage wrought by Vethran and Dravite. More coming up, fellas...
(Hate to be a party-pooper but Alwyn is still restricted to half-movement in the tunnel, and so cannot attack if he goes to G5. He would also take an AoO from the goblin in H6. However, if he moved 10' to I5 he can attack that goblin and avoid the AoO. I will assume he does the latter, as it is more bloodthirsty.)
Two more goblins fall under the blades of Alwyn and Elisile.
(Illes next, then any (remaining) goblins.)
I will assume he does the latter, as it is more bloodthirsty.
The three remaining goblins, perhaps not yet cognizant of the depleted numbers of their comrades, continue the fight. One steps up to Larken's prone form and chops into Larken's arm. The other two attack Dravite and Hudak, but can't get inside their defences.
f4 get some!
r9+7=16, damage r2+4=6
if kill, then
cleave
g5
r6+7=14, damage r8+4=12
"Come and die with me!!!
Feel the helter skelter!
Better run and find your ass some shelter!!"
Illes grips his rapier and edges closer to the mouth of the tunnel covering his mouth as the stench of burning flesh reaches him.
Dravite steps forward swinging his hook in a downward arc at the goblin before him, connecting solidly, the force of the blow practically driving the gobbo to the ground.
5' step to G6, Attack gobbo in F6-1d20+8=20, 1d12+4=9
Hudak's sword arcs through two of the little horrors, and Dravite finishes the last. In a few seconds, the little clearing is turned from a quiet resting spot for goblins to a blood-spattered charnel house, strewn with tiny corpses.
Elisile looks around somewhat sadly, then bends to wipe her blade clean on a goblin’s jacket, wincing from her wound as she does so.
Illes sheathes his rapier and scrambles out of the tunnel. Still covering his nose to some degree, the bard exclaims, "That was astounding work gentlemen!" Surveying the carnage, he notices the elven tracker gripping a gash and moves to heal her with his wand. Afterwards he realizes Dravite is more seriously wounded. "Gah! These look nasty. What did you do, run right into the middle of 'em? Those dogslicers are filthy. Lucky for you..." the bard expends another charge, "we plenty of healing to go around and those won't get a chance for infection to set in."
Larken checks his crossbow to make sure the fall didn't damage it and gets ready to move back out.
"Which reminds me... You got cut as well, right?"
Vethran looks around with an accomplished smirk on his face.
"That went well," the mage beamed.
Ach! That be a right nice spell ye be castin' there V, did quite a number it did! Oy, thanks fer da healin' dere fellow...I be feelin' much better now dat de scratches be mended.
Let's do what needs doin' and move on quick, dinnae wanna be dallyin' aboot. We can be lootin' dis lot on de way out if ye wanna be doin' dat.
"What a splendid axe! It goes through foes like a hot knife through sandwich lard!"
Elisile nods her thanks to Illes, then turns to Larken.
“How do you fare?” she asks. “Shall we examine the door we passed back yonder?”
"Good fighting, all. Hopefully the smell of roasted goblin won't alert the rest of their fellows. Let's get the door."
Alwyn prises open the gate, woven with brambles and vines. Bright sunlight streams into the tunnel from outside, and the sound of waves crashing on rocks. The others crowd round and peer out.
It is swiftly obvious that this must be an observation point rather than a gate per se – there is no path or tunnel, it simply opens on to empty space at the top of a cliff. Below, the surf pounds on the rocks about 50’ down. Looking round, to the east cab be had the first good look at Thistletop – for that is surely what it is.
Offshore, and connected to the mainland by a precarious-looking rope bridge, is a surprisingly regular, round-topped island. On that sits a palisade with a number of platforms at regular intervals, on which sit goblin look-outs (though they don’t seem to be very observant at the moment, more lazing about or talking). Inside the palisade appears to be a large, more-or-less circular hut or hall. The whole seems to be made of weathered wood, battered by the elements and half-rotting. Smoke curls through a hole in the hall roof.
The bridge seems to make landfall on the landward side about one hundred or more feet to the east. There is no path along the cliff top, and even if there was even the most inattentive goblin would see the party and raise the alarm.
Elisile looks around, noting the position of the bridge and the goblin ‘sentries’, then steps back from the edge.
“We shall need to take the eastern passage to try to get to the bridge,” she says quietly. “When we gain the bridge, the goblins will likely notice and attempt to stop us; before we attempt to cross, there may be benefit in some of us with skill in ranged combat to return to this point and defend those attempting the crossing.”
I'll be first over the bridge. I'll go over to put axe to them, and you hail me in with arrows.
Spending a moment to analyze the situation, Vethran speaks. "The bridge looks sturdy enough and, with all this moisture, I don't think we'll need to fear them burning it out from under our feet. It should be relatively safe to cross."
spot-1d20+6=18 EDIT; Does the dwarven +2 count toward this? If so I hit the DC20.
How do we be gittin' ta da bridge? Thar be no path dis way.
Grrr..I hates de gobbos. Almos' asmuch as giantkin...
"That's one big stone head," Larken comments, "Looks like one of those gigantic Thassilonian statues. A lot of them are weathering away on the bottom of the sea. Maybe the bottom is just closer to the surface here. Not that it makes much difference. If the statue is intact, it'd still be several hundred feet tall. Still... wow."
Elisile looks at Larken, somewhat impressed by his knowledge – the lad is full of surprises. She then looks to Dravite.
“There was an eastern way back there I believe – in the direction that I heard that strange roaring sound.”
"Let's go look at that. Storming across this bridge is just asking to die.[/ooc]
I notice things other people have noticed, and not much else... (Made A&E and spot...)
"The bridge looks stout, and resistant to fire, but we should make preparations to sever it from this side before we cross, should we be forced to withdraw in the face of yet more carnival freaks."
"As a suggestion. Perhaps distracting the enemy would be helpful. If we could start a largeish fire here, away from the bridge, perhaps we could focus their attention away from our crossing. Especially if we had means to control when it started. What say you, Fire-Tamer?" I ask Vethran.
"Whatever else, make sure you keep your eyes and ears open, we can run in to some nasty trouble in here."
"I'd storm the bridge. Or I'll hold back. You guys always seem smart."
The party heads back towards the east. The passage continues for a little while, goes past the previous junction to the south through which the party originally approached, before itself turning south into a fairly large clearing in the brambles. The sickly grass on the floor is trampled and scuffed up, but the main feature is a hole in the centre of the chamber, about 10' in diameter and seeming to go straight down. Two more passages head out from the clearing - one to the south, the other east. The chamber is otherwise empty.
“The sound I heard seemed to emanate from under ground,” comments Elisile, indicating the hole with a gesture.
Keeping a careful eye – and her bow trained – on the hole, she approaches, and then crouches, searching for any sign of tracks around the opening, or any indication of something having burrowed to or from it.
Elisile finds a lot of goblin tracks, some tracks from the goblin dogs, and those of some large cat, maybe cougar-sized.
The hole itself looks natural - the sound of waves echoing in a cave emerge from below.
(By the way, 170xp for the goblins you just fought.)
"If this doesn't work out and we end up going with the bridge, you should know I brought along a scrollcase full of distractions. Lasts as long as we need and I could place it... I'm sure I could even set it on the other side of the island, as long as I could see it from this shore."
This looks like a major thoroughfare for the goblins, though most tracks run north and south. The ground around the hole is torn up, as if there was a struggle (or struggles) - the goblins appear to have been throwing some of their number is the hole.
The feline tracks could be a firepelt, the local big cat.
In response to the marshall's query, Vethran nods.
"A substantial fire is simple enough to generate. Controlling it once it has left my hands, however, is another matter entirely."
After that, he quietly remains near the back of the group as they investigate.
“As far as the assault on the island, I can reach it independently of the bridge as long as I can get within fifty feet or so,” says Elisile.
“As for setting a fire here, I do not agree. If it were to get out of control we cut off our own escape route, and potentially put a large force of the enemy behind us if they choose to fight it. Besides which, It is very damp and dank in this forest, being subject to sea mists, and it likely would not burn well. A fire would probably generate a lot of smoke but not spread far.”
“So. To the bridge or down the hole? There may be goblins down there, or perhaps a way by sea to the island.”