"Umm.. girls? The goblin had one too.." Swift offers, waving the agate in her hand in front of Karrin as the duskblade digs in her bag. "We're about to hop this portal"
Swift indicates the agate she found.
Swift saunters up to the bricked-up entrance and brandishes the agate. There is a 'pop' sound and a brilliant blue-tinged liquid-looking energy field snaps into being in front of the party.
Wightscale gestures to his kobolds.
"Lads! Through and clear the room of gobbos!"
The kobolds hit the portal running, disappearing into the electric blue energy.
After taking a second to make sure the portal wont close on her and take a Limb off Merle will walk through.
Swift gladly bounds through after Merle, knowing which way to roll to land herself in a nice bit of cover should the sounds of combat reach her ears.
"That'll work too," Karrin says, doing up her back pack again, "alright let's do this thing."
Karrin pulls out her axe and moves towards the gate.
The party dives through the portal and ends up in a small cave. There is light coming from the entrance, and the kobolds have fanned out, poking into corners looking for any goblins hiding. The cave seems to be deserted at the moment.
Wightscale and his three lieutenants Clamps, Sherekak and Sallistith stand at the entrance of the cave, goggles strapped to their scaly faces. Clamps' gears whine and Sherekak's narrow toothy head pivots like a bird as they take in the view.
The party emerges to stand with the koblods. They are high in an immense range of mountains that march higher and higher into the distance as they meet a pillar that has no observable top. Clouds float lazily in the bright blue sky, but there is no sun that can be seen either, just a bright light that seems to come from all over the heavens.
A rutted track leads down the mountain, obviously much used. Horse droppings line the trail. The path seems to descend down switchback from the mountain where the cave is situated. Several lush valleys are visible from this vantage point, with silvery rivers running through them. Tall snow-capped peaks easily 3,000 Meters tall surround the immediate area.
Wightscale turns to the group
"Guess there's only one way down eh? Lads! Stop looking for gobbos under those rocks an' lets go find their nest!"
The kobolds begin to scramble out and form up, donning their dark goggles and wide-brimmed hats. Wightscale gives the party a sardonic bow.
"After yeh, cutters."
Deciding not to give a sarcastic response to whitescale (or just dumping a grease spell on his head.) Merle Begins to head down the valley path whispering to Seph on her shoulder as she travels
Feline
The group and the kobolds spend a moment doing a bit of checking and adjusting of gear before they roll out. The party notices that many of the kobolds carry rope and grappling hooks. One is carrying a large crowbar that looks to be almost as big as he is.
The light outside is bright and the wind whips briskly at this elevation. The air doesn't seem to be all that thin though. The party can see a distant winged shape hovering in some thermals. The scale of the place makes it hard to tell what size it is.
The trail is muddy and rude, but there have been attempts to buttress it up with logs and rough stones. The edge falls off down into the green valley below. The land is quiet but for the moan of the wind and a distant hawk's cry.
<Eir follows along behind keeping her eyes on the flank, swords drawn.>
Karrin follows close to Eir, ready to jump ahead should there be any danger, and within grabbing distance of Greep and Merle so she can assist either if they should need help. Karrin's axe is out and ready for violence.
Merle will position herself behind Karrin and Ein so she can help them out if any trouble comes up. Leaving Seph to keep an eye on the Kobolds she will spend most of her time watching the surrounding scenery.
The ersatz raiding group starts to descend the narrow track down the mountain. It doesn't take a Ranger to know that this path has been used frequently and recently. Flies still buzz around the horse apples in the road.
Merle:
After about an hour of cautious walking, the muddy trail merges into a wider, flagstoned path. This path is well-made and well-kept. It wraps around the mountain's side, heading both towards the Spire and its oppposite direction.
Casting about, it looks like the wagons headed away from the Spire. The group continues it's travel. A few miles down the broad flagstoned path is a marker stelae. Dwarvish runes and arrows line its side.
Wightscale pauses.
"Any of you lot ken those scribblings?"
Dwarvish:
"No idea" Merle answers looking over the writing
Swift tilts her head to the side as she looks over the runic markings. "Place names?" She suggests before looking to the others "If given some time I could probably deceipher them if people are curious"
"Hmm could be dwarven highly doubt its Goblin. Road sign maybe? Although does it really matter were already pretty sure what way the goblins went right?"
Wightscale nods at Merle
"Right you are. Onwards."
The raiding party walks another few miles until another muddier track splits off and descends down the mountain's edge into the valley below. The goblin's tracks follow this path downwards.
Taking the trail downwards, the party spends the rest of the afternoon walking down to the valley. They finally come out to more level ground. The road they follow seems to head off towards a large waterfall set in the mountain further down the valley.
Greep stops for a moment.
"Didn't Quint mention a waterfall?"
Suddenly there is a loud roar from skyward. A hideous beast plummets from the heavens, plucking a hapless kobold up in its paws and sailing off. The creature has bat wings, a lion's body, a fang-filled humanoid face and a scorpion-like tail. It lands on a nearby rock outcropping and begins to savage his victim. The kobolds shrieks are soon silenced.
Wightscale and the kobolds had instinctively dived for shelter. They now raise their eyes to the beast.
"By Kurtulmak's scaly coinpurse!" Wightscale breathes
Merle instinctively begins to charge a spell holding out on releasing it till she sees what the creature and the others are going to do.
"So everyone what's the plan?"
"Fight or flight," Karrin growls, looking to her companions.
"We could just try and go round. After all were here to deal with Goblins not get into a brawl with a hungry beast."
"We could just try and go round. After all were here to deal with Goblins not get into a brawl with a hungry beast."
"This nasty thing might be working for the goblins!" Karrin quickly adds, almost cutting Merle off, "and it can fly and might kill for fun. We need to think fast!"
"Swift do you think you could get close to it without it noticing you?"
"I could certainly give it a go, although if I die be warned, I'm coming back to haunt you as punishment for having the idea!"
"I could certainly give it a go, although if I die be warned, I'm coming back to haunt you as punishment for having the idea!"
Merle gives a small shrug "Well I have a wand of obscuring mit that would help us get closer to the thing so Its not like you would be going in by yourself."
"This nasty thing might be working for the goblins!" Karrin quickly adds, almost cutting Merle off, "and it can fly and might kill for fun. We need to think fast!"
"Well If we get close to it we can try and rush it. I mean its not that far away."
"We could just try and go round. After all were here to deal with Goblins not get into a brawl with a hungry beast.""This nasty thing might be working for the goblins!" Karrin quickly adds, almost cutting Merle off, "and it can fly and might kill for fun. We need to think fast!"
"It looks like an animal. We're not here to hunt."
"It looks like an animal. We're not here to hunt."
"Looks like a monster," Karrin says, "and some monsters need to be put down! Besides it's attacked one of our group, that could have been one of out members, do you want to face this thing on our way back?"
Wightscale looks over at the distant monster enjoying its grisly feast.
"Poor Ravnek. Zigged when he shoulda zagged."
Wightscale looks at the group.
"I personally don't like things what kill me lads, but I have a feeling that thing there might chew us up afore we even get to the goblins. I knows I wouldn't like to take it on with just me lads, if yeh ken what me bonebox is flapping."
Wightscale pauses
"If yeh feel hende we can make a go, but me lads will be ranged it looks like. I can send Clamps in with yeh, an' I'll tag along to show the colors, but the rest we has to keep back."
"Ah heck lets just kill the thing already" Merle clearly getting tired of the discussion begins to head into the long grass and crouching make her way towards the manticore until she is in maximum blasting range with her spells.
Merle slinks off into the tall grass with the ease of her race. Wightscale looks over at the rest, shrugs and points to Clamps.
"You're with me cutter."
Wightscale mutters to his two other lieutenants
"Get the lads as close as you can, have 'em string their bows and ready a volley if big ugly comes overhead."
Wightscale and Clamps follow after Merle
After a moment Greep shrugs and turns to the others.
"Well, in for a Green, in for a Lady."
Greep follows after the two strange kobolds.
Karrin doesn't wait for Eir's reply. As the others decide to deal with the monster Karrin herself is quick to join them.
"Alright, just you and me Mr Axe," Karrin whispers to her new axe as she tries to creep through the tall grass, "let's try and make sure no one else gets hurt."
Karrin and Eir follow Greep into the tall grass. The rock outcropping looms larger, its 20-foot-high sides seamed with small crevices and ledges. Wightscale and Clamps head for a small copse of trees, keeping low. The flying nightmare has finished with Ravnek, and is dragging the remains of the unfortunate kobold towards the dark cave entrance.
More stealth checks
Stealth checks (1d20 + 4=11, 1d20 + 4=17, 1d20 + 4=21)
Merle continues slinking through the long grass towards the target.
Torn between helping and saving her own tail Swift thoughtfully watches the group sneak off before shrugging to herself and slinking off after them.
The monster is now inside its cave, the dimming ambient light of the Outland sky not allowing a lot of detail to be seen by the party.
Merle continues up to the side of the cliff face and begins to look for a way up
Karrin moves towards the cliff, trying to move as quietly and as quickly as she can.