Karrin scrambles up the seamed rockface with relative ease. The eroded granite has many handholds for easy purchase.
Merle scrambles up after Karrin. Greep follows, looking for a wand to use as he goes.
Karrin and Merle see the gory bloodspatter from the unfortunate eating of Ravnek the Kobold mook on the rock ledge. The monster is inside its cave now, and a wave of fetid stench wafts from the darkened entrance. Piles of ripe-smelling dung litter the ledge surface, all crawling with flies and maggots. Bones and gristle also clutter the ledge, attracting their own share of winged vermin. A buzzing fly cloud envelops the group, landing on them and trying to crawl into their mouths, eyes and ears.
Climbing up the cliff with Karin begins to look less and less like a good idea as the smell from the remains and droppings hit her sensitive nose, the sight of all the remains didn't help much either and the flies crawling all over her face and in her fur. It takes every once of self control not to either run back down the hill screaming or be violently ill. trying to make herself look as brave as possible she tip toes up to the entrance to the cave and shoots a very quick peek in
I will move the others up tomorrow if no other actions are posted.[/ooc]
Torn between helping and saving her own tail Swift thoughtfully watches the group sneak off before shrugging to herself and slinking off after them.
I will move the others up tomorrow if no other actions are posted.[/ooc]
Swift scrambles nimbly up the rock face and joins the others. The stench and flies surround her in a noisome cloud.
Eir, Greep and the two kobolds follow quickly up the side of the rock face. As the group assembles there is a shriek and a roar. The beast has emerged from the cave and is staring straight at the group. Bits of flesh still hang from its sharp teeth as its cat-pupiled eyes narrow and it roars a challenge in Abyssal:
Abyssal:
The beast faces the party and whips its scorpion-like tail above its head. A rain of long spikes come shooting from it, whizzing through the air towards the party.
In Abyssal:
Initiatives, Manticore brawl:
Merle: 21
Eir: 20
Karrin: 20
Greep: 20
Swift: 20
Wightscale: 19
Clamps: 17
Manticore: 15
Merle may have no idea what its saying but the way its whipping its tail up is trouble in any language.
"Oh no you don't" She mutters whilst quickly unleashing a spell. A large oily substance forms under the manticores feet.
An oily stain spreads under the winged beast, but it seems to be able to remain standing without problems.
Draw weapons on the run. Close (H27) and attack.
Eir shrieks a piercing war cry and rushes in, unsheathing her twin serrated blades as she runs towards the abomination. The two blades gash the beast, causing purplish ichor to weep from its patchwork scale-and-fur hide. The evil abomination roars with pain.
"Hey Ugly," Karrin shouts as she charges forward, "eat this!"
attack, Damage cold (1d20 8=26, 1d12 13=23, 1d6=5)
"Hey Ugly," Karrin shouts as she charges forward, "eat this!" ...
Karrin charges in, inviting the ugly Hrugnek to taste her blade. A wild gleam comes into her eye as she whirls the massive axe about as if it were a bamboo stick. The translucent blue axehead leaves a contrail of condensed fog behind it as it carves through the air. The runes etched upon its ebon shaft glow silver.
The axe bites deep into the Hrugnek's side. The gush of purple ichor freezes as it spurts from the wound, splintering into a thousand fragments as Karrin yanks back the blade from the beast's hide.
Hrugnek bellows in fear and pain as the icy spike of pain hits him. He stumbles, visibly shaken by this attack as well as Eir's.
Wightscale scampers towards the large abomination. As he runs a green-glowing sword suddenly appears in his right hand. A smaller dagger, this one of plain-looking steel, pops out of his left cuff. The albino kobold darts up the side of the cave’s outer wall, launching himself off the crumbling granite and onto the back of the roaring creature.
Climb: 1d20+1=10, Tumble: 1d20+9=22
The green-glowing sword slices into the winged lion-man beast, burying itself in its spine. The dagger hits the beast's wing, yanking out of Wightscale's hands.
ATK 1: 1d20+3=22, ATK 2: 1d20-1=1 Dam: 1d4=4
Clamps runs ponderously towards the melee, gears whining, rusty clamp claws widened. He piles into the beast full tilt
1d20+7=21, 1d8=6, 1d20+7=17, 1d8=7
The golem-like kobold grabs on to one of the beast’s leathery wings with his rusty pincers and literally rips it out at the root. The beast shrieks in agony as a geyser of ichor from the beast’s sundered shoulder sprays the group. The mortally-wounded beast thrashes wildly as its life drains out of it in a purple river. Its thrashings slowly come to a halt as it dies.
"Well that was easy enough" Merle begins to head over to the cave mouth whilst talking casting light on her dagger she has a look inside.
The granite cave the creature inhabited is dank and fetid. A high-pitched squeaking fills the air, and Merle can see several rats running off of the bloody remains of Ravnek. There is a nest of sorts in back of the cave. Piles of old cloth and stuffing are arranged in a smelly pile, redolent of the creature’s musk. There are glints of gold and the twinkle of gems scattered among the dirty linen. There are pieces of armor and several weapons scattered about the cave.
Merle pales a little as she sees the little rodents running around. Rats she hated rats. Of course not wanting to lose face in front of the others she begins to slowly head further into the cave.
"Hey I think I've found something everyone" The last part of the sentence coming out as almost a high pitched squeak as a large rat brushes by her leg.
Eir browses, oblivious to the rats and the stench.
Eir finds many loose coins and gems.
67 PP
450 GP
687 SP
820 CP
A citrine
A lapis lazuli
A diamond
3 turquoise stones
3 gold necklaces
A ring set with a garnet
A ring set with a silver spider
Alabaster statuette of a maralith inlaid with semiprecious stone inlays.
There is most of a set of blood-stained full plate. Several longswords are also here, as well as 4 daggers, a mace, 3 chain shirts and agreatsword. All these pieces show a lot of rust from neglect.
An oddly-shaped skull catches Eir's eye. It looks as if it has been modified to wear as a helmet. The skull is not bone, it seems to be made of stone. Two long ridged horns jut from the top of it. The stone is colored various shades of red, ivory and purple.
A saber gleams in the dim light of the cave. It shines with a silvery glow that seems to come from within it. The serrated blade is inscribed with Celestial runes and doesn't show any rust.
Celestial runes:
In one corner Eir spots three scroll cases made of hollowed bone with verdegrised copper plugs. 3 potions in a small carrrying pouch are hidden in the dank linens nearby.
Eir also finds a twisted blackened twig bound in iron bands with a copper pyramid attached to one end.
"So anything interesting in there?" Merle calls from where she has retreated back to the cave entrance.
<Eirs throw valuables into a pile. Picks up the saber. Examines the rings carefully.>
To herself: "Bingo."
To Merle, loudly: "Loot Merle, the usual Manticore loot."
"Does it look like there is anything I would be able to use?" Merle braces herself for what may be another disgusting slog back into the cave.
Wightscale scampers into the cave, brushing by Merle.
"Now this is what I'm talking about!" He chortles.
The albino kobold begins to pick up the loose coins and gems, stuffing them into his pockets. He pauses when he sees the skull helmet.
"Hello, what's this?"
He picks it up and examines the odd helmet.
Merle rolls her eyes and sighs. If she wanted to find anything before the Kobolds picked it clean she would have to go back in. Moving as carefully as she can in order to avoid any rats she begins to collect anything that she might be able to use.
Merle picks up the three scroll cases. They seemed to be made out of the hollowed femur of a large animal. When she inspects them, she notices that the casings are delicately scrimshawed with a abstract interlocking pattern. The greenish copper plugs are snugly fitted to one end of the scrimshawed bone, the other end is capped with a flat copper base, presumably to allow the case to stand vertically. The plugs have a small knob fashioned like a bird's head on their top to facilitate opening.
The blackened twig looks suspiciously like a wand. The iron banding and copper pyramid are pretty good giveaways.
Spellcraft check 1 d 20 + 6=24
Merle will also have open the scroll cases and have a look inside.
Merle saw a very similar wand once in a magic shop. It was a Wand of Lightning. This one is very similar to the one she had seen, and the blackened nature of the wood suggests it was harvested off a lightning-blasted tree. Iron and copper are often used to channel electrical energy for arcane uses.
The three scrolls disgorge four rolls of parchment. Three are spells: tongues, heroism, and fireball The fourth parchment isn't a spell, rather an odd spiderweb of different-colored dots and lines of some kind of text. Merle can't make out the language.
"Let's divide it up real quick," Karrin says as she cleans her axe on the manticore's fur, "and then let's get back to what we came here to do, Kill some goblins and free some slaves."
Merle attaches the lightning wand to her belt and quickly places 2 of the scrolls back into tubes and into her pack, keeping the fireball one rolled up in a pocket. After spending a few moments staring at the one that was random gibberish she places that one in her pack as well.
"Hey lets not rush things some of this stuff could come in useful for dealing with those goblins you know." patting her new wand as if to emphasise her point.
"If we ain't ready now we're never gonna be ready," Karrin says methodically, as if she were quoting or repeating someone, "that stuff will be useful in the future, but we came prepared for this mission. Let's grab the loot and get on with the mission. But you know what they say on the planes:
"'grab all the magic stuff'," Karrin says in Abyssal, "'and leave the rocks and clink for the rubes',
"Strange language," Karrin quickly adds scratching her head with that awkward and nervous smile she sometimes wears, but it takes a keen eye to see her watching the Kobold and the construct out of the corner of her eye, "doesn't translate well, any of you guys speak Abyssal?"
Wightscale puts the skull helm on. It shrinks to fit his diminutive head.
"HAH! Sodding magic I knew it!" He chortles greedily
Clamps and Wightscale do not bother with the other items, rather concentrating on the obvious swag.
The other kobolds arrive a few minutes after the death of the manticore and crowd the cave's exterior. Wightscale tasks them with recovering any bits of metal, old armor or weapons lying about. When finished he looks at the party, his fearsome new helmet glowering over his scaly brow.
"Well, this was a nice diversion, but it's getting dark. Normally me an' my lads would be ready to go, but I think it would be crafty if we rested an' took the gobbos during the day. Should we stay here or move to where the gobbos are keeping kip?"
20 PP
200 GP
400 SP
500 CP
A citrine
A lapis lazuli
2 turquoise stones
1 gold necklace
Alabaster statuette of a maralith inlaid with semiprecious stone inlays.
"'grab all the magic stuff'," Karrin says in Abyssal, "'and leave the rocks and clink for the rubes',
Wightscale whips around when Karrin speaks.
"What was yeh bone-box rattlin'?" He says, perplexed.
He suddenly speaks in Abyssal:
Abyssal:
"Well since the Manticore was here its unlikely any other large creatures would be around so this place should be pretty safe. If somewhat....... Messy that and I would think it would be unlikely the goblins would be moving about in the middle of the night." Merle despite her words seems less than thrilled about staying in the cave.
"Can't read a dot of it. Gate map, though I reckon."
Wightscale's kobold minions are put to work disposing of Ravnek's corpse, the manticore's corpse and picking up the nasty bits around the cave. In relatively short time the cave is made into a fairly decent camping area. The kobolds set pickets and bedrolls outside. The light dims and fades away, much like Sigil's sky, but more-natural light looking. A bright skein of stars spring into being in the darkened sky. The minions discover a nearby spring and some deadfalls and a brisk fire is soon going. A brace of rabbits are trapped, wild onions and herbs are collected, and several birds' nests plundered to make dinner.
The party can hear a lot of wildlife calling and moving beyond the raised rock outcropping. Some of it seems quite large.
Wightscale sits by the fire eating his meal. The firelight gives his pale hide a ruddy tinge and his newly-acquired skull helmet gives off weird shadows. His golem companion Clamps and his two lieutenants Sherekak and Sallisthith squat nearby. He looks over at the party.
"That was hende bladework bloods. I say we rest and first light we strike out and find this gobbo nest."
"sounds good to me" Merle answers whilst simultaneously trying to figure out anything from the parchment she found. Eventually she gives up and stashes it back in her pack.
"So who's going to take watch?"
"That was hende bladework bloods. I say we rest and first light we strike out and find this gobbo nest."
"Wasn't bad," Karrin says with a shrug, "I was kinda hoping to take it out with just the one swing but I guess it still worked out alright. You guys were pretty good yourselves. We're gonna make short work out of the goblins for sure."
Karrin munches away on her never ending rations. The meal the kobolds prepared was delicious but hardly filling (well, hardly filling for Karrin), so Karrin is munching away on her rations to fill herself up.
"I think," Karrin says between chomps, "we should split up the watches, Kobolds and silver rose members going splits on it, it's way harder to take out two guards. Plus not all of our group can see in the dark, so it's best to have at least one set of night eyes on things."
"So who's going to take watch?"
<Looks over the kobolds suspiciously.>
"Everyone?"
Wightscale laughs, a harsh cawing sound
"Everyone it is! I'll post me pickets, an' yeh lot can figure out 'mongst yerselfs who's gonna watch THEM."
Wightscale laughs again.
Wightscale laughs, a harsh cawing sound
<Eir flashes him a sincere smile.>
"You have anything to drink, Scales?"
"I'll take the first watch."
"Well watching each other is important as well," Karrin says, "I mean we probably don't all trust each other yet, but mainly we're in enemy territory and we don't know if this is beast is one of their number or not. They might notice his absence and send goons to investigate. Doubling the guard just makes sense. It's more about security then trust at this point. Oh and I'll take middle watch. I'd take last watch but my eyes are more useful then Eir's eyes!"