"So it would seem..." Gideon agrees, quirking a small smile.
Turning his attention to the box, he adds,"If that box's locking mechanism is different from the first one, let's keep it, also! Never hurts to have different things to practice on. Seems to me it'd definitely be a good thing for us to have some redundancy in our skill sets. For now, though, it's probably a good idea to go back and get the rest of the things in that store room. Any volunteers?"
"Since we got the barrels out, shouldn't it be mostly safe to just lob the alchemical fire at the roaches from the doorway? I've got a pretty good eye," suggests Tobar.
"Yeah, it should be, but I was thinkin' we might want to save the alchemist's fire for future use if someone could wear the swarmsuit and be nearly entirely protected from any damage. Though I suppose it shouldn't take more than one or two of those vials to disperse the swarm, also..."
"If the swarmsuit will do the job, I can step in and just swing around my mace and crush the bugs," says Tobar. "But they were pretty big. I think they might be able to bite through the suit."
"If they do manage to bite through the suit, I think the damage will be mostly superficial...heck, I'll bite the bullet on this one. Let me have the suit. I can heal myself of any damage I take getting the goods out of the storeroom, regardless." Gideon offers.
Before anyone can protest, he is already putting the suit on, making sure it is intact and whole as he does so. Once he's confident that the suit will be as much protection as it can be against the roaches, he again ties one end of his rope around his waist (just in case), and steps back into the storeroom, trying his best to ignore the swarm of bugs as he goes to the shelves.
Gideon braves the swarm of roaches as he steps into the store room. Thousands of insects climb and scurry all over him, mandibles clacking and tearing at his swarmsuit. A few manage to rip small holes and bite the bard, but he ignores the pain and searches the shelves.
Among the mundane items, Gideon finds a teakwood box that is approximately 12 inches by 2-1/2 inches by 1-1/2 inches. He quickly leaves the building with his prize, and the swarming insects flee back into the shadows. Inside the box is a single magic wand.
Gideon looks at the wand curiously, showing it to the others. "Must be quite a treasure to be so hidden...but I'm going to be no good at identifying it at present. One of you must teach me that magical detection cantrip."
"Well, that took guts!" Weyve shudders at the thought of the bugs swarming all over him.
"What did you find?"
He examines the wand carefully, his eyes glowing faintly blue.
"Huh. Well that will certainly come in handy." Gideon observes, after Weyve shares the purpose of the wand with the group. "And I think it wraps up our search of this building, too. Shall we continue on?"
Once ready, you head on to the next building. This L-shaped building is constructed of mud bricks on a wooden frame. The western portion is of the structure is enclosed by four walls. This section has a single open window on the south side, with a canvas curtain hung across the opening. The single entrance is a wooden door, standing slightly ajar, on the southern end of the eastern face of the building. A ten-foot extension connects to the building on the east side. This extension has only a northern wall and is otherwise just a roof sheltering the space below, which is open to the outside. Underneath this cover is a forge with an exhaust flue directly above it, a worktable covered in metal scraps, a small tub of black water, and a partially sheltered anvil.
Calvin takes point, moving forward cautiously and with his shield and sword ready for a fight.
"I don't see much of interest here, but let's look around before we move on."
Inside the smithy building, the space is divided between personal living quarters and an indoor tool storage and work area. A pungent animal smell lingers in the air and a tussled pile of blankets on the wooden cot is soiled. The room is in a state of disarray, with tools such as tin snips, pliers, and files carelessly strewn all over.
Without warning, two creatures drop down from the ceiling above! These goblins have simian hands and feet, and long, ratlike tails. They stab Calvin and Gideon with their spears!
Meanwhile, a third goblin steps from around the south side of the building and stabs at Weyve, but its spear point glances off the gillman's armor!
Before you can react, the goblins attack again!
Once the team recovers from the ambush, Tobar takes stock and fires at the goblin-monkey attacking Calvin.
The sudden ambush from the simian goblins catches Gideon completely off-guard and, before he has any chance to react at all, the spear-strikes have laid him low, the strikes to his core laying him flat.
And he continues to bleed freely from those wounds, unconscious on the ground.
Calvin swings at the goblin near him (unless he dies of sudden crossbow bolt allergies)
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Weyve steps towards Gideon and tries to cast cure light wounds.
"I know it's rather tricky right now, but let's try and take one alive."
Calvin slices into the goblin in front of him, his magic longsword slicing into its side. As it reels, Tobar takes careful aim and fires a bolt into the goblin's chest, dropping the little monster.
The crossbow man steps away to give Weyve room to back away from his attacker. He heals the fallen Gideon.
The goblin who attacked the bard turns to Calvin, while the other one moves to Weyve. The gillman fighter takes a spear to the gut, while the oracle manages to dodge.
Calvin falls to the ground, groaning.
Back to the world of the waking, Gideon immediately assesses the situation and weaves a quick spell of sleep against the monkey goblins that still stand.
Tobar reloads and fires again!
"Calvin!"
Weyve looks at Calvin and winces.
That wound looks bad. My healer's touch doesn't heal that much. Better deal with the goblins before I try to work on him.
He levels his crossbow at whichever goblin looks the least healthy.
But in his haste to get his crossbow in-line he shoots too early and the bolt flies overhead.
Gideon focuses on his spell while Tobar and Weyve fire crossbows. The bolt ace finds his mark, and the goblin screeches in pain.
One goblin tries to stab Gideon and the other Tobar, but neither hits.
As the bard finishes his spell, the goblin attacking him falls to the ground, snoring softly. The one Tobar wounded resists the magic.
Tobar slams home another bolt and fires again the goblin-monkey that resisted the spell.
Weyve shouts at the remaining goblin. "Surrender, or you will surely die!"
Tobar's crossbow bolt slams home, catching the last goblin in the chest. It falls to the ground, bleeding out.
Among the mess are several valuable items.
"Can you keep our friends from bleeding out?" asks Tobar. "I'm no healer."
*Gurgle*
As soon as the last goblin is put down, Gideon kneels next to Calvin, weaving a quick spell of healing and hoping that it is enough to get the gillman back on his feet.
"Oh, crap. Calvin!"
Weyve lays his hand on Calvin's wound.
Calvin opens his eyes. "Why does everything taste like copper?" he asks, sitting up. "And why do I hurt like I got ran through with a spear?"
"You got ran through with a spear."
"Oh. Well then yeah... I guess that makes sense." he says sheepishly. "Gotta try to avoid that. Did we win?"
He looks around. "We won. Yay. I think I'm in need of a rest and some more extensive medical care. And a drink. Or two. How about you three?"
"We need to find a place we can barricade. We still aren't sure where everyone else went an' I don't wanna get kidnapped in my sleep," says Tobar.
"Before we worry about barricading ourselves in somewhere, we should at least finish exploring these buildings and clearing out anything that might interrupt attempts at fortification. We've still got a while before dusk; plenty of time to make sure we've a safe place to bed down. Maybe we'll find some berry bushes the wand can be used on, too."
Weyve looks nervous.
"I am out of magic except for a few minor things, and apparently so are you. We've been injured a lot already and if we run into trouble we have no way of bouncing back."
"So I'd rather scout the fringes of the area now for berry bushes and if we find some we'll start using this wand. If we can't find any then we should hole up until we can recover spells."
"I suppose we are unlikely to find bushes of edible berries in these buildings...so, I'll go along with that. Let's try to find some food we can use that wand on. That would help us keep going for at least a bit more exploration."
Calvin rises, finds the one goblin sleeping, and puts his magic sword through it, ending it.
The goblin gurgles and dies as Calvin's sword point drives into its chest.
You search along the outskirts of the colony, and after a few minutes, come across a bush flowering with several dozen ripe, red berries.
Out of the corner of his eye, Gideon catches Calvin's movement, but is unconcerned with it until he hears the goblin gurgle...and has a hard time suppressing a small grin. "Well...I suppose that's the end of that. Can't say I find it a wrong decision. The odds of any kind of worthwhile communication were about as close to zero as they could get."
[ooc]Brainiac, UMD specifically disallows taking 10, but can you still take 20 with it? It would be a lot simpler for me to just take 20 however many times I have to for us all to get HP back, but I'll roll a bunch of UMDs if I have to. We'd need...eight berries for Calvin, six for Gideon, four for Weyve, and none for Tobar. Eighteen berries total. Wouldn't mind having my math checked behind me, though.
Out of the corner of his eye, Gideon catches Calvin's movement, but is unconcerned with it until he hears the goblin gurgle...and has a hard time suppressing a small grin. "Well...I suppose that's the end of that. Can't say I find it a wrong decision. The odds of any kind of worthwhile communication were about as close to zero as they could get."
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After only six attempts with the wand, Gideon manages to activate its healing properties four times and give the group a grand total of 22 berries they can use for healing. Gideon immediately eats six of them, releasing a breath when the healing magic put into them completely erases any trace of injury. He also hands the others as many as they need to get back up to full strength as well.
Weyve eats one of the berries.
"Calvin, here. Take some of these."
"I feel much more secure now, if we want to continue."
Calvin will take the berries and toss them in his mouth, munching on them one at a time. By the time he's finished he takes a swig of his applejack and nods. "Two things." he says. "One, thank you that seems to have healed me a bit. Two, I've come up with a plan for my first alcohol I'll be brewing."
Tobar chews slowly on a berry, savoring the flavor. "Tasty. This colony should cultivate these," he says.
"I did bring some supplies with me as well - hardtack, dry cheese, dried apricots and prunes, so we have some additional food."
"Well...now that we're a bit patched up, what's the verdict? Do we keep looking around or just find somewhere to bed down?"
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