Thistletop
Matrim sees no keyhole for the door to the east. The hinges are on the other side as the door opens out into whatever are is next. Despite the age of the Keep, the doors seem in fair shape. As you are eating the pickle, which is fantastic by the way, you get on your knees to peer under the door. Your eyes catch the sight of the far doors closing, it looks like whoever was conversing decided to go farther into the Keep and not up the stairs towards you as you see no creatures in this room at this time. It appears to be an empty room with the exception of some dust and broken furniture pushed into one corner.
Karmid as you listen at the north door you hear the snarling and barking of dogs, not so loud that they are right on the other side of this door but they are close. Suddenly the barking turns to growling and the sounds of tearing.
---
Uldar is able to toss the four bodies over the lip of the roof and into the courtyard below. The dogs continue to make noise but the barking has ceased and turned to growling.
Now the roof is clear and the dogs seem satiated or at least distracted with their surprise meals.
Drasven is beginning to get nercous as he waits for his allies signal for all clear.............
Jili sighs, and waves for everyone to come off of the room. She points to the door, and indicates a preference for the door Matrim is next to.
Matrim turns to Karmid, “Do you think we should continue on or head back to regroup before continuing?“
Uldar follows Jill's signal down the stairs. He gives the "come on" wave to the others that might have missed Jill's wave.
Ro gives up and just let's them go. She's tired of the stress of trying to herd cats.
Drasven slowly makes his way towards Jill, hoping that he doesn't make too much noise.
He jingles as he moves.
Drasven winces........
"Regroup here. Let's let them come down here before we move on. We should stick together."
Karmid moves to the stairs and waves the others down, pressing his finger to his lips for them to be quiet.
Bow in one hand, Uldar tries to move as quietly as he can down the stairs.
Matrim hisses to those that just joined him. “You guys can wake the dead.“ he moves to open the door once everyone is down the stairs and ready to move through.
Lia gets up from her observation point, and walks over to Rojava, waiting for her confirmation before sneaking down the stairs with near-catlike agility.
To Matrim, she whispers back:"Not yet.", offering a friendly smile as she follows him to the door.
Rojava looks up at Lai from where she's sitting and shrugs. "I quit. I'm not in charge anymore. Just do whatever you want Honey."
Ro waits until everyone else is gone, then goes on down herself.
Lia smiles at Ro, then at Flutter:"I'm free!"
She leans forward, and gives Rojava a kiss on the cheek, before actually pretending to be a cat as she sneaks downstairs.
Thistletop
As Matrim opens the door, the door across this chamber is being opened by a Goblin!
He puts his fingers to his lips indicating that Matrim should be quiet. The Goblin turns back and speaks in broken common, "It nothing, just dogs make noises, I go feeds them more morsels the comes to throne room watches fights!"
The Goblin steps into the room closing the door behind him and whispers, "You Longshanks from Sandpoint?"
This Goblin is dressed in a robe unlike the rest that you have encountered, he certainly looks like a normal but for his garb and lack of histrionics at seeing you.
"Yes, and you should probably step away from the big man with the hammer.", Lia whispers cheerfully, still enjoying her newfound freedom.
Thistletop
"I Gugmurt. I shaman of tribe. I lose position stupid Longshanks Nualia. Before Nualia we only kills Longshanks come into territory... she comes with big big plans make Chief attack Longshanks town. I says no! She says Yes, we attack. Now you Longshanks riled up like bees. I make new deal, advise Longshanks what to do get rid of Nualia, Return I promise no more attacks on Sandpoint and I gives you horse!"
Karmid hefts his hammer and points it at the goblin, doubt in his whispering voice.
"A horse? I thought Goblins hated horses? Where would you get one? Why should we trust you?"
Matrim tries to remember what he has heard about Goblins, “I don't think that they hate them. I think they treat them like cows... Horse meat.“
Thistletop
"We steal horse but it too tough to tame and eats, Chief starves its so its dies. But its not dead yet. You agree you get kill Nualia and keep horse, great deal! I's cans screams alert big boss all Gobbos. Maybe you kill us all, maybe you don'ts but you raises alarms below, you not beat her and minions after fight with big bad Chief and best warriors. You beats her I get to be advisor I's advise no more attacks Longshanks... What t..r..u..s..t.. means?"
Huh, a helpful goblin? Will wonders never cease?
"I'm new to Sandpoint, but based on what you've told me, that sounds like a good way to stop the attacks." Nice and tidy. He looks at the goblin. "Where can we find Nualia?"
Jili studies the goblin trying to tell if he's telling them the truth. At least the truth as he intends it right this minute until the group takes care of Nulia, and then he doesn't need them anymore.
"If we don't do it, the horsie dies. We should accept his terms."
Ro makes her way to the front to get a look at the goblin speaker.
"That sounds like a deal we could be interested in Gugmurt. But I have a couple of questions before we can decide."
"First, you said you can advise us on how to get rid of Nualia. What exactly can you tell us that will help? For example, how many longshanks are with her? Can we get to her without being found by any other goblins? We need to know what advice you have before we decide."
"Also, if you're giving us the horse, will your chief know about it? We will have to leave this island with the horse. How can we do that if we have a deal with you, but no other goblins here? A horse is big, and hard to not notice."
The offer seems real for now, but as soon as Nualia is out of the way all bets could be off.
Edgar, a bit late to the party due to distractions, follows down the stairs. He manages a fair bit of quietness in his armor.
Thistletop
"You Longshanks beat Nualia big Chief be afraids of you and good reasons, you be big BIG bads. Gugmert then tells Chief he was right not to trust Nualia, makes problems for tribe like I saids it would.
He no want horse, too much to handle, we eats the sweets meats of the Longshankls you ill in basement, I eat Nualia leg with sauces of victories...."
He loses focus appearing to daydream a bit about her demise at his own sharp little teeth.
I leads you to stairs down but you NO can kill Gobbos you sees down there. Womens and childrens, tribe future. I can'ts takes them else they knows something wrongs.
Dungeon level two dungeon level. Nualia have Bugbear and at least three Longshanks help her plus some other monsters. Nualia on downstairs dungeon level. Make deal, go now, Tsuto gones some times now, Nualia tricksie, she knows if he not back soon something happens. You go now else you fight whole dungeons with them know you there".[/b]
Jili gives Ra a slight nod as if to say "take the deal".
Karmid is sick to death of goblins already, but is willing to do whatever Ro wants to do.
"Whatever happens, we need to move out soon or we fight bunches of gobbos by my guess."
Ro is fine with taking the deal, but damn, I can't just leave Nualia here for them to eat. I knew her. She looks around trying to read the faces of her compatriots before answering.
"There's one thing we need to change. We have to take Nualia and the other longshanks, the other humans, back with us to prove the threat is gone. You can keep the bugbear. Instead I will personally make sure you get other meat to replace them. Far more meat, enough for all the goblins here. It will be a present for your help."
"If this is agreeable, you have a deal."
Drasven stands there slightly stunned at the goblin's proposal. He would like nothing more then to finish off the goblin but its tone and words along with its purpose for doing so stays his hand. What was one to do in such a situation?
He watches the young ones attempt a counter proposal and nods silently to himself in agreement.
They got their heads and hearts in the right place but the gods send such tiresome trials on them.
Was it likely his own journey meant to give him his own trials? If so he was doing it badly..........
Drasven waits for both sides to come to an agreement, not stepping forward at all to interrupt.
Karmid smirks.
"You gobbos like deer? Boar? Anything you want. I'll hunt ONE down for you, just as she says."
Thistletop
The Druid at first appears confused and pauses, "Sandpoint trades sweet meats with Thistletop? What Thistletop has to give for sweet meats?"
The Goblin spits in has hand and approaches Ro, "Longshanks makes deals with Goblins, spit trade Longshanks con... co.. trat... deals yes?"
Ro repeats her amendment to the deal for clarity. It wouldn't do for a misunderstanding to come up when it was time to leave. You give us the horse and the longshanks bodies when we leave. We will bring you some other meat, and more of it, after we fetch it from town. We're free to go down to Nualia now, and free to leave when we're done. In return you can become Ripnugget's advisor again. We'll harm no more goblins here unless we have to protect ourselves from them."
"That's the deal."
Ro spits on her own hand as well. Maybe it means something significant to closing the deal, so she might as well follow suit. She shakes the goblin's nasty little paw of a hand.
"Yes. Deal." She smiles at the goblin reassuringly.
They did.
They did come to a deal!
Drasven shakes his head amused.
He traveled to see the world.
It was indeed a strange place.
A deal can be made anyway, his merchant side reminded him. Teh reality of it was in front of him.
Karmid mutter to himself quietly.
"Making deals with gobbos leaves a bad taste in my mouth."
Thistletop
"You waits here, I makes distraction. Then you goes to door with stairs down though door.
It uh, it uh...
Next to double door?
You still go slow in case big armor makes big noise.
Gots it?"
The Goblin runs off!
Now that they aren't trying to cross some rickety-ass bridge above a deep ravine, Uldar feels a bit more confident in his sneaking ability. Just in case though, he gives the dwarf a bit of encouragement.
"You got this," he whispers, touching him on the arm.
"That went better than I thought it would. Who knew goblins were smart enough to make deals. We might have to worry about him after all this."
Jili will wait the five minutes and try to stealth with the others.
Did that goblin just do a subtle insult?
At him?
After Uldar touches him to give his own patron's blessing, did the dwarf scowl as it hit him.
The goblin had a point and while making it, insulted him.
That goblin...............
................................
..................................would make a good merchant.
Scowling he makes his way with his armor clinking to remind him of being insulted by a goblin.
As if it was mocking him too.......
Ro gives the goblin his time to make a distraction, then goes.
Waiting the five minutes, Karmid leads the way down...Hammer first.
Still pretending to be a cat, Lia follows Karmid on all fours.
Sneak, sneak, sneak, gently with the team...warily, warily, warily, life is but a dream...
Matrim stubs his toe and almost curses out loud.
Thistletop
As the group steps into the "room" they find this areas floor is made up of hard packed soil, as if the builders either ran out of lumber after building the walls and roof, or as if they simply never thought about building a floor. A number of poorly preserved horse and dog heads are mounted along the eastern wall, while along the southern wall hangs a pair of large black-feathered wings tacked to the wall with daggers.
The screams and howls of glee you hear coming from nearby must mean that the Goblin entertainment (distraction) has begun. Goblins sound even more horrifying at play than they do at war. Such a sound in a human household would lead you to believe murder is taking place. Regardless, it is working as the normally silent Matrim stubs his toe on the doorframe on the way into the stairwell.
Gogmurt is true to his word the stairs are where he described they would be.
A single lantern hangs from a hook on the wall next to where the stairs enter this room from the north. Several rickety doors open into this room, and a few discarded dog pelt rugs lie forgotten in the northeast corner.
The room reeks of stale food.