"Hey," says Viro unnecessarily. "There's a strange elf on the the bridge."
Bruin puts away his wand and turns to see the elf Viroleth pointed out. Bruin is suddenly conscious of the fact that his crossbow is unloaded.
Bruin loudly clears his throat and nervously says, "Fine sir, have you perhaps heard the good news about Desna, our Lady of Luck? We, er, have some pamphlets here."
Ignoring the halfling, the elf speaks up. "I'm not on the bridge anymore, am I?" he says perplexed.
Shrugging, he asks them point-blank. "You lot come for the ruins? Heard the goblins have something I might be interested in. Shame what happened to Sandpoint at the festival."
Beromar skeptically eyes the new arrival as Bruin is busy pumping him with magical energy. Always a friendly natured fellow the Dwarf greets the new arrival.
What's en Elf doin around this place? you in liege wit dat demon princess and that stinkin lot of mangy Goblin?
"Ah, the eloquence of a dwarf." chuckles Uirdir. "I am investigating areas around the region for arcane runes and the like. I can assure you that I am not "in liege" with any demon princesses or goblins."
Pfah I ain't seen no Arcane Runes. Only dim witted Goblins. Ye can go back in yer forrest and play wit de pixies... Beromar grumbles a bit annoyed at the long ears tone.
"No thanks. The pixies around here are rather boring." the elf quips back. "I'll be heading inside. You are welcome to follow me if you'd like."
"We should warn you that the goblins here are entrenched and under the influence of a Lamashtu worshipper who intends to free a demon. If you're only here for intellectual curiousity, then it might be best if you leave. We expect this to be a hard won fight and we wouldn't want to put you in any danger."
Beromar nods approvingly at Bruin's words hoping this tactic of disuading the Elf might be more productive.
What he says. A wise man that halfling then the Dwarf turns all smiles as he puts his hands in his hips.
Tell ye what see that long haired human gettin lost in the grass back there? His name be Loges and he was always very interested in Inte... intele... em discussion about magics and stuff. He would be a great discussion partner. When ye talked it all through wit mister theory ye can come back and examine this hut all ye likes. We even promise to gets rid of all the Goblin stink and demon dung ahead o' time.
Just as Beromar turns and pushes Viroleth to open the door he realizes they might be missing out on a great opportunity.
One more thing before ye goes though... if ye an expert on runes and stuff... ye ever seen this one?
The Dwarf inquires as he presents a piece of cloth with a seven pointed star.
Viro cleans off his short swords as he looks over the elf curiously.
Bit of an ass. But aren't we all?
Well I've met less trustworthy.
"Let's not let our prejudices get the best of us. Can you fight? Will you fight? There's a lot of goblins in there and Gods know what else. There are a lot of lives on the line here."
Alexei takes the measure of the newcomer. "For good or ill he is with us now. Perhaps he is good with a blade or perhaps he is fodder for the goblins, either is fine with me. I just want to rid this place of the vermin and make my home safe again. Well met, elf-man. My name is Alexei, and these are my companions." He goes around the circle introducing each member in turn.
"It seems Desna has smiled on our meeting. Will you stand with us and help rid these woods of goblins?"
"Let me look at it closer." Uirdir says as he grabs the piece of cloth and traces the drawing with his finger.
"If you need help with fighting, then my blade is fairly adept at poking small vermin. I can assure you that no goblin will be my demise." Uirdir claims as the rest of them seem to think he does not appear combat-worthy.
The final man to speak seems to be the most cordial, so he works nods to him. "I can help you for now. Let us see what we find before we make grandiose plans that take up the better part of the rest of your lives." he says, looking at the humans and halfling. When his eyes trail over the dwarf, he jokes "And maybe those plans might last the rest of puberty with you."
Uirdir recognizes the symbol of the seven-pointed star as the Sihedron Rune, an obscure, antiquated glyph that symbolizes arcane magic once practiced in ancient Thassilon.
"Well, I suppose if you're confident, we certainly appreciate the help, Master Ueey, er, Ueer, er -- Master Lightfoot."
Bruin smiles sheepishly for a moment before clearing his throat.
"So, er, onward then."
The heroes along with their new companion move back to the entrance. They find it still open. As they peek inside, Bruin casts another light spell on his crossbow, illuminating the dim room.
He reveals that the floor of this room is 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.
One of the daggers used to display the wings has a pearl handle and is valuable. The other six daggers are mundane.
Monseigneur Lightfoot removes the daggers from the black-feathered wings, examining both the wings and the daggers.
After looking over the wings, he examines the daggers. "Hmmm... only one appears to be of any value." the elf comments.
His bow ready, Alexei stands overwatch while the elf looks over the feathered wings. "What are they?" asks the hunter.
Uirdir identifies the plumage as belonging to a species of harpy common in Varisia.
And he assessment the dagger to be worth 100gp.
- Dagger with pearl handle 100gp
"Probably a trophy from a harpy that they killed..." Uirdir reckons as he sheathes the pearl-handled knife into his belt. He sees six doorways leading from the room and decides to randomly choose one.
He moves to the door, casts a protective spell and opens it with his rapier drawn.
Viro keeps pace a step or two behind Uirdir, occasionally flipping his twin shortswords as he keeps up.
Alexei stands behind the others, he bow at the ready.
"So, you know of my reason for being here. What is your motivation beyond killing goblins? Just travelling murder salesmen?" Uirdir asks nonchalantly as he leans into the room, looking for any threats.
"The Travelling Murder Salesmen - if the townsfolk start giving us a name, I want to go by that," grins Viro as he flips and spins his shortsword in hand.
"The town was raided by goblins. We fought off the raid, found some collusion between the goblins and a local businessman, and apparently there's some demon-worshipping priestess at the head of all this. This hero business is far more profitable and interesting than anything I'd done previously, so I think we're trying to end the threat to Sandpoint."
Muhahaha... Beromar shares a hardy laugh at the Elfs joke Nah they say we is heroes for killin a couple of Goblins and a deomn of sorts. Any Dwarfling worth his axe woulda done the same...
"All the glory that Beromar denies is mine for the taking," grins Viroleth.
"Seems like a good enough reason as any..." Uirdir comments as the stench of goblin sticks in his nose. "Too bad goblins set up camp here instead of a nicer smelling group of creatures..."
I heard the pixies in the forest smell of rose bushes... Beromar chuckles as he steps into the arena with his massive hammer up.
Uirdir opens the door to find a large courtyard that is open to the sky. Tenacious clumps of partially trampled grass grow fitfully here and there in the hard-packed earth, in places stained with blood or scratched with furrows. To the north, what appear to be two dead goblins lie slumped at the entrance to an outbuilding.
Four slavering goblin dogs are running free in the yard. They immediately turn to see Uirdir.
Uirdir: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22
Beromar: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 2 = 19
Viroleth: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18
Goblin Dogs: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18
Alexei: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8
Bruin: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5
Beromar steps forward swinging his mighty hammer.
Stay put and let the dumb muts come at us! The Dwarf calls out to his companions.
Viro rushes northwards and then holds behind Beromar, waiting to see how his response to the dogs turns out.
Uirdir sees the dogs and quickly steps forward to provide a barrier of Beromar and him between the dogs and the rest of the party. "Focus down the dogs one at a time!" the elf yells to the rest of the party.
He waits for the dogs to approach as he readies an attack to strike down the next one to come his way.
Alexei steps into the courtyard and looses an arrow at the farthest dog from melee.
"Hmm... the dogs seem slow today. Should be easy to swat with your long hammer, Beromar." Uirdir comments as the dwarf takes a defensive stance with his lucerne hammer.
Beromar prepares an attack, but misses the goblin dog. But he gets another chance as it moves in and takes it out. He manages to hit another two goblin dogs, killing one of them.
Meanwhile, Uirdir scores a perfect strike with his rapier and thus a clean kill.
Alexei's arrow strikes the last of the foul vermin left, killing it.
The door to this outbuilding has been nailed shut, and additional boards have been nailed over these nails . The door itself is cracked and splintered in places. Two dead goblins, their heads crushed in by something heavy, lie in the dirt by the door, their ripening bodies covered with flies.
Uirdir spies another set of double doors as he mutters to himself. "Hmm... double doors usually implies a hallway or entrance to somewhere important. Let's check for closets and the like first."
Uirdir will cautiously try to open the door directly adjacent to the door they came through as he directs the rest to see to the other two doors to the north. "Let's be quick. You lot should investigate those two doors as I search this one."
Bruin examines the dead bodies.
"These goblins seemed to have been crushed to death by a horse, or something with hooves at least."
The halfling stares at the door.
"There's a lock here, Viro. Any chance you can undo it? And I don't suppose anyone brought a crowbar, did they?"
The door Uirdir checks is unlocked. He opens it to find shelves lined with crude tools, nets, and tack for goblin dogs that line the walls here. To the northeast stands a large L-shaped wooden cage that contains dozens of rabbits.
"Oh shit! Rabbits!" Uirdir says as he opens the door. He quickly moves to the cages and unlocks one, picking up the whitest, fuzziest one with a brown patch on his eye. "You shall be named Thor, ruler of the rabbitverse." Uirdir says in a cutesy voice to the tiny fuzzball.
After a few more moments, Uirdir exeunts the storeroom with a herd of rabbits hopping along at his feet. "I have found the true treasure of the goblins."
Beromar scratches his head somewhat dumbfounded.
Wow that's quite sometin.. ye should tell the pixies in the forest bout em...
Beromar then leads the rabbits along in further exploration.
"Bunnies!" says Viro enthusiastically. He then gets to work on the lock.
The frightened rabbit seems to calm in Uirdir's hands despite the harsh treatment it had been dealt by the Goblins. It even purrs softly.
***
Viroleth manages to open the lock with his trademark aplomb. He estimates that undoing the the shoddy goblin handiwork would take an additional 4 minutes.
Uirdir holds his rapier arm to create a cradle for Thor as the rest of the bunnies hop to and fro under his feet, dodging every step, but never straying far from the elf. "Any luck at what's inside this shed?" he asks as he casually pets Thor with his free hand.
Viro smiles, sliding away his tools before he looks over the nailed boards.
"I wonder what the goblins so desperately wanted to keep in there. Well, only one way to find out! This will just take a couple of minutes."
Viro gets to work prying open the boards, using his thieves' tools and grappling hook to get some leverage and yank them off.
"If a two-faced fish monster eats me, tell my father I don't think very well of him."
With the aid of the grappling hook working as a makeshift crowbar, Viroleth manages to get the door open in only half the time he thought it would take. Sometimes the rogue even impressed himself.
He opens the door and peeks inside. There is a makeshift cage for a wild-eyed, wounded horse. The animal glares harshly at Viroleth, seemingly ready to stamp him to death with his hooves at any moment.
Viro stares at the horse. He then stares at the dead goblins. Back at the horse. Then the goblins.
"Nice kitty..."
He steps aside, giving the horse some room and doing his best "I have no idea what I'm doing" body language to convince the horse he's totally fine.
Uirdir steps back as most of the bunnies flee for small crevices to hie in while the horse stamps and whinnies. Thor, however, remains calm in Uirdir's arm. "Quick, pet it or give it food or something! Horses like carrots right? Who has a carrot? Or maybe a horseshoe! Just don't show it glue!" he yells with a bit of a smirk.
Alexei, who has some experience with horses, leans in to aid Viroleth, speaking softly to the stallion in Varisian and making slow and gentle movements. He also hides all the glue in his possession.