Jathal keeps attacking Brown, frowning as she once again gets hit by another arrow.
Moving forward, Cecilia strikes out again with her whip, attempting to trip up the goblin that had targeted her with an arrow just a few seconds previous.
Moving with an ease born of practice, the bard is able to quickly bind her target's legs through the use her lash and then just as quickly pull back, throwing the goblin down onto the floor. Her grin widens.
Goblin (blue): HP 6/6; AC/T/FF 16/13/14; Fort/Ref/Will +3/+2/-1; CMD 12 vs Feint DC 10
Zalindra and Jathal deliver two well aimed arrows to the archer in one corner while Cecilia trips up the one opposite.
Ingra and Kra'el work together to bring down the remaining goblin in the purple cap. Leaving the blue goblin as the sole survivor, struggling to its feet and scrambling toward the nearest exit.
Aelion fired off another two shots at the fleeing goblin. *Better that it die quickly than reveal our presence here,* he thought.
Jogging deeper into the room, Dayana turns her gaze upon the goblin attempting to flee and utters an arcane incantation to keep it in place for at least a little while longer.
Zalindra moves and tries to shoot the goblin again before it can escape.
Watching as Dayana unleashed some sort of spell to impede the goblin, Cecilia once again struck out with her whip. She would end this skirmish right here and now.
Three times she had cracked her whip, and three times the bard had brought her enemy down. As the goblin collapses upon the cold stone tiles, Cecilia moves to stand over him threateningly, crimson lash still in hand.
The goblin stands dazed midway through its escape as if it can't quite remember how to unlatch the door.
Before it has a chance to do any more, Zalindra pierces its arm with a well-aimed arrow, and Cecilia has brought it to the floor with her mighty crimson lash.
The bard takes up a position over the goblin, which looks up at her with glazed eyes.
Jathal stoically removes the two arrows that hit her. "Does anyone have any healing?" She asks politely.
Blessed with both luck and her own incredible skill, Cecilia somehow fought through that battle completely unscathed.
As such, she heals Jathal with only some hesitation. "This is my last one for the day." The bard says as she channels the positive energy into the elf's wounds. "So try not to get skewered in the next battle."
Still holding her whip, ready to strike if the goblin once again tried to flee, Cecilia casts a spell of Dancing Lights. Now with a steady source of light, she begins moving along the walls, examining them for anything of note.
After healing Jathal's wounds, Cecilia makes her way around the chamber.
The stone walls, like the flagstone floor, are cold to the touch with a slight layer of damp. Thick wooden beams arch up to the center of the chamber, 15 ft above, supporting the ceiling above.
The three doors in leading further into the catacombs are hewn from the same thick wood, bound in iron. They have latches, but no locks. All of the doors feature brass plaques, identifying which section of the catacombs they lead to. The western doors state Von Urstadt. The eastern doors, past the blue-capped goblin, are marked Von Jallach. To the north, the main doors are marked by an ornately decorated plaque with the inscription The Rivenroar Family.
Jathal thanks Cecilia for her healing and examines the three doors for traps.
Jathal notices a small mechanism links the doors to the north with the braziers either side. The polished brass bowls appear rigged to throw hot coals between one another once the doors are opened.
"Ware the Northern door, it's trapped." Jathal warns the others, crouching to attempt to remove the device.
"Zalindra, could you double check my work?" She asks the other woman.
Zalindra nods, and checks to see if she can do anything more.
Aelion knelt and used some rags to tie the goblin's hands and feet. He was shaken at his own comportment; had his rage unbalanced him so badly that he was unable to shoot straight?
He felt a compelling urge to drink... but his bottle of liquor was long gone.
"Ask it where their prisoners are usually kept," he requested, looking to those in their party who understood the Goblin tongue. Meanwhile, he replenished his arrows - goblin make, but they would do in a pinch.
In an aside to Ingra, he quietly asked if she was all right.
Zalindra nods to Aelion and asks
Where do you keep prisoners?
Jathal thinks she has managed to disable the link between the doors and the trap, and Zalindra's keen eye is able to confirm this for the elf.
Turning her attention to the now bound goblin, Zalindra begins her interrogation. The small humanoid looks up at the rogue and answers her without much protest.
"Тұтқындар? Көптеген адамдарды алдық. Синрут Вон Урштадттың криптінің қабырғаларына ұяшықтарды салады. Олардың кейбіреулері бар."
Zalindra asks the Goblin several new questions, pausing between questions to allow him to answer.
Which way to that Crypt? Do you know how many prisoners? Is Sinruth strong? Will he be there? Why did Goblins attack the human town anyway?
"Криттің батыста, қорқынышты жері." The goblin points over Zalindra's shoulder to the doors on the western wall labeled Von Urstadt.
As she asks about the number of prisoners, it simply replies "Білмеймін, көрмедім, ұйықтап жатырмын."
As Zalindra asks her final question, the goblin puffs out its chest.
"Синрут күшті! Ол Қызыл қолды алып келді! Азарр Күлден гөрі адам қаласын өртеп жіберіңіз!"
She tells the party
Sounds like there are several prisoners, not just my grandfather. He says they are through there (pointing) but that it is past a scary place.
Their leader is a goblin named Sinruth.
She turns back to the Goblin
You want to be our guide and help us find the prisoners? That way they might not kill you.
The goblin suddenly clamps it’s mouth shut, taking on a pained expression. It looks to know it has already said too much, and has just realised the extent of its betrayal.
“Егер сен мені өлтірмесең, Синрут болады! Немесе қорқынышты орынға әкелесіз, сонда біз бәріміз өлеміз!”
I suppose I'll have to start learning some Goblin. Cecilia decided, as she finished examining the room. I'll never be able to write my epic if I'm missing out on all these little details.
"Well if the fellow says the prisoners are being held in that direction, then I can only imagine that is where our party must next venture." The bard said, looking towards the western doors. "But perhaps the other areas might be worth checking as well. They could contain clues to the plans of our enemy, or we might be able to eliminate their reinforcements before they become a problem for us later."
After a few moments of contemplation, Cecilia looked to Zalindra, and then reconsidered. "But I am getting ahead of myself. I think saving your grandfather should still be our first priority, Miss Freston."
Please, call me Zalindra. "Miss Freston" sounds so stuffy.
Why is the place scary? Are you sure you don't want to help us? Then at least you would have a chance...
"Қорқынышты бөлме, қабырғалар пышақпен, олар қасіретпен, ашуланған шуды жасайды, егер тым ұзақ тұрсаңыз, олар сені жаралайды, өлтіреді"
The goblin pauses for a moment to consider Zalindra's words.
"Егер сен мені қауіпсіз ұстасаң, мен сені аламын. Бірақ өлі лягушка секілді тыныштық сақтау керек."
I'm trying to keep you safe, I promise. Stay close to me and just tell us which way to go, okay?
So, the goblin is willing to help us find the prisoners. He describes the scary place as a place where the walls whisper and make sad and angry noises, and if you stay too long, you die. Does anyone know what that might be? Ghosts or something? Anyway, he says that we need to stay quiet when we go through there.
Zalindra makes sure the goblin's legs are unbound so that he can come with them.
"Hmm? Oh yes, if that is what you would prefer... Zalindra." Cecilia replied, only slightly taken back. To be honest referring to people by their titles was almost an automatic process for her. Her life as a merchant's daughter and her training as a bard had both taught her to address people properly.
Thinking about the description of this 'scary place' Cecilia tried to remember if Madame Blossom had ever mentioned any stories of walls that spoke to you and drained your life force.
The bard brought a gloved hand to her chin, fairly certain that she heard of something like this before.
Cecilia recalls some ghostly tails sung late at night by her instructor which featured similar phenomena, but nothing specific. It gives the bard a strong suspicion that the scary place is haunted.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Ghosts or spirits, something like that..." Cecilia says in response to Zalindra's question. She then shrugs. "How bad could it be?"
Turning towards the western doors, with a few words, a gesture, and some components from her pouch, Cecilia rather unnecessarily casts a spell of Open/Close on the gateway. As the door slowly creaks open, she draws her rapier. "Let's go."
Zalindra moves forward with the goblin.
Uncharacteristically grim-faced, Aelion joined the group as they moved deeper into the catacombs. He had great respect for the dead... so long as they stayed dead.
Moving forward through the opened doors, the goblin guides the group into a damp corridor that leads them westward from the entrance chamber. Before the light of the trapped braziers has completely faded, the corridor turns to the right, leading north to a second chamber. A small fire is burning in the room ahead, and the soft sound of snoring echoes off the wet flagstone floor.
Zalindra moves forward with the goblin to see who is snoring, keeping an eye out for other obstacles as well.
Dayana quietly follows along the group as they move forward — keeping an ear perked for any indication that her compatriot's scouting has gone awry, and an eye on the group's goblin captive. A small frown has been glued to her face since the talk of ghosts and spirits.
Despite his trepidation, Aelion went with Zalindra, trusting that Jathal would keep them covered.
Cecilia also moves forward, sticking close to Zalindra and her prisoner. She visibly recoils when she sees that the floor ahead of them is wet, but continues on nonetheless, wary of puddles and any splashes caused by the feet of companions.
"Мұнда тыныш жерде балалар ұйықтайды. Сол жақтан қорқынышты орын." the goblin guide whispers to Zalindra as the group edges forward, tiptoeing along the damp corridor.
Aelion and Zalindra spot the sleeping forms of six juvenile goblins, curled up in the simple straw beds that line the periphery of the L-shaped chamber ahead. A set of doors passes by a small cooking station in the corner, where a narrow fissure in the ceiling carries provides an escape route for the smoke wafting up from a small brazier. In the shadowy northern section of the room, another set of doors leads northwards.
Jathal keeps her bow ready and watches carefully all around her.
Zalindra motions for silence.
Aelion paused, an arrow strung as well, but inadvertently scuffed the uneven floor with his boot.
The group continues quietly into the chamber, somehow neither Aelion’s stumble or the heavy plodding footsteps of Kra’el draw any more than a murmured complaint from the goblin teens as they pull their mouldy blankets over their heads and turn to face the walls.
Both the dragonborn and Ingra clench their weapons tightly as they enter the room, but neither breaks the apparent truce bartered between the bard and her guide.
Zalindra goes over to the doors on the left, as directed by the goblin, and opens the doors leading to the "scary place."
Cecilia carefully moves past Zalindra, eager to leave the room full of sleeping goblins. The last thing she wanted was to do battle with a band of children, even if they were a part of such a traditionally warlike race.
Rapier still in hand, the bard advances a little ways ahead of the party, peering into the next chamber.
Peering past Zalindra, Cecilia finds the next chamber illuminated by the eerie flicker of blue light.
At the far end of the dark room, a large tapestry hangs from one of the beams holding up the ceiling. Depicting some kind of ritual, the strange lighting in the chamber appears to be originating from within the tapestry itself.
"Why would they have this right beside their young, if it's really haunted?" Aelion asked in a whisper. With a shrug, he motioned for the group to continue past it, keeping an eye on their goblin guide. He didn't trust the little fellow not to be leading them into a trap.
Zalindra wonders what would happen if she set fire to the tapestry, but decides not to press their luck, and moves past it without speaking.
She considers what Aelion says ... maybe their lives are already full of danger so this isn't a big deal? But she only has guesses, so she doesn't respond.
Dayana slinks after the others, careful to be quiet lest she wake the sleeping goblins.
As she makes her way into the next room her mismatched gaze is immediately caught by the tapestry — enough so that her frowning is immediately forgotten — and she stops in her tracks for just a moment before cautiously creeping forward to take a better look at it, eyes flitting over the ritual to see if she could identify anything about it.
The goblin nudges Zalindra toward the left of the chamber, visibly distressed as the tapestry flickers and seems to emanate a soft hum, like a hundred voices all whispering at once.
The goblin leads the group single file along the left hand wall, anxious to reach the doors leading further west.
And then Dayana takes a step toward the mysterious curtain...
The whispers grow louder, exponentially increasing in volume and pitch until they culminate in a single shrill scream.
The head of the priest conducting the depicted ritual appears to stare directly at Dayana, his mouth open wide. Suddenly the flesh starts to peel back from his skull as it takes on a more three dimensional appearance, as if the tapestry was not simply a still image, but a gateway to another world.
The priest's robes fall away too, leaving nothing but his decaying skull. Bits of flesh still clinging to the bone as it lurches forward, floating ominously through the tapestry.
As the skull enters the chamber, it creates a ripple across the scene behind it, leaving the flickering surface of the tapestry covered in thick strands of vile goo. In the next instant the goo is lifted from the linen behind it, draping over four humanoid forms as they too lurch forward from out of the image.
The beheaded screams. DC 10 Will.
It can scream again in rounds.
~~~
~~~
Goblin (blue): HP 5/6; AC/T/FF 16/13/14; Fort/Ref/Will +3/+2/-1; CMD 12 vs Feint DC 10
Beheaded: HP 4/4; AC/T/FF 14/14/12; Fort/Ref/Will +0/+2/+2; CMD 10 vs Feint DC --
Ectoplasmic Human (green): HP 7/7; AC/T/FF 12/10/12; Fort/Ref/Will +0/+0/+2; CMD 13 vs Feint DC --
Ectoplasmic Human (yellow): HP 7/7; AC/T/FF 12/10/12; Fort/Ref/Will +0/+0/+2; CMD 13 vs Feint DC --
Ectoplasmic Human (blue): HP 7/7; AC/T/FF 12/10/12; Fort/Ref/Will +0/+0/+2; CMD 13 vs Feint DC --
Ectoplasmic Human (purple): HP 7/7; AC/T/FF 12/10/12; Fort/Ref/Will +0/+0/+2; CMD 13 vs Feint DC --
As the beheaded priest screams at the intruders, his acolytes shamble forward, their ectoplasmic forms coming dangerously close to tearing themselves apart with every lurching step.
The vile undead launch their slimy forms at the group of heroes, but none of their flailing limbs make contact with their targets.
Zalindra takes a step to the North and shoots at the closest acolyte.
(Shaken)