"I think she was responding to my suggestion of four watches rather than three."
"Are we really still talking about the watch schedule? I say we go with the plan Borris suggested, but switch Dain and me, as that's what he asked for. If he and Sezira want to be on watch together, that's reason enough for me. We're only seven people, so four watches doesn't let us have two on at a time. As long as the magic-using folk get adequate rest, I don't think the schedule matters much."
a bit hurt in his pride borris answers sounds fine now let me go to sleep! I wonder why they would let both people with night vision in the same watch! Borris start scrapping some firewood to make a fire and placing his bedroll near the fire. when evryone agrees to the plan he wil go to bed after removing his armor. as sleeping in his armor just doesnt give him enough rest. but keeping his longsword and klar close
"Fair enough. I'm going to bed too. Just don't sneak up on me when you wake me for my shift."
Dain; rolled 4 up thread
Sezira;
Goblin (stealth);
Goblin attack; (add 4 to each one)
Goblin damage;
Borris:
Dain:
Josef:
Misha:
Redona:
Rikar:
Sezira:
Goblins;
Day 4
Still traveling along the Moru road, the group spends another day looking at the mountain getting closer, and the desolation of the land. After the days march, you settle down for a now familiar routine of food, banter, and then watches till the dawn comes when Redona, Josef and Misha pray, study and sing quietly so their daily spells are prepared.
Just into the second watch, while Dain and Sezira are watching, four arrows came out of the darkness, two each at Sezira and Dain, with only one of them puncturing the dwarf.
Initiative;
Borris: 23
Sezira: 18
Misha: 18
Rikar: 14
Redona: 10
Goblins; 8
Dain: 6
Josef:4
Sezira was conversing with Dain about various weapons when out of the night came arrows. She managed to dodge or by sheer luck they missed her. Ambush She saw Dain take an arrow to the knee.
"Wake friends, we are under attack!" she yells.
Sezira picks her bow from beside her and unleashes an attack back at the creatures.
Sezira moves down the camp, kicking nudging and interrupting sleep. Making sure all get up.
Not seeing where the arrows came from, Sezira steps next to the campfire and manages to wake Rikar and Misha.
"Ah! I said not to..." Misha yawps, then sees the arrows and Dain wounded. Blinking her eyes blearily as she stands, she realizes she can't see where the arrows came from in the darkness. Unable to attack what she can't see, she gestures grandly and intones, "Dancing lights."
She's not sure where the attack came from, so at least for starters conjures them on her side in a row extending out from her away from the fire, and hopes the better sighted combatants can tell her where to direct them as needed. Fortunately it was a spell easy enough to maintain.
Rikar wakens almost instantly, rolling to his feet and lifting his sword from the bedding beside him in one smooth motion as he says, ”Where are they?”. Turning his head towards Misha’s lights, he sees the enemy and moves quickly toward them, saying quietly ”Goma, goblins! Attack!”
perception
Reacting to Sezira's shout and nudge, Misha and Rikar wake and stand up.
Not seeing any enemies in the darkness, Misha casts dancing lights directly in front of her which lights up two goblins with short bows in hand.
Rikar seeing that it is goblins, runs at the closet one with abandon, while quickly instructing Goma to attack!
Redona, Josef and Borris are still waking up, gathering their senses to what is happening around them.
The goblin in front of Rikar drops his short bow and swings his short sword at Rikar and hitting him hard. The other three goblins continue to shoot there bows at Dain and Sezira, but only one hits Dain for another scratch.
Goblin attacks: ; Rikar+2, Dain+4, Dain+4, Sezira+4
Goblin damage;
Borris stands and gets his klar and longsword at the ready.he Runs to H15 nudging joseph and redona on the way treathening both goblins.
KILL THE EVIL GOBLINS!
Standing guard next to beautiful elven lady, it was more than normal for Dain not to really pay attention on his guard duties. Usually he was not like that, but Sezira was such a contrast to his previous acquaintances, and his typical dwarven "grim or burly" contacts, that he disregarded his surroundings more than usual.
He was promptly punished by one and then another arrow, both just nicking his armor and barely scratching him, but placing a big dent in his pride. He bellows mightily, while nudging Joseph with his right foot and then charges the nearest goblin.
"You hideous cave-slinking tunnel-worms! I'll get you for this!"
Rikar grunts in surprise as the goblin strikes him, not expecting such a strong blow from such a small creature. Recovering himself, he swings his greatsword in a rapid arc and neatly removes the goblin's head. He stops with his sword pointing at the other goblin nearby, and says "Goma, attack!"
Goma runs at the goblin and bites at it, but the goblin is far too quick for the dog and dodges out of Goma's way.
Redona gets up as quickly as she can. She doesn't have her spear on hand immediately, but she does have an idea "Halt!" she yells at the goblin closest to her (I16)
Dain, mad at himself since he missed seeing the goblins, nudges Josef to wake him and charges the nearest attacker. He swings his longhammer and puts the beast down.
Josef, stands, looks around and seeing only four goblins, holds his action.
Borris, nudging Redona while initially moving towards one goblin, sees that Dain puts it down and runs to where he can hit the other goblin on that side and does so and puts the beast down.
Sezira shoots an arrow at the goblin not facing Rikar and kills it.
Rikar, even angrier than Dain as the hated goblin hit him hard, cleaves the remaining goblin in two.
Sezira looks around to make sure there are only four goblins. Frustrated that she had been too busy chatting with Dain than keeping a proper watch. She wouldn't let herself be distracted again.
"Is anyone hurt badly?"
Misha blinks several times, adapting to the scene, with the combat that ended so quickly before she had even taken everything in. Her little globes of light adjusting as she moves, she then goes to check the goblins for items of interest -- any clan markings, any signs that they had been preying upon other travelers, etc. And sure any coin in their pockets couldn't hurt, but presuming they had fairly rudimentary equipment, she was more interested in gathering information than loot.
Redona rubs her eyes again. Everything stopped almost as soon as she woke up. "What... what happened?" she asks as she looks around at the dead goblins. At least she is fully awake now.
Sezira and Misha quickly look around to see if there are any other goblins out there, but it appears that only these four were brave enough to attack a well armed party.
Inspecting the goblins, Misha determines that one of them is still barely alive, but quite unconscious.
All the goblins have a stylized dark blue lightning bolt painted on their shields. Besides ratty looking leather armor, small short bows, small short swords and some 19 arrows on each goblin, there is a potion on the one that Rikar killed, and 43 gold pieces in various coinage.
Misha looks up and calls to the group. "One's not dead. What do you think, send him back with a message to his tribe to leave us be? Just leave him?"
In the meantime she also gathers together the gold pieces and arrows.
perception. Borris tastes to see what potion was found on the goblin to determin what it is. :)
Looking around he can se one of the goblins loaning walking the and smashing its head in with its hammer these evil critter wont be hurting anyone again
(Coup the grace)
Rikar steps in front of Boris and raises a hand to stop him from killing the goblin. He says, "Wait, Boris. If we can wake him, I can talk to him. As we've discussed, knowing your enemy is key, and I'd like to ask him if there are more of his kind around."
Rikar steps in front of Boris and raises a hand to stop him from killing the goblin. He says, "Wait, Boris. If we can wake him, I can talk to him. As we've discussed, knowing your enemy is key, and I'd like to ask him if there are more of his kind around."
Stumbled by his large ranger friend stopping him in his tread he looks up hammer high Nothing those evil critters say can be trusted you can do what you will but the result must be the same! They need to die they have no good in them killing dogs and children the same.
Misha, still kneeling near the unconscious goblin as she took stock, looks up in alarm at Borris looming over her with his massive hammer.
"Good god, man, put that thing away! Apart from your nearly taking MY head off with it if you're not careful... look, none of us here may have love for goblins, but in my book it's goblins who are the kind of folk who kill a creature unable to defend itself. Would you stoop to their level?" She looks at Rikar. "Besides, Rikar's made it clear he has no tolerance for these creatures, and if even he says he thinks it's worth interrogating, then I'd trust his judgment on this one."
"Listen to them, Borris." Redona chimes in uncharacteristically. Her fists are clinched and she frowns at him seriously. "The goblin is helpless. As long as he cooperates I can't just let you murder him." Sarenrae believed in giving evil a chance to change, and to her, giving a goblin a chance to be cooperative is similar. As devoted as she is, she has no choice but to give it a chance at this point, in her mind.
Borris smiles at Misha i would never hit your pretty head. then his face gets more serious But evil must be exterminated as a rat infestation from the grain storage. I will temper my hammer only for its interrogation but death must be its release!
Rikar gives Borris a hard stare and says ”Don’t misunderstand me, Borris, I don’t aim to ‘pretty please’ him into helping us out of the kindness of his dark little heart. I’ll scare him good, because that’s what his kind understand. And then I’ll ask him some questions. But Misha speaks true – killing him when he’s defenseless, especially if we’ve got him tied up as I aim to, makes us no better than him. And I’d like to think we’re better than goblins, as a whole.”
Turning to Redona, Rikar asks ”Can you bring him back to consciousness, either by patching him up, or using some of your healing power? I’m wounded too, as is Dain, if you wanted to focus some of Sarenrae’s energy on all of us. But first, let me tie the little monster up good.”
Rikar extracts some rope from his pack and ties the goblin’s hands behind it, then hobbles it at the knees, so it will be able to walk but not run, and leaves himself a bit of line as a leash for the creature. As he does so, he says to his companions, ”I’m thinking of asking if there are more goblins around – which I’m sure there are – and where they are, and if they know we’re in the area. Anything else we want to know from him? And should we take him with us, or just leave him tied and assume he’ll get free eventually, squirmy as goblins are?”
|
"I agree with Borris on this one. Only exception: once we've gotten whatever intelligence the lying little baby killing arsonist is willing to part with, toss it a blade, and let him settle the question in a trial by combat."
Josef shrugs and spreads his hands wide.
"We obviously can't trust what the monster says. Do what must be done, and let us continue our rest."
Misha seems to not be in her usual jovial mood; indeed the facade she puts up as the "great explorer" is nowhere to be seen. He sounds like my father when he was telling stories of vanquishing monsters. He could become all too like him. She raises an eyebrow at Borris as she stands up. "And to me, killing a defenseless creature is evil, even if said creature is evil itself. That's how its evil spreads, even through its death. If you feel it does the least harm to kill it..." She shakes her head. "Just...take care not to become the thing you hate." She brushes herself off. "It's all too easy to go off as an adventurer with intentions of being a great hero, and easier still to find your sense of honor and compassion devoured by the dangers you encounter, and soon you're leaving your friends to perish while you haul off their gear to sell it to the highest bidder." She shakes her head. She was too tired, and thinking too hard of things best left in the past, making connections where there were likely none. That's why I'm doing this. She reminded herself. To prove this lifestyle doesn't have to turn you into a monster. To make our family name good again.
She throws the collected pouch of gold on the ground at the feet of the group assembled. "Do as you best see fit, and may the gods guide your hands wisely. I am going back to bed."
She pauses on her way back to her bedroll. "Their shields... all with the lightning bolt. I expect that's their tribe. Ask him how many more there are."
She slides inside her bedroll and shuts her eyes tight.
Redona nods to Rikar, still eyeing Borris as if she's not sure she can trust him. Like Misha, as soon as she realized what he was up to, her demeanor had changed from her normal timid to the more protective Redona that rarely came out. Although this was the first time it had happened because of a goblin. She then blinks and smiles at Rikar, returning to her innocent self, and deciding that the others would make sure Borris behaved. She liked them more already. "Mister Rikar, I can heal you two and the goblin at the same time by channeling my energy, if you'll stand close enough. But... make sure the goblin is secured first, okay?"
She waits for them to be close enough, and casts her channel energy power on Rikar, Dain, and the goblin.
She looks slightly frustrated that she didn't do a better job with her power, and says "Do I need to try again? I... I'm sorry, that was a little weak. I guess I'm still tired..."
Sezira had stood to the side and collected up some extra arrows to fill her quiver while the others argued. The weapons were too small and of no use but she collected them in a pile near their camp anyway along with the shields. It seemed that the temperature was rising in camp, following the argument, she frowned. They didn't understand. She felt her fathers words come to mind again. Such a wise man. Whenever she wasn't sure which action to take she would remember his training and everything would become clear.
"I'm with Borris here, we can't let him go. He will bring more back, no amount of threatening will stop him from revealing us to his clan. Shall we fight a dozen of them next? Then two(dozen)? she stopped to breathe for a moment, "Killing a defenseless creature is not evil Misha, or butchers are the most evil people out there.
Inspecting the shield mark on one of the shields she had gathered, she can make nothing from it. "It's taking joy in killing thats turns one evil. And we are different. We don't go looking for goblins tribes to slaughter. We are defending ourselves here and that is not evil. Sometimes what must be done is not easy, but if you let it go I intend to shoot it in the back to protect us. Don't go all paladin on us."
Borris looks at the people arguing for the life of the critter, evil at the core remembering the vile songs they sing and the tales his father told him how the same critters slaughtered a whole school of children as if it was the same as slicing up rabbits on a string My father Alaric Livestrom High paladin has never ever allowed any of this evil to live and our beloved Iomedae has never put any doubt in him. He never had to atone for any sins. He was only granted with more power! So you tell me if you or the gods themselves determine evil! I’ll riddle you one more let him live and tomorrow he will slit your kin's throat. Then I would like to ask you again if we should have stomped his evil hart to the other side. Borris was all wound up and did not threaten any but tried his best at a charismatic conversation trying to convince the others that there is no turning those evil critters to good. And make sure if you ever doubt my resolve not only I have to atone for my sins but my father would smite me himself!
Before Misha departs, she gives an odd chuckle at Sezira's comment about butchers. "Ah, so you plan to eat him then?"
She does not wait for an answer to her sardonic and rhetorical question, but goes to bed. She in truth trusts the party to do what is right, and she doesn't herself believe the goblin should simply be set free--she just has qualms about slitting an unconscious sentient creature's throat after a battle is finished, further exacerbated by Borris's seeming joy at slaying other creatures, even if evil ones (the image of him looming so close to her with his hammer raised was a haunting one). Indeed, Sezira was right--the attitude was essential; all the best intentions could go to hell with the right motivation. She knew if the goblin lived at least as freely as it did before, it could well live to do great harm, and hoped only whatever everyone decided, it was to find the most humane way to keep that harm from happening, and to take no delight in doing it.
Redona sighs, sitting down on her sleeping bag. She supposed they were right. Sometimes doing the right thing could be confusing. "I guess you're right." She looks upset, but not angry now. "I'm... I'm Sorry, Mister Borris. I don't want other people to get hurt because of me..." She doesn't want to go to bed until the issues are resolved, but she doesn't want to watch what happens to the goblin either.
After a moment, she sniffles and a tear runs down her cheek. She isn't used to violence, and hurting things is against her nature. But she knows that a paladin probably does know what's right. She feels bad for yelling at him and possibly almost having people killed because the goblin was set free. I'm sorry, goddess Sarenrae. she thinks to herself. I'm just trying to do the right thing... and I don't like the goblin being killed even if it did promise to change... but can I even trust goblins? I just... I don't know... she buries her tears in her arms, which rest on her knees. She's more fragile than the other adventurers, and hasn't seen enough to be hardened by combat like they have.
|
|
Josef lays his hand on Redona's shoulder briefly, offering some wordless support.
"Right. So let's get this 'interrogation' out of the way, and then Sir Borris can challenge the goblin to a fair trial by combat. After that, we can get back to our much needed rest."
Josef picks up one of the goblins' scrap-metal blades and examines it.
"Interesting work...reclaimed from scrap, designed to take advantage of their small stature and lightened by removing metal here and here. Crude, but effective. Much like goblins themselves, I suppose."
"I do not speak the monster's language, so I will be of little utility here. I will remain to assist as needed, though."
Josef continues to hold and examine the goblin blade as his party begin their questioning.
The goblin, being cured somewhat by Redona's channel energy, starts to stir. He moves ever so slightly as he hears strange words, looking around surreptitiously to see if he can escape, but the movement catches the eyes of Rikar and others.
Borris:
Dain:
Josef:
Misha:
Redona:
Rikar:
Sezira:
Goblin: - stealth
intimidate
Ask what you want to ask I do not speak it's tongue but let it know if it tells us what we want to know I’ll make it a fast, painless and honorable death. And contrary of your beliefs I do not take any pleasure in this.
trail by fight(if needed)
Rikar considers the viewpoints of his travelling companions and says ”In my experience, every goblin will give you a reason to kill it, so we may be arguing without need. I’ll talk to this one and see what we can learn. And I said I was going to scare it into talking. Borris, why don’t you come over here and look like you want to kill it, which shouldn’t be too hard. Anyone else is welcome to menace the thing as well.”
Rikar calls Goma to his side, and squats down next to the goblin. He draws a dagger and holds it in front of the goblin’s face for a moment, then moves it to the goblin’s belly, pressing the point firmly against its skin, before speaking, his deep voice sounding strange as he speaks fluently in the chittering tones of the goblin tongue.
”Tell me about your tribe, with the lightning bolt. Who are you? Where is your camp or village? How many are you? And do your people know we are here?”
"That's the Stormcloud Company's symbol. They're organized, so [ask him how many more there are...]"
While the goblin does not understand what Borris is saying, he sure does understand one tall human standing over him and another longshanks with a knife pressed to his belly, speaking in his own language. The goblin is visibly shaking while he speaks;
The goblin spoke, and then looks to Rikar and Borris, hoping to be released.
Borris looks at Rikar and raises his hammer again waiting for a nod from Rikar.
Not understanding, Redona has no idea that the goblin is begging for its life. Had she, she would have felt even more sorry for it than she did. Still sobbing, she peeks out and sees it freaking out, with Borris raising his hammer. She hides her eyes again, trying to unsee the imposing image.
Rikar keeps his attention focused on the goblin, but says to the party ”Well, he’s telling the truth about his tribe, at least, he says they’re the Stormcloud Company, same as Misha said. Says their leader, Akkal Tor and their 'mighty Dragon Lord god' will take them to greatness. They have a mighty fortress below the caves, says no humans or dwarves will ever take it. There are lots of goblins and orcs in the fortress. But this little fellow’s never been in it, he says he’s always been outside – but he’d like to see their god and the prophet. Which I take to mean he’d like to go inside.”
Rikar rocks back slightly on his haunches, thinking a moment, then says ”We could take him with us, I bet he could guide us into this fortress. Or we could make him show us where it is, so we can avoid it.”