The only thing the old man has on him is some kind of a headband clutched in his claws. It looks like a tiny wooden box with a leather cord attached to it to hold it in place.
That... actually seems a little odd. Tiger will take it, then, and see if the box easily opens.
The box does easily open, revealing a few pieces of paper in it. Each has some scripture from a variety of the more common religions written on it.
"Huh... looks like we've got a dead priezst here. Let's movve on."
Arden collects the pieces of paper as they pass the body. He tries to determine the alignment of the religions that the scriptures come from.
Sir Florace takes a closer look at the scriptures.
After we're done with this guy, Tiger will suggest heading North and taking the last fork.
In the back of your head, you remember seeing a similar headband being worn by a few of the more devout paladins in your order, but you don't remember anyone taking the texts out of the box before. You think the headband is probably meant to function with the papers inside, but you were never quite sure what it's purpose was.
The party heads North and to the locked door, which Aki easily opens. Pushing it open reveals that a large number of weapon have been stashed in neatly ordered stacks and piles in this dry cave.
Arden picks up the longsword.
The tunnel soon opens up into a larger cavern with a rocky ceiling 12 feet above you, giving the medium sized members of you a welcome chance to stretch your backs. A crude statue stands in the middle of the cavern and seems to be decorated with grisly strips of dried viscera. Next to it stands a slightly surprised looking kobold priest with two skeletons standing next to her. She makes a chattering noise and points at you, clearly commanding her skeletons to attack.
The kobold priest makes a few gestures at herself as the skeletons charge forward at Tiger, swinging their rusty scimitars. The first blow goes wide, but the second manages to land, cutting his cheek slightly.
Sharpe runs past the party and the skeletons and starts shooting at the priest.
Tiger will swing away at one of the skeletons with his morningstar.
Arden shouts "He's protected from good." He moves up and attacks with his newly acquired longsword.
Sharpe moves past the skeletons, easily avoiding a clumsy swing and shooting the priest. Meanwhile, Tiger and Arden use the distraction to team up and crush the creatures. Aki then surges forward to shoot at the priest but misses. Nighttail is too far to attack, so instead she madly rushes forward to threaten him.
Sir Florace surges forward to strike the priest.
But his sword is deflected off of the magical energies surrounding the kobold. The priest steps back, spluttering curses mixed in with a few arcane words as his quarterstaff begins to glow.
Tiger will move and attack the Kobold priest, is chaotic good, and I'm pretty sure where this is going.
Arden also moves forward to attack the priest.
Tiger and Arden both miss. As they do so, the rest of the group swarms forward to corner the priest.
With the mighty onslaught, the priest is just barely still standing. He manages to remain conscious long enough to channel negative energy at everybody around him.
The priest then falls unconsious and begins to bleed out.
And Tiger is sad.
Yayifications!
"Ow." Tiger says. He's noticeably limping at this point.
"Sir Florace, could you take a look at Tiger? Afterwards, lets keep moving."
If you continue forward, you get to a fork. One path goes North, the other goes West.
Tiger will drink two of the potions if nobody stops him, since he's feeling rather ornery and injured.
Arden casts detect magic on the items.
"I believe it's abjuration, but the magic is to powerful too fully identify." Arden's eyes turn yellow and shift around at the end of his words.
"Let's go west!"
You round the corner and head down a long hallway. The walls seem unusually damp and there's an odd smell in the air. As you approach the end of the hallway, Nighttail pipes up in a hushed whisper. "Careful, we getting close to chief's throne room."
Tiger points at the triplines, and refuses to trip over them.
Arden looks at Tiger and points forward with two fingers, indicating to move on ahead.
Everyone carefully avoids the trip wires and continues a short way until they reach a short flight of rough-hewn steps. At the top is a large cave, the floor strewn with fresh straw. The bones of many different creatures, animal and humanoid both, hang on the walls. Two boulders bisect the cave, obscuring what the other half holds.
When you move further into the cave to see what the boulders obscure, four kobold guards snap from their lax, semi-attention state to full attention. A kobold in fine robes jumps up from where he was sitting polishing something. He puffs out his chest and addresses you imperiously.
"You think you can trespass in the lair of the Blood Vow Tribe with impunity? I am Roaghaz, and I serve the great Lord Aeteperax! He rewards his supplicants for ferocity and faithfulness. We shall add your bones to those hanging on these walls, and our great lord shall sup on your flesh!"
"Supplicate THIS, you leezard man in a dress!" Tiger shouts, and hurls a javelin.
Since the guards seem to be blocking Roaghaz, Sharpe shoots at the one in front of Roaghaz.
Arden's sword appears to look brighter.
Arden moves forward and attacks the northmost guard.
With a yelp, the northmost guard is cut down by Arden. Another guard nimbly dodges Tiger's spear, only to get hit in the chest by Sharpe's bullet, which is not quite enough to take him down.
Sir Florace and Aki move forward to attack, but both miss. As his guards hold everybody off, Roaghaz pulls out a wand and a spray of web comes shooting out, hitting all of the heroes.
Nighttail manages to free herself, but can only get close enough to hit one of the enemies with her sling. The guards then retaliate, managing to hit Aki once.
Tiger moves to where he can stab the injured kobold, and proceeds to stab the injured kobold.
Tiger comes close, but misses his target.
Still stuck, Aki tries to take down the kobold next to her, hoping to free up some space for her allies.
She kills off the badly damaged kobold and injures the other one.
Sharpe moves closer and reloads.
Arden attempts to free himself from the web.
Now free, Arden moves to attack Roaghaz.
Sir Florace manages to avoid getting caught in the web, striking down the uninjured kobold guard and moving out of the sticky area.
Roaghaz curses the heroes for breaking free of his web so easily. Seeing that he has no where to run to, he makes a few arcane gestures.
But the spell seems to fizzle out, accompanied by a few Draconic curses. Nighttail then surges forward, striking the final guard down. She cackles gleefully. "Your reign is over Roaghaz!"
When the chieftain sees her, his face goes purple with rage as his rate of cursing seems to double.
Tiger will keep smacking the same kobold.
Arden attacks Roaghaz.
As Tiger misses, Arden moves lunges at the kobold. His first swing goes wide but his second catches Roaghaz by surprise, cutting his forearm. He hisses in pain but remains upright and healthy looking.
vs touch
As the heroes surge in and pile on, they manage to do enough damage to bring him down.
You notice a couple of chests next to a pallet in the corner of the room. After searching Roaghaz's body, you find two keys, one of which fits both the chests.
In the room are 2 kobolds and a slimy-looking toad-like creature. Upon seeing you, both kobolds move between you and the eggs. One hisses at the toad-like creature, while the other hisses at you in Draconic. Nighttail translates.
"They say 'Leave this place. If you do, we will tell you of the dangers up ahead.' "
Arden says "That's a scroll, a wand, and a cloak. Let's check out that cave we passed earlier."
Entering the cavern and hearing the words of the kobolds Arden replies in draconic. "Very well, what dangers lie ahead and what is the creature you are with?"
"Soon you will come upon a hallway laced with oils meant to burn unwary intruders. It guards the chieftain's chambers, giving him and his guards time to prepare a trap for those who survive. This creature is a slurk. He helps us to guard the future."
"You mean he's a time lord? Oh wait, you probably mean he helps to guard the eggs. That's less exciting."