Tsharat, flying circles over the crowd, shrieks in distress. Immediately, Roakkad jerks around, seeking the source of her worry.
"Is that... music??. Hurry, hurry, we must stop the fires, and the singing. "
.
Tera grinds her teeth in frustration before blasting the smouldering wagon with frost once more to ensure it stays out and going after the others.
Motioning for Kaelaah to follow, Zache spins his starknife once, splatting a few drops of goblin blood on the cobblestones, before hurrying after Salomae.
A look of disgust flashes across Kaelaah's face as he reaches down for the goblin's weapon - with no weapon to hand and worried about adding to the flames, the tall Shoanti considers wielding a weapon that, frankly, is way undersized for the man...
...with a clatter, the weapon drops to the floor - Kaelaah is a proud man. His crimson hair billowing, he runs after Zache...
Heading south on High Street, it doesn't take long for Salomae and several of the others to figure out where the noise is coming from... just around the bend (High Street curves east not far south of the square) there is a band of 5 goblins approaching. These ones seem better outfitted than the first batch, carrying shields and shortswords. Even when they spot the approaching humans thay continue to sneer and sing.
**Initiative**
Sensing Tsharat's renewed anxiety, Roakkad abandons the well and runs down the street toward the others.
One, two and then a third spiralling plume of flame accelerate around Kaelaah's outstretched arm... and with a look of grim determination upon his face, he hurls an arc of orange fire at the closest of the goblins.
Roakkad comes running around the corner, past several of the others and stops a short distance behind Salomae. Kaelaah moves up next to her, on the grass west of the narrow road , and launches a gout of flame that strikes the closest goblin.
The singed goblin shrieks and several other shout well one just keeps on singing. They rush forward together to Salomae and Kaelaah. The charred one swings its shortsword at Kaelaah...
...but his blistered eyes can't seem to focus well enough to connect.
Two of the others stop right in front of Sal, one in the street and the other in the grass to the east, and both swing at her...
,
,
...opening up two nasty cuts on her legs.
The last two goblins step up behind the others, one in the street and the other to the west of it.
Tera, seeing the nice grouping of goblins asking to be roasted, slides into the front line beside Kaelaah. She tries to keep her eyes on the goblins in front of her, but her divided attention causes her to lose her concentration at a critical moment, and the flames forming in her hands sputter and go out.
"Oh that's not good," she mutters as she feels the energies for the spell flicker and die.
As Roakkad races around the corner he comes up just short of Salomae as the nasty little creatures begin to rush his friends. Spying a perfect opportunity, clustered as they are, he reaches for his spell pouch.
Suddenly Tera leaps forward, hands aflame, as the goblins lash out at Salomae. Sal cries out in pain as she jumps back, bleeding heavily, while Tera's flames diminish to smoldering embers.
His options now limited, Roakkad swiftly assesses the situation. He jumps forward five feet .
Quickly, he withdraws a handful of sand from his pouch. Bringing it to his lips, he forecfully blows. As he does, the sand explodes in an eruption of color, enveloping the goblins before him.
Kaede sighs before speaking. Why would they do this? These goblins know we'll fight back... Why throw their lives at this???
"I offer your the chance to surrender or flee,"she calls out, hoping that they would actually listen this time. "Your allies earlier didn't listen,and they won't be returning to you." she adds with a twinge of sadness. Kaede then moves slightly forward to cover Salomae and Roakkad.
The fire growing around Kaelaah’s hands intertwines and coalesces to form a scimitar of amber flame… and, dancing to one side as he avoids the goblin’s first strike, he slashes downwards…
Running up and skidding to a halt, Zache points a finger at the singing goblin. "Be silent, wretch, and hold thy wicked tongue!" he demands, clenching and twisting his fingers suddenly.
Tera moves up and tries unsuccessfully to cast a spell. Kaede calls out terms of surrender in the common tongue but, with no sign of them being accepted, readies her blade to strike if they remain aggressive. Zache targets the singing goblin with a spell...
,
...and anyone who knows goblinish knows that its words have become jumbled and nonsensical (though it seems, at least for now, to not be interrupting his song).
Sal strikes out with her rapier, missing, then steps back to a safer position. Kaelaah once again draws in wisps of flame from the smolder bits of ash the goblins have left behind and forges them into a blade of pure fire... The shoanti slashes at the goblin before him with it, but misses too.
Stepping up next to Sal, Roakkad unleashes a wave of magical light that catches nearly all of the goblins...
...the one ten feet in front of him shakes it off but the one fighting Kaelaah collapses, along with the one behind it and the one who had been singing.
The two goblins that remain conscious seem undeterred. The one right in front of Tera swings it's shortsword at her...
,
...slicing painfully into her shin. Kaede brings around her polearm at the creature when it attacks, but it manages to evade her attack. The one 10' in front of Zache steps forward and stabs its blade at him...
,
...piercing the meat of his calf.
"So be it,"Kaede responds to the goblin insistence on ignoring her. She steps forward to be behind Tera and Zache, whirls her glaive with a brief overhead flourish, , and with a practiced strike, slashes down at the one in front of Zache.
"Nnngh!" Zache grunts through the pain, glancing down and seeing blood stain the leg of his trousers. "And these were new!" he grumbles. He barely has time to ready a counter-strike when Kaede's glaive swings down, doing horrific things to the small creature.
He glances up at the enlarged woman, eyebrows raised in an impressed expression, then heads in to help Salomae with the last threat.
Kaede, unaccustomed to the increased force of her larger size, splits the goblin in front of Zache clean in half. Before the gruesomeness of her blow has even registered, the bard shifts his attention to the other standing goblin and slashes it with his starknife, leaving a bloody cut across its chest. Salomae takes advantage of the whole in the line to move around behind it, but in so doing leaves herself open to an attack...
...which the creature misses. Sal's aim, however, is true and with one precise thrust she drops the injured goblin.
Now the only question is what to do with the goblins knocked out by Roakkad's spell...
Roakkad stares in stunned silence at the remains of the goblin.
I must remember never to anger Kaede.
Brushing a bit of goblin entrails from his robe, he turns to Salomae.
"Yes, they will awaken soon, though it may serve us well to try to speak with them. Do any among us speak Goblin?"
Kaelaah flashes a look towards Salmaae, "These are no beasts for the slaughter... We must show compassion for these creatures, Crazed as they are, they may yet be redeemed". Unlikely though the concept of redeeming a pyromaniac goblin may be, right now Kaelaah seems sure that this is the right thing to do...
"Rope!!! We need rope!!!"
Tera is too busy biting down a scream at the burning pain in her shin to make her opinion clear. It didn't look like much, but she was sure the goblin had hit the bone.
"Use. Belts," she grates out through clenched teeth, "Tie them back to back one around their legs, another around their bodies and arms. Should hold them while we find some rope."
Putting words into practice, she begins undoing the gold-plated chain around her waist.
Kaede is as stunned by her bisecting downswing as Roakkad is. The use of a weapon is for violence, she mentally stammers through, and to fight is to cause injury and death.... But.... but to so completely destroy a life in a single blow.... She gazes at the goblin halves in horror, and probably would stay staring for some time, if not for...
"These are no beasts for the slaughter... We must show compassion for these creatures, Crazed as they are, they may yet be redeemed"
That startles Kaede out of her malaise. "...Yes! Yes!" And with that, Kaede springs forward to strip the remaining goblins of the weapons they have.
Heeding Tera's words, Zache strips off his belts and scarves, throwing them to those better-equipped to do the binding. "Use these," he sighs. "Hopefully they won't be unusable afterwards."
As the marked begin racing to bind goblins with belts and scarves and anything else they can, the noises from the square begin to calm- the fires, they hope, must be subsiding.
Kaelaah, wary of the goblins waking, helps bind the green-skinned teethy terrors as quickly as possible...
Tera looks up sheepishly at Sal, "Th-thanks. Never done this before," she mutters before going back to her task. She agreed with Sal on this one, but this was not the time or place to be having an argument.
"Tera, mind your wound. Is the cut deep? The blade may have been poisoned. The cut looks infected already."
It is only after saying this out loud that it occurs to Roakkad the comment may incite undue stress.
Working together, the marked are able fairly quickly to bind the two foremost goblins. As they finish that up, however, the unrestrained goblin--the one who had been singing--begins to stir... It still seems unable to do much of anything, for now, but it appears to have regained consciousness. Actually, they all seem to be awakening, though that's much less concerning for the ones already bound.
Seeing the goblins begin to stir, Roakkad swiftly moves in to secure the scarf knots.
Quickly flashing a smile at Roakkad, Kaelaah helps to keep the goblin’s wriggling limbs still…
"Tera, did you hear?"
Roakkad looks nervously at the wound on Tera's leg.
"I fear the infection has traveled. If it is in the blood, it may have reached her brain. Perhaps this explains her dull senses. We need a poultice. Quickly, we must take her to Sister Amet'Ra!"
Roakkad moves to Tera, reaching to support her and prevent her from fainting.
"My people's medicine women would make a poultice of cactus water and hawk scat. I fear we lack such luxuries here."
Kaede gathers the weapons silently, focusing on trying to regain her composure. However, when the goblins start stirring after Roakkad's colorful blast, dumps the weapons in a pile and uses the last of Tera's spell to try to pin the one goblin that the others weren't dealing with.
"I think I have this one for now..." Kaede finally says, looking about for something to tie this one up with.
"Nononono! I'm fine," Tera says as she backs away, wobbling a bit on her wounded leg. "I'm fine, no poison. I was just busy trying not to scream from pain is all."
That much is true, given the paleness of her face and the sweat on her brow.
"They're waking up, so we'd best hurry," Zache points out, trying to help Kaede bind the goblin she's working on. Unfortunately, the belt he's chosen as a binding isn't used to being handled under such stress, and snaps.
Almost as much to her surprise as anyone else's, Tera manages to help Sal tighten the bonds.
Once the marked decide to take the goblins prisoner, they move quickly to secure them. Zache hurries to pass out scarves and belts for tying them up. Roakkad and Kael quickly bind one while Sal and Tera bind another. Kaede begins by disarming the little beasts but when they begin to stir she leaps to action grabbing the last one and pinning it. From there it doesn't take much for the six of them together to bind that final goblin as well.
Roakkad's heartbeat pounds in his ears as he stands, surveying the mayhem around them. Babies wail, villagers scream, and the fires continue to burn as profane goblin chanting fills the air. Acrid smoke billows from several hot spots, and ashes fall around them like snow.
A delicate, handcrafted, paper butterfly floats before him. Its fringes already singed, it continues to burn as it falls to the ground at his feet.
Salomae's warning rallies him into action.
"Yes, I hear barking also. Quickly, we must hurry! There is danger, still!" Roakkas bolts in the direction of the commotion, his robes billowing in the smoke-choked wind.
Tsharat screeches as she follows in hot pursuit.