Unable to attack enemies hovering above the ground, Noro settles for readying a strike.
The creature, not being humanoid, laughs off Spectrum's magic.
The other is unable to so easily ignore Isme's curse; it falls asleep and to the ground, suffering damage and waking, startled.
Their faces contort into terrifying canine grins as they all move up and aim hideous bites at the lightly-armored Spectrum.
Noro aims a passing blow.She misses.
Noro aims another blow.
It lands, the creature letting out a hideous yelp, though it seems to resist some of the damage.
Isme frowns when the creature manages to wake from its fall and tries to knock out the other.
Spectrum nearly dropped at the pain but managed to scramble away.
He drew his bow as he backed up and took a shot.
One of the hounds hits the ground, snoring.
Spectrum leaps back, up atop an altar, and draws a bow to fire. The remaining hound lashes out at him.
Spectrum falls atop the altar unconscious before he can fire.
The hound's expression twists into a terrifyingly human grin as it leaps up to nip at Isme.
Furious, Noro shifts up and starts laying into the hound.
She lands two terrible hits, but the creature ignores most of the pain and continues furiously howling.
Isme just manages to dodge the creature's bite as its teeth hit an invisible force around her. She belatedly tries to categorize the enemy in front of her.
Isme attempts to gather an aura of misfortune around the hound that attacked her, cackling madly as she flaps a bit out of range.
Isme identifies a Yeth Hound, a hunter-demon with a terrifying howl and bite.
Isme afflicts the creature with ill-luck as it lashes out at her.
Noro lets out another flurry of hits.
One hit lands and the dog is heavily wounded, but remains upright.
Spectrum fires again.
Isme manages to avoid the creature's attack due to its bout of ill-fortune and glares at it ominously, her eyes turning red for a few moments as she cackles.
Spectrum aims a nasty arrow shot, fired straight through the creature's heart; it growls then vanishes in a puff of ash and smoke. Noro nods, then dispatches the sleeping one with a terrifying punch to the neck. The room falls silent.
"Need healing, Spectrum?"
Spectrum winces and nods, too badly hurt to speak.
Isme flaps and moves to perch on Spectrum, twittering a song.
Isme knows that Yeth Hounds are hunters, often found in the company of night hags and evil hunters. They are often associated with particularly bestial demons, a sure sign of favor to their faithful.
Looking around the temple, a small necklace hanging from the altar seems out of place; it is plain metal, shaped into a runelord sihedron.
"Thank you." Spectrum said standing and twisting a bit to check how hurt he still was. He was no longer bleeding but there was still some damage. Mostly now he felt badly bruised.
"I need to revise my battle strategy." he said bitterly.
"That would be a wise choice," Isme comments dryly.
Isme first casts detect magic again, narrowing down the magic source she detected earlier. She then inspects the necklace, not touching it as she's learned from her experiences with arcane jewellery.
Isme detects a faint aura of necromancy; she determines that the medallion grants it wearer mild powers over life and death.
"Doesn't seem to be anything particularly dangerous," Isme says to Spectrum. "Just a medallion imbued with necromantic powers. You might want to wear it since it gives a way to temporarily infuse yourself with life."
Spectrum cleaned his clothing again and nodded, taking the medallion and putting it on.
"My magical resources are a bit thin right now. I have conserved my most powerful spells, but I am concerned they are not suitable to this place. We will need to be careful if we are to complete this job today."
Isme also detects a lingering enchantment throughout the room; unholy in cause but neutral in effect, meaning that a mere hour's rest here allows great rejuvenation of effort, health and magics.
"It seems that this can serve as a place of rest," Isme says. "I suggest taking advantage of it. "
Spectrum nods. "How serendipitous"
Isme rests on a higher perch to rest. "Try not to make too much noise." She glares at the pseudodragons when she says this.
An hour passes; the chapel is peaceful, despite its terrifying demeanor.
Isme also casts Mage Armor on herself before they set off. "Let's go."
Spectrum stands and takes a moment to fastidiously clean himself again.
"This whole place needs to be pushed off into the sea." he said scornfully as he drew his sword again.
You push yourselves into a goblin art gallery.
The lower four feet of the walls in this empty room are covered with crude
drawings in mud, blood, and paint. Most of the drawings show goblins
engaged in some sort of violence against humans, horses, or dogs. One
picture on the north wall is at least three times the size and complexity of
the other scrawlings. This image shows Thistletop from the side, the goblin
stockade perched atop it like a crown. A cave has been drawn into the
center of the image, and looming inside is what appears to be an immense,
muscular goblin with snake-like eyes and a dogslicer in each taloned hand.
If the scale compared to the rest of the drawing is to be believed, this
goblin must be at least thirty feet tall.
Isme takes a quick look around before inspecting the image.
"Quaint," Isme comments. "I hope that isn't to scale, or even real, but I see Thistletop so this might be a hint to what they've planned. Not that we already didn't know they wanted to invade and kill, but that we know what to expect if we go in deeper."
We should expect a really big goblin? Glimmer asked, confused.
"Unlikely, being that we are underground." Spectrum said, still studying the awful art.
"What could cause a goblin to grow and have eyes like that?" he posited.
The drawing looks nothing like anything Spectrum has ever heard of it; either the artist was imagining things or it's something so powerful it is beyond his knowledge.
"Just goblin nonsense." Spectrum said after a moment.
"If you say so."
Isme looks over the door before they proceed.
Listening at the door, Isme thinks she can almost hear the sound of voices on the other side; she can't determine anything more. She doesn't see any traps.
"I think I hear voices on the other side. Be ready when you open it."
Noro nods, cracks her knuckles, and moves to open the door. Stiff at first, it puts up some resistance, before slamming forward suddenly onto an odd tableau. A human, clad in worn armor and with a hefty shield leant against the table and a sword at his side, arguing with three goblins clad in garments of varying shamaninity. "Look, the last time, I told y- who the f!*! are you?" Gazes are drawn up from the table filled with maps and figures at you interlopers, and hands go to hilts.
Instead of replying with words, Isme opts to summon a burst of golden sand inside the room.
All but one of the goblins are blinded by Isme's burst.
The remaining goblin growls, then starts up a hideous goblinoid chant. The enemies rub their eyes. The man growls "Get 'em out of here!"
The human manages to scrape the dust from his eyes, the other goblins don't.
Spectrum conjures a ball of supercooled air in front of the door across from them.
Spectrum summons a ball of ice.
Its searing cold scorches the goblin's skin, but it survives, for now.
Noro shifts over past the ball of ice, and starts punching.
Her flurry misses.
Isme moves closer to the door and trills a smooth birdsong, summoning a layer of slick oil beneath the human and one goblin.
The slip over and hit the dirt.
"...I'm going to F&!%ING EAT THAT BIRD!"
The man gets to his feet and hefts his sword, shifting over closer to Noro. Two of the goblins shift up and attack Noro.
One of them lands a glancing blow; the remaining two goblins rub their eyes.
One of them manages it.
Spectrum casts Mage Armor on Noro.