Giving him a smile she nods and heads to the front door, holding it open for them. "Great, let's go then."
"Sure." Xeni says heading outside.
Solsta waves as you leave. Ven smiles at the trio. "Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the rest of the festival."
As they leave she smiles and waves back, "Thank you, have a great rest of your day."
"Have a wonderful day." Xeni replies with a wave.
You return to the Rusty Dragon to find it packed and then some. People sit outside enjoying the curry-spiced salmon and early winterdrop mead.
Her eyes get a little large as they enter the Rusty Dragon, "Wow...there sure is a lot more people now than there was earlier. Maybe we should wait till after the consecration ceremony this evening to share this with Ameiko?"
"Probably," Bairn agrees. "Ameiko's probably got her hands full right now."
"Let me go put this up in my room, then we can go do whatever you want until the consecration ceremony this evening." Lilla says before heading upstairs to put away the pie until later.
Making sure she has whatever she needs on her, and that her weapon is securely fastened to her belt she heads back downstairs to Xeni and Bairn. "Okay, I'm ready."
"Alright," Bairn says. "Let's go have a look around town."
As the three of them go around the festival in town, she looks at the different games and vendors selling things. She oohhs and aahhs at some things but doesn't really see anything interesting enough to buy. The games don't really interest her since she's so used to seeing them in the places that she traveled with her family. Some of the food smelled really good, but she was still full from lunch. She is just happy and content to walk around with Bairn and Xeni.
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Xani enjoys walking around the town, noting the differences since she was last here, and the trappings of the festival. It was quite a departure from her normal existence, quiet aside from the sounds of the forest, where she could go days without saying a word aloud. As different as it was, it was definitely enjoyable.
As the sun begins to set, you all gather at the cathedral square. You see Father Zantus taking the stage. He throws a thunderstone to the ground to get everyone's attention, the sharp crack overtaking the excited chatter of the crowd.
A stray dog which had crawled under a wagon to sleep raises its head at the sound. The crowd begins to hush and Father Zantus opens his mouth to speak. But, before he can, a woman's scream pierces the momentary silence, followed by another and then another. After the screams, high pitched, tittering shrieks begin to rise.
The crowd parts and something small races by, giggling with inhuman glee as the stray dog lets out a pained yelp and then collapses to the ground, blood pouring from a ragged cut across its neck. A sinister chant begins to fill the air...
"Goblins chew and goblins bite.
Goblins cut and goblins fight.
Stab the dog and cut the horse,
Goblins eat and take by force!
Goblins race and goblins jump
Goblins slash and goblins bump.
Burn the skin and mash the head,
Goblins here and you be dead!
Chase the baby, catch the pup.
Bonk the head to shut it up.
Bones be cracked, flesh be stewed,
We be goblins! You be food!"
"Goblin!" Bairn cries, reaching for his longsword.
Nodding she grabs her weapon out of it's sheath, "Everyone, be on guard!" She yells out as she looks for the little bugger.
As soon as Ana heard the scream she began to look around. Then she saw the little beasts and heard their song. So this is where they were heading. She realized as her hand went for her axe and charged forward.
With Bairn and Lilla's help, Xeni sees where the three goblins emerge from.
Initiative:
Round 1: Ana, Goblins, Bairn, Lilla, Xeni
Ana pushed through as best she could, but it was difficult with all the panicking people.
"Green skin longshanks!" a goblin cries as it approaches Ana and attacks.
;
The other two goblins climb on top of a nearby table.
They pelt a couple of fleeing townsfolk with the produce off the table.
Round 1: Ana, Goblins, Bairn, Lilla, Xeni
Bairn heads towards the goblin, wading through the crowd.
Lilla moves up and stays by Bairn as they make their way to the goblins.
Xeni moves forward, wading through the crowd toward the goblin menace.
The crowd thins a little as the fighting continues.
Round 2: Ana, Goblins, Bairn, Lilla, Xeni
Gripping her axe with both hands, she raised it over hear head and brought it down.
Ana cleaves the goblin's skull to the teeth. One of the remaining goblins leaps at Ana, swinging its dogslicer.
; ;
The other goblin eats some of the produce on the table and lets out a loud, noxious burp.
Round 2: Ana, Goblins, Bairn, Lilla, Xeni
Bairn steps up to the table where the goblin is.
Seeing the other woman that was fighting the goblins take another slice from the little green menace she moves into a position between the table and the goblin to try and give it a different target.
Xeni draws her bow and fires at the goblin on the table.
Xeni's arrow flies wide, missing the goblins and the last of the fleeing crowd.
Round 3: Ana, Goblins, Bairn, Lilla, Xeni
Feeling weakened did not deter Ana from her personal mission, I am NOT letting these things get away.
With enhanced resolve, she swung once more.
Ana takes down a second goblin, leaving only one. Irritated that Bairn was interrupting it, the goblin swings at the bard.
; ;
The goblin slices the bard across the chest, leaving him barely standing.
Round 3: Ana, Goblins, Bairn, Lilla, Xeni
Bairn takes a step back and heals himself.
Lilla moves around to behind the gobblin and attacks it with her rapier.
Looking across the table at Bairn she says, "Stay back, we can handle this last one." Noticing how badly cut he is, she hopes that together, all of them can put a quick end to this last gobblin.
Finding difficulty hitting the goblins without endangering her new friends, and seeing Bairn badly wounded, Xeni races forward, her bow gripped in one hand as the other takes on a wooden thorny appearance as she charges up to throw a punch at the vicious little monster.
Xeni punches the goblin off the table and it falls to the ground in a crumpled heap.
The chaos of the goblins' attack continues as people continue to flee. You see several goblins chasing children and dogs past the cathedral square.
Bairn clutches his wound and looks at Lilla wistfully. "I guess I'm not cut out for adventuring."
She shakes her head, "The little bugger just got a lucky shot in is all. We just need to get you healed a little more and then we need to help the rest of these people. I won't let them hurt innocents."
Uttering a chant in the druidic tongue, Xeni touches the ground, a small bush swiftly growing and flourishing a number of berries. Picking them, she hands them to Bairn. "Here, eat these. It should help.
She gives Xeni a smile, "Thanks Xeni, maybe you'd like to come adventuring with us too? You can still talk to the plants and animals and stuff, but you'll have us to talk to too so you don't get lonely."
Looking over at the half orc she says, "You're pretty good at dealing with the little gobbers. If we all team up together we could probably take out more of them. I'm better when I'm fighting alongside others." She gives the other woman a smile before looking towards where she saw the gobblins chasing the children and dogs, "We need to hurry though."
Bairn eats the berries and sighs as his wound begins to heal. "Here let me help."
He goes over to the half-orc and touches her with a healing light.
Feeling her two wounds seal up, she turned to the Half-Elf, "Thank you stranger."
Looking at the young Varisan woman, "Atunci să nu-i ținem pe strămoșii noștri în așteptare."
She then turned and bolted for the Goblins.
She looks after the other woman with a surprised look on her face. She didn't realize she was a Varisian. In fact...she didn't think she had ever seen a half orc Varisian before. Shaking her head she looks at Xeni and Bairn, "Okay, so she's chasing off after the little buggers. Are you okay to go on Bairn, or do we need to try and heal you up a little more. If she tries to take them all on by herself though she's gonna be in trouble. I wish she would have waited long enough to make sure you were okay. Some people are just so impatient."
Before Ana can get too far, a wagon on the other side of the cathedral bursts into flames.
"We should stop the fire before it catches the cathedral!" Xeni says, pointing toward the burning wagon.
She nods, "Right! They don't need to lose their Cathedral again." she says while looking around for a water source.
"I can handle the water part." Xeni says as they run toward the wagon. Chanting rapidly in druidic, gestures towards the flames as water coalesces above the wagon to cascade down into the fire.
Lilla quickly follows Xeni.
Skidding to a stop, Ana turned and darted back to the wagon. Clever little bastards.