The party moves into the room behind Tsadok'ul, all hugging the western most wall. He makes it to the southern end of the room without incident. Reaching out to the door south he jiggles it and finds that it is stuck just like the door to the north was.
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Tsadok grunt momentarily as this door will not budge either to a light touch. Trying to keep noise at a minimum, he'll withdraw a dagger and jimmying it between the frame and the door use it for leverage and his shoulder to force the door open.
"Rengar, we can either force this together or search the next room across the hall. We could also proceed the hallway proper and check these rooms from the hallway."
Tsadok breaks the door down and pushes into another room that is empty. After taking one step into the room he quickly identifies a false tile to the west. He suspects that the tile would break away and fall into a trap of some kind. Keeping the party away from that trap, he heads into the room and is once again surrounded by two closed and stuck doors, east and south.
The southern wall has a hole in it leading to the next room however and as everyone looks, some of the party members catch sight of a sentry kobold who darts west behind a door, closing it behind him. Another kobolds falls in from the east and take aim at the party. One of them fires an excellently placed bolt right into the hunters left should. The kobold screams excitedly to his east.
The kobold stares at Mazon, temporarily frozen.
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Tsadok and Pea'nut move in trying to subdue the kobold to the east seeing as Mazon has stopped the other in its tracks.
Tsadok trying to pull his blow completely whiffs but Peanut having little reservation after seeing the hunter shot attempts to bite and drag down the kobold. If successful, Tsadok calls out "Down!" to his friend so he will disengage and places his sword point at the creatures throat. "Stay still or die!" He states in common.
Tsadok misses but Peanu't takes down the kobold with ease. The creature squeals, terrified standing over top of him.
Rengar fail to grab the slippery kobolod who squirms out of attempt.
Trevyn's kukri finds its target but Arthes is unable to reciprocate. Hekra's barrage of missiles blast into the kobold on the west and send him sprawling into unconsciousness.
Shambala's booming voice causes the remaining kobold to shake in fear. He nervously swings his short sword at Rengar but obviously is too shaken to concentrate and misses. He immediately drops his short sword and begins spewing forth words in rapid broken Common. "Please.Nohurt!please!Give I in you!"
He falls to his knees, looking at the floor.
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Shambala comes closer to the surrendering kobold. He looks deep in his eyes and says :
"We don't come to anihilate you. We come as friends."
He stops and starts to try to make himself clear, thinking it may work better this way. He speaks in a crude but ancient tongue to kobold.
"I am an unholy priest of Dahak. The Lord of all Destruction sent me to your people to announce a change to this world. Show me to your leaders."
As Shambala inherited from a draconic legacy, he truly believes himself to be a priest of Dahak, but he just think to use his status to prove that the group comes not in search of annihilating the kobolds. He doesn't want to reiterate Sharrowsmith's failure.
When he comes closer in the room, Sham's eyes are attracted by a dragon face carved at the south end of the hallway. He points it to the group. The dragon appears to be missing part of its face. In its gaping maw it has two dozen round holes where teeth should be. It appears this was once a functional trap that fired crossbow bolts at anyone stepping at the plate on the far side of the hallway.
"Well, I'm not a specialist but I think we can repair the trap with five minutes of work."
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Pulling the bolt from his shoulder Tsadok expends one charge from his wand to heal the damage before storing it back in its wrist sheath; then Tsadok looks at the Dragon face but doesn't see what Shambala is talking about . Bypassing it, he moves over to inspect the doorway he sees on the other side leading back into the room on the other side of the room. Pea'nut pads by his side.
The kobold is in awe that he speaks his language. The kobold throws himself at Shambala's feet and begun to speak in rapid Draconic.
The doors to the west are closed and unlocked.
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Shambala wrinkles his eyes when he hears the kobold's answer. He turns towards his friends and explains them what they talked about.
"I asked him to show us to his leader with the intent to avoid unnecessary combat and not repeat Sharrowsmith's failure. He said that the leader is named Nagtok, he is an old and wise Kobold. He is through doors and to the right. Xzark required the kobolds to stand guard against intruders here. After the last human came by, he doesn't like humans, that's why little kobold here doesn't want to come with us because he thinks the master will kill him if he shows up with humans."
Unless there is a question from the party, Shambala continues to speak with the kobold:
"I understand but we are not here to harm you. We are here to bring the Unholy Word of Dahak. Who is Xzark? And where is the last human that came by?"
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Shambala sighs in annoyance too and tells the party about his findings.
"Sharrowsmith escaped to the South but somehow managed to collapse the corridors so the kobolds don't know where he is. The temple of the golden guardian and the leader is North and the kobolds' "homes" are West. But the kobold seemed extremely anxious about me asking him to go West, even after his explanation. He may be leaving something out about going through those doors..."
For the last time, Shambala questions the little kobold with flickering eyes:
"You didn't tell me everything about West, little worm! There is more than your homes, isn't it? ANSWER! Or you'll taste Dahak's Unholy Servant's Wrath!"
The kobold cowers before Shambala, speaking rapdily in Draconic. Towards the end of his speech he raises his voice and screams a few words at the sorcerer.
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Shambala raises an eyebrow and clears his throat.
"There is a creature called Stinkeye that is free on West wing. The kobold does not know what it looks like, but only knows that it eats anyone that looks at it! And he seems afraid to go there. What do you want to do? Kill that creature may be a way to establish "peace" with the kobold tribe..."
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Tsadok studies the pile of rubble, noticing the tool marks and realizing it was man made,; wonder was this done specifically to block the door or was someone looking for something above. Turning to Pea'nut, Tsadok point to the top of the rubble pile "fetch" Letting the more nimble cat see if anything worth finding is above.
Returning to the others, Tsadok raises an eyebrow at the excitable kobold's demeaner. " That would probably help to re-establish peace with the tribe if any of them are still around that is. Didn't the little bugger say to the west are their homes?? Ask him if Sharrowsmith collapsed the ceiling in the room over there. The rubble is blocking access to the room he was holed up in and there are tool marks in the rubble indicating it was not a natural failure due to time."
Shambala proxies the question and receives the following reply. "The human was messing where he did not belong with the Golden God! We told him to leave and he refused and when he ran he toppled a stone column in his retreat that began a series of collapses in multiple areas."