Garavaen says, "I agree with the dwarf. I'm not about to say kill anything that moves, but I'm feeling a mite less charitable about the benefit of the doubt. "
He raises his crossbow and starts scanning, looking for signs of hostility.
Much as Eli would like to satisfy his curiosity about the object, the unnerving silence of the place and the threats they had faced urged the goblin to caution. He continues moving along the stockade wall red eyes scanning ceaselessly for threats.
Arenya noticing the little goblin is about to be set upon yells out, "Watch out Eli!" and draws her dagger from its sheath preparing to do battle.
Garavaen fires a shot at the creature screaming up on Eli, Hopefully Eli will hear the reaction to getting hit by a built...
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Morgrym spots a shady figure looking to assail his new companion and without thinking twice springs to action charging the would be attacker with great fervor while shouting a warning "Whatch yer back ye green eared knave!"
The figure moves along a branch, and prepares to leap down on Eli, when both Ri'el and Garavaen see the thing and snap fire piercing it through both shoulders. As it still attempts to make a leap down, Morgrym charges forward and cleaves the thing in two.
Garavaen nods, "Fair enough. I don't know if that thing was a pack hunter or not, but best be careful."
Morgrym swung with such great force he expected more resistance from the body of the creature that the swing clefts it in two "Och, are you alright Eli? i saw the shadow of a beast dropin on ya and before i knew it i had cleft the beast in two, hope i didnt cover ya in too much mess. now lets make this trouble worth it, what do you see through the spy glass?"
Arenya breathes a sigh of relief, a the little goblin is spared the ambush.
She looks at Morgrym quite impressed. "You move quickly for a dwarf, though even more deadly than most I've ever met. Well fought Morgrym Stonewall, that was impressive." Arenya compliments him, patting him on the back.
Eli blinks at the hewn and bloody chunks of ambush predator, "He's had better days." The goblin looks through the spyglass.
The fighting starts, and then is over, before Davina even knows what happened. She looks around frantically and asks, "What was that? What just happened?"
As Eli looks through the glass, the rest of you notice that the door to the lodge is well built and sturdy, but currently ajar. The stench of rotting food, and the buzz of flies can be heard from within.
Eye to the glass, Eli mutters softly to himself. Then he moves from the lense and looks through the hole in the stockade, trying to find a safe trail down along the spyglass' line. "Looks like we found those tentacly Grindylows beasties. They're down in the cove yonder, mucking around. One of 'em is wearin' Sandara's hat."
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Ri'el's heart skips a beat at Eli's words. Rushing over to the spyglass, he peers through it to see for himself.
"At last, a lead!" he cries in a mixture of relief and desperation. "We need to get there quickly!"
If he is able to, he grabs the spyglass, mindful that when looking for a needle (even a needle with red thread) in a proverbial haystack, any optical aid would be useful.
He looks at his companions anxiously to see if they are ready to press onwards towards Sandara.
Arenya, turns addresses the party echoing Ri'el's sentiments. "We must hurry, every moment is precious. May Besmara watch over her." Pulls out her dagger quite ready to fight for her companion.
Morgrym voices a thought and a thanks and give a brief bow "Thank ya madam, just doin me duty, ya'll arnt to tough and so its me duty to put meself in the line o danger to keep us safe. If that glass be starin strait at the creatures lair who built this building? and what in the mountains name is makin that smell!? Gar bring that crossbow over her and keep it pointed over me head, i wanna take a quick gander inside here and would appreciate the company"
[ooc]Marked with the red and black X.[/b]
Ri'el finds to his dismay that the spyglass is mounted to the wall, and fixed on the one position. It would take some time and tools to fully remove it from the stockade wall.
Eli, when you look, you see what appears to be a deep drop off from the cliff face into the waters of the cove, and it shouldn't be difficult to reach, it will just take time to navigate down the rocks to it.
Morgrym, you approach the door, which stands ajar, and opens into a single room lodge, crowded with a large amount of furniture, including a large bed, a small writing desk, cooking gear, and several barrels of rotting food. Central to the room is a hooded corpse hanging by a chain off a beam, a stool not far from the feet of the corpse lies tipped over on its side.
Eli peeks into the lodge, rubs his nose, snorts, and shoots a sideways glance at Astein. "I'm seeing a dead guy hanging like a chandelier. What'r'you seeing? I'd say he ended hisself if it weren't for that split fella what dropped from the tree in the frontyard... and I don't see why a suicide would pull a hood over his head or use a chain instead of a good bit of rope. And if that fella was making a study of the Grindylows through the spyglass, why'd he kill hisself? It don't smell right."
The goblin takes a hard look at the inside of the lodge - especially the rafters - using his dark-eye vision. He adds, "Maybe he's got some records of the Grindylows' home or a map of the best route to that cove. That'd be helpful. It looks like a fair drop down there and I got no more'n 50' of rope."
Garvaen nods, I'll keep you covered. Though, I do agree this place feels more than a bit... wrong."
Ri'el fires a bolt into the corpse and it starts to hiss and flail about at the end of its chain. Unable to free itself, it becomes a pincushion for the various archers in the group.
After the ghoulish suicide victim is dispatched, Eli and others search the room. Amidst the contents are a suit of leather armor, six spears, and eight finely tailored courtier's outfits.
A cabinet in the lodge holds, 5 lbs of pepper in waxed bags, a silver tankard, and a silver locket depicting a beautiful buxom, young blonde woman, who you come to realize was one of the ghoulish women you fought earlier.
A journal on the desks indicates that it belongs to Arron Ivy.
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Ri'el does a quick search of the man and the area, and finds a silver ring in his pocket. He then quickly scans the journal for useful information that may help them against the squid-goblins.
"Looks like those things are called 'grindylows'. Nothing about how to kill them apart from squishing them, but they've got a whole lair in the caves down where the spyglass is pointed. Sandara's gotta be there. We should head down there if we're done here."
Knowing nothing of fine clothes, the goblin only fingers the rich fabric before turning his attention to the journal. He skims it quickly then looks at Davina. "If I'm readin' this right, your sister may have been on this ship called the Griffon's Wrath."
Arenya beams at the addition to their collection of loot. Feeling a little guilty that their enrichment may prove to be at the expense of one of their mates, though that thought is pushed to the back of her mind. "That's a nice find!" she exclaims examining the treasure.
With a gasp Davina takes the journal and reads the entry, her eyes at first lighting up at news that her sister may still be alive. Her hope falls quickly to fear and then resignation as she realizes what the entry says about what Nisha is doing, or being made to do. As she continues to read she becomes horrified as the journal comes to an end at the fate of Aaron Ivy.
Having finished the book, Davina grabs Eli into a hug, "Thank you for pointing this journal out to me Eli. Nisha may not be in the best place, but at least I know she may still be alive."
Eli bears the hug silently, glad lovely Grok hadn't seen it. "I reckon this is a fair wind, Angel-girl. We've got a real trail to follow soon as we make port. Find the ship; find the crew. Find the crew; find your sister. However..." he stows the journal in his sea-bag, "We've got some of them tentacly dwarves to deal with first."
Eli heads for the stockade entrance, hitching a rope diagonally over his thin shoulder.
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Ri'el nods in agreement at Eli's words.
"After we get Sandara back, we'll...well, I guess we'll need to deal with Plugg and Scourge first, then see about finding your sister. It seems the Spirits did have a purpose in bringing us to this island after all... Though I'll be damned if Sandara ends up being a sacrifice to grant us this information."
Garavaen asks, "Did the keeper of the journal include a map of the island? Might make life easier in terms of getting down to Sandara and Cogward."
"Didn't see a map... but the book says there's a steep drop-off into maybe deep water."
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"Unless someone is volunteering to test that drop-off, I think we should try to get there on foot. I have a spell that will let me climb down safely, but it's not one that I can pass on to others, and we're not going to be able to save Sandara with broken limbs."
"Or Crimson," he adds awkwardly after a short pause.
As you carefully traverse the way that Arron described in his journal, you find yourselves on high cliffs that surround a deep cove, churning with seawater. The cliffs around the cove vary from 40 to 80 feet tall above the waters. Tidal waters cause the churning of the dark blue water.
Eli hunches down at the edge of the cliff and stares into the turbulent water below. "There are no rocks below... but the fall could be enough." The goblin begins to look for a spot with a sturdy rock or tree as a tie-off spot and no more than a 50' drop to the water below.
Morgrym was certainly happy that a trigger happy companion allowed them to avoid a possibly hairy situation. "I wonder what brought the plague of ghoul fever to this island, and if there may be others that may have caught it here. If we had more time i would prefer to remove them from the misery of undeath but alas we havnt the time for that. On the subject of gettin into that cove ill tell ya im no strong swimmer, especially with all this armor on is there a way we can get down there with out me sinkin like a stone?" Morgrym looked with more than a little anxiety at the waters below, armor is usually a dwarves friend, but dwarves dont usually live by the sea
Arenya confirms Eli's assessment of the water being devoid of rocks as she makes her way down the rope tied off by Eli.
Eli finds a spot to fasten the rope and then lowers the end. Before anyone can say anything, Arenya shinnies down the rope into the water below. The water is warm, but you can feel a fairly strong current, from which the place gets its name, Riptide cove. The water in this basin is deeper than you can see down into its depths.
As the rest of the group gets ready to climb down, Eli feels something start to buzz down on him and manages to duck away, Garavaen feels something hit his armor, and Ri'el feels two solid pinpricks. When you all look, you see to bat like creatures attached to Ri'el, and two others flying about the group. You can see the large needle like proboscis on the two still flying about.
Stirge 1
Stirge 2
Stirge 3
Stirge 4
Arenya 15/15
Astein 14/14
Davina 12/12
Eli 7/13
Garavaen 18/18
Morgrym 18/22
Ri'el 8/11 2pts Con Damage (Fort Save -1)
***************Combat Round 1******************
Init: Stirge 2,4, Morgrym, Garavaen, Stirge 7,3, Astein, Stirge 8,6,5, Arenya, Stirge 1, Eli, Ri'el, Davina
The Stirge that attached itself to Ri'el, continues to feed off of him. One of the Stirges that missed, circles back for another attempt on Eli. This time the Stirge homes in on Eli, sticking his proboscis in the goblin monk's spindly shoulder.
Garavaen draws his rapier and curses, "Do I cut then off? Anyone know? "
Garavaen, Stirges are a common enough vermin that you know they are like abberations of ticks. You can cut them off, burn them off, or outwright squish them, but getting them off is something you want to do quickly.
Garavaen says, "Stand still, Riel.. Don't want to get you.", then tries to drive his rapier through the side of one of the stirges attached to the shaman.
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