Wymond sees the barricade and frowns.
"Blast!"
He sheathes his sword and pulls out his new mace.
"This oughta make short work of it!
He takes a swing at the barricade, hoping to smash it!
Yeah, that'll do it. The makeshift barricade breaks into so much flinders and trash as Wymond smashes it aside.
Did he just say he wanted strawberries?
"All hail the Woodslayer, scourge of furniture!" cheers Colcille at Wymond's address. "There's still a handful around and we're going almost blind, so... gentlemen first?"
Perfire presses on after Wymond and Colcille, snatching his glowing stone from the air as he passes.
Cocille, Perfire and Wymond can't see anything beyond 5' from their torches and magical lights. Lilika joins them and says "Four goblin archers. About twenty feet away."
With subtle hand movements, she summons a blob of acid and hurls it into the darkness. She curses under her breath, apparently having missed.
The goblins chant in broken unison and broken Taldan.
"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!"
Arrows fly, and two strike Wymond, sticking painfully through the chainmail that covers his armpit and knee.
STATUS
Goblins -
Lilika - 16/27 hp
Colcille - 17/22 hp
Wymond - 24/29 hp
(Triath) -
Perfire - 20/24 hp
'Follow the rock!' Perfire shouts as he allows his momentum to dash past his companions and push his glowing stone once more into the darkness.
Colcille improvises a rhyme of her own as she darts to attack one of the two she can see, a weak swing mostly aimed at distracting them.
"Human stabs and cuts you deep,
halfling magic makes you sleep,
half-elf throws you acid bolts,
then I will fill you with holes!"
With a critical ear, she judges the ending rhyme to be forced, and there being an excessive use of the pronoun "you", but overall a passable improvisation effort.
Wymond pushes past Perfire and strides towards the goblins as Colcille throws the goblins' rhyming back at them.
"Yer better at that than I'd be, Colcille!"
He finds Perfire's floating rock and strikes at the goblin beneath it!
Colcille stabs one of the goblins in the shoulder, enough to make it squeal, while Wymond smashes his mace down, instantly killing another goblin!
Lilika steps through the barrier and to the side, casting another acid dart at the goblin directly in front of her.
Lilika blasts a goblin with acid, badly burning the little pest's whole body. The goblins tremble and run!
Wymond swings at one goblin that runs past, but the powerful mace merely whistles harmlessly over its head.
STATUS
Goblins - A: 5 damage; C: 2 damage
Lilika - 16/27 hp
Colcille - 17/22 hp
Wymond - 24/29 hp
(Triath) -
Perfire - 20/24 hp
COMBAT OVER
"Wanna go after 'em, or just keep lookin' around in here?" Wymond asks the others.
'There will likely be more of them either way. I can imagine this is a pretty ideal den for creatures like them.' Perfire floats his stone back to his hand.
"Wasn't the idea to ged completely rid of them? Sounds silly to leave a job half-done."
Lilika draws she sling as she follows the goblins to the exit. She raises a hand, casting one final acid dart at the nearest goblin.
You chase down and slaughter the fleeing goblins before they make it to the shelter of the Echo Wood, then return to the cool dark of the Emerald Spire ruins.
What next?
"Right, now that we've got that nonsense out of the way, let's get back te explorin' this bugger of a level!" Wymond says as they return to the dark, torch still in hand.
"Lili? Ready when ye are."
Lilika casts a healing spell on herself before moving to examine the entry room she's standing in for treasure they missed, or hidden passageways.
Then she rejoins the others and searches the room they're in.
"Ready," she tells Wymond.
"Ow, gross, I think one of the goblins puked on me! I'll smell for weeks." whinges Colcille, looking for some clean cloth to wipe filth and grime from her hands.
"Lily, if you could find out what in insanity's name is spreading this darkness, I'd be overly grateful. Failing that, call me for anything that has a lock or a trap."
Mumbling a rhapsodic tune between herself, the chipper elf starts combing through the rooms, moving cautiously in the radius of her torch.
Lilika casts a healing spell on herself before moving to examine the entry room she's standing in for treasure they missed, or hidden passageways.
Then she rejoins the others and searches the room they're in.
"Ready," she tells Wymond.
Wymond grabs her hand, assuming it's offered and Triath trots up to join them.
STATUS
Lilika - 27/27 hp
Colcille - 17/22 hp
Wymond - 24/29 hp
(Triath) -
Perfire - 20/24 hp
In searching the goblin bodies, you find unusual treasure. Between them they had several coins and gems - unusually rich for goblins. There are 3 garnets worth 50 gp each and 124 gold coins!
You wander about the perpetually darkened ruins of the ancient Azlanti castle, utterly unable to discover the source of the magical darkness that has lasted here for more than a hundred centuries. Most of these rooms are vaguely familiar to Wymond and Perfire, but wholly unfamiliar to Lilika and Colcille. Whatever their purpose in the legendary past, they have served more recently as barracks, mess hall, kennel, armory and kitchen for two different tribes of goblins. The smell is appropriately nauseating.
There are some rooms which you have never before seen. What appears to be something between a kitchen and an alchemical laboratory you find small machine parts - this could be where the shaman Skizzertz worked on his faulty golem Clanky - both foes that Wymond and Perfire faced in weeks past.
In the bedroom you briefly entered before, you find a scroll tube on the table. It contains a sheet of parchment on which is drawn a strange sigil in iridescent green ink.
At the top of the winding stair, you find Grulk's chamber. You also find Grulk, dead with half a dozen goblin arrows in him. From the look of it, they shot him in his sleep.
This strange chamber pulses with the green glow of the column of glass-like crystal that forms the core of the tower. The walls of the room are damaged, and the roof is cracked. The spire in the center juts up, just peaking above the crude ceiling. A bed and a side table sit in the northern half of the room, and archery targets line the southern section of wall.
Grulk's purse is cut open and empty, but he still wears a plain metal ring that radiates magic. Next to his bed lies a suit of leather armor, a composite longbow and a morningstar.
Finally, in Grulk's room you find a secret door. Behind it is a short passage that ends abruptly at an opening 60 feet above the ground.
The original passageway was blasted away millennia ago.
Wymond whistles when they find Grulk dead.
"Guess he got pincushioned by them goblins we slew. I suppose we could say we 'avenged' him, I guess? Either way, deal's definitely off."
After they count up their loot, Wymond smiles a bit.
"This'll help us keep our supplies goin'!"
"I seen this before!" Wymond comments when they look at the scroll with the sigil on it. "This mark's in several places here an' down below. Whadaya think this is then? A threat to Grulk, maybe? Perhaps this is the mark of that Klarkosh guy Grulk wanted us te fight?"
'Hang on' Perfire uses his sleeve to rub at the goblin stain on Colcille's tunic. The stain begins to glow softly, then fades. 'That should do it'
Perfire studies the ring's auras for a moment.
'I think I have it just about figured out. I can study it a bit more with magic, but I'd prefer to wait until we stop to rest properly.'
Perfire studies the broken section of the column carefully, trying to learn what he can.
Colcille beams as she is magically cleaned, and stamps a kiss on Perfire's forehead. "Oh, thank you! You're full of pleasant surprises, aren't you? I'll gift you something for this kindness, once I have time to make some trinkets."
The discovery of Grulk's corpse is not entirely unexpected. Just a reminder that keeping watch during rest is vital. And when the loot is examined, she points out what she can to Perfire.
"These carvings seem to be feathers, and the ring is lighter than it should be. Do you think these are clues to what it does?"
Lilika looks at the magical items and the strange sigil with interest, completely in the dark as to their purpose.
"Shall we rest and press on to the thieve's level tomorrow? Or shall we return to town to resupply?"
'Ah, yes, you're right. I think this ring can help cushion a fall. That would have come in very handy when we were discovering all the traps down below. Good eye.'
'[b]I'm up for either, I haven't been able to see much to affect with my spells.[b]'
"Honestly in terms of supplies we're still rather fine. AND I can still heal ye lot with Erastil's power if need be. Are ye nearly out o' spells?" Wymond asks.
"I've a few cuts but I can go on all day. The only problem is, they'll still be on alert for us, unless we can fish them out somehow."
Colcille rocks on the balls of her feet. "They're bandits, right? Maybe if we disguise ourselves and look like we're easy prey they'll try to come at us."
Lilika nods. "I have a few spells left. We can press on."
At Colcille's suggestion Lilika asks, "Are you good with such deceptions?"
Wymond and Triath listen and nod along.
Perfire, with Colcille's help, figures out that the Spire Transport Token can take you anywhere in the Emerald Spire (or to any point adjacent to one of the runes, anyway), so long as you understand and speak that rune. The two of you have figured out this particular rune. It's the number "6".
:-)
'I think, either way, they're going to be on alert for us. I don't think we'll have to try to hard to look vulnerable.' Perfire fingers a hole in his tattered clothing.
"Are you good with such deceptions?"
"Decent, I'd say? Maybe? Hopefully they'll be wanting to believe that. Ah, by the by there were guards around the entry last time I was there, so taking them out will already be a cut to their numbers."
"Unless someone wants to try to go to wherever this rune leads. If it's the sixth layer I have a very bad feeling that we'll get sandwiched between some horrible things without way out. You said there were similar runes outside? Maybe one's an emergency exit, one can hope."
"Let's start with the entry guards. Maybe, if we wait long enough, they'll send more out to check on those we defeat."
"Aye, let's not descend straight te the sixth level with 3 levels crawlin' with thieves an' possibly less human monsters between us an' escape should we need te retreat again," Wymond agrees. Triath nods as well. "I like yer plan, Lili. Maybe we can win through...wuzzat word, atrocion?"
"...Yes." Lilika replies, apparently not interested in helping Wymond correct his vocabulary. Turning to Colcille she remarks, "Lead the way."
Bow drawn and arrow nocked, Colcille leads the way towards the ambush location.
Perfire does his best to stay low and alert, ready to exert his will on any bandits that may appear.
Wymond and Triath follow Colcille and Perfire but hangs back instead of trying to sneak with them. His armor would give him away way too easily, especially since he wasn't trained to sneak the way those two were.
Colcille and Perfire sneak forward, observing and taking their time. Slowly, they begin to spot the guards hidden among the trees. It's obvious that the thieves are on alert. Colcille and Perfire spot two men on the ground and one figure up in a tree, probably an archer. It's likely that there are more guards on the far side of the hidden entrance.
Wymond and Triath hang back with Lilika.
"Thanks fer showin' us around in the dark like that. Yer quickly becomin' quite the leader o' this little band o' heroes," he says warmly.
Colcille taps Perfire's shoulder, then points at herself, her bow and the figure in the tree, before looking at him quizzically, as if waiting for confirmation.