"Aye, that sounds like a good idea, Perfire. You sure you're going to be able to avoid their arrows, though?" Wymond replies, standing up with a grunt and shouldering his axe.
'I'll have to if my spell doesn't work. I'm quick on my feet and pretty hardy, I should be able to get to safety.' Perfire tries to sound sure of himself.
"Sounds like a useful spell , Perfire. If you're up to it, I agree with your plan. I'll come with you to give them something else to shoot at . We'll have to throw more torches in so we can see a bit better..." Yirrik says with a smile, then gives a hand setting up camp.
"Should we have some kind of signal? I assume you'll need me to charge in and start swinging."
'Well, if the aim is to draw them out, running and screaming should be enough of a signal. If my spell works, I could whistle to let you know to come up.'
Wymond rubs his chin.
"Maybe hoot like an owl or somethin'? That usually works."
Perfire steels himself and begins to sneak up the path leading to the entrance, ready to begin slinging spells as soon as he has an idea of what he's up against.
Yirrik watches his small friend carefully ascend the path from it's start , watching the entrance above for any danger...
Not seeing anything to warn Perfire about, he follows , going as quietly as possible...
Perfire inches his way up the path, flitting from rock to rock until he is quite close.
Yirrik leans in close and whispers in his ear "There's one now! He doesn't see us! Cast your spell and we'll see if we can't deal with him and his mount ! If your spell doesn't work we run back down the path, clucking like chickesn or owls or whatever, hopefully it'll follow..."
He pulls his head back, eases his sword out and nods to Perfire...
Perfire steps out from hiding and draws on his well of arcane power. Centered on his iron ring, a cone shaped burst of light and color springs from his outstretched hand, washing over the goblin and his mount.
FREEEEEM! The explosion of light and color overwhelms the optic nerves of the two dozing sentries, leaving them unconscious and helpless!
Anyone, go!
Yirrik flashes a grin at Perfire and leaps ahead to finish off their helpless foes...
He then waves frantically to the others to ascend...
'Do you have any rope? This one might be able to tell us something useful,' Perfire says as he drags the goblin away from the entrance.
Wymond sees Yirrik waving from the top of the path and begins making his way up to them, Triath trotting behind him.
She too saw Yirrik wave them forward. Watching as Wymond and Triath had moved up the path and she was left alone, Zaia began to swiftly and mindfully move toward Perfire and Yirrik. Hearing the Halfling's request, Zaia removed the silk rope from her pack and handed it across to him, "Here, Perfire, you may use my rope," she quietly responded.
'Thanks, do you think we should gag him for the time being? He should come out of it before too long.' Perfire binds the goblins hands and feet.
When Yirrik stabs the goblin dog, he does not kill it. The dog screams at the top of its lungs and rises, preparing to fight or flee.
Yirrik, give me at an Attack of Opportunity.
Wymond tears part of his cloak off to make a makeshift gag.
'If we want to question this one I think we should get him away from the entrance. When he comes to, he may start hollering. Will someone help me move him?' Perfire continues to drag the tied-up goblin away from the entrance.
Yirrik stabs the gobin's mount until it's dead, then kicks it over the edge.
He grabs the unconsious goblin and drags him down to the first turn in the path and waits for the others to catch up.
Breathing hard, "Do we want to just dispatch this one? He may give us no other option once we wake him up." he asks thoughfully.
She watched as Perfire and Yirrik moved the unconscious goblin back and away from the entrance to the ruins.
"I would like us to try and reason with it when it wakes but you may be right, Yirrik, and it will not be receptive and will have to be dealt with sooner rather than later," she answered quietly.
Wymond frowns.
"We've got the bugger at our mercy. It ain't right to just kill 'im after we've gone to all this trouble to tie 'im up and stuff. Besides, goblins are cowards. If we're scary enough, he'll probably run off and never come back."
'At worst we can leave him tied up and come back to him later. I don't think they'll go very long before they notice he's missing.'
Wymond nods.
"That works. What say we hang him tied up from a tree branch in camp so he doesn't cause trouble while we deal with his pals?"
Yirrik smiles at Wymond's suggestion, "An excellent idea, Wy, he'd be far enought away that no one'd hear his little squeals"
He then appropriates the goblin's bow and arrows, inspecting them for workmanship and durability.
Perfire helps get the goblin to the tree-line and assists in hoisting him into the air. When he regains his senses.
'We'd like to know how many of you are in there, and why our lights don't seem to be working. If you tell us, we'll let you go, if not, we'll leave you up there.' Perfire does his best to sound tougher than he is.
On coming to consciousness, the filthy goblin screams, baring its many razor-sharp teeth. "Aieeeeee! Curse you! The Mother take you and make monsters of your corpses! Zeemo tell you nothing! Zeemo big dog-killer! You in trouble with the Bloodbriars! Uh.... what was question?"
"Tell us aboot the Bloodbriars, Zeemo. How strong is this fearsome tribe, an' how scared should we be?" Wymond says, giving the others a knowing wink.
Returning to his rant now that he is reminded, Zeemo spits and curses and promises to tell you nothing.
"Mighty Grulk will split your skulls and serve your guts to Klarkosh! You never leave green castle alive!"
"Grulk and Klarkosh, huh? Sounds terrifying! How terrifying ARE they?!" Wymond says, attempting to egg Zeemo on.
Perfire watches Wymond's deft interrogation of the goblin. He does his best to look fearsome as the Paladin works his magic.
"Mighty as dragons! Fearsome as gods! Goblin gods, not stupid human gods! Grulk is son of the great Mother, smash you with axe! You afraid now? You should be! Goblins smash and goblins burn! Grulk mightier even than ten goblins! He bring back Zog and Bloodbriars live easy. Take what they want! Burn everything else! No, I tell you nothing."
First created in 4071 AR, the kingdom sprang up after goblins overwhelmed the young kingdom of Alban (modern-day Lambreth) and took its place as master of the region. Ruled over by barghests, the empire survived until 4217 AR when the Yellowtongue Sickness swept through the region, crippling the kingdom. It then fell to a loose coalition of adventurers, riverfolk, and half-elves that same year.
The goblins of Zog left behind many pits, delves, and hidden cave complexes that have yet to be explored.
Yirrik rubs his chin, "Ah, great Zog! " he says to the others, "Goblin kingdom, mainly where Lambreth is right now... ruled by Barghests, but wiped out by Yellowtongue Sickness..lots of ruins and holes left. I've seen some...impressive."
He snaps out of his recitation, to fix his eye on Zeemo, "Grulk seeks to return Zog to it's former glory, eh? How does he think he'll do that?" Yirrik asks doubtfully.
"What?" Zeemo seems confused by the question.
"We burns and crushes slices and takes! Then...Zog!"
Zaia recollected the same of the Kingdom of Zog and merely nodded in agreement at Yirrik's words.
Quietly to her companions, she added, "The Great Mother, I believe, is Lamashtu, "Mother of Monsters" and an evil goddess of destruction."
"He must 'ave a lot o' goblins if he's got dreams that big! How many of you are there in that green castle, so we can be scared right proper?" Wymond says in an exaggeratedly fearful tone.
As best he can with his hands tied, Zeemo displays all his fingers and proudly announces "Three!"
Wymond blinks and desperately tries not to laugh.
Perfire turns back towards the Spire and studies it for a moment.
'Well, I think he's told us everything he will. Let's get back to exploring that thing. It's only 3 goblins, right?' Perfire begins to make his way back toward the green shard.
Wymond shrugs.
"We should probably expect more than just three, Perry. I think he's too proud te lie to us, but he's likely also too dim to count properly."
He turns back to the hogtied goblin.
"See ya later Zeemo. We'll leave ye here where ye won't get into any trouble while we're gone."
As they walk back towards the Spire, Yirrik hold up all ten fingers, "Yes....three!" smiles at the others, then his face grows more sober at Wymonds comment, "Well only two I think were shooting at us before..."
The party returns to the trail leading up to the castle of green glass. What happens?
Wymond looks to Perfire and Yirrick.
"One o' you two wanna take point, or do you want me to be up front in case we run into something that'll take longer to kill me than you?"
'I'd prefer not to lead the way. I may be sneaky but I'm not very good in a hand-to-hand fight.' Perfire looks to Yirrick hopefully, hoping he won't have to lead the group into the darkness.
"Yeah, I'll go first...don't be too far behind though" Yirrik quips, leading the way back up the path.
He leaves the goblin bow leaning against the stone, preferring to rely on his trusty axes that on the unfamiliar weapon.
Once to the last bend, he stops, pulling out 4 torches and lighting them, "Light a few more, we'll probably need them to light the way." he says to his friend before moving quietly forward.