"Yes, Bupkis be careful," the little goblin replies, as he bids the family farewell for now. He heads to the longhouse, and after eating yet again, he settles down for some much needed rest.
"Thank you, then. Come on, Scrabbler - let's get you some sleep."
Menrozzar will guide Scrabbler to the Longhouse so they can both eat and then get some sleep.
All go back to the Longhouse to take some rest behind stable walls and guarded doors. All but Daseem. After a short night the rise of the sun reveals the whole extent of the destruction. It is devastating. A tower in ruins the outer wall broken, much of the lower part of Trunau burnt to the ground.
But Trunauans don't give up. Many are already on their feet and working to repair the damage. The priests from the Sanctuary got Sara back on her feet and by the rhythmic beats of a hammer on iron you can tell, she is already at work. The outer portcullis of the gates is in place already and the second is a work in progress.
Garbage is collected and put in piles out of the way. Stones are sorted to be used again. Rubble is brought out of houses.
There are also a lot cremations at the Flame of the fallen. It has nothing of the ceremonial character of Rodrik's funeral. Even though the High Priestess Tyari Varvatos says some words for every deceased and holds the hopeknife into the flames, before handing it to a relative - once you've seen it done five times an hour it loses some of it's strong expression.
Trudging through the wreckage, Daseem felt numb. Tessa has been unusually quiet and subdued that morning, he half expected her to berated him for something but she hadn't. Whether that was because her near death experience had changed her, or if it was the quiet before the storm he couldn't tell. Anyway he could see she needed space, too bad it was exactly when he needed company. So he found himself walking, towards where the others where.
He was distracted all the way through the ceremony, the events of last night hung heavily upon his mind. The attack had clearly been planned and it very nearly succeeded. Once the ceremony was over he muttered to the others, "M-mark my words. This ain't o-over." They had to find out who or what was behind it and stop them.
Bupkis gets up and eats another enormous breakfast (although it's after noon). After he finishes, he tells his allies, "Bupkis buys more ammunition." He goes to the few shops that are open, and replenishes his supply of crossbow bolts and sling bullets, as well as buying more food (which he's been eating at a prodigious rate).
He rejoins his companions, and says, "Bupkis ready; now we find why filthy orcs dig big hole."
Scrabbler was used to sleeping in a hayloft. When Menrozororzoreror took him to the longhouse and got him a longshank bed the little goblin was overjoyed.
He spent about ten minutes jumping up and down on the springy matress doing backflips and front flips and falling on his back only to bounce right back up again, but after a bit he started developing a headache. Apparently bouncing and being hit by giants didn't mix well.
He burrowed into the giant blanket and dragged the pillow into the nest he'd made and was asleep in minutes.
Normally goblins were nocturnal, but he'd adjusted his sleep to the longshank way of doing things. Nowdays he woke up with the sun. He still didn't enjoy the dawn. His eyes were big and sensitive. He rifled through his things and found a bar of soap. Then he climbed out the window and found the nearest horse trough, which he made a right mess of. He'd gone to sleep without cleaning up, so he was caked in orc blood and battle grime.
By the time he was done, the water was utterly unfit for horses, or anything else, and Scrabbler was possibly the cleanest goblin in the world.
Then he walked into the common room and put a handful of coins on the counter, having no idea what they were really worth, and awkwardly asked for breakfast.
By the time the others started showing up, Scrabbler was juggling happily on the small stage, playing to an empty room.
Menrozzar merely shook his head as he removed his armor and weapons, and washed the blood and grime of battle away while Scrabbler bounced up and down on the bed before finally falling asleep. Finally, Menrozzar got into bed and slept.
The next morning a little bit after dawn, still aching from the exertion of battle the day before. Noticing Scrabbler was gone, he quickly donned his clothing and armor, gathered his equipment, and headed into the main room of the Longhouse to see if he was eating breakfast. He found him standing and juggling on a table. He was much cleaner than he'd been the night before, too. "Scrabbler, when did you take a bath?"
"After the daytime waked me," Scrabbler said, not missing a beat with the five colorful balls he had in the air.
Ivan grumbles about how easily the defenses had been broken as he stomps around, making notes of his thoughts for potential improvements. After that, he spent some time recuperating in one of the two ways dwarves do, drinking, or working. He went and tried to finish repairing his father's armor letting the exertion and focus on the task push aside his thoughts of yesterday and yesteryear, if only for a little while.
Bupkis goes to find the rest of the party member, urging, "Explore orc digging now!" Then he makes his way to the Hopespring, and examines the entrance into the hillside.
Daseem nodded at Bupkis, yes this digging was strange indeed. He walked with him, a sense of foreboding building. What on Golorion would they find?
You approach the hole in the steep face of the hill the upper part of Trunau stands on. To get close you have to wade through the shallow pool of water that forms below the hopespring. Well, shallow for humans. The hole is broken through rock, but the tunnel behind is old. Very old. Gossamer cobwebs hang from the ceiling of this rough tunnel, and the misty spray from the Hopespring’s waterfall outside glimmers faintly on strands of spider silk. Chunks of rubble lie scattered on the floor amid piles of dirt. Inside it is dark. Even the daylight doesn't help much as the opening points to the north and lies in the shadows.
Daseem examines the area around the tunnel and the entrance to thetunnel itself, looking for signs of passage. He hoped to answer the question how many have been this way?
Bupkis scouts ahead!", the little goblin declared. He moved stealthily forward, looking for danger.
Bupkis creeps forward and looks into the cave.
Menrozzar asks Scrabbler, ”Where did you bathe?”
Once Scrabbler tells him he bathed in the horse trough, Menrozzar will empty the trough and refill it with clean water.
Menrozzar lights a torch, granting those without night sight the ability to see.
”Scrabbler, stick with Bupkis. If you encounter any dangers, sneak back and let us know.”
Ivan rubs his beard as he stares into the hole. Well... I'm going to guess we will need light sources for those 'ear without the dark sight. 'an best we go prepared, with rations and resources to spare. We know not how far, deep, or long this may go. He looks around to the others, they notice that today he wears elegant full plate, etched with runes to appear even more well crafted. It is a stark difference from the plain, and worn mail he had during the battle.
Bupkis notices nothing and goes unnoticed.
Bupkis waits for the others to catch up, then sneaks into the cave to have a look around.
Scrabbler gave Menzrorzorrrrrzer a goofy salute and loaped off after Bupkis.
The air in this cavern is humid but cool, and a thin sheen of condensation coats its rocky walls. A narrow passage exits the cavern to the west. To the south, the floor drops away into darkness, while a bridge of stone leads to another cavern to the east. The sound of trickling water echoes through the cavern.
There is nothing else to see in this cavern.
While the goblins scout ahead, Daseem points to the tracks he found, "S-something large and one or two humans."
There wasn't much to do but wait until the goblins came back to report, or stirred up trouble. Daseem strained to hear any sounds coming from within just in case.
Bupkis reports back to the big folk about the cavern ahead. "Bupkis sneaks across bridge and takes a look," he says, and then heads east across the stone bridge.
"Could the tracks have been from the orcs leading the giant out of the cave? Bupkis, take care."
Tangles of thick white webbing fill a ravine at the eastern end of this cavern. A thick, flat slab of dark gray stone forms a bridge across the ravine.
But there is no getting there as two six legged creatures - something between a stork and a marabou - stare at the sneaking goblin, ignoring his attempts at being sneaky. The strange birds are about the size of Bupkis.
Bupkis retreats back across the bridge; "Six-legged birds see Bupkis!", he exclaims.
With the stealth overboard you suddenly see the floor move. You think you have seen those once already in the plaguehouse. But this time it's a whole swarm of the strange rats.
Besides that they are carriers of disease like every rat.
The gryphs follow their newfound meal through the air.
Bupkis cries, "Plague House rats!"; he moves back and shoots a sling bullet at the swarm (he knows his friends will have trouble damaging them).
Bupkis hits the swarm, and kills some of the creatures which are immediately eaten by their kin, but this makes it look more horrible instead of less.
Ivan moves up to try and intercept the flying creatures if they land for bupikis.
Lucerne hammer in hand, Menrozzar also steps up to try and intercept the flying creatures if they come within his reach.
The gryphs come charging in at Ivan and Scrabbler.
Daseem cries, "GORUM!" as he rushes forwards to attack Scrabbler's target, six feet of steel crashing down upon the strange flying bird!
Ivan swings at the gryph, but it ducks under the hammers head. He then takes a small shuffle to cut off the one infront of Scrabbler.
Scrabbler was paralyzed with horror. For some reason, a swarm of small enemies was way more frightening to him that a great big one. before he could do anything, the rats had bitten him badly.
He threw one of his new bombs at the cluster of rats. One of the sloshy ones, not the solid ones.
Daseem swings at the bird like things but misses, as the creature dodges away. Scrabbler throws a vial at the rat swarm adding to the damage and setting the swarm on fire.
The rat swarm becomes translucent, which puts the fire out and moves towards Bupkis.
Ivan hacks at the bird, wounding it and Menrozzar finishes it off.
After successfully playing a ruse Daseem cuts deep into the gryph. The rat swarm that surrounds Bupkis and Menrozzar, is could to the touch and a sudden weakness floods Bupkis and Menrozzar.
"Argh! Feel weak!", Bupkis cried, stumbling out of the swarm. He turned and launched another sling bullet into the boiling mass of vermin.
The gryph bites and claws at Daseem, but the bird is already too weakened. The rats follow Bupkis after he hits them again.
Too weak to move, it's all Bupkis can do to pull out a sling bullet and blast the rats at his feet.
Clear of the rats area, his strength feeling sapped, Menrozzar pulls out a holy water, which worked on the Plague House rats, and throws it at them.
The rats are decimated by Bupkis blast and the holy water, but they are still a swarm.