Seeing the battle end, Ratel rubs Bear behind the ear. ”Good Bear!” he then looks from Nigel to Azmythe. ”could one of you two heal Bear? I don’t want him to fight this injured, if we can prevent it.”
As they move toward the Phaendar Trading Company. Ratel sees the carnage, noticing the raiding hobgoblins. He motions toward the nearest goblin, ”Bear attack!” Running forward, while Bear snaps at the Goblins hip, Ratel swings his scizore at the raiders shoulder.
Bear tries to bite the hobgoblin's hip, but does not manage to bite through its leather armor.
Ratel opens a large gnash on the hobgoblin's shoulder as it growls savagely at him.
Seeing both Nigel and Bear hurt, Aubrin offers, "I could call upon Cayden to heal both Nigel and Bear and myself at the same time."
If Aubrin doesn't heal them, Azmythe will.
Azmythe targets red.
Long Bow:
to hit Damage
Azmythe's arrow clangs off red's shield.
"Why not? I mean both of you are hurt..." Aubrin's voice trails off.
While Nigel is explaining things to Aubrin, Azmythe walks over and heals Bear.
"Oh OK, I see Azmythe's healed Bear."Aubrin answers.
Nigel aims a vicious blow at the injured hobgoblin's neck and it cracks with an audible snap, as it collapses dead on the ground.
Seeing their comrade being slain, the two remaining hobgoblins go after Nigel, waiting for their fellow hobgoblin to get in place to flank him before they strike. "Flank en maak die grysskoot dood!"
Flank and kill the Greyskin!
But Nigel easily dodges their clumsy strikes.
Robert moves up and flanks with Nigel, then puts his longsword into red's stomach.
Geran and Victor try to provide supporting fire but Geran's arrow whizzes near Robert's head into empty air, while Victor's sling bullet nearly hits Bear instead.
Aubrin grits her teeth, trying to remain in control of herself, then states, "I can smell smoke, and I can hear people crying for help. But I can't see anything. Can someone tell me what's happening?"
Azmythe will not stop trying to get Nigel to partake of the positivity.
Hedran moves forward with a grunt to attack one of the hobgoblins on Nigel.
Hedran cleanly lops the head off the red hobgoblin with his longsword.
”Ok – I’ll take care of the fire.” Following Nigel’s instructions, Aubrin moves in the direction of the fire, and when she can vaguely see it, prays to Cayden Caliean.
A large deluge of water falls upon the fire, causing it to sizzle, but it does not go out.
Both Hedran and Azmythe recognize the spell Aubrin cast as create water.
This run-down pen holds horses awaiting shoes, or sheep and goats brought in for trade. Now, its few occupants have been killed by invading soldiers to be turned into rations later. There is a dead male human in the centre of the pen, with 3 arrows sticking out of him. An animal trough here holds 150 gallons of water, along with four 3-gallon buckets used to refill the trough from the town.
"The fire is too strong! I can't put it out alone!" Aubrin cries out.
Jet spots the trough and the buckets and quickly organizes the townsfolk into a line, to pass buckets to throw onto the fire.
Azmythe Daze (dc 14) the hobgoblin before going to help Jet and Aubrin. He wants the others to see Aubrin and Jet as leaders.
Azmythe Daze (dc 14) the hobgoblin before going to help Jet and Aubrin. He wants to give support and confidence to Aubrin. He also wants the others to see Aubrin and Jet as leaders.
"Oooh mooi ..." The hobgoblin stares blankly, as if mezmerized by something.
Oh pretty...
Hedran stabs the unsuspecting hobgoblin in his stomach, while Robert moves up and swings his longsword in a great arc, cutting the goblin down.
Aubrin's quick splash of water has prevented the fire from spreading, and the townsfolk, with their buckets quickly extinguish the fire.
Among the hobgoblin corpses, the party manages to salvage 4 suits of studded leather armor, 4 longsword, 4 longbows, 80 arrows,4 light steel shields, a Dwarven waraxe, a butcher's cleaver, 3 javelins, a heavy wooden shield.
The body in the animal pen has a wrist sheath loaded with a masterwork dagger, and a concealed pocket in his cloak containing a potion of hide from animals and four vials of greenblood oil poison.
Watching the whirlwind of combat around him, Ratel nods approvingly has his friends finish off the hobgoblins. Helping the locals with the impromptu water brigade, They quickly put the fire out.
He then moves to the open door with Nigel, letting his darkvision adjust, asking, "Hey Nigel do you want Bear and I to go first?"
Ratel and bear then carefully move into the room. keeping a keen eye out.
Hedran makes sure there are no immediate threats to the ones with them, then follows after Nigel and Ratel.
After the fire has been put out, the party hears Kinning's gruff,wary voice, between coughs, "Who ye be, friend or foe?"
Aubrin yells back, exasperated, "Kinning, you dolt, if we were your enemies we'd leave you to cook there!"
"Maybe we should have left her to cook."Geran whispers conspirationally to Victor.
"Yeah but what makes YOU think it's only Kinning in there?" Victor asks Geran."Besides I wouldn't wish burning to death on anyone."
The door opens as 4 soot stained and singed figures emerge from the building, coughing and hacking black pheglm, carrying a fifth.
"Harold didn't make it."One of the soot stained figures chokes out with Thomas's voice, sadly. "The smoke killed him."
Aubrin grabs her holy symbol and channels, healing the singed figures hoping that it would revive Harold, but the effort is in vain. Nigel does get out of the way before Aubrin blasts off the channel though.
Seeing no change in Harold's body, Aubrin sighs wearily. "I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do for Harold."
She then sets about cleaning the survivors up, which turn out to be Kinning, Thomas, Tara the hunter and Danny the groundskeep.
"Perkins and Angmar volunteered to try to kill the hobgoblins so we could escape the building."Tara looks at Perkins and Angmar's bodies somberly."I guess it didn't end well for them. They said it was better to die as heroes then burnt like cowardly rats..."
"G#* d@!n it, we hae th' livin' tae fash yerse abit sae gonnae-no fussin' ower th' deid!" Kinning berates the group brusquely before chiving Thomas in to do salvage of the shop.
"They died to save all of you" - the half orc points out - "Their option gave you your lives. The best way to repay them is living them as fully as possible" - Hedran adds, and then assists as best as he can with the salvage.
The interior of the shop smells of smoke, is rather charred and is dominated by sacks of seed, bolts of cloth, barrels of nails, and staples like flour and salt, wheat and oats. Some of the provisions have been destroyed by the fire.
Kinning and Thomas, aided by Nigel, find a longsword, two battleaxes, an alchemical silver rapier, a masterwork light steel shield, a masterwork backpack, a climber’s kit, and eight waterskins. There are sacks of wheat and oats and sacks of flour stored, sufficient for 12 provision points.
Kinning, slightly reluctantly passes all the salvage to Nigel, gruffly saying, "Consider 'at uir cheers fur th' rescue, e'en if it cam late.Sae Ah dornt owe ye anythin'."
Thomas sighs, "Master, they tried their best." Then he turns to Harold,"Dont take what Kinning said to heart. She hates being indebted to others or having to need to be rescued."
Nigel notes Kinning's eyes stray towards the counter, then when she notices him looking at her, looks back at him and snaps back, "Whit ur ye lookin' at."
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Nigel nods appreciatively.
"Anyzing zat helps keep all of us alive, vill be useful. After all, ze more of us zere are, ze better ve vill be able to resist ze Hobgoblins later..."
When he notices Kinning watching the counter, he frowns, then sighs, gently adding:
"If zere is anyzing else here zat might be helpful, now is ze time to claim it. Ze Hobgoblins are ransacking ze town, and torching vhat zey can't use, so I doubt zat anyone vill be able to come back here, later..."
Kinning gives Nigel a dirty look, then walks over to the counter and opens a concealed floorboard, removing a buckler with a forge fire in it. "Thes one's mine. i've worked months ower it." She clutches it tightly to her chest, as if scared that someone would steal it from her.
Nigel can see Thomas slap his palm against his forehead in exasperation.
"Just keep it" - Hedran comments, as he assists the others - "Now, let us go"
"I wonder if had I fought by their side...they might still have been alive now."Tara says bitterly.
The centuries-old forge provided ample space for working iron and steel as well as limited farrier services. A single hobgoblin still lies in the middle of the floor, it's skull crushed. A hulking, roughly humanoid creature of dirt and stone, faceless save for two glowing gemstone eyes which are fearful, is next to the body. Two long bows lie discarded on the floor and the party notices some movement in the hayloft.
Azmythe recognizes it as a small earth elemental. It speaks only Terran and has Earth Mastery.
Earth Mastery
An earth elemental gains a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls if both it and its foe are touching the ground. If an opponent is airborne or waterborne, the elemental takes a –4 penalty on attack and damage rolls. These modifiers apply to bull rush and overrun maneuvers, whether the elemental is initiating or resisting these kinds of attacks.
"I wonder if had I fought by their side...they might still have been alive now."Tara says bitterly.
"There is no predicting the future" - he replies - "But I believe you are wrong. There are just too many of them assaulting Phaendar. You would have risked death also, I believe" - the half-orc adds - "This way you are here, and able to assist those who will surely need assistance"
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Nigel nods.
"Fair enough. No sense leaving it here, zough - ve vouldn't vant ze Hobgoblins to get it."
Nigel, sensing the elemental creature's hesitation, approaches it with raised, outstretched hands, and then (slowly) offers it a handful of semi-precious stones, whilst talking calmly and soothingly to it (hoping that the tone of his voice will get his peaceful message across, even if his words don't make any sense).
"Now, now, little one; zere is no need to be anxious. Ve mean you no harm..."
"I never thought that I would see the day that Phaendar burned."Old Danny looks at the burning town with hoplessness evident in his voice.
"Maybe you're right."Tara answers. "I've never been that good at close quarter fighting, since I'm a hunter by profession."
The earth elemental stares at Nigel, frightened at first, then as Nigel makes an offering of semi precious stones, loses some of its fear and gingerly steps out of the Smithy and walks towards Nigel while making a rumbling noise. It then takes the semi precious stones out of Nigel's hands with a granite textured fist. Then a mouth appears and it smiles tentatively at Nigel before sinking into the earth.
You won't hurt me? Really?
As soon as the Earth elemental has left, two half elves, Taidel and Lirosa, hop down from the hayloft.
"Thanks for getting that creature out. It was so odd we dropped our bows, then decided to hide because we weren't sure if it was hostile or not."Lirosa thanks Nigel.
"“You can take care of the townsfolk now,”Taidel says. Lirosa adds, “We’ve got hobgoblins to hunt.”
"Maybe you're right."Tara answers. "I've never been that good at close quarter fighting, since I'm a hunter by profession."
"Are you armed? What weapon is your preference?" - Hedran inquires - "We need all the help we can get. I am Hedran by the way" - and introduces himself.
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When the elemental leaves, Nigel breathes a sigh of relief.
I'm glad that worked!
When Lirosa makes an appearance, recognition dawns.
"Ah, I zink ve found somezing zat belongs to you," he says, handing over the ivory amulet. "Now, I admire your enzusiasm, but zere are literally hundreds of Hobgoblins out zere; staying to fight zem vould be suicide. Come viz us - ve plan to escape, regroup, and make ze Hobgoblins pay!"
"Maybe you're right."Tara answers. "I've never been that good at close quarter fighting, since I'm a hunter by profession.""Are you armed? What weapon is your preference?" - Hedran inquires - "We need all the help we can get. I am Hedran by the way" - and introduces himself.
"I'm armed. I've got my bow and arrows with me. And a dagger."Tara affirms. "Could always use more arrows if they're that many hobgoblins to shoot."
"Oh!" Lirosa brightens as she sees the amulet. "I left it at the statue of Erastil in Riverwood Shrine to recharge. Does that mean..." Lirosa blanches, "They sacked Riverwood Shrine as well?"
"Aye they did," Sandra says sorrowfully. "Father Noelan's dead. We're," She gestures at Rhyna, herself,Wallace, Tolman, Lorethiel and Tarethelan,"all that managed to escape thanks to their aid."
"Father Noelan's is a far better archer then any of us. And he commands quite a bit of magic too. If he fell..no I don't think we've got much chance fighting off the hobgoblins by ourselves." Taidel reminds Lirosa.
"I guess so..."Lirosa's voice trails off uncertainly. "We'll go along with you. I think you have the better plan."
Hanging from a nail over her workbench are Kining’s keys, including the key to her shed by the bridge, and to the chain restricting the movements of her work crane. Several notes regarding the bridge are scribbled in chalk on a large piece of slate leaning against the wall. Anyone studying the slate for 1 minute gains a +2 insight bonus on any Craft (alchemy), Disable Device, or Knowledge (engineering) checks attempted to destroy Phaendar Bridge.
Nigel finds an ever burning torch next to the forge.
"I'm armed. I've got my bow and arrows with me. And a dagger."Tara affirms. "Could always use more arrows if they're that many hobgoblins to shoot."
"Perfect - put that bow and arrows to use if we come across any others" - he smiles and winks - "More arrows..." - he looks around for Robert and see if he has any to spare.