A symphony of frantic whispers follow Golgast and Samiya's threats. You hear some scurrying and the heavy thud of a bar being removed, then the double doors are pushed open from the inside by a pair of muscular goblins wielding dogslicers.
Inside, the walls of the throne room are decorated with numerous poorly preserved horse and dog heads, along with other trophies like broken weapons, brine-pickled bodies of brutally slaughtered furry animals, and other bits of grisly ephemera. The smell is strong and unpleasant. The throne, a rickety, 5-foot wooden chair with a ladder built into the side, sits against the southern weall. Licktoad Chief Rendwattle Gutwad sits upon it, a suspicious look upon his face.
"Alright, alright! Come in, come in! No reason get bossy," he says in a sassy tone as you approach. A cluster of goblins approach from the sides of the walls. All in all, you're now surrounded by 16 goblins, plus the chief.
Still, none make moves of aggression. Mostly, they look tired and scared, although they still remain armored and armed.
"Our Licktoad heroes..." the chief begins, but at the mention of the heroes, the gaggle of goblins in the room throw up cheers, drowning him out. "Shut up, shut up!" he screams, beating the handle of his spear against his throne repeatedly. After the goblin yells die down, he starts again. "Licktoad heroes..."
A single goblin throws up another cheer, but the chief's deathstare silences him at once.
"...go explore deep in swamp. Find old shipwreck, and a cave, where its pirate crew went to die. They looted shinies and we claimed, but skellies crawl out of cave and stole it back!" A collective wail goes up from the goblin, and this time the chief lets them.
"So if you look for treasure, I saw go back to shipwreck and cave. We got no shinies left. We can show the way. If you kill them, you keep treasure, and leave us alone?"
Lugert eyes the large group of goblins that surrounds his tiny group of "longshanks." Keeping his bow knocked he places it by his side.
"Thank you Chief. We will deal with the ship and the skeletons. If we fail, you may want to consider moving your tribe further south, away from lands dangerous for goblins."
"Yes, show us the shipwreck and the cave."
"And then make sure you stay away from Sandpoint."
"If you stay away from Sandpoint, yes." Samiya echoes Golgast.
There's a long pause after you speak. Eventually the chief replies, "You have a good idea, maybe. But don't think us goblins trust you very far. I will send you with Plergk, great hunter. He will show you the way... and keep an eye on you." The goblin guide who led you here you perks up excitedly, cackling madly.
"And if you succeed, Licktoads will welcome you back. Maybe," the chief finishes. "Now, go..."
As you leave the village, Plergk talks in broken common, "Heroes go on Chief's order to find Scribbleface's stash of fireworks, or he feed them to Squealy Nord. They found an ol' wrecked humie sea boat. It hadda sum fireworks and burned real nice, and it hadda map pointin' at another wreck and a cave! It wus there we met the skellies, but they wasn't hackin' and slicin' then."
"It's not too far, on the steep side of swamp. You wanna see the cave? Or the wreck? or the other wreck?" He thinks for a long moment, counting on his fingers with tongue protruding. Holding up three fingers, he says "Two?"
As you march through the swamp, you hear a twig snap about 10 yards away. Jerking your head up, you see a massive cyprus tree overturned and lying on its side, its gnarled roots climbing up into the sky. Among the twisting tendrils, you catch a brief glimpse of a pale, human-shaped figure watching you between a gap.
"I'm interested in that other shipwreck."
With a nod toward the overturned cypress tree, Gôlgast casually addresses Lugert:
« Meitä seuraa joku kyseisen kaatunut puu. »
Lugert nods at Gôlgast's words.
<< "Siirrytään palaneen aluksen ensimmäinen ja katso jos olemme seurasi ">>
Lugert looks at the goblin guide.
<<"Plergk, nas je popeljal na prvo ladjo našel svoje junake , z ognjemetom.">>
He looks over his shoulder to his team. "We'll visit the fireworks ship first. We should get our bearings before dealing with any undead."
"All right." Samiya trusted half-orcs with choice of their destination.
”Good, good!” Plergk says. ”Big fire fun to watch. Big bangs funner to hear. Send all birdies flying into sky!” He flaps his skinny green arms like an absurd chicken.
The air here is increasingly salty and rotten with an oppressive humidity causing you to drip sweat. The remnants of the ship come into view not far ahead, and from the looks of things it seems the goblins’ description of events was accurate. From a distance, you can see the edge of a large but shallow riverbed, an inlet from the Varisian gulf to the west. only a burnt-out hulk of a shipwreck remains. Miraculously, a large fragment bearing its name remains, only partially charred: The Kaijitsu Star.
Suddenly, from the waters on the right of your path, there is an enormous splash that soaks you, armor and all. From it a hideous bipedal creature emerges! The hairless thing lurches on back-bent, dog-like legs, its hideous mouth flanked by tiny arms with three-fingered hands! It snarls in rage and moves to attack!
_________________________
Lugert is caught completely of guard by the adjacent monster. He drops his bow and draws his greatsword.
"Behind me!"
"We shall put an end to this stalker." shouts Samiya.
Quick as a fox, Kandor kisses his fingers and raises his hand in a tribute to Desna. He then skips along the surface of the marsh as though it were made of rock! Unimpeded, he skirts a delicate path around the creature to sandwich it between himself and Lugert. In the meantime, Lugert drops his bow and draws his greatsword, yelling a warning to his companions. Samiya cries out too, though the clarity and beauty of her voice sends a pleasant chill down your spine, exciting and invigorating your movements!
The creature sniffs the air with its slit-like nostrils and focuses on Lugert. The tiny hands extend from the monster’s mouth, reaching, reaching for the half-orc’s face to dig their tiny, gnarled fingers into his flesh. But as the creature’s jaws clamp down, Lugert jerks back, and both teeth and hands catch only humid air! It hisses and grunts, a brackish sound that offends your ears. ”እኔ የእርስዎ ቁጣ , የእርስዎ ቁጣ : ኃጢአትህ ስጠኝ !”
The little goblin shrieks in surprise as the monster appears, fumbling for his shortbow as the others scramble into position. He takes a trembling step back but manages to knock a tiny arrow and points it in the direction of Kandor, the monster, and Lugert! With trembling fingers, he sends it flying. Whatever his target might have been, the arrow sails between all of you, disappearing into the marsh beyond. He curses and spits, drawing another arrow.
_________________________
miss
miss
Lugert winces from the string of the thing's...mouth claws. He shifts his footing and makes a wild swing that almost comes back and hits his own shoulder.
Gôlgast shouts out:
He then goes into mystic focus, steps, up and slashes at the sinspawn using his rapier to deliver a fire-strike:
"Be careful of it's bite!" warns Samiya.
"It's strong against magic, but I'll try to disorient it."
"Scamall a intinn!"
Lugert’s reflexes saved him from the initial bite, but he has positioned himself too far back, and the creature easily avoids the slice of his blade. It whirls around just as Kandor’s mace comes crash down toward it and he only strikes the soggy ground, sending a splash of murky water into the air. Samiya attempts to daze the creature with her arcane cantrip, but she has trouble locking onto its psyche. Among all of you, Golgast is the only one with any luck, his burning rapier sizzling as it strikes the slippery wet skin of the monster.
Enraged, the monster sniffs the air, and now turns his red eyes toward Golgast. It snaps its jaws (tiny fingers grasping) and claws at the air with its own talons, but in its rage it fails to comprehend the sturdiness of the magus’s armor, and Golgast remains unharmed.
Plergk knocks another arrow, tongue extended in concentration. His arrow zips through the air and strikes the creature in its knee! It hisses and thrashes its long tongue, but its eyes remain locked on the half-orcs. Plergk cackles in delight, hopping in circles and pumping his little fist excitedly.
_________________________
miss
miss
miss
hit
Samiya, expecting as much, tries to overcome the creature's magic resistance again.
Lugert tries to take advantage of the monster's turned back from fails to connect as it reels from Kandor's hit.
Gôlgast tries to hit the sin spawn a second time with a flame strike.
Samiya clenches her jaw and once more attempts to confuse the creature’s mind. This time she manages to locate its thoughts.
But she is unable to break through, and the creature shakes off her magical assault. Both Lugert and golgast swipe at it viciously, but the creature is quick on its feet, ducking and dodging their blades. In the confusion, though, Kandor’s mace finds its mark, landing with a disgusting wet thud to its knee.
The creature roars in pain, but rather than turning on the dwarf it focuses its eyes on Golgast. As the magus exposes his right arm during his swing, the creature lunges in, it’s razor sharp teeth clamping down solidly on Golgast’s shoulder. The bite is vicious and strong, and as its teeth meet bone the tiny hands reach out and eagerly claw at Golgast’s flesh. Golgast cries out from the pain, but worse than that is the ocean of seething red that descends over his vision, as he is suddenly overwhelmed with rage. His heart pounds and blood rushes through his brain. The feeling is so strong and intense that he feels sick, faltering on his feet.
The creature does not relent, clawing with both of its taloned hands. It reaches up and finds purchase on the tender flesh of Golgast’s throat, ripping and tearing with a terrifying eagerness.
Plergk nervously shoots another arrow, but with all the blood he has trouble concentrating and his arrow only strikes the mud at the monster’s feet.
_________________________
success
hit, possible crit?
confirm
hit
miss
miss
fail, sickened for minutes
Lugert watches as the spawn tears into Golgast, leaving him a slumped over pile on the ground. "No!
Lugert drives his sword deep into the back of the monster, the tip of the blade coming out the front of its chest before he pulls it free.
The creature gasps as Lugert skewers it, it's cry of pain fading to a gurgle as it slumps to the soggy ground. Its blood flows thick and black, mingling with the filthy swamp water in which it floats.
Golgast is still bleeding out! Someone needs to act quickly to stabilize him (a spell or the Heal skill).
Lugert kicks the corpse aside and kneels next to Golgast, looking for what to do to stabilize the young half-orc.
"Uh, we're going to need Desna's help Kandor! This is out of my skill's reach."
Kandor's wave of sparkling blue light washes over Golgast, who feels a chill, like dusk as the sun dips below the horizon. He feels slightly sleepy, as though he were ready to dance in a dream. He sits up, blinking, even as his neck wound closes.
Carefully, you drag him to his feet, moving slowly now with an eye toward danger. But it seems the danger here has passed, and nothing further molests you. The only thing left here are the remains of the burned Kaijutsu Star and the knowledge that men once manned this vessel.
Plergk stands impatiently off to the side. "Come, hurry hurry! Light fading, and there is much to see!"
"We're near the domain of the White Witch that Walthus told us about."
Lugert turns to their guide. "What do you know of the white witch that inhabits this part of the marsh?"
The goblin pales when Lugert speaks, looking anxiously to the north. "Shhh! Might hear! Goblins move quiet and leave no tracks to follow, so she leaves us alone. Used to steal Goblins in the night. But goblins stay away now, and so does she."
As if on command, a jet-black crow lands on a nearby cypress branch, cawing over the steady chirp of crickets before flying off.
After pitching over from the sinspawn's onslaught, the next thing Gôlgast knows he's flat on his back looking up at Kandor, Lugert, and Samiya.
Blinking a few times, he pulls himself up groggily and coughs a few times.
He then sees the skewered dead sinspawn.
"Ugh! I feel like mush! Thanks, everyone!"
He then pulls out and downloads both his potions of cure light wounds:
"It's good thing we have you Kandor." smiles Samiya.
Now, let's check if that's the creature who's been following us.
"Kandor, Lugert. Are these creature's feet similar to the footprint you saw earlier?"
The three-taloned feet of the creature clearly match the footprint you saw in the mud.
Plergk leads on, hopping over breaks in the path and crawling over fallen tree logs in areas where there seems to be no path at all. You get the feeling that if he weren't here to lead you, you'd be quite lost by now. Before long he freezes, pointing toward what might be a trailing leading down a steep decline. There, the trail is mostly worn away, the path overgrown. Plergk turns back to you, an expression of fear on his face. "The witch's home." he whispers. He points further to the north, leading away from that trail. "Shipwreck over there."
"We're nowhere near shelter and the night is creeping in on us. If the witch's home is indeed this way we may find it empty. This path hasn't been used in quite some time."
Lugert points to the goblin."I'll lead the way through here. Follow me closely."
"I agree. Let's stay close together."
"You want go THERE?!" Plergk shrieks in alarm, but a sharp look from Golgast and Lugert sends him, trembling, down the path toward a clearing at the bottom.
A sagging one-story shack sits in this clearing, its walls dingy with age and encrusted with lichen and fungus. A partially collapsed shed sits just to the northeast, while small pouches, twisted knots of feathers, and dangling wind chims made of bones hang from branches and roof edge alike.
The home is clearly well on its way to being reclaimed by the swamp. All of the doors appear swollen shut with moisture.
A fifty foot trail winds from the back of the houe down to a waterway, where a rickety pier still harbors a well=made rowboat.
Hmm, rats.
"I do not think anyone has been here for quite a while. Keep your eyes peeled."
Lugert heads up to the shack to see if he can peer inside.
Gôlgast draws his sword and follows Lugert carefully.