I glare at the beasts and pull out my bow I take aim at one of the creatures and lose an arrow
Attack: +1 more if within 30 feet. For: +1 more if within 30
Dismounting from his stallion Rynel, the armored warrior hit the muddy ground in a light jog, his rabbit fur cloak flapping behind him as he trudged forward with determination written across his youthful face.
Closing the distance between himself and the goblin band, he sorted in disgust even as he expertly drew the three pronged Ranseur from over his shoulder. Without breaking stride he had the weapon drawn and in his hand. Stopping some distance to the right of Svetlana, he stared across five feet of grass and mud into the wretched face of the goblin (#4).
"Surrender creatures and our law will be just!" he declared in the common tongue. Perhaps one of the goblins spoke it and would heed his warning, he thought it only honorable to give them a chance. As such he did not strike to kill, stabbing forward with his pronged weapon and twisting as he came in contact with the goblin's sword. Disarmed, the creature would be less of a threat.
Disarm:
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Areanna's arrow misses its target and goes rattling off into the thicket. Ulryk gets nothing but some snarling and spitting in response to his demand the creature's surrender. With a twist of his ranseur, Ulryk is able to disarm the goblin, who stops in mid-rant, looks down at its now empty hand, then back at Ulryk.
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This mangy canine's face has the same flat nose, beady eyes, and protruding teeth as a rat grown grotesquely large. It races from its master's side and rushes to attack Ulryk.
With his attention on the goblin he had just disarmed, Ulryk did not see the creature hurtling at him. It grabs him by the inner thigh and, with its sharp, rat-like teeth, tears a good size chuck of flesh from the warrior. Blood monetarily spurts from the wound, then settles to a slow, continuous dripping.
As the goblins came into view, Damen dropped from his horse - clumsily. He fumbled with his equipment, but recovered deftly a few seconds later to find an arrow pierce his leg. With a shout of anger he charged into the fray, striking at the war dog that had taken a bite out of Ulryk.
With a furious shout he viciously cracks its head with his morningstar. "Are you alright, Ulryk?" He asks, attention turning to the other opponents and preparing to defend the wounded warrior if need be.
As the goblin dog came lunging out him, Ulryk pivoted and set the Ranseur striking forward again. A pity he had not drawn out the bill, as it was more effective when dealing with a charge, but he would make due with what he had and try to catch the hideous creature beneath the neck before it closed.
Attack with Ranseur:
Damage with Ranseur:
Blood flew from where he struck the hideous rat-like beast beneath the collar and splashed across his lower torso. He was covered in blood as the thing surged forward, but to onlookers the question might have been 'was it his?'
As Ulryk grows to double the size. Kent starts on his next spell.
"Down"
I am annoyed at the miss. However, I have never shot at a living thing before. Good thing there only goblins. I take a deep breath and lose another arrow.
Attack: +1 more if within 30 feet. For: +1 more if within 30 feet.
"tiliw wux ocuir zahae disarming nomenoi anqui. si tuor ekess tor astahi creol visidarkic"
Could you see about disarming these goblins. I want to get some info from them don't want them to know I can understand them. I'll turn on my understanding in a little bit.
Brigid moves up the path, and sights her target, the goblin archer. She sends an arrow its way.
Edit: Nevermind.
The combat swirled rapidly around Svetlana; her initial exhilaration over deftly tripping a goblin with her whip had quickly given way to concern as the creature arose to come after her. The whipsaw of emotions continued as Ulryk arrived not a moment too soon to disarm the creature and dispatch the hideous dog beast. The warrior's request for the creature's surrender puzzled the priestess, what will we do with a submitting goblin??, but even this concern was almost comically disposed of as Damen slaughtered the disarmed goblin forthwith. Within seconds the tide of the combat had firmly turned in the party's favor, as Svetlana pondered her next action only two hapless goblins remained, and one of them was stuck in some sort of acid slime Kent had conjured up. Noting Damen's wound, the priestess closed her eyes and focused inward, channeling her passions only to let them go in an outward burst. Instantly, a wave of emotions hit those nearby, but particularly Damen. First loves remembered come in rapid succession with old scores unsettled to jar the mind, but only for a brief moment. Nothing else seems to come of this for most of the group, but Damen feels this "surge of life" as the arrow pops out of his thigh and the wound begins to close.
When Svetlana's expelled the power of her goddess, Ulryk felt a flash of anger at his elder brother for denying him the chance to train with a horse and thus the possibility of squiring for one of the Lebeda knights. His dark eyes set on the remaining goblins as he towered over the rest of the part at nearly twelve feet tall.
Fluent in the ancient draconic tongue, the fifth son of Aleryk Lebeda gave Kent a single nod of his head and trudged forward, practically lumbering as he was not fully used to this vast size. The polearm he held was even larger and with each step the plates of his armor clattered against chain and leather. Damen had dispatched the previous goblin he had disarmed, but he supposed he could do it again easily enough.
Marching forward he took position within range of both the prone goblin and the archer. Seeking the one with the bow as more of a threat, he thrust the tree branch sized Ranseur forward at the wooden weapon and then gave it a forceful twist, seeking to yank it from the goblin's (#1) small hands.
To the goblins he once more declared in the common tongue of Brevoy "Surrender." But this time it rumbled from his lips, filling the area as if he had uttered it from a bugle.
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Oh you so beat his defense. The bow flies many feet away and the poor creature can only squirm in agony as the acid-grease continues to burn it.
If no one else does anything, Areanna's arrow kills Goblin #1, leaving poor Goblin #2 and Goblin #3 surrendering to your tender mercies. If allowed they gets out of the acid goo (taking 1 more point) with some assistance (Either a thrown rope, or Ulryk could just pluck them out of it.)
Combat is now over, unless someone else want to do something combat-y??
"drat I want to have 2 or more so they would talk with each other."
Ulryk quickly sheaths his Ranseur and then reaches down to pluck both the small goblins from the blistering greasy puddle and sets them both on the ground. He claps them in place with his large hands and gives them a look of warning.
"Quickly, someone bind them. I do not want them escaping." He said, then looked to Kent. "How much longer will this powerful magic of yours keep me this size? Long enough to hold them in place I hope. Can anyone speak their language? We must know whether or not they were the culprits here or merely scavengers."
Even as Ulryk spoke his gaze moved to the nearby bodies and the goblins weapons. Trying to match up if the wounds they had suffered came from the goblins or from something else.
"I can understand them, but I can't speck it. You should remain enlarged for about 50 more seconds give or take 6 seconds. Best move quick"
"I was thinking where there are some goblins there are more where they came from. If these goblins are bandits it is fairly obvious that the goblins that they came from are also bandits. We need to find the source. I doubt these ones are going to tell us even if we could ask them. Still lets take them captive and arrange for them to escape then we track them down. Any thing they say before there amazing escape might be useful information."
"Can anyone think of some improvements to that plan?"
I start yelling at the goblins in common. I want to provoke a reaction and convince them I don't speck their language. Which is true.
Brigid walks up to stand over the captured goblins with an arrow nocked in her bow.
This vastes time. Ve are not yet in our chartered territory, so there is no duty to root out these bandits. Our need is to reach Oleg's.
She looks around, especially at the bodies of the victims to ascertain the direction they were heading, and from which direction they were attacked. Besides, ve may be able to learn vhere they came from vithout talking to them.
I step forward. "Maybe they can understand Orc? In some stories orcs push these little guys around and give them orders and such. Do you think that might be the case here? Oh and don't ask how I know orc, it is a rather embarrassing story." I wait for the others to bind the goblins.
"We cannot simply butcher them now that they have surrendered. First we must determine whether they are culpable of any crimes against travelers." Ulryk said to Brigid, but nodded in her approval of readying an arrow.
He frowned when it became clear that no one spoke the goblins language, but he shrugged when Areanna offered to try Orc. He lumbered over to his cart and retrieved a hemp rope. On his journey back to the rest, he returned to his regular size.
Assuming the goblins did not struggle, he bound their hands behind them and tied them each to one another, with the lead held within his gauntleted hand. He had a feeling he was physically the strongest of his company, while the others tended to be more swift of foot.
He pulled the goblins along behind him as he moved near the body of one of the fallen travelers and tried his best to determine the cause of death.
"These wounds look the work of arrows, but are they goblin arrows? Can anyone tell?" Ulryk knew he was close, but he had never trained for this and one wound looked similar to another. He waved his hand before his face, as if warding off the smell. "These bodies are not recently dead, the blood is dry or frozen and there is snow gathered about the mule's flanks. Would they kill, abandon and then return?"
"No one said anything about killing them. If anything they are worth more alive even if just to track down later. There is not much harm in letting them go...without any equipment...in any case. It might make the others wary"
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The goblins cower and cry piteously. When tied up, they huddle together, terrified as to what you might do to them. Kent is able to understand their seeming gibberish, and translated to the group. They mostly feel sorry for themselves, and curse their ill fortune. They also complain that the 'bodies' had nothing on them and that the mule meat will now go to waste. Finally they fear what the players might do to them, and if they are part of the "Stag Lord's" group.
Ulryk do not seem to notice anything out of the ordinary. The two bodies are those of humans, and have been dead a few days or so. It looks like anything of value was stripped off the bodies. The men look like hunters or trappers. The packs on the mules have also been ransacked.
"anyone heard of a stag lord before?"
The combat apparently over, Svetlana relaxes a bit but doesn't yet holster her whip. She proceeds cautiously up to where the goblins are now bound, but doesn't seem to pay much attention to the bodies. With a pensive expression she says, if the bodies here have been dead for days, it would seem unlikely the goblins did this. Rather, they may be simply scavengers and not the appropriate targets of our vengeance. As Kent translated, the priestess nodded, it's too bad we cannot ask them questions. This "Stag Lord" and his group sound like the true power players; these creatures may know something of their abilities and whereabouts. But, if no further communication can occur then it seems no use to keep them. After this rather one-sided battle I doubt they would trouble us again.
"So I vote let them go and take the Mule meat. We keep their weapons [and armor?] no reason to make it easy for them to turn on us even if it would be hopeless"
Feh. Brigid's mouth turns down in distaste. Send them on their vay. Or, let's be on ours, and let them have the carrion.
Brigid looks around and surveys the ground. I have no shovel. Ve can burn the bodies, or build a cairn, or leave them. Svetlana, vhat does your faith say?
Svetlana shook her head at Brigid's question. No, I know that some religions have lengthy guidelines about preparation and burial of the dead. But Calistria's view is that it is the LIFE that matters, not afterward. Some souls may be carried forward to the aid goddess after they die in this world, but the body is just...a body, a shell. Nothing needs be done with it past sanitary concerns. A shallow grave or pyre would serve that purpose. The priestess' answer was not apologetic, but more than matter-of-fact. It was clear that she took the loss of innocent life seriously, but was not especially focused on the afterlife aspects that inspire some religions.
"well we can't leave them here to rot that's unsanitary maybe pull the bodies into the forest (or whatever sort of landscape we are in) and leave them to rot out of the way"
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"So I vote let them go and take the Mule meat. We keep their weapons [and armor?] no reason to make it easy for them to turn on us even if it would be hopeless"
Both bodies look like someone or thing has removed anything of value, however under one of the mules, half buried in the dirt, you see then end of a leather case used to carry scrolls. It still seems sealed.
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Feh. Brigid's mouth turns down in distaste. Send them on their vay. Or, let's be on ours, and let them have the carrion.
Brigid looks around and surveys the ground. I have no shovel. Ve can burn the bodies, or build a cairn, or leave them. Svetlana, vhat does your faith say?
The ground is slightly soft with the coming of spring, but here it is quite dry as well. You would need shovels to dig an effective grave.
I pick up the scroll case check for traps and detect for magic.
If I don't see anything I open it.