Xogar swings again at the little runt.
Squirmy wretch. Come here!" Xogar bellows.
Arturus turns to see the wagon erupt in flames. As he nocks another arrow, he turns back to find a target, seeing Loruk run towards the wagon.
" Nice trick A'letta! Can you do it again? On the wagon? Loruk could use your help! "
As he finishes his sentence he lets another arrow fly, trying to keep any stragglers from exiting the square and causing trouble in town.
Arturus doesn't watch long enough to see if the arrow struck home, and turns to aid Loruk with the burning wagon.
Round 2
Seeing others adeptly handling the remaining goblins, Rhanloi will carefully approach the two sleeping ones and tie them up with rope or strips of canvas from a nearby wagon. We can ask these two some questions later... he thinks to himself.
Rhanloi - 22
A'letta - 20
Xogar - 16
Loruk - 15
Khalbar - 13
Arturus - 11
Kyra - 10
Pick - 7
From behind the burning wagons come a quintet of goblins, singing and laughing and chasing after the burning cat. They pause when they see A'letta, the huge Shoanti woman, rushing towards the cat to save it, and savagely pull out their dogslicers (except for one, who stands back and pulls out a shortbow). Rhanloi serenely moves to tie up the goblins he's put to sleep as A'letta casts a spell to put the cat out. Unfortunately, the thing is much too burned already and dies anyway. Xogar charges the new quintet of goblins and swings his sword at one, but he fails to connect. Loruk manages to find a bucket and a water source, and fills the bucket up with water. Kyra and Khalbar form up on one another and close on the quintet of goblins together, Kyra with a flying kick and Khalbar with a swinging axe, each of them down a goblin. While this is happening, Arturus attempts to snipe another raiding goblin with an arrow, and even though he doesn't see, this arrow barely misses and strikes dirt.
Off on a lonely rooftop, a duergar swings a lead ball in a loop of leather around his head, lets it loose at an unsuspecting goblin, and cracks bones and brings the goblin down.
Under the shelter of his cloak, the duergar's scarred lips pull back from his teeth in what is technically a smile-- small and tight. An enemy is down. Much of his life in the Underdark has been skirmishes with the drow, the svirnefblin, and other creatures of the deep tunnels; he is a soldier in his fashion, albeit one who prefers guerilla warfare to columns of troops and shining generals. He knows the satisfaction of the kill in the dark, the sense of accomplishment at taking down someone who would have tried to kill him. But on the surface, he's avoided outright conflict-- run away from suspicious eyes and any fights.
Killing an enemy again feels good.
He ducks down flat to the rooftop again and loads another sling bullet. Then up again to get the needed room to twirl the leather strap and let fly.
Round 3
Khalbar checks the girl on his wing and finds her unscathed. "Two ahead, you take right, i take left." Without waiting for a reply the barbarian lifts his mighty axe again for a killing stroke on the next goblin, leaving the other for the girl.
"Stop that bowman!" he shouts to the others who have taken up the fight nearby.
Kyra looks at the tall man to her side, impressed with how much power he's been able to swing with. She may be able to feel bones snap like twigs beneath her fist, but he was actually severing entire segments off of the goblins, reducing them to piles of blood and flesh.
"At this rate we won't be leaving much fun for anyone else," she replies with a grin.
She follows the barbarian, leaping into the air and delivering a bicycle kick to the goblin on the right.
Round 3
Loruk grabs a suitable bucket from the ground while in full stride, filling it as he moves past a water-keg and rushes towards the burning wagon. In an attempt to halt the flames, he empties the bucket and discards it.
The half-orc again leads his left arm behind his back, unhooks the clasp and grabs his shortbow. He retrieves a fresh arrow from his quiver, draws back the bowstring and releases; the arrow piercing through the air towards the bowman-goblin.
Rhanloi looks around for a way to help. Are all of the children and civilians safe from goblins? Are the fires under control? Are there other goblins to take care of? Beyond that, it's time to start investigating how the hell goblins could suddenly appear in the middle of town! Look for any indication where they could have hidden - a wagon, perhaps? Underground sewers or passages? There must be some indication...
A'letta joins the fray, carefully wading into battle. Her approach made it easy for the goblins to predict her attack and her first stab was easily side-stepped by the green menace.
Arturus, seeing the wagon being taken care of, will range about the square looking for stragglers or potential ambushes.
Xogar attacks again in yet another attempt to hit a goblin. He anticipates their scurrying about and makes a swing at the last moment to try and get one.
Rhanloi - 22
A'letta - 20
Xogar - 16
Loruk - 15
Khalbar - 13
Arturus - 11
Kyra - 10
Pick - 7
The goblins grin in delight at being faced with new people to hurt, and one each swings his dogslicer at Kyra and Khalbar. Khalbar easily evades the swing, but Kyra's reflexes aren't good enough to avoid the dogslicer . The bowman raises a hand and shouts something obscene in Goblin, and Kyra erupts in horrid laughter. Rhanloi, searching the area following tying up those goblins, finds no discernible area of entrance that the goblins used. True to her expectations, A'letta finds her spear thrust avoided easily, but Xogar makes up for it by slashing the goblin savagely, and it staggers from the pain and injuries. Loruk manages to dump the barrel of water that he was carrying onto one of the burning wagons, and it erupts in steam, before pulling out his shortbow again. Khalbar swings again at the goblins that menace them, but even though it was injured by Xogar, Khalbar's axe does not find his target, finding only dirt. Kyra is laughing too uncontrollably to even try to attack, though. Arturus helps out, though, firing an arrow right into the eye of the one Xogar injured previously, killing it.
Still on his lonely rooftop, Pick nails yet another goblin, shattering its bones as it falls. Its peers look about in surprise when they find one of their raiding-buddies is suddenly dead, but they are unable to find the cause.
Kyra settles down, looking at the others around her and giving a slight cough, before throwing wild punches at the next goblin.
Round 4!
"Enough of this madness..." Rhanloi mumbles, moving to within 25-30 feet of a goblin. Then he throws his quarterstaff at the goblin, only to have it instantly return to his hand after hitting the creature.
Round 4
Seeing Kyra recovered enough from her laughing fit to respond and punch the threatening goblin, Khalbar turns his axe to the one remaining.
The axe bites deep into the goblin again and Khal jerks it to withdraw it from the body, looking around for the next target.
The duergar watches, plucking another bullet from the pouch and dropping it into the pocket of the sling. His eyes narrow behind the smoked lenses, hunting another foe. He has lost track of exact reason he must fight them, only that the familiar motions of warfare are a comfort to his restless mind. Each goblin silenced quiets some of the confusion in his head.
The image of the burning cat haunts A'letta. She can't find her inner calm and feels her Shoanti blood burning in her veins. The mocking laughter of the goblins rang in her ears and attack after attack missed.
As the combat winds down, Arturus will try to find a good, high vantage point, and begin looking and listening for signs of conflict beyond the square.
If things are under control Xogar will help any one that is hurt or needs help with anything.
As the last of the goblins fall, Loruk does what he can to aid the townsfolk by putting out flames.
"Do you see any more of them, Arturus?"
Rhanloi - 22
A'letta - 20
Xogar - 16
Loruk - 15
Khalbar - 13
Arturus - 11
Kyra - 10
Pick - 7
Both of the remaining goblins focus their attacks on Khalbar, him being the largest and most muscular threat among the humanoids. The frontline goblin's dogslicer goes right between his legs, but the bowman's arrow sticks in his elbow, but only pushes into the flesh a little bit . Rhanloi hurls his quarterstaff at a goblin, the long measure of wood darting straight at the goblin that just shot at Khalbar. It collides heavily with his chest, sending him reeling, but not dead. A'letta's attack is once again too unimaginative to catch a goblin off-guard, and misses. Khalbar lifts his axe high, and brings it down on the goblin directly in front of him, cleaving it in two and finishing it, while Kyra charges and delivers a powerful punch to the bowman, finishing him as well.
The square is oddly quiet at this point, and largely empty. The goblins that were at the edges of the battle, scavenging, have strangely been killed by something unseen. Pick creeps down from a roof and moves towards the center of the square towards the crispy cat just as Arturus crawls up onto a rooftop to see, north of the square, more goblins menacing a nobleman and his dog.
There are a few moments of quiet and rest for the warriors, though, as nothing is of immediate harm and more than a dozen goblins already lie dead around them.
Kyra pushes her bangs out of her face and straightens up from her combat stance. She turns to Khalbar with a smile. "Well done! We each got 3, unless I miscounted. I like your style." She holds out a hand, "My name's Kyra"
Creep, creep, creep. Unaware that the human with the bow is now in a prime position to spot him, the cloaked, hunched figure will sidle from building to building, seeking what slight shelter they afford as he sidles closer to the smoking body of the cat.
He licks his lips as he goes. He can practically already taste it. There are a few goblins running around, but none of them close, and he figures the talls can deal with those that remain.
Whereas if he doesn't act now, someone will take away his cat.
The giant of a woman joins those who stood up against the goblin menace. Her chest heaves up and down as she draws in huge volumes of air. The fight, though short, had left her drained. And, the image of the burning cat still haunted her. A vision of impending doom, of destruction to come, of the whimsy spirits of fate on fire .. A'letta shook her head and took off her mask.
"I thank you all for your aid. I am A'letta, spirit talker of the Shriikirri-Quah. Though we might've fought off this wave of destruction, it was only the first wave of what is to come. And the signs ..", she says as worry and weariness washes over her face,"..the signs whisper of even more destruction yet to come."
Rhanloi walks up to Khalbar and slaps him on the shoulder, asking him, "How many did you get, big guy? Did you hit the goblins harder than that bell game? grin
Then he turns to the growing party, "Greetings! My name is Rhanloi - bookseller and collector of magical odds and ends. It is a pleasure to meet such stalwart folks who are willing to step up when all else run away. I captured two of the little creatures and secured them over there." He motions over his shoulder to where the sleeping goblins lie, tied together with strips cut from a nearby wagon. "When they come to we can question them and find out how they got here and who led them...goblins aren't known for their planning skills!"
Khalbar grins at the girl (Kyra). He speaks in accented and broken Common, barely well enough to be understood. "You will show me this kicking fight style? Me like it. I am Khalbar. You do great honor to meet me."
To Rhanloi: "It was three goblins. Are others hurt? I have little scratch, wonder why goblins here."
To A'letta:
Another scream cuts through the air, followed quickly by a yell for help. Vexingly, they are from opposite sides of the square, the scream from the south and the yell from the north. Arturus can clearly see that it is the nobleman, menaced by several goblins, to the north that yelled for help, but the source of the scream from the south cannot be seen.
Drawing his light crossbow and knocking a bolt, Rhanloi says, "Let us divide our efforts and continue our work! Khalbar, shall we investigate the scream coming from the south? Perhaps the ladies can join us?" He will look at Kyra and A'letta after addressing Khalbar.
Rhanloi then starts jogging to the south, his light crossbow in one hand and the quarterstaff in the other, ready to help the unfortunate person behind the wailing scream.
"Arturus, Half-Orc - with me."
Nodding towards Arturus and Xogar as he speaks, Loruk picks up speed towards the yell coming from the north, hooking the clasp back on his bow followed by unsheathing his longsword. The large half-orc wields it firmly in both hands.
"Lead on! I have your back."
Xogar has his sword and shield at the ready.
Kyra nods to Rhanloi, with a smile, less pleasant and more hungry than one would expect. "It would be my pleasure" she remarks, sprinting towards the north.
A'letta stares down at Rhanloi and nods. "Okay, let's go." With her shield and spear at the ready she advances, a step behind and to the side of the giant of a man. "I got your back Khalbar."
Khalbar nods his assent and hefting his greataxe, lopes off after the rest running fast for a man his size but making sure the Shoanti Oracle is staying close.
Running around a bend and out of the town square reveals a scene on the street - a nobleman crouches behind a barrel while his dog duels a goblin mounted on a monstrous and hideous ratlike creature - a goblin dog. Three more goblins cower nearby in fear of the dog, but you arrive right in time to see the mounted goblin kill the dog, and to see his lackeys cheer. The four goblins advance on the nobleman.
Running south towards the source of the scream reveals something curious: a woman backpedals on the ground away from five grinning and menacing goblins. The woman's sword and two dead goblins lie nearby, and the woman is bleeding from several dogslicer cuts. You recognize the woman as Ameiko Kaijutsu, popular tavern-owner of the Rusty Dragon Inn.
The smoking, dead cat looms appetizingly in the now completely-empty square.
Ahhhh it is good. The top-siders have run off to go chase down the rest of the noisy little ones. He silenced two of them; the top-siders can deal with the rest. In the meantime: food.
He looks furtively to left and to right, then quickly unstraps his simple bedroll from his battered pack. The cat's smoking corpse gets tossed into the center of the bedroll, then is bundled quickly up and stuffed back into the pack.
He takes a dogslicer from the corpse of a nearby goblin while he's at it. When you can't just walk into the general store freely, you take your gear where you can find it.
A'letta yanks off a charm from her bracelet. She then crushes it in her fist as she touches Khalbar and invokes the protection of the spirits. Words of prayer leave her mouth and Khalbar feels a protective aura wash over him.
Arturus will attempt to hop along the rooftops and get a good angle on the plighted noble, firing at the goblin rider.
Running towards the goblins, Loruk raises his sword high as he positions himself to charge one of the goblins. He draws his breath then bellows: "Kduo u'uo vnus drud su! us', O us ouun uunno!"
hp 12/12
AC 18
Status: Normal
Standard Action:
Move into charge range.
With A'letta's protection in place, Khalbar launches himself at the nearest goblin, closing in so he can use his axe to best advantage. As he closes in, the war song starts to build.
Kyra charges right at the group of goblins, picking out the closest one and delivering swings at the back of him.
Rhanloi stops, drops the quarterstaff on the ground next to his feet, takes careful aim with his small crossbow, and fires at a goblin.
The bolt flies true and strikes one of the goblins...