Aegis moves up with Sindri, gesturing with his knife hand for the creature Kyvanna already injured. "Take him out first. He'll go down faster, and allow us to overwhelm the other as a group." He frowns, looking at the captive. "It will also help to protect the captive. Once he's dead, we get between the prisoner and our attacker." Aegis doesn't seem to so much be making a plan as saying his thoughts aloud, and his voice is oddly monotone.
The armored goblin growls and charges forward, barreling into Sindri and attempting to deliver an overhand blow with his blade. However, he overextends and simply slams his blade into the door frame. The other goblin smirks as he draws a flask from his pocket and hurls it at the party grouped up near the door. The flask explodes in a burst of flame, scorching the smith's arms even through her shield and licking at the rest of the group. Somehow, the other goblin is untouched by the flames.
When the first hobgoblin charges in, Aegis starts to react before Sindri blocks his attack. Even after she takes a nasty burn, he motions with his off-hand to the other side of the hobgoblin facing them. "We can pin him between us," he says, his voice still oddly dispassionate. He shifts his feet and prepares to move once Sindri does the same.
Telka sends another arrow flying at the bomb throwing hobgoblin. She steps in a little closer.
Sindri keeps her ground as the hobgoblin rushes forward, and she grins as his overextended attack connects with nothing but wood. Then she feels the lick of flames against her shield, and she quickly brings her arms back, hissing at the pain. She nods at Aegis's suggestion and sidesteps, then raises her shield and brings her free hand around in a low haymaker, slamming into her attacker's ribs.
Kyvanna jumped to try and get away from the flames before she quickly took aim again and let an arrow fly at the one who tossed the fire flask their way.
Aegis sidesteps along with Sindri, and as she punches the hobgoblin in the chest he comes from behind and quickly shoots his arm forward to stab the creature from the other side.
The rest of the party throw themselves away from Sindri and manage to avoid the shower of burning oil and quickly jump in to retaliate. Kyvanna and Telka's arrows fly true, but neither blow manages to score a deep hit, leaving only shallow cuts on his exposed arms. Aegis and Sindri step into the shop, positioning themselves on either side of the other hobgoblin and both lashing out. Aegis misses his swing by the tiniest of margins, but he does leave Sindri an opening to deliver a brutal blow to his chest and the smith can feel at least one rib give in completely as the strike lands.
The hobgoblins retaliate immediately. Another bomb hurls overhead, slamming down right on top of the two archers. Telka takes the full brunt of the blast, while Kyvanna feels the flames licking at her skin. The warrior simply bellows a challenge and swipes at Sindri, but his wounded chest makes skilled swordplay a challenge and he misses by a fair bit.
Sindri easily knocks aside the hobgoblin's sword, and with an extra hand on her shield, she drives it sideways into his chest, slamming close to where her fist already struck.
Aegis's knife flicks in toward the hobgoblin again, hoping to find purchase and take him down before he can do any damage.
Kyvanna's dexterous nature show itself once more as she jumped out of the way of the fire before taking aim once more
Telka cries out as the fire hits her. She takes a deep breath, and then fires her bow again. "I don't want to take to much more of that. Let's get this done."
The sword-wielding hobgoblin ducks and weaves desperately, managing to avoid both of the swipes from the warriors flanking him. He takes a step back, shifting back into the room to get away from Aegis before he swings at Sindri again. His blade bites deep, carving a large chunk out of her shoulder.
The two archers have much better luck, once again landing two blows. The bomber is visibly slowed, moving carefully and wincing in pain as he lifts out another bomb and hurls it over toward Kyvanna this time. The bomb detonates right in her face, leaving painful burns along her skin as the burning oil splashes toward the other archer.
Aegis follows the hobgoblin as it moves, but he doesn't have the chance to stop it before it attacks Sindri. His eyes widen for a moment, but his strikes remain methodical when he attempts to stab the beast in the spine.
Sindri can't bite off the yelp of pain as the sword cleaves into her shoulder; she's just able to twist so it doesn't cut deeper. As she raises her shield, she can feel that her arm isn't too badly injured to use, but blood is seeping from the wound, and her vision is going hazy.
Kyvanna gave a cry of pain as the fire burned her skin. A growl came from her as she fixed her eyes on the hobgoblin that tossed the bomb. "Oh you're dead!" She snarled. She lined up a shot and let another arrow fly.
Telka cries out with the burning. She moves back to where she doesn't include the enemies in her channel.
Telka fires another arrow at the hobgoblin.
Aegis dashes forward, trying to get behind the hobgoblin again. The hobgoblin growls and swings his blade, leaving a bloody slash across Aegis's chest before as he realizes that he's trapped between his opponents again. Then Aegis's dagger finds his spine and he topples to the ground lifelessly. The bomber sees Aegis take down his ally and roars, hurling another bomb straight at the knife-wielding warrior. The fiery projectile detonates, knocking the android to the ground. He's clearly still breathing, but he also doesn't get up.
As the hobgoblin warrior finally collapses, Sindri has just enough time to take a breath before she watches Aegis go down in another burst of flame. Thoughts of self-preservation almost leave her as her eyes narrow on the remaining enemy, and she steels herself against the pain she knows is coming. Then, with a shout, she rushes straight forward, plowing into the bomber with as much force as she can muster, the shield leading the way.
Following the attack, Sindri teeters, and the last of her strength goes out from her legs. She collapses to the floor, rolling a short ways before coming to a stop.
Kyvanna took aim once more before letting a arrow fly, though it went wide and she cursed. "Telka, go heal them and leave him to me!" She called out.
"Let me try to hit him. Then I can heal everyone." She fires another arrow at the bomber. "Erastil now would be a good time to shower your blessing on me. Before I die."
The bomber ducks low to avoid the arrows then hurls a bomb in Kyvanna's direction, sending her to the ground in a shower of fire and broken glass.
Telka channels again in hopes that it will help.
With Telka's channeling doing just enough to rouse him from unconsciousness, Aegis opts to forgo his knife and instead draws one of the wands they found from his belt. He whips it toward the hobgoblin and utters a short phrase in Androffan. His circuitry tattoos flash with a vibrant purple light as a jet of pure force launches from the tip of the wand and careens without fail into the hobgoblin's chest.
There's a momentary flash of white light and the party feels a little of their strength returning. Aegis and Sindri both regain consciousness and the android wastes no time in rolling over and blasting the bombardier in the chest with a glowing blue force missile. The hobgoblin gasps in pain and crumples to the ground.
Aegis slowly hauls himself to his feet and shakes his head, sliding the wand back into his belt. He stumbles over to the hobgoblins to search their bodies, specifically looking for a key. "I'll have you out of those shackles soon," he says to their captive. "I just need to find the key." He seems uncomfortable venturing too far from Kyvanna's unconscious body, but he fights it off to search the bodies.
Aegis takes a few moments to look over the hobgoblins, though the storekeeper seems to still be rather insensate from whatever rendered him unconscious. It seems that the hobgoblins had been preoccupied with looting the alchemical concoctions from the shop when the party arrived, as most of the useful inventory is in a large sack lying unattended near the counter. He does however find the key tucked into the alchemist's belt pouch.
- Studded Leather
- Light Steel Shield
- Longbow
- Arrows (20)
- Trail Rations (Provisions (2))
- Leather Armor
- Hooded Lantern
- Trail Rations (Provisions (3))
- Pale Red Potion (2)
- Silvery Potion
- Alchemist's Fire (3)
- Antitoxin
- Healer's Kit
- Oil (5)
- Smokestick (2)
- Tanglefoot Bag (2)
- Thunderstone (2)
- 16 gp
- Antiplague (3)
- Bloodblock (5)
- Fireward Gel
- Defoliant (2)
- Mortar and Pestle
Aegis looks over the looted items, and when he recognizes the red liquid he pops the cork off and pours it down his throat. When the wounds on his chest again begin to close, he sighs heavily and looks through the others. "There's more of them. All healing potions, get us back on our feet for now." He pulls the rest of them out, setting them on the ground. "There's seven more of them, and an invisibility potion. There's some money here too, among other things." When he fishes out the key, he pockets it for the time being. "I've got the key. We need to get him out of his shackles so we can keep moving. We need to get Kyvanna up and moving too."
"I don't think I'm in the wrong saying we should all drink one of those now." Sindri looks haggard and weary, having dropped unconscious and then come back from Telka's healing. She grabs two of the potions and moves as quick as she can to Kyvanna, where she pours one of the vials' contents into the woman's mouth before swallowing the other herself.
Kyvanna coughed as the potion took effect. It healed some of her burns and allowed the young rangers to push herself up off the ground. Okay... may have been a good idea not to go running off alone.
Kyvanna looked to Sindri and gave a thankful nod before she hopped up, snatching up her bow, and ran in to see who the shopkeeper was as she had been too preoccupied with the hobgoblins to really have a look at them.
Telka grabs one of the potions, and drinks it. "I think there's a lesson here. Be careful when we head inside the buildings. Oh and don't die." Her burns start to heal up. She grabs the healer's kit and puts it in her backpack. "Let's see if we can find anyone else. Are there more supplies?" She moves up to the shopkeeper and checks his health.
It only takes Telka a few moments of looking over Oreld to identify what happened to him. It seems that he was clubbed over the head from behind, as he has a rather large lump on his head. He doesn't seem to have a concussion, but that seems to be more luck than the hobgoblins being cautious. It only takes a few moments to at least get him conscious again. "Wha..." He blinks slowly, unfocused for a moment before his eyes start to clear. "Erastil's horns... I didn't know hobs could be that quiet. Damned things. I've never been treated so roughly in my life."
"We took care of them, barely. Is there anyone else here? We need to get moving. The town is overrun." Telka starts to wrap his head as she talks to him.
"We're trying to gather people and anything useful." Kyvanna told him while Telka worked. "Aubrin is wanting everyone to meet up at the Trading Company. That's where we'll be heading after we sweep the town." She said.
"M' wife," Oreld says shaking his head. "A few others. Hiding in the cellar while I gathered my things. Trap door's in the back room, but watch the door. I set-up a little... alarm, to try to stop anyone from going into the back. Detach the wire on the right side of the door unless you want to get a face full of something you really don't want in your face." He slowly gets to his feet. "If you can help me collect what's left of my things, I'll get them over there."
Sindri nods at Oreld's information, and moves to help the man gather his things. She grimaces at the tightness around her wounds, but she's still mobile, so she's mostly thankful it didn't get worse.
"Sounds like a plan." Kyvanna told him as she helped him up and then helped him and Sindri gather whatever he would need. "Do you think you all can make it there? We still have more of the town to get to."
Aegis heads over to the trap door, following the instructions to disarm the man's booby trap before opening the latch. He opens it slowly and from the side, only getting it partially open before shouting down into the hatch. "It's okay! We're here to help. We've had some trouble, but Oreld is free and the hobgoblins have been dealt with. However, you need to get out quickly and get moving before more of them find us. Okay?" Afterward, he lifts the door all the way up to let them out before checking on the others. "Let's gather what else you need and we can get moving."
Aegis heads into the backroom and opens the trapdoor. Below he can see a few villagers, including a woman he can guess is Oreld's wife. "Oh thank Erastil," she says as she climbs the ladder up to the backroom. "I heard fighting and assumed the worst." Oreld makes his way in a few moments later, pulling her into a tight hug. "Mia, you're safe." He quickly empties his work station into a bag and gathers up his reagents and equipment, along with the villagers coming from the basement hauling out bags of herbs and stored produce. "Thank you," the owner says. "If anyone is still injured, I can patch up two of you a bit more before you go."
"I don't want to take everything from you. You may need it before the night is done. I'm still a bit wounded, but not so much that I want to take that protection from you."
Telka takes the potions with gratitude. "We can't help others if we are too injured to fight Aegis. Where to next?" Telka readies her bow, and will follow the group to the next building to be searched.
If no one else moves to get an infusion from Oreld, Sindri steps up, gratefully drinking the healing liquid. "I haven't taken a beating like this in years," she comments, rolling her shoulders and giving an almost wistful smile.
"Let's go. We'll watch you as you make it out."
"Aye, lets get going." Kyvanna said with a nod to Telka. "Go, keep your heads down and stay together as you head to the Trading Company." She told them before she waved to her group. "We need to look for more survivors and gather what we can. Lets get moving."
Aegis nods, keeping his wand out in his off-hand. "Stay low, keep safe. We'll meet you with the others, okay?" He heads out the door first, his knife at the ready. "Where to next? What's the most likely place for survivors to be holed up? Who are the most valuable townsfolk not yet accounted for? We should prioritize who we try to find to better ensure the survival of the remaining townsfolk."
"I think we were headed for the temple. I'm worried about Father Noelan, and the other acolytes." Telka begins to move carefully to the temple watching for survivors and enemies on the way.
"Alright. Let's go, then."