"Right. We run to live, to fight another day. I say we keep an eye on them, try and make contact again on neutral ground, and then if they are still agressive them we use their own underhanded tactics against them."
He turns to Vosil and Edric, Maybe you two could set up a special reconnaissance unit that are a little more flame retardant then we are..."
"Ah." Vosil has been rummaging through his pack for his journal; after a few pages, he takes off his hat and smacks his forehead with the brim - being careful not to damage the feather plume. "I should have checked my notes earlier - according to my sources, the tribe is no great size: 10-12 individuals at most. Less the one Nara's elemental killed, I suppose. They weren't very big to start with, and Tartuk had driven them nearly to extinction in his war with the mites."
He looks up from his book. "I would say that significantly changes the equation. My math is fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure that the algebra spells out 'victory'..."
He glances across at Naralesh and Talia, the resident spellcasters. "Do either of you have access to sleep magic, by any chance?"
"Only a dozen?" Naralesh asked. "I too was under the impression their numbers were much greater."
"We can defeat a dozen of them... Particularly if we are more careful about traps. It seems their trapsmiths are quite capable of hiding their handiwork."
"I'm afraid I've never studied much sleep magic," he added. "My people are not susceptible to it, so it's rather difficult to practice."
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Talia grins. "Excellent news, spymaster! And yes, I can put people to sleep. Just ask Ochbald Illichnya, New Stetven's 'greatest' theatre critic."
"Also, I can use the magic. Buy me time, and we can knock many of them out."
Talia's good humor is appealing, and Vosil can't help but smile in return. The red-headed wench may have poor impulse control, and make epically bad spur-of-the-moment decisions, but there's no denying her charm and her leadership qualities.
"That sounds like a plan. Let us rest up here, so Edric can treat those who are injured - and Naralesh can prepare suitable spells for the morrow - and then we can strike at the first light of dawn. Perhaps Dregan, our trapper and woodsman, should take the lead and look for traps."
"Sure" dregan says wondering how his experience with spotting animal traps designed to be stopped by other hunter would help. Maybe I just look for the tracks the kobolds surely they don't want set off their own traps.
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Dregan carefully puts his bow away and draws out his axe ready to go back in.
The entrance passage is barley lit by the light filtering in from outside. The three pits, found by you through guile and cunning, yawn open. All else is silent save for your footsteps scraping on the dirt as you inch past the pits.
The side passage splits off to your right. The light from Edric's spell barely illuminates as series of rock formations at a bend in the tunnel. There is very little space here, each of you must squeeze through in single file.
Nodding, Talia grips her buckler but leaves her whip curled at her side. She'd need to free a hand to put any enemies to sleep, after all, and prefered the little protection her shield could provide.
Gavriil checks the straps on his buckled to make sure it's secure before checking his rapier as well. He keeps the blade stowed, though. He'd rather not have to worry about falling on it by accident if he fell into a out again.
Once he's sure that his gear is ready he turns to the others and says, "Lets get this lizard show on the road!"
Stooped nearly double and hunched over, you work your way through the tunnel to the rocks.
Talia grabs hold of Dregan, and then whispers, "Stop. Two kobolds, in the niches of the rocks. One by the pointy grey rock, the other by the tall lighter gray one. Each has a small spear. If that's their ambush force, they're dumber than we're giving them credit for. Be alert for tricks."
"They likely hide behind traps. I could call forth another elemental to strike them directly," Naralesh whispered. "Just say the word."
Gavriil stops as the others do. He listens to the others whisper back and forth and slowly draws his rapier from his hip. Then he looks back behind them to make sure nothing was sneaking up on them while the others decided what to do.
The kobolds wait patiently, still as stone...
Crouching behind Edric and Dregan, the Countess tries to make herself as hidden from the kobolds as possible, and whispers, her voice trembling with adrenline, "Keep delaying a few more seconds! I'll send them under!"
Drawing a pinch of sand from her component pouch, Talia lets it drift through her fingers before standing and flinging it in the direction of the ambushers, uttering a lingering, sillibant, sound, almost like a infant's sleeping murmur.
The kobolds don't even flinch as the Sleep spell washes over them. They hold their positions, and wait...
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"Enough of this." Vosil cracks his whip, menacingly, before addressing the kobolds in their own language. Where magic has failed, might may yet prevail.
"Our quarrel is not with you. Stand aside, I say, and let us pass! Or better, join with Kaalib Coaltongue and see the best days of the Sootscale tribe come to pass!"
"Or will you perish, in service of a weakling fool who has led you to ruin?!"
"No reaction? Decoy! Edric, hold up!" Naralesh casts detect magic, focusing on the two kobolds, suspecting an illusion. "Beware of an ambush from behind as well..." he warns those behind him.
Dregan nods and puts his hand on Edric's shoulder. Moving level with Edric he starts looking for the traps, unsure if he knows what to look for he'll also look for kobold tracks figuring that following in their foot prints is less likely to trigger anything.
As Edric approaches the kobolds at the turn, they wave their spears and gesticulate wildy. When he gets within striking distance they set their spears for his attack.
Naralesh's detect magic spell continues, as he determines whether the kobolds are radiating a magical aura. "They may be an illusion spell... It will take but a moment more to know."
"Or a trap. They don't attack because they want us to. Don't approach them."
Talia pulls a gold coin from her belt pouch and flips it at the nearest kobold, interested to see how it reacts. If it is an illusion, the coin should just pass through it.
Taking another coin, the Countess flips it towards the other kobold, letting this one fall short.
"Stand aside and let us pass. You needn't lift a claw either way. Just wait to see what happens. Your tribe can be mighty again. But not while the current chief rules it."
<clink>
The first coin hits an unseen wall before it hits the kobold, bouncing back and falling to the floor. The noise echoes softly in the tunnel where you stand. The two kobolds turn to run at Talia's voice, disappearing into the darkness of the tunnel.
Gavriil keeps an eye on their rear. He grows increasingly worried with each passing moment. This was not the place that their little congo-line should be stopping. It was even more infuriating because everyone behind him either wasn't talking or only talking in what he assumed was gutter-tongue.
With attention on the rear of the group, though. He doesn't notice anything. "Can we get moving, please? I've got a bad feeling about this..."
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"No! Don't move! Hear that? Those kobolds aren't there..." Talia points from the direction of the retreating kobolds and then swivels her arm from in front of the group to the left, jabbing her finger in the air for emphasis. "They're there! Over there!"
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Edric halts at Talia's words, turning to her with a quizzical look on his face. He takes a step forward to peek around the corner to his left, and catches a hint of movement from the rocks on his right!
Twisting desperately in the narrow tunnel to get his shield in front of him, the armed figure in front of him is...himself. Cautiously, he reaches out with his warhammer. He is stopped by the same unseen wall that bounced the coin. His image wavers as he touches it...a mirror! Two of them in fact, angled just so, to catch the reflections of something down the hall and make it appear as if it stood in the corner with the rocks. With a grin, he turns back to the others and shrugs.
Naralesh chuckles, moving with the group. "I assumed it was powerful magic. Perhaps mere clever trickery is even more mighty."
"What's the point, though? To get us to waste resources? Make us feel foolish? Throw coins at every kobold we see?"
Talia shrugs. She'd ask the chief when they saw him, but she had a feeling he wasn't going to survive the day.
Gavriil looks at himself in the mirror as they pass and flashes a toothy smile at himself. "Clever boy..."
He nods to Talia, "That would probably best explain it. Not to mention that it gives them a bit of an upper hand. If someone is attacking the mirror they aren't really paying attention to their sides. It gives them a slight edge in combat. Plus, they can see the whole hallway. It gives them time to retreat and warm others while whoever is coming down it is slowed down drastically when they run smack dab into a mirror."
He chuckles to himself, "And the seven years bad luck they would get for breaking it."
Vosil makes a note in his journal of what they've encountered so far. "Clever - we wasted a spell*, and we're no closer to winning this. I have to award them this one."
He closes the journal and stows it safely away, before inclining his head. "Shall we continue?"