Vayu lunges toward his opponent, who is unable to retaliate, having only a bow in hand. Very manage to grab a hold of the tiny creature, making him a much easier target to hit. Unfortunately, Ilya cannot take advantage of that. Perhaps Zen'yr can?
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Brayden
Zen'yr
Ilya
Kellan
Redke
Vayu
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Goblin (1)
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Perhaps emboldened by the dire straits of the goblin, Zen'yr decidedly drives her knife through the little b**tard's heart, making the way free for an un hindered escape from the tunnel.
Through battle, the party has explored most of what was left of the ground floor of the tower.
The goblin commandos carried horse choppers and a potion of cure moderate wounds each. The tower to the southwest contains piles of rags and bones are piled up into nest-like beds around the room. From the smell of it, this is where the goblin kept those dog/rat-like creatures.
The adventurers have one more door they didn't go through - the double doors on the east side, leading to the central tower...
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Ilya doesn't pay any attention to Redke's stumbling, but asks him to renew the light spell on her temple sword when it's about to run out.
Make yourself useful, will you?
"I expect the double doors we haven't yet checked to reveal the way upstairs," Ilya says. "But before we proceed upstairs, where we know the main body of the Spire is, we may want to check out what's downstairs first?"
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Redke heaves a sigh as he waves his hands and mutters his secret incantations and Ilya's Sword lights back up.
"Ilya, Second Rule of Adventuring, ." Redke finishes his statement by shouting, "Last time you didn't listen to me, what happened? We got ambushed by a whole tribe of Goblins. I vote for going up first."
Muttering under his breath, you can hear Redke say, "I mean, it's like some of the people here are actively trying to get me killed. First, the B@stard runs off and starts insulting me, and then she convinces the rest of this group to desert me... I must be rid of this Tiefling!
And now, it's like Ilya's trying to off us all... 'Monk', uhhuh, I'm thinking she's a bandit."
The double doors reveal a staircase around that same glowing green core, leading up this time. After winding around the spire a number of times, it ends in a locked door with an arrow slit.
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Brayden stands back, relaxing against the wall, amused by the exchange between Redke, Kellan, and Ilya. Finally, he offers his side. "Being so divided does make us easy to overwhelm. It would be prudent to stay a bit closer together in the future. And I do agree with Redke, lets deal with what's above before we descend into the undetermined depths... who knows how deep they stretch..."
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Kellan walks over at Brayden and quietly says "Since Redke is being such an @$$ about it, you look like you might be able to use this thing. Would you be willing to hold on to it and use it on the party as needed? Even on... him." At the last word she rolls her eyes toward the muttering arcanist. "Given that 'cooperate' is part of our mission statement, I'll ignore his racism as much as I can."
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Ilya sighs and shrugs. "Whatever, let's go up then."
Once she arrives at the locked door, Ilya tries to not stand in front of the arrow slit. "Be careful," she whispers, then tries to take the door down with force.
Agh! My shoulder! Okay, let me try that again...
If the door doesn't open after her second attempt, Ilya will turns around and ask "We didn't happen to find a key, did we?"
Ilya throws herself at the door, gets bounced back and busts in for another effort. As the door swing open under her strong effort, she is immediately face-to-face with a large armoured bugbear, who doesn't hesitate to fire an arrow from the bow he's holding.
Halt! What are you doing here? Did Klarkosh send you? the bugbear shouts in straight up common.
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Kellan
Zen'yr
Brayden
Vayu
Ilya
---
Grulk
---
Redke
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Kellan scores a touche on the increasingly bewildered bugbear.
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Kellan
Zen'yr
Brayden
Vayu
Ilya
---
Grulk (6)
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Redke
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The hallway erupts in a frenzied traffic jam. Ilya manages to strike the bugbear with a fist of flame as a shot rings out and flings back the bugbear.
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Kellan
Zen'yr
Brayden
Vayu
Ilya
---
Grulk (21)
---
Redke
---
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Brayden smiles at the beast as he walks into the room, though lets his smile turns to a stern expression as he speaks rather forcefully. "Silly fool, but of course Klarkosh sent us. Now, stand down, stop attacking my men, and tell us the status of things."
Seeing the bow still in the bugbear's hands, Brayden's companion uses the opportunity to close in around the startled goblinoid.
As soon he realises he is outclassed, the bugbear tries to flee out of the tower.
The bugbear moves away from the adventurers, past the eidolon to the west end of the tower, where he opens a hidden passage. Behind it is nothing but open air, a sheer drop to the rubble below. Still the bugbear jump, and seems to fall only softly, rather than crashing down.
The tower is empty, and a trapdoor is open on the westside, which lets sunlight into this tower covered by magical darkness. At the base, the bugbear has made a soft landing on the rubble of the tower - which seems to be the roof of the half the party was just a moment before fighting in.
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Ilya doesn't trust her descend will be the same as it was for the bugbear. After sheathing her sword, she takes out her rope and grappling hook, attaches them to each other, and searches a good place for the hook to go.
Once the hook and rope are in place, Ilya starts her descend.
"Let's take a quick look down below. I'd like to go back to town soon though, I want to purchase some new items."
Ilya looks out of the window, and sees the bugbear slowly reaching the ground, falling not much faster than a feather would. When he finally makes it to the rubbled roof of the emerald spire, he starts traversing it, though his progress is somewhat slow. He's clearly trying to get away.
With a rope and hook in place, climbing down is an easy effort.
At the bottom, Ilya finds some dead goblins - apparently thrown out from above - while Grulk, the heavily wounded bugbear, turns around at a safe distance and says If Klarkosh didn't send you, why are you here?
Klarkosh. Some high-and-mighty wizard from up land. Thinks he can invade our little home and establish himself. He hides somewhere deep down in the dungeon, and thinks he can lord it over us. If you're not working for him, have you come to kill him?
Well good. I have no interest in being killed in cold blood. And Klarkosh is sure to attack you. How did you get up in my tower, why didn't my goblins stop you?
Lazy bastards. They didn't try hard enough, obviously.
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Redke tries being stealthy on the other side of the bugbear letting Ilya know that he's no longer trapped in darkness...
Being not so stealthy, Redke hides a little more & readies a spell if the bugbear heads his way, otherwise, if the bugbear leaves in peace, Redke will rejoin his companions
If you go after Klarkosh, you can pass to the lower level. You'll need the secret cipher...
The secret cipher is: "Lasst uns durch, oder Grulk wird ihr weicheier mal die Fresse polieren"
"Let us through or Grulk will smash your weakling faces in"
The steep stair descends through solid bedrock for fifty feet before ending in a stone-lined room. A large stone door stands directly south of the stair, a small alcove lies to the east, and another door to the southeast is slightly ajar. An extinguished torch rests on the floor of the alcove.