"Back out side? Where spiders go? We done here?"
You disable the trap, you manage to lodge the mechanism of the trapdoor, and notice nothing out of the ordinary behind the trap. From the account of Fish you know that the red area on the map contains traps that shoot arrows.
When continuing forward through the hallway you suddenly see two Hobgoblins standing guard at a entrance. They look surprised at the sudden appearance of you. Apart from that they look fairly battered probably from an earlier fight.
The southernmost Hobgoblin moves towards Ama and attacks her, hitting her with his broken sword.
Combat order:
- Hobgoblin South
- Nagbur
- Almalik
- Fish
- Hobgoblin North
- Ama (8/10hp)
In bold may act. Map updated.
Their movement feels sluggish but it still manages to dodge Fish's attack.
Almalik and Nagbur are up and the map is updated.
When the hobgoblin that moves toward Ama attacks, there's a ripple in time. Using her time altering powers, Ama readies an attack versus the first hobgoblin to enter her reach.
Ama hits the hobgoblin that moves toward her before he hits her, inflicting a massive wound.
Nagbur sniggers as he shifts to get a clear line of sight on the hobgoblins. "They look like we already beat them up!" He raises his voice and shouts something in a rough language.
He raises the fingers of his left hand to his forehead and then, as a foul odor wafts outward, flings his right hand towards one of the monstrosities.
Ama alters time and chops down the Hobgoblin. Fish moves forward but still misses the other Hobgoblin. Nagbur tries his luck on the same Hobgoblin Fish is attacking and sucks some of his life out of him.
Combat order:
- Hobgoblin South
- Nagbur
- Almalik
- Fish
- Hobgoblin North
- Ama (8/10hp)
In bold may act. Map updated.
Tossing the torch aside, Almalik loads and fires his crossbow; the bolt simply hammers into the wall beside him, causing nobody but a spider any injury.
Almalik misses the Hobgoblin by a mile. The Hobgoblin slices at Fish but misses.
Combat order:
- Hobgoblin South
- Nagbur
- Almalik
- Fish(+1hp)
- Hobgoblin North (-1hp)
- Ama (8/10hp)
In bold may act.
Ama charges at the hobgoblin, and swings her weapon at him.
Her nodachi slices the hobgoblin in two neat pieces.
Almalik lowers his crossbow as Ama dispatches the hobgoblin with brutal efficiency.
"Much better, well done Ama. For somebody who has no idea what fighting is, you show some great skill. For example, I have been using a crossbow at years, and yet I'm still an embarrassment to my family name every time I wield one."
Nagbur lowers his hand from preparing to attack again. "Yes, good job. Good job."
Then he looks up at Almalik. "Me think this be first time you admit you not perfect." He studies the man for a moment, then nods sagely and extends a blue thumb in approval.
Ama makes an easy job of the goblin and the combat ends. You walk into the room and find another dining area with some beds stacked against the back wall. This looks a bit older and must have been the first hall they made in these mines.
Under one of the tables you find a small pouch. It contains a small stone with the shape of a perfect sphere. It contains two colors, green and pink, and they seem to be dancing around and through each other. As you turn the stone around you find a large crack in it.
Almalik gives Nagbur an awkward thumbs up before slapping a bolt in his crossbow.
"Well this is pleasant. I'm still a little worried about the state of those hobgoblins though; although nothing indicates that this room caused their states of disarray. We must remain vigilant." As he says this, Almalik looks around the room idly, not particularly vigilant himself.
"Fish taught Ama good. Now sword work good too." Fish looks around the new area for traps.
With his keen eye for dark places Fish spots the small pouch. "More treasure!" Opening the pouch the young kobold pulls out a perfect sphere of green and pink. As the colors dance around inside Fish tilts his head to the side. "Not know what this is. Almalik smart about magic stuff. Can Almalik tell what it is?"
"Perhaps," says Almalik as he looks over the stone curiously. He waves his hands, looking it over. "I can have a look at the very least."
"I think I've got the basics down. You just swing your shiny, sharp thing at something, and it'll die."
Ama fails to see the item, even when Fish holds it up. "What is it you're talking about?"
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Apart from the small pouch the room is empty. There are two options left to go. The western tunnel isn't completely explored yet and the south east door in the main dining room has yet to be opened.
Ama draws her nodachi, and throws it into the air.
The nodachi's blade sinks into the wooden table, almost piercing Almalik's hand. It's not exactly clear what she'd hoped to achieve, but Ama seems to have gotten to a conclusion.
"West it is," Ama says as she pulls her weapon out of the table.
Almalik beams delightedly as he looks over the stone. He grips it, and then releases it. It slowly begins to float around his head.
"This, my dear friends is an ioun stone. An impractical, if somewhat delightful way to augment one's abilities. I believe this one makes you more convincing in speech and manner. I consider myself an adept negotiator, but if anybody is particularly interested in making use of---ARE YOU MAD?!"
Almalik yanks his hand back as the nodachi slams into the table. He pauses for a moment and calms himself down.
"Ama, please," he says through his teeth. "There are less penetrative ways to decide which way we're going. I'll show you how to flip a coin later."
Nagbur gives Fish a knowing look and then rolls his eyes.
Fish looks over the edge of the table. "Why you throw sword? There rat on table? You let Fish know if you see rat. Fish good rat catcher."
-Posted with Wayfinder
"If the sword wouldn't have cut something, I'd have said we'd go to the door we haven't yet opened," Ama starts explaining. "It did cut something, though. That means we want to go to the west tunnel."
She points at the room's exit. "Let's go!"
"What's a rat, by the way?"
You make your way back to where you stopped last time. You head round the corner and come to a dead end.
You hear high pitched voices. You are unable to identify what language it is or what is being said. It does however sound old and evil.
Unable to do anything else in this part you move through the main dining room again and find yourselves at the last available part of the mines. As you walk through the room you hear the rumbling from the cage again. As you listen to the monster in the cage again you can hear that whatever is in there is there against its will.
Look at the story items loot list! You have found something earlier which could come in quite handy right now ^^
"Anyone speak scary monster?"
"You want to sound like a monster, Fish?"
Ama retrieves to potion of tongues from the items the party found earlier, and tosses it in Fish' direction. "I can't teach you, but this will probably help you?"
"You want Fish talk with it? Ok, but Fish not make many friends."
Almalik looks over to the group.
"I can attempt parley. It may come as a surprise, but I can be quite charming when the mood strikes."
The ioun stone continues to orbit around his head, somewhat ridiculously.
Fish hands the potion to Almalik. "Yeah good plan. Fancy stone help too."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Almalik takes the potion and salutes Fish before downing it. He turns to the cage, keeping within a very safe distance.
"My humblest apologies for the rudeness of myself and my companions for failing to speak with your magnificence before this point. As you can be sure, we had a separation in language. However, your captors have been slain and we are here to speak. My name is Almalik Fezana, and I have the honour of traveling with Fish, Nagbur, and Ama. We are here to investigate the drastic change in ownership of these mines. To whom do I have the great honour of speaking to?"
The rumbling of the creature suddenly turns to a mumbling of sorts, although incomprehensible.
"Who be magnificent in these damn bars?!"
You suddenly hear a loud bang on the cage.
"... Captured in a scouting party... Damn bloody rag creatures!"
It suddenly turns very quiet in the cage. After a moment the creature starts talking again.
"Free me. I kill rag creatures. I KILL THEM ALL!!!"
His rage subsides and he answers your last question.
"Me Bodur."
Nagbur gives Almalik a funny look when the man comments on how how charming he can be, but decides to let it go.
Almalik smiles and spreads his hands warmly.
"We must be assured of our own safety first, you must understand. What manner of creature are you, Bodur? What are the rag creatures? Were they these brutes?"
Almalik gestures to the corpse of a hobgoblin, illuminating it with his light spell.
"I am ruler of caves. They call me bodur."
He seems to think a bit.
"small men call me cave giant."
Another silence follows.
"rag men look like them."
He points at Nagbur and Fish, a single but huge finger comes from within the cage.
"With many skins on them. Not see their own."
As Almalik is talking with the creature a huge finger comes through the bars and points at Fish and Nagbur.
-Posted with Wayfinder
"Ummm Fish not like this. Not like scary finger pointing at Fish."
As Almalik speaks with the giant, he attempts to figure out whether or not it is hostile to him.
Almalik turns to his companions and switches back to common. "This creature before you is Bodur. He is a cave giant who was captured by 'rag men' who he claims resemble you two and likely... well, wear a lot of rags or furs or some such thing. As one could imagine, he wants us to let him free so he can kill all the rag men and rule the caves once more."
Almalik frowns and strokes his oiled beard as he looks at the hobgoblin.
"An interesting cave here. An active mine which is now full of hobgoblins, nasty traps, and 'rag men'. Not to mention the spiders."
Almalik grabs the hobgoblin corpse and hoists it up a bit, speaking giant once more.
"Do you come from this cave? And is this a rag man, or are they smaller?"
Ame smiles when the huge finger points at Fish and Nagbur. "Maybe it wants to play with you?"
Almalik then says something about the cave giant killing all the rag men, and Ama quickly diverts her eyes.
"This not cave. This hole fat small men."
Almalik holds up the Hobgoblin and asks if it is a rag man.
"That not rag man. That filthy slave!"
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Nagbur takes an involuntary step back when the ponderous digit points at him. When Almalik translates, he says, "Huh. 'Rag men' belong to squeaky voices we hear back at dead end maybe. Me think they sounded small." He looks in the direction of the cage and raises his voice. "They not be speaking goblin though, so me think they not be goblins. Or blues like Nagbur. Fish, were they talking kobold?" Then he blinks. "What language kobolds talk, anyway?"
He returns his attention to the cage. "We stopped the things taunting you before," he says, gesturing at the fallen hobgoblins. "You saw. And we got nothing to do with you being in cage, okay?"
He looks up at Almalik. "You tell thing that." Then he looks thoughtful. "Thing thinks it owns cave? If this its home then miners be invading. Need to strike trade bargain and such."
"Kobolds born from dragons so speak like dragons." Fish shifts nervously "So it want kill all rag men like Fish and Nagbur? Fish think we leave it in cage."
Almalik looks over the cave giant before turning back to the group.
"I believe it is not from this particular mine as it calls it a 'hole'. The key here is that ... well, we have no key. We can't get him out if we wanted to. I believe we should investigate further and let the giant know we will return when we can. Frankly, I believe there is a high risk the creature will go on a rampage and kill everything in sight. Let's explore more and resolve this problem later."
Almalik turns to Bodur.
"Oh ruler of the caves, we are unable to free you at this time and must find your means of exit. We shall return. How fare away are the caves that you rule?"
Nagbur looks at Fish and cocks his head in thought, then pokes him experimentally with a finger. "You not look much like dragon. When you get wings and be old enough to breathe fire?'
To Almalik he posits, "Maybe tiny-voice people have key since..."
Suddenly he trails off in thought. Then the vitalist blinks, digs into his backpack to retrieve the small figurine with an odd base. "Maybe this be key to cage?" he asks, offering it to Almalik.
Fish keeps the fact that he can try to pick the lock to himself as he does not want to try. "Fish not actual dragon. More like dragon cousin."
Some inspection reveals that the cage cannot be opened from this side. There must be another entrance to the cage from another side.
As Almalik addresses the cave giant you hear a heavy sudden thud from the cave.
"Rag men enter from other side."
Silence follows his answer.
"Not know. Rag men surprise me. They knocked me black. Next thing I saw was weird stone. Rag man touch and BOOM here. Me wan't to be back. Me alone."
As he talks his voice starts sounding more and more sad.
You continue on the path and end up at the other side of the cage. From further down the path you are able to hear the talking again from earlier.