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Kavous' shot flies true at one of the archers on the balcony, but it sticks in his thick leather breastplate and causes no harm.
The longshanks that Boorgub is menacing looks nervously at the strange weapon pointed at him, and doesn't look at Farg Farg...
Fangface's furious charge brings Farg Farg in range of the nearest longshanks. His lance easily parts the man's armor and erupts from his back in a spray of blood and gore. Obviously dead, he slumps to the floor.
Lurgun finds his target already vanquished, and makes mean eyes towards the next poor sonofab~!+% in the line.
Vonk's bomb flies awkwardly through the air, bursting against the far wall. The shower of burning chemicals rains down on the two unfortunate longshanks.
"By the nine hells, they're putting up a fight" hisses one of the thugs as they engage. The archers loose arrows, and the two surviving thugs draw clubs and move to attack.
An arrow whistles over Farg Farg's head and clatters to the floor. Another hits the pillar that Kavous is using for cover and shatters. A third arrow whizzes past Vonk. Lurgun dodges a club swung at his face, and Farg Farg blocks the other attack with his shield.
Makena winces as Lurgun kicks the noisy stone that gives them away almost immediately. As the goblins leap into action she simply watches for a few moments, before startling from her thoughts, realizing she should probably help.
"Get 'em Sir Hiss! Oi! Shooty tall-shanks, see how you like Mr. Barks!" she yells up to the archers as she moves up beside Vonk and chants her spell. With the telltale odor of brimstone, a Devillish Hound appears on the edge of the balcony, growling at the tall-shanks before it leaps at one of their throats.
Farg Farg giggles as he extracts his lance from the man's chest just in time to thrust it at another. "Hahaha where you think you go?"
AoO:
Damage:
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Boorgub arcs his run around the back of Lurgun and Farg Farg getting into range with the first archer. "YOU SHALL FEEL THEE WRATH OF MEES BOOMSTICKS STUPID LONGSHANKSES!!!" and fires on the first archer, if Makena's dog hasn't killed him. If he's already dead I direct my attack at the second archer:
Lurgun looks sad as Farg Farg steals the kill he wanted. When th other longshanks charge in, he smashes one.
Okki double moves closer.
For now, he's confident in the others to handle things. After the Longshanks move again, he will reconsider his options.
Vonk runs alongside Boorgub while he readies another bomb to throw at the remaining archer(s). Yes! More fire! More booms!" he shouts as Boorgub's gun fires.
Kavous takes aim at the nearest living archer and fires.
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Makena's summoned hound completely surprises the archer and snaps viciously on his face. The longshank's screams of pain are abruptly drowned out by the deafening report of Boorgub's pistol, and the archer falls to the floor, dead.
Kavous finds that he's strung an arrow backwards and spends a few moments hurriedly flipping it around the right way.
Knowing what to watch out for, the two remaining archers nimbly duck the brunt of Vonk's second errant bomb.
Lurgun brutally brings his Earthbreaker in a sideways swing against the shoulder of the thug facing him. There is an audible crunch of bone, and the longshanks falls to the ground, alive but critically injured.
Farg Farg's opportunistic lance strike scores on the thug, drawing blood, but his second stab goes wide.
The two surviving archers loose arrows at the devil dog suddenly in their midst, but in their panic they can hardly aim.
The last thug, bleeding from the lance wound and scorched by Vonk's bomb, throws down his club and yells "I yield! I ain't getting paid enough for this s~$!!"
With Makena's attention focused on the archers above Sir Hiss continues to act on his previous orders, slithering over to the still standing tall-shanks, and attempting to sink his fangs into it.
Mouth dripping with the blood of their friend, the dog turns his attention to the right, growling and barking at the archer, accompanied by some truly awful halitosis, before he lunges at thee tall-shanks leg.
"Go Mister Barks! Get em!" Makena cheers enthusiastically for her bloodthirsty friend as she peers around, crossbow still held ready. The tall-shanks down her had surrendered , and though she sited down the stock the archers were movign around too much with Mr. Barks terrorizing them. If she couldn't shoot them then maybe... Reaching into a pouch on her belt she pulls out a little fuzzy ball of wool, and blows it at the left archer as she mutters incantations in draconic.
"Why you longshanks in here?" Vonk demands of the badnit who yielded (if he is still alive). "Why you set traps for gobs? Where is shiny sword?"
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The two archers on the ledge fight a brief and futile battle against the fiendish hound and ranged goblins, dying with curses on their lips.
The thug who surrendered starts to explain. "We're working for Yunar. He wants us to look into - AAAAARRGHHH!"
His eyes roll upwards in his head and he collapses to his knees before falling flat on his face. Nomming on the back of his leg is Makena's summoned viper.
After the din of combat, the room is suddenly very quiet. With more time to look around, you can take in a better look at your surroundings. There's a hallway exiting the room in the southeast, and if you climb up the scaffolding you can access the balcony to the southwest - a doorway gives the telltale clue that there's more to explore up that way. What looked at first glance like a wall forming the southern boundary of this room is in fact an extremely ornate door. Seven thumb-sized sockets are embedded in the door, arranged in a ring around a starburst design.
Kavous looks around nervously. Comfortable that the longshanks are dead he goes over and begins rummaging through their pockets. "I really hopes they have foods I's starving. Especially after smelling piggies." He also seems to be counting the fingers on each one of the dead man's hands.
As the cooperating thug goes down with a snake attached to his leg Makena's eyes widen "Oops!" she lets out, hurry up and scooping up the viper which curls it's length around her arm. She smiles at it and strokes it's head with a finger "Thank you Sir Hiss." she says to it, making a gesture with her other hand, causing it to fade from sight. She turns her attention to the thug then, looking at his wound and general condition
"He be okay... Probably." she observes, her tone doubtful. Meanwhile the devil dog can be heard above, worry at the corpses of the archers. Makena glances to Okki as she considers what the tall-shanks had said. "Hey, Okki said to chief about Yunar. What he know?"
Okki shrugs.
He looks sadly around the room, realizing he snuck TOO good. He didn't get to stab nuffin. Whistling, he sticks his sword into the buttocks of the human Makena tried to heal.
"Boss say to leave him alone. That he handle him and that it only be a stupid gob that try and pick a fight with Yunar. Okki met a half shanks that like us to fight him, so yea. If we fight Yunars guys, we just make sure none of them live to tell Yunar about it."
Okki takes some time looking at the Door of the Seven Stars.
"We prolly find bits to go in these holes somewhere. Sometmes that open up a door."
Okki helps check the dead, but also is looking for anything specifically that marks them as Yunars men, be it a badge or tattoo or some other device. If he finds something, he will scoop it up/cut it off and take it with him.
Afterwards, he will start to scout the southeast hallway, beckoning the impressive Kavous over with him.
After searching the corpses Kavous eagerly follows Okki. "Too bad no longshanks has seven fingers. Otherwise mes cut them off and use them for holes. Where to?"
"We be checkin' this hall for stuff. Seeing the fancy door make Okki think this place might have traps. Okki used to just let the biggest human walk down the halls first, but we all gobs or gob-like here. Okki wouldn't want Boss Gob-lard mad again cuz someone not come back."
He points out the south east hallway.
"We should go have a look first. Lugrun too big to sneak proper."
"Those longshanks too dumb to open door. We gobs smart, we open sesame." Vonk examines the door, peering into the little holes. After Okki mentions traps, he is careful not to touch the door just in case.
Lurgun peers at the door, puzzled. His brow furrows in concentrations.
"Where is latch? How we open door with no latch? Maybe smash it open?"
Lurgun eyes the door, hefting his hammer.
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Yunar's men don't seem to have an identifying badge on them, but one of the thugs is carrying a few small cards with the image of three bloody daggers scrawled on them. The same thug is wearing a gold ring set with a large emerald, and carrying a Wand of Cure Light Wounds (CL 1; 25 charges). From the other badnits you scrape up a total of 80 gold and ten day's worth of trail rations.
Your investigations of the door so far are futile: It's a funny looking door with crazy carvings and no visible method of opening.
Okki finds no traps in the hallway exiting this room. It descends further underground via a set of stairs, then slopes even further down in a sharply twisting switchback.
Okki continues down the switchback hallway, staying as quiet as he can. He follows it until it either reveals enemies or a new room. If it reveals a new room, he will move close enough forward to reveal it's layout and contents, and then report back to the other gobs.
Kavous quietly follows Okki appreciating his stealth abilities.
Lurgun follows as stealthily as he is able.
Makena watches the others as they sniff and search around the lower level, but looks at the scaffolding consideringly, then at her scaly hands, and back before shaking her head. When the others uncover a strange stick and a ring she scurries over to investigate, chanting and bopping out a spell. "Dat stick is magic!" she says excitedly. Now if only she had any idea how to read the magic swirls around it.
By the time she looks up from the wand again it seems most of the others have already moved on. She shrugs and follows them, squinting around to see if she can spot anything else magical.
"Magic stick? Vonk can poke gobs or longshanks with magic stick! This one... um... shoots fire at longshanks!" Vonk says confidently. He scuttles after Okki, Kazavous, and Lurgun, trying to be quiet.
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The hallway continues for some distance until it opens out into a room before continuing. Piles of sand and rubble fill the corners of the room, and the sound of splashing water can be heard from the east. The room is otherwise unremarkable - the same materials you've seen make up the walls and floor, and a flickering light is provided by another heatless flame in an alcove.
"Makena wonders how they make those cool fires." she murmurs, peering past the other goblins at the illuminating flame. If the others let her she'll squeeze past and go and poke around in the sand, allowing it to sift through her fingers, making note to obtain some sacks for collecting stuff. First the sawdust and nails, now sand; she'd need to start collecting materials if she really was going to dig her own warren.
Okki will search the new room as best he can, looking for anything that seems dangerous to him or the others. If nothing reveals itself, he will slink forwards, careful of his noise and angle of approach into the new room.
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Okki's keen eyes spot the faint outline of a trap door in the center of the room. It appears to be a pit trap, triggered by sufficient weight standing on top of it. There are bootprints through the room in both directions, both skirting the sides of the pit and one set of tracks that leads from the doorway you're in directly to the pit trap - and stops.
Okki quickly reaches out and grabs Makena's wrist as she tries to squeeze by.
"Hey gobs. Don't walk in the middle. Walk arounds it. Someone fell in and didn't come back out. Be careful."
He grins wide and toothy at the Kobold and lets her go.
"Okki like to work with things what not Gobs. So be careful you!"
He skirts the trap and heads to the next room, staying alert and quiet.
Stealthily Kavous follows Okki around the room.
Makena looks at Okki when he stops her, shifting her attention to squint at the floor as he mentions the trap. "Thems easy trap to make. Wasn't going there though, seeing if anything in sand." she observes, proceeding to rummage fruitlessly through the sand. She gives him a smile once she deciphers his comment, nodding and following once she has exhausted the sand.
Lurgun follows.
"More traps? Must be a real good sword if so hard to get. Is gob that were get in trap or more longshanks?" Staying as far from the edge of the trap, Vonk takes a look at the tracks to see they were made by gobs or humans looking for the sword.
Then he quietly follows the others to the next room.
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The tracks appear to be from a tall one, but which race is unclear; they're bootprints.
The hallway takes a sharp turn to the left and opens into a large room. A pool of luminous blue water lies in the center of this grand chamber. A spectacular fountain pours into the pool from the image of a winged beast, perhaps a sphinx, low on the north wall. From there, a pair of steep stone stairs ascend in switchbacks to the north, flanked by ornamental pillars and terminating at a stone doorway.
Standing at the eternal, endless ready are six animated skeletons. Pinpricks of fire burn in their empty sockets, and their bleached hands grip ancient bows.
Vonk briefly admires the scenery, the pool reminding him of his drowning that morning. Then he notices the skeletons. "Hey! You suppose to be dead! Go back to dead!" Vonk dashes forward, waving his torch wildly in front of him.