Under his breath, Thantos grumbles something about the dubious quality of crossbows in the region as he drop his bow and draws a dagger. Deeming Dirk and Armand more than capable of dispatching the two hobgoblins, he turns to face the door behind him, watching for anyone approaching in case the nervous orcs outside leave their post or are overwhelmed.
With a grimace of satisfaction on his face, Dirk turns his attention to the hobgoblin crouched behind the burning barrier. His gaze boring into the creature, he mutters, "My turn" before raising his Elven blade to strike.
Selena readies an action to fire a ray of heavenly fire if Dirk should be injured.
Drawing her rapier Lash follows Dirk to provide support.
Armand passes through the remainder of the trapped floor and up to the barrier, ducking out quickly from behind his shield and bringing his mace across in a whistling arc just above the top edge of the table.
Dirk draws his blade back and starts his swing, ready to devastate his opponent when yet another gout of flame rises from the table, singing Dirk's arms and face and causing Dirk to have to quickly withdraw his strike to keep from getting seriously burned in the process. ()
Selena starts chanting what sounds like a prayer to her Diety as her hands slowly start to glow.
Lash draws her rapier and starts nimbly moving through the spikes on the floor, almost as though they weren't there. She manages to easily clear the spikes and start toward the North West table.
Mird draws his bow and fires another arrow past Armand at the Hobgobin behind the barrier to the North East, however this time the arrow comes in just too low and smacks into the table, splintering and cracking the wood of the table in the table in the process.
Armand steps up to the table Mird's arrow just lodged into and takes a swing at the Hobgoblin behind it, unfortunately the mace swing is easily dodged as the Hobgoblin comes around with his shorts word for a strike at Armand.
Thantos draws his dagger and proceeds to move to the entry door, waiting for anyone to enter that might be hostile.
Both hobgoblins pop up from their places behind their respective cover, both holding wicked looking short swords and stab, one at Armand, one at Dirk.
Both combatants, however, are ready for the strikes and a ringing parry from the right then left of the room leave little doubt that neither strike caught flesh.
Round 4
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Selena:23 (Held action from Last round)
Dirk: 22
Lash: 20
Mird: 20
Armand: 16
Thantos: 15
NW Hob: 10
NE Hob: 4
With the hobgoblins in full view, Selena grabs up her dagger with her free hand and flings it at the closest one.
Believing he should expend his day's ration of spells judiciously and with no other way to aid in the dispatching of the hobgoblins without first picking his way through the spikes, Thantos continues to guard the door.
As embers glow from several places on Dirk's arms and face a fury builds in the pit of his stomach. A fury that is unleashed in the form of a powerful, overhand blow.
"BLADES OF HELL!"
Lash spins past the edge of the table dropping low, her attack a sublte stroke in contrast to Dirk's mighty blow. A glimmer of flame reflecting off her blade the only visible record of her strike that seeks to skewer the hobgoblin's liver from behind.
Armand, now ensconced on the other side of the North East barrier takes another swing at the Hobgoblin's head, hoping for a quick kill.
A white light surrounds Dirk unexpectedly as Selena channels her powers at Dirk's burnt arms, the red skin instantly turning white/tan.
Growling in frustration at the flames Dirk snap kicks one booted foot into what's left of the now barely burning barrier, splintering the already destabilized and now more embers than flames table. The table literally crumbles down the center where the flames have already burnt almost clear through the wood and the table splits in two leaving Dirk a clear path toward the hobgoblin.
Meanwhile, Lash slips around the eastern edge of the barrier, unseen and unnoticed by the panicking hobgoblin, who's full attention is on the big warrior with his gigantic sword striding toward him.
His mistake. Too late the glint off of Lash's rapier draws the poor hobgoblins's attention as it pierces it's back and drives toward it's heart. Unfortunately for the creature, it's anguish over Lash's expert raiper strike explodes (if only momentairly) into fire, as Dirk's two handed sword cleaves the creature from left shoulder to right hip, a screach of metal on metal (slightly muffled) resounds around the room as Dirk's and Lash's swords meet inside the poor creatures body and grind off each other.
The hobgoblin literally falls apart onto the floor a look of surprise and anguish on it's fast faiding face the only sign of it even knowing what hit it.
On the other side of the room Armand gets impatient with the waiting game. He attempts to plant his foot atop his hob's barrier and vault over to get a better shot at his target, but the table ends up flipping outward, landing Armand on his face, prone, right at his opponents feet. Not only does he end up face down, but the maneuver keeps Mird from firing his next shot, as Armand jumps right into his line of fire to accomplish (and fail) the attempt to get over the barrier.
Selena swiftly gathers more heavenly fire and sends it to Armand in an effort to heal any wounds suffered from the hobgoblin attack.
Thantos continues to guard the door. Occasionally looking over his shoulder at the ensuing battle behind him, he can't help but flinch when he catches a glimpse of a hobgoblin being dismembered, a grotesque display he will not soon forget.
As Dirk watches the two halves of the hobgoblin slowly separate, he has only a moment to share an exchanged look of "battle satisfaction" with Lash before he hears the crashing sounds coming from the other corner of the room.
His stomach lurches as he realizes that the sound was that of Armand falling prone before the enemy. Recognizing the mortal danger his King and life long friend is in, Dirk swings into immediate, desperate action. Raising his razor-sharp, blood soaked, Elven blade above his head, Dirk attempts to distract the evil creature with his flailing blade and an unnervingly loud rendition of his battle shout.
"BLADES OF HEELLLLLL!"
Looking at the noise Lash breaks into a run alongside Dirk, As the armored warrior's blade lifts above his head, she drops to her knees, sliding the last few feet to slip her blade below the enemy'd raised defenses
Yep, wizards are a lot different in Pathfinder. Other than free cantrips, there's also a daily use ability (usually equal to 3 + Intelligence modifier uses), arcane bond (either an item or a familiar), and one other special ability related to the arcane school you focus in. Check it out here.
If you are a Universalist wizard, for example (one that does not focus on any particular school of spells), you would have the supernatural ability hand of the apprentice, which lets you "throw" a melee weapon as a magical attack which automatically returns to you, (that would be great in this scenario).
Of course, you do not have to be a Universalist, you could be any type of specialist the DM allows, including an Elemental Wizard from the Advanced Player's Guide. Each of the twelve schools of magic have two extra types of specialists from the Advanced Player's Guide. For example a Necromancer could be a traditional Necromancer, or he could focus in Life or Undead magical abilities.
Pathfinder Magic is much more specialized and character-focused. If two, three, four, or even five wizards or sorcerers should meet on the street, they would most likely have very different abilities and foci.
Seeing Armand in mortal danger, everyone explodes into action.
Dirk and Lash sprint for the Hobgoblin before it can get in an attack, and Mird draws a bead on the monster as well, hoping to put an arrow into it before it has a chance to strike the prone Armand.
The arrow goes whistling from the bow as Dirk and Lash both get to their target at almost the same time.
This time, it's Dirk that reaches the target first. As the arrow takes the goblin in the shoulder, Dirk's charge barely carries him in front of Lash, and his leveled blade ends up with the hobgoblin pinned against the east wall, the blade stuck in a wooden framing beam behind the hobgoblin, the unfortunate creature pierced straight through it's chest. Her strike right behind his, Lash goes down on her knees and levels her blade up into the goblin's chest as well, secondarily skewering the hobgoblin again.
For a moment, the room goes silent except for the dying crackle of fire on the North West barrier table, as everyone stops where they stand (or lay, or kneel...), looking around for more signs of danger and allowing the Adrenaline rush of combat to fade. A loud "crack" resounds around the room as Dirk wrenches his blade from the wooden beam behind the Hobgoblin and is followed by a thud as it's body hits the floor.
Armand slowly regains his feet, kicking in anger at the wooden table and sending a piece of it flying into the room. "Not as young as I used to be, that's the last time I try to vault a table like that." His anger subsiding he gets a wry grin on his face and says "Dad would be so proud of me, landing prostrate at a hobgoblin's feet. Thanks for the rescue all."
"One down, many more to go."
The six of you retrieve weapons, gear and supplies, make your way gingerly back through the caltrops burred on the floor, and back toward the door.
As Armand clears the last of the Caltrops he says, indicating the trapped floor. "Leave it, with any luck when the Orcs take over the place some of them will get hurt."
As you exit the building the two orcs standing guard have their weapons set and ready, expecting the hobgoblins to be the ones exiting from the building, not you.
They visibly relax and step aside to allow you to pass further on into the keep.
Selena pales when she hears the bitterness in Armand's voice. She lowers her voice as they depart the hobgoblins' lair, hiding her words from their new Orc 'allies'.
"Have we such reason to hate the orcs? I know the humans of this area have been at war with them for some time, but perhaps we should temper our anger with a sense of goodness and understanding for what the orc tribes have been through. Unless I am mistaken, much of our conflicts with the orcs over the past few years seem to be a result of a political involvement outside the Orcish scale of things. I am not defending them entirely; it is true they are a vile and violent race; but I would ask that we not disturb the natural order too much. There is no reason to wish them such harm when they have gone to great lengths to help us free this keep from its previous occupants."
Dirk winces at Selena's words and casts a concerned glance at Mird.
Thantos hides his dagger under cloak, picks up his hastily discarded crossbow, and sets to work restringing it while the others work their way back through the spikes and collect their gear.
Leaving the room with the others, Thantos pulls out the map of the keep, "Let us not waste our efforts worrying about what happens to the orcs when we still have inhabitants of this keep that would happily kill all of us. The orc's map indicates the wolves behind the first door in the eastern corridor are our next closest adversaries. I suggest we clear them out before going deeper in lest we find ourselves surrounded."
He raises his eyes from the map, eyebrows arched in question, allowing the rest of the group to agree or disagree.
Selena frowns at Mird.
"I did not say they are great. I said that we might wish to temper our behavior towards allowing them to take their proper place in the cosmological scheme of things. It is true that most orcs are evil, and even half-orcs bear the taint of their vile ancestry. But kill them all, if you wish, and see what evil comes to fill the cosmological gap the Orcish tribes once filled. The universe is ordered in a particular way, a balance between good and evil maintained by varying degrees of perspective in geographical arrangement."
She pauses for a moment as a far away look creeps into her eyes.
"There are worse things in the dark places of the world than orcs. And sometimes the existence of orcs keeps them at bay."
Her senses seem to return to her.
"Besides, caltrops are more a torture device than a method of killing. It is sad to wish torture upon any living creature, but even more so for sentient races."
Glancing sideways at Mird's obvious sarcasm, Armand turns to Selena with a smile on his face.
"Sister, may the Goddess herself bless and keep you for your innocence and pureness of heart. May you shine as an example to us. Most of all, when our task is done, for good, or ill, may that innocence and pureness still be within you."
As he continues Armand's smile changes from pure to sad. "Kethlenica is my home and my kingdom, and will be my destiny, regardless of the outcome of all of this. Kiren's Keep, however, is the closest thing I've had to a family for more years than I can care to count...possibly more years than you've been alive my child. In the time I have grown in this region, I have seen the actions of the orcs, and their foul spawn, on my families lands. I have seen atrocities that you cannot imagine perpetuated by these creatures. I have seen families torn apart, displaced, destroyed. And" glancing sideways at Mird Armand continues "I am not the only person who's seen atrocities of this nature out of creatures of their ilk. However, you remind us all that not every creature is evil just because of what they are."
"May Saenrae bless them if they are indeed different from the others in the region. May I be wrong and may my fears be unfounded, but I am still deeply concerned for the region I have grown to love. I do what is best for Kiren's Keep in dealing with these orcs, but I am afraid that we will accomplish the goal of running one evil out of this keep only to replace it with a longer term evil for the region. I see this castle as the potential for a fortified base of operations for the orcs of the region from whence to strike out and cause more damage to the region and it's people, a base that once established, will not be easy for the people of this region to flush out. You see the castle as a home for the orcs and their families, a place to raise their children and a debt duly owed. May your vision of this Keep's future be better than my own, but I am afraid you and I will have to disagree on what we see in our crystal balls for the moment."
"Thantos is right, we do not have the time nor the luxury of standing around and worrying about what may become of things in the future when the present is right before us. In deference to you, I will tell the orcs to stay out of the building. In deference to all of those past dead, and to Mird's family, however, I will not tell them why. Call it a failing of my human spirit child, none of us are perfect."
Lash looks at Selena with an interesting expression and a fraction of a puzzled smile. She steps over to Selena a questioning look in her eyes.
"How are you so good? It's like none of this clings to you. I wish...(sigh)..just...don't ever change."
Dirk listens to Thantos's suggestion and responds with, "A sound plan. Let us visit these wolves."
Then looking at Lash, "After you."
A quick perusal of the room does reveal some meager treasures: about 60G worth of incidental treasures. Neither of the two Hobgoblins have much on them to speak of.
Selena shrugs bashfully at her friend Lasciel.
"It's just the way I am... not really anything special. I'm a strange sort of person."
Misc Coins, small items like carved figurines, small/low end Gems and Jewelry, that sort of stuff. All of it minor valuables that you could directly trade for goods/services or could sell for a little coin.
While most of you gingerly pick through the room for valuables and items that might help you through the rest of the keep, Thantos begins re-stringging his crossbow, muttering under his breath about the uselessness of man-made weaponry.
About 10 minutes later, you've scavanged what you can in miscelanious nick-nacks (mostly carved of semi-rare materials, nothing really presious) and small end coins from the room and Thantos' crossbow looks ready to go.
You exit the building and move West to the edge of the building and start down a 10' wide and very long "alley" between buildings. The alley itself is strewn with trash, bits of bone and rotting food, and other garbage that these creatures obviously aren't interested in keeping clean. Sounds of creatures coming from the end of the corredor echo faintly toward your ears, though whether those are orcs keeping guard or other creatures remains to be seen. Figuring you'll get there eventually anyway, you jet down the twenty feet or so to the door marked on your map as belonging to the kennels.
Lash proceeds to check it for traps, but comes up empty, and, as usual, Dirk proceeds to throw the door open, ready for a trap.
The hallway that greets you is dark and dingy, running about 40' back to another door. Four large kennels to either side of you run back along the south and north walls. The stentch of unwashed dog or wolf permeates the air adding to the stench of unwashed creature permiating the rest of the keep. The kennels are each packed with dirty straw, carcases that are in various stages of being eaten, and each room has what looks like a tack and harness for a small horse or a very very large dog. Knowing what you know about goblins these are likely the kennels for Dire Wolves, and having seen 4 of them exit the castle this morning you're pretty sure this area is likely empty...to further add to that probability, the doors to your immediate north and south stand ajar. The door to the north leads into a small 10x10 room with a small bed, a table and a chair and not much more than this, the home of the animal handler obviously. The door south leads into a storage closet of some kind with whips, extra harnesses and several crates of dead animals, obviously food for the wolves.
A quick perusal through the area turns up nothing of importance or value. Whatever valuables might have been laying around here were obviously scooped up in the haste of exiting the castle.
Thantos indicates to the group that the next logical room to try would be the Goblin's part of the keep, the next door on the left up the same hallway.
The party moves back out of the kennels into the relative fresher air of the outside keep. The sounds of swordplay from the open area ahead come clearly down the hall, and the 6 of you rush to join in.
Thankfully you do. To the left and right at the end of the hall, two orcs (each) guard the doors to the east and west. Both doors seem to open outward and the orcs are intentionally keeping all three doors barred shut, using their spears, wooden planks, and much of the trash of the surrounding grounds to do everything they can to bar the doors closed. Shouts and curses from behind both sets of doors indicate that there are occupants of both rooms that are interested in getting out.
Out in the open grounds, 2 more halberd-wielding orcs are desperately trying to fight off a half dozen hobgoblins, one of which is obviously a leader of some type. For the moment it seems to be a stalemate, the Orc's longer reach weapons keeping the hobgoblins at bay for the moment. That stalemate, however, looks to soon be broken if the creatures on the other side of the doors being barred by the halberd-wielders friends get out.
At a glance, the hobgoblins are trying to beat through the defenses of the orcs, overrun the door guards, and break out their companions. By the look of it, this action is likely to make or break the orcs holding the keep, at least from the inside.
Momentarily, the fighting stops as a long low horn blast from outside the walls likely signals the return of the keep's now locked out defenders. The battle for control of the keep will begin soon.
Your more immediate problem, however, shows itself as the fighting begins in the courtyard in front of you anew: One of the orcs holding the right hand door closed goes sprawling to the ground as a loud boom sounds from within the room. One of a few supports helping keep the door closed splinters (but doesn't break) as the door budges open slightly. Whoever it is in there is making a VERY concerted effort to get out, and either the door or it's guards aren't going to be able to hold out for very long.
*
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Selena prevents herself from rushing into battle with the hobgoblins. She turns to her companions instead.
"We must capture the hobgoblin leader. He most likely has the information we seek."
She advances to D2, but does not otherwise act, hoping to get a better feel for the battle.
Thantos nods in agreement with Selena.
Lash nods quietly and advances in a crouch.
Init