As Osru attempts to crowd the goblin, it retaliates and throws the last of its paint all over the tiefling.
Blikx fires a blast of cold at the nasty little beast.
"Well, so much for interrogating the little s~%$," Ven says quietly as she takes aim at the goblin and shoots an arrow.
The arrow plunges into the goblin, making it drop off the edge. The goblin hits the ground with a crunch, cutting off its scream.
Ven goes over to see if the goblin is alive or dead, looting it either way, and says, "Beatrice, is there anything funny about that statue? Anything magic about it? Goblin sure seemed fixated on it."
The goblin is dead, its head snapped. The arrow in it is snapped from the fall, and it is splattered all over in its red paint. The iron pot is now a few feet away from it, but there is nothing else of much value left on it.
The statue is a rather tall one, and it seems any details might be found from the vantage point of the scaffold.
Osru is concerned about the "paint" thrown on him and Zella. "Does this look like poison to you? Can one of you check to see if this stuff is magical?"
At Ven's request he takes a closer look at the statue from atop the scaffold.
From the top of the scaffold, you can see a commanding view of the area. From here, you can see that the statue is of some human, though its features are rather ascewed from time. The statue holds a book, upon which several runes are written. Much of the statue is covered in the red paint, most of which are obscene gestures or random marks. It doesn't appear to have any real order. A few words might be descipherable if some time is taken.
Zella casts detect magic and looks at both the dye/paint and the statue that was being "decorated" by the goblin.
There does not appear to be anu trace of magic in the dye or the statue.
"Well, I cannot detect anything magical about either this dye or the statue. I am left to conclude that the goblins are just crude and foul little buggers who just like to ruin everything they see. Like my dress."
Zella sighs and shakes her head.
"Ruining that lovely dress is the worst thing they have done during this attack!" jokes Osru as he climbs back down and then tries to wipe the goo off himself as best he can.
He explains what he saw about the statue and adds, "I have no clue who it depicts. Maybe someone with more schooling might."
Blikx shrugs. "It's old and it's made of stone; that's all I could tell you. Sorry, I'm not much help."
Zella gives up trying to brush off her dress and looks up at the statue while commenting to Osru. "Your concern for my dress is appreciated."
"Maybe this guy was some ancient goblin slayer and that's why they were defacing his statue?"
Ven clambers up the scaffolding once there's room for her and squints at the statue.
She shrugs, and looks at the stone tablet. "Hm, I've seen some runes like these in my studies, I could try deciphering them. It would take a bit, though, and I'd like to look for Mersoolian and the girl Whatshername."
"Lucendi," Blikx replies in a helpful tone.
She eyes the entrance of the cave skeptically. "Do you think they're still alive?" she asks no one in particular.
"I suppose there is only one way to find out."
Zella puts up her crossbow and draws her morningstar. She casts a minor spell upon the end of end and it suddenly glows with light.
"Ok, I'm ready now in case there is no available light inside the ruins."
The entrance is a recently reopened spot, with stone scattered around the entrance. Inside, it continues about ten feet before reaching a gate that is standing open. Further inside, it appears only torches light it, making it darker inside the ruins.
Blikx moves up behind behind Zella, trying to put herself somewhere in the middle of the group.
Osru leads the way into the ruins, his bow at the ready and his senses keen.
Ven draws her rapier in her main hand and goes to the mouth of the cave. "Wonder if maybe I should go first, actually, you're a lot better with a bow than in melee," Ven says.
As you step into the ruins, you find a few mining tools left on the ground, evidence of where they had dug into the entrance. Beyond, a small set of stairs leads to the open gate, a broken lock hanging from the rusty latch.
The short tunnel ends with the gate, opening up into a dimly lit room. Rubble is scattered throughout the room, with the sound of dripping water from deeper within. The smooth stone walls show signs of old age, and a little moss grows in a few places. The ceiling only goes up about ten feet, and the room is large enough that the far side is not quite visible with the torch light.
As you're about to enter the room, a hissing can be heard nearby. Just on the edge of your sight, something moves and a flash appears, lighting up something long yet small. Osru feels something move on his mind, but shakes it off. Something dangerous is in here.
Here's for init rolls:
Ven 20
Blikx 18a
Zella 18b
Osru 10a
Creature(s) 10b
Raniero 8
"Eeek! Was that a snake? It sounded like a snake hissing...."
"Scutum Tempestatum!" Blikx cries as she moves her hands in a circular motion before her; drawing and shaping tiny, crackling arcs of electricity into a floating, concave shield of energy.
"Right up front," Ven says quietly, and she dashes forward and takes a swipe at the snake.
As Ven approaches, she sees that the creature, at first appearing to be a snake, seems disfigured. With a long, red and black snake-like body, the head is that of a goblin. The red and black goblin face hisses at Ven and rears back to strike, but Ven's blade flicks out and catches it in mid-lunge, stopping the attack. As the creature draws back to itself, its full size can now be seen, and it appears to be no bigger than a goblin, at least while coiled.
Goblin snakes delight in fresh meat, but strongly prefer having others bring it to them over hunting and killing it themselves. However, some more ambitious snakes will hunt with a pack of goblins, often leading them. Striking from the shadows, a goblin snake's mouth can expand and swallow small creatures, sometimes even dwarves and halflings.
Enjoying the company of snakes, goblin snakes are often accompanied by several smaller venomous serpents, which the goblin snakes use to protect their lairs and supplement their food supply. Although most goblin snakes are not as smart as goblins, their terrifying shape allows them to take positions of inflated prominence within goblin society. Fearful goblins typically defer to the beasts, which well suits the goblin snakes' innate arrogance and sense of superiority. Goblin snakes affiliated with goblin tribes usually treat their goblin associates as servants at best and slaves at worst.
Ven has no idea what this is, and as she gets her first good look at it she rears back in horror and disgust. Holyshitwhatthehellisthatthinggetitaway!
Osru smiles at Ven. "Of course you can take the lead. I will watch your back."
When they see the snake thing, he observes it for a moment then quickly looses an arrow at it.
Zella cautiously moves up and around to try to get a better look at the creature to attack it from.
"Does anyone know what that creature is?
As Zella moves into the cavern, Osru fires at the creature, missing the head by inches as it sways back and forth. Raniero rushes forward, pulling out his sword.
Suddenly, the creature's cheecks swell up, then releases a great cloud of smoke that quickly spreads along the ground and makes it even harder to see.
Blikx moves forward beside Zella and says to the group, "the mist is a spell! It will conceal it, and make it harder to target! The closer you are, the better your chance is to hit it!"
As the creature rears back to cast, Ven gets a swing at it.
Emboldened, Ven moves around the creature , tumbling to try and throw off any oncoming attacks, and swipes at it again as she spring back into position on its backside.
As Ven moves around the snake, it lunges forward, its own mist keeping it from latching onto her as she gets into position. Ven's blade strikes the snake's head dead on, leaving it reeling from the blow. The creature looks rather wounded now.
Zella tries to move into a flanking position with Ven and attack the thing with her morningstar.
Osru hustles forward next to Ven where he can bite at the foul creature.
The snake weaves around the sudden flurry of blows. Seeing itself suddenly surrounded, the snake's body begins to ripple for a moment before it it suddenly lets loose yet another cloud, this one a sickly yellow color. The smell immediately makes Osru and Zella sick to their stomach as the foul stench reaches their noses. Ven, recognizing the movement from before, covered her nose just in time to avoid it, though some of the smell still makes it through.
With a hiss, the snake flips around and dives into the ground, worming its way down between the rocks to escape.
Ven tries to attack, but trying to avoid the gas cloud throws her off and she misses entirely. "What the hell, where's it gone?!"
Ven draws up a dagger into her off hand and keeps an eye out in case the creature reappears.
As Zella and Ven miss their chance, Osru leaps down to bite the snake at the last moment, but quickly reels back from the sickening smell still in the air. After a few moments of gagging and reeling, the two mists disipate and the ground can be seen once more. There, the tip of a tail sticks out of a small hole, sharp jaded bite marks along the end where Osru managed to grab it. The tail lays limp and unmoving.
With a chance to see the room more calmly, you see a large, constructed room. Rubble has fallen down in some areas, and a large crack on the northern side allows a stream of water in. The room is circular in design, with four alcoves evenly spaced around the room. In the center is a smaller version of the statue outside, with three pits around it. Each pit seems to be about ten-feet deep, and one is nearly filled by the small stream of water flowing from the northern wall. Raniero, now seeing just how close to the edge of a pit he is, takes a few steps back.
While there could have been a possible stairway to the north, it is completely destroyed by the fallen rock if so. No other passage out seems immediately obvious.
Ven wipes her blade clean and stows her dagger. "Stupid freak of nature, who had the bright idea to cross a goblin and a snake? Ugh."
She looks around the room, sighing in exasperation at the collapsed tunnel, and her eyes go to the statue, but if she ever learned anything about it she doesn't remember now. If she has a minute, she makes a quick sketch in her journal with notes of any key features.
Blikx draws upon her power to see magical auras, and then slowly looks around the chamber. She looks into the pits and the piles of debris, as well as the statue. Finally, she gazes down at the snake tail protruding from the hole, trying to sense if it or anything in the hole radiates magic.
Magic radiates from the snake. It was definitely an arcane caster of some sort.
In the bottom of the northern pit is a small wand, just left there.
Blikx summons a small gust of wind to sweep up the wand and pull it up out of the pit and into her hand.
"Hmmmm, look at this!" she says, looking at the wand. She examines the auras radiating from the wand, trying to determine what sort of magic it possesses.
She stares intently at the wand, a look of frustration on her face.
As the wind brings the wand up to you, you see dust fly up along the bottom of the pit, and out of the corner of your eye, the outline of a door at the bottom.