Jim takes a trident out of his quiver and tries to stab in the boar, while Zloster is trying to eat it.
"COME ON AND GET YA PORKCHOPS, SO FRESH THE PIG HASNT FOUND OUT I HAVE EM!!!!!"
Before the boars arrive, Calathes casts Mage Armor on himself, and Sarvis calls Cornelious to join in on the fun.
As the boars attack, Scipio positions himself the best he can, while calling out support to his friends . Calathes and Cornelious immediately enter the fray, drawing first blood as the beast attacks Aldern. Between the two of them, they land some impressive strokes that almost has the beast on its knees.
On the other side of the line, Marshman Jim and Zloster have things well in hand as well. As the boar rushes in and Scipio moves up behind it, Marshman is able to get a hit on the brute while it is distracted.
Between the careful ministrations of Jim and his giant frog, and Ranna holding the pigs attention with a couple of pokes, they are able to deliver on their promise of porkchops for all.
Aldern steps forward to deliver his strike to the lamed boar,
and neatly slides his spear between its ribs.
Scipio hits a boar, but the trident hits it's tusks, causing no significant damage. He then watches as the rest manage to position themselves in a classical hunting pattern, and watches as the boars fall down in quick succession.
"Masterful performance, everyone! It was a pleasure seeing you in action, it truly was. I suggest we mount the boars on the horses, and proceed with a pleasurable pace for the feast." He observes Zloster spitting out a bit of boar, then smiles at Jim. "What an appetite! She is truly an amazing beast, if I may say so myself!"
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"Hah! I knew we would be successful! Look at all this food, this will certainly keep the minds of the townsfolk off of the recent events even for a little bit and bring some joy back to the community. We could have easily taken twice as many boars or boars twice the size I would say. Good job Cornelious, we finished that boar in no time indeed, in fact good job everyone this we a great testament to our battle prowess and tactics."
Savis say beeming at everyone.
"She's a beauty alright! She love hunting a bit more than I do, and that is a quite a lot!. Are we going to be taking more game back home, sir ?"
Wiping the blade of his spear off, Aldern looks about at the company, very pleased. "I knew that this was going to be a great idea! Truly well done, my friends!!! This will make the townspeople very happy and very full tonight! I saw that we get this loaded up and back to town.. boar this big is going to take forever to cook."
With these words, the newly arrived retainers begin to field dress the boars using nearby trees and the ropes that they brought for this purpose. Soon, the carcasses are drained and cleaned, then attached to poles to e strung between horses. During this time, Marshman Jim takes off into the woods and comes back with a couple of rabbits while everyone else relaxes and trades stories of life and adventure. After the gruesome work is completed and everyone is ready, you mount up and head back to Sandpoint.
By the time that you reach the Rusty Dragon, news of the coming feast and the huge beasts brought in by the heroes has spread. Large groups of people meander through the markets and around the inn, all with an air of festivity and holiday. The party temporarily excuses themselves to get cleaned up from the road, before they make their way back to join the rest of the town in waiting for the feast to begin. Even the Sheriff and the Mayor come through, congratulating you on this great idea and on the success of your hunt.
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"...Yes yes yes, all of those wonderful and epic stories are true. There we were, slowly getting off our mounts, hearing the beast closing in, thrashing and raging, closing faster and faster, looking to each of my companions, each with a look of determination, sweat on my brow, gripping my weapon tight, the leather gloves creaking, Cornelious looking back and forth wondering where they would come from. All of the sudden CRASH through the woods the animals came..."
Sarvis is telling the story over and over to whomever will listen, with grandiose arm gestures, spear thusting, facial expressions, exaggerating the details and heroism with each retell of the story.
As the group is relaxing and enjoying themselves, a young mother comes running into the inn, calling for help. "Please, somebody! Anybody! Help me!" she calls as she desperately clings to the babe in her arms. As the group looks over, you can see another child tearfully clinging to her leg as she moves into the room, her desperate eyes beseeching the crowd.
The woman focuses her wild eyed panic on Sarvis. "Please, sir!! Great Heros of Sanpoint, you must help me! There is a goblin in my house!! He was trying to eat my sons arm, and it killed our dog, and my husband is trying to fight it! Please, you must come at once!" As she says this, she manages to juggle the baby enough to pull her son out from behind her and show you his arm.. an arm covered in bites and missing chunks.
Marshman seems a bit suspicious of the whole thing.
With just a glance at the arm, Ranna gets out of her chair and places a hand on the boy. Chanting a chant she learned from her father, she moves healing energy into the arm.
With the wound patched up, she turns her head toward the woman. "If you would show us to your home, we would be glad to help."
"Please, someone heal the boy before we continue the feast. People of Sandpoint, we will return as soon as this pest is eradicated! For Sandpoint!", says Scipio, as he quickly grabs his trident and shield, smiling widely at an attractive local lady while doing so.
Call Jim paranoid, but he's looking around the place to see what's off, something seems to be not just right.
Marshman: you sense nothing amiss in her story. She is genuinely panicked and fearful. Perception shows you a hard working woman that fears mortal danger.
Scipio: I will get back to you in the next post.
Ranna: You see the childs arm heal under your careful ministrations, and the bite disappear. The child draws a sharp breath in astonishment, and he immediately wraps his arms around your waist, crying in thanks.
With a sigh Jim moves with the others, feeling a bit relived.
"Let's catch us a goblin lads"
Marshman:
Scipio: You know nothing definite about the woman.. you may have seen her in all of the mayhem at the festival.
As the companions converge on the woman, she hustles out into the night air. As she goes, she fills you in on whats going on.
"I am Amele Barett, and these are my sons, baby Verah and little Aeren. We were at the Swallowtail Festival when everything went crazy. Before we could escape, Aeren saw a goblin light a cat on fire and play with it until it was dead. Ever since then, he has been terrified. He refuses to sleep, and when he finally does he wakes up screaming in terror about a goblin in his room, and our dog Petal would be barking and going crazy because of the ruckus. We would search the room, but of course we never found anything. My husband Alergast finally got tired of it, and told him that he was just going to have to learn to live with it, or he was going to sleep in the toolshed where he won't wake up the house with every nightmare. Earlier this evening, we laid the kids down, and a little while later there was suddenly Aeren was screaming again, the baby was crying, but Petal was not making any noise. When we went to check on them..." Here, the poor woman braks down sobbing. Eventually, she is able to get herself under control enough to continue. Tearfully, she says "We went into the room.. but probably not as quick as we should have. Poor little Petal was pinned to the dresser with a funny little knife, and this.. Thing was trying to eat Aeren!! My husband rushed in, but the beast sprang off of the bed and dived into the closet. Alergast tossed me the children and told me to run for help. Please hurry! My husband is not much of a fighter! He was only trying to protect us!!"
"My gods! We must rush to help your husband! Hopefully he waited for you to leave, then left the house as well!", says Scipio, trotting along at a steady pace, trident in hand. "So, this thing was definitely a goblin? Big head, giant mouth, dirt-green skin and ripe smell?"
"Would it be faster to get the horses? The streets should be clear for now?", says Scipio as they rush out of the inn.
the party quickly comes to a small two story house, and all is quiet inside, but lamps are burning inside. "This is it.. Please hurry, my husband should be here, waiting for me..." Amele says with a stammer. As you approach the door, it swings open freely.
Ranna follows Sarvis, looking at the woman. "I'm sure he's just fine in there, or he got out right after you, or something." The words seem flat even to her, but she tries her best to sound confident and reassuring.
If it's possible Zloster and Jim will circle to the back of the house and cover any escapes.
As Sarvis and Cornelious enter, you can see nothing amiss in the immediate environs of the door. You cannot hear anything either. From behind the house, Marshman Jim and Zloster find just an ordinary back yard, nothing amiss here either.
"I'd advice caution regardless.", says Scipio, ready to throw his trident at any goblin-like creatures.
The downstairs is completely silent and empty, but there is a stairway going up to the bedrooms. You cannot hear anyone moving upstairs.
Scipio raises his trident, and begins guiding the others how to breach the doors. "On my mark, Sarvis, open the doors. Calathes and I should be ready to blast anything goblinoid that appears on the other side. If no such thing appears, we should take our time studying the room, then when we're sure it's been cleared, move to the next one.", he says, pointing at the next door.
Once Scipio, Calathes, and Corneleious search the ground floor and find nothing, they move upstairs to find several rooms. At first glance, they appear to be empty, but you can barely see a foot through the partially open doorway. It is not quite motionless, but jerks weirdly every couple of seconds. The movements do not appear to be normal.. more twitches than anything else.
No response from the room. Just the adult sized boot twitching
"Okay, we need to go in there. We know there is a creature in there, and those movements do not look natural." Drawing a dagger, she moves through the door and into the room, steeling herself for whatever she might find.
Laying at your feet is the body of a man. You can see deep wounds on the mans hands and arms, but his upper body and head disappear into the shadows of a closet. You hear slurping and gnawing sounds coming from the closet, and every so often the body twitches and jerks in time with the sounds.
As Sarvis sticks his Guisarme into the closet, he doesnt hit anything but wood. The thunk of the blade hitting wood seems to disturb something though.. there is an outraged squeel of mostly incomprehensible gibberish. But the sound seems to be muffled. Perhaps coming from behind or below the wooden walls or floor?
Scipio drags the body away, trying not to look at the head. "Get out, you cowardly beast! The vengeance will be swift and merciful!", he shouts at the closet.
As Scipio pulls the body away, the head and top of the shoulders slide out of a hole in the floor of the closet and you can see that the face is just.. gone. Chewed off. Following his meal, a very irate and apparently insane little goblin follows quickly after. Like an ugly little snake-in-a-can, the green monstrosity flings itself out of the hole, eyes rolling, gibbering madly. You can see the glint of something shiny waving in his hands as he advances.
Goblin:
Ranna:
Sarvis:
Scipio:
Scipio
Sarvis and Cornelious
Goblin
Ranna
Cornelious claws and bites at the goblin, landing one solid blow after everything is said and done.
Sarvis is not very lucky trying to reach in over Scipio and Cornelious, but Cornelious manages to get a nasty claw into the goblin. and it screams horrendously, arterial blood spurting all over the room.
Screaming gibberish in its rage, the goblin lashes out at Scipio while babbling nonsense.
Scipio
Sarvis and Cornelious
Goblin -14
Ranna
Figuring that the goblin won't last for long, Ranna falls to her knees next to the body. Hoping that the man is somehow still alive but knowing he's not, she nonetheless starts making a check of his vitals.
The body is deceased. Half of his upper torso and all of his face has been gnawed off by the ravenous, starved goblin.
Scipio takes a total defense stance as Cornelious has his way with the little beastie, and Ranna checks the body.
Bold is up
Scipio
Sarvis and Cornelious
Goblin -14
Ranna