Giving Zantus a worried smile, Norm says
You had to say it, farther, you had to say it...
We better hurry and be ready for anything
Cliff, find out where it came from, follow it's trail
Norm and Cliff won't move forward without the others
Zelinda is enjoying the camaraderie and conversation as they travel towards Thistletop. It was nice to be in the company of others who shared her eagerness for such things.
When the commotion catches her attention, she instinctual mounts up on Uma ( ) and draws her sword and shield in a fast, smooth motion. She looks around for any further movement, once they've established that the dog is no immediate threat. ( )
"Anyone see anything?" she asks.
Cael draws his rapier and steps forward putting the dog out of its misery.
Then he peers ahead and listens to see if he can hear anything.
But he is distracted. Hmm, some people say all dogs go to heaven, I wonder do goblin dogs count?
Well the walk was getting boring anyway...
"Cael, what injuries does it have?" Ansgar asks as he walks forward, sword and shield drawn. As Cael ends the beast, Ansgar walks past to cover the rest of the group from the front.
"Uh, I'm not sure. Someone better at this sort of thing would probably have to look to tell you. I can use magic to heal people, but that's the only way I know how to."
The tracks left by the Goblin Dog are fairly obvious, with blood, fur and broken branches pointing the way. It seems the beast came from Thistletop.
Looking around, it doesn't seem like you're currently under threat.
Zantus crouches near the dog to see its injuries.
"Those are piercing wounds...It is possible that it ran into Shalelu. She might be in trouble."
Zelinda guides Uma forward with her knees, sword and shield at the ready. She looks down at Father Zantus, "Then we had better help her out, but be cautious. No sense in getting caught by surprise ourselves." She leads the way on Uma, staying on the defensive and watching for hidden traps or ambushes.
Total Defense (Brings AC to 25)
As zelinda and Ansgar moves forward, Norm motion Cliff to follow them, following close behind Cliff himself.
be ready, Cliff, and be alert
Norm pulls out a vial from his belt with one hand while he starts doing some intricate hand gestures with the other and mumbling an incantation.
Quiary follows behind everyone, staying silent bow at the ready.
"Um, maybe we should hurry? If Shelelu is ok then she'll see us and join us. If she's not..." Cael trails off meaningfuly.
Following the trails, you get fairly close to Thistletop before you find what seems like the place where a fight took place. Two goblins and one goblin dog lie dead here, all with multiple arrows stuck to their bodies. By the tracks, it seems like once again the goblins were fleeing from someone and died from their injuries. The tracks still point to Thistletop.
"I'm afraid Shalelu did something impulsive this time...", Zantus mutters.
"Let's pick up the pace! She might need our help!"
"Yeah, let's go find her," beginning to jog forward while scanning the area.
Noting the urgency of the situation, Zelinda guides Uma into a trot, hurrying to Shalelu's aid.
Total Defense (Brings AC to 25)
Let's take advantage of her chaos...
"Let's get into it." Ansgar says to everyone.
Ansgar will begin to jog towards Thistletop, eager to start his work.
Quiary nods at the others assessment.
"Lets cause some havoc to the remaining goblins to keep them off their feet." He says
You quickly jog the rest of the way to Thistletop and soon arrive at the "thistle tunnels". The tunnels are very tight and Uma won't be able to go through unless you take the time to cut a way open for her.
Ansgar and Garbund also know about the rigged bridge and don't think it will support the horse's weight.
Seeing that Thistletop will be inaccessible for Uma, Zelinda dismounts and commands her to Guard the entrance from further goblin reinforcements, using the commands that she was taught by Daviren. Once that is done, she joins Ansgar at the front, shield at the ready.
I don't think now is the time to be cautious...
Ansgar gets to the entrance to the thistle tunnels, Zelinda at his side.
"Zelinda, stay to my right or behind me if the tunnels gets to narrow. Caeldren, stay behind me and if the tunnel gets wide enough come up to my left, or fall behind Zelinda if ti gets too narrow." Ansgar says. That should give us a good wall in the front... "Normornigan and Zantus, stay behind Caeldren and us at the front. Quiary I need you at the rear to cover us from behind and shoot past us where you can."
Hopefully I assessed everyone correctly, were about to find out one way or the other...
Ansgar will then lead the group into the thistles, headed for the bridge and the entrance to the castle. While walking there, Ansgar will be looking for any signs of Shalelu and will head in her direciton if he finds them.
"Sure thing stoneface," Cael says with a chuckle. Taking his position as directed by Ansgar he continues, "seriously though, just let me know what you need me to do, and I'll do it. You're in charge boss. Just so's you know I can plop a bunch of grease down pretty quick, might be helpful. It'd be hard for a bunch of gobbos to run through to get to us if you catch my drift."
With Ansgar in front I think would away from us rather than toward us, but you never know...
The trail of blood and fur ends somewhere in the middle of the thistle maze, it seems whoever shot them took precautions to cover the tracks from this point, and even the drag marks you saw the previous day are gone.
You cross both the thistle maze and the bridge without issue, the doors to Thistletop are open, and the first room you enter is empty, the goblin corpses were removed.
Nodding in confirmation to Ansgar, Zelinda looks around the first room of Thistletop, unsure whether she should be impressed or unnerved. "Sure doesn't look like the site where a bunch of goblins died. Either Shalelu is very efficient, or someone else has been here. Hopefully the former."
She turns to Ansgar, "Any idea where we should go?"
...The floor of this room is hard-packed soil, as if the builders either ran out of lumber after building the walls and roof, or as if they simply never thought about building a floor. A number of poory preserved horse and dog heads are mounted along the eastern wall, while along the southern wall hangs a pair of large black-feathered wings tacked to the wall with daggers.
Norm takes a look around the room, looking for any sign of where Shalelu went.
"Maybe Cliff can get her scent. Or the scent of where the gobbos went last.
Cliff, track!"
While Cliff is sniffing around, Norm takes a look around the room, to see if he can spot any signs on where they went.
"What doors have you checked already?" Quiary asks, arrow nocked and ready.
Cael peers about waiting for Asngar to give him further orders, or for something to happen. Gazing at the trophies on the well he thinks to himself, I wonder what the wings came from? If the horses and dogs are anything to go by I'd bet it wasn't anything truly dangerous...maybe a particularly large raven or something. Still, they are nice feathers.
Stepping over to look at the wings more closely Cael pulls off one of the largest flight feathers, then proceeds to clean the grime from it with a quick spell. Placing the feather into the headband of his rather floppy hat the turns to the rest of the party most of whom seem to be focused on looking around, "What do you think?"
Here again... Would she have gone the same way or a different one...
"The lack of evidence is a good indication Shalelu is probably okay. The goblins aren't nearly as tidy as she can be." Ansgar mentions. "We went that way" Ansgar point to the door on the far right "last time. Might as well pick a different way this time. If Shalelu hasn't been captured were more likely to help her by being a loud moving distraction she can use to her advantage."
With that, Ansgar walks over to the double doors by Quairy and opens them using the door handle or his boot, whichever is faster.
"Right" Cael quickly moves back into position noticing the censuring glances of the other party members.
Zelinda steps up beside Ansgar and readies her shield for anything that may come their way .
Norm and Cliff look around for clues that would lead them to Shalelu, but can't find anything.
Quiary examines the left door and is sure it's not trapped.
The double doors are open, they lead you into a short but wide corridor that ends in another set of double doors, a single door can be seen to the right.
Nothing, Cliff? Cliff has been sniffing around but without making the signs he usually do when he gets a scent.
Norm takes a final look around before following the others, bringing up the rear with Cliff
Come, Cliff, let's see what's around here
Nice work with the lock, Quiary! Always wanted to be able to do that, but I guess my abilities lies elsewhere
Zelinda follows alongside Ansgar, keeping an eye out for trouble. "Did this place have much in the way of traps, when you went through the first time?"
Quiary does the same on these doors. "Are goblins known for locking doors? Maybe a trap but not locking doors they don't seem the type." quiary says as he works.
While smart... the lock picks are much less satisfying than my boot at the moment...
Denlar on his mind, Ansgar simply wants to find the next group of goblins as quickly as possible.
"Not many traps or locked doors last time we were here." Ansgar says. "I suggest we go through the double doors next, probably gets us to the next tower."
"You're the boss!" Cael then raises a hand and waves "Make way!"
The doors open to a square room, an open flight of wooden stairs winds up to a trap door in the ceiling, thirty feet above. The room is empty, it has another set of double doors to the north.
With a broad smile Cael says, "There now, see I told you I could do a bit of magic, I'm full of awesome stuff like that."
Zelinda takes a look into the new room, then at the two sets of doors. "Looks like both of these doors might lead into the same room. Do we want to take the stairs first? Or head it there?" she asks, pointing towards the northern door.
"Let's clear this floor first. Make sure we don't miss anything."
"Keep in mind too, just because they emptied a room yesterday doesn't mean it's going to be empty today."
"The main floor first, then up, that way we don't get stuck up and cannot get back down." Quiary says
"A very good point, Cael. We should check those rooms to, but let's start with this one"
Norm indicates the double doors in the room with the stairs.
"Sounds good to me. Make way," Cael says with a wave at the doors the halfing indicated.
Hmmm, I need to come up with a nickname for the halfling, what was his name Normaginieran or something? I think I'll just call his tiger stripes. I wonder if he'd be offended if I just called him shortstuff or something like that. Some halflings really don't like that sort of thing. Ah well, I'll just have to try it and see. He seems like a nice fellow, hopefully he won't get bent out of shape about it.
As you advance, Garbund hangs back to watch the main entrance.
The double doors reveal yet another small corridor ending in another set of double doors to the north. You open those as well and see a large courtyard open to the sky. Tenacious clumps of partially trampled grass grow fitfully here and there in the hard-packed earth, in places stained with blood or scratched with furrows. To the north, what appear to be two dead goblins lie slumped at the entrance to an outbuilding.
Four goblin dogs are in the courtyard, they stop running around and playing with eachother as the door opens, and start barking at you.
Caeldren <- Can act
Goblin Dog(Green), Goblin Dog(Black)
Normorginan, Quiary <- Can act
Goblin Dog(Blue)
Zelinda
Goblin Dog(Red)
Ansgar, Zantus
Cael, seeing the dogs, rushes forward brandishing his rapier. He puts his back to the wall hoping not to be surrounded as he stabs at the closest dog.
Then he falls into a defensive stance, ready to counter should the opportunity arise.