Goggeck gives the commander a good, hard look, nose twitching, then nods with a flat smile of approval.
"Honest dwarven anger. Lead on, Commander Silverbrew. We have goblins to slaughter."
Glor guides Boomer back along the tunnel wall to within range of the goblin barricade. They tread lightly and are successful enough to not get noticed. After waiting for a moment, Boomer spots three goblin heads poking above the rubble.
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Glor capitalizes on the exposed goblin head, mostly taking it off.
Goggeck seizes his longhammer - and charges the goblin barricade!
Boomer waited to see which goblin was the smart one.
Glor exemplifies the ages honed tactics of dwarven warfare. As soon as the goblins poke their heads above the wall, he blasts one directly in the face with a torrent of rock and stone. It’s head sails off in an arc and the body slumps to the ground. You can imagine the alarm this raises with the other two goblins as they chatter and bicker in a panic. Then, a fourth goblin jumps atop the wall, two wicked blades in hand and commands:
As soon as the commanding goblin mounts the wall, Boomer lobs a flask of acid, smacking it right on the face. The flask breaks and its flesh begins to blister and boil under the caustic contents.
The nearby goblin at the wall also gets a taste. It seems to effect him worse somehow. He screams and screams in pain.
It's on.
Toulbe rushes forwards with the bag of flasks on his back. He suddenly realizes though that he is out front without anyone around him. He squeals in nervousness as he looks around trying to find someone to protect him before turning his attention to the Goblin with acid burns and screams silently at them!
The lead goblin now grabs his oversized ears in pain as Toulbe pops both his eardrums.
From the right side of the large chamber beyond the goblin barricade, three more goblins appear, armed and ready. They hustle to the barricade and plug the gaps left by the dead goblin, take aim with their short bows, and let loose on the three visible targets.
Purple takes aim at Glor and hits. The arrow penetrates his hide armor, but not very deeply.
Orange fires one at Boomer but he blocks it with his shield. Yellow also looses one at Boomer, who isn't nimble enough to block two arrows, and he takes one in the thigh.
Behind these three goblins, a fourth appears, dressed in red robes. He clutches something in his hand and begins chanting and waving his arms around. A cloudy mist begins to rise up from his feet and soon obscures your vision beyond the barricade.
Hezekh rumbles forward and tosses a flask of Alchemist's fire at the middle of the goblin line.
Urist marches forward with a determined look in his eyes, kukri in hand. The dwarf resists the urge to barrel into the goblin blockade, knowing full well that he'd be leaving himself vulnerable.
Well, to be more accurate, there's an ally in the way and he doesn't want to knock the both of them over.
Glor grits his teeth and deals with the pain of the arrow in dwarven fashion - he ignores it, Target the enemy not iin the mist he fires again.
Gunnar spies the goblin waving his hands around. "Caster!" He stows the crossbow and moves up to his side of the barricade, hunching down for cover.
Boomer lobs one over the walls and manages to hit his target, blowing it to bits.
The other goblins behind the wall can’t react fast enough and get caught in the full blast. The one goblin who was making all that noise from the acid stops his screaming and instead falls down dead. Miraculously, the goblin dazed by Toulbe’s spell seems to sway just enough to avoid taking a full hit.
Hezekh tries to add another vial of acid to the mix, but his hits the barricade, hissing as it dissolves a bit of rubble.
Glor keeps firing, hitting the dazed goblin in the shoulder. It should leave a healthy bruise. The little guy is looking rough, but is still standing.
As bombs and acid flasks are being launched overhead, Gunnar and Urist hustle forward toward the line.
Blue takes aim at Gunnar and let’s one loose.
With all these dwarves rushing forward and his buddies dropping dead around him, his aim is slightly off and the arrow glances off Gunnar’s armor.
The goblin up on the barricade stands there drooling as bombs sear his leggings.
Goggeck moves closer to his comrades while drawing a crossbow, and fires a bolt at the nearest goblin.
The commander raises an axe, rushing towards the fray. She lets out a battlecry, only slightly muffled by her mask. "Forward, lads! Cut this filth down to the last!"
For a dwarf, she moves pretty fast.
The group's spiritual leader moves out in front while Goggeck's bolt ricochets off the stone wall.
The goblins are being cut down rather swiftly, but a few, including their leaders are still standing.
Toulbe runs up and closes his eyes before throwing the bottle of liquid ice at the yellow goblin. He cringes as he listens and then opens his eyes when he hears the glass shatter.
Skshh! the glass bottle breaks against its target, covering the goblin with blue fluid, which freezes almost immediately. It's neighbors, too, get a little on them.
The goblins try to take down the front line before it reaches the barricade.
Yellow misses Helga.
Orange plunks one into Gunnar, then passes out from overexertion.
Through the shroud of mist, you might be able to make out the form of the red-robed goblin moving up to the barricade, reaching out and touching the lead goblin.
Moving up, Glor does what he does, continuing to target the enemy not in the mist. He seems to do it pretty well.
Boomer lit another explosive off of the cigar in his mouth and lobbed it into the goblin priest's chest.
Slightly annoyed by the arrow sticking in his flesh, Gunnar attempts to move forward to better cover while he looks for a chance to get within striking distance.
Hezekh dashes to he wall and swings at the foremost goblin.
Urist gives his commander a reassuring nod before placing a hand over her shoulder. After a brief instance where his eyes become unfocused, he gathers his wits and marches towards the front.
Boomer lobs another, and must be feeling good about himself, cause he keeps blowing goblins up. The blast severely hurts the goblin priest, and the goblin leader is blown off the wall.
Hezekh finishes the priest off with a mighty haymaker.
Glor finishes off the last goblin with another earthen blast.
For a moment the tunnel road is silent save for some heavy breathing and the crackling of campfire from behind the barricade. The tinge of singed goblin flesh reaches your nose. The tunnel is yours; the entrance to the Theocrat’s Vault is secure.
Toulbe looks up from where he's somewhat hiding behind his giant sack of bombs. He looks up after a few seconds of quiet. "Is...it done?" he asked nervously.
He grabbed a flask of acid just in case.
Goggeck clambers over the barricade to check for himself.
Glor moves up to his side of the baracade, looks about for enemies, and then begins to gather and search the goblins. Would not do to leave one of these alive. he notes.
On the other side of the barricade lies a small camp on either side of the large chamber. Small campfires, rudimentary sleeping pallets, etc. The ground is littered with the gnawed bones of roasted vermin. It looks as if the goblins have been camped here for several weeks, at least. There are no more goblins hiding, although Glor quickly discovers one of the goblin warriors is not dead, just unconscious.
Can't imagine this one will be anything but trouble. Shall I put him out of our misery or do we talk to him?
Urist looks over the s ene with a grin on his fac Nice work, lads. Let's clean 'en out and get ready ta storm tha place." he brushes himself off and begins to check the room, moving from corner to corner to cover the perimeter. ""Any wounded on our side?"
Helga Silverbrew steps over to the unconscious goblin, staring at its crumpled form with deadly intent. Her right arm raises an axe, its thirsty blade tinged with her aura of anger.
She pauses, perhaps to savor the moment. Perhaps to allow anyone to tie up and interrogate the thing.
One thing is for certain, however. If no one intervenes, the first couple of rows will be a splash zone.
"Good work all. Glor, I would interrogate the goblin before we slay it."
He trudges over and shakes the goblin.
"How many goblins are here?"
Glor steps back from the unconscious goblin and nods. I don't speak his vermin language. No guarantee he will speak common or dwarven. And its gonna take time or some healing to wake that one up.
The goblin remains limp and unresponsive in Goggeck’s hands. But it is breathing, and has a pulse, albeit a weak one.
The goblin warriors are outfitted just like the ones you found in the spider web and in the gelatinous cube. Leather armor, short swords, short bows, and a total of 48 arrows. There is also gold pieces amongst them.
The ineffectual leader wears studded leather and wielded a basic and a masterwork dogslicer. He also has a shortbow and 10 arrows and gold pieces. Searching his body further reveals three bottles filled with various fluids, one of an opaque, silvery pink color, one perfectly clear if not a bit oily, and one of a crystal sky blue.
The goblin priest held a very unholy symbol made of wood and a light mace, and wore leather armor beneath his red robes. On him you find gold and three more bottles with the silvery pink liquid.
Searching the campsites you uncover amongst the trash and refuse four alchemist fires, two tinderwtwigs, and two thunderstones.
It is getting late in the day, and you’ll need to clear the bodies and the barricade if you want to move the wagons through.
As Urist searches about the large chamber, he comes across the impressive iron double doors that lead into the Theocrat's Vault. The doors are solid cast iron and bear the bas-relief imagery of a flame above an anvil. Along the outer edges of the arched doors, in dwarven runes, is written out:
Droskar's Kingdom opens its doors only to the sound of toil.
There are scorch marks and heavy dings and scratches on the lower portions of the doors, at about goblin height.
"Aye Glor. Does anyone know the goblin tongue? Otherwise, I will break his neck now and save us any trouble."
Toulbe shrugged at the question "I thought they all spoke Orc." he says as if that was normal.
He starts looking through all the goodies and tries to identify a few things.
Once he fussed with all the goodies, he would bo back and start working with the animals to attempt to tear apart the barricade.
Toulbe is able to ascertain that the four bottles of silvery pink liquid are potions of Cure Light Wounds. The clear liquid is a potion of Jump, and the crystal blue liquid is a potion of Featherfall.
Furthermore, he recognizes the wooden talisman held by the goblin priest as the three-eyed jackal, unholy symbol of the Demon Queen Lamashtu.
Toulbe taps his foot a bit as he looks at all the bottles. He takes the Alchemist fires and puts them in the Alchemy bag but after he figures out the others he scratches his chin.
He sets them all out in front of fire and writes out what they are in the dirt in front of them.
"HEYYYYyyyYYYyYYYyy I figured out the potions they had. I wrote it all down but there were some health potions, a potion for jumping, and a potion to not make you go splat as you fall! I'm not sure who should take what!" he says rather loudly and excitedly.
He throws the unholy symbol in the kindling pile for now. He'll make sure to burn it later. Stupid Goblins and their worship of Monster Mother.
He goes back to trying to sort the barricade for usefulness. You should never waste things if you can help!
Goggeck snaps the goblin's neck.
"Glor should take the falling potion."
Gunnar pulls the arrow out and starts to gather up anything that can add to the kindling pile that's now growing. "Best we burn the vermin and their camps, lest we leave a meal invite for fouler ones." He goes about tearing down the Goblins' camp and making a pyre of the remains.
"Wouldn't do to have somethin' move in right behind us and take up camp soon as we're off..."
While the others gather the detritus of the goblin camp, Hezekh stands before the mighty doors, transfixed. ”Open to the sound of toil. Hmm.”
When he gathers his wits about him again, he inspects the doors closely.
Lets camp here and refresh ourselves for a night before we open those doors. Glor recommends.
"We burn it all. Leave nothing of the goblins."
Goggeck yanks the goblin corpse in his hands and tosses it onto the pile.
"And we can rest after that labour. Settle down with the smell of destroyed goblin lingering."
Examining the doors, Hezekh deduces they must be quite massive at 10 feet across each and rising up 20 feet in a precise arch. He assumes they can be up to a foot in thickness. There are no visible means of opening them. Being solid cast iron, it would take a being of giant-like strength to even get them to budge. He recalls passing through similar doors when entering the Old Quarry Road from Taggoret and the great mechanism used to open them. As the others prepare to burn the goblin bodies in a mass pyre, he also remembers those doors were shut behind them.
Burnin them is gonna stink up the place something awful. How about we just pile rocks on um? Glor offers.