Whether from injury, unfamiliarity with their weapons, or simply being swarmed by enemies, the party finds the tide of battle turning against them and fails to strike their foes this time.
The slimy frog beast scores another terrible bite upon Joanne, practically shaking her like a rag doll.
Micheo and Inconnu each find a spear thrust breaching their defenses, the stone heads cutting beneath their armor.
"We need to quickly kill this thing..."
Joanne continues on the slurk
Joanne's injury hinders her in hitting her target
”Joanne!” Risking turning his back on a foe, Ulark ran towards the frog beast, his hammer held up high.
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Wracked by pain, driven by adrenaline, Joanne cracks the slurk in the side of its flabby head with a heel kick.
Ulark does not even countenance the wild, poorly aimed spear swing at his back. He remains more focused on bringing his hammer down, crushing the slurk's head like an insect beneath a boot.
Inconnu circles around the dark hunter to move away from the other kobold.
'Hang on, I'll help ya out of there.' Dugan says to Micheo, stepping over the slurk's lifeless form to swing his axe at the kobold flanking his companion.
Seeing Durgan's mighty blow, Micheo strikes for his original target.
Inconnu's sword stroke draws a small amount of blood from his foe, who is clearly a couple cuts above the ordinary kobold warriors. He steps back and attempts to wrap his chain weapon around Inconnu's legs, but the bard knocks aside the weapon.
Another trio of spear thrusts either skitter against Micheo's armor or are turned aside with his rapier.
One of the remaining, unengaged warriors looks frantically at the tough enemies before him, and he immediately bolts - fleeing down the tunnel on the right.
Joanne uses one of her potions of CLW to heal herself
"I think not, you come meet my friends instead." Inconnu jumps back and moves to help Dugan... hopefully the Dark Hunter would pursue him and meet a gizzly end with Joanne and Ulark!
Micheo keeps striking out at the westmost kobold, stubbornly determined to finish it.
Ulark grunted as he knocked a spear aside and swung again. He smiled as his eyes followed the hammer towards his foe...
Inconnu joins the fracas crowding the corner, passing Joanne as she downs her potion.
Although Micheo's rapier thrust goes over the head of the ducking warrior, Ulark's hammer swing nearly plasters the kobold warrior, between him and Micheo, upon the floor.
Dugan, seeing the battle in the corner turn, takes a quick glance around the room. Seeing the lone kobold in the doorway, he smiles and points Glintaxe at the kobold as he advances around the pit in the floor. 'You're mine, lizard.'
He swings at the creature.
The last two rank-and-file kobolds, with an emphasis on rank, make their final stand, cornered as they are. One spear breaks upon Micheo's armor, while the other manages to pierce his leg with a shallow wound.
On the other side of the room, the elite kobold hunter lashes out at Dugan with the brassy claw at the end of his chain weapon. However, the desperate attack does naught but scratche faint furrows in the mithril of his armor.
With the kobolds' numbers thinned and their escape cut off, the party soon finishes the last of this doomed ambush party.
"That was a sucked.....and That frog was disgusting....."
"I think we should explore that room to the west next, search it properly." Inconnu checks over the Dark Hunter and the other dead kobolds for anything of use or interest.
The fallen kobolds leave behind a paltry arsenal of ill-kept, even crude weapons. Splintering spears, crusty leathers, unbalanced javelins, and slings made from scraps. The most interesting weapons are the brassy, talon-shaped chain weapons carried by the elite hunter and the two slurk-mounted warriors. On those same three kobolds you find some empty vials that offer a sickly-sweet smell, leading you to suspect they coated their weapons in some manner of venom.
You find the adjoining, dour stone chamber filled with empty crates and splintered barrels. Whatever goods, materials, or tools the old dwarven monks once stored here has long since been pilfered by the kobolds in residence. Stone rafters criss-cross the ceiling above.
Inconnu moves behind a crate and casts cure light wounds on a strange humanoid, with black oily skin with long limbs featuring knotty joints, while he pulls the javelin out. "If the kobolds want it dead thats enough reason for me to try save it."
The small creature gurgles pathetically as Inconnu approaches and draws the party's attention to its presence. It offers a squealing cry as the javelin is wrenched free from its back. Nevertheless, it shows no strength to fight or flee.
Underground predators that often dwell on the outskirts of subterranean ruins or in the deep shadows of nameless cavern outposts, chokers lurk in the darkness and lash out with their long, rubbery arms to grasp prey as it passes by.
Their dim intelligence, just above that of an animal, fosters a fascination with the trappings of society. As a result, they are also quite at home in in the darkened narrow alleyways of human cities, squeezing themselves into sewers, forgotten alcoves, barrels, and similar cramped, overlooked spaces. This makes them a deadly nuisance in crowded urban centers.
As Inconnu's magic washes over the creature, pouring into its gangly limbs, the spark of life is rekindled within its broken body. Despite its aberrant appearance, you recognize the confused, grateful look that it offers to the Varisian performer. The creature drags itself over to a corner and seems to rest, now freed from the painful threshold of death's door.
"What is that thing? It looks friendly enough."
"I know not either.", says Micheo, his tongue released to speak in the common tongue.
"I am sore wounded myself and would attend to that before moving on."
He places his hands on his wounds and beneficent energies flow into them.
"No idea either but leaving it to die slowly just seemed wrong. My magic is spent for the day however."
Inconnu decides to increase their chances of being understood and asks in Sylvan "Do you know this tongue?"
The creature remains curled up in the corner, occasionally shuddering. In the fleeting moments when it looks over its shoulder at Inconnu and the party, it shows no signs of understanding your speech.
Steadying himself, Micheo says a few words in a foul language.
"If you can understand this tongue, let us know. It is one of the few I know."
Yet again, the creature shows no signs of understanding Micheo's words.
The recovering creature croaks out what could be words of its own before stretching out its rubbery arms and hauling itself up into the stone rafters.
"Ok .... that was a thing.... And We got kids to save."
"Good bye then. And yes, Joanne, let us move on."
"We did our best and gave it a chance so lets keep going."
Following the other opening broken open in the old cellar's stone wall, you find a very narrow, rough hewn passage curving to the north. This tight, high-ceilinged corridor is flanked on both sides by tall ridges, eight feet above the corridor’s rocky ground.
In the middle of the corridor, you see the body of one of the escaped mine slaves lying motionless on the ground.
Micheo approaches the body, seeking how it died.
Crouching down and examining the body, Micheo discovers that the mine slave was killed by a crushing blow to the head.
The ground around it is disturbed as though flung there, and there is a smear of blood on one side of the stone.
Inconnu looks but misses potentially several important details. "Lets keep heading north for now and see what else we can uncover."
"Wait, there is a trip wire trap there"
'Can anyone take care of the trip wire? Or should we just step over it?' Dugan appears annoyed by the delay.
With Joanne's direction, the rest of the party spots the length of animal sinew stretched out as a tripwire, concealed by the rocks and refuse littering the floor of the narrow passage. The trip wire connects to a deadfall of stones propped up on the overhanging ledges.
It would be very delicate work to sever the tripwire without accidentally triggering the stones to fall. However, now that you are aware of the kobolds' hastily erected trap, you can each attempt to step over the tripwire.
Micheo shakes his head.
"I am not so graceful as to pass through this safely, nor can I quietly snip the cords. Can anyone else disarm this, or shall we trigger it from afar?"
”Let’s stand back and throw big rocks at the cord. Trip it from over here. I see no reason to risk this.”
"A fine suggestion, Ulark."
Micheo begins to seek rocks of sufficient size.
Micheo picks up the stone that crushed the kobold miner's skull and hefts it above his head, aiming for the rigged deadfall.
Unfortunately, as Micheo swings his arms back, the stone slips from his grasp and falls behind him - nearly landing upon Ulark's foot.
Making sure everyone is well back Inconnu uses his magical abilities to pull the tripwire.
Inconnu reaches out with his magic and tugs upon the tripwire. This dislodges the sticks and smaller rocks holding up the deadfall, and the large, heavy stones topple down loudly into the passage. You are showered by dust, dirt, and flecks of stone, but it is quite harmless - especially compared to the kobold slave corpse, which is utterly pulverized by one of the falling stones.
Once the stones have settled, the party continues to pick its way through the narrow passage. However, it seems that the falling stones did not go unnoticed.
A trio of kobolds appears at the end of the passage. With a shrieking war cry, they hurl a volley of javelins that do little more than splinter against your armor and the surrounding rocky walls. The kobolds quickly retreat down the lefthand tunnel at the end of the t-shaped junction just ahead.
Micheo motions for the group to hold.
He quietly says:
"They are surely trying to lure us into a trap. Let us not rush after them."
Dugan, stops two steps into a headlong rush down the hall at Micheo's warning. 'Probably wise.'
He begins his advance more cautiously, keeping an eye out for any treachery.
Micheo will assist Dugan, trying to cover any gaps he has missed.
Inconnu moves up with the others alert for traps, ambushes and secret doors. "Slow and steady. Hasty leads to them getting the advantage, it's their territory, who knows how long they've been setting up plans for it's defence."
Alert for an ambush, you can hear the enemy warband lurking just ahead in the broad intersection of tunnels.
You can hear the muffled voices of at least another dozen kobolds and, perhaps more worryingly, two or three more of those frog beasts. You suspect that many of them lurk down side alcoves, waiting for their foes to run forth into their trap.
Further spoiling their attempt to ambush you, you can pick out whispered, hissing conversation among the kobolds.
"Show some spine, whelp."
"No! King Merlokrep has doomed us! These pink-skins are the final curse, meant to extinguish us all."
The sound of shuffling feet comes next, scampering away in the opposite direction from your approach.
Being greatly offended by the signs of cruelty and slavery, Ulark roared:
”A den of stinking evil. Cover your nose! We will leave no crevice untouched!”
Evidently his voice was quite intimidating.
"Aye! We shall bring light to this foul place!"