Odirin carefully puts the scrolls in his scroll case, and stows the potion away to be properly identified at a later date. As the others start to move down the steps, he follows behind them, hoping to not find any more undead below.
Arvanon walks over to depot and yells in "Hey guys how are things going in there?"
Gunnar prepares to follow the others down the stairs.
The party heads down the stairs. Thondain leads the way, followed by Ihro, Odirin, Gunnar, and Griff. As soon as Ihro has entered the room, what appears to be a pair of goblins in fancy armor and with suprisingly scaly skin spring up from behind one of the casks that dot the room and hurl a vial at Thondain. It falls slightly short and to the right, barely singeing Thondain.
Odirin grunts at the goblins and raises his arm up, clenching his fingers tightly around the air where a white light begins to flicker just as his multicolored eyes shine fiercely. Thrusting his hand out forward, he intones a single word of arcane power and launches a streaking bolt of white light at the goblin.
The white light detonates harmlessly against the cask in front of the goblin.
Ihro runs in quickly, jumping and cutting at the creature with his kama.
Arvanon walks over to depot and yells in "Hey guys how are things going in there?"
"Found some things. We're heading below."
***
Singed by the strange goblins, Thondain trundled forward to slash at one, a faint coal of hatred in his heart for the green scum.
Gunnar descends the stairs and moves near Ihro while shouting.
Upon hearing that the rest of his friends are heading downstairs, Arvanon takes one last look around and then heads after them.
Ihro's kama scrapes against the goblin's especially scaly hide without causing any harm, and the goblin is able to dodge away from Thondain's sword. Griff makes it down the stairs and into the basemen but can't get close enough to the goblin to attack. Gunnar enters the room, babbling something in what the rest of you can only assume is Goblin, and makes his way around to encircle the goblin. Arvanon makes his way inside and most of the way across the main floor of the structure.
Seeing that he's about to be encircled, the goblin hops up on the barrel next to him, drawing a wicked-looking jagged blade as he does so. Ihro and Thondain look for an opportunity to take advantage of this maneuver, but they are unable to discern which of the goblins they see is the actual foe. Thondain does manage a quick swipe as the goblin jumps off to land next to him, but his mighty swing misses entirely.
In reply, the goblin's face contorts with anger. He slashes with his blade at Thondain, then follows up with the torch in his other hand as he bellows in Goblin. The blade cuts into Thondain, but the torch misses. All of a sudden, a rodent-like creature with floppy ears comes after Griff. The creature tears a nasty gash into Griff's leg with its teeth.
Realizing that the goblin's illusion is making conventional attacks more difficult, Odirin once more conjures forth his innate arcane power, this time releasing it in a sonic blast that only the goblin can ear; a great hammer-on-anvil scream in its head.
Ihro chases after the goblin and swings again.
Arvanon comes downs the stairs and on his way hears people screaming in goblin and readies his bow. Upon seeing the goblin Arvanon notches and fires two arrows one right after the other at the goblin.
Odirin's spell doesn't seem to affect the goblin. Griff manages to slam his earthbreaker into the goblin's shoulder, but Ihro misses. Thondain goes for a swipe with each of his short swords. The goblin dodges his main-hand attack, but that takes it directly into the path of the off-hand attack.
Gunnar moves up next to a barrel shielding the goblin from him and touches it.
Gunnar's touch doesn't seem to affect the barrel very much. The same cannot be said, however, for the goblin's attacks on Thondain. The goblin slices a gash into Thondain's stomach and then plunges the torch in his other hand into the wound. The rodent-like creature steps over to attack Odirin, incidentally blocking Arvanon's path into the room. Odirin barely manages to dodge out of the way of the creature's jaws.
Dodging the creature's jaws, Odirin turns his evasion into a sidestep, putting himself further into the room. Taking up a defensive stance, he readies himself against the beast's future attacks.
As Arvanon tries to shoot his bow over the rodent's head, it clamps down on his leg. The impact makes Arvanon's first shot go wide, but the second one hits. Griff manages a repeat performance; his earth breaker pounds the goblin's skull. The goblin reels, clearly feeling the blow even in his current state of pure rage.
The searing pain of the torch was too much for Thondain - it brought bad memories boiling to the surface of his mind, and he collapsed, his consciousness fleeing the hurt he knew would come.
Ihro roars and brings both steel and fist down.
That looks bad! Better get there quick.
Gunnar moves quickly to Thondain's side and heals him.
"May the Great Forgefather heal your wounds gained in defense of the community!"
The goblin drops to the ground as Ihro's blade cuts him. Gunnar magically staunches Thondain's bleeding. The goblin's pet tries to take a bite out of Arvanon. It misses badly, however.
Odirin steps back away from the beast as it has seemingly turned his attention away from him for the moment. After getting clear of the creature, he makes a fist and punches forward, expanding his fingers as he reaches out as his eyes flash and he shouts out a word of power.
The beast howls in pain.
Grunting from the bite, Arvanon nimbly jumps back up the stairs away from the pet.
Upon regaining his footing Arvanon notches and fires an arrow at the pet.
But slips as he fires, sending the arrow far off mark.
Griff crushes the pet's skull.
Odirin exhales deeply and kneels down next to Thondain, putting a hand on the slayer's shoulder. "He yet lives, by my eye. Is there any more you can do for him, Gunnar?"
"Aye, I can cast another spell on him." Gunnar then touches Thondain and heals him again.
Thondain jerked to life, his hands automatically reaching for his blades. When he realized that he was among fellow Nalbrin, his panic eased. "My thanks," he said to Gunnar, one hand going to the spot in his side where the goblin had thrust the torch. "Blasted runt nearly did me in." He looked over to where it lay, and shook his head. "Just one, hiding down here. Why? What did it have to gain?"
He rose and limped about the room, checking the crates and barrels. "Maybe we're on top of a nest, and don't even know it," he explained to the others as he searched.
+2 stonework
Thondain's search doesn't reveal any hidden doors or the like, but he does find a bunch of vials and alchemical crafting materials in the back corner, along with a book that has a piece of parchment sticking out and a rucksack with survival gear in it. On the parchement is scrawled a message in what you can only assume is Goblin.
On the goblin himself, you find several torches, some more vials, a goblin blade, and hide armor.
Thondain grunted, waving the scrap of parchment at the other dwarves. "Goblin scratchings. Can anyone read it?" He gathered up the useful things and brought them over to the others as well. "May as well take what we want from it." He lifted a vial and peered at it, attempting to judge what was in it. More fire?
Gunnar looks up, "Aye. I can read goblin. Let me see that. Odirin, can you see if anything is magical down here while I read this?
Let's See. It says: "If you're reading this, you must have pried my book of formulae from my cold, dead fingers. Congrats on destroying the last of Clan Sharkiz. May the Grey Wolf take your souls, and--if he doesn't--we will."
Looks like he was just living here."
"More fire vials... and maybe something else. Odirin, what does your sight tell you about these other ones?"
"Just living here...? Perhaps we should let it stay between us that a goblin hermit posed such a challenge..." The sorcerer half-chuckles, clears his throat, and nods to his fellows. "I'll take a look." Moments later, he chants softly, reaching out for magical auras with his arcane sight.
"These two here are healing elixirs. This other...not quite sure, don't recognize what it is giving off. Illusion magic of some sort...could be the same spell that made the thing so damned hard to land a true blow on. No magic in its arms or armor, but, well, take a look. Craftsmanship isn't half bad, for a goblin. Not much use to us though, seeing as they won't fit. Interesting a goblin's got his hands on all this though...perhaps there's more to find in this abandoned village than first look would suggest."
"On the subject of healing can anyone do anything about this bite" Arvanon says limping down the rest of the stairs.
"Unfortunately, I have used my healing magics for the day and will need to rest for the night before I have any more."
"Two of the vials are healing elixirs. We may want to use those and then continue on."