The group's initial approach goes smoothly but then around 300 feet there's much screaming and wailing from the goblins outside the caves and a sound of cranking is heard with the eventual *Twang* sound from the ballista.
The ballista bolt goes wide, but narrowly misses Nathan and Nathaniel, landing several feet away in the ground close to Taliesin and David.
The size of the bolt makes it easy to see that this is no simple crossbow.
Two goblins hurry toward the ballista with a new bolt.
"What the.....that thing's large enough for 3 or 4 of us pinned together. Guys, move it, no time to lose when they got this kind of contraption!"
Told you they had a rather very large weapon he says running toward the goblins (Run action)
Elenzar curses quietly as he runs trying to figure if there was a better way to do this. So if we live how will we do this next time?
The goblins seem to be hastily reloading the weapon, no bolt comes off from the weapon, but the five goblins relaxing in the sun have finally caught up that they're un der attack and are gathering their weapons and squirming into their amrour.
"Nathan, if your horse can't hold it before we are there, drop me off and i'll go on foot."
May luck be with us.
"Don't worry about that Nathaniel, she is a true-blooded warhorse she can hold you."
Round 2
Taliesin will keep running toward the goblins
The goblin behind the ballista quickly aims it downwards and fires at Nathan , aiming to pierce him and perhaps the other rider as well.
In his haste though the goblin releases the string too early and the bolt sails over the heads of Nathan and Nathaniel.
The other 5 goblins now appear in quickly donned fashion at the sides of the ballista, while the two loading goblins quickly get another bolt for the siege weapon.
Two loud hornblasts suddenly echo across the cave system, a ruckus of noise can be heard from inside the caves shortly afterwards. As if large groups of goblins race for weapons and other stuff.
Seeing another bolt fly over the two of them, Nathaniel hopes for the best, he didn't want to experience that figurative "3rd's a charm".
"Maybe we can get to them before they fire a third at us."
Because their armour is thrown together in almost an instant the goblins haven't properly gotten their bodies completely covered and Forfax's bill pierces a goblin exactly in such a spot and it falls down in a wailing pile of dying goblin.
Forfax shakes of the goblin as he readies himself for a next attack, while Scout bites another goblin at the right side of the ballista in his shoulder. Again the goblin screams in agony.
David blasts one of the helpers goblins and he drops one end of the new ballista bolt as he feels really uneasy. The other goblin drags the bolt further on.
Nathaniel misses the goblin in front of him.
Taliesin charges the right three goblins wielding his longsword two-handedly and slices at the goblin who has already got the bite wound from Scout.
Though not completely accurate Taliesin manages to find home through a partly armoured spot, slicing the goblin from his wounded shoulder to his other side and it slumps to the ground... dead..
Nathan rides hard after one of the goblins on the left side, aiming to cut down another, at the same time Nathaniel kept on and jumped off just before Nathan attacked.
The goblin, scraed of the sudden charge of the horse ducks just in time, cowering before the horse and rider, this saved him from receiving a nasty cut across his chest.
Suddenly behind the ballista using goblin, appears a ghostly elven curved blade ready to attack.
The sudden appearance of a spirit weapon behind me catches the ballista-firing goblin totally by surprise and wounds him badly, but he still stands.
The few goblins that still stand look like they're going to make a break for it until suddenly an axe sails from up above from you towards Nathan. A goblin in shining armour stands in an alcove with another throwing axe in his hand, but then withdraws inside as the other goblins look in awe as the axe sinks deep into the shoulder of a caught-off guard Nathan.
Though Nathan is wounded pretty badly he remains seated on his horse.
The goblins now attack with renewed vigor either through fear or morale you can't really say.
Both goblins miss their respective targets, cutting to wildly or just simply blocked by the targets heavy armour.
The goblin attacking Forfax also misses, although barely, Forfax manages to dodge the mace by using the other end of his bill.
The wounded helper goblin tries to run away but falls down after his initial sprint and doesn't get up.
The other helper drags the bolt towards the ballista and starts loading it. The ballista goblin though takes out a short sword and approaches the right side to attack Taliesin as he isn't in a fight yet.
Yet he also misses his swing and Taliesin easily avoids it.
"Right guys, now we're up close, let's have at em!"
Nathaniel swings his mace at the goblin in front of him.
The one in front of Nathaniel gets whacked by his mace but keeps standing. Forfax and Scout kill one, and Scout slams his hoof into the goblin attacking Taliesin takes a full hoof to the face and there's a crunch of bone beneath the hoof and he slumps to the ground unconscious.
Elenzar continues his approach.
The spirit weapon continues to strike at the goblin.
The gostly curved blade kills the other helper goblin who was too distracted to notice the blade in the first place. He did notice it when he saw the other end sticking through his chest however.
David moves up a little closer again and fires a bolt from his crossbow at one of the goblins, Taliesin on the other hand moves up to assist Nathan and Nathaniel and swings at the last goblin standing.
David misses the last goblin, the bolt bouncing off of Nathaniel's armour who was in melee with him, Taliesin maneuvres so that the goblin is caught almost unawares and gets hit pretty badly.
He still stands, but then fear catches ahold of him and he flees from the battlefield and retreats inside the caves.
Inside the caves there's a lot of commotion as the last goblin enters the caves and you hear shouting and a sudden squealing sound.
"Well...that was quite close. Those huge bolts they fire could have impaled several of us together, not something to look forward to.
Nathan, is your horse composed? I mean if it isn't too shaken with those bolts flying over."
"Let's head for the cave other than the one that we saw the goblin come out of if they are prepared for us then let's go where they may not be preparing."
"Sure, hopefully there's less goblins there than Taliesin saw in the other one. The less of them, the more chance we have at exploring."
Also less chance we'll have cause for healing.