"Ho-ho!!!! Ye's looking for a brawl, eh? I'll give it to ye!" said Panros as he brandished his light crossbow. Producing another quarrel and loading it within the weapon, he reeled back the mechanism and secured his weapon, looking at the kobold that had clunked him over the head.
"Yer buddy o'er there had a taste of old Panros' abilities, let's see you face against this!"
With steady aim, Panros shot with everything he had. His reputation was on the line, afterall.
With the kobold before them falling without much of a fight, Brok gave something of a shrug at his animal friend. Rufus returned the gesture with his tiny badger arms, and then the two split.
While Brok ran further up the beach, headed for one of the slingers, Rufus set his sights on the panicked kobold with a newly affixed bolt.
Kobold 1 2/5
Kobold 3 3/5
Kobold 5 5/5
Kobold 6 5/5
Panicked, the kobolds begin to lose the vague semblance of organization they once had. While the one in front of Panros charges at the dwarf with his spear, he is still unable to injure the man. The slinger, however, faced with a half-elven man tower over him, drops his sling in a panic and grabs his spear, stabbing Brok through the foot. His companion tries to aid him, but fails to land a hit on the druid.
At last, though, the bolted kobold manages to pull out the bolt. With a yelp of pain, he immediately turns and flees - into a sloping, cavernous dark behind him.
"Darn it!" said Panros as his quarrel had completely missed its mark. Producing another bolt, and reloading the mechanism, he was determined to subdue another reptilian.
Rufus moved to scurry after the fleeing kobold, but saw him fall before Panros's mighty crossbow quarrel. He turned, heading back to his master's side as Brok lay the full force of his quarterstaff upon the creature before him.
As Panros drops the fleeing kobold with a bolt in his back, Brok proceeds to crush the skull of the one cowering before him. Almost at once, the ranks of the kobolds were broken, and those that still stood turned tail and began to flee, their eyes set upon the dark, narrow tunnels of the cliffside.
Kobold 2 -3/5
Kobold 3 3/5
Kobold 5 -1/5
Kobold 6 5/5
"OH YEA!!!" roared Panros as he watched his quarry take a dirt nap. Repeating the process, he shifted his stance, and reloaded the crossbow once more, ever so confident that he'll dispatch the fleeing Rock Slinging Kobold. After all, the fleeing creature couldn't get away with upsetting the greatest genius that graced the 5 Kings Mountain.
"Brok, they're gettin away!"
As the slinger ducked his head and disappeared into the cave entrance, Brok turned to intercept the spear-wielding fellow that had been prodding at Panros.
Brok finishes the spear-wielding kobold, but the sole slinger that still stood managed to get away into the northern tunnel.
With the fight over, two entrances to the tunnels are obvious. They'd been mostly obscured behind other rocky cover, but now they stood out like sore thumbs. They were dark and narrow, and would require the men to do a bit of squeezing if they had any intention of fitting at all.
Panros uttered a curse under his breathe which only added further hilarity to the situation. Truthfully, he had wished that his projectile found it's mark, but with one escapee, who knew what dangers lay within the cavern.
Gathering what quarrels he could from the slain reptilians, the dwarf motioned towards' the northern most entrance to the kobold's lair.
"Brok, we can't just let that little bugger git off! Might have a big ole angry family in there ready to take us out!" Staching away the additional bolts, he had entered the cavern just enough to realize that it had gotten very narrow. "How am I supposed to squish in here! This ain't proper cavern architecture! No dwarven stronghold would ever have this! Argh!" he said while trying to find a way through, but with a stocky frame...it seemed nearly impossible.
With frustration and anger rising, Panros did something drastic. Producing his waterskin, he uncorked the stopper and sprayed half of it's contents along the both sides of the narrow entrance, creating a slippery surface. With a little shove, the Alchemist slowly eased himself inside.
Despite his best efforts to lubricate the ingress , Panros still scraped himself along the rocks as the burly dwarf made his way into the cavern. With its low ceiling brushing across his head, he ducked himself down and pressed onward - finding a short tunnel that turned to the left. Brok flicked his wrist, conjuring a little mote of light that stuck itself to his forehead, and followed along behind.
"I hate this, Brok. I really do!" said Panros as he began the gradual crawl through the kobold's tunnel. Tearing could be heard as parts of his pack, clothes, and weapons scraped along the rocks.
If me gear is ruined, I'm gonna blow this place up!
With limited access to his equipment, the dwarf continued until he could find the next chamber.
Panros's careful ears were overwhelmed by his own nerves, knowing that his invaluable (and very fragile) alchemical equipment was bumping against hard, unworked stone with every movement. He groaned as he pulled himself into the next chamber...
Which was really more of a fork. To the left, there were a few poorly carved stairs leading down. The right appeared to open into a larger room.
When presented with two options, Panros' knew immediately what was best - the larger room. Unaccustomed to having to crawl through inadequate tight spaces, the larger room meant that he could check to see if his gear wasn't ruined from the kobold lair's entrance.
After making it out, he hastily slung his pack over and checked the contents like a mother inspecting its child. Satisfied that his precious materials, alchemical supplies, and lab equipment weren't destroyed, Panros realized something - he had unknowingly stepped into a room without any sort of careful inspection.
The dwarf stretched, enjoying a marginally larger ceiling - less than a foot above his head, but at least he could breathe again. He was about to examine the room when he spotted something in the corner, peering back at him.
One. No, wait.
Three pairs of beady yellow eyes stared back at him from the corners of the room. The furry creatures, each the size of a dog, moved forward with teeth bared. They look hungry.
roared the Alchemist as he was met with denizens of the kobold cavern.
He wasn't sure why there had been doglike creatures within a cavern. If he remembered correctly, hound like monsters enjoyed open areas, not a undulating caverns, yet the world remained a mystery.
Brok gripped his weapon, jumping in front of Panros to protect the dwarf from... something. He heft his stick high, bumped it against the ceiling, and then hefted it low. With a strange stance, he readied his staff for any attack from the creatures before them. Rufus joined him, scampering up onto his companion's shoulder and readying himself to pounce upon any who approached!
It becomes immediately apparent as the creatures emerge from their filthy nests in the corners that these are no dogs - just huge, awful rats. With giant rat-teeth. And hungry, hungry eyes.
The rats waste no time in leaping to attack, closing the distance between the walls and Brok in no time!
Rat 1 5/5
Rat 2 5/5
Rat 3 1/5
One set of teeth tears through Brok's pant leg, letting all of the rat's wonderful and disease-ridden saliva in. Rufus, however, would not let such an act go unpunished. He leaps from Brok's shoulder, and sinks his own teeth into the back of the rat.
"Brok, no!" said Panros as he saw the giant fuzzy dog hone in on his friend's leg.
The incident had reminded the dwarf of a time in his youth when he had crossed path's with a hound master. In a fit of trying to show off to Agatha, Panros thought that by fitting one of hounds with a music box, he could offer it as a present to his beloved. However, it didn't go as planned. Needless to say, an oval shaped scar remained on the dwarf's left thigh as testament of his poor planning.
The Dwarf's mind raced with terror. He could hear barking, and he yelps of pain from that traumatic moment. Without hesistation, he brandished a bomb, shook it's contents, and flung it with great prejudice towards the creature that threatened Brok.
Taking cover in the wake of Panros's explosion, Brok lifts his weapon as high as the low ceiling will allow, and bonks at whichever rats are still moving. Rufus, absorbed in a battle-frenzy, tears into the nearest rat with tooth and claw.
"Got the munchies, little buddy?" the druid jokes, kicking at the rats.
Falls short. Hits Brok's head.
Pass. 3 dmg.
Pass. 3 dmg
Fail. 6 dmg.
Pass. 3 Dmg.
Pass. Evasion 0 Dmg.
Fail. 6 Dmg.
Rat 1 -6/5
Rat 2 2/5
Rat 3 -5/5
Panro's bomb misses its target - the low ceiling limiting his ability to arc it up and over his companion. It impacts the back of Brok's head, and a fiery inferno consumes the small cavern. The smoke clears quickly, revealing charred and ashen faces all around. Brok leaps to action, whacking one of the dazed rats into death throes. The single standing rat struggles to fight, but is unable to deal any damage.
The putrid smell of burning hair and flesh permeated the small room with such force that Panros had to struggle from not vomiting on his friend's back. Blackened grease mucked much of his arms, and well...everything.
Brok fared worse. Wiping away the grease from his goggles, Panros noticed something horrible. Much of Brok's hair had been burned away.
Stifling a laughter and great trepidation, Panros fumbled to do something else instead. Pulling out the Warhammer from his pack, the Wily Alchemist dove for the nearest Dog with great desperation.\
"DOWN DOGGIE!!!"
Panros wastes no time in grabbing the heaviest thing he can find and crushing the skull of the still-standing and partially-cooked rat. Its head squashes beneath the girth of the warhammer, leaving blood, brains, and generally awful grossness across the floor.
Avoiding his companion's gaze, Panros shook off the goo that he had crated by killing the feral dog.
"Listen mate, I didn't mean to! Just dem degs! Nasty buggers! Man's best friend, hah!" said Panros as he tried to vindicate himself from the alchemical mishap. Brok however should have realized that being in the company of the Dwarf was becoming more of a burden than a privelidge.
Allowing the druid to collect himself, Panros scanned the room.
As Brok licks his fingertips and tries to mend his singed hair, Panros investigates the chamber. Despite being fairly wide, numerous straw mats and piles of filth seem to indicate that this is little more than a rat's nest. Several smaller bodies of mangled rats have been mostly eaten, and even smaller skeletal remains litter the corners of the room. Sadly, there doesn't appear to be anything of value to anyone who isn't a giant rat.
Panros returns to the stairs, and crouches down a bit more, nearly putting his chest to the ground, and peers ahead. It looks like there's a small depression ahead, filled with water. Perhaps a well?
A well? No, no, no, this cannot be here. The structure isn't even correct to support such a feature! Panros' mind struggled to understand the thinking that the kobolds had put into creating their lair. Tight corridors, kennels for mangy dogs, and a well at the foot of a staircase were all not proper for a cavern. This is why Dwarves are best at what they do. Had they hired a true architect, everything would be different, and better!
Slowly moving down the stairs, Panros kept his eyes on the pool of water. He wasn't sure if there'd be some acid spitting gobblydegook that would pop out and give him a horrible time.
As he neared the base of the stairs, the sound of water had evoked dryness in his mouth, and Panros reached for a vial containing blue liquid. Undoing it's stopper and quaffing its contents in one single gulp, a belch erupted from the dwarf that seemed to echo throughout the cavern.
Motioning towards the pool, Panros looked at it's surface to understand the mysteries of the well.
Panros steps forward and leans over the pool, glancing down into the still and tepid (but relatively clean) waters. It was just a well, apparently connected by a tiny and imperceptible spring to the lake outside. It's about ten to fifteen feet deep, and approximately five feet across.
It's a well.
A dumbfounded look makes it's way over Panros' face as he turns to face Brok. Making a cupping motion, the Dwarf signaled to his companion that it was a drinking font - possibly one dirty enough for a druid.
Satisfied that the well held no dangers, there was still a room to explore.
There's little of value in the room, and it's almost too quiet. Perhaps the runner has already sounded the alarm, and an ambush lay just around the corner?
Another two pairs of staircases slope off on the sides of the room - one to the north, and another to the east.
After sampling the well's contents, the Dwarf came to the conclusion that there was nothing remarkable about the water.
Such filth, ugh!
Two staircases stood before Panros. One to the north, and the other eastward. Splitting up the party was never a good idea, however Panros' last mishap may prove otherwise.
Picking the Northern staircase, Panros traversed it's steps.
As Panros approached, he could see the flicking of torchlight ahead. In the dark caverns, the warm light of the flame seemed out of place - and maybe a bit too inviting.
Turning the shallow corner and peering into the room, the reason for the torchlight was clear - the room housed beings other than kobolds. A pair of beaten, dirty, and clearly exhausted humans were chained to the far wall. Four kobolds, armed and ready, had taken defensive positions around the room.
They bark out in their strange language, and two moved forward with spears while the others began to twirl their slings...
Human captives! What're they doing here?!
Before Panros could react, he was faced with spear wielding Kobolds, and of course, his nemesis - Rock slingers.
The druid follows his rather temperamental companion down the stone staircase, and finds himself in what appears to be a prison!
"Whoa, they have people here! That's not nice at all!"
Rufus gave something of a sigh, then rushed ahead of Brok to engage the nearest kobold. The man gripped his staff and chased after his pet.
"Wait up!"
Kobold Sp1 -1/5
Kobold Sp2 5/5
Kobold Sl1 5/5
Kobold Sl2 5/5
Before the poor, reptilian guards can truly raise their weapons in protest, Brok's heavy staff comes down atop the nearest's head. He drops to the ground, twitching.
With a bark of guttural language, the other spear-holder rushes at Brok, but fails to pierce his armor. A volley of rock flies from across the room behind him, with both slingers setting their sights on Brok. While one bounced harmless off of his armor, the other comes dangerously close to Brok's head...
Before Brok bats it away with the end of his staff. The kobold stands, stunned at the sight.
Slingers, I HATE SLINGERS thought Panros as he watched his ally get pelted with cavern pebbles. Not that he didn't mind someone else being the target of such mundane projectiles, but it was insulting to be maimed by something...natural. It irked the Alchemist's soul! How when in doubt, just grab a fist sized rock, and sling with your life! For Panros, he never needed to rely on such desperate methods! Having a trick or 10, he'd emply his powerful mind both figuratively and literally!
Stepping within range of the ranged combatants, Panros eyed his quarry!
roared the dwarf as he hefted a projectile aimed at the cluster of kobold slingers.
Brok watches as Panros hoists another bomb and lobs it across the room. Ducking beneath the attack, the druid swung his quarterstaff low and into the kobold's chest.
With the slinger kobolds taking cover near the far end of the room, behind some relatively shabby looking equipment and crates - and within arm's reach of the humans behind them - Panros thought on his feat and calibrated his bomb to avoid the region the humans crouched, cowering.
Pass, 3 Dmg
Fail, 6 Dmg.
Hit.
Kobold Sp1 -1/5
Kobold Sp2 -2/5
Kobold Sl1 2/5
Kobold Sl2 -1/5
Brok's target drops to his knees before Rufus reaches up and chomps at its snout. Screaming, it drops to the ground and goes silent. Another kobold yelps as a cacophony of noise and smoke engulfs him. He does not stand up as the smoke clears.
The sole standing kobold does his best to launch another rock at Brok's head - but the man once again swats it away with his staff.
As the smoke slowly cleared from the end of the room, Panros was certain that his projectile had missed the captive humans.
"Brok, there's one left! We gotta get him before he get's away!"
Pulling out his crossbow, Panros loaded another bolt, and tried to finish the remaining kobold.
As the slinger kobold's reptilian face clearly droops into a panicked grimace, Brok charged the little lizard man, screaming a battle cry.
The kobold screamed back.
... And the little reptile had little chance to do much more. As Brok's staff cracked against the bone of his skull, a loud crack resounded through the chamber.
Quickly followed by a yelp of agony from the man chained to the wall just beyond. Brok and Panros both follow the cry - to find Panros's bolt embedded nearly fulled into the man's stomach. His eyes shut, and blood began to pour from his wound, even as he clutched his hands against it.
"My god! What have you done?" exclaimed the woman beside him, tears welling in her eyes.
"AGH!" roared Panros as his misfired attack came to realization. Running over towrads the impaled victim, he trotted around the injured man fretting over what to do. "I'm sorry mate! I meant to take down dem reptilian buggers, not poke ye!"
Despite his best intentions, danger always followed the wily alchemist.
Can't make an omellete without cracking some eggs. Though, I'm sure there's an extract for that!
Inspecting the wound, he noticed that the crossbow bolt had punctured a very delicate area - the stomach. A simple tug and pull would surely remove the bolt...and rupture the victim's organs in the process.
"Agh! Mate, listen to me, you're gonna have to be still for this. This may hurt a bit".
As Panros leapt to the to the aid of the injured man, the woman next to him began to bawl.
"Are you blind... you bearded fool! You save us only to murder my Carlo... Rotten cave troll! Worse than the lizards!"
Between the tears, its obvious that she is quite unhappy with the dwarf. The man, however, has little to say. He's lost consciousness, and despite Panros's best efforts to staunch the bleeding, he continues to lose copious amounts of blood.
"What's going on?" called another female voice from the back of the cavern. "Is rescue here at last? Has my father finally sent someone for us? Is Carlo alright? Damn these stupid chains!"
Trying not to laugh at the clumsy dwarven hands attempting to heal the man he'd just shot, Brok shoves Panros out of the way.
"Hi! I'm Brok and I'm going to be trying to save you now. I'm afraid I have no way to dull the pain, so this is going to hurt a lot!"
The hastily applied bandages appear to have slowed the bleeding. Carlo - since that was apparently his name - is safe. For now. But he's going to hurt for a long time.
"By the gods..." the woman moans, wiping her tears. "Why is fate so cruel... first to be captured by these beasts and then... this!"
Her tears filled the room for a brief moment before the third voice called out once more.
"Um, would-be rescuers? Some actual rescue would be nice. Please. And don't stab me, or whatever you did to Carlo, either."
"Listen tutz,I ain't appreciatin yer tone!" Panros said as he pointed a thick finger at her. "Yall weren't part of the plan. Who says that yall weren't brigands or thieves or evil wizards who had earned Desna's laughter and ended up here. I thinks yous ought to tell us who ye are, and why we should rescue ye!"
"Because Desna blessed the path my husband and I walked, you toad! Carlo and I- I'm Sela, if you even care! We're travelers. Selling religious trinkets and baubles, mostly. Plenty of the Starsong's pendants, too!"
Her tears gave way to anger at the would-be rescuer's rather unpleasant attitude. Carlo didn't seem to mind, though he remained slumped and unmoving, breathing shallowly.
The unseen woman sighed.
"Are you two done? Can we be unchained, please? I've been here forever!"
Brok checks the bodies for keys and flayleaf. Rufus nibbles on one of the kobold's bloody bits, then decides uncooked reptilian humanoids are not his cup of tea.
Aside from the various mundane bits of gear on the kobolds, there is nothing of value. One of them carries an iron key on a shabbily woven necklace. Brok grabs it off the dead guy.
Common sense dictates that it's the key to to the locks.
"Well at least one of you has some common sense! Well, on with it, will you? Get me away from this madman!"
"And me. In the back. Don't forget me, please. The name's Bophre Malak and I've been here for months. I miss the sun..."
"Alright, alright! We'll get ya outta here!" the dwarf said as he helped Brok release the captives.
Noticing the horrible conditions that the captives were in, Panros couldn't help to smile wryly at them.
"Listen folks, I know ye want yer freedom, but this place is still hot with danger. I suggest ye take whatever weapons can find and get out while can!"
As soon as she was free, Sela stood and slapped Panros. It hurt his pride more than anything, but it left a good sting. Despite being enslaved by the kobolds, she certainly had plenty of fire left in her.
"My husband is half dead, thanks to you! The damned kobolds took better care of us than you! How am I supposed to get him out of here!"
The other girl was decidedly less upset, though she bore many bruised and was plenty dirty. Her long blond hair was caked with mud, and her young face was cut and torn with signs of hard labor. She couldn't have been more than twenty years old, if that. She was thin, but not emaciated. Obviously the kobolds kept their prisoners in working conditions. A small blessing, at least. She smiled at her saviors- especially Brok.
"Thanks- but I'm not sure any of us are fit to get out of here on our own. I'm not even sure exactly where we are... And, gods, my father may have thought me dead by now. It's been months since I've been home. Months since I've seen the sky..."