"Vile things!"
Borin wastes no time and quickly attacks the first kobold he sees.
Airak come in to the side swinging his mace
Airak's swing comes in late as the kobold is dropped by Borin.
Airak skirts around the pillar to check on the prisoners
Airak sees that the barely unconscious woman is dehydrated, slightly malnourished, whipped, and other injuries associated with being a slave.
Borin moves up to the next kobold and swings.
Borin's attack goes flying past the kobold.
Tyler moves through the group to get the vicious kobolds.
A kobold charges Airak striking him in the arm!
The other kobold attempts to avenge its fallen friend and his spear bounces harmlessly off of Borin's armor.
"Ay! Knock that off, wee one!"
Borin attempts another attack.
His axe misses again. Borin curses under his breath.
Airak flinches at the attack and swings back.
How many more of these foul creatures could there be, Loman thought to him self. He was beginning to get tired of dispatching them. They all still deserved to die, and if it had to be by his hand so be it.
Tyler's rage forces the kobold to step back and he misses wildly.
The kobold strikes through Borin's armor giving him a slash on his arm.
The other kobold attempts to strike back at Airak but is dizzy from blood loss and falls to the ground.
"Hey knock that off!
Borin takes another swing at the creature..
Airak sees to freeing/watering the captives.
The captives are barely conscious and badly whipped by the kobolds.
Tyler comes over and channels the strength of his fallen God to heal his friends and these poor folks.
Carlo awakens and forces the words out of his mouth, "Thank the gods!" He turns his head to look at his wife, Sela, who remains motionless. Panic sets in his eyes.
Tyler steps forth and calls out again as his hands lights up blue, "Aroden! Please heal this woman."
Her body does not stir.
Carlo's cry can be heard throughout the cavern.
Airak lets Carlo mourn for a bit before saying:
"We should move on"
The group moves on after properly mourning the traveler that they had seen several times in town. Carlo carries his deceased wife in his arms.
The other woman introduces herself as Bophre Malak, she tells them that she is a farmhand from Helmsman, a town on the other side oft the forest. She was taken by the kobolds when she was taking the cows to pasture.
The group turns down a hallway. A small alcove to the south is strewn with small limestone boulders and debris. As Borin crosses halfway the passage, the floor falls out on Borin and Loman. They fall down 20 feet, and rubble falls down on them.
Loman manages to shield himself, while Borin is caught under the rubble.
They climb their way out of the pit, while the rest steps around the pit through the alcove.
A mound of what appears to be rotten vegetables, fruit, and excrement sits heaped in the middle of the room. A bulging leather sack rests atop the mound of garbage.
A single forlorn kobold sits in the middle alcove in the northern part of this cave, her arms, legs, and snout tightly bound with rope and her body lashed to iron spikes driven into the cave wall.
The female kobold squirms and wriggles in an attempt to get attention, looking eagerly at the visitors.
Airak Cautiously approaches the kobold
The kobold starts to nod her very enthusiastically as Airak approaches her.
There is no other movement throughout the room.
Airak looks back to the others, then raises his hand to remove the gag.
Loman moves into the room, dusting off the dirt from his shoulders. "Blasted monsters are endless!" Loman says bluntly staring directly at the tied up Kobold. " I don't see the point of removing the gag, it won't have anything good to say" Loman directs at Airak "I say we let Carlo off this one"
Red seeing the Kobald tied to the wall and Airak's hesitation to free her, charges to the front and starts tugging at the ropes attached to the spikes.
The ropes fail to budge, she turns to look at Inwinsme and Tyler for help.
The kobold looked eagerly at Airak, but the look turned to fear with Loman's suggestion.
Carlo takes a deep breath to answer Loman's suggestion, "I have never killed a being in my life." He looks at his fallen wife, "I don't think I would be the man she married, if I change that now."
Tyler looks torn, he feels as though justice should be dealt. But, the hope on Red's face is forcing him to reconsider it. After a bit of hesitation, and a shared look at Loman, "Why don't we hear what it has to say? It must have done something wrong to end up like this. And I don't want to do the kobold's work for them."
Ire in his eyes "All these creatures do is kill! Innocent people, at that. And you would think of showing them any mercy that they would not even show a helpless child!" Loman's angered filled eyes turn toward the creature that stirred the most painful, and vile of feelings he ever had toward another. "For the good of every innocent person they have wronged I will make sure they feel the blade of my father's sword." Loman walks toward the Kobold drawing his Great Sword...
Seeing Loman draw his sword and walk toward the kobald, Red takes a defensive stance between Loman and the kobald.
Airak holds up his hands.
"Hold on, first lets find out if this kobald can tell us if there are any more prisoners, what happened to Hunclay, or at least show us a way out."
Tyler sighes, "They are right. It could help us get out of here. If it doesn't..." He nods his grimly at Loman.
The kobold nods it's head at Tyler.
Oh, how she was hating life right now.
Inwismë rolled her eyes and sighed. "Well? Out with it. We've been down here far too long as it is."
Loman hesitates at his friends pleas and holds his ground, sword still drawn, seemingly awaiting any reason to strike the monster down. The anger and disgust does not dissipate from his eyes, and he continues to stare down the creature.
Airak reaches up and carefully takes off the gag.
The kobold springs to a incredibly fast dialog, it is easy to notice that the female Kobold is surprisingly speaking in Common. But, it is clear that she is nervous and rattling on.
Given a moment to catch her breath, she tries to slow down and she speaks, "You look like you’re changing things ‘round here! I’ve suffered enough at Chief Roaghaz’s stupid whims. I’ll help you!”
Tyler shares an uneasy glance with Loman.
"Who is Chief Roaghaz? and how many are in this group?"
Loman points at the creature with his sword and speaks with a snarl. "So the creature would hand over its' own people to be killed, just to save it's own skin." "If you so wish your suffering to be over I will gladly assist you onto the next life."
The kobold looks at Airak, "He is an idiot that managed to get everyone else in over their heads. I didn't want anything to do with it."
She looks in horror at Loman, for a moment her words become gibberish. She manages to let out, "No, please! I don't care for them, because they are going to kill me. The Chieftain didn't like my stance on wanting nothing to do with humans."
Seeing the lack of empathy in Loman's eyes. She continues, trying to keep herself from stringing her words together, "My family was killed by a bunch of gnomes, I traveled a long ways before I managed to find another kobold tribe. The only reason I survived was avoiding you types." She adds matter-of-factly, "And Hak."
Red hearing the threat in Loman's voice stares at him waiting for any physical sign that he will attack.
"who is hak?"
She turns her head to Airak, "He is my pet! They took him away from me." She remarks sadly.
"How many of them are there?"
The kobold answers, "Well Chief Roaghaz always has four guards with him. There should only be like 6 others, beyond them."
"Will you please let me go now?" She attempts to give her best puppy dog eyes.
Turning back to the others Airak says "Well, we killed more than that, I don't know how reliable she is."
Tyler takes a deep breath and steps back from Loman.
The kobold eyes widen, "No! I was counting the ones that didn't fight! Those are the ones that you haven't seen yet. There were another six that ran past me, and there were probably a couple of guards."
"Well, let's bring her with us, but don't untie her."
Airak turns back to the kobold "We will let you go in the end if you cause no trouble."
Obviously distraught of the groups decision, Loman turns away from the creature, giving one last scow and murmurs under his breath; "Yes, we'll let you go, and we will see how far you can run too...". Without caution Loman heads toward the next available place to go.
Red relaxes a bit as she sees that Loman has backed down.
With a small amount of effort Red pulls the chains from the wall. She looks pleased that she was able to free the kobold.
She is standing at ledge that she can barely reach the top. As Loman blows past her down the hallway,
The kobold calls out Loman, "Wait! Hak is the other way, there is a trap that way!"
"Loman, wait"
"Let's listen to her, she doesn't seem to bare any good will towards this Hak"
Loman stops and turns around. "Fine, let it lead the way then. I will not listen to anything that comes out of that things filthy mouth though." Loman looks toward the kobold and spits at the ground in front of him.