Meepo leads you through a door to the north, warning you to watch out for a trap in the floor. "Goblins don't dare attack this way - they scared of Yusdrayl! And we keep trap to keep them out. Walk along wall, like this..."
The next hall turns to the west, and Meepo points to a wooden door, whispering, "goblins be through there! Usually many guards... but they not be expecting big folk to come here!"
Elion will swallow nervously and get his sling ready.
Leynus readies his sword and buckler, and whispers around to the group. "I'm afraid most of my magical tricks have run their course, at least for today. I may have a spell up my sleeve... but beyond that, you'll only have my sword for this fight."
"I wouldn't be adverse to finding a place to camp. What time is it anyway?"
Carefully circumventing the trap Elion will return to the throne room, "Great king, we need to regain our strength before dealing with the filthy goblins. Is there a place where we can rest?"
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Stalking towards the door with the others, Akshara looks back as Elion moves to depart and wrinkles her nose, brows furrowed and lips pursed in thought. "Not tired," Akshara mutters, looking up to Bellicus with one ear flicked out to the side, as if unsure why Elion is so eager to bed down. "Only morning still," she presumes, they've been underground a while.
The tiefling flicks her stare back towards the direction Elion left in and huffs out a sigh. "We go?" Those yellow eyes flick back up to Bellicus, as if Akshara was simply expecting to leave Elion behind.
King Yusdrayl eagerly offers to let you rest in one of the large, empty, and relatively clean rooms that are within the kobold "lair," if you wish.
She almost seems a bit too eager to let you rest in her lair...
With much of the party eager to press on, and the hungry look Yusdrayl gives you when she realizes some of you might want to actually go to sleep somewhere nearby, you decide it might be safest to press on and prove your mettle against the goblins so that Yusdrayl will think twice about messing with you. Ready for battle, you burst into the goblin guard room...
Six goblins stand or sit in this room, clearly ready to fend off a kobold attack. They jump up and begin shouting frantically when you enter, clearly not expecting the likes of you to have come from the kobold halls!
Elinon will fling a stone wildly into the room, missing everything.
The sling stone lands in one of the goblin's plates (a piece of a broken shield), ruining his tasty lunch of boiled rat ears.
The goblin glares at Elion and bares its teeth. "Yum! Pointy elf ears for dinner!!"
Not making any pretense at being a bard, Valeria casts protection from evil, using her birthmark as her holy symbol. As a move action, she draws her starknife.
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Bursting into the room the moment the door is open, Akshara's eyes go wide and she leaps with an expected ferocity through the air, pouncing on one of the unprepared goblins. Akshara needn't be taught to attack these things, her time in the Barrowwood has given her enough prejudice against these malicious dog-hating creatures attacking her pack.
The feral tiefling grasps at the goblin's rotund head and opens her jaws, eyes folding back and pupils narrowing to slits as she lunges in for a bite, but the goblin scrambles away just before her jaws snap down.
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The goblins seem distressed, to say the least, by your sudden appearance.
"Gaaahhh! It's a cat demon!"
"Cat demon? That's the dragon!"
"We're DOOMED!"
"That's not the dragon! We already GOT the dragon!"
"IT MUSTA HAD FRIENDS! GET 'EM!"
Brandishing their rusted, jagged dogslicers, the goblins step forward to attack. One of them manages to get a shallow cut on Akshara, but the rest are rather clumsy, stumbling over each other in their eagerness to overwhelm you with sheer goblin-ness.
; hit!
; miss
; miss
; miss (due to cover)
Singing quietly and playing strictly along the rims of his drums, the tune Leynus produces is both quiet and eerily cheery. It speaks of some long forgotten joke, but whatever humor it may have had is lost in its incorporation in the spell.
The goblin in front of Bellicus begins to giggle, then cackle maniacally, clutching his belly and leaning on the doorframe.
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Bellicus seizes the advantage as the goblin before him doubles over from laughter. He thrusts his blade forwards, aiming for the goblin's midsection.
Power attacking the one that is affected by hideous laughter.
Assuming that hits and drops a gobbo, I'm moving into the room. There's only one path that gets me to where I'm trying to go, so it should be pretty obvious. There'll be quite a few AoOs, so have at it, DM!
Seizing the advantage, Bellicus kicks the goblin's lifeless body free from the length of his sword and races into the room. "We can't let them raise an alarm. Kill them. Save one if you can for questioning." His voice is calm, cold, calculating, a stark contrast to the goblins' gibbering battle fury. When he arrives before the door, he settles into a defensive stance, preparing to strike at any goblin that dares approach him or force its way past him.
The goblin continues to giggle for a few moments as blood spurts from his mouth and he collapses to the floor, dying instantly. As he rushes into the room, the goblins chop madly at his legs...
; miss
; hit!
; miss
; miss
Most of the goblins' attacks go wide or bounce off of Bellicus's armor, but one of them (the one he ends up next to) manages to get a good solid whack on his knee, causing some considerable pain.
Steeling herself for battle, Val raises her shield and steps into the room, flanking the goblin that just struck Bellicus in the knee.
Her slash with her starknife is wild, and the goblin easily steps out of her way. It grins evilly at her with a too-wide smile. Val frowns in frustration.
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Ears folded back and eyes slitted, Akshara lets out a hiss as she's cut by one of the goblins. She's quick to lunge back at the one that struck her, grabbing it by the shoulders as she leans in and opens her jaws, sinking her sharp teeth into the side of its neck before shaking it side-to-side like a hound with a fox.
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(hit)
>
<sigh>
The goblin that Akshara bit drops its weapon and falls to the ground, clutching at its neck. Its eyes roll back and it lays twitching upon the cold stone floor.
The four remaining goblins press forward, two cornering and attacking Bellicus, one attacking Valeria, and one attacking Akshara.
One of the goblins manages to cut Bellicus, but the other one swings wildly and drops his dogslicer, which breaks when it strikes the ground.
The goblin attacking Valeria thrusts at her with his own grime-covered weapon, but the blade deflects to the side at the last moment.
"Stupid dragon magics! No fair!"
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Bellicus winces as the goblin finds another opening to bleed him with its rusted blade. "Enough, filth. Die, like the others." He chops at the creature, slashing at the creature with a vicious overhead strike. "Leave that one for questioning," he says, gesturing to the now weaponless goblin before him with his blade. "He has volunteered." His cold glare pierces the goblin's solid red eyes for a moment before focusing on the rest of the battle.
No Power Attack this round, attacking whichever of the two goblins on me still has a weapon. If it's the one between me and Valeria, then I get flank on it.
Leynus moves forward, now that Bellicus has handily dispatched the goblin he took out of commission. He stabs towards the goblin standing in front of Valeria, hoping to lay it low. Unfortunately, he misses, leaving himself feeling a little foolish and the goblin still able to strike.
"Watch out, Leynus! These things are vicious!"
Another goblin falls before Bellicus's blade, and the remaining three - one of them essentially weaponless - begin to panic.
Meepo creeps forward and peeks into the room, his eyes dancing with joy at the sight of his dying foes.
"Thanks, Bellicus!"
Defending with her shield against the goblin's dogslicer, Val steps around the recently-deceased goblin to allow more of her allies into the room. She slashes again at the goblin she faces.
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Akshara lunges at one of the goblins with a loud snap of her jaws, but the craven beast scrambles away, affording Akshara's powerful jaws purchase of only air. Snarling, she hunches down on all fours and lets out a yowling growl of frustration, then hisses as her ears fold bac in threatening posture.
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>>
The goblin who dropped his weapon frantically tries to grab Bellicus's sword from the warrior's hands, but fails to get close enough to get a grip on the hilt.
The other two goblins attack Akshara; one of them manages to cut her, but the other misses terribly, accidentally stabbing his blade into the wall and snapping it off clean at the hilt. He backs into the corner and glances around frantically, shouting in goblin, "HELP! HELP! BIG KNIGHT GOT FRIENDS! BIG UGLY FRIENDS!!!"
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Attacking for subdual!
While the goblin's clumsy attempt to separate Bellicus from his sword is unsuccessful, it does prevent the warrior from getting a clean shot on the nimble creature. "Try that again, worm, and I'll cleave your melon-shaped head from your neck." His lip has curled into a sneer as he surveys the battlefield. "Akshara, silence the one in the corner. Someone, kill the one that still bears a weapon. And, as for you..." Bellicus turns his attention back to the weaponless goblin, cuffing him with the pommel of his sword, knocking the creature senseless.
Let's try nonlethal one more time. No PA again.
Ummmm...I think I might have killed the little guy. How does nonlethal to lethal conversion work again?
"Desna's wings! Great work, Bellicus!"
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If a creature's nonlethal damage is equal to his total maximum hit points (not his current hit points), all further nonlethal damage is treated as lethal damage. This does not apply to creatures with regeneration. Such creatures simply accrue additional nonlethal damage, increasing the amount of time they remain unconscious.
Glad that at least one of their number is getting in a hit, Leynus strikes again at the same goblin. He laughs towards Val, the mirth infecting his speech. "Vicious they may be, but capable they are not!"
If a creature's nonlethal damage is equal to his total maximum hit points (not his current hit points), all further nonlethal damage is treated as lethal damage. This does not apply to creatures with regeneration. Such creatures simply accrue additional nonlethal damage, increasing the amount of time they remain unconscious.
Bellicus hits the goblin a little too hard with the flat of his blade, cracking the pitiful creature's skull. It collapses to the ground in a heap, without even a twitch. Leynus quickly dispatches another goblin, leaving only one, which throws down its weapon and begins to grovel on the floor, babbling incoherently.
"Now that's some teamwork! Bellicus, Akshara-- you two are deadly!" Val raises her starknife as if to hurl it at the sniveling goblin wretch. "It appears we have a prisoner. Who has some rope to tie him up? He might be able to answer some questions."
She looks at the other fallen goblins. "Are any of them still alive? If so, we can take them as prisoners, too."
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"A little too effective, unfortunately," Bellicus says, frowning as he sees the goblin's skull cracked open. "Still, it seems to have done the job. And as we seem to be the currying the favor of the kobold king, perhaps those goblins that still live can be given to Yusdrayl. I'm sure they have plenty to talk about."
He then sizes up the goblin before him. "As do we, maggot. Do not think about lying to us, or I will have our demon devour you from your toes upwards." He gestures towards Akshara with his head, never breaking eye contact with the goblin. "You will be telling us everything we want to know, starting with the knight. How long ago did he pass through your halls? What sort of deal did he strike with you to pass unmolested? I assume he is at least partially responsible for the kobold's dragon going missing, since you miserable lot couldn't find your arses with both hands, a map, and a guide to lead the way."
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With the goblins dead and the others discussing something a bit outside of Akshara's experience, the tiefling proceeds to prowl among the remains of the goblins, quietly wiping her face off as she pauses to inspect their bodies one at a time. There is contempt visible for the first time in the feral young woman's features. Whatever she had experienced at the hands of others of their kind before, it left an indelible impression on her.
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The goblin makes itself as small as possible in the corner of the room, lifting up a broken shield and holding it in front if his face. His muffled, high-pitched voice pleads with Bellicus, "please! I tell you everything! Don't hurt me! Big knight came here... his name... Grakko? Grakkus? ... he come here... mmmmm, many days ago? What you humans say... weeks? Muunth? Month! One month, bit longer. He comes, fights us, has others with him... three? Many goblins fall! But he goes below.... business is not with goblins, he says. He goes to the tree.... he goes and does not come back! Our leader let him pass, knowing he will not return if he goes to the tree and the Tree Keeper! No more killing goblins! And... he is not Dragon Taker. No, goblins do that!"
Looking out from behind the shield, the goblin continues, "I answer all your questions? You let me go?"
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Bellicus listens to the goblin jabber with half interest. It hadn't told him anything of great importance, and he was considering running it through. Then it started speaking of the Tree Keeper, and his interest is piqued. He gestured to Anton, waving the pagan to the front. "Not yet, filth," he says, pressing his advantage. "What is this Tree Keeper? And what is the nature of this tree? How can it germinate and bear fruit when the sun cannot nourish it?"
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Ears twitching as the goblin's shrill little voice spits out words in the common tongue, Akshara becomes bored with her limp entertainment. Padding away from the corpses of his kin, the bestial tiefling locks eyes with the goblin, her scaled tail lashing back and forth as she prowls around him on all fours. Her shoulders slink up and down as she moves in slow, purposeful motions in a full circle around him. It isn't Akshara's intention, but her predatory circling lends a hand to Bellicus' interrogation.
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