"Shal!" Eostre exclaims as they arrive on the scene.
Shalelu stops stabbing the bugbear corpse as Eostre calls out to her. "Oh, hello again."
"Care to explain what, exactly, happened? I'm keeping watch, then I hear screaming, then Bruthazmus comes running past me stark naked and runs into Evelyn."
"Yeah, that about covers it," Nicat says. "Well, except for me and Ekan running screaming the other direction. I'm pretty sure there were some scary dogs involved, but I couldn't find them afterwards. Oh, and Eostre made a deal with some goblins. She'll have to give you the details."
"Long story short, we ran into a pair of yeth hounds down below, whose fear-inducing magical howls sent Nicat, Evelyn and Nicat running, leaving me and Conner to face them alone. When we got some surprising aid from their goblin "allies," who turned on the hounds. So, I couldn't just kill them. Not after they'd done us a...relatively good turn. So I extracted a promise from them to spare their sorry hides if they left Thistletop and never harmed Sandpoint again. I think we can trust this lot. Their leader, Chuffy, was smart enough to know what "impasse" means, which is rare for a goblin."
Then Eostre notices Bruthazmus' stark naked body and tries to suppress a laugh.
"It looks like the yeth hounds' howling caught Bruthazmus literally with his pants down, which sent him running scared!"
"I'm embarrassed to say, it's as they explained. My courage fell apart in a moment's howl," The monk flushes.
Conner kicks the bugbear to make sure it's dead. "How do you know it's name?"
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Eostre rolls her eyes. Had Conner not been paying attention?!
"They're archnemeses, Conner. That's the guy who stuck all those heads on the bridge last night. He was trying to scare us, but it looks like the yeth hounds gave him a taste of his own medicine."
When Shalelu hears the whole story, her face contorts into an expression of somewhat uncharacteristic glee before she bursts out laughing. "AHAHAHAHAHA! Seriously? Well, that's... well, if that's not irony, I don't know what is."
Her mirth dies when she remembers what else Eostre told her. "Wait--how do you know the goblins had a change of heart? And more to the point, how do you know they'll honour it?" She picks up her bow and puts her bloodied short sword away.
"Because they saw me beat their demons to death and I'll do the same to them if I have to."
"Weren't they the ones who set fire to the Glassworks with Tsuto?" Evelyn asks, her understanding and ability to speak Common having returned the moment Shalelu stopped stabbing the naked bugbear.
"Yep, those were the ones," Nicat says to Evelyn, his expression surprisingly pensive. "I was still a bit rattled from my run down the halls - before I chased off Bruthazmus, you know? - and I don't speak goblin, so I didn't hear the details. But the one gobber talking to Eostre seemed to be acting like he meant it. For what that's worth."
"Nothing," Evelyn responds uncharacteristically harsh.
She shakes her head and says, with a milder voice: "They've left already?"
Evelyn puts her dagger away and takes the healing wand, which she uses on the wounded.
She puts the wand away once she's done with it.
Eostre breathes a sigh of relief as Evelyn heals her.
"Thank you, Evelyn. And I'm sorry for yelling."
Then she turns back to Shalelu.
"Anyway, yes, it's as Conner said. They knew it'd end in death if the fight persisted, and these goblins didn't have much loyalty to this tribe's cause in the first place. Once they learned Ripnugget was dead and Tsuto and his wizard friend were our prisoners, they realized this was probably the best deal they were gonna get. Or, at least, Chuffy did, and he looks like he can keep the other three in line."
"My thanks, Evelyn, apologies for leaving you behind." The Monk says as his wounds heal.
"It's okay, Ekan, I ran off on my own. That howl somehow spooked me so much I couldn't help but run..."
Evelyn looks a bit embarrassed when she mentions she ran away from the dog.
"Nothin' to be ashamed of, Evie. It was empowered by Abyssal magic. Even the goblins that were ostensibly their side got scared by them. That's why they turned on the hounds. One of them just got LIVID that she'd been affected by those stupid demon dogs!" Eostre says matter-of-factly.
She turns back to Shalelu.
"So! Bruthazmus, your archnemesis, is dead by your hand, and humiliated to boot. Congratulations! But...if you're down here, Shal, is someone else watching Tsuto and that wizard girl?"
While Eostre turns to talk to Shalelu, Evelyn's still watching the dwarf with a quizzical expression.
Oystersiby...?
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""Anyway, yes, it's as Conner said. They knew it'd end in death if the fight persisted, and these goblins didn't have much loyalty to this tribe's cause in the first place. Once they learned Ripnugget was dead and Tsuto and his wizard friend were our prisoners, they realized this was probably the best deal they were gonna get. Or, at least, Chuffy did, and he looks like he can keep the other three in line."
Shalelu wrinkles her nose, but doesn't say anything else.
"So! Bruthazmus, your archnemesis, is dead by your hand, and humiliated to boot. Congratulations! But...if you're down here, Shal, is someone else watching Tsuto and that wizard girl?"
"Oh, don't worry about them. A couple of boots to the head and good knot work were enough to keep them from moving for a while."
Shalelu kneels down and takes something off of Bruthazmus' neck--a necklace lined with elf ears. She gives a disgusted snort. "His favourite pastime. I'd consider taking his, but I don't need a trophy to feel good about killing him."
Nicat makes no further reference to his running off at the hound's howl, quite willing to have the whole episode well behind him. Hope Shay never hears about that part of the story.
"Wow, Eostre," he asks, "did you get the gobbers to agree with you by using long words? 'Cuz you're layin' em on us pretty heavy. Looks like Evelyn is thinking about running away all over again."
"We've still work to do. We need to get back down there and clear every room, there could still be goblins, demons or prisoners. They might have whomever owned that horse. Though I suppose Nicat and Ekan's...spontaneous scouting has saved us some time."
"Nicat, I'm a wizard. Using big words is in my job description. Besides, it seems to help when negotiating with goblins who have equally diverse vocabularies."
She nods at Conner's statement and rubs her chin a bit.
"Come to think of it, why was Bruthazmus naked to begin with? Did you two encounter him while you were running about?"
Nicat considers Eostre's question, thinking back through the haze of fear that drove him to run madly through the dungeons of Thistletop. "Um, he was busy with some lady friends when we found him. Then the yeth hounds howled and he went running. Straight into Shalelu."
Turning back toward the stairs, Nicat concurs with Conner, "Conner's right, we need to explore the rest of this place. Hopefully with Tsuto and his wizard taken care of, and Bruthazmus dead, we won't run into much trouble."
He gestures for Conner to lead the way once again, ready to follow behind.
"Huh," Eostre says. "Chuffy DID say Ripnugget had been neglecting his wives lately. I suppose Bruthazmus just took advantage of that. Still, ew!"
Evelyn covers her eyes. "It hurts! Let's change topics!"
Conner rolls his eyes and heads back down the stairs.
Eostre trundles after Conner.
Ekan actually looks amused at the 'spontaneous scouting' term, and heads on down as Conner is right they need to finish this.
By the time the party returns to the chapel of Lamashtu, the motley crew of goblins has left the area.
Once they've made it back downstairs and it's clear the gobbers in the chapel and Bruthazmus' lovely brides have cleared out, Nicat approaches an unexplored door and gives it a look and listen.
Once he's satisfied it's safe, he steps aside and lets Conner lead the way.
Conner whispers as they reach the chapel, "If you do see goblins, hold off until we know they aren't the ones we found here, give them a chance to leave peacefully like they agreed."
Nicat takes a few steps away from the door and says quietly, "I hear something...chewing. Like it's chomping on meat - and bone - on the other side of the door."
With a look at Conner, he says, "You go first?" With a shrug, he adds, "Or we could check out that door later."
"I got it." Conner slowly opens the door.
The floor of the cavern beyond the door seems strangely polished and smooth. To the east, a thick curtain of vines and nettles hangs down over a wide, opening overlooking the Varisian Gulf.
Near the vine-&-nettle covered opening is a strange, dark blue, conical creature covered in angry red eyes. Numerous tentacles cover the creature, and two of them are longer than the rest. It's hovering over a pair of nude goblin corpses, now reduced to little more than skin stretched across their skeletons. The beast's eyes turn to the sound of the door opening and eyes the party.
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Conner pulls the door shut again. "Nope."
Eostre shoots an annoyed glare at Conner.
"For Nethys' sake, Conner, you stand fearless against the abyssal howls of not one but TWO yeth hounds and you get scared by a single tentamort? As long as you avoid the stinger you'll be fine. And I doubt that could penetrate the massive amount of armor you're wearing anyhow!"
"How about this, Eostre?" Nicat suggests, not eager to go into the room with the icky, tentacled thing. "Now we know it's in there. We keep checking out this level, and we come back and take care of it later? That way, we'll all be in good shape for whatever other tentacled horrors are running around down here!"
Eostre rolls her eyes.
"That's assuming it won't follow us since we already provoked it by opening the door."
"Maybe it can't use the door handle?" Evelyn opts wishfully.
"But, uhm, yeah... I think we should do what Nicat said."
Nicat stands staring at the door a few moments. If it doesn't appear to open, he says, "Well, let's try my plan. And if that thing comes after it, we'll fight it then."
He moves off down the hall, to check another door, near where they found Bruthazmus savoring his last moments of life.
"If I get my arse sucked out through my nose I'm blamin' you," Eostre grouses as she follows the group.
The walls of the room Nicat investigates are lined with small wooden cages. Inside each cage is a dirty mound of straw.
Nicat scans the room quickly, shrugs, and says, "Right, how about down this hallway?"
He moves down the hallway, stopping at the first door he comes to and checking it out.
Evelyn follow after Nicat, ignoring the cages.
"Why do you stop, Nicat? I'm sure it's safe, just open it."
Ekan has been quiet as his wont, but he's curious, "Find something?"
"Nothing on this door," Nicat whispers, putting a finger to his lips to tell the others to keep quiet, "but I hear a whimpering sound from the other door."
Stepping aside, he says, "Conner, would you check it out? Gently?"
Conner nods and eases the door open.
Eostre waits to see what lies behind the door.