Guruthos moves forward so he can see around the bend and points at the last kobold (purple) and says "shh!"
Hanzo moved after the purple kobold and took a shot at it as it ran away.
Purple’s eyes instantly roll back into his head as he collapses. Hanzo walks over, twirling both daggers in his hands and driving them both into kobold!
Combat over!
Hanzo cleaned off his daggers and waited for Guru to join him before moving after the kobolds who had fled. "We'd better be ready, there's no way they don't have traps ready for us now."
Joriannika winced as she put on the crossbow strap, letting it settle while she examined the wound in her leg. Pulling out one of her fizzy vials, she downed it, hoping the compounds would close the wound.
It did, but not as much as she'd like. She took another one, speeding the healing process.
This time her wounds closed entirely, and she finally looked over to where the kobolds had fallen, then at her companions, her forehead creased in an unaccustomed frown.
"I don't mean to be disrespectful of the dead, but we should check if they're carrying anything we might be able to use. And if I'm honest, and I am, then it serves them right for what they did to those poor people."
Hanzo didn't think it was too likely for the kobolds to be carrying anything he'd want, so he didn't join Joriannika. For once, looting wasn't his highest priority.
On each kobold she checks, she finds leather armor, spears, and slings. The slings could prove useful, though everything else is sized for small creatures.
What does everyone do now?
Global Condition: Inside Cave: Attack Rolls -2 |Global Condition:
Thomas HP: 15/17 AC: 16/12/14 Status: +2 atk/dmg rolls (rnds 3/10)
Guruthos HP: 13/14 (2nl) AC: 15/13/12 Status:
- Mori hp: 5/7 AC: 15/14/13
Joriannika HP: 12/12 AC: 17/13/14 Status:
Hanzo HP: 16/18 AC: 17/13/14 Status:NPCS:
Kobold (green)hp: AC:15 Status: ?
Kobold (yellow)hp: -4 AC:15 Status: ?
Thomas, looking quite satisfied, collects some bullets for his sling. "Now what about thse who fled? You think we'll see them again?"
Guruthos turns to the little black bird and asks her to fly up and push down the ladder, but she is apprehensive after being injured.
Guruthos turns to the little black bird and asks her to fly up and push down the ladder, but she is apprehensive after being injured.
Everyone hears a muffled, lizard-esque grunt coming from the corridor you entered this cave through.
Turning, you see Yellow staring around the corner, trying and failing to be stealthy. It must have stubbed its foot on a rock or something. He hides behind the rock, hoping to not have been seen.
Guruthos points at the puny creature, and says, "Shh!"
Thomas who was just picking up some bullets, simply loads one in the sling still in his hands.
Except this one he releases at the totally wrong moment and goes backwards.
Daggers still in hand, Hanzo didn't waste time on words - he darted straight over to the "hidden" kobold before it could flee.
Joriannika opened her mouth to protest... then shut it again, wincing at the memory of the slaves more than her own pain. These kobolds had made their nest, now they had to lie in it.
Hefting her crossbow, she loaded another bolt and watched their rear.
The creature shakes off Guru's magic, but it still provided enough of a momentary distraction for Hanzo to close the gap and slice up the lizard. The creature collapses.
"Very good, guys! We're making good progress with this plague." Thomas rearranged his weaponry and grips his sword firmly. After taking care of the corpses - a small dispute between Guruthos and himself, who wanted to just kick them down the pit - they moved on.
"So, Jori. You're saying nobody understands my angry-voice? Hmmm."
It's you, Bellmanok, isn't it? When I get angry and agitated, it's your voice that speaks through me, isn't it?
Of course, weakling. It's impressive how slow your thinking is and how long you took to figure that out. You really are as stupid as you look.
"It's infernal. The language. I know it's a rare language, but at least Chelish people speak it frequentely I believe. As I said before, I don't know exactly, why I know this language and why I can't control it.
A few meters farther down the tunnel he goes on. "So my eyes were glowing? That's new, I believe. Did I at least look cool?"
The party collects their stuff and leaves this large room for the stuffy corridors.
Turning the corner, you all see an open pit in the ground.
Jori was surprised that Thomas brought it up now, but happy that he was talking. She nodded seriously when he told them about his difficulties. Pent-up chatter burst out, though she tried to speak quietly as she walked with him. "Infernal? That doesn't sound good! I mean, really, it sounds scary when you speak it. Are you Chelish? I never would have guessed! I've never met anyone from Cheliax, is it really... you know... the way people talk about it?"
She grinned when he went on. "And yes, you DID look cool! I mean, more than usual!"
When they reached the pit, Jori warily peeked over the edge. "I wonder how far down it goes? Do you think they use a bridge to get over, and they just took it away? I bet kobolds don't need a very heavy bridge to get over."
Hanzo kept an eye on Guru as they walked - he sure hadn't been too friendly with the last thing that spoke Infernal that they'd met.
At least, he tried to, but the stupid ceilings were so low that he was mainly just giving him sidelong looks as they scuttled through, hunched over.
"Cool like a firecat, eyes all glowing. Wherever it goes, it won't be snowing," he quipped, but he looked around at the edge of the pit, too.
"Hey Thomas, hold the light higher. It's hard to see," he complained.
"Chelish, me? Nono. I'm Taldane. I told you that! Can anyone just jump over the pit and than we throw him a rope?"
When Thomas gets closer, the light reveals something dark. The pit is merely five square feet, and an alcove to the right provides a small slanted ledge you could use to walk around if needed. What lies before you is a pit trap that's been triggered, causing rubble to fall into the pit from the alcove and onto whoever was unlucky enough to be beneath it.
As Joriannika peers into the pit, she can easily see the horror. Two bodies lie at the bottom of this pit, bloodied and broken. One is short and stocky, with a squashed nose and blonde hair while the other is that of an ifrit, though the normally fire-like hair seems to be extremely dulled, as if the colors are fading to grey. If he wasn't bloody and buried under large sharp rocks, he'd be extremely handsome.
They don't seem to be moving.
When Thomas gets closer, the light reveals something dark. The pit is merely five square feet, and an alcove to the right provides a small slanted ledge you could use to walk around if needed. What lies before you is a pit trap that's been triggered, causing rubble to fall into the pit from the alcove and onto whoever was unlucky enough to be beneath it.
As Joriannika peers into the pit, she can easily see the horror. Two bodies lie at the bottom of this pit, bloodied and broken. One is short and stocky, with a squashed nose and blonde hair while the other is that of an ifrit, though the normally fire-like hair seems to be extremely dulled, as if the colors are fading to grey. If he wasn't bloody and buried under large sharp rocks, he'd be extremely handsome.
They don't seem to be moving.
Guruthos motions the spiral of Pharasma over the bodies (as he did over the fallen kobolds). He makes a mental note to come back and retrieve the bodies to give them a proper burial hen time permits.
Joriannika, distracted from Thomas' conversation by the dead, covered her mouth in horror, and looked away. When Guru made the sign of Pharasma over the bodies, she bowed her head in a moment of silence.
"They sure don't look like slaves, but if they were helping the kobolds, they probably wouldn't have been crushed... do you think there are others down here?" she whispered to the others, waiting for the others to take the point, and keeping an eye behind them as well.
"Other what- oh. Ew," Hanzo remarked, glancing into the pit. "Sad story by the look of it, but better them than one of us. Guru, let's keep going."
He, too, made a note to himself to come back for the bodies - but for what they were carrying, not to bury them. Adventurers might be carrying good stuff, if they hadn't been looted already.
Besides, he could help Guru haul them out of there. A kind of thanks for the things. And all respect to Pharasma, of course.
There don't seem to be any additional traps in this area.
Guruthos hops over the pit with ease.
Hanzo follows Guru.
Joriannika gives Thomas an encouraging smile, and eases her way along the side. She knew she wasn't as agile as the two scouts, and didn't want to break a leg falling into the pit.
Thomas smiles back and follows her.
This next room has two exiting tunnels to your right, one of which looks to have been secured by a wooden gate at one time, but the gate is unlatched and open. The path heading due south is unblocked, and there are two small alcoves in the northern part of the room. A mound of what appears to be rotten vegetables, fruit, and excrement sits heaped in the middle of the room.
"Maybe, before decide where to go next, we check, where the tunnel we just left would have brought us?"
Thomas motions to go back over the pit.
Guruthos frowns at the pile of filth, then nods a bit too eagerly at Thomas' suggestion. He crosses back over the pit and scouts back through the tunnel quietly.
At least, he attempted to be quite, but as he crossed the pit, his heal catches a sharp rock that causes a clicking sound as he walks.
The small sound echos a bit, but not in a worrisome way. The tunnel that heads west does, in fact, lead outside to the flooded quarry, perhaps 40 feet or so south from the tunnel you entered through.
There must have been guards posted at both entrances. The tribe had already been expecting some sort of retribution or retaliation.
Once the gang is back in the room with the pile of rotten fruits, vegetables, refuse...
While examining this cave, everyone except Hanzo notices some pieces of rope on the floor near the back of the larger alcove to the north. On the back wall of this alcove are a couple iron spikes, driven into the wall.
Thomas and Guruthos also notice a few small reptilian-looking scales. Very small, like noticing a long strand of hair on the floor...(in a dark cave underground).
There seems to be two tunnels, apart from the one you came through, that lead out of this room. One seems to primarily head west and its ceiling gets progressively higher. The wooden gate that is installed at the entrance of this tunnel is wide open.
The other tunnel heads directly south before curving left towards east.
"That's an interesting thought about animals being held here, Joriannika."
He picks up one of the scales. "Do these look koboldish to you? “
Then he checks the wooden gate and moves through it.
Guruthos examines the scales to see if he can determine what sort of creature they came from.
Though you're not terribly familiar, you've fought enough of them to know this is a kobold scale.
Thomas, the ceiling of this corridor rises higher and higher, to a lofty 12 ft. From your light, you see another wooden gate up ahead, also open.
"Careful, guys," Joriannika cautioned, trying to look in all directions at once as she stuck close by Thomas. "If there were animals here, they might be guards, cut loose and hungry. ...Maybe more giant rats, or... or something scaley," she shivered, letting her imagination roam. She watched carefully for any traps.
Hanzo kept to the opposite side of the corridor from Guru, ready to attack. He peered into the dark as far as his eyes could see.
Jori doesn't hear or see anything menacing as she stays close to Thomas' shoulder.
Hanzo listens intently and looks as far as he can, but senses nothing. It doesn't help that Thomas' is taking the light further away with every step.
"Guys, come here. Let's check out this corridor. You should lead as always."
Hanzo sighed gustily, glancing over at the elf absorbed in... whatever elves found interesting, and moved to take the lead, wary of traps - and of guard dogs. Or rats, in this case. Why did kobolds have to be so gross? You'd think they were goblins.
Guruthos snaps out of the strange memories the scales brought forth and rejoins the party, watching for traps and ambushes.
Hanzo and Guruthos, you find no evidence of booby traps or ambushes lying in wait. However, passing through the second wooden gate, you enter a large cave with a twelve-foot-high ceiling. Dozens of well-chewed deer bones lie scattered around the cave. Apart from the party itself, there doesn't seem to be anything else living.
Hanzo tried to back up, but the tunnel behind him was full. "Okay, this really looks like some big animal or animals lived here. Meat-eating ones. For all we know, it's hanging from the ceiling, waiting to drop on us. Let's get out of here, guys. I don't see any kobolds, anyway."
Joriannika kept looking back over their shoulders, nervous about being caught in a pincer move. "If there were animals in there, and in the cave from before... where are they now?" She liked animals, normally, but she wasn't really a country girl. She had no idea what kind of creatures a kobold tribe might keep.
Hanzo and Jori ready attacks aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand....
Nothing happens.
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"Let's head back then..."