"What eis up weith yellow belly?! Pearhaps he is touched by lizard gods?"
Rolf loads another bolt and clicks it off, testing his new theory with genuine curiosity.
for
Tabin manages to catch the kobold in the jaw with a solid thwack, but the little reptile still has fight left in him. Screeching in anger, he stabs at the halfling again...
...but in his rage he miscalculates the distance and only stabs the wall behind Tabin. "Stand still and die!" he hisses in frustration.
Round 10! Bold may act!
Rolf
Tabin (-8)
Primketh
Jaeqil (-6)
Yellow (-4)
”Speak for yourself!”
At long last, Jaeqil is able to land a blow on the cagey kobold. With a thud, it topples to the floor in stunned silence.
After a few seconds, one of the humans chained to the wall squeaks out, "Who... who are you?" She is visibly not looking at Primketh or Jaeqil.
"I was theinking that would take forever!" Rolf huffs, nearly out of breath.
"We are friends of leetle town here, hired by mayor to get rid of kobolds. Who are you?" Rolf asks, approaching cautiously towards the chains that bind them.
"You're from Belhaim? Praise the stones - they must have finally sent someone after us!" the talkative woman replies. "I'm Bophre - Bophre Malak - my family runs a farm outside Belhaim - please, get us out of here! I just want to see my mum again..." She starts crying into her hands.
The other two flinch at the sounds of sobbing, then slowly relax as they eye the unmoving kobolds. "Aye, recken they can't whip us now," the man mutters at last. "Name's Carlo, and this here's Sela."
"We're just traveling merchants at the wrong place at the wrong time," Sela says shakily. "Can you get us out? One of the kobolds had the key." She holds out her manacled hands, displaying the length of chain connecting them with the iron spike driven into the cavern wall.
Rolf moves immediately to find the keys amongst the kobold's belongings to unlock the prisoners.
"Question while I unlock you," Rolf talks as he works, "How many kobolds do you theink are living here? Did you hear anything they are saying about plans and why they keep prisoners? Theis eis not seeming right for kobolds to do..."
Jaeqil looks at the chained individuals as Rolf unlocks them and how they look at him and Primketh.
Racists. Typical.
But says nothing.
"I don't know how many there are," Sela says slowly as Rolf turns over fallen kobolds with great effort. "There were only ever a handful here with us, and we never went much further into the caves."
"Aye, but the big one? It was huge as a dragon, with a voice like thunder and fire in 'is-"
"Oh, put a sock in it, Carlo," Bophre says through her hands. "We wasn't captured by some great 'n' terrible dragon - stop telling stories to make yourself look good." The farmgirl slowly lowers her hands as Rolf approaches, key in hand and triumphant grin on his face. "They made us work like slaves, making tools and ornaments. I haven't a clue what they used 'em for - they was always taking 'em away soon as we finished." She removes the manacles and rubs her hands as the Ulfen releases the other two prisoners.
"Please, can you take us outside? We should be fine to make it back to Belhaim from there." Sela's voice is tired, but hopeful.
"Are we being so sure we have keeled all kobolds? Peerhaps you should wait just a moment and we make sure all coasting is able to see through." Rolf nods back the way that the first group of kobolds had hidden when they entered the cave entrance, suggesting they make their way out that door.
"Wait just one second... how beeg eis dragon you say?" Rolf catches himself as the words sink in...
Noticing the intentional lack of eye contact between the prisoners and himself and Jaeqil, Primketh decides not to address them, being all too familiar with this kind of discrimination.
"Yes, Rolf my good leader, let's be sure the coasting is completely transparent before we exit." Primketh's cat-face brightens into a slight smile.
"If you listened to him tell it, we fought off waves and waves of ferocious kobold warriors before our wagon was incinerated by a conjured demon-spawn dragon and we were thrown back against a boulder by the blast and knocked unconscious." Sela clearly knows her traveling companion well as she cuts Carlo off before he can speak. "Truth is, they caught us while we were sleeping - woke up to spears in our faces. We had no weapons, no way to escape. Surrender and servitude was the only option."
As the group leaves the darkness of the caves for the now too-bright sunlight, Bophre wipes her eyes. "We... we did it... we lived..." she whispers incredulously. "I haven't seen sunlight in... I don't know how long." Overcome with emotion, she throws herself on the nearest adventurer...
...and Jaeqil suddenly finds himself locked in a desperate hug by the newly-freed prisoner. "Thank you," she sobs. "You saved us all." Behind her, Carlo shakes Primketh's paw as Sela bows to Tabin and Rolf. In the warm afternoon light, hope springs forth again.
Eventually, the three ex-prisoners collect themselves and head off down the trail to Belhaim. "Be sure to stop by my ma's farm!" Bophre call over her shoulder one last time. "I'm sure she'll want to thank you too!" Sela waves and Carlo salutes jauntily as the adventurers turn back to the cramped, dark tunnels of the kobold lair.
Jaeqil nearly clobbers the woman out of sheer reflex when she goes to hug him. He just stands there awkwardly, unsure of what to do in the circumstance until the freed prisoners leave.
”Well, seems we’ve only got one place to go.”
"Nice folk those bunch, we'll have to visit them when we get back to town. I suspect they won't be too keen on leaving for a while."
"Before we go too far, anyone got a way of fixing me up?
Rolf smiles as the group of prisoners is released and follows the others to the bottom part of the caves.
"I have theese?" Rolf holds up his potion of cure moderate wounds.
"I'm nearly tapped out of magic for the day, but before we use that potion I can spare a spell for you, Tabin." Primketh then casts cure light wounds on Tabin.
Tabin stops Primketh before he starts.
"Maybe you should use that on Jaeqil if you've nearly run dry. He's the one that rushes up into trouble.
Primketh nods at Tabin, then uses the cure spell on Jaeqil instead.
"Much obliged."
The adventurers head back into the kobold caves, this time turning down the southern fork. In the light of his spell, Primketh spots a small alcove in the side of the passage littered with debris. What he does not spot is a suspiciously-straight line in the cavern floor ahead of him. As he and Jaeqil advance, a small click is all the warning the two get before the floor opens up beneath them...
...and the ghoran watches from the edge of the pit as Primketh tumbles down! To add injury to injury, a string pulls a false floor in the alcove up and sends the small limestone boulders stored there down on top of the poor catfolk...
...where they batter his already-bruised body.
Jaeqil glances over the pit’s edge at the fallen feline.
”Well…Uh…that was close…”
The leaf-man pulls out a set of rope and begins tying periodic knots into its length.
"Nooo!!!" Rolf shouts as the catastrophic trap swallows his feline friend.
"Are you alive Preemketh?!" Rolf tries to keep the panic out of his voice, attempting to project calm. He fumbles for his potion acquired earlier and tries to figure out how to get it down to the agile cat.
"Jaeqil, I weel climb down eif I must..." Rolf hikes up his robes and spits on his hands, getting ready to slide down the side of the pit.
"Meowch!" says Primketh as he hits the floor of the pit, followed by "Ooof!" as the boulders tumble onto him. "I ... don't ... feel so great ..."
With Primketh standing bloody and battered at the bottom of the pit, the adventurers must quickly devise a plan to get him out.
Using the rope that Jaeqil is tying off, Rolf wraps the loose end around his waist. Testing it for support, he allows himself to be lowered down to the injured oracle. Once down there, he retrieves his potion of cure moderate wounds and helps his feline friend drink it down.
"Feeling leetle beit better?" he asks hopefully.
Primketh is woozy as he drinks the potion, then perks right back up. "Ah yes, thank you Rolf! Much better indeed. I suppose this shows that I need to be a bit more wary and check more diligently for pits and such." Primketh uses his cat-like climbing skills to get back out of the pit, then waits for his comrades to cross before advancing any further.
Face red, brow beaded with sweat, Rolf's knuckles appear over the edge of the pit. He grunts and groans as he pulls, laying his head down on the floor as soon as he clears the edge as if it might give him more leverage to pull himself up.
Finally, Jaeqil finishes hoisting the ulfen out of the pit and Rolf rolls onto his side, his breath heaving from the unnecessary effort.
"Ha!" he laughs between gasps for air. "You deed not have to pull at all deid you?! I am good climber." he gasps as he raises himself to his knees and dusts off his robes.
"Leetle beet farther to go we think?" he asks, hoisting his loaded crossbow and raising his eyebrows several times suggestively.
With Primketh rescued, the adventurers carefully creep around the edge of the now-exposed pit. The light from the catfolk's spell bobs and weaves as he carefully keeps his footing, causing the shadows the jump and flicker.
The tunnel widens into another cave with a mound of what appears to be rotten vegetables, fruit, and excrement heaped in the middle. A bulging leather sack rests atop the mound of garbage. In an alcove to the north, a single kobold sits lashed to iron spikes driven into the wall. Their arms, legs, and snout are all tightly bound with rope. Seeing the invaders enter, they start wriggling and squirming furiously.
"Theese eis curious." Rolf puts his elbow in one hand and the other hand up to his chin, tapping his lips with his forefinger. "Why now would kobold tie up kobold? Are we thinking they will give us answers? Why not find out?" he shrugs. He takes a step forward to walk over to the bound creatures before he remembers what happened to Primketh. Yea, I peerhaps would not have survived that."
The witch looks around the room as he makes his way to the prisoners, making sure there isn't a trap somewhere along the way.
”But it’s a—Fine, whatever, let’s listen to it.”
"I don't know how to speak their language, but I'm willing to hear it out."
Still, Tabin keeps an arrow knocked in case there is any treachery afoot.
"I can speek eit." Rolf says confidently in his 'e' heavy accent, not exactly inspiring confidence in his comrades. "Seems strange for kobolds to be tied up by their own kin, no? Pearhaps we don't get answers, but instead we get the right questions to ask someone else?" Rolf shrugs.
Kobolds by their very nature were evil little lizard vermin, and ending their lives was not something that made him blink or feel bad about in the least. But getting information that could be useful to things that have been happening lately, especially in light of the human prisoner's reports of being forced to manufacture things and take them away... Rolf's mind was spinning at what terrible things might be lurking a little deeper in the forest. As if they are stomping on an anthill, only to find a thriving colony hidden deep below.
"Qui te reliquit alligaretur hic quid? Esto mansuetus! Omnes amici tui aliis mortuis."
Rolf cautiously approaches, but the ground holds steady beneath him and nothing falls from above. After he says his piece and cuts the ropes binding the kobold's snout, she blurts back, "Hey! You look like you change things 'round here! I suffer enough at Chief Roaghaz's stupid whims. I help you!" She squirms and flashes a toothy, helpful smile.
Well...that escalated quickly.
The ghoran, confused out of his mind, leaves the talking to the others.
"Go ahead, say more."
Tabin lowers his bow, but keeps his arrow knocked.
"You are not taking me for sucker of thumbs are you leetle kobold? You are thinking we will let you go and you will be leetle healper for Rolf the Northman?" Rolf tries to pretend like it is a terrible idea. Logically, it probably is.
But something inside the witch whispers sweet nothings in his ear, about a powerful northman who can pull the strings of fate, and his little kobold servant. Maybe the idea isn't so bad after all...
"What eis it you think you can help us with? What eis your name leetle leezard?" Rolf tries, unsuccessfully, to stop thinking about adopting a lizard pet.
"You call me Nighttail," the kobold says, rocking back and forth as much as her bonds permit. "You cut me lose, give me back stuff," she gestures with her head towards the sack atop the garbage heap, "I help you reach Chief Roaghaz, kill him, take control of tribe, take tribe far away from here, yes? Soft-skins only ever want kobolds to leave."
"Well, she's not wrong about that..." Jaeqil grumbles.
Visions of an entire tribe of kobolds at his beck and call swarm Rolf's thoughts before he shakes his head, realizing it is foolhardy to begin with. The ulfen walks over to the sack and opens it up, poking around to see what is inside. While he looks, he continues to speak to Nighttail.
"Yes, you are right. Everyone eis not always appreciating talents of scale-skins." Rolf shows some empathy towards the bound creature. "Why eis Chief Roaghaz wanting to be here and making tools? He must theink he eis clever, but peerhaps not as clever as Nighttail I think. Why eis he here?" Rolf reiterates the question, holding the bag now as he squats next to Nighttail.
As they were planning to take on the chief, Tabin thought it best to be at full strength. He quaffs his healing potion.
He feels completely refreshed.
Inside the bag, Rolf finds several bottles, a few bones, an oversized spoon, a stick, a small spear, a shiny rock, a pointy rock, a handful of silver coins, and a small suit of leather armor.
"Chief here because this Blood Vow lair," Nightail says slowly. "Chief live in lair with rest of tribe. You sure you alright, human? You need help for sure, or Chief Roaghaz cut your head off and drink blood from it for sure."
Rolf nods his head, contemplating Nighttail's matter-of-fact proclamation. "Ok, I am thinking peerhaps Nighttail can help us." Rolf drops the sack in front of the bound kobold. "But you are steill needing to answer my question, I weill try defferint way. Why is Chief Ro-ag-haz making tools with slaves and where eis he sending them?" Rolf forces the enunciation of the chief's name.
Jaeqil growls in response. It’s clear he doesn’t like working with a kobold, but he’s not outright denying it.
Tabin awaits a response from the kobold.
Primketh catches Rolf's eye and gives his leader a quick nod of approval regarding his approach.
Rolf moves to unlock the chains, but waits patiently for Nighttail to answer his question about the Chief's intentions.
"Also, how far away eis chief now? We are maybe needing to catch breath before keeling chief and putting you in charge."
Nighttail shrugs. "Not know. Chief Roaghaz keep them maybe? Human so interested in tools, ask Chief Roaghaz himself - before cut off Chief Roaghaz head. He live deep below ground - we barely out of sunlight here. I know shortcut though. Big enough for human even." She looks longingly at the contents of the sack, then back up at Rolf. "Shortcut also go by friend. We rescue?"