"ME SAY NO GO!" screams Gruhx as he takes off after the flying goblin...smoke erupting from his ears.
Closing the distance, he can't quite get close enough to attack again.
Eli finishes crossing the bridge and hustles to catch up to Oren and his gobo.
Madir crosses the bridge, and Black rushes after the fleeing goblin, catching up to it and assaulting it.
Gruhx rushes after the poor goblin, who is constantly looking behind himself with wide eyes and growing fear.
Madir rushes across the bridge, and Black rushes at the goblin, but the little creature ducks and rolls as it runs, showing surprising agility. Black sweeps overhead, claws outstretched.
Eli and Oren rush after the little creature, who is about to turn left and bolt along the stream bed to follow the open land. Oren's blast obliterates a small tree to the goblin's left, and the top of the sapling begins to lean towards the stream, about to fall into it.
Tallvar, seeing the goblins on the run and knowing that there's no way he could catch them from his position, draws and loads his crossbow. He watches the area around them, making sure there are no further enemies about.
The goblins keep true to their real motivation of self preservation, and run away.
Channeling his frustration, Oren does his best to keep up with the fleeing goblin and tries to blast it before it gets away.
Move Action:Move 20'.
Standard Action:
As Madir moves further, Black makes another attack!
Rushing forward, Gruhx continues to see red. While a calmer mind would grab the creature...the trox twirls the rope about his head at amazing speed and slaps the goblin across the face. "How you like?! You tink ok fer me, is ok fer ya too?!!!"
Eli will Catch up to Oren and cast Guidance to a +1 on his next attack roll.
Tallvar lines up his crossbow and takes a shot, knowing full well that he has little chance of hitting anything at this range. Alas, his bolt thuds into a sapling more than twenty feet before hitting its target.
As Black and Oren miss their quarry, Gruhx slaps the western goblin with his improvised whip, thoroughly removing its face. The bloody, nearly headless body stumbles to the ground, quite dead.
Oren takes shots at the goblin as it tries to flee, a little bit of desperation helping to full his ability.
Oren blasts away at the goblin with abandon, slashing through saplings and bursting through bushes in a desperate attempt to stop the fleeing goblin. And, that he does; Oren blasts the back of the creature, flaying him with scouring sand. The goblin falls, bleeding and dying as it lay half in the stream.
A quick search of the goblin bodies yields very little - they have crude weapons, a broken fishing rod, and a basket of fish. And..a particular firework you've seen before - a Desnan candle.
Around you, the swamp has gone completely quiet, but the lack of sound is much more frightening than the mysterious sounds from earlier - its as if the entire swamp has gone silent just to watch you.
Oren breathes a sigh of relief when the the goblin falls. "Hopefully we've bought ourselves some time and the noise didn't sound the alarm for them."
Oren takes the firework from the goblin's body. "Maybe it'll be useful." He wraps the candle in a bit of cloth, to keep the igniter from exposure to 'accidental goblin fires.
He checks with the others, making sure that everyone is alright, before he leads the way further down the path.
Calming down as the goblin threat is ended, Gruhx let's put a loud *Yawn*
Sighing as Oren pushes further in, he stuffs the rope back in his pack. "We take nap now?"
Tallvar sighs in relief. Fighting the little monsters was bad enough; they definitely didn't need one escaping and warning all its little goblin friends.
The half-elf hurries across the bridge to catch up with the others. "Sorry, Gruhx," he says with an apologetic smile. "No time for a nap yet. Maybe in a little bit."
As Oren pockets the Desnan candle, Madir looks at it with interest. "Pardon, Oren, but... what is that?"
You continue on, and the path turns to the south; as far as you can tell, the bay is to your right (west) as you head south, but you of course cannot see it through the trees. You pass over two more bridges as you proceed along the path
You pass over the last two bridges without mishap, and the path turns to head directly to the west. The path clears a bit, and from here a muddy trail leads up to a swampy lagoon. The open ocean is visible just beyond these shallow waters, while an old two-story building, its walls soggy with moss and its roof sagging with age, sits on the lagoon's eastern shore.
Before they leave, Oren goes about the grisly task of collecting ears from the bodies, wrapping them up in something to keep the blood from getting on anything else. The look on his face shows that he clearly doesn't enjoy this.
"This," he replies to Madir's question, "is a firework from the Festival. Goblins must have snatched some while they were running amok."
-----------------------------------
As they come upon the run down dwelling, Oren brings the group to halt. "Let's be cautious. If this is the hermit that we heard about, we aren't out to hurt him, but he could be defensive about us being here."
Once everyone is ready, Oren will lead the way to the house and yell out, "Hello there! Warden Walthus Proudstump?! We'd like to talk with if, if you'd be willing to give us a moment of your time!"
After Oren's call, a thumping can be heard from within. A few moments later, the front door to the shack opens, and a brown haired halfling pops his head out. The halfling looks weary, and his eyes are lidded. He does not open the door the whole way, but squints against the light of day, and yells back. Hello! I'm actually a bit busy right now...could you come back some other time?
Without waiting for a reply, he shuts the door.
Eli moves up beside Oren and gives the door another knock.
"We understand you are busy sir and we hate to be of bother. We are here on a mission of grave importance to Sandpoint and very much need your help."
The door cracks open again, and the halfling looks out, and up. Grave importance, huh? Well that does sound...important. I may not be much help, but what is it you need?
"A goblin force attacked Sandpoint, supposedly from different tribes," says Oren to the halfling, "so we're here to cut the little runts down to size. We'd like to ask for you help with finding them. Especially the one called Gutwad."
"..Of the Licktoad Tribe, if that helps." Madir adds.
Eli looks at the Halfling in the door.
... and doesn't notice anything unusual.
Tallvar takes a good look at the halfling, icy blue eyes examining him closely. "Erm, forgive me if this is rude," he says, "but are you ill? You look... unwell."
Proudstump blinks against the hazy light of day as he looks up at the motley crew before him. Hey, sure....I can help. How about a map...I'll draw you a map to get you there...that okay?
He smiles weakly at Tallvar. Yeah...had a bit of a run in with a few snakes out back...think one got me good. Just a bit run down is all.
He looks back to Oren. So...just stand there and I'll be right back, okay?
Without waiting for an answer, he shuts the door, himself on the inside.
"What kind of snake?" Madir asks.
Oren nods as the halfling goes back inside, trying to ignore the door being shut into his face once more.
When he comes back out, Oren says, "We certainly don't expect this for free, though we are appreciative of the help. Would you be willing to have Eli here look at the wound? Maybe he can help you get back onto your feet again." He motions to the cleric as he speaks.
Proudstump returns, clutching a crudely drawn map on parchment, showing where you are, and where the goblin village can be found. He hands it over, smiling widely. With a look at Madir, he seems confused, then shrugs. Oh you know...just a snake...big one too. I'm sure it's one native to these parts, but it sure didn't like me!
Madir can't, at a glance, determine what type of snake it could be, though he knows for sure that there would be many different species in this swamp.
Proudstump's face lights up at the thought of some assistance, and he nods excitedly. Oh yes, yes....please! I would very much appreciate that. I know you have much to do...those goblins certainly need to be taken care of - they're a danger to us all!
Oren raises his own hand at the halfling defensively, taking a step back. "Sure. How about you put whatever that is away first. We're happy to help, but you keep your snakes to yourself, 'warden'." He says that last word almost mockingly, but the threat in his voice is audible. "You can cuddle with your snakes all you want, but we have no desire to sample their poison along with you."
Proudstump jumps as if startled, and drops the map he had made. He shakes his head quickly as if to shake out a thought, then smiles again. Course...sorry if I scared ya'. My snakes...right...I'll do that. He gestures at the parchment on the porch. There it is for ya'; now if that's all, I'll get back to my work. He begins to close the door.
Letting the hobo... I mean, halfling... go back into his house, Oren says under his breath, "Eli, any chance you could check that parchment for poison? Not sure how much I trust that guy."
Before the Warden heads back inside Eli tries to help any way he can with the poison. .
Seeing the shifting of Proudstump's hand Eli steps back wondering what else could be going on with the little hermit.
And finally Eli will pick up the parchment and check to see if there is any venom on it that might hurt them
Eli looks at Proudstump's wounds, and the halfling submits to the inspection, but only with considerable unease. He looks about constantly, as if concerned that the dastardly snake may be lurking about waiting to finish the job. He is indeed poisoned, but Eli is able to localize it and clean the wound enough so that Proudstump should be able to heal on his own. The warden mumbles his thanks before returning to the shack.
The Cleric then gives the parchment a once-over and finds it to be a clean (from poison) normal parchment with a childishly drawn map on it.
Oren nods his thanks to Eli. "Well this doesn't tell us much, does it?" he says, looking over the map. "Not even sure that we can assume that north is up. Guess it's all we've got at this point, unless someone wants to take another crack at getting help from the 'good Warden' in there."
Oren surveys the map and is able to relate it to their position, but only because Proudstump made sure to scribble on one said and write "Watr" on it....one would assume that's the sea, which would like directly to your west.
"An odd man... I don't understand his lack of desire to stay in touch." He looks over the building a bit, mulling over the difference between the warden and himself. "Well, let's move on."
"Regardless of how we do this, I don't suggest that we head straight for the village, nor go along the beaten path. They will definitely be watching those routes. I'm thinking that we cross this river as soon as possible, then follow it to the goblin village."
Oren looks to the others, "Any objections?"
Scratching his head, Gruhx looks down to the little dwarf. "Me no see snake...jess strange man..."
Another moment passes and he slowly nods. "Sound gud. You say where go is gud."
Gruhx's assent seems to spur everyone into motion, and the group heads out from the shack to the south. You first progress along an open beach, and pass with the shack on your west.
The beach continues along and you follow that instead of heading into the brush, but that doesn't last forever. After a short walk of twent minutes or so, the brush stretches out onto the beach, cluttering the fine walk as sand gives way to a mix of sand and dirt. Soon, you waist deep in nettles and briars.
After a few more minutes, you reach the mouth of a river, presumably the Soggy river itself. The waters are fairly placid, and about twenty feet across here.
Oren does his best to lead the others through the difficult terrain with as few problems as possible.
He comes up short to the water, seeing the truth of the obstacle in front of them, and a realization came to Oren. "So, how is everyone's swimming skills? I, uh... haven't exactly gotten the hang of it, yet."
Sizing up the river, Madir attempts to reassure Oren. "it shouldn't be a hard swim."
He then dives and starts swimming across...
Madir confidently strides into the river, turning at the last moment to reassure the rest of you. When he turns back, his foot hits a sludge covered rock face, and his feet go out from under him. He slides down the sloped rock to plunge into deeper waters.
From the perspective of the beach, at one moment Madir is walking, and the next there's an erk sound and he disappears.
With an unsightly display of struggle, Madir manages to swim back to the surface and gasp for air. Once he's regained his breath, he turns to the others.
"Some of the rocks are slippery."
Madir makes it to the other side, eventually. On the other bank, the swamp is more of the same - thick brush to the South and east.
Oren just watches the display with a slightly blanched expression on his face. "That.... looks horrible..." is all that he says.
"I do not know how to swim. Much less in this armor." Eli is reluctant to set foot in the water after Madir's ... display of the skill.
"Might there be another way across my friends?"
"Gruhx carry widdle guys?" inquires the trox. "You no looks 'eavy."
Madir attests to it only being eight or ten feet deep - his feet had skimmed the bottom.