The goblin facing Madir turns tail and runs, hoping to slip back through the door to the small hut and into safety.
The goblin that had been attacking Tallvar looks confused, but shrugs to himself and screeches out a war cry as he steps to swing at Oren.
The goblin atop the building steps back and fires his arrow at Black.
The goblin with the firework gets the tube in place and manages to get it lit. Sparks fly as the long fuse quickly shrinks.
Gruhx
Eli
Madir and Black
Goblins
Oren
Unsuccesful at swiping at the fleeing goblin, Madir and Black both continue to attack their targets.
Seeing his companion in trouble, Gruhx lumbers forward and reaches for the goblin fighting oren with his smaller, stubby arms.
Holding the small beast aloft, he scowls down at its tiny face.
Oren nods in thanks to the large Trox and takes a swing at the grappled goblin with his pick.
Oren swats at the goblin, but is off target by the wily little creature's antics. Tallvar sees the battle, and steps back to take a line bead on the goblin. He fires his crossbow, taking special care not to hit Oren in the process.
He misses his mark, and Gruhx reaches out to grab the goblin and raise him up high. Eli makes a target of himself, to help Madir's defenses against the little creatures.
As he does, Madir rushes in to follow the running goblin, running through one of the small roofed huts to do so. Thankfully, the hut is empty, and the goblin rushes out a door on the other side. The goblin turns at the last second, just in time to catch Madir's sword in its chest. It slumps off to the side of the walkway, dying.
The goblins burst into action...sort of. The one in Gruhx's grasp tries desperately to escape its predicament. He fails miserably, and looks about to try and bite his way out.
The rocket launches out of the tube with a fiery display, shocking the goblin standing beside it, as it had been looking into the tube to see if the thing was working.
The rocket flies true, and had been aimed at Madir's position. It explodes right at Eli's feet, bursting into a fiery conflagration that is both frightening and beautiful.
The goblin commando takes another step back and fires at Black again. He misses as Black deftly slips aside.
Gruhx
Eli
Madir and Black
Goblins
Oren
Oren frowns at the goblin in front of him and takes a step back to blast is with sand.
Free Action: 5-Foot Step
Standard Action:
Grasping the small figure tightly, Gruhx quickly carries it away from his companions. "You no hurt widdles ones!"
Wordless, Madir dashes further to take down the fleeing goblin. Meanwhile, contrasting his companion with a screech, Black continues to make life hard for the commando on the rooftop.
Tallvar and Eli attempt to skip aside and avoid the flames of the fireworks. Both fail to move out of the way in time, and the initial fiery burst from the firework flash fries their skin.
Oren's blast misses the target entirely, as Gruhx surprisingly simply turns and starts to carry it away. Oren watches Gruhx admonishing the little squirming creature in his grasp.
Tallvar curses and falls to his knees. He crawls away from the blast, mud mixing with blood as he moves along.
Gruhx continues to walk away, carrying the squirming goblin.
Eli gasps in pain. Clutching his holy symbol, he calls for the power of his deity, which he sends out in a burst.
Madir, having cut down one goblin, simply moves on to the next. He cuts down the blinded goblin who had ignited the firework, his sweeping strike sending the goblin over the edge and onto the muddy ground.
Black attacks the goblin archer again, but can't seem to break its defenses.
The goblin in Gruhx's grasp attempts to bite his way out by gnawing on his captor.
The goblin archer atop the roof is smart enough to see the predicament he's in, given that his allies are nearly all dead. He backs away from Black and drops down from the roof, rushing to the south and through an open door.
Gruhx
Eli
Madir and Black
Goblins
Oren
Madir will move into the next building. Meanwhile, Black, unable to enter the building without severe slowdown, perches on its roof.
Madir moves into the next room and finds it to be much the same as the other huts. There is straw bedding, refuse, and the stench of a goblin's lifestyle. There is not, however, a single goblin herein.
Seeing that the way is currently clear, Oren gets closer to Gruhx and tells him, "See if you can get the little weasel to tells us what's going on around here." He then takes a bit of time to start the grisly task of harvesting goblin ears.
Tallvar and Eli follow after Madir, who rushes into a roofed hut in the distance.
Wincing at the bite, Gruhx moves to put his fist through the bugger...stopping just short. Glancing back towards the noise, he begrudgingly nods to Oren.
"Yes'm boss."
Raising the little creature to eye level, the trox frowns. 'It no understand...oh! Slow talk...'
"WAT....BE.....GOES.....ON....'ERE?!" he shouts into the goblins face. "WHY.....YOUS.....STOOOP......PID?"
The goblin squeals in fear at the roaring visage before it. It starts blabbering in Goblin.
As he collects the ears, Oren sighs at the drama unfolding not too far away. "Really should have payed more attention when Shae was trying to teach me their language."
He finishes his task and joins up with the others. "I'm not sure if it's us, or something else, but something has these creatures spooked," he says, as he takes up the rear.
As Oren goes about his grisly work, you can hear some commotion in the southwest, which is where the goblin archer had gone.
Shaking his head at the nonsensical noise coming out of the goblin's head, Gruhx tries again...getting close to the things face this time.
Glancing towards Oren, he shrugs. "Sowy boss. It no can talks. I throw at noise?"
Madir sends Black back in the air to monitor the area.
"There must be more. We haven't seen their chieftain yet."
Black sets to watching, but doesn't see the archer goblin come back out of the large building into which he ran. There is a bit of commotion still in that building.
The goblin in Gruhx's clutches whimpers and pees itself.
Oren stifles a chuckle at the sight of flying goblin. "Hold onto him, for now, if you can. He might be useful."
Oren then turns his attention to the front of the group. "Shall we go introduce ourselves?"
Tallvar tilts his head quizzically at the goblin's words. Even having learned to understand their language didn't mean what they actually said made sense all the time. "He's saying something about bones. Coming here, killing friends." The half-elf scratches his head. "It doesn't make a lot of sense."
He steps closer to Gruhx and his tiny captive. He begins speaking in the goblin's chattering tongue.
Eyeing Tallvar strangely, Gruhx looks over to Oren "Dis one make strange noises too."
With but a shrug he holds the tiny...wet...goblin out towards Tallvar.
Eli looks to his companions. "Talvar, what did he say? Should we proceed into the village and finish them all?"
The little goblin's eyes widen as this longshanks speaks its own language. It starts blathering incoherently, but Gruhx shakes it a bit and it refocuses, and speaks in goblin.
Bones walk! Walking bones come to home, kill many. Bones leave, but chief still say no come out...hide, we hide!
"Walking bones ... perhaps ... Do you all think that this could be the work of a band of undead skeletons?" Eli looks to the others to see what they think. Goblins and Skeletons ... things do not seem good.
"Shkell-lettuns? Wha' dat? Gruhx toss stinky ting at it?"
Looking around, the large man attempts to identify one of these "things".
After quickly surveying the muddy area around the base of the walkways, you see no signs of boney thingies.
As you survey the ground, Black catches sight of some movement. The previously retreating archer bursts out of one of the roofed huts with three more goblin pals. He comes out in between buildings, standing atop of ladder that leads down to the muddy ground.
"There's more on the move."
Without waiting for a response, Madir moves up against the wall of the next building, calling Black to Come to him.
He plans to attack the first goblin to come out of the building.
Tallvar gulps and nods, clutching his crossbow tightly in his hands. He moves forward with the others, preparing to attack the goblins.
Unsure what to make of the goblin's talk of bone-things, Madir makes his way up behind Madir, ready for more goblin attacks.
Madir sets up at the door to the next hut and waits, while the others follow suite and line up behind. Gruhx still shakes and throttles the little goblin he'd scooped up as his friends advance.
As Madir waits for the enemy, though - they decide to take a different route! The goblins appear on the ground in a small area in between walkways. They have small bows out and ready to fire!
The goblin archer seems to act first, and lets an arrow fly at Oren.
Oren is caught be surprise by the goblin's attack and manages to re-direct the shot some, but not enough to avoid damage completely.
Frustrated by his distraction, he turns on the archer goblin and fires a blast of sand at it.
Tallvar raises his crossbow and lines up a shot, taking aim at the goblin archer.
Oren and Tallvar target the goblins with their ranged attacks, but the surprise from their arrival makes their shots go wide. Oren's blast splinters the wood of a walkway just above the goblin archer, and Tallvar's crossbow skims across a goblin's upraised bow, slipping aside harmlessly.
The two goblins with the archer fire arrows back! Tallvar ducks under an arrow, but the other hits Oren in the arm.
Another goblin charges out of the hut by Madir, a dogslicer raised.
The goblin slices at Madir.
Tallvar
Oren
Madir
Goblins
Gruhx
Eli
Madir swipes right as the goblin enters, but misses the critter completely! He calls for Black to join him, and presses the attack!
Black approaches the goblin from the back, flaking the creature from both sides.
Madir lays into the goblin with strikes from various angles, expertly lopping off an arm then slashing to the side with the backstroke to cut through the throat. Black then descends upon the goblin with raking claws, and tears off the head, which is only lightly held on by strips of flesh. The hideous display that was once a goblin tumbles to the side and off the walkway.
Black frantically shakes its claw, trying to remove the dismembered head from its talons.
Hearing the sounds of his friends fighting from somewhere unseen, Gruhx calls out "Need Gruhx? O is gud?"
Hearing only the sound of a fight in reply, the big man climbs over the walkway into the next courtyard....taking up most of it on his own.
"Watt go'n on?"
Eli uses his action to Aid another for Talvar, Pointing out where he thinks the Goblin may be vulnerable.