Wrath cautiously looks down the hole "It's in a good spot, it's waiting for someone to enter and will likely attack the first thing in sight. If we can lure it out we might be able to restrain it before it can injure anyone else."
It turns out the hole merely leads under the house. Valtyra with her darkvision and then the others with the aid of the dancing lights sees the creature hunched behind one of the supports, watching the hole, and holding a nasty looking makeshift knife. It appears extremely gaunt and has a bit of a crazed look in its eyes. The crawl space appears large enough for a gnome to stand erect but anything over three feet tall will need to hunch and or crawl depending on its actual size.
Trunt hesitates for a moment and says, "I can... I can go after it...It doesn't seem to want to come out." Trunt draws a dagger from his belt and drops down into the hole. Keeping his eye toward the creature, he takes in the rest of the space for any other entrances or creatures.
Valtyra reminds Trunt, "Remember we want it alive, please don't kill it."
Hearing the plea to not kill it, and fearing that she might be listened to=, Runt summons a primordial dog and sics it on the goblin in the crawlspace.
While Trunt is still looking around, the dog charges past him and attacks the goblin (assuming no trap is sprung).
HP: 8
AC: 11 (13 -2 for charge)
Trunt can easily tell it is a goblin. He hears the request from Valtyra and then chaos erupts.The insane goblin charges the shocked gnome and just misses with its darting knife. Then a dog appears next to Trunt.
Trunt yells up at the rest of them and says, ”AH, there’s a crazy looking dog down here too! Anyone going to help?” and Trunt moves around the goblin, sensing it as the greater threat, placing it between himself and the dog and plunges his dagger at the goblin.
Isabella responds to the call for aid as quickly as anyone else, though she remains in the house while some of the others clamber down into the tunnel.
She says to the distraught housewife, "They'll do their best to bring your husband back and deal with the goblin, so now we just need to hope and pray that it's not too late. We'll do what we can to save your husband if it's possible."
Trunt's attack misses but the dog's doesn't. The bite draws blood causing the goblin to turn to try and deal with the situation. The action, taking place about four feet from the hole in the floor, can be heard and somewhat observed by those looking into the hole from the closet. The goblin, too crazed to run, slashes at the dog. He opens its throat and 'poof' it is gone.
Zandril shakes his head, "I can't leave Trunt down there by himself." Zandril draws his sword and squeezes himself through the hole.
"Uh, Zandril, you really don't want to do that. Goblins are particularly nasty when trapped in a hole. You guys should just let me flush it out with dogs."
As Runt mentions the idea of summoning more dogs to fight it, Zandril thinks better of his rash decision and backs away from the hole, "That's probably a much wiser idea."
"Try to lure it toward the hole Trunt," Wrath yells down into the opening. "If we can get it closer to the hole we might be able to grab it from out here and pull it out, or at least take some swings at it."
Wrath moves around the hole in the closet, he gets down on his knees and has his hands hovering above the hole, ready to grab the little green creature.
"Pardon me all, I think I can help! This is a little disgusting however."
Camil pulls a flask from his belt and drinks it quickly, dropping to the floor and spitting a stream of viscous liquid at the goblin.
Mrs Barrett looks past Isabella toward Rowan and her husband. "Is he going to be ok?"
Rowan has stabilized Mr Barrett but upon examination of the wound he sees the goblin has eaten off half the man's foot. It will take stronger magic than Rowan's to fix that.
Below the floor, Camil spits at the goblin. The little thing avoids getting stuck to the ground but it does end up with quite a bit on his torso and legs slowing him down (1/2 speed).
"Your husband will live, but unfortunately there's nothing I can do about his foot" Rowan says solemnly. He looks over at the hole in the floor. "Be careful down there. If you need to, come back so we can heal you."
Once again Runt summons a dog and has it charge
HP: 8
AC: 11 (13-2 for charge)
"This is fun, huh!?"
Valtyra steps back from the hole to give the rush of people a chance at a better view and to spit things down at the goblin. She answers Runt, "Fun for you and me. Not so fun for the goblin and your dogs."
Trunt again circles the Goblin looking for an opening and attacks when it’s attention is split between him and the dog who he now realizes is from Runt. Trunt manages to get in a vicious slice with his dagger.
Trunt's blade sinks deep in the goblin who glares at the gnome with unrivaled menace before the message from his heart contacts his brain to let him know he is dead. The goblin slips to the ground and the fight appears to be over. For what it matters, he has 3 silver in his belt purse.
In the house, Mrs Barrett runs to her husband and cries over his sleeping form. The young boy embraces his mother and won't let go but stays silent. She looks up at everyone in the room, "Thank you." she says. "Can you help me get him to Risa's Place? I know Lanalee and I think she will give us a room even this late at night. I don't think we can stay in this house anymore."
"It was just one goblin. And its dead now."
Runt just shrugs, not understanding the woman. Runt goes down into the hole just to make sure there is no other way in.
Trunt looks at the goblin slumping over and mutters to himself, "Well, that was easier than expected." Louder, to the rest of them above he says, " I took care of it everyone. Just the one Goblin, I'll take a quick look around." Trunt looks over the goblin's belongings and takes anything of value ignoring armor and weapons of poor make. Trunt also takes a good look around to see what the space is for and if there is anything else of interest.
"Of course Mrs. Barrett, I'm sure we can help move your husband." Looking toward the hole that Runt and Trunt have disappeared into, "Can you two drag that goblin out of there if there's no other way out? We don't want it staying there."
Camil turns to the rest of the room, "This never happens here, how is this happening now? We really need to figure this out. Its making no sense." Camil's growing frustration with the goblins in town showing on his face.
"I will try and bring him back to consciousness. Should make getting him out easier."
Rowan channels energy to heal the man. If the first channel doesn't wake him up, he continues channeling until it does.
"I think we should pay a visit to the goblins that are being held in the jail tomorrow. Maybe they can tell us what's really happening."
Runt and Trunk check the crawl space, which is just a typical crawl space. It is a well built house with a stone wall around the crawl space, apparently why the goblin couldn't get out. How he got in seems to be the question. They are able to lift the goblin out of the hole.
Rowan's channel brings the man around and then with the help of the group Mrs Barrett, Mr Barrett, and their son Eli, make the trip across town to Risa's Place. Lanalee and her brothers are all still up and take the couple in.
Afterward, the revelry of the evening is kind of shot. Some hang out for a little longer but most drift back to their homes or rooms to sleep off the evenings excitement. Before retiring, Rowan announces his intention to interrogate the goblins the following morning. Several of the newfound group of friends say they will join him.
The next morning Rowan is up and through his prayers early. Then he heads to the Sandpoint garrison, some of the others meet him there (who is going to help with goblin questioning?).
Camil finds himself outside the garrison in the morning, a cup of steaming tea in hand. As Rowan arrives Camil bounces to his feet and dumps the cup of tea next to him. Looking down at it he shrugs, “Wasnt a good cup of tea anyway. What are the odds we’ll get anything useful out of this? I’m starting to wonder if there is a mastermind behind this, someone setting it all up? Problem is, I can’t figure out why. I don’t know what cards we are holding, so i have no way of guessing what they’ve got.
Camil harrumphs and says to Rowan and the others, After you holding the door open and entering last.
Valtyra will not go to the goblin questioning. She's not altogether certain some of her new compatriots won't use distasteful methods on the goblin and she'd rather not have those memories. Instead she'll have a nice breakfast, try to make new friends amongst the people there, and think nice, happy thoughts about how well the goblins and the rest are going to get along.
Runt hates questioning goblins. Malicious twits lie as much as they tell the truth and they always do something gross.
"Not me. I'd rather go shopping or eat some more decent food. You guys can question the gobs and let me know if there is any purpose in their stupidity. Never seems to be except to have fun by hurting things, but who knows. You could be right, Mr. D'Este."
The next morning Zandril heads toward the garrison finding Camil along the way, "Good morning. What've we found ourselves getting into? Questioning goblins now?"
Rowan, Camil, Zandril and a handful of others show up at the garrison. There are several entrances but they find only one that is unlocked. They enter a medium sized room. One wall has a map of the town with various colored pins on it, dominating another wall is a desk where Sheriff Hemlock sits. There is a weapons rack standing behind the sheriff and on adjacent walls two doors provide exit from the room.
"Good morning," the sheriff says. "What kind of problem do you have for me today?' the exasperated man asks.
Rowan explains their desire to question one or all of the goblins. The sheriff nods his head, "Yeah, that was on my agenda today as well. I'll sit in but let you have a go at it first. I've been looking into some disturbing news I've gathered since the attack and need to see what they know about it. So, follow me." The big Shoanti man stands and pulls out a ring of keys tethered to his belt with a light chain. Seeing a couple of surprised looks he says, "Either I lost them during the raid or someone lifted my old set off of me. Wanted to make sure I didn't lose these."
The sheriff leads them through one of the doors to a staircase. They go down a level and exit out into a large room room with several barred cells along the walls on either side. A barrel of water sits next to the door with a ladle hanging above it. A large man, with a missing tooth and a flat nose, is exercising on a wooden dummy using a wooden sword. The goblins are each in a cell and are relatively well provided for. They have a blanket, cot, a tin cup, and a wooden plate.
The big man stops when you come in and looks at the Sheriff. Hemolock says, "This is Vachedi, our jailor. Pick your goblin, he'll get it out for you. By the way, I expect the mayor to sentence them today. Then we will hang them the day after tomorrow." He says this in a matter of fact tone but loud enough for all of the goblins to hear.
Once the group selects a goblin, Vachedi produces a set of small manacles, opens a cell, clubs the goblin a few times to make it compliant, puts it in chains and drags it out of the cell. He uses a simple lock to attach the manacles to an iron hook in the floor.
"All yours," he says and goes to sit in a nearby chair, club in hand.
The goblin is well out of it and will need reviving.
"Before we start this, do any of you speak goblin? It will likely be easier to get through to them if we are speaking their language. If he doesn't speak the common tongue, we could go get Runt. I'm pretty sure she knows goblin."
Once the language issue has been sorted out, Rowan says "There's two ways to do this. I say we should ask nicely first, and if that doesn't work we move on to threats."
When the others are ready, Rowan will channel energy to bring back the goblin.
Trunt works with Runt to heft the body out of the crawl space...but not really. He strength is abysmal compared to hers and he mostly ends up “managing”. ”Hey, thanks for the help down here Runt. I was a little worried I would be the only one down here with that goblin, but those dogs really helped.”
Trunt goes ahead with Rowan to the jail saying, ”I’d like to see what we can get out of them. Something fishy is going on here.” As they walk to the goblins, Trunt doesn’t bat an eye at the mention of their “sentencing”. In response to Rowan’s question about language, Trunt curses and says, ”Well, that’s inconvenient, my parents made me choose between Orc and Goblin and I chose Orc because they seemed scarier.”
I do speak goblin, i think going with gentle to start is the best way to begin here. Camil agrees with Rowan before the goblin is roused from unconsciousness.
@Camil: roger
Eh, we’ll see if it even does anything.
Trunt maneuvers behind Camil to observe the proceedings.
Camil sits, waiting for the goblin to regain consciousness. Once it does, he begins speaking in Goblin,
Waiting a moment to gauge the goblin's response, Camil continues "Why you come here and attack town? Strong walls, strong arms. Why bother? Why all work together? Now you get ouchies for your trouble."
Possibly seeing a breakthrough, Camil continues:
The goblin wakes up and is soon quite cooperative.
"Chief told us to go with longshanks warrior, like you. Told we will get chance to kill other longshanks and burn town while longshanks warrior go to graveyard on secret mission."
With the goblin’s words, Camil tilts his head to one side, considering the implications of what it said.
Was it a boy longshanks? Or a girl longshanks? And all your tribes came because of the chiefs words?
Zandril listens in silence.
The graveyard? That doesn't sound good.
Rowan waits for Camil to finish the interrogation.
"HIm boy. Don't know why other tribes come. My chief say go so I go."
Switching back to common for Zandril, Trunt and Rowan, "This one said his chief ordered him to follow a humanoid male to town and attack and burn so we were distracted while this fellow snuck into the graveyard on a special mission. I don't know if we need anything else from the prisoners?"
"The graveyard? Why would someone want to sneak into the graveyard? Ask him where their hideout is. Then we should go get the others and investigate the graveyard."