The rage of dragons guides Ragna's hand as she chases down the fleeing monkey-thing and delivers a solid blow to its back.
Seeing the fleeing creature weave its way past the group and out into the hallway, Highness attempted to do the same, following the creature in an attempt to stop it before it alerted its allies.
Ragna runs after the charau-ka and buries her hatchet in its furry back, cleaving into the spine and laying it out on the floor at Ren's feet.
Highness, unhampered by the darkness past the arcane light, scampers after the other charau-ka down the corridor. He reaches the vaultway and hears the creature's shrill shrieks echoing from one of the corridors leading south but cannot see it. Not wanting to split the party, the goblin-king returns toward the group.
Alak hesitates. "Should we go after it?" he asks. "It could just lead us into an ambush. The dark doesn't seem to bother it."
The haze of draconic rage passes over Ragna as quickly as it had arrived. "No." She grumbles, looking down at the monkey corpse before her, her axe stained with its blood. "Let's find the goblins before it's too late"
Momentarily bewildered by the dashing and screaming monkeys Shaserai nods at Ragna's words. "I concur. Our first priority is to rescue the missing Bumblebashers." The priest looks at Alak and with a nod towards him adds, "Next to finding your ring, of course." He steps further into the room, intent on continuing the search "Let's not waste any time."
The door at the far northern end of this long, narrow room has debris piled in front of it, clearly the source of the objects Alak was pelted with by the charau-ka. It looks like it was once fine mahogany furniture, now broken in pieces and mixed with chunks of stone and broken masonry. Besides that door and the two by which the party entered, there is a fourth door in the western wall.
As the northern door is blocked by the rubble Shaserai tries to open the door on the western wall.
"Let's not forget the bear..." Jonagher adds, "Though how we'll subdue such a creature is beyond me. Does anyone still have any meat or should we just drag one of these fallen beasts with us?" He looks around in the prior room to see if he can reclaim one of the dragon-lizard steaks they've been carrying. In all the confusion from the battle, he couldn't remember where he'd tossed it to free his hands.
Glancing around, Jonagher has no trouble locating the dragon-steaks that had been dropped during the fight.
Shaserai opens the western door to reveal another tiny five-by-five annex like the one between the eastern chamber and this one. The door beyond seems to be locked from the other side. On the lower half of the door, someone has drawn what look like crude, childlike drawings of dragons with wide toothy maws and batlike wings; around these drawings are a meandering trail of unfamiliar runes.
Highness wandered around the room, looking for anything hidden or suspicious, before heading over to the door and taking up his usual position pressed up against the crack at the bottom near the floor, listening and looking into the next room.
Ragnhild gathers her axe and shield where she had dropped them to comfort Highness and follows the little gobbo. "This writing says there are dragons ahead. I wonder if the bear ate them? How much can a bear eat?"
"Uh...plenty, I imagine..." Jonagher quips as he follows behind. "Hence, all this meat we brought with us. And, if he's got a taste for dragons...maybe dragon-lizard will appeal just as well?"
Finding runes he can't read carved on the second door, Shaserai takes a step back to let Highness enter the small space. "With a little luck, this room is where they kept the grauladons before they tried to go above ground." The priest takes one of the pieces of grauladon meat and stands at the ready " No reason not to ready though."
Highness brought a long finger up to his mouth, motioning for silence. He moved away from the door, back into the room and around the corner to the north then motioned the others over to him.
"There are voices in the other room. I am guessing there are more of those monkey creatures. The door is locked from the other side, so its unlikely to open without being broken down. I can't hear who it is though, so it might be part of the tribe...but probably not. I vote we go around that way." he whispered, then pointed to the north.
At Highness' gesture Shaserai lowers his voice to match the goblin's volume. "That's might be a sensible option." states the priest "We might have to move some of the rubble out of the way first."
The elf approaches the northern door and tries to go over the debris and see if the door can be opened without too much work.
Ragna rolls her eyes and grunts "The lil' gobbos don't have time for us to go around!"
Shaserai inspects the pile of debris and broken furniture that is barricading the northern door. It looks like clearing the way could be time-consuming but not otherwise hazardous or difficult. As he shifts the first piece of wreckage, however, a low and angry growl can definitively be heard from the other side of the door.
"Well, which door shall we open?" Alak asks tensely. "The monkeys or the bear? Or both, and then get out of the way and hope they fight each other?"
"Grr!" Ragnhild growls in frustration. She stows her axe and shield and begins to shift the rubble in front of the blocked door. The monkey-things had not been a real threat to the party thus far, so it would be best to face off with the angry bear first.
Highness shrugged, then followed Ragnhild's lead, helping to move the rubble.
"I don't think this is the best, but if you really want to go after the bear first, its best if we do it together..." he said to the tall warrior.
Highness glanced over his shoulder at the assembled group. "You lot might want to think of ways to handle a bear charging into the room. Move some broken furniture around or make some traps or anything!" he said with a grunt, muscles straining as he lifted a large rock and tossed it away from the door.
"Oh, I plan on taming the wild beast with offerings of tasty dragon-lizard steaks..." Jonagher replies, "And if that doesn't work...running away is always an option, too. If it chases us, hopefully we can lead it back to the exit and get it out of here."
Eager to save the helpless little goblins, Ragna heaves at the rocks, her experience with logging assisting in the work.
Ragna shifts two large pieces of debris away from the door.
Ren quickly moves back into the previous room and prepares to cast a spell on the bear if it moves through the antechamber.
Something heavy strikes the other side of the door behind the barricade, and it shudders in its jamb, but the remaining rubble keeps the door closed.
A little apprehensive at the strike on the door, Shaserai nonetheless wants to help clear the debris. He tries to lift a piece of rubble out of the way before moving behind Ragna and taking the piece of grauladon meat from his satchel. He stands ready to throw it at the bear and appease it's hunger.
Shaserai shifts some of the rubble before backing up and getting out a hopefully-distracting cut of raw meat.
Alak moves into the cramped corridor between this room and the last, drawing his javeling. "You can cast around me, right?" he asks Ren. "If the bear comes toward us, I'll throw my javelin and shut the door."
Jonagher moves next to the exit, but stays inside the room rather than the doorway where Alak stands. He seems to waver between drawing an arrow and aiming at the thundering behind the barricade, or keeping the raw meat in his hand to throw it at a presumably charging bear. He opts for the latter, but only barely.
"Keep going, guys!" the half-elf tries to sound encouraging for Ragna, Shaserai, and Highness, "We've got your back!"
Ragna continues to work away at the rubble.
Jonagher takes a step back and readies to toss a lizard-steak at the angry bear.
Ragna returns to the dwindling barricade and muscles some more debris out of the way.
The goblin-king continues to move rock.
"If the bear comes toward us, I'll throw my javelin and shut the door."
The mage responds with a nod. "You'll forgive me if I take my own precautions as well," he advises, casting a protective cantrip on himself before readying an offensive spell for the enemy.
There is another heavy thud from the other side of the door, and this time, it slides ajar, the remaining rubble piling up around Highness's and Ragna's ankles. On the other side of the door is a massive grizzly bear, incongruously wearing a battered hat tied over one ear and a filthy tutu fastened around its neck like a collar. It shoves its way through the door, slipping a bit on the loose debris still on the floor, and swipes wildly at Highness.
Seeing the bear emerge, Jonagher tosses his cut of meat.
"I don't think Big Bumble finds being the tribe's pet to his liking."
Shaserai adds his chunk of graudladon meat to the one Jonagher has tossed to the bear, hoping it makes a more appetizing meal than the goblin. Although in case it's not, the priest weaves a spell to protect Highness from Big Bumble.
Shaserai tosses more meat that won't fight back and bolsters the goblin-king's defenses.
"Fall back and draw it out," Alak calls, peering through the door jamb from the cramped corridor.
Heeding Alak's advice, Jonagher squeezes past the Hellknight and Ren to move back into the other chamber and up on the chair against the far wall from the doorway (). "I'll cover everyone!" he announces as he draws an arrow and prepares to fire if the bear chases down and attacks anyone as they flee.
One thought overwhelmed Highness's thoughts as the beast came through the doorway. BEAR!!!!!
One quick swipe of a paw in the narrow space would be the end of him, and he knew it. Highness glanced around, quickly gauging where everyone was, then carefully backed away from the beast before bolting back past Ragna and Shaserai.
Not wanting to get shot in the back, Ragna follows Highness in his retreat.
Jonagher withdraws into the next room, stepping up onto the chair and covering the wedge of the antechamber he can see through the door with his bow.
Highness backs away to a safer distance and prepares to fight.
Ragna also retreats past the doorway and readies her weapons.
"No hurry," Ren mutters, renewing his protective spell before once again readying to cast.
The bear lowers its head to the meat, seizes it in its powerful jaws, and wolfs it down in a few bites. It grabs the other lizard-steak and growls menacingly at Shaserai and Highness through the raw meat.
Not wanting to upset the bear Shaserai retreats slowly, trying not to distract the beast from it's meal. Once safely behind Highness and Ragna, he bolsters the spell protecting the goblin and weaves a shield of force for himself.
"Uhhh...how much more food do we have?" Jonagher calls out from the back, "If those dragon-lizard steaks run out, we'll be next...or maybe we can substitute these dead bodies and lead it out of here..."
Someone should take a steak and lead the bear out of here. Throw the steak out the entrance.
Highness glanced around for likely volunteers, eyeing the companions in turn.
Hmmm, slow, clumsy, not smart, too fancy...wait, that leaves...me?
Not going to volunteer to be bear bait! he thought, furiously, shaking his head.
Shaserai retreats from the growling bear before maintaining Highness's protective cantrip and shielding himself as well.
"Uhhh...how much more food do we have?" Jonagher calls out from the back, "If those dragon-lizard steaks run out, we'll be next...or maybe we can substitute these dead bodies and lead it out of here..."
Alak glances back into the lounge. "If someone can watch out for the wizard," he offers, "I'll grab a monkey-corpse. Not a lot of meat on it, but it's still warm. Perhaps that's an enticement?" He slings it up by a limp appendage and returns to the corridor.
Highness moves so Shaserai is once again on the front lines and tries to think of what he knows about bears.