On one hand, a bear is always a good challenge for a hunter. On the other hand, bears are native to this land, kinda-dragons are not. Ragnhild thinks, were the bear to be led outside, it may be able to eliminate some of the foreign fauna that might threaten the town as it fulfilled its normal bear duties out in the wilderness. She is less concerned with the gobbo's claims that the bear is some sort of pet. "Can't you just... lure it outside?" The warrior grabs the fallen frogs body and heaves it closer to the bear, hoping to slow it down, then leaves the hallway. "C'mon, Highness! Don't get gobbled up!"
"Uh...lure it outside...yeah!" Jonagher replies, "Maybe we should let it eat its fill of those steaks and the dead bodies first? At a minimum, that might make it a little less interested in attacking us. Then, we could coax it outside and give it a clear path to the exit." The half-elf keeps his position on the chair for its higher vantage point so he can cover the doorway. "In the meantime, everyone out, shut the door, and let the beast...uh, feast!"
Ragna lugs the dead boggard nearer the bear before retreating into the adjacent room.
Jonagher covers the doorway until the party is out of the room.
Ren renews his personal protection and readies once again to shock the bear if it attacks.
With Ragna out the door, the northern end of the room is submerged in darkness. Shaserai can only hear the heavy shuffling of the bear as it moves, followed by a growl.
Shaserai thinks that he much prefers Jonagher's strategy to being mauled by Big Bumble, so after a brief prayer for protection for both he and Highness, he hurries after Ragna.
Shaserai renews his protective wards before joining the others in the adjacent room.
Alak waits on the goblin.
It might be best if I show some movement going out the door? Highness thought, as the remainder of the group evacuated the room.
Highness bolted out the door to the south, then ran around the corner to the left, heading back up the corridor toward where the rest of the group was waiting.
Unhindered by the darkness, Highness dashes out into the vaultway and back up the corridor to the west to rejoin the party that way.
"So...uh...what now?" Jonagher asks, "Do we bar the door until the bear has calmed down...and eaten its fill? Maybe explore the rest of this place to make sure the beast is all we have left to deal with before circling back? Or, do we try and lead it out now to make sure it's out of our way while we focus on whatever's left down here?" As he talks, Jonagher continues to train his bow on the doorway in case the angry bear finds a way to come charging through.
Big Bumble lumbers into view on the other side of the doorway. He stops and growls menacingly at Alek.
The Chelaxian quickly but quietly shuts the door, backs out of the cramped corridor, and shuts the second door firmly as well. "We need to funnel the bear out to the vaultway," he advises. "Hopefully, the fresh air and sunlight will draw it to the exit once it can perceive them."
As Alak puts two closed doors between them and the bear Shaserai lets out a sigh of relief. "Well, we've survived our first bout with Big Bumble.".
The priest starts walking out to the main corridor, still looking at the group. "We could try to use the carcasses of those mwangi birds we slew earlier as bait, hopefully it's still hungry and it follows the trail..." the elf nearly trips over Highness as the goblin is hurrying along the corridor, and he stops there.
Fine, fine. Let's go!" Ragnhild says, making her way towards the fallen exotic birds.
"An excellent plan..." Jonagher agrees, unnocking his bow and hurrying to follow everyone back to the birds. Once there, he slings his bow entirely and prepares to help drag a carcass further down the hallway towards the exit. "When we're...uhhh...done with...all this..." he grunts as he heaves the bird along, "...we really...need to...let those goblins know...just how much...trouble...this bear caused us."
The party moves quickly to rearrange the corpses strewn in their wake into a trail leading toward the exit, then retreats to the cover of the corridors as the bear shuffles down the passageway, stopping along the way to nose at the remains of the Cinderclaws in its way. It arrives at the vaultway and notices the breeze and the shaft of sunlight from the door in the hillside. It looks up and down the gallery, huffs indecisively, then shakes itself and heads eagerly for the outside.
"Yay!" Jonagher cheers after the bear has disappeared thru the exit, "Yet another obstacle overcome. Hopefully, the beast doesn't wander into the goblin clan and cause more mayhem...but, if he does, at least they'll be happy to have their mascot back."
The half-elf peers back at the hallway in the direction of the bear's prior 'accommodations' and then addresses everyone out loud yet again. "You know, someone...probably those frog-men and monkey-men we killed...trapped that animal in there. If our missing goblin friends went looking for it, it stands to reason they might be prisoners, as well. We should probably finish searching that side of the vaults before chasing after the guy that ran away."
"Ah. Good. It's gone." Ragnhild says, watching to bear disappear out the tunnel. Suddenly unleashing the bear into the wilds so close to town seems like a questionable decision... A problem for a later day. "Yeah, let's go find the last of the lost gobbos!"
Highness watched the bear shuffle off into the great unknown. What would the loss of the totem do to the tribe? Probably nothing. We bounce back from pretty much anything. And the bear isn't dead, its just gone outside for a bit of a sniff around.
A horrible thought occurred to him then.
"Not to rain on this happy moment, but it is a bear, and they like nesting in caves, and there has been plenty of food here in the past, and even now." Highness waved at the bodies strewn about. "So don't be surprised if we find the bear coming back at some point."
"On that happy note, lets go!" he said, then laughing at the horrible idea of turning around after fighting some horrible creature and having the bear right there, he dashed off back down the tunnel towards the bear room, as Ragnhild directed.
Hoping that they've seen the last of Big Bumble, the party returns up the corridor to take a closer look at the rooms they've recently discovered. The door from which the bear emerged now stands ajar amidst the remains of the rubble that had been piled against it as a makeshift barricade. Highness cautiously advances and peers in.
The once-stately bedchamber beyond looks like a horrific crime scene. Mauled humanoid bodies and half-eaten body parts lie in pools of blood, boggard, charau-ka, and goblin identifiable among them. The furniture is splintered and marred by massive claws; the bed-curtains and rugs are torn to shreds and tossed about haphazardly. Massive piles of dung in varying degrees of freshness are scattered about the room.
"Do you see any sign of the lil' gobbos in there?!" Ragna calls anxiously from the hall.
"Nothing from here." Highness called back over his shoulder. "Everyone here looks dead tired, they are just lying around."
Highness pressed forward into the room, checking the bodies for signs of life, then looking for secret doors or hiding places where someone lucky could be secreted.
All of the bodies are fairly obviously dead, but Highness does find a tanglefoot bag in the belt pouch of a boggard and a vial of alchemist's fire in the possession of a mangled charau-ka. In addition, he discovers a set of tattered books written in Infernal under a fallen shelf.
Shaserai presses past Ragna and follows Highness into the room previously inhabited by Big Bumble. As he draws near, the stench of the room nearly makes him retch, but he goes inside nonetheless.
As Highness is checking the gruesome carnage, the priest mutters a prayer to Torag and then sends out a little pulse of magic, trying to detect the presence of any magical aura nearby.
Entirely enamored with the small vial of instant flame, Highness handed the boring books to Shaserai, shoved the tanglefoot in his bag and walked out into the hallway, gleefully rubbing the bottle of alchemist's fire in his hands while a maniacal grin plastered itself across his face.
Shaserai detects no unfamiliar magic auras in the area.
"Uh...so...is it all clear?" Jonagher asks from the back of the group starting to gather around the door and in the room where the bear was kept. Highness slips past him in a flash greedily carrying off a flask of some kind. By the look on the goblin's face, Jonagher decides not to ask about its contents.
"It...ummm...smells pretty fresh even from this distance," he calls back into the room, "I assume that means lots of dead bodies? If so, I'll...uh...leave you guys to sort that out. In the meantime, I'll just have a better look around out here to see if we have any other options on where to go next..."
"The goblins aren't in there? Oh no! I hope they're not in the bear!" Ragna wails, trying not to give in to despair. "Highness, be careful with that."
"Hee hee haa haa HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! Hehe...heh." Highness cackled to himself in the corner, the hand on the chain wildly waving a small vial around as it moved back and forth at the limits of its leash.
As Highness hands him the books Shaserai sees the same symbols on them as in the other Hellknight books, so he passes them along to the wizard. "I neither speak nor read the languages of the lower planes, Ren, you might find something interesting in these... maybe."
The priest moves to the door to the next room and opens it cautiously, listening attentively to any sounds on the other side.
Alak hovers over Ren's shoulder as the wizard flips through the tattered books. "More records of the Order," he remarks. "Duplicates, I expect, in case some accident befell the official copies in the repository upstairs. Oh, wait." He snatches one of the books for a closer reading. "This one looks different."
The priest moves to the door to the next room and opens it cautiously, listening attentively to any sounds on the other side.
While Ren and Alak look through the books and Highness plays with his new toys, Shaserai returns to the door the party considered earlier. Although it is still locked, it seems likely that the easternmost passage out of the vaultway leads to another entrance to the area.
"Yes," Alak goes on with growing excitement, "this is a record of burials in the citadel. There could be something in here about my uncle's funeral and the family ring." He closes the small volume. "The light in here is too poor to riddle it out right now; perhaps when we've time to regroup and catch a breath...." He tries not to sound too expectant.
Ragna gathers her wits and equipment and continues the search for the lost goblins.
Abandoning the locked door for now, Ragna carries the light back into the previous room and opens the closed door onto a short, narrow corridor with another door in the northeast corner.
If her memory of the schematics is correct, this next door should lead to a dead-end. The lost goblins could be trapped just ahead!
Highness looked around and realized that the rest of the group was moving on, put away the vial and scurried after Ragnhild.
"Alright, Ragna...be careful! Jonagher calls down the hallway as moves along with the rest of the group to follow her, "I know you want to find the missing goblins, but rushing from one battle to another could get one of us killed...including you. So, we check this last door and then maybe we rest and regroup? We're also down here to find Alak's ring, right? And we need some time to review these Hellknight records to see if there's a clue where it might be."
The priest follows the group and nods at the half-elf's words. "I agree with Jonagher, our primary objective is finding Alak's family ring, anything else we can accomplish is a bonus."
As Shaserai advances towards the door with Ragna he cautions her, with a quiet voice. "Also remember I don't have any magical healing left for today, so please be careful."
When they arrive at the door at the end of the corridor, he listens attentively to any sound coming from the other side.
From the other side of the door comes a sound of scraping and clattering, along with deep and horse voices muttering in an unfamiliar langugage. It sounds like more boggards.
Hearing what seems like frogmen talking, Shaserai goes back a little down the corridor and warns the others. "I think there are more boggards in that room, let's get ready for another battle."
The priest returns to the door and stands behind Ragna, ready to cast protective magics on the warrior.
Alak sighs impatiently as he tucks away the book into his pack. "That's the worst battlefield I've ever seen," he remarks. "A five-foot corridor? Couldn't we draw them out into this room where we have more room for maneuvering -- and flanking?"
Highness tugged at Ragnhild's elbow. "You should let me do this, I will get them all to follow me into the other room where you can all be waiting." Highness whispered with conviction, motioning at the closed door ahead.
Ragnhild does not see why she should surrender the the hallway; the corridor is hardly wider than her shield, giving her a significant advantage against the cruel frog people. Alas, glancing down at the goblin king she cannot help but for for his adorable little face and she begrudgingly retreats to allow the goblin to enact his plan.
"So, we're backing down the hall to the open area, and Highness is going to draw them out to us?" Jonagher asks. "Just point me to a spot where I can have a high vantage point, and I'll pick them off as fast as I can..."
"I likes the little froggy arms,
they wiggle down my throat.
I pop them off and chew them up,
and spit out all the bones." Highness began quietly, singing in goblin, and then built in volume as he walked up the hallway as if he was coming from some distance closer and closer.
"I loves the little froggy legs,
they hop around my teeth.
I pop them off and chew them up,
and grind up all the bones." Highness walked up to the door, unlatched it and kicked it open, still singing.
"I LOVES THE LITTLE FROGGY EYE-AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" he yelled as loudly as he could into the room before bolting like a shot down the hallway and behind the line of waiting warriors.
Jonagher climbs up on one of the dilapidated couches while Alak and Ren retreat into the room to the north. Ragna and Shaserai wait in the main lounge for Highness to lead the boggards out.
The goblin-king sings his song as he advances down the corridor, finishing on a high note as he kicks open the door at the end of the hall.
As the would be goblin king sings his goblin song, Shaserai grasps his holy symbol of Torag, ready to cast a spell as soon as the boggards arrive.
On the other side of the kicked-open door are two boggards in the middle of what was once a bedroom. The furniture, including a bedframe and a large footlocker, has been pushed against the walls, and, just as in the room to the west, the flagstones have been pulled up and the beginnings of a hole dug into the floor. Two surprised-looking boggards stand on either side of it, holding shovels.
The one furthest from the door reacts first, striding toward the door as he raises his shovel over his shoulder to use it as a club on the goblin-king.
With the first boggard blocking the doorway, the second can only step up and release two mighty croaks.