The goblin by Kajiwara turns his back to her as he starts trying to pull out a firework from somewhere Ruka didn't care to think about. She takes advantage of this distraction and swings Murasamemaru at his head.
Asuka strikes down one goblin and Ruka takes out the other before they could light the potentially catastrophic fireworks in this tight space.
Muckbreak seems oblivious to the carnage around you, he holds the chiefs head at arms length in front of him, talking to in it in goblin. He doesn't stop when the fighting ends and he is the last one alive, nor does he seemed overly concerned that his entire tribe was just wiped out in under thirty seconds.
Kaji looks at Muckbreath babbling at his chief's head, then looks at the others. "I think his brain may have snapped. Poppy, could you come talk to Muckbreath and try to calm him?"
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The battle is over. Ruka stands there, panting, blood still streaming down her neck from the chief’s attack. She barely even notices the sting, too caught up in the exhilaration of having won. She’d done it. The goblins were dead, (except for Muckbreath, who even she can see is no longer a threat), and no one else had gotten seriously hurt. She pulls out a cloth and is in the process of cleaning Murasamemaru when it hits her.
She’s calm. She’s too calm. Before today her training had been limited to katas. She’s never fought an actual enemy before. She’s never killed before. Sure, her enemies had been goblins and she certainly had no love for the monsters, but she’d just decapitated someone and felt nothing except pride in her technique.
Something’s wrong.
Ruka’s eyes narrow as she studies the sword in her hand. At first she’d thought the ‘voice’ she was hearing was just her own instincts, reminding her of her training. ’Relax.’ ‘Don’t swing so hard.’ Simple, sensible advice. But then…
’Aim low and topple him from his throne.’
That had definitely not been her thought. And she’s felt strange ever since Ameiko had given her Murasamemaru. Holding it makes her feel more confident. More experienced. Like she knows exactly what she's doing.
It’s you, isn’t it. What are you doing to me?
This whole time she’s kept telling herself that Tsuto’s blade was just that, a blade. That the sword hadn’t had anything to do with his crimes.
Maybe she’d been wrong.
Now's not the time. The thought might be her own, might be a response to her question, she can't tell and her thoughts begin to whirl as panic starts to build. If Tsuto's blade is influencing me somehow am I safe could I be a danger to the others am I going to hurt-
'Now is not the time.' The voice cuts through the rising panic. Cold. Clear. Definitely not hers. The simple fact that she can tell helps more than anything. 'You're still in enemy territory. Panic later, if you must. But I'm trying to help you. And from what I've seen, you need all the help you can get.'
...It's not wrong. Ruka takes a deep breath and forcibly shoves her emotions down to be dealt with later. Whatever Murasamemaru was, whatever it might have done in Tsuto's hands, so far it hasn't been a hindrance. Quite the opposite. Without its help, she might well have died to the chief's spear.
'Fine,' she thinks at the sword. 'For now.'
Murasamemaru cleaned and decision made, she sheathes it and leans against the wall. "Please ask him if this was all that remained of the tribe," she requests of Poppy. "If you can get anything sensible out of him, that is."
Goblim-Poppy manages to ascend the stairs just as the second to last goblin is dropped by her comrades. Her timing was good, except it left her in the prime position to recieve a splash of blood across her face from either Asuka or Ruka's attack. She squinted just in time, but could't help but gag at the vileness smearing her face. "Bleh!" She froze for a moment in shock, finally glancing at the room and let out a small gasp. It looked like a butchers killroom, but if the livestock had had weapons. Gore stretched from one end of the room to the other, flecks and streaks touching even her panting companions brandishing their 'butcher's tools'. Today, her appreciation for their skill was equaled by her dread of it.
Her eyes drifted from her associates to the lone goblin rambling to what appeared to be a head. She winced at the image and used the opportunity to wipe as much of the fluid from her face as she could. Oh what absolutely not disturbing scene will I see next... She asked herself, trying to distract with humor. Seeing it was Muckbreath, she clomped her chunky wooden show covers across pools off blood, and spat out a Goblin worded attempt at comfort to the traumatized creature.
"Everyone alright?" panted an obviously anxious Samton after scaling the ladder, although he wasn't entirely sure why he bothered asking - should there be someone not alright, gods forbid, there wasn't a whole lot he would be able to do about it, after all. He had no more curative spells to offer.
Almost afraid to look within the 'throne room', the young man was nevertheless relieved. Seeing both Kajiwara and Ruka bloodied and beaten should not be cause for relief, but considering the alternative this was much preferred. Only one goblin remained, gibbering madly at a severed head belonging to what the wizard assumed to be the chieftain. Well then, the party had done it; with their leader gone, the goblins would likely either disband or spend the next long, long while in a chaotic and no doubt murderous power struggle. Either way, they weren't Sandpoint's problem anymore.
"You, uh, got red on you," Sam said to the green-skinned Poppy, cleaning her of viscera with a twirl of his fingers.
Now that the adrenaline of the fight was subsiding, Lor-Sinn takes in the scene with mixed feelings. Shame at having been useless, relief, horror at the carnage. She gives Ruka a look that mixes admiration and uneasiness; pushing down the latter, she gives the young Kaijitsu a grin and a thumbs up as she pulls her arrows out of the wall.
"Wow, you three are amazing! Great job!" She nods at Kajiwara. "That thing you did, when you went..." At a loss for words, the tiefling mimes Kajiwara avoiding the goblin attacks as he moves through the room, although perhaps a little exaggerated and accompanied by dramatic sound effects. "That was awesome!" she concludes.
It takes Muckbreath some time to realize Poppy is talking to him. He unceremoniously drops the head of the dead Chief on the ground and walks up to her, shaking his head no. He explains that this was all that was left of Licktoad tribe and he supposes he is the Chief now. Walking over to the blood-covered crown on the ground, he picks it up and puts it on his head before climbing up to sit in the throne.
Looking down upon you all he continues in goblin tongue.
Ruka doesn't miss the uneasy looks Lor-Sinn and Poppy send her way. A mixture of shame and nauseau begins to churn in her gut, and she clenches Murasamemaru tighter. Relying on that unnatural calm is probably unwise, but at this point she's pretty sure it's the only thing keeping her from breaking down.
Everyone knew this mission involved killing goblins, she tells herself. Because they were attacking people again. Remember that.
It helps, a little...and then Poppy translates Muckbreath's words, and the shame redoubles. "Goblins killed longshanks first," she mutters, not entirely sure who she's trying to convince.
Louder, she says, "If 'Chief Muckbreath' agrees to not hurt any more people, then I don't see any reason to kill him. I think searching the place and confiscating any remaining fireworks will be sufficient."
Opening the door behind her also provides a convenient excuse to stop looking at the blood-covered room, so she proceeds to do just that. Poppy can handle Muckbreath. Let's see if the chief was hiding more fireworks nearby.
Goblin-Poppy blinked and briefly went cross eyed as the tingling feeling of Sam's cantrip evaporated the viscera painted across her face.
"If only such convenient magix vere available to me." Poppy offered Sam a gracious nod, followed by a knowing roll of her eyes.
Turning back to the gruesome reality before them, Poppy's expression turned stony before conveying the newly anointed Chief Muckbreath's desperate words to the group and offered her own sympathies to him with a bow. "Chief Muckbreath iz last of Licktoad Tribe. Sayz he iz lonely..."
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Indeed he was.
Pushing into the next room Ruka finds a storage room that is mostly full of junk except for one item that is extremely out of place. A mud and filth encrusted chest with lacquered sides of cranes and frogs and velvet interior sits in the corner, closed. Ruka imagines that if this chest were cleaned off it would likely be a work of art all by itself.
Inside the chest lies the remaining treasure of the Licktoad tribe: six masterwork shuriken, 329 sp and 112 gp in loose coins, a long hairpin with a red pearl at one end, and a gold-and-ivory fan depicting a gecko walking amid cherry blossoms.
Outside back in the main room, Poppy converses with Chief Muckbreath. He looks around solemnly and takes awhile to answer. He converses with her in goblin briefly before a gleam in his eye causes him to hop off the throne and saunter over to her, a devious grin on his face just before he pulls his lower undergarments off and throws them in the opposite direction! He starts making growling sounds as he tries to kiss Poppy.
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Like a St. Bernard dog being told it couldn't have the last biscuit - that was how Samton's face sank upon seeing Muckbreath put the ratty crown onto his head. Oh gods no. He didn't need to understand the goblin's gobbledygook to get the gist of his gibberish. Really? The group had come all this way to disband the Licktoads and now, just as the chieftain lay dead on the floor, Muckbreath was making himself new leader? Really? The young man rubbed his eyes in distress. For just a second, he wondered if he could exterminate the creature with a quick acid dart between the eyes before anyone could get a word in.
But the inclination only lasted a second. Samton Verro had never hurt a fly. Well, nothing larger than a fly, certainly. And although he didn't have much more in the way of moral objections to squashing said insect than a goblin, he knew that some of his companions did. And killing Muckbreath wouldn't be fair to them. Sam held the ethics of any one of the party in higher regard than the lives of an entire tribe of the murdering, cannibalizing, baby eating, lighting-people-on-fire-for-fun, little maniacs.
Mercifully, he was granted a brief reprieve from the consternation by the sight behind the door opened by Ruka - a sight that immediately took precedence over anything else by its sheer implausibility.
"Whu-what the heck...?"
Samton stared. The lacquered chest was about as out of place as an imp in the celestial choir. In fact, on the topic of places...
"This design is like something straight out of Tian Xia. Where on earth did the Licktoads manage to get their hands on this? Actually..." Sam studied the decorations closer. "I could swear I've seen something similar from Minkai specifically."
A good cultural understanding of the different corners of the world going hand in hand with cartography, the young man couldn't help but see similarities with the box's design and illustrations from some book or another he couldn't name at the moment. What did this all mean? Minkai was practically on the other side of the planet. And...
Never mind Minkai. New revelation. Who the heck had drawn a map of the marsh on this fan? For a second Sam suffered the most severe case of deja vu, as the drawing closely resembled the sketches he himself had been scribbling in traversing the swamp. The exceptions being two details on the fan, of course: a ship wreck and a cave. The same cave Muckbreath had mentioned perhaps? He turned from the storage room to ask Poppy to badger the goblin for more information...
... Only to see more of the goblins' intimate anatomy than any sane person ever should. Dead-eyed, Samton fumbled for his acid vial as soon as he saw Muckbreath brandishing his diminutive 'weapon' at Poppy.
"Um, Ms Cotton? Everything alright?"
Asuka pauses to say prayers to Shelyn as recompense for the lives that have been taken here. She immediately begins thinking of how best to incorporate them into her book in a way that gives honor to the life taken from the world.
Asuka jumps at Sam's revelation. "Wait WHAT? Minkai? How did they get this?" Asuka's mind starts to race. Was she actually right and there are Iron Bone Ninjas waiting in the cave? Was her story actually real? No, that can't be. That would be utterly ridiculous. Now they absolutely HAD to check out the cave. I mean, they already did, but now they especially had to.
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Regret seemed to be the order of the day as Poppy layed eyes on parts of a Goblin that most no one outside of Anthropologic circles would deem worthy of observation. Poppy could only stare wide eyed at the approaching nude Muckbreath offering itself to her, a battle between disgust, bewilderment, and amusement warred across her face. For a moment, the usually quick witted Poppy was actually at a loss for words and only a startled "Ha!", briefly escaped her lips before she could cover her mouth.
She attempted a stammering and halfhearted diplomatic response,
Slightly shellshocked, she offered an awkward curtsey to the Chief,
Poppy does NOT translate the new Chief's offer, nor her response. Some things are better off unheard.
Lor-Sinn bursts out laughing when the new goblin chief disrobes himself; she doesn't understand what is going on, but he suddenly seems a lot less of a danger. Then she hears the discussion in the next room.
"Box? Is that the box from the cave? Does it have fireworks in it?"
Samton watched the gnome eject herself from the proceedings, a no doubt reasonable and sensible decision when confronted with goblin gherkin. Having no clue how to handle the delicate situation, he merely stood there, poker-faced, as the rejected and now trouser-less Muckbreath turned from ridiculous to inimitably pathetic. Oof, the youngster thought. Talk about courting someone out of your league...
Muckbreath and Ms Cotton - what a pairing that would be! Honestly, it was almost as ludicrous as... Sam suddenly had a vision of himself, pants around his ankles, while Shalelu Andosana walked away with mocking laughter pealing through the air. ...It was almost as ludicrous as a clumsy human teenager pursing a hundred-year old elven vision. Sigh. Why do I do these things to myself?
Huh. How about that? For the first time since arriving here the young man felt a spark of genuine sympathy for the goblin. Fortunately he was distracted from this by Asuka.
"Wait WHAT? Minkai? How did they get this?"
"I know, right? Look it over; you'd know better than me, Ms Narukami."
As for Lor-Sinn's question, it was a good one and the cartographer took this cue to start poring over the contents of the chest. The coins and pearls were one thing, but what the heck were those metal star-shaped thingamabobs with the edges...
"Ouch!"
Sharp edges! Hold on, were these those throwing stars described in the tengu's stories? The ones ninjas used? Cool!
”The art is definitely Minkaian.” Ruka runs her hands across the side of the chest, gently brushing away some of the mud. ”We have a chest in the manor with a very similar design. Maybe these walking bones were originally from Minkai, before some tragedy befell them. Traders, perhaps?”
A commotion in the other room makes her turn around, and she stares in shock at the now-naked Muckbreath. ”Um...” What just happened? It’s been two minutes!
Seeing that Poppy is now storming off, it seems any negotiations are over. She hasn’t said that Muckbreath refused their terms, (maybe stripping naked is part of making a deal in goblin culture?), so Ruka assumes they still plan to let the new ‘chief’ be. ”We should, um, probably go now. We can talk about our next move...somewhere else. Anywhere else.”
She picks up the chest and follows Poppy outside.
Muckbreath's grin quickly turns to one of shock when Poppy transforms. He stands there, depantsed, rubbing his head trying to figure out what just happened. He calls after Poppy when she moves away, confused. Not to be dissuaded so easily, he calls out after her and follows her out and down, all the meanwhile calling to her.
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Once Poppy calmed Muckbreath, Kaji joined Ruka in looking over the contents of the storage room and the chest.
As Sam pointed out the designs of the chest, he nodded in agreement. "My family possesses some pieces of similar design, as well. The art is quite well done. We should definitely investigate this cave, now." Kaji tried to figure out if he could determine how old the design was.
They would have to take the chest with them, no help for it.
Turning, Kaji found...a half-naked Muckbreath attempting to proposition Poppy. Kaji stood there, mouth agape. He was completely shocked! This was not how anyone should behave, not even a goblin! It went against honor, manners, and dignity! What had even happened. At least Poppy reacted appropriately in rejecting him so firmly. It would have been quite dishonorable had she accepted such advances. If Muckbreath had wanted to court her, he should have done this properly - start with flower arrangements and poetry to entice Poppy, then engage in a proper length courtship before even suggesting such intimate relations. This sort of behavior was scandalous!
It was when the goblin continued to go after her that he finally snapped out of it, leaping forward to hit Muckbreath on the side of the head and knock him out.
Once reject, one accepted that rejection. You did not attempt to continue pursuit! It was even more dishonorable!
Kali does more than knock Muckbreath out, he nearly kills him. Putting more power into the blow than he realizes, Muckbreath's neck snaps at an unnatural angle with a crack and he collapses to the ground, his crown bouncing twice before rolling to a stop on the other side of the room.
Kaji freezes. He hadn't meant to hit Muckbreath that hard! He was just trying to knock the goblin out so he wouldn't dishonor himself or Poppy further. Wait...they had agreed to allow Muckbreath to live, and Kaji had killed him. He had broken an agreement! This meant dishonor upon himself and his family! Amends would have to be made to restore honor.
Unfortunately, all the usual methods of restoring honor in the case of a broken agreement were unavailable to him. Muckbreath's family was already dead, so he couldn't pay them restitution. There was no one to whom he could offer his life in trade. How could this have happened?
Kaji stood there, staring at the now dead Muckbreath, with an anxious look on his face. I could bury him. That would at least restore some honor, but it does nothing to change the fact that I broke our agreement. Looking about, he asked, "Does anyone have a shovel?"
Ruka's most of the way out of the room when she hears a loud crack. Whirling around, she gapes as Muckbreath's body goes tumbling across the floor, with a rather guilty-looking Kajiwara standing behind him. She'd heard Muckbreath shouting more things in goblin, but had been too lost in her own thoughts to pay much attention. (Nor had she wanted to turn around while the goblin was still unclothed.)
"I do have a shovel, but...did you really just kill him?" Not that Ruka has any real objection to killing the last of the goblins, (in some ways it might almost be more merciful), but they'd originally agreed to let him live and she'd thought that agreement still stood. Although maybe..."Was he trying to attack us as we left?" She mentally curses herself for lowering her guard, even though Muckbreath would have needed to be suicidal to attack them under the circumstances. Then again, he did just watch everyone else die...maybe he was suicidal.
She sets down the chest for a moment and goes over to Muckbreath's body.
"I think he's still alive, but barely." She looks up at Kajiwara. "What should we do?"
The thought of killing a helpless, unconscious creature, (even a goblin), makes her stomach churn. Wasting time and resources trying to heal said goblin seems like a bad idea. And leaving him alone to die slowly would just be cruel.
Ruka tries to think of a fourth option, but there doesn't seem to be one.
A look of relief crosses Kaji's face. "You think he's still alive? Really? If so, then I haven't broken our agreement, and am not dishonored. I was not trying to kill him - merely knock him unconscious long enough for us to leave, in order to prevent him from further dishonoring himself and Poppy with his crude attempts at courtship. He does not understand how to properly behave in such matters, it would appear."
Alright, so Muckbreath lacked finesse, and with a name like that he would probably have a hard time getting even a real goblin to kiss him, if there had been any goblins left. Wait, did goblins kiss? Perhaps you had to gift your intended a dead rat instead, like cats did. Although by the look of things, Muckbreath had been intent on skipping all courtship and heading straight for the deed. Rude.
Still, conking him over the head into unconsciousness seemed a rather harsh punishment. Unsure about what to do, Lor-Sinn looks at Poppy. "Ms. Cotton? What should we do with him? "
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The cartographer's practiced pen strokes made slow, precise lines within the notebook. Sam was jotting down the directions gathered from the fan into his own map of the marsh. A shipwreck and a cave. He wondered if the ship was one of those Mr Proudstump had mentioned. And the cave... well, supposedly that was where the goblins had found the chest and more. Where did that leave the undead? How did they fit into all of this? This expedition was turning into something larger and wholly different. Surely the group couldn't afford to leave the swamp just yet, even with the Licktoad menace eliminated? A horde of animated skeletons so near Sandpoint? If they were capable of attacking a goblin fort, they were capable of attacking anyone. The mindless undead did not tend to discriminate between the living. Yes, the group should investigate, evaluate this potential threat. But no more than that, of course! The six of them versus an undead army? No, that would be ridiculous!
Oh, Mr Gandethus, Mr Parooh, he worried. What has your silly student gotten himself into? There was a genuine shiver going through the young man at the thought of what lay ahead. But truth be told, he couldn't quite figure out whether it came from fright or anticipation. Perhaps there really was a spark of the adventurous in him, as Parooh had always said. Sam smiled.
"So, uh, turns out there's a map to that fabled cave on this fan here," he said, looking up from the notes and turning to the party. "We should be able to find it if...!"
Chaos and nonsense greeted him, competing for space in the small throne room. Kajiwara had apparently mauled Muckbreath for... not following proper etiquette in courtship? What? This was a race that kept harems and dumped their infants into cages until they were deemed useful; why would anyone hold them to any standard of civilized courtship? It got stranger. Ruka and Kajiwara were now concerned for the unconscious goblin's well-being. Apparently this had something to do with honor, a concept the wizard was fairly sure did not exist in goblin culture. Maybe Poppy could confirm whether the word was part of the monsters' language. Was any agreement with a goblin not inherently meaningless? And if not, why was no one aiding the unconscious Muckbreath who seemed not to be breathing?
Samton chose to look down again. That was better. His head hurt significantly less not having to look at this scene. Huh. Was that the Licktoad chief's crown? So it was. The young man bent down to pick up the ratty thing, it having recently fallen off Muckbreath's head. He stared at it for a second before making a decision. Best to throw in into that little lake outside. Any future goblin coming across it might get ideas, after all. Sam was at the door before turning back; should he say something? No. No, he didn't want to add to this mess. Didn't want any part of it. Didn't want to. Couldn't be bothered to. Sam headed for the pond, juggling the crown as he walked.
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"And leave this part out, Asuka! I don't vant to read 'Love in the Time of Green Oni' or any such vulgarity!", Regular-Poppy shouted back up to the room as she descended the ladder.
Moving with purpose to distance herself from the goblin spouting love proclamations, she didn't even glance back when she heard something fall against the floor upstairs, cutting the strange language short. Her climbing slowed as she reached the end and caught muffled mentions of her name, one of them being Lor-Sinn
Somebody probably knocked him out, thank Asuka's God. Kaji's HONOR wouldn't allow anyone to kill the goblin. Even Ruka. But at this point, Muckbreath's problems were his own. Instead of climbing back up, she collected Arti and headed towards the bonfire of goblins to see if she could scrounge up an ear or two.
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Asuka shakes her head vigorously. ”You have nothing to fear, Poppy. As far as I’m concerned, a man—whatever the species—exposing himself and propositioning you is an assault, not a romance. And my book is meant for people of all ages!”
She then turns her eyes to the unconscious goblin. ”Just leave him. He’ll wake up before too long and we’ll be long gone. Leave him closed up in here and he won’t have to worry about wild animals, either.”
Asuka shakes her head as she muses on the scene she has found herself in. None of this felt particularly heroic, minus the great moves everyone pulled off in the fight. She will really need to exaggerate things to make them fit the tone she’s going for. Most of all, she doesn’t feel heroic at the moment. She likes combat a lot better when nobody dies. She still hasn’t quite been able to grasp the fact that she killed today. Not just once, either. Even though she knows she did the best she could, she still feels dissatisfied. She had seen plays back in Kwanlai with old samurai talking about how death weighed on them, and she now feels that deeper understanding.
Ruka looks up as Poppy continues walking off while Asuka and Kajiwara both suggest leaving Muckbreath alone. "But-" she begins, then cuts herself off.
They both seem convinced he'll wake up on his own. They're both far more experienced fighters than her. Maybe they're right.
And neither of them actually looked at him, a treacherous part of her brain counters. They don't want to. As long as they can tell themselves he'll be fine it doesn't matter if he actually is.
But what can she do? She doesn't want to be the cause of yet another conflict within the party. Mentioning her doubts about Muckbreath's continued survival will most likely just lead to an argument about whether or not they should stay and heal him. An argument that could easily turn even nastier than the one they had earlier, and it would be all her fault for not leaving well enough alone.
Instead, she simply nods in acquiescence and, (suppressing a grimace of disgust), carries the naked goblin to the storage room where they'd found the chest. With the door closed he should be safe from any predators in there.
Don't lie to yourself. Maybe he'll wake up, but maybe he won't. You have to assume you're leaving him there to die.
She can live with that. She has to. She's killed enough goblins today; leaving one to (possibly) die shouldn't weigh any heavier on her conscience.
As she starts to make her way back through the gore-covered room, she pauses as something niggles at the back of her mind. Fireworks. The goblins had some on them, we should make certain we grab them before we leave. And...the ears. The chief's head. The sheriff will want to see them.
She hadn't come on this mission for the money, but she also can't deny she needs it. Only bringing one healing potion hadn't just been an oversight on her part; she literally couldn't have afforded a second one. She might be a Kaijitsu, but she's needed to use almost all the liquid assets they had just to keep the Glassworks running.
"We should, um...probably search the bodies. And, um...collecttheears"
Her gorge rises, but it wouldn't be fair for her to leave this task entirely to the others. She ignores it as best as she can while she pulls out a dagger and begins the grisly work.
After cutting ears from the dead goblins, they strip the bodies of their equipment: (Leather armor, light wooden shield, short sword, short bow with 20 arrows, skyrocket firework pair of goblin ears) x5. From the chief you find +1 animal bane arrows (5), potions of cure light wounds (2), skyrocket fireworks (2; masterwork chain shirt, masterwork composite longbow with 6 arrows, spear, 32 gp.
Kaji took a moment to look over Muckbreath while Ruka searched the bodies.
He thought Muckbreath was dead, but Ruka had seemed sure he wasn't. Out loud, Kaji said, "Do any of you know anything about healing? I'd like us to take the time to make sure that he won't die if we leave him here. The angle I accidentally hit his neck to does not look natural."
Finally something she can help with, Lor-Sinn thinks as Ruka suggests searching the bodies. Careful not to get too much gore on herself, she roots through the slain goblins' clothing, sorting her findings by size and colour.
"I know enough to tell he was breathing, earlier. That's about it. I don't think anyone else knows anything either. Maybe Poppy, but she seems to want nothing more to do with Muckbreath." Ruka pauses in her work long enough to level a cool stare at Kajiwara. She's relived that he's not planning to just run off and leave the goblin to die, (which she still thinks would be more cruel than killing him outright), but it's nevertheless...inconvenient.
(She isn't entirely sure that last thought is her own, but she's trying very hard not to worry about that right now.)
We should probably rest for a while anyway. So if Kajiwara wants to make sure Muckbreath won't die...
"Why don't you keep an eye on him? We still need to clear the rest of the village, and then it will be a bit late in the day to head towards the cave. You'll have time." She shrugs. "If he wakes up, well and good. If not...maybe Poppy can take a look at him after she gets some rest."
Making a detour to the room where the goblins had ambushed them earlier, Samton returned to the others from visiting the pond. The crown was gone, its now disparate pieces resting beneath the water (although Sam wasn't proud that it had taken him more than one whack over the knee to break the ratty thing), but in return he carried twin green ears. Both ears were actually rather clean and pristine, drained and scrubbed of any blood by the wizard's cantrip; the spell had gone a long way in helping him stomach the grisly task.
"Hm? Are we camping here for the night?" he asked at the talk of rest.
It was a wholly reasonable suggestion. With both Ruka and Kajiwara wounded, and Poppy and himself out of magic some recuperation would be in order. The goblin village might be little more than a ruin, but it was a least raised from the ground, thusly offering both a modicum of safety from the marsh predators and a vantage point. A roof over the head was nothing to sneeze at either.
"Ms Kaijitsu, can I see those?" Sam pointed to the small flasks the young woman had recently looted from the goblin chief. First smelling their contents, he dabbed the tiniest droplet onto a finger and tasted it.
"I think... Yeah! I think these are curative potions! You and Mr Shogahiro should drink them. You're both hurt."
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Poppy returns to the general area where the group was operating, bringing whatever ears she could salvage from the firepit. There weren't many left, but she thought one or two were still recognizable as ears? Maybe? If she held it this way? One she had collected under later scrutiny was most definitely part of a foot. Gold lost. Hmm...Had she ever eaten goblin? She stopped to pet Arti and consider her mental meal library when she heard Sam's question about resting. "Da?! Iz time to camp? Ura! Ce ușurare. Ve've missed two meals already! No vonder everyone iz so cranky. Ha!"
Poppy seemed to get a spring in her step at the thought of food. It wasn't just a distraction, it was a way of life. She jumped to peeling off cooking equipment from her mule, her eyes locked on a clearing devoid of swampiness, perfect for a blazing fire.
"Somevone please be best adventuring friend to Poppy and secure me a nice, dry sleep spot. Preferably in room vith fewest corpses. I'll revard vith best potato!"
Though the clearing was more of a flatish rock, she nonetheless got to work setting up some her last firewood mixed with what dry kindling could be found nearby, which was admittedly very little. Snapping her fingers and uttering a whispered foul word, a small blue spark erupted, lighting some bark. Once nursed to a respectable height, the gnome broke out her metal utensils and got to work cooking baked potatoes in bacon fat with onions in one covered pan, waiting to split them and dash them with diced cheddar. In her cast iron Bedourie oven she placed six baked apples covered in brown sugar, she'd been saving to celebrate their victory and decided to etch them into cherry blossoms. And so, Poppy toiled away, happily getting lost in her work and relishing the emerging smells.
Ruka hesitates for only a second before taking the potion back from Sam and downing it.
She sighs in relief as her wounds close. "Thank you. I thought that potion looked like the one I had, but wasn't entirely sure." Outside she hears Poppy practically cheering at the opportunity to relax for a bit and fix dinner. Yes, making camp here is definitely a good idea. We could all use a break. Although her paranoia won't allow her to completely relax just yet.
"I'm going to check out the rest of the village to make sure there's no more surprises, and maybe find a clean room to rest in. Does anyone want to join me?"
Kaji nods in agreement with Ruka. "That would be for the best. I will remain here with Muckbreath to try and ensure he does not die, and we have not broken our agreement."
Kaji works to use some of the scraps and such in the store room to make a support brace for Muckbreath's neck - it would hopefully help the goblin out.
Poppy makes an evening meal while Samton explores the remainder of the village huts searching for useful items of interest. Kajiwara takes care of Muckbreath while Ruka, Lor-Sinn and Asuka all finsh securing the perimeter and ensuring there are no additional threats waiting just around the corner.
With the area secured and deemed clear, the group reunites for Poppy's amazing meal by the fire. After everyone's bellies are satisfied and you appreciate the fact that you are traveling with an actual chef and do not need to survive on stale goblin rations, you set a watch for the night and turn in.
The evening passes uneventfully and the next morning you as everyone begins to wake, the party is surprised to see that Muckbreath has snuck in beside Poppy on her blanket with his left arm draped over her waist, his neck braced by Kajiwara's brace. The goblin snores loudly, dreaming sweet thoughts of his queen.
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Then the screaming starts.
Ruka whirls around to see a horde of goblins charging towards the square. Where had they all come from?! They’re cackling madly and singing wild songs as they cut down everything in their path. She watches in horror as they impale a young man and he looks at her with terrified eyes. "H-H...Help-” His words are cut off along with his head.
Over all the screaming comes a voice she recognizes. ”Ruka, please! Help me!” She turns again to see Ameiko being dragged away. She can’t let her sister die. She won’t.
A sword is in her hand. She can still stop this. She can save everyone. Ruka runs forward, killing any goblin that gets in her way, her eyes fixed on Ameiko’s form. She’s being dragged to a goblin that’s bigger than the others, probably their chief. ('Take out the chief…')
If Ruka can just kill him, maybe this will be over. Maybe they’ll stop.
The chief doesn’t offer any resistance, just stands there and laughs at her. She swings Murasamemaru and disembowels him, but he keeps laughing. Ameiko is nowhere to be seen. Ruka puts the sword to his neck and demands, ”What did you do to her?!”
”’What did I do?’” The chief finally stops laughing, but the voice isn’t that of a goblin. ”What did you do, girl?”
It’s her father.
Lonjiku is standing there, his guts spilling out onto the floor. Ruka takes a step back, nerveless hands carelessly dropping Murasamemaru onto the ground. ”I...I didn’t...there was a goblin, a monster…”
”’A monster.’” His voice is cruel, mocking, a tone she knows from a thousand wrong answers and she instinctively flinches back even further, raising one arm to protect her face. The blow doesn’t come, her father just slowly shaking his head in disappointment. ”Did they really look like monsters to you?” He grabs her shoulders, fingers digging in hard enough to bruise, and forcibly turns her around.
There are no goblins. Just townspeople. People she knows, people she doesn’t, seemingly the entire population of Sandpoint all killed by her hands wielding Tsuto’s blade. In front of them lies Ameiko, throat slit, sightless eyes staring up at the sky.
”There’s only one monster here, girl.” He shoves her, hard, and she falls to her knees in front of Ameiko’s body. Out of the corner of her eye she can see Lonjiku picking up Murasamemaru. ”You killed me with this blade.” He rests it almost gently against her neck. ”You deserve this.”
He swings-
Ruka starts awake with a gasp and literally throws herself out of her bedroll. She mutters a half-audible excuse to the person on guard as she rushes out of the building. As soon as she's around the corner and out of sight she falls to her knees, retching.
Once she's finished emptying the remains of Poppy's dinner onto the ground, she sits back on her heels, trembling. "I'm not a monster, I'm not, I'm not..."
It's nearly half an hour before she gets control of herself enough to return to her bedroll. She doesn't sleep.
As the sun starts to rise, Ruka unwraps herself from her bedroll and stands up. Dark circles under her eyes indicate a restless night. She yawns, stretches, then freezes as she sees Muckbreath next to Poppy. Wait, what does he think he's doing?!
If Kajiwara sees this he might attack Muckbreath again. They'll be right back where they started, and Ruka doesn't think she can deal with that this morning. Hoping to get Muckbreath out of there before anyone else notices, Ruka sneaks forward and tries to extricate him from the blanket.
She accidentally steps on Poppy in the process and trips, crashing to the ground with a very audible thud. F*!%!
There's no way anyone missed that. Which means there's no way anyone could miss where Muckbreath is (or was) sleeping. Hoping to stop the violence before it starts, Ruka holds out her hands in a placating gesture. "I'm, uh, sure he was just cold?"
Asuka pops up, her feathers ruffled and her clothes pushed around and bunched in odd directions. ”Wha happan. Whar fight.” She glances about sleepily, drool still coming down the corner of her beak. Not seeing “whar” the fight is, she falls back down and immediately back to sleep.
Kaji wakes up in the store room where he'd fallen asleep making sure Muckbreath was okay to find the goblin missing. Considering the possibilities, Muckbreath must have been okay enough to get up and move away. Kaji considered that he was fortunate Muckbreath hadn't killed him, and got up to go look for him.
He emerged just in time to see Ruka sneaking towards Muckbreath, who was lying in Poppy's blankets, stepping on the gnome, and then tripping and falling onto the ground.
Kaji hides his eyes in his hand, to avoid looking at Muckbreath. The goblin embarrasses himself. Has no one ever taught him the value of honor? Do goblins not understand the art of courtship? It was a conundrum he was forced to confront. Kaji had been taught that all civilized races understood the art of courtship - the rules that both men and women were expected to follow in such situations. Yesterday, tired and hurt, he had acted without thinking, striking Muckbreath and knocking him unconscious. Today, able to think clearly, he realized that had not been the proper way to handle the matter. He also realized that while goblins had a society, it could hardly be called civilized. The Licktoad goblins had formed a village, true, and a clan identity, but based on both Muckbreath's actions and the former chief's, it appeared that their society was more barbaric than anything. Could he really hold Muckbreath's ignorance against him?
Removing his hand from his eyes, he walks over to Ruka and extends a hand to help her up.
She had the last watch, and was just getting up to rouse the others when she hears a thud in the room where most of them had set up their bedrolls. The first panicked thought is that a foe had snuck past her, and was now assailing the others. Lor-Sinn leaps to her feet and barges in, blade in hand, stopping in her tracks at the scene in front of her..
Someone had snuck past her...
"Treacherous creature! We spared your life, and Kajiwara was so worried you might die that he spent the night by your side! And now you attack us in our sleep!"
This really was too much. Goblins had no honour, and while it was commendable to try and keep their side of the deal, obviously Muckbreath had no intention of doing the same.
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"I'm going to check out the rest of the village to make sure there's no more surprises, and maybe find a clean room to rest in. Does anyone want to join me?"
"With Ms Cotton's best potato on the line?" the cartographer smiled, taking a second to smell the gnome's cooking in the air. "No, I'm afraid you're going to have to race me for it."
The grin faltered a bit with the joke delivered; this was still enemy territory, the group should still stick together, and Sam was still his staunchly sensible self. "But, uh, yeah, I'll join you."
Dingy village explored and perimeter established, he sat down with the others for a meal far superior to any he had expected in joining a swamp expedition. Say what you will about sword and spell, but if it was true that an army marched on its stomach, then it was Poppy who kept them all alive. Thanking her for the wonderful food and then cleaning plates and scrubbing pans with continual application of his cantrips, Samton unfurled his bedroll. He fell asleep immediately. Humble Samton Verro had had a big day.
Pity then that he, along with most of the group, had a rude awakening the next morning.
"Hm! Wha? Attack? Iz it the goblin? Who's hurt?"
Stumbling up from his cot, the wizard tried to gather his otherwise prodigious wits in order to help, lopsided bed hair be damned. When he finally understood the situation, he let out a sigh that could end universes. Oh good. Muckbreath had survived the night. Did this mean they could kill it now? No, he supposed that would be too much to hope for.
Samton rubbed his head. Too much sarcasm in the morning wasn't healthy. He had yet to realize that he had grabbed an empty potion flask instead of his acid vial in rising.
"Nonono, no one's hurt, no one's been attacked." Ruka doesn't even have time to fully finish her sigh of relief over Kajiwara's lack of reaction before Lor-Sinn reaches the completely wrong conclusion.
Well, mostly wrong. Whatever had happened yesterday, Muckbreath hadn't been doing anything this morning except sleep. You shouldn't get in bed with someone without their permission, but that didn't make it an attack.
"I just...tripped. That's all. Muckbreath wasn't attacking me, no one was attacking anyone." She accepts Kajiwara's helping hand and stands up, brushing herself off. Desperate to change the subject, she asks, "So, are we going to the cave now?"
The goblin pops up when Ruka trips all over him. Leaping to his feet, he howls in pain when his neck turns the wrong way, putting his hands on his neck to steady his brace. When Ruka calls his name, he turns to her and pounds his chest with his fist. "Muckbreath! Muckbreath!"
He then points to Ruka and asks "Cave-now? Cave-now?"
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Poppy had settled into the evening with a sense of comfort, happy for the opportunity to feed her fellow adventurers, grinning at the thought that that description now included her as well. Adventurer... . The journey so far had been filled with the weird and wild, like the wonders at the edges of one of Sam's maps, so to speak.
Here be dragons..., she mused. Many commonfolk never got to break out of their monotony, but gnomes more than most itched for the new and exciting. Fundementally, it was the same, she was still cooking and traveling as she would normally, but that dash of danger was sure to scratch whatever itch had been building up over the last couple decades or so. And best of all, her publisher had no reason to deny her cooking volume to the Adventerures guide anthology.
"You can't contribute to a seminal series on adventuring...if you've never been on an adventure or quest-like endeavor!", the response letter from StormHearth had declared and though disappointed at the time, she couldn't really fault their logic. But now, she had two new monster based recipes and a pile of Goblin ears that showed without a shadow of a doubt, whether she deserved to be in that glorious text.
Thanking the group for their efforts and especially Sam for being on perpetual dish duty, Reaaallly need to learn that spell. Poppy hunkered down for the night, and wondered what the next day held in store for them.
The first lesson of the next day was that tallfolk were damned heavy.
"Yow!", the gnome yelled as she found Ruka partially sprawled out before and on her. She rubbed her hip as a painful low throb took hold, early signs of what was sure to be a bruise. "Poppy iz not shoe-", the gnome started to say, until her eyes widened at the unwelcome sight of the familiar greenskinned presence, literal feet from her.Worse, his stench was all over her and her blanket. He SLEPT here with me?, she thought mortified. Sure he didn't DO anything as far as she could tell, but it was a violation, regardless.
Poppy stood up shakily, grogginess quickly dissipating as her hand flew to the sheathed butchers knife at her side, and took two large(ish) steps back away from her bedroll. She wracked her brain for the word 'boundaries' in the goblin lexicon, but quickly realized it was likely a futile effort.
She croaked out what was clearly a threat followed by a question, indicated by her inflection.
Muckbreath spins away from Cave-Now to Queen Fire Hair. He grins a huge grin and makes to approach Poppy, holding his neck brace. He starts spewing out rapid-fire goblin at her, full of grunts and strange accents of a strange tongue. He motions broadly to the group with one hand, steadying his neck with the other.