Shalelu grabs the map and motions for Ahreni to follow, she almost smiles at the chiefs comment but just replies "Don't worry about them. First though, what about these treasures you said you didn't give back?"
When the others likely give her a questioning look seeing the goblin leading the way out of the room Shalelu rolls her eyes and notes "Apparently there are undead, they are the ones that attacked here because they stole stuff from some cave. I told him we would let him live if he showed us the way to the cave and didn't try anything funny." She shoots the chief a glare to emphasis the not trying anything funny part.
Ahreni shrugs at the deal, although she makes sure not to do so where the chief can see her. She also still hasn't morphed back to her normal face - it appears to be her doing her part to keep the chief in line.
The Chief's eyes go wide "Oh. Chief forgot. Good thing elf have big brain."
The goblin leads Shalelu back to a room behind the throne room where there is a beautiful red chest which looks very out of place here. By itself, you know that this is quite valueable and can likely fetch a good price.
He opens the chest and shows it has lacquered sides and velvet interior (which is currently covered in fresh filth and mud thanks to the Chief). Inside the chest are six masterwork shurikens, a long hairpin with a red pearl at one end, gold-and-ivory fan depicting a gecko walking amid cherry blossoms and loose coins that consist of 329 sp and 112 gp.
The Chief nods back to you and says "See. Chief keep word. Let us go to cave now so Chief can go free."
The chief always keeps one eye on Ahreni, wanting to keep his only ear.
Shalelu gives Ahreni a nod to watch the chief as she pulls out the items from the chest and shows them to the others.
She eyes the chest and notes to the others "I've seen designs similar to this at Ameiko's place. I'm pretty sure this chest was made in Minkai, long way from home..."
She briefly looks over the other items but the implications of the chest have her slightly pre-occupied as she glosses over them and just notes "This other stuff is probably valuable we should take it with us. Leave the chest for now and get it on our way back home."
As he finishes, the last goblins and is asked to leave the place, Olaff complies, but not immediately. First, he sheathes his sword and fastens his shield on his back. Then he glares at the chief while he drags the bodies to the three goblins who have attacked them.
Leaving the small room, Olaff catches Relisha's fearful eyes and decides to keep his distance for now, giving room for the girls to talk among themselves. Meanwhile, he drags the tree goblins a couple more feet before drawing his dagger and kneeling to remove the goblins' ears. Once that is done, he jumps down to the ground and proceeds to also collect the goblins' ears, not just from the ones recently dead, but also of those they've found slain.
Olaff returns to the others carrying a bloody bag full of goblin ears just in time to smile at Thanara. "Of course it vas... vatheverr... I accept yerr apologies."
Not recognizing the value of the treasure, Olaff rests the bag of ears at the chief's feet while he searches for any hidden weapons while keeping his dagger on the goblin's throat. "Shalelu, is the chest too heavy? Perrpahs I can carryy it if it is not."
He then reaches for his rope and ties the goblins arms behind him before wrapping his torso with it a couple turns before tying a knot around his neck, making the chief look like a green salumi with legs.
When Olaff just brushes her apology off, she frowns and follows him. He waits until he’s done dealing with the chief before she steps over and puts a hand on his arm, ”Hey, I mean it. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause you any trouble. I just wanted to piss dad off. Can I make it up to you?”
When she sees the goblin chief missing his ear, her initial response is to attempt to heal the wound. However, at the looks she receives when she steps up to do just that, her head sinks down into her shoulders and she pulls her hair over her face before stepping back out on to the walkway.
"So are we going to this cave? Is it anywhere near the shipwreck?" she asks.
The Chief looks at Relisha and nods. "Thought you were longshanks, Chief no talk to longshanks. You a devil demon though, Chief answer you."
Chief Gutwad turns to Shalelu and asks "Two ships. One not one way to cave. Where we go first elf?"
Shalelu shrugs the Olaff when he asks about the chest ”If you want to lug it around, feel free.”
When the chief asks where to Shalelu returns with a question ”So now there are shipwrecks? Where did you get this stuff? The wrecks or the caves? I thought you said the bones... skeletons... came from the cave?”
"Caves first." Ahreni's voice, always oddly low is almost impossible to understand, distorted as it is by her muzzle. "Find ships from cave."
"Ok," Relisha acknowledges with a small nod of her head. She pushes aside her desire to see the shipwrecks with the understanding that everyone else here knows more about what they're doing than she does.
The chief nods to Shalelu "That what Chief say! Bones come to take what Licktoad take from cave! Devil-demon girl ask about shipwrecks! What wrong with elves? You have two ears and Chief hear better than you!"
The chief shrugs and shakes his head, "Chief take back big brain comment. Elves dumb like longhshanks."
A bit confused, Olaff replies to Thanara as he gets up to go get the chest. "I believe ye... not rreally underrstand ye, but I believe ye arre sorrry. Ye lost me vorrk, but now I'm doin' vhat I'm good at, so I accept yer vorrds."
Once he grabs the chest and walks through the door, Olaff looks back at Thanara with a mischievous smile in his face. "Also, if ye vant to make up forr somethin' and angry yer fatherr, ve can f%&% afterr this thin' vith the goblins arre done."
Relisha's eyes go wide at Olaff's suggestion and she steps away from the viking looking at Thanara in shock.
”Ha! Way to romance a girl there, big guy,” Thanara remarks as she rolls her eyes.
"That's not romance, that's ..." the tiefling begins, but at the look Thanara sends her way, she looks down. "Oh."
You finish up at the village, gathering all of the items of interest and ensuring all of the ears are taken. Olaff picks up the chest and after an hour of preperation, the group finally sets off on their way following the Chief.
He takes a few wrong turns and forces you to backtrack twice, the unpleasant trip through the march becoming even more so as he makes you march through not roads and bridges but water and muck nearly the entire way there. Eventually after a few hours as the sun begins to set, he declares you are at your destination.
In front of you, you see that a fifty-foot-high cliff rises along the marsh’s southern border, its face a thick tangle of jutting rocks and bright green vines and nettles. A curtain of these thick nettle vines partially conceals a cave opening at the base of the cliff. Inside the caves, the fading light gives way to a deep darkness.
The Chief points at the cave and says "Chief Gutwad hold his bargain. You agree to let Chief go. Cut chief free now." he says, turning for you to cut his bindings free.
Olaff shrugs at Thanara's comment. "Ye girls frrom the south pay too much attention to this rromance crrap... in the norrth, if ve like someone, ve tell them so... if ve vant to f&$! a girrl, ve tell herr so. If she also vants some good time, she agrrees, if she does not, ve move on to ask someone else. Simple like that, and I bet ourr men get a lot morre f$##in' then those arround herre."
Once the chief asks to be cut free, Olaff draws his sword and tries to cut the goblin free... of his ugly head.
”...” Thanara exclaims!
Gutad ignores Olaff, saying "Stupid longhanks can't even talk right! BLAH BLAH BLAH-" as he turns away from the Ulfen, looking at Shalelu again. "CHIEF GO NOW!"
The Chief is knocked sideways into the marsh waters by the force of Olaff's blow. The poor Chief never even saw the blow coming, his head severed mostly from his body, but not all the way. Olaff's blade gets hung up on the bone and it only severs 3/4 of hte way before the blade jams into the bone and gets stuck.
Relisha steps back in shock and her hands go to her face.
"Didn't we ...? I thought we had a bargain?" she stammers out. She looks to the viking and her eyes narrow. She then glances around at the others, taking in their reactions.
Olaff grabs the chief's head, dislodges his sword and finishes the job of cutting its head off. At Thanara's scream, Olaff looks once more confused to everyone. "Vhat? Vas this not the plan all the time? The sherriff put a big bounty in this suckerr's head... I thought Shalelu vas just trrickin' him..."
Shalelu is a bit shocked at the Ulfan's prompt murder of the chief, but doesn't seem all too concerned "I was actually going to take him back alive..." she shrugs and finishes "whatever, it is done."
She takes a moment to mark the caves on the map the warden drew for them and then looks to the others, quickly moving on from the goblin murder "I think the best bet is if Olaff leads the way. Normally I would scout ahead but with my injuries I worry it may not work out as well as usual."
Relisha nods wordlessly. With a nervous glance at the large man, she speaks a minor prayer and light emanates from his shield.
Ahreni shakes her head, her muzzle shrinking back into a normal jawline as she does so.
"I will go first. I see in the dark without lights and Olaff not quiet."
Unless stopped she does just that, taking the lead and slipping away into the darkness.
Ahreni moves towards the caverns, the passageway into cavern is about ten feet wide and only seven feet tall.
As Ahreni pushes aside the vines nettles covering the cave, she quickly realizes that they would extremely painful to touch and avoids them. She manages to slip through without being injured, but relays the information to her party.
Pushing into the cavern, a sense of claustrophobia sets in as the ceiling seeming decreases the further in you press. Moisture constantly drips down from the above, making the ground slightly slippery from puddles and rivulets on the floor. After about twenty feet a smaller five foot corridor breaks off to the right.
When Ahreni points out the nettles she asks the others to wait and asks Olaff to help cut clear a path so they can enter without having to worry about the nettles. She gives Ahreni some room, at least 30-40 feet as she follows behind with the others. Letting Olaff light the way with his illuminated shield.
After resting the chest near to the cave entrance and retrieving the severed head to put it in the same sack with the ears, Olaff nods to Shalelu's assessment of the situation. "Ya, everyone stays behind me shield."
At first, when Relisha approaches him, he imagines she is about to make some prayer for the dead goblin's soul. To his surprise, his shield shines. Once Ahreni decides to go first, he isn't quick enough to grab her collar and curses before talking to the others. "Ye know how ve call the one who goes ahead into a place vithout knovin' s$&# about it vhile the otherrs stay behind? 'The Corrpse'..."
"I'm not quiet like herr orr Shalelu, but if somethin' jumps on me, I'll endurre the blow, and ye all vill be just by me side." He explains. "Forr she to go alone, ve need to be vay back to not drraw attention vith the noise, so she'll be on herr own. If somethin' knocks herr overr, she vill be likely dead and in pieces beforre ve can find herr."
"Scouting is good in open places, like the goblin village, vherre one can see frrom a distance and rrun forr help if needed, orr others can rrun to help the scout. In narrrow corridorrs, movin' as one, prreferrable vith a shield vall, is betterr. Come... ve go rright afterr herr, vith noise and light..."
Noticing the nettles, Olaff protects himself with the shining shield before drawing his sword. He then tries to clear the entrance, slashing the plants.
"She won't be dead," Relisha says cryptically.
The young woman does her best, but she's unable to avoid the stinging nettles and starts at the sharp pain they produce.
Ahreni sniffs deeply and then heads down the right hand path to investigate the smaller passage. She can hear Olaff rumbling from there, and simply shakes her head. Stealth, not brawn...
With Olaff the noisemaker behind a way, Ahreni pushes ahead into the darkness as she does not need their light. The tunnel she takes winds slowly southwest for about thirty feet before turning south into a much larger 30'x15' room.
As she rounds the corner she sees movement up ahead and presses herself to the eastern wall. A spider the size of a man crawls silently from the depths of its funnel-shaped web and begins feeding on the carcass of a giant gecko.
Noisemaker will help here.
Ahreni nods to herself and glides back down the tunnel away from the spider until she can rejoin her comrades.
"Tunnel on the right, big spider. Eating." She says bluntly. "We can jump it."
Relisha surprisingly finds herself nodding at Ahreni.
I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid.
"But do ve need to?" He asks Ahreni. "There is anotherr vay herre..." he points to the south. "If therre is no otherr vay, ve can fight it, but if ve can avoid rriskin' ourr lives, it is alvays betterr."
"But then it'll be between us and the exit," Relisha whispers. "If it is, we may end up fighting it when we can't afford to."
"Fight on our terms, not its." Ahreni replies. "Or we all come down and you block the path for us. Works for me."
”Uhm...maybe...I dunno...” Thanara stammers, wishing she knew the best move here, but knowing she lacked the experience.
Shalelu nods to Rel's words "We don't want it coming up behind us if we are in the middle of a fight with something else or worse blocking the path if we need to make a hasty retreat. There are still, allegedly, undead somewhere in here. We should deal with the spider so we don't have to worry about it later."
The party decides to deal with the spider first rather than leave it behind them as they advance. Olaff takes the lead and as the party advances down the tunnel, Noisemaker alerts the giant creature to your presence as you turn the corner. The spider lifts its mandibles off the corpse on the ground and pivots to face the large Ulfen leading the pack.
Thanara steps into the room, her lights moving to orbit the spider. She makes some gestures with her hands, and dark black energy coalesces around her arms before she sends a black ray from her hand into the arachnid.
"There are no vebs on the south passage, and the spiderr is feedin'... I do not think it vill leave its lairr to come huntin' forr us." At Ahreni's comment, however, he becomes angry, making some effort not to raise his voice. "Me suggestion is based on visdom and not on fearr, Volfgirrl... If therre is any fight, I'll be the one in the frront, vith me shield rraised to protect yerr skin."
He then entered the webbed corridor with his sword ready.
Despite his experience, Olaff had never fought a giant spider before. Unsure by the probable angle of its attacks, Olaff moved with care before making a tentative slash.
________________________________________
5ft. step
Attack
Shalelu ready with her bow moves up and take aim at the spider and looses an arrow.
The webbing gets in her way though as she moves up, covering her face making it difficult to see. She hastily looses the arrow, and then quickly works on brushing the webbing out of her face.
Thanara's ranged attack has to fly past the oaf Olaff, but she still manages to land the debuff on the creature. Shalelu can't get a clean shot off and misses, her arrow hitting the corpse on the floor instead of the giant spider. Olaff's attack is tentative, but still enough to connect with the spider before it had a chance to move out of the way.
The spider tries to bite Olaff, but the large Ulfen easily blocks the attack with his shield as the creature slams into it with a loud *thud*.
Shalelu plants her feet, now in a good position to shoot at the spider but as she does she winces a bit as the earlier pain from the open wound the goblin left bothers her. She takes aim but the pain throws her off and she shoot wide once again.
Relisha moves up a little closer behind Ahreni, still attempting to reassure herself that she's not afraid - it's only a spider.
The size of a man!
Ahreni pushes her way into melee, but chooses to swipe at the spider with her elongated claws, rather than bite. She seems to be deciding pre-emptively that spider is not going to break the 'bad-tasting' streak.
Ahreni slashes the giant spider with her claws, ripping away pieces its body with her sharp weapons. Olaff tries to slash the giant creature, but it manages to avoid his blow as it pivots around to face Ahreni.
Squirming in pain, the spider tries to bite the shifter in retaliation, but apparently it is in so much pain it doesn't even come remotely close.
Ahreni continues to slash at the creatures legs, slicing through another of the creatures supports.
Relisha continues to observe, tensed for the expected pain.
Relisha observes that Shalelu is not the only fiersome warrior in their band. While she may be good in long range or tactical situations, the Ulfen and shifter can get up close and personal when it matters. Ahreni and Olaff shred the giant spider to pieces before it even lands a single blow on either one of them. Collapsing on the ground, the spider begins to bleed out at their feet.
The path only continues east into a smaller cavern.