Again Felix lays a hand on Izumi's shoulder. "Fate would not have brought you here to fail now," he says gently.
Rooke desperately tries to kill the goblin dog before the varisian is attacked again.
Rooke manages to hurt the dog, making it bleed, but it still stands.
Izumi swings...
for
Izumi manages to finish off the dog. With the dog dead, the party can breathe for a moment and examine the scene. They realize the dogs were all leashed to wooden stakes on the ground and wouldn't be able to move out of this particular chamber.
Rooke cats cure moderate wounds on himself to heal from the vicious dog attacks.
Izumi channels healing energy...
She then casts lesser restoration to restore her strength.
Rooke nods in appreciation to Izumi and the channeling of her goddess.
The group recharges their strengths. Afterwards, the soft sound of waves hitting the rock continues. The gulls continue their hunt.
As the group is sure that they're ready to go on, they realize the path splits north or south.
Toss a coin? Cayden is known to be a god of luck Rooke, what do you think?
Rooke smiles. "Damn. Beauty. Wisdom. And Brains! Excellent idea, Izumi!"
The caydenite takes out a copper piece, says is god's name once, and turns the coin in his hand. "Heads. North. Tails. South."
Rooke flips the coin in the air, catches it and slaps the coin to the back of his hand.
"North."
A few steps walking further north reveal a thistle door to the right. No sound comes from the other side. The path continues forward. A rope bridge spans the gulf between the cliff and a roundish, flat-topped island sixty-some feet to the north. Thick patches of nettles and briars grow here and there atop the island, but its most impressive feature is a wooden one-story stockade. Two thirty-foot-tall watchtowers guard the stockade’s southern facade. The rope bridge itself is made of hairy rope and thick wooden planks; the whole thing creaks and sways in the wind above the churning surf eighty feet below.
After a bit of listening, Dart manages to tell the sounds apart from the constant wave thrashing and sea gulls. He notices that, towards the southern path, a large animal seems to be snoring. Also, there does not seem to be anyone manning the watch towers in the fort, but there is some goblin screeching and laughing which sounds that it is coming from beyond the fort, to the northwest.
Praise Cayden then Rooke, says Izumi looking at the fort.
Doubly so... I don't see any guards, otherwise that bridge is an invitation to death by stupidity. That said? I don't fancy the crossing. How can we make it safer?
"Pray." Felix's deep voice is calm as he surveys the situation. "We might also tie ropes to each other and cross one at a time. If one falls, the others catch them."
I have silk rope... light and strong. Maybe cross one at at time instead? Here... , she says as she ties the rope around her waist and handing the coil to Felix and Rooke. Play it out as I cross.
If anyone else has a rope then start roping yourselves together...
She then casts guidance on herself and gingerly sets forth over the rickety bridge.
Izumi tests the bridge and it holds her weight, even with armor. One by one, the group passes safely.
After crossing, you realize that the bridge is rigged to drop if too much weight is placed on it.
You notice a series of knotted ropes at the base of the northern posts, which would allow one to tie off the trap so that it can drastically increase its support.
"I'm not engineer, but I don't like the look of that bridge." Rooke points out where the structure looks the weakest. "Maybe we should fix that if we want to use this bridge coming back."
Please... we may be leaving at a run
"If we lack the skills to conduct these repairs, then we should take care not to need to go back over in a hurry," Felix offers at last. "Our fates may come and find us if we wait here long enough, but let us not tempt them so."
Perception
I can't make heads or tails of it... let's quietly scout out an entrance.
Yet she pushes on the gate to see if it's open, if it doesn't yield she follows the fence line left.
The door is, in fact, unlocked. It seems the goblins are not expecting invaders. Opening the door reveals a room whose floor is hard-packed soil, as if the builders either ran out of lumber after building the walls and roof, or as if they simply never thought about building a floor. A number of poorly preserved horse and dog heads are mounted along the eastern wall, while along the southern wall hangs a pair of large black-feathered wings tacked to the wall with daggers. Otherwise, nothing can be heard.
Bakayarō, Izumi breathes in amazement at the goblins stupidity and unconsciously lapsing into Tien.
She draws her sword and moves as quietly as she can down the room, and towards the nearest enterance.
Izumi counts a total of 6 doors exiting this room. A double door to the west, 4 doors to the north, one of which is a double door and a door at the end of the corridor to the east.
She considers silently then moves to the door in the blessed direction of Shizuru, to the east, waving her friends onwards.
Izumi leads the group into a room with only an open flight of wooden stairs winding up to a trap door in the ceiling, thirty feet above.
The moment Izumi opens the door, she is faced with a pair of goblins sitting on the floor in a very tense game of cards. After the moment of silent staring between the group and the goblins, both groups go immediately for their weapons. One of the goblins tells the other something.
"Go tell the chief!"
Izumi charges down the goblin who got the orders.
confirm?
Crit uuuup...
Her katana cleaves deep into the torso of the underling... leaving the boss for her friends.
Izumi cuts the goblins head right off his shoulders. The other goblin yelps in shock.
Felix levels his crossbow and exhales deeply. "Understanding of their language has not been granted to me at this time," he replies softly, finger on the trigger. A click, followed by a loud SNAP!
...and a loud THUNK as the bolt embeds itself in the doorframe.
Rookie advances toward the goblins, but not compensating for their nimbleness, fails to strike with his rapier.
The other goblin gets up awkwardly which makes everyone miss him. He tries attacking the so frightening Izumi.
Being so scared, he misses her entirely.
Dart hits the goblin with his spear, drawing blood. However, it's not enough to bring him down.
Rooke slides a five-foot step to get just behind the injured goblin.
Rooke finishes off the goblin. Blood smears the playing cards on the floor.
Aside from the stairs that lead to a watchpost, there is a door to the north. It opens to a corridor that has two doors, one to the north and one to the west.
The northern door has some noise coming from it. It seems that there are some goblins fighting and others watching and laughing.