The valiant warrior would not be challenged in her authority. She rushes in with such ferocity, faking left and then right, with strange otherworldly images tracing after her that it is near impossible to tell where her strikes will come from.
The chief hopes for his armor to protect him more than anything else. He focuses on trying to hit his target with long broad strokes. Lilianne can see them coming and only gets grazed a few times before the enlarged goblin is bleeding and falls to one foot.
With his side mostly clear, Thorn hears the battle cry and rushes in as well!
He reaches the site of the great battle and watches the explosion send Aurkan flying from its tremendous might.
It doesn't help to be large if you can't see, can't guess where your target is, and she uses a blade designed to dehorse riders on large beasts. Lilianne is a violent storm, but she also keeps in mind her companions and tries to protect them.
As the explosion, debris, and finally the smoke dissipate, only a small fire remains. Within it is an orb that begins to glow. All the fires begun to burn brighter and fiercer.
With a spin about the creature's flank, she gets him to overcommit on his swing. She manages to duck below it as she moves back to his other side. Then as he course corrects, he will find her blade moving just right up through his armor. With his heft, he will impale himself deeply. Like a tiny dagger to the large frame, it finds purchase clear to his heart.
Then, with a sharp yank downward and back, she releases her blade and frees it from his corpse. It is now the solid color of his blood.
Once Andrei is finished dealing with the normal rank-and-file goblin defenders, the cleric moves to engage the goblin shaman.
The Shaman finishes buffing himself and takes his staff in one hand as a vine with large thorns now sways menacing in his other. He uses it as a whip.
The thorny vine snaps and wraps around Andrei's neck. With a few well placed hits Andrei is on the ground. But before he can continue Lilianne and Thorn flank the shaman.
With Shield leading the way, Thorn's combat style is a mixed of a gladiator and shock trooper. leading with his shield to deliver a heavy blow to stun before using feints to sneak in crushing blows with his mace.
With his companion in trouble, the half elf shows no hesitation in aiming for crucial spots and joints!
"Let go of him!" she screams out as she watches the vine choking her love. The goblin shaman is about to find out how serious she is.
Thorn and Lillianne are able to free the cleric and draw the shamans attention away. With the exchange of a few failed attacks the goblin looks scared and tired. Lilianne gets a good slice in on him but he isn't out yet.
He swings but the fight is quickly taken out of him... an arrow sticks out from him and a blazing ray hit him too!
---
Meanwhile the glowing orb seems to make the fires grow brighter. With only the Shaman left Aukan and Pharos approaches the object. It turns into a fiery portal with an opaque black center. The two of them seem to be pulled into it. The fires seem to die down to normal flames but the portal remains.
Andrei, no longer choking from the vine whip, pulls himself off the ground and quickly recovers his weapons.
If possible, the varisian will cast bestow curse on the goblin shaman. Wis DC 16 or the goblin experiences -4 penalty on attack rolls, saves, ability checks, and skill checks.
Weakened and cursed, the shaman now falls victim to Lilianne's paralyzing hold person spell. With eyes set upon him, he is even weaker and unable to move, she coup de graces him by beheading him right there on the spot, then looks toward the portal. If Pharos and Aukan can be saved, she will rush to their aid, even using the vine whip as a tool to not be as close as them to the portal.
Thorn glances at the portal. having much experience with portals he looks to his companions.
"Clear the area first before lunging in?" he asks
Looking around there are no more combatants. There are goblin young and a few females hiding in some of the tents. A few random goblins that are just hiding. You find a few non goblin slaves hiding separately.
Aukan and Pharos touched the portal and vanished.
The other side of the camp has been burned and turned to ash. You can see bodies that are merely bones now. The further away from the center of the camp the less burnt things are. Blaze stands behind her fire and waits for any other movement.
"We don't know how long this will stay open. Aramyros and Blaze!" she calls out to them. "You stay behind and clean up here. Free the slaves, take out those goblinoids, and report what happened here to Ethos. I'm going in after those two."
She then looks to Andrei to see what he wants to do; as if she cannot go without him. If he enters the portal, she will too.
Andrei takes his lover's hand. "Where ever we go, Câyden'ş proţecţîon comeș wîțh uş." Kissing Lilianne's hand, both cleric and mermerist step through the portal.
Aramyros waves his free hand as he says, "We got it covered here! You go bring them back."
Blaze adds, "No goblin will leave alive!"
Thorn leaps into the portal after the two of them!
No way was he going to allow them to walk into danger without him offering to help.
"I'm not sure what we'll see, but I'm glad you're there with me."
Lilianne sheathes her sword and then rushes into the portal while holding onto Andrei's hand. She then looks to Thorn and nods that they are ready and then runs in.
The three of you touch the portal and feel as if you drop on a Rollercoaster. A feeling similar to the portal Ethos created for you weeks ago.
You see the same swirling black and red portal behind you. The first thing you notice is the sweltering heat. You seem to be upon a staircase made of rock. No sun lightens the area but great fires push forth from craters in the distance. Looking off the staircase you see that lava moves freely a few hundred feet below.
The staircase seems to go down into the rock. Aukan and Pharos stand talking. They stop as you appear.
She walks towards you and stops with her free hand extended to you.
Aukan states, "Somehow I can understand her here. She can cast endure elements upon three of us. If you stay you should be treated first. This is my challenge. I know Lilianne voiced wanting to take care of the goblins first. I welcome the help but you may return if you choose. I must enter here and slay the dragon kin or... I fear what will happen if I fail."
"Slay the dragon kin?" Thorn voices out.
"Weapon talking? Ring? Necklace? Demanding dragon heart, blood or something dragon?" he asks wryly. he remembered the weapons in the vault.
"What a strange random thing to do decide to do in the middle of a battle...I really don't like this guy...He had me worried and here he is all normal and actually planned to do this?" "Alright, well my mission is not to slay dragonkin, especially if these are allied with Alia. If you are not harmed and intended to come in here, some word might have been nice. As it is, I'm going to complete our mission. Good luck on yours. Be careful and I would just suggest that if you can wait, you do. If this is a sanctioned mission from Ethos, I'm sure he can have us all help you. In any case, Thorn, you are free to do what you wish."
Her eyes glance to Andrei for a moment, saying in a way he too is free if he wishes, but that she is leaving.
Andrei nodded back to indicate the cleric was following the elf.
He answers Thorn seriously, "There is no compulsion. But if I don't kill the dragon beasts, I will lose this sword, the treasure, and likely more. This is my only chance to venture and my only path."
"I doubt we are any where near Alia, or her dragons, these are wingless beasts, no true dragons here. This was not planned!!! Somehow it got activated from the explosion. I went to check it out and ended up over here with Pharos. Nothing here is sanctioned by Ethos. I..." He then stops there, stands straight up and walks towards the stairs.
For a moment you felt desperation, but mostly honesty. As he stopped suddenly you realize that he thought you were comrades. Then he put on the cold shoulder and turned to venture into his destiny alone if need be.
You can feel your sweat building quickly on your body as in moments you are drenched in it. It has to be well over 120 degrees. You can see the Goliath's body is glistening from the sweat as well.
Lilianne shakes her head as Aukan walks off up the stairs and away from them. She turns back to the portal as she doesn't feel like sweating anymore. Once through she shakes her head in disdain.
"What the hell..." she mutters. "So because he wanted to keep a likely-cursed sword, some treasure, and wanted to kill dragons, he abandons us mid-battle. I can't stand that guy."
Seeing there was still stuff to do, she helps the cleanup efforts that Aramyros and Blaze are fighting to finish. As they can see, she is covered by sweat. In time, she will work to finish this place off as well and burn it all down, giving the land a chance to reclaim its once-held beauty here.
Aramyros and Blaze are standing at their choke points, watching for any movement.
The goblin camp is already half burnt for the most part. Taking fire to the other tents you begin to hear screams as those within make a run for their lives. There are goblin young, a few goblin females, a few random goblins, and a few non goblin slaves.
Blaze would begin to shoot the first goblin seen, then to whichever one was closest. Aramyros holds his scythe high and brings it upon any goblin that come his way. Alia seems to have moved as she now stands in the last bottleneck that does not have flames with her sword in hand.
"Âye șhăll go en țend țo dă wounded. Be căreful, my deâreşţ!" Andrei kisses Lilianne on the cheek and enters the battlefield searching for injured.
"I really wish you'll stop and listen to yourself. The only path? Seems to me that you would have gone on your own with or without us. Not even a word about it until it blindsides us. I can understand a part of it due to my own circumstances but this will be hard for the rest to take in. We have our own mission. I wish you luck in your quest. we still have Ethos's mission to be completed." Thorn bids the goliath farewell as he heads back to do clean up.
Joining the varisian cleric, Thorn calls out to him.
"Let me help in that."
"Yes, and look after those slaves," she replies with a smile as he flutters a kiss to her cheek. Whereat one moment there is the warrior seen in her looks, as he shows her love, he brings out the smile of a giddy schoolgirl, even if briefly, every time he shows her attention.
The slaves they all will work to free. The goblins, they kill without mercy. What is left, they search and burn down. As for the slaves, they can come with the group if they wish vengeance and are healthy enough, or Aramyros can lead them back to camp with his horse. Those that return to camp will find peace. Aramyros, on his return journey, will find that as they go toward this other goblin camp, Lilianne will leave markers for the horseman to quickly play catch-up.
It takes about an hour to clean up the goblin camp. In that time putting the goblins to the sword is easy enough, though it might be harder for some than others. The red portal winks out of existence. Aramyros takes the frred slaves to your camp and returns following the markers.
The village is a dark and gloomy place. It is nestled in a valley outside of the forest. The buildings look like they all have been burnt. Goblins and beasts wander about the place. There is open plains for hundreds of feet between the village and the valley cliffs or where you hide in the trees.
Nicolette talks freely as they are so distant from the encampment, but is very alerted to her surroundings.
"In order to sneak up on this group, we'd have to wear disguises mimicking the open plains and only move when the wind blows...Then we'd have to crawl the distance and hope we would not be detected...unless there is an invisibility spell one of you knows that can conceal us all that distance?"
As apparently no one knows such a spell, the group prepares. Aramyros and his mount move back and will wait for the fireworks to begin. The rest of you begin adding scrub and grass to your clothes.
Following Lilianne's example and lead you then begin your slow crawl forward.
There seems to be more activity than the other camps and multiple goblins moving around the outside of the town. You would see that none of the buildings have any smoke coming from them or any signs of smoke.
As you watch during the day, Alia offers to go hunt for some berries. You notice that only a slim drift of white smoke goes up around noon and an hour before sun down.
As dusk falls upon you, a bright light emits from within the town. You can't see the source but it drops the area into a strange set of shadows.
"Strange. Is there some other force in that town besides goblins?"
"Who knows? Maybe Aukan woke a dragon and summoned it there..." she mutters in deadpan humor. In reality, she does hope he's okay, despite his foolish behaviors. There was a reason they had to come rescue him the first time.
Lilianne carefully watches the same area she's been watching all evening to make sure no little goblins move about toward their approach. Slowly but surely, they make their way closer until they get really close and then have to start crawling.
As you get closer you can tell the goblins and what looks like wolves continue to walk around the perimeter.
Now within sight you can see the goblins and wolves are undead. Slowly dragging along...
Assuming nothing bars the group's path, once within range, Lilianne will stand up, then charge the undead foes.
Thorn barely manages to throw up a spell as Lilianne charges!
Andrei barely has enough time to cast bless on the group for it move out.
The three of you empowered by the spells charge forward with weapons drawn. Easily cutting down the undead goblin and wolf. You notice that the nearest goblins and wolves begin to move towards you, though at their staggered speed you act again before they are upon you.
With the advanced force down, and likely undead, able to alert other beings of their presence (unless they were intelligent undead goblins lol), she now moves to see what is causing this light, making sure her companions stick close by.