Torra’s earthen blast strikes the goblin square in the chest - she can hear the horrible crunch from her position as he folds in two and collapses back into the doorway of the building that sits behind him.
Suddenly, a goblin woman emerges from that very building, holding her own rod of fireworks in one hand. She levels it at the dwarf, who is once more blasted by an explosion of fireworks. This time the sparks fly over her head to strike against the palisade wall.
With the door to the western watchtower sealed, Hana rushes to one by the pond in a bid to climb its ladder and make her way to the walkway.
"I will try to make some room for you!" Yuto exclaims to Seishin while carefully swinging the katana towards the goblin in front the way he has understood in his books the real samurais do.
Seishin finishes climbing up and jabs at a goblin with his spear.
Teruko quickly reloads her crossbow and fires again at the goblin on the walkway. "Hana? How are things looking on that side?"
At the top of the ladder, Seishin stabs out with his spear at one of the two goblins - unfortunately, the close proximity means that he cannot quite get his spear to bear on them, and he ends up stabbing the palisade wall behind them instead.
Yuto slashes the goblin before him, opening a deep gash across the goblin’s face. It howls, staggering backwards, before shooting him a baleful glare, though it is clearly on its last legs.
Hana bounces off of the door, using that momentum to drop down the ladder, and then rushes across the courtyard. When she reaches the next nearest watchtower, she leaps up the steps two at a time and shoves open the door, only to find herself in a room barely lit by the distant sword. There are three blurry green shapes inside the room with her. They shriek in rage and shout something in their own tongue. For some reason, she gets the sense that these goblins are a lot less afraid than the ones in the other watchtower. Reacting quickly, she slashes at one of the goblins present as swiftly as she can. Though the shadows make it difficult, she nevertheless lands a swift cut on him, slashing across his huge (even for a goblin) head. The melon-headed goblin yelps aloud, stumbling back from the blow.
Teruko fires her crossbow at the fire-working goblin woman on the walkway, who dodges the bolt seemingly by accident as she bends to pick something up off the wooden floor. Whatever it is, she puts it in her mouth and begins chomping, apparently unaware that the oracle had attacked her at all.
The biter slashes at Yuto vengefully, trying desperately to hurt the longshanks that so badly wounded him. Its blade slices at Yuto's stomach, but the man's careful guard allows him to deflect the blade with his shield. Even as he does so, the goblin collapses into a bleeding heap, its effort expended.
The female goblin behind him rushes forwards, though whether to avenge her fallen comrade (unlikely) or just to hurt Yuto (rather more likely) is uncertain. As she swings her dogslicer at the samurai, she very nearly trips over her comrade's bleeding body. However, she somehow manages to turn the sword so that it is striking at Seishin instead. Fortunately for the priest, he manages to block the blow with the haft of his longspear.
Meanwhile, in the other watchtower, Hana is virtually surrounded by angry green shadows. The melon-headed one slashes viciously at her, beginning to sing in a loud, off-tune voice - a particularly unpleasant experience for Hana, as a musician. Her own short blade easily deflects his series of strikes.
The second goblin simply points at the melon-headed one and bursts out laughing, apparently more amused at his injury than concerned with the threat that Hana represents.
The third, whose sole eye gleams from the distant sword light, attempts to dodge out of the ninja's way, but she swiftly slashes her before the goblin can escape. However, due to the dim light, she slashes in front of the escaping goblin, her blade whizzing past her nose rather than cutting into her head. The goblin backs away, before retaliating with a vicious cut that slices deep into her stomach - pain burns through her stomach and into her ribcage and her thighs as the jagged blade cuts a broad, deep slash into her. Nevertheless, she manages to throw herself back just enough that it does not critically injure her.
Don't stand in one spot, idiot! Torra chides herself as another firework flies at her, Taking a few steps to her left, she amasses another clump of earth and mud and sends it flying at the goblin on the walkway. By the sound of things, Hana was in trouble, but with the young woman blocking the top of the stairs there wasn't much that Torra could do to help her.
Torra's blast goes wide as the throws herself to the side, even though it wouldn't have hit to begin with. Her fireworks seem to be sputtering slightly as she looks over at the other watchtower. Torra sees realization alight on the green face as she points the fireworks at the dwarf once more. This time, her aim is true, and another searing punch strikes Torra - this time striking her unarmored face. The firework sputters and dies, and the goblin eyes it with disappointment.
Seishin takes a step back and stabs with his spear again!
"Shut. Up." Teruko whispers. "Shut up shutupshutupshutup-"
Given how distracted she is, it's unsurprising that her third shot is no more accurate than her first two had been. Eerily, despite the way she's talking to herself, her expression remains perfectly calm.
"Oh no! Hana is on trouble Seishin, we need to go help her. There are no more goblins in here" seeing Hana crowded with no place to access to help her, Yuto resolves to open his own way.
The young man enters the tower and hits the eastern wall with all his strength, trying to open his way to the walkway "We are coming Hana, hold on!"
And the danger on his friends back seems to be giving the best of Yuto.
Hana sucks in a painful, shallow breath as one of the goblin's blade sinks deep into her flesh. She should have known that Lady Luck wouldn't be so kind as to have her only have to deal with one goblin in the tower.
With the ladder at her back and angry three goblins in front, she grits her teeth and puts her wakizashi and body into a defensive position as she waits for Yuto to back her up.
Seishin pushes off the walkway with his longspear, using it to vault over to the walkway on the other side of Yuto. Despite the other man in his way, he manages to arc a stab over Yuto’s shoulder that pierces the goblin through the chest. A fountain of blood erupts and the goblin drops atop her friend (inasmuch as goblins have friends) in a bloody heap.
Yuto dashes into the watchtower, whereupon he throws himself at the wall, smashing through it with astonishing ease. Of course, there’s one major unintended consequence - namely, the ceiling is no longer supported, and collapses down on him. The young man is caught totally off-guard by the sudden death from above, and a shower of heavy boards with nails, bits of random scrap, and whatever else the goblins made their roofs with crash down directly on his head and shoulders. The goblin on the walkway looks at him in surprise, eyes widening at the man crashing through the wall before bursting out in laughter at the man's injuries.
Hana falls back into a defensive stance, focusing more on survival than on dealing any damage.
Teruko fires another bolt at the goblin on the walkway, who, once more doesn't even notice the attack, busy as she is doubled-over in laughter at Yuto's misfortunes.
The melon-headed goblin attacks Hana once more with his rusty and battered dogslicer, but her defensive posture lets her easily deflect his blows.
The one-eyed goblin that had wounded Hana earlier attempts to dodge out of the tower once more. Because of her defensive posture, the ninja can't get her wakizashi in position fast enough to prevent the goblin from escaping onto the walkway. She dashes over to the door, slams it open and shouts something into the building, before leaping down off the walkway towards Torra. Surprisingly, she manages to land on her feet, and then slashes at the dwarven kineticist with her jagged blade.
Torra, however, easily evades the small blade.
The last remaining goblin in the tower's eyes light up with a delighted grin, and he leaps at her, trying to shove her out of the watchtower and into the air. Even as he does so, Hana sees her chance and her blade flickers forwards, cutting the goblin's throat. Unfortunately, that doesn't stop the now (very much bleeding) body's momentum whatsoever... but she manages to catch the body blow with her leg, remaining balanced precipitously in the doorway.
Torra stumbles backwards as the goblin leaps off the walkway and swings at her. Too close! The dwarf spends a few moments really gathering up her power to try and push the foe away.
Torra's blast at the nearby goblin goes wide, but does certainly startle her, as she leaps to the side, her sole eye comically wide before giggling maniacally.
Up on the walkway, the goblin woman whose fireworks have died out leans back and flings it at Yuto before drawing her dogslicer. Fortunately, despite being somewhat dazed by the sudden collapse, Yuto is able to deflect the hurled rod with his shield.
From within the central building, another goblin emerges, a firework blazing in his hands. Looking around, he points it at poor Torra. The small burst of fire sizzles over the woman's head, singing her hair but doing little else.
Seishin wrinkles his nose at Yuto's overenthusiastic destruction of the watchtower wall before following him through and stabbing at another goblin...
Yuto charges on the walkway goblin.
Hana couldn't help but curse internally as she spares a glance backward to see the greenie that had gotten past her blast more fireworks Torra's way. "Torra! I'll be there down there in a tick!"
Wanting to end her fight with the sole remaining goblin in the watchtower as quickly as possible, she drops her defensive stance and moves in for the kill, sweeping downwards with her wakizashi at the already wounded Licktoad.
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Teruko's fingers tighten around the crossbow. There's a goblin much closer now, shooting fireworks at Torra, trying to hurt her...
Perhaps it's the angle, shooting straight forwards rather than up towards the walkway. Perhaps it's simply luck. Whatever the reason, this bolt finally strikes true.
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Seishin clambers through the debris of the ceiling on the watchtower, pushing past Yuto and taking up a defensive posture near him before skewering another goblin with his longspear. She falls down in a heap, blood oozing slowly from the puncture in her chest.
Yuto shakes off the pain and the splinters to bravely push forwards, sliding past the samsaran cleric and launching an attack on the firework-wielding goblin. The goblin himself whirls, the spray of sparks dazzling Yuto just long enough for the little dastard to evade the katana’s edge.
Hana lashes out with her eastern blade once more, this time nearly catching the melon-headed goblin in the skull (again). He manages to get his sword up in time that she doesn’t split his head and kill him outright, only cutting a deep red incision across the top of his head.
The young Kaijitsu finally manages to hit a goblin with her crossbow, the bolt flashing out and striking her square in the chest, knocking her to the ground, where she lies in a slowly spreading pool of her own blood.
The sole remaining goblin in Hana’s watchtower, badly battered but still standing, attempts to dodge outside onto the walkway, but the ninja is ready for him, and attacks swiftly in response. However, she overextends and the melon-headed little beast avoids her attack. He grins viciously at her, before swinging the flat of his blade low, trying to knock Hana prone. As she’s already out of position, one foot still unstable, his dogslicer is just enough to knock her to the watchtower’s floor.
From within the central building, another goblin rushes through the door - this one with oddly lanky limbs and big eyes. Yuto sees her careless movement as an opportunity, and slashes at her with his katana. The blade catches her square in the chest, cutting through her patchwork armor easily, despite the difficulty he has striking around the doorframe. She collapses in a heap in the doorway
Yet another goblin takes this chance to rush past Yuto, who is unable to take advantage of this opportunity. He steps onto the walkway before turning and beginning to climb up the wall towards the roof of the building. Despite much scrabbling, he can’t seem to make it up on his first try, or indeed, on his second, leaving him looking somewhat pathetic and saddened.
Finally, a very odd goblin steps up next to the doorway. This one wears a fanciful tricorne hat made of what looks like crudely cobbled together bones and scraps of stolen fabric. On his shoulder is a dead rat with brown feathers tied into its fur, and his dogslicer has a basket hilt, looking vaguely like a cutlass. He begins singing an off-key song that sounds vaguely like it might be an imitation of a sea shanty, with the other goblins joining in soon afterwards as he cuts at Yuto. This blow proves obscenely lucky, as it cuts deep into his stomach, slicing through the armor and into his organs. Darkness gathers at the edge of his vision, and he topples, blood flowing freely from his wounds. The goblin's triumphant (high-pitched) laughter echoes throughout the village.
Goblins were now pouring out of every door, and while for the most part they were not very good combatants, every now and then they got a lucky hit in, as evidenced by Yuto and Hana both lying on the floor now.
Flinging another earthen projectile at the goblin closest to Hana's tower, Torra rushes to the ladder to assist the fallen woman.
Perhaps due to her rush to help Hana, Torra’s blast soars over the goblin’s head. He whirls and stares at her, wide-eyed, before giggling triumphantly and sticking his tongue out at her.
Next to Yuto, the goblin steps on top of him, leaps off, and points his firework at Seishin. It sparks away into the night, aim thrown off by the goblin's enthusiastic leap. He lands on the other side of the samurai, giggling maniacally from the bounce.
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Seishin glares at the goblin and steps forward. "You chose poorly."
He punctuates his declaration by grabbing his holy symbol.
"Tsukiyo! May the New Moon foretell their demise!" He prays--and a burst of jade moonlight erupts from his symbol to flood over the party!
"Oh no! We came to save the prisoners, we cannot fight a whole goblins village" Yuto looks horrified as goblins start to appear from every feasible hole around.
As he is fixated on the climbing goblin, he feels a dark blade opening him. Grasping the katana up he holds to the crappy goblin walls "No... I cannot let the light fall..."
The blood in his body smears all of the wall but Yuto does not fall. Resolved to hold the light up, the young man conjures the fate that seems to loom over his head and swings unstoppable at the goblin trying to overpass him.
Killing the goblin straight, he feels the healing of the Moon bathing his body, not understanding what is going on, but feeling his forces recovered as the wounds close up, Yuto steps forward setting a flanking position for Hana to sneak attack the goblin in front and then swings at the goblin with the tricorne hat "No, we will not leave without Arika!"
Blood drops jumps from his mouth as he faces the pirate goblin with his shout and katana.
Remembering her old training, Hana makes a forward flip from the ground that's hopefully to quick for the goblin to react to. Either way, now back on her feet, she takes a fraction of a second to scan the battlefield and assess her options.
She wanted to continue trying to finish the melon-headed goblin off for good, but with a very injured looking and surrounded Yuto standing only a few feet away, she knew that other priories were in the mix.
Hana shifts away from the goblin and stepped right behind its fellow tribesmen. With her wakizashi flashing forward, she tries to stab the Licktoad's back.
Teruko barely has time to register the devastating blow Yuto takes before Seishin's magic sweeps over him. Even so she can still see blood dripping from his injuries.
Her hands start shaking. She'd wanted to find Arika and the Battered Shield. She'd wanted to prove to Ameiko that she could handle herself. She had not wanted to watch people get murdered by goblins in front of her. Again.
It's no surprise that the bolt she fires once again harmlessly hits the underside of the walkway. The state of mind she's in, she's lucky she didn't shoot her own foot.
Tsukiyo’s light blazes forth from his servant’s holy symbol, soothing the wounds of the whole party. Seishin can feel that the waning moon has already risen, and that its Prince is watching over him and his companions.
Yuto remains standing and conscious, despite the deep wound on his stomach, refusing to back down. As the goblin attempts to bypass him, he cuts it down, much to its surprise. His attack against the piratical goblin, on the other hand, is much less successful, as the goblin seems to deflect his sword in time with the rhythm of his raucous song. As Yuto steps forwards, he sees that the building the pirate is in looks like a living quarters… sort of. There are vaguely nest-like piles of cloth, sticks, and other assorted objects, at any rate.
Hana rises to her feet, but in so doing gives the badly wounded goblin a chance to strike her once more. Though it is a near thing, he manages to cut into her flank as she stumbles back to her feet. Using the pain and the impact, she flows sideways and slashes at the goblin she now flanks with Yuto, though the goblin throws itself against the nearby corner of the building to avoid her attack.
Teruko's bolt goes wide once more, her hands as unstable as her emotions.
The would-be climber seems oblivious to Yuto’s relative closeness, throwing himself up the wall once more. The samurai’s katana flashes at him, bisecting the goblin in an explosion of gore.
The pirate continues singing his bizarre sea shanty, looping his dogslicer around Yuto’s sword in time with the beat, such as it is. Once more the goblin's luck holds true, and he leaps up to slash the young man's throat, cutting deeply and spraying blood over the wooden walkway. He pauses his song to lick some of it off of his blade.
In the distance, the heroes hear goblin voices raised, but they do not see anything else coming forth yet.
Torra is indecisive for a moment, trying to choose between helping Hana and helping Yuto. In the end, Yuto's situation seems more dire, so the dwarf backs up a few steps to get a good angle, then attempts to pelt the pirate goblin with a clump of mud formed around a rock.
Torra's earthen projectile cracks against the wooden floor of the walkway as she angles it a tad too low to strike the goblin. The pirate does jump (nearly a foot in the air, at that!) and looks at her with shock.
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Seishin looks at Yuto as he falls down again.
...oh, for Heaven's sake.
Then the samsaran runs up next to him and says another prayer.
"Tsukiyo, save this one from death, that he may strike down this... goblin pirate." He speaks, his incredulity growing with each word. His hand glows with green light, and with a touch to Yuto's wounded body it flows forth...
Yuto regrets lowering his defense to attack the climbing goblin as everything goes black afterwards. Yet, if fate seems to want him down, it seems his friends want him up. Recovering conscience, the young man has little time to thank Seishin and Tsukiyo for his return, although the look he casts to the Samsaran suggest that.
Trying to get out of his really bad position, Yuto stands up.
If he survives the follow attack, he steps to the side, looking for some cover to protect himself "We... we have to run away, more goblins are coming"
Hana nods at Yuto even as she she tries once more to put the melon-head goblin out of commission with her blade. "He's right," she says just loud enough for Torra and Teruko to hear her on the ground. "We have no idea how more of them are hiding in these towers. We need to retreat once we deal with this lot!"
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Seishin rushes to Yuto’s side and pours healing light into the young samurai, who rises to his feet. Not to be denied, the piratical goblin slashes at him once more, determined to keep the young man down. However, Yuto manages to just barely catch the blows on his shield.
Hana attacks the melon-headed goblin, who keeps her wakizashi away from his vulnerable flesh with his dogslicer, deflecting and blocking her blows every step of the way.
Teruko doesn't have a good angle on either of the two remaining goblins. Unlike Torra, (who'd moved to get an angle on the pirate goblin), she moves closer to the walkway. If she can get an angle on the goblin still in the building, perhaps she can clear the way for Yuto to get out. If nothing else, she'll be in position to heal him.
"Yuto, I can heal you. Just get to me." Her voice is calm despite her hands still shaking.
Once Teruko repositions, the goblin shouts in the distance grow faint, and the two remaining goblins look suddenly concerned. Hana’s melon-headed nemesis darts out the nearby door. The ninja takes the opportunity to attack him once again, but he deflects the blows as he retreats. Meanwhile, the "pirate" spits in Yuto's general direction and follows suit, fleeing back into the building and through a door.
The group hears distant goblin voices from the southeast, as well as the banging of flesh on wood.
With the goblins fleeing, Teruko quickly climbs up the ladder to get to Yuto. "It's alright. You're going to be alright." Her hands are still shaking as she rests them on his shoulders. "We're all okay. Everyone's okay. You did great."
The soft glow coming from her hands seems strangely dim, as if even her own abilities don't believe her words. While a few of Yuto's injuries close, many, many others remain.
"We have to get out of here before they get back." She looks over her shoulder to where the goblins had fled. "They may have been calling reinforcements."
"That... was a lot of goblins." Torra glances towards the pile of charred goblin corpses lying in the pit at the center of the courtyard. So many.
"What killed these, do you think? And why are the others running away?"
Seishin looks at the corpses as he helps Yuto walk.
"Cuts on them. Did the Shields fight them?" Torra comes alive with the electric jolt of a sudden thought. "Maybe the Shields are still fighting them! And that's why they retreated! They're fighting on two fronts!"
"Could be. Or perhaps an argument broke out and turned violent." Seishin shrugs. "Either way, we are in dire shape."
Yuto is shocked when the pirate goblin spits at him and leaves, open mouthed and unable to articulate a reply.
Hardly holding himself to the wall, while Teruko and Seishin help him "Thanks my friends. I... I think that will be enough for me to at least walk..."
With crystalline eyes he mumbles "The skull haunts me. I am cursed. If-if not for you the goblin devils would have taken me"
When it turns about the sounds and goblin retreat "It... it was strange they run away when we were more weak. B-but they were very afraid of us when we arrived. I-it was like if they were expecting us to be something else... like if they were expecting us to be some mighty monster..."
Yuto looks at the goblin corpses, and picks up any useful item or treasure from them.
Yuto discovers a vast assortment of goblin "treasures." Aside from their battered and cobbled-together weapons and patchwork armor, there are three discharged fireworks, two shiny pins, a few collections of interesting rocks, a dead lizard made into some sort of glove, what looks like it might've once been a magnifying glass (without the glass) being worn as a bracelet, a mummified finger (he's not sure from what) worn around the neck, and a jar of brine with... something inside. Maybe it was supposed to be edible?
Overall, there's nothing of much worth on them. However, he does know that there's a bounty on goblin ears in Sandpoint at the moment - to the tune of 10 gold pieces per ear.
The sounds of the goblins in the distance fade to silence, leaving the air still and quiet save for the sounds of insects and the occasional nocturnal bird.
"...there." Seishin points at the pit by the pool. "Looks like footprints--and ones with some sort of heels. Rather bony."