Akimi jabs an accusatory finger at Jacques. "Don't. Start."
Trusting no one, especially the GM, Akimi hunkers down and double-checks the trap to make sure it's not going to go off again.
Ellen carefully holds Akimi's ankles in place.
"Helping~!"
It seems perfectly safe!
Jacques, for once, is quiet and simply offers Akimi a bandage in case the thing blows up in their face.
Akimi accepts the bandage, feeling a little guilty for snapping at Jacques, but still too grumpy to try to smooth things over just yet.
They gingerly attempt to move past the trap and into the east corridor, reflexively flinching as they cross the threshold.
Akimi twitches as they cross the pressure plate. Nothing happens! Less anxious about the trap now, they slip around the corner to the east. Feeling their hackles raise, the young fox glances back down the west hallway and sees four small crossbows pointed at their face!
A small lizardy looking critter yells, "SHOOT IT!"
Presumably at least. The enemy pointed at them and said something in its native tongue. I guess it could be something like 'fire' or 'release your arrows' or 'bury your steel tipped pointy sticks in that things gut'.
Regardless of the translation, it doesn't look good.
Also, there is a fairly rusty gate blocking the area between Akimi and the enemies. It most likely is locked, based upon the ambush setup. It could probably be kicked open (athletics) about as easily as it could be lock-picked. Actually, with your luck it would be A LOT easier than lock picking.
Dev strides up, peeks around the corner, says 'huh' and then electric arcs the front two foes.
One is totally fine. One is really cooked. You can smell singed lizard flesh even out here!
The leader/front foe curses and whips his spear at Dev! It misses horribly, so he pulls out another and also misses. What a loser.
Dev
Red Enemy
Jacques
Ellen
Akimi
Blue (-12 HP)
Green
Yellow
Purple
"Oh for the love of--" Akimi bites off the rest of the sentence with a growl that would probably be intimidating coming from literally anyone else.
They load their crossbow and take stock of Red. They can't get a great shot thanks to the bars, but they think they can get a solid flesh wound, so they fire away.
♦ Load.
♦
♦
Akimi replies to the ranged attack with a significantly better attempt. The bolt zips through the rusty gate and buries itself in the kobold’s thigh.
Dev
Red Enemy (-10)
Jacques
Ellen
Akimi
Blue (-12 HP)
Green
Yellow
Purple
Bold are up!
Ellen moves into range, getting between the kobolds and the rest of her group--at least, until Jacques moves.
"Did you hear about the scholar who died studying storms? Now he's enlightninged!"
Wreaths of lightning erupt over her tails, and with a flurry of twists, she sends a barrage at the nearest 'bolds--first blue, then red if blue drops.
x2
The kobold dodges and dives, but forgets to duck! The ball of lightning obliterates what the creature used to use to ‘think’, though obviously picking a fight with these foxes was not a wise thought. The steaming stump of a neck that remains does little but smolder as the body drops.
"Went exactly where I wanted it to go," snorts Ellen, gesturing at the remaining 'bolds to c'mere.
Jacques darts forward, tries to pick the lock on the gate, and then waves his tale menacingly at Red.
Jacques opens the rusty lock with ease, showing the hapless Kobolds that they certainly dare not face the braggart. If his lockpick can make such easy work of their poor gate, they can only imagine how Finley will slip between their ribs...
Jacques delicately slips up to the gate, not really sure how things are going he takes a hard look at the mechanism.
Then with a big scoff he simply steps to the hinge side of the rusty gate and punches out the rods holding the hinges together. The gate clatters to the floor, it’s use as protection now negated.
The three Kobolds in the back fire their crossbow bolts then move into the protection of the cells to reload.
for
Dev
Red Enemy (-10)
Jacques (-6 HP, panache)
Ellen
Akimi
Green
Yellow
Purple
Bold are up! I’ll do a bot of Dev soon.
Sir Dev moves up next to The Captain. He nudges her, ”Just like old times. Everything trying to kill us. Well, I guess that is also just like recent times too. Maybe we are just suited for this kinda thing?”
His hands crackle and lightning leaps to sizzle the nearest two kobolds.
But the Wiley E. Koboyotes know this trick and deftly use their metal weapons to channel the arc into the ground!
The leader pulls, launches a javelin at the injured Jacques wall and then steps back around the corner. Inviting the adventuring pirates into their den.
Dev
Red Enemy (-10)
Jacques (-6 HP, panache)
Ellen
Akimi
Green
Yellow
Purple
Bold are up!
Jacques darts forward and stabs at Red with Finley.
+
Then Jacques glares menacingly at Yellow. "You're next!"
The prince grins. "I've dealt with better assassins when I was a teenager." She strides forth, handwraps creaking around her clenched fist, and then gets to work .
Ellen grimaces. She's had better groupings of six seconds than these ones.
Akimi frowns. Now their shots are all blocked by the frontliners. Well, they're not about to go gallavanting past the front lines, unlike SOME foxes they could mention (*cough*Jacques*cough*) so they stop behind the two and reload their crossbow.
♦♦ Stride 30 feet.
♦ Reload.
Jacques whispers into the ear of the kobold he has skewered. It’s hard to hear but might have been either, ”I want my father back, you son of a b%&~+” or maybe it was ”Say hello to my little friend, Finley.”
Whatever it was, it was the last thing heard by his victim. The blade is whipped out, covered in blood. The kobold leader collapses.
Ellen strides up and feints twice before landing a solid kick to the midsection of her target. Akimi cautiously reloads and moves up… triggering the trap left hidden on the floor!
The kobolds all look at each other and give a knowing nod. The yellow cloaked one steps back and readies himself. The other two drop their crossbows and pull blades. They all look ready to act.
Dev
Jacques (-6 HP, panache)
Ellen
Akimi (Reflex, then normal action)
Green (readied)
Yellow (readied)
Purple (-6 HP, readied)
Bold are up!
Seeing that his foes are ready for him, Jacques raises his buckler, darts forward, and slashes at Green.
+
Jacques, prepared to defend himself, strides up and raises his blade to strike. Surprisingly though, the kobolds do not attack. Instead the all move together and appear to be headed past the group? Well, at least among the group. Jacques’ target barely even gets around the fox.
Half surprised by the action, Jacques is not able to put any oomph into the strike, barely drawing blood.
Jacques (-6 HP)
Dev
Ellen
Akimi (Reflex, then normal action)
Green (-2 HP)
Yellow (Frightened 1)
Purple (-6 HP)
Bold are up!
"Don't like that," muttered Ellen, taking note of the 'bolds' retreat.
"Strike and stride, folks!" she barks, lashing out with elbows and knees at Yellow, then breaking from the melee (hopefully over Yellow's collapsed form) and hustling around the corner.
If they're ignoring the dangerous adventure nerds for a reason, she figures it's probably best to follow their lead.
Akimi hears a soft click/snapping tripwire/hum of magic rune and mutters, "This place sucks" before all Hells breaks loose.
Entirely uninterested in getting skewered by whatever these kobolds are planning, Akimi backs way the heck up and sizes up Yellow. But the kobold is clearly hunched in a defensive posture, either because they're terrified by Jacques or ready for Akimi's shot. Either way, they don't think they have it. Shrugging, they turn to Pink and fire one off against them, instead.
♦ Stride 25 ft.
♦
♦
Prince Ellen's flurry of strikes seems to at first just be one solid hit, but then the yellow cloaked kobold coughs hard, looks at the blood in his hand and collapses to the ground dead.
After dodging most of the rusty blades triggered by the trap, Akimi retreats and snaps off a secondary target shot. It barely misses. The adventurer's aren't sure of the kobold's plan, but move back warily.
Dev shrugs, zaps the remaining kobolds and gets behind The Captain.
The kobolds don't do well this time, getting mostly fried. Well, one of them gets completely fried. The very last one rushes past the group to the east and pulls out a key to open the door. He seems terrified, in a non-mechanical way.
Hero Points: Akimi 0, Jacques 1, Ellen 1, Dev 1
Jacques (-6 HP)
Dev
Ellen
Akimi (-3 HP)
Green (-9 HP)
Bold are up! Jacques gains one Hero Point as that was one hell of a turn (not the last one, the one before it).
Ellen does a quick hop across the hallway of terror, then unleashes another barrage of zappies:
"Snatch that key!" she suggests. It isn't a suggestion. "Wherever they were trying to escape to, we'll probably want to do the same."
The Captain makes sure the opposing crew all goes down with their ship. Or whatever this place is. The kobold is riddled with foxy fiery stuffs and collapses with a death grip on the key. Because he’s dead.
Akimi walks over and pries the key out of the dead kobold's hand.
"Wonder what they were gonna open with this?"
After looking around, Akimi hands the key off to Dev then grabs the braggart and plops him down. "Hold still." They try to say it as gently as possible; Jacques actually managed to keep from getting completely pincushioned this time and they want to encourage that behavior.
Akimi bandages up Jacques’s small injury.
Akimi feels like a complete idiot for missing something so obvious, but they do their level best not to show it. "Right. I knew that. Okay fine, let me see."
Instead of proffering the key to Dev, they head over to the door the kobold was going to open and scopes it out. There's been traps aplenty, and just because they have the key doesn't mean they know how to open the door safely.
The door seems completely devoid of traps. You could see several spots one could easily be added though.
Jacques wipes Finley clean while considering whether the dead kobolds would be a suitable snack for the spiderbrood. "It's not easy to feed them all, you know."
Akimi makes a face at Jacques's comment but doesn't respond. What do you say to that, anyway?
Akimi steps aside from the door. "It's clear. I think." They hand the key to Ellen. "Maybe a big strong hottie would like to do the honors. Know any?" They keep their face very somber but there's a glint in their eye when they say it.
Ellen grins sardonically back at them. "We've got the key, Doc. Unless you want me to smash it instead?"
Regardless, she puts the key halfway in the lock, then pulls it out a quarter, then in another half, then out another quarter, then in the rest of the way, making an alarming amount of eye contact with the chef-doctor as she does until, finally, she twists the key in the lock.
Jacques gives Finley a little kiss. "Ready now, ready, whatever is behind this door probably wants to be slain..."
While they easily could have searched the kobold's for valuables, the adventuring pirates move onwards to seek more foes to slaughter! And even with a little innuendo-ish banter.
Dev rolls his eyes for possibly the two hundredth time today.
The door clicks open and reveals...
Remnants of torture devices—a collapsed wooden rack, an iron maiden with no lid, a dunking bucket smashed into splinters, among others—line the walls of this unusually shaped room. Ragged pelts formed into crude bedrolls take up the rest of the floor space around a wide pit that descends into darkness. The air here smells of stale sweat.
The stale sweat is most likely from the stinky ogres that inhabit this room. The look up quizzically at the intruders, then growl a challenge! A challenge of DEATH TO YOU!!!
Dev
Jacques
Ellen
Akimi
Ogres? (probably, Society to Recall Knowledge if you want)
Bold may act!
Ellen closes the door and locks it.
"Hey, Doc, do you think you can get that flame trap back online?" she asks.
The door is pulled shut and the lock clicks as Captain Ellen uses the key.
Ellen
Dev
Jacques
Akimi
Ogres? (probably, Society to Recall Knowledge if you want)
Bold may act!
Jacques looks at Ellen quizzically. "Zut alors! These are just Hamboogers - let us slay them for amusement - what could possibly go wrong?!?"
Jacques draws Finley and waits for some action.
Akimi swats Ellen's arm. "I meant you go first, coz I'm very small and breakable. As you w... well... know..." They watch the key go in and out of the lock with the expression of a deer caught in a wagon's path. "Uh."
They almost don't even notice the huge humanoids in the room beyond before Ellen closes the door again.
♦ Recall Knowledge (Society vs Ogres...?)
♦ Recall Knowledge (Thievery vs Fire Trap)
While patching up Jacques earlier, Akimi had plenty of time to figure out the trap and how it probably worked. Details bubble out of them when requested. Nozzle piping, triggers, and other intricate info. The most important being that this is a mechanical trap. And a mechanical trap with an elemental outcome needs to be filled with some sort of chemical. And judging by how the trap worked, then stopped, it is most likely out of said chemical.
They could probably do something though, if they had alchemical fires.
Jacques nods along and wholeheartedly agrees. Almost to the point where it seems that he came up with all the details.
Akimi also recalls that Ogres are often encountered in roving bands of looters. It’s odd to find them cooped up. It might explain why they are so pissed off!
Sir Dev becomes many Sir Devs and pulls out his hatchet.
A second later movement is heard through the door. Then a violent crack as an axe connects with the wood.
Then another smaller thunk, but just enough of one. The door falls off its hinges and Ellen is faced with all four angry Ogres! One moves up into the middle and swings a naaaasty looking axe. The fourth seems annoyed at being blocked off, but waits patiently for an opportunity.
for
And carves her up like a turkey. Flesh rended and ribs snapped, that looked and sounded painful.
Ellen (-19]
Dev (3 images)
Jacques
Akimi
Ogres
Bold may act! Definitely better foes than the kobolds!
Ellen howls in pain and surprise as she takes a wedge to the body.
"They're too big to all come through at once!" Ellen barked. "Fall back and take different paths--we'll trap them between us and take them down one by one! Akimi, you keep your distance!"
Attempting to take her own advice, she hustles down the hallway and dips right--far enough that any ogre should, hopefully, be forced to step into the intersection to attack her.
Ellen sizzles an ogre, but it looks like mostly a flesh wound. She falls back after barking out orders. But orders to pirate adventurers are always a risky endeavor.
Ellen (-19]
Dev (3 images)
Jacques
Akimi
Ogres (Blue -4 HP)
Bold may act! Definitely better foes than the kobolds!
Akimi scampers down the hall after Ellen, pulling out bandages as they go. "Get back here! I'm not going anywhere without my patient."
They hustle up to Ellen and try to put some of those intestines back in place, then ready their crossbow again.
♦ Stride 25 feet.
♦ Assurance (Medicine) for Battle Medicine
♦ Check out Ellen's butt (to make sure it's uninjured, of course)
Ellen's butt has a crack in it, right down the middle! Surely this requires Akimi's immediate attention.