Bubbles stays back with the other less stealthy members, Eko however stealth's forward with his crossbow
Scattered, curt conversation in Goblin down the hall indicates the gobbos are certainly aware someone has intruded. Two arrows fired haphazardly down the hallway indicate, however, that they haven't gotten eyes on you yet and seem to be trying to flush you out.
Silvash sneaks forward some more looking for the goblins.
Liedae... just continues to wait. The entire point of this was to draw them into an ambush, though Silvash moving forward made that riskier. She wasn't going to give up on her plan just yet. Just gotta wait for the little idiots to wander in...
Khathi begins moving into the hall, hugging the wall behind Liedae.
Maybe the noise of crunching glass beneath her boots will draw them in.
Eko still stealthed wanders in, crossbow in hand, looking for the goblins
Aekon, despite being fairly agile, seems not to have much of a concept of stealth in this circumstance.
Frustrated shouting in goblin echoes down the halls.
A string of curses follows, followed by the quick pattering of tiny, evil feet as the two goblins charge aimlessly into the party's sight. Stopping abruptly when they spot only Khathi. Thinking they've lucked out and pressed an advantage in numbers, they begin waving their dogslicers menacingly and prepare to close in on the Asmodean battle-priest.
Khathi is suddenly pulled out of an unexpected revery and brought back into this strange place. She wonders where Liedae and Silvash suddenly went, but sees the goblins before her. She steps forward and swings! Make it count Khathi!
Aekon heads into the corner of the room and loads his crossbow.
A sigh escaped Liedae as the ambush she had wanted to do failed. Because people didn't understand that for an ambush to work, they couldn't run towards the enemies. Carefully making her way forward across the rough ground, she slipped past Kathi to get a chance to fight the goblins. "Next time, stick to plan please."
Khathi huffs as she misses the goblin, "I thought this WAS the plan!"
Stepping out of the shadows Silvash attacks the goblin.
Khathi and Silvash's strikes both go wide, failing connect with the diminutive terrors.
However, having seen many more opponents emerge from both the shadows and the room beyond, the goblin's faces melt from bloodlust to worry quite quickly.
Eko studies a target and shoots a crossbow bolt
Suddenly being surrounded, the goblins panic and start attacking wildly at the nearest enemy.
One swings at Silvash...
...but the elf nimbly sidesteps the blade.
The second stabs at Khathi...
...and finds the proverbial - wait, no - finds the literal chink in her armor, piercing her left hip with the point of his blade.
Ignoring the comment from Kathi for the moment, she growled as she saw the blade punch through her armor. Bringing her own blade to bear, she thrust it downwards towards the goblin... Before trying to chomp its head.
"Agh! To Hell with you!"
Stay strong friends, we can do this!
Silvash tries again to pierce the goblin.
Also, I'll number enemies when facing multiples going forward. Sorry for the laziness on my part there.
The party unleashes an offensive flurry on their goblinoid opponents to mixed results.
The first goblin manages to avoid the attacks from Liedae and Khathi, but is struck by the crossbow bolt loosed by Eko. The goblin hisses in pain as the bolt lodges itself in his shoulder, but does not fall.
Meanwhile Silvash darts forward like a striking viper, so fast the goblin doesn't even realize he's been struck until the blade of the rapier is buried halfway into his gut. As Silvash withdraws the blade the goblin shrieks in pain, hacking up blood. He manages to remain standing, but doesn't look long for this world.
Seeing the hallway clogged with warriors, Aekon starts explaining the many weaknesses of goblins.
The tone of the battle shifts, the tense back-and-forth descending into something closer to pure savagery as the goblins give themselves completely to reckless abandon - to bloody effect.
Despite being on the precipice of death, the goblin engaged with Silvash lets loose a bone-chilling scream as he slashes wildly - and hits home, leaving a long gash across Silvash's right forearm as the elf attempts to defend himself.
Meanwhile, the goblin engaging Khathi and Liedae hones his growing bloodlust on Khathi; slashing low and landing a cut along her right shin, penetrating lamellar greave and striking flesh beneath.
Silvash tries to take out the goblin facing him as he winces in pain.
Khathi takes a step back and wrenches out a hand toward the goblin, ”You will burn for that!”
Liedae sneers angrily at the runt, gnashing her teeth before she swung her blade out in a vicious strike towards the goblin.
With a single, flawless strike of her katana, Liedae ends the goblin in front of her. There is a single, tense moment where it appears she may have missed the murderous creature, but that suspicion is shattered when the top half of the goblins head slowly slides away form the bottom half. Immediately afterwards, the rest of the corpse slumps to the ground.
Khathi's spell instantly superheats the doglsicer wielded by the other goblin. It shrieks in pain as the flesh of its hand chars and burns away, at some parts even revealing bone. The gutteral scream ends as the goblin's heart stops. It collapses to the rubble-strewn floor, quite dead.
The hall falls eerily quiet.
Khathi breathes heavily, clutching at her jagged wounds. Her left eye bulges and twitches. She winces, "Little buggers are hard to hit."
"Maybe one’s got a potion or something," she checks the bodies.
"This is why I wanted an ambush..." She grumbled to herself as she joined Khathi in searching the bodies, motioning for her to take it easy. She wasn't looking good with those wounds. "I wonder why these two were separate from the rest. Don't seem any different, maybe they were just wanting privacy..."
Unfortunately, other than random bits of junk and rancid food in their pockets, the goblins only have their immediately apparent gear. In total: two dogslicers, two small shortbows, two sets of leather armor, and thirteen arrows.
"Useless."
"How is everyone? Should we carry on?"
Liedae lets out a small hum of agreement at the comment from Khathi, before shaking her head. "You're too hurt. Not worth the risk. You mind using your magic again on her?" She directed the question towards Aekon, gesturing towards at the jagged line of red on Khathi's shin. Limited mobility was bad in a fight.
Silvash looks at the wound he has and says "That hurt a bit. If the more wounded have been healed I could use a little."
perhaps it's time to camp and rest moment?
Khathi sighs, " A retreat now would give these goblins time to regroup. We still have the advantage of surprise, and we seem to be nearing the heart of this fortress."
She winces again, "I may not fare well in the next fight, though."
"The Goblins are weak, surprise is not needed to defeat them. What's needed however is our natural strength, and I rather not risk seeing one of our own hurt due to recklessness. If we have no more magical healing, then we must stop and rest." She made her opinion clear, still giving Aekon a look like 'any time now'.
Silvash shakes his head "We've hardly been in here for any length of time. If we are to explore this place we need to do it. At the pace we have gone it will not happen in your lifetimes."
As the party collects themselves and licks their wounds, casual scouting reveals the hallway opens up into a room of symmetrical shape to the previous, though without the partition. In the room, there is a crude table and set of four chairs: apparently, the goblins' approximation of a mess hall. Piles of refuse and unfinished meals lie scattered on the table and along the ground.
Plain as day to just about the whole group, one of the piles of rotting food in the corner has the top half of a vial protruding from it, stopper in place and seemingly in tact. A blueish liquid rests within the container.
Khathi smiles to herself, "Hell always provides."
Before anyone approaches the refuse heap, she casts Resistance on them, "Could be all sorts of diseases in there."
”Wonder what sort of potion that is?”
She rolled her eyes as she got a Resistance cast onto her. Then, she went over to the pile and grabbed the bottle. Pulling it free from the pile, she shook it a bit in her hand to clear off any debris before looking at it. "I don't know."
Should you attempt to ID the potion, you do so easily: it is a Potion of Cure Light Wounds (caster level 3rd).
Aekon studies the potion for a moment, taking a sniff as he says, "Mm. Minty. Has to be a curative potion. A minor one, based off the hue."
"I could use it, and we can move on."
"Let's. We have many doors to check before we complete our search of the first floor."