No song filled Havi's heart. moving swiftly to the chief, thinking the others could be reasoned with like Whiz Bang.
Belaria charges toward the chief, fist raised to punch him right in his oversized chin.
Liam and Lianne share a nod before breaking off for their own targets. Liam strides towards one of the goblin guards before stopping 10ft away. His shadow lashes out and tries to kick the goblin's teeth in.
Lianne watches Havi's back and tries to look spooky to distract goblins.
"OooOOooOOo! I'm scary!" She waves her shield around spookily.
The Licktoad chieftain shows that he is, surprisingly, not entirely bluffing about his combat prowess. He contemptuously dodges Havi's hammer, then casually blocks Belaria with his spear.
Liam decks one of the goblins and knocks it out.
His cronies move in to attack, setting up a flanking position for their chief as they shank with their machetes, choosing to focus on the man with the hammer bigger than they are.
Then the boss moves in, hoping to skewer the surrounded monk.
Havi takes the spear through the ribs, and feels it tear into and out of his guts...or so he imagines, a sthe spectral form of Lianne takes the blow instead.
Walthus, meanwhile, takes a potshot at the main threat.
But both of his shots go wide.
Daji runs at the Goblins surrounding Havi and positioning one of the Goblbin Guards between herself and Havi she strikes from the goblin guard's flank
Whispy strands of yellow gold mist begins to radiate from Daji as she calls on the spirit of her warrior ancestors, Her Yammato spirit.
Looking down at where the wound should have been Havi sees Lianne's spectral form taking the blow. With a roar Havi swings the mighty earthbreaker again.
Liam tries to put down two more goblins with a few quick jabs.
He then tries to stretch his shadow out to grab Chief Gutwad and flip him on his back.
"Alright...big guns, it is."
Bel takes a step back and drinks one of her alchemical concoctions, growing to double her size. Then she tries the same thing Liam did, using her increased mass to shove the chief to the ground.
You take out the two remaining guards, but begin to feel uneasy as the chieftain nimbly dodges around every one of your attacks, making it look easy.
His eyes gleam as he steps in and jabs his spear at the largest target.
"How saying go? Be bigger, fall harder? Me cut longershanks down to size."
He thrusts his spear upward into Belaria's massive hip, drawing a shower of blood!
Liam sees Belaria get stabbed real goodly and decides we need to put this goblin down fast. He edges around so he can flank(or set someone else up for their turn) before extending his shadow into a flurry of attacks.
Lianne slides into the place where Belaria was to keep the goblin from following her.
"Take this!" She yells before attempting to bonk the goblin.
Havi tries to time his swing taking a big step into it and sweeping up as opposed to across
Belaria grunts in pain.
She takes a swig of whiskey.
She tries to break the chief's jaw with her giant knee.
The goblin chieftain remains frustratingly quick, weaving in and out of battle with masterful grace. Unfortunately, against so many opponents, his luck must eventually run out.
Sidestepping Lianne's attack, he hops over Liam's leg sweep...only to be unable to change angle, and get caught by the second. Havi's hammer catches him, sending him spinning through the air, broken but alive...before Belaria's massive fist smashes him into the ground like a bug, shattering his skull and splattering brains all over the floor.
Panting, Havi looks over the room and then to Belaria.
"Why....in Eratil's name.....was he so quick
Bel stops doing her exaggerated "scary giant woman" voice when she sees the battle is over.
"-Oh. Good job, everyone. Dunno how such a fat goblin could be so nimble and tough, but I guess that's why they made him the chief."
"Anyway - Liam, a little help, bud?" she points to the gaping wound in her hip.
"Yeah hold still a second." Liam prods at the wound. "Yeesh. That looks deep." Liam takes a second to focus and hums under his breath while he works.
An ice cold sensation extends from Liam's palm and enters Belaria sealing the wound.
"What's this cursed chest nonsense?" Liam asks and turns his attention back to Whiz Bang.
Whiz Bang tears his eyes away from the Chieftain's headless body.
"Don't know. Other heroes sent off with group. Look for some old cave. Must have brought back treasure?"
He narrows his eyes.
"Spear new. Fancy. Chief use dogslicer before he give it to Gobby. Picked up another after. Must be good spear." he shrugs.
As Whiz Bang talks up the treasure, another group of goblins shows up.
15 goblins stand at the door to the chieftain's hut, holding weapons...and clearly terrified.
"You. Longshanks. Go away. Licktoad tribe stab and burn you. You no scare us." the bravest among them orders.
Bel puts her hands up and steps away from the Chieftan's body.
"Hey, easy, easy! We were just after your Chieftan - who, by the way, was getting ready to abondon all of you. Whiz Bang can vouch for that."
"Getting ready to? From the sounds of it, he already did when the undead first attacked. He holed himself up in the chief's hut while the rest were slaughtered." Liam corrects Bel.
"Look, I don't want to hurt anyone more than we need to. Your chief had you attack Sandpoint. He's dead now. Anyone else who attacks Sandpoint, the same will happen." Liam stares down the goblins while rolling his neck.
"Now we're going to get to the bottom of this cursed chest before any other disasters happen. You can tell us where to go or we'll figure it out ourselves."
"I don't know why you all attacked Sandpoint to begin with...couldn't you just live in peace? Sing your goblin songs and hunt or grow your food?"
Whiz Bang lends credence to your words.
"Chieftain weak. Coward. Now chieftain dead. Goblin heroes in charge now."
The goblins look a bit confused as to why one of their heroes would be working with longshanks, but...Whiz Bang has always been a bit crazy-smart.
They shrug and put their weapons down.
"If Whiz Bang say you longshanks okay, you okay?" they say, looking to their hero for approval. He nods.
Then he turns to you.
"These lugs too dumb to know chief's plans. Check chief room...Chief body? Maybe find Slorb?"
He turns to the goblin mob.
"Where Slorb?" he demands, but gets only wry looks in return for a moment.
Finally, someone pipes up. "Slorb dead. Chief shove him down in front of bones so he have more time to run away."
"Fine lets check it out, we need to find out the deal with these undead!"
Daji has little to add, and goes to peek through the Chief's hut
Bel inspects the Chief's body...after returning to her normal size, to avoid causing any damage to it.
Then she addresses the crowd.
"The chieftain said he sent the other heroes to where they found a cursed chest. Do any of you know where that is?"
The other goblins shrug. "No clue. Chief no talk to us. Slorb do all the talking, but he dead."
Searching the chief and his hut turn up better results.
The Chief himself has a number of items, some of which are magic; namely his spear and some arrows.
The chest likewise contains a number of interesting items.
Chief Gutwad's gear:
Magic Spear
5 magic arrows
2 potions of Cure Light Wounds
Masterwork Composite Longbow (small)
Masterwork Chain Shirt (small)
Arrows x6
32 gp
Chest:
Masterwork Shuriken x6
Long hairpin with red pearl on the end (150 gp)
Gold and ivory fan depicting a gecko walking among blossoms (80 gp)
112 gp
329 sp
The chest itself is also beautiful, made of lacquered, strikingly red wood and lined with velvet on the interior. It alone would be worth 150 gp, if someone took the time to thoroughly clean the mud and grime from it.
The gear is notable, and the well-travelled among you note the exotic-ness of it, as well as Gutwad's spear.
Belaria notes that it is all of Minkai manufacture, and is very far from its place of origin.
Closer observation notes that a crude map has been drawn on one side of the fan, with Belaria likewise being able to decipher it.
The map denotes three locations, two of which are marked as shipwrecks, with the third being some sort of cave.
"Whoa, these are awesome." Liam immediately starts playing around with the shuriken.
"They're like throwing knives, but I don't have to think about accidentally hitting something with the handle."
"They are called... Sure-kin I think, Something from my grandfathers homland."
She shrugs and takes the hairpin, Looking it over and smiling, before pinning it into her hair.
"Looks good."
Daji then looks at the fan, Gaping at it.
"Sunken Ships... Like legit sunken treasure? We have to go. We so have to go! This is the real deal... I need some paper and ink to copy these maps down
"
Belaria taps the chest with her foot. "A cursed chest from across the seas, eh? I wonder if the original owner knew it was cursed. Doesn't seem like they were trying to get rid of it - could've just dumped it in the ocean. Maybe the curse was caused by something else the gobbos disturbed?"
She gives Daji a nod and amused smile. "Yeah, we definitely need to figure out what happened here. And I won't say no to more treasure!"
Havi hums, this feeling like the beginnings of a grand saga.
"An exotic treasure from a far-off land with a necromancer's curse attached, count me in.
"Yeah, let's check out that cave then circle around to the shipwrecks. I don't know anything about breaking curses though. Hopefully it's something else making the undead."
Kyomi nods in agreement as she eyes the side of the chest before resting a hand on her hip.
"Anything might be better then staying here at the given moment. But sunken treasure? I hope we don't have to actually dive under water."
She shivered at the thought. If there's one thing she hated, it was getting her fur wet. In either of her forms.
"It's okay, sis! You can be our lookout if we have to go diving. Make sure we don't get ambushed by any skeletons or zombies!"
Walthus takes a look at your makeshift map.
"We can mark one of these off, at least." he says, tapping a finger on one of the marked wrecks.
"That's about where the Kaijitsu Star is. That'd be where the goblins got their fireworks."
Whiz Bang nods in agreement.
"Killed Vorkha, took her stuff. She lived on ship."
Walthus nods along.
"So that just leaves one of the two remaining options. They're pretty close to each other, so it should be easy to check them out one after another. We good to go?"
"Fair enough, though I would still love to check it out, what if the goblins overlooked somthing? Also perhaps we should swing by Sandpoint before to store some of the stuff we found, like the chest, it is a bit much to be hauling around with us."
"Pfft, what? This little chest? Let's get going, I'll carry it." Liam hefts the chest over one shoulder.
"Heh, I bet I could fight with this thing in my arms too."
Is he trying to impress us? It doesn't look THAT heavy...
Bel decides not to upstage him.
"Thanks, Liam! Now, let's go check out that cave."
You head off, first for the wrecked ship, since it's on the way to the cave.
At first, you do a bit of a double take. This is the location on the map, but there's no ship here, just a tangle of trees and vines.
But on closer inspection, there IS wreckage at this spot. It's split in half, and most of it is submerged, but you can barely make out a crusty, moss-covered nameplate that reads: Kaijitsu's Blossom.
As you approach, four mossy bulges arise from the marsh, pale blue light igniting in their empty sockets. The hidden skeletons pick up strange short blades from the muck and prepare to attack!
Skeleton (26)
Kyomi (20)
Skeleton (14)
Havi (14)
Skeleton (13)
Liam (11)
Skeleton (9)
Belaria (7)
Daji (6)
One of the skeletons charges at Liam, rusted blade swinging!
The skeleton's rusty blade slice deep into Liam's gut, drawing first blood!
Liam's shadow tries to automatically defend him with a lashing kick from the right, but unless the skeleton is really terrible while charging, he misses.
"Urk!" He rasps as the blade slides between his ribs.
Kyomi looks in the direction of Liam before taking aim with an arrow as if on instinct at the sound of Liam's cry of pain.
"Liam! Not on my watch!"
She releases the arrow from her bow as she releases a breath she had been holding, hoping the arrow hits its mark.
Kyomi's arrow flies straight and true, right where its heart would be...if it had one! The arrow passes through the bones harmlessly.
The second samurai skeleton rushes in, flailing its dagger at Liam, smelling blood!
Liam's shadow takes the monster's head off before it can finish the job!
Havi lets out a thunderous warsong,
"Sønner åt Úlfr...
Eg helsar Óðinn
Óðinn!"
Everyone who takes the raging song notices their weapons shimmer and shine.
Another skeleton rushes in to fill the gap, swinging its sword at Belaria!
But it hits nothing but air...
Liam staggers back a bit, clutching at the grievous wound. His shadow lashes out twice as Liam readies himself to block a blow.
Lianne panics at the sight of her brother being stabbed horribly and moves to defend him.
"Oh no, oh no. It's gonna be okay!"
Liam knocks the block off a skeleton, and the final one comes charging in at Belaria again!
Scoring her along the arm!
"Argh- two of you, huh? Fine, let's dance!"
Belaria shifts her stance, bouncing on the balls of her feet with her fists raised, ready to deliver a counterattack and hop backwards in an instant.
With the skeletons nearly all dead, She sees no reason to waste time and just chargest the nearest skeleton.
"I don't like these things"