Having rested for as long as you feel comfortable with, you unpin the secret door and creep back into the cavern system.
Taking a deep breath and preparing to venture forth once again, Cayde says, "So, are we headed down the current path our back and taking the another fork? If I am thinking about our orientation correctly, forward may take us to the chamber with the goblins near the exit."
"Sounds like a plan. Let's go." Adonius seconds Cayde while ready to go gripping his shield and staff.
The party moves on, deeper into the caverns. Shortly after you leave the safety of the hidden room, you find yourselves at a crossroads.
To the right you see a chamber with at least six goblins sitting around a fire, that do not seem to have noticed you yet. To the left, you hear sounds of goblin-speak and sharpening of blades.
With his bow back in hand, Tekumbray follows the others out of the small temporary sanctuary and back into the gloom of the goblin tunnels. The gnome is a bit surprised to see a half dozen goblins just sitting around the fire. Surely the alarm had already been raised. Did they think he and his friends had left? Slunk safely back to the city? It was the only reason he could fathom for why the complex was so quiet following the bloodshed not so very long ago.
Hearing the noise of sharpening blades, the gnome slips a little further down the left hand corridor in order to see how many of the creatures were arming themselves.
Shield and hammer at the ready, Cayde waits as still as possible for the stealthy ones to investigate the threat ahead. He tenses, ready to hold the choke point at the tunnel intersection when the fun begins.
Tekumbray sneaks off down the left-hand passage to see what lies in wait.
The gnome sees a roughly circular, 35-foot-diameter chamber. Soiled canvas hammocks are strung from the walls. Six goblins dressed in scalemail and sharpening blades sit in a circle talking, well based on the tone it very well could be arguing.
Tekumbray frowns as he counts the armed and armored goblins. Unable to understand the guttural gibberish he doesn't bother spending much time trying to make out what they are saying. Probably whether to fry or boil us. He considers grimly as he slips back down the corridor to report to the others.
Quietly he hold up six fingers. "Armed and in scale mail." He adds in a whisper pulling an arrow from his quiver. Raising an eyebrow toward the others he looks down each corridor. Which to take on first?
Whispering, Cayde says, ”Perhaps if someone can draw off the ones in the chamber near the exit from outside, then we only have to fight one group at a time. Did they have ranged weapons?”
While you didn't see specifically, every other goblin you've fought thus far has had both shortbows and shortswords. That being said, these are armored differently and may possibly have been differently armed.
"I can shape into a wolf or spider and draw them away. Is there another passage to take them where I can escape?" Adonius offers.
"I can also have al'Adhaa fly in there invisibly, attack one of them and fly away, turning invisible again once they give chase." Baheera suggests.
"I say we try not to divide ourselves too much." The gnome whispers. "If al'Adhaa is willing and can lead them a merry chase, then that leaves us near full strength to deal with the others. The imp's ability to fly and turn invisible makes it much easier for him to navigate the tunnels and even flee for the city if necessary."
"Excellent idea, Tekumbray," responds Cayde quietly, "Maybe try and draw off the ones near the exit? If the heavily-armored ones follow, we attack them from behind. If they stay put, we rush in and hit them hard--hopefully before the ones near the exit return."
Baheera sends al'Adhaa away to take the goblins in the right hand chamber off on a wild goose chase. The familiar does just that, stinging one the goblins in the room sufficiently to kill it, while drawing the attention of the others in the room.
A few moments pass, but apparently the bit of chaos is not uncommon enough to draw the armored goblins from the other room out.
Cayde whispers urgently, ”Now is our chance! Let us attack the heavily-armored goblins while the others are distracted!”
His shield and hammer at the ready, Cayde moves quickly and stealthily towards the hopefully-unprepared goblins!
Adonius grips his shield and staff and follows his Gorm brother.
Readying his bow, Tek moves forward behind the two warriors. Rather than trying to be sneaky, it seems the gnome is opting to make it sound like there were even more warriors raiding the goblins and their filthy caves.
Baheera races along with the others, clearly more focused on speed than stealth.
The group turns left, heading toward the goblin barracks, and the six armored goblins within. Trying to stay quiet while they do so seems to be a problem, or perhaps the goblins were just on alert from all the commotion from the next chamber.
Coming around the corner you see the six goblins, four armed with swords and shields, and two behind the line with shortbows.
As you come around the corner two arrows are loosed toward Cayde, but neither arrow finds a home in the barbarian's flesh. The goblin shieldwall stands, awaiting your approach.
Tekumbray answers the bow goblins with an arrow of his own. Unfortunately, his mind is still partially in the foggy cloud of the afterlife and his arrows sails harmlessly over the head of the goblins. The gnome tries to find a shadow or bit of cover to hide behind, but discovers a disheartening lack of such things.
Somewhere in his mind a raven haired goddess cackles with delight.
Seeing the formidable force arrayed against them, Cayde can only hope the goblins down the other passage are otherwise occupied. He gives no battle cry, but instead a wide smile that belies the rage in his heart. A spiny tail grows as he becomes more feral, with a stinger ready to strike or parry as need be.
With his magical hammer, Cayde aims for a fleshy bit of the goblin before him, hoping to take it down quickly without too much noise.
In his attempt to be quiet, Cayde succeeds by the simple expedient of missing altogether in his strike.
A halfstep behind his Gorn brother, Adonius shapechanges into a Dire Wolf and charges the goblin shield wall. Adonius-wolf rips into a goblin.
Advancing to get into better position, Baheera hits one of the goblins with a thunderous blast that shakes dirt and stone loose from the cavern as it hammers into its target with a cacophonous roar.
Tek fires off an arrow toward the goblins in the back row, but fails to hit his target, while Cayde charges in but is unable to breach the goblin shield wall.
The Adonius-Wolf lopes in and grabs one of the goblins by the leg and dragging the goblin to the ground. This all pales in comparison to the blast unleashed by Baheera that slams into one of the goblins on the line, utterly annihilating the unfortunate creature.
The goblin bowmen, seeing the warlock's prowess both take aim at Baheera, but only one arrow finds its mark, just grazing the warlock's shoulder.
The tripped goblin stands and steps to the side to allow his brethren to reform the line before two of the goblins stab at the wolf, while the other stabs at Cayde. Cayde easily swats the strike at him aside with his tail, and Adonius dodges one strike, but the maneuver leaves him open to a deadly strike that drives deep into the wolf's side.
Snarling at his miss, Cayde rages on, slamming at the Goblin before him!
Geez, are you trying to get yourself killed. The voice of Esme's ghost whispers in his ear. Tek had liked the halfling and was broken hearted when she fell into that mirror and into some void-like pocket dimension. I swear someone pushed me. I think it was that bastard mage, Alain. Always paranoid that I was going to snitch his spell supplies. Like, I'd any use for dried newt eyes and cobwebs. Pfftt.
You ever see that walking pile of beetle dung, tell him I'm waiting for him.
"You know I'm a little busy here." Tek whispers through clenched teeth as he aims, draws and releases another arrow only to watch it once again completely miss the target. "Not really a good time to talk about old grudges. Besides Alain, wasn't there. He was with lord whatshisname. You...you just tripped."
Tek doesn't turn toward what he knows to be Esme's look of disapproval. Instead he does his best to duck into the shadows and out of sight of the goblins.
Baheera takes careful aim, targeting another of the goblins attacking the wounded Adonius.
Cayde slams his hammer into the goblin in front of him, staggering the little beast, but not killing it. Meanwhile the Adonius-Wolf bites down on another's leg, ripping the limb completely off of the goblin and ending its life.
On the backlines, Tek fires off another arrow, but again misses his target while Baheera blasts one of the goblins on the front line with a booming blast of force.
The frontline goblins strike at Cayde and the Adonius-Wolf while the archers fire at the party's backline. A shortsword finds its way into the wolf's flank, drawing more blood from the snarling beast as an arrow from the back ranks sinks into the gnome's shoulder.
Wincing as yet another arrow manages to find him even as he lurked in the shadows, Tekumbray does his best to return fire with some semblance of accuracy.
Cayde keeps swinging, aiming at the same one he hit last time.
Turning her attention to the archers, Baheera sends another thundering bolt booming past Cade to destroy the goblin that dared shoot at her.
Tek's arrow finds the unguarded throat of one of the goblin archers, while Baheera blasts the other, badly wounding it.
For his part, Cayde crushes the wounded goblin in front of him, while the Adonius-Wolf is unable to his jaws around the other front-line goblin.
The remaining goblin archer staggers back to the far wall of the chamber and fires off an arrow at Baheera, piercing the warlock's shoulder.
The goblin up front stabs futilely at the Adonius-Wolf, as it begins to realize that the fight is lost.
Gaining in confidence, Cayde steps up and swings recklessly at the remaining front line goblin (#2), his hammer flashing briefly in the firelight!
added to AC
Adonius-wolf snarls in laughter when he sees the gleam of impending death in the eyes of his bite-sized goblin adversary. He tries to finish the goblin.
Tekumbray sends another arrow flying from the shadows toward the remaining archer. Nodding with satisfaction as the strike lands, the gnome ducks back into the shadows and readies another arrow.
The Adonius-Wolf snaps at the remaining front-line goblin, but misses. Unfortunately for the goblin, his dodging of Adonius's bite puts him directly in the path of Cayde's hammer. With a sickening crack, the goblin's skull shatters, dropping that goblin to the ground.
Tekumbray steps out of the shadows again and laces an arrow into the remaining archer, causing the unfortunate goblin to slump to the ground dead.
As the goblin that shot her falls dead, Baheera gives Tek an appreciative nod (somewhere in the shadows, she was sure his arrow came from), before pulling the small arrow out of her arm with a curse.
Adonius-wolf yips in wolfish laughter at the victory. While bleeding a bit, he non-verbally refuses any healing.
He sniffs and listens around their lair looking for anything hidden.
Breathing a sigh of relief as the last goblin falls dead, Tekumbray quickly ducks back into the shadows and watches for any sign that the other group was coming to investigate the noise.
Still in the throes of rage, Cayde starts back up the hallway, looking for more goblins to kill. If there is one within his movement range, he charges up and swings mightily with his warhammer!
Cayde's rage subsides with nary a goblin to strike with his final blow. The Adonius-wolf's keen senses pick up on the smell of more goblins in a chamber off of the right hand branch of the tunnel.
With a nod and signal to the others, Tekumbray creeps silently to where he can get a peek at the second chamber. Bow at the ready he lines up a shot preparing to ambush the ambushers.
Adonius-wolf stalks behind the gnome as a huge shadow, trailing blood from his wounds
Tekumbray sneaks toward the next chamber. Peering in, he sees three goblins with bows, each guarding an exit from the chamber.
Adonius paws up behind the gnome, but the great wolf's tail knocks some smaller rocks from the cave wall, making a bit of noise...noise that seems to put the goblins on even more high alert.
With only three goblins in sight, Tekumbray quickly relays their number and position to Adonius, Baheera, and Cayde. He also gives the warning that they are alert and waiting. Suddenly an idea pops into his head. From his hidden vantage point he begins to whisper softly. A few moments later the clatter and clamor of goblins laughing and in pursuit of a wounded adventurer fill the tunnel and slowly falls away.
Hoping the little bit of misleading magic would draw the creatures out of their positions and into the tunnel, the gnome once again readies his arrow.