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Vesi raises their open palms to show they have no weapons - although the others are of course to bear and display whatever weaponry they wish.
"Hello Lickweed, I am Vesi of Safehaven. Are you also a big goblin hero like our friend Nok-Nok? I'm afraid that we cannot be your prisoners, but if you tell us what it is that you need from our town we can perhaps come to an agreement?" The druid almost adds that there's no need for violence - before they remember that goblins do in fact enjoy a bit of violence, as a treat.
Blaze spreads her arms wide in a gesture somewhere between a greeting and a hug.
"Maal rennak! mea sep mihki urmrit? Het'ek kahl awet spet clonrit naoy Harbharbthri? Ten teequ ha talie, ten capp es kine op ti rennal! Ti Rei Nyala za sep Spidchoth! Min, ket Blaze!"
She ignites her hands and dances around. "Ecji - Zarongel aimon si!"
She smiles conspiratorially. "Prerit truqu?
"Look - Zarongel loves me!
So what's the real hustle?"
Ankra has his hands empty as well. He's going let Blaze and Vesi do the talking thing while he focuses on keeping vibes chill. "Yeah, what they said."
"I am no hero, and I bow to no queen," Lickweed says with a sneer. "I serve the vast and mysterious and frightening Nargloom of the Three Eyes!"
Nok-Nok gasps in surprise. "You work for Nargloom? I’ll stamp your head and wear your vines when I kill your leader! Nok-Nok’s gonna be the best goblin hero ever! Lamashtu can’t help but notice Nok-Nok then!” The goblin rogue grins as he brandishes his kukris.
Lickweed snarls. "Attack!" he commands his minions.
Vesi is a little slow on the uptake. "Um, who's Nargloom?"
Vesi hasn't heard the name before, but Nok-Nok answers their question. "He's a legendary barghest! I thought he had left this world to join Lamashtu's court. This is great! Now I get to kill him!"
Russ'ruk charges into the front ranks of goblins, completely eviscerating the unfortunate warrior that meets the end of his burning blade. Nok-Nok leaps into melee beside him, slicing with his kukris. Two more goblins go down as he cuts them open!
"Fight back, fools! I'll burn them all!" Lickweed shouts. He casts a spell, conjuring a burning ball of flame. Nok-Nok laughs and leaps aside, evading the fire!
The goblin war chanter begins a courageous anthem and fires her bow at Russ-ruk. The three remaining goblin warriors attack Russ and Nok-Nok. Russ takes a single hit.
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"Yeaaaah, that... doesn't sound good." Vesi looks at the attacking goblins, particularly Lickweed. "Look, you should know that fire is the domain of our esteemed Queen Blaze, so unless you have proper authorization for fire magic I am afraid that I will have to intervene."
Then the undine moves their hands in a circular, swirling motion. A drop of water forms between their palms, which quickly expands to become a sphere.
Ankra will move up, finding a place where he can get a good swath of the enemy. "I think you all need to cool down1" he says as he covers them with a wave of ice-cold water.
Blaze grins wickedly. "I had kind of a different idea, big guy - royal prerogative and all."
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Russ deflects most of the blow from the goblin that manages a good strike, pinning their blade with his shield and his own blade and attempting to twist and rip it from their grasp. Keeping his defense strong he eggs on Nok-nok and the others. "They fight like lesser villains or perhaps evil-children."
To hammer the point home he fends off his flank keeping his shield pointed one direction while flicking his blade behind him in a downward arc letting it tip partially out of his hand at the last moment to strike at the crown of the goblin attempting to flank.
Blaze's fireball badly burns Lickweed and completely immolates three of his lackeys! The goblin druid shrieks as the queen casually tosses more fire at him as an afterthought. Vesi conjures a ball of water that engulfs the last two warriors, then Ankra unleashes a blast of water. Lickweed manages to evade it, but he cannot avoid Russ'ruk's blade as he moves up and delivers a vicious finishing blow! Lickweed goes down hard, and the goblins in the orb of water burble in terror as they make gestures of surrender!
"Well, that was quick." he says, just a little bit disappointed. "Narglegloomy didn't send his best."
"Well done, Nok-Nok! You defended Safehaven!" Vesi decides to emphasize the positive aspects, rather than their goblin companion's desire to impress Lamashtu.
"Aww, now I feel bad. You want to come live with us? After Vesi lets you out of the water ball?"
Given the alternative, the goblins inside the ball of water nod enthusiastically, cheeks puffed as they continue to hold their breath!
In the aftermath of the fight, Nok-Nok bounces back and forth on his heels excitedly. "Nargloom is back! Nargloom! I'll kill him for real this time, and then my path to becoming the next goblin hero god is all but guaranteed! Let's go get him! You can witness firsthand my glorious ascendance!"
Vesi does not have any insights, but Blaze knows that barghests are lupine fiends with goblinoid faces and humanoid hands. They stalk the Material Plane in search of souls to sate their demonic hunger. Barghests often make use of their shapechanging abilities to rule tribes of goblinoids or to discreetly hunt in rural areas in the guise of unnaturally intelligent wolves. They are resistant to fire and physical damage from non-magical sources.
"So where do we find this Nargloom?" he asks as he dries off the goblins.
"Is he staying with the tribe? Or did he pick up a pack on the side?"
"One way to find out!" Nok-Nok says. He points to the tracks that the goblins left behind. "Let's follow them!"
Fortunately, the goblins' trail is rather obvious. You are able to easily follow them to the northeast for several days. Eventually, you find yourselves a few miles south of the Crooked Falls in the Rostland Hinterlands. The trail leads to a ten-foot-high arch carved into the base of a cliff that extends into the darkness. The vegetation around the entrance is a tangle of thorns and weeds, strewn with bones and bits of detritus.
The refuse includes bits of broken armor and weaponry amid humanoid bones. These victims were likely bandits—people whose disappearance wouldn’t likely trigger notice in more civilized areas.
Blaze sadly tsks as she looks out over her erstwhile brethren. "We should at least burn those on the way out."
She attaches globes of light around while she makes sure everyone's ready. "So, call him out to a contest of champions or fight our way down the burrow?"
"There are probably more Tanglethorn goblins, plus maybe some other monstrous minions," Nok-Nok says. He grins and scrapes the blades of his kukris together. "It wouldn't be a glorious win if it was easy, though! Ready to go stab him a bunch?"
"If we do call him out, then we can impress his followers and perhaps recruit a few. Maybe him and his top minions against us?" he muses.
"Uh, I'm not sure that we would want to recruit anyone who willingly follows a barghest..." interjects Vesi hesitantly.
"But I don't see a better solution if they do surrender to us, so let's just go and see how things turn out, yes?"
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"I agree, although a temporary agreement would benefit us in terms of numbers. It wouldn't be very wise to make a habit of immediately breaking deals."
Russ looked up to Vesi, "Let's hope we can spare who we can, but we really can't afford a cult springing up."
With that Russ raises his shield and begins to march towards the entrance.
The stone floor of the long hallway beyond the entrance is littered with bones, bloodstains, and small piles of rubbish. The hall widens at the eastern end before reaching a large stone double door which once bore a depiction of an armored hero fighting a horde of soldiers but has been vandalized to give said hero the head of a goblin.
Ankra will advance with Russ into the building. He looks quizzical and annoyed at the defacement.
"Why be picky, Blue?" Blaze asks lightly, "Lots of folk just follow whoever's the biggest. And closest I guess. We don't all just spend time going over dragon growth charts. You do the math, you're the scholar."
Blaze is thoroughly untroubled by the artistic improvements. "Hey Nok-Nok should we do one like that for you?"
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"I think the issue is if they are willing to serve something as despicable as a Barghast what stops them from following something beyond the crown. Goblins aren't exactly known for being the lawful sort."
Russ, stacks up at the double door and presses close trying to listen to the other side for any enemies.
Russ makes it halfway to the doors when a pressure plate sinks down beneath his feet. Four hidden doors along the hall swing open, releasing four snarling, slavering creatures. The mutant beasts look like goblin dogs, but they have batlike wings and filthy fur hides. Nok-Nok's eyes widen in glee. "Bat-dogs!" he squeals as the beasts lunge!
Two of the dogs run up behind Russ and attack him, while the other two head for Ankra! Ankra is bitten once, but Russ fends off the bat-dogs' slavering jaws.
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Deftly placing his shield between him and the Bat-dogs, Russ curses himself for triggering the trap and tries to make up for his mistake by bringing his flaming blade down on one of the dangerous beasts. He then pulls his shield back up to cover the majority of his body.
"Don't let them outflank you, single one out and cut them down."
Ankra steps out from between them and slams the one who bit him with a couple blasts of water. "Bad dog!"
Blaze tsks as she sees the hounds rush in among her party. "Kinda rude not to stand in a little cluster away from everyone, you know?"
She rubs her hands together in preparation, and crackles an arc of electricity across the ones Russ and Ankra are focusing on.
Vesi does like Blaze, trying to shock the bat-dogs and discourage them from biting her friends.
Both Blaze and Vesi zap a pair of bat-dogs with lightning. Russ hits the most wounded one with a vicious strike, then Nok-Nok lashes out with his kukris, finishing off the wounded one and injuring another. Meanwhile, Ankra takes down the dog that bit him with two brutal blows from his water!
The two surviving bat-dogs lash out at Nok-Nok and Ankra. The goblin takes a hit but the kineticist avoids harm.
"No sense in dragging this out, unless you've got a speech or something Nok-Nok?"
"I didn't know we were expected to do a speech." He says as he switches to a blade of fire. "Ages ago, the Four Fathers set out to umm... make their fortune and have lots of kids."
As he says this, he decided to try out his new fire powers. He launches a flame that dances over both of them and finishes of with a blade of flame.
Russ'ruk delivers a devastating strike as both Blaze and Ankra fill the hall with lightning and flames! When the smoke clears, both of the remaining bat-dogs lay scorched and smoldering on the floor!
Ankra will use Ocean's balm and lay on hands to heal us up.
"Wow, you were so amazing! Your powers just keep growing!"
Vesi summons a bit of water to douse the smouldering carcasses and wash away some of that stench of charred flesh.
"Just... remember to keep something in reserve for the big guy, eh?"
He chuckles, "My reserve is the plane of water. And now the plane of fire too." His voice gets smaller, and a little distant, "At night I swim there..." But after a moment he snaps out of it and comes back.
He moves up on the doors as soon as Russ'Ruk indicates it's safe.
"Yeah yeah, the eternal lake of fire in which the dross of your soul is scorched from your true mettle, we've all seen that."
This large room may have once been some sort of temple, but today it’s largely empty, with only vague remnants of the religious carvings on the defaced walls. To the south, several cages with wooden bars contain heaps of filthy straw and dry brush, while to the east, what once must have been a towering stone statue of an armored man has been carved away to form a rough throne. Nearly a dozen bedrolls are strewn about the place, with a few unlit cooking fires between them.
A large lupine barghest stands before the throne, batlike wings extending from behind him. A third eye squints at you from the center of his forehead. Two bugbears in chain shirts stand at his side. The barghest smiles at you as you approach. "You must be the ones that defeated Lickweed and his cronies. Congratulations! Perhaps you would be interested in working for me? I could always use--"
Nok-Nok suddenly steps forward, cutting the offer short. "I, Nok-Nok, shall claim your head, child of Lamashtu!" the goblin loudly proclaims. "And with your trophy I shall take my place as a god at her side!"
The proclamation elicits a round of uproarious laughter from Nargloom and the bugbears. As they are laughing, though, Nok-Nok shrieks and charges, catching the enemies off-guard!
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"Why only at night, Ankra? We could swim there right now! Here, watch!"
With surprising agility for someone of their size, Vesi leaps into the air towards the barghest and his lieutenants. Only, instead of landing on the floor, the undine passes through it, with a great splash of water, as if they had just cannonballed into a pool. A few moments later, they emerge right next to Nargloom and his bugbear buddies with another great splash, then leap to safety.
"Whew! That was... harder than I expected," the druid pants. "Achoo! Oh noooo, zome ov their fur god indo my noze."
Nargloom and one bugbear manage to evade the splash Vesi creates, but the other bugbear gets battered. Russ'ruk moves in and eviscerates the wounded goblinoid with a critical slice of his burning blade. He whirls to the other bugbear and slashes him as well, then Nok-Nok charges in and guts that bugbear with two deadly slices of his kukri!
Both bugbears are down without seconds. Nargloom's laughter abruptly turns into a snarl of rage as he realizes he's underestimated you. "You won't find me such easy prey," he growls as he takes a shuffling step back. He draws upon his innate magic and begins to flicker in and out of this reality. He disappears and reappears about 10 feet to the west.