Waedin absorbs the hit with her shield(absorb 5 and take 1 on shield and hp) and then swings twice to try and end this.
Ustemir fumbles around with his bow for a moment, his gauntlet not allowing him to hold the thing properly. He curses quietly under his breath, and jumps out of the cauldron to close distance with the slurk. "Coming, Waedin!"
Waedin finally is able to bash the slurk, her warhammer shattering its skull.
When Ustemir arrives to help Waedin with the frog-creature, she simply smashes the creature's skull. he barely keeps balance when walking across the pool of... well, whatever that is, and stops himself when he sees the frog slump to the floor.
"Well, you got this. What now?", he looks around, and back up into the opening in the ceiling. Kolek watches patiently, but intently.
"Good boy. Wait there. We'll think of something.", Ustemir gestures to the bear cub to stay. He looks around, thinking.
"Um, guys, I hate to do this, but I might need help getting Kolek down. Any takers?"
I need to fix my shield and get my wounds closed before we do... Waedin wheezes. Worse comes to worse we got plenty of rope on us and can lower Kolek with that. Shouldn't be too bad. Hope whatever's in the tunnels doesn't rush is all I can say.
The cauldron lays tilted to one side on the broken cavern floor. The cahins are still connected and climb up to the winch above. However, the winch can only be operated from the floor above.
Realising someone ran off into the darkness, Ustemir sighs, and shouts into the ceiling opening. "A moment longer, Kolek. Wait where you are."
He quickly pulls out his first aid kit and starts working on Waedin's wounds. "Stepnik, you have any of your elixirs on hand to speed this up?"
Stepnik looks down the hallway where the other one retreated, then up at the bear peering down the shaft
"Oh! Yes. Sorry my mind was elsewhere. I think I have three left but can brew up some more if you want to rest here for a while".
Stepnik offers the three elixirs (1d6 ea.) to whoever needs them most.
I'm going to try and fix my shield, you should brew some more Step.
And shield is down 12 hp and... is broken!
Ganera... daammnit!
Sebastian wonders sadly over to the pummeled slurk. The Bard recites a few words then he graciously accepts Stepniks elixirs.
As you recover from the fight, you may be surprised to find no further retaliation from the kobolds, although they must assuredly be aware of your presence by now.
From here there are three exits. The fleeing kobold ran down the tunnel to the west, another tunnel leads north, and a large open door frame opens to a room to the south.
Sebastian seems willing to investigate the only actual door in this area.
The Bard still has Light cast on his Shield...
Ustemir will continue nursing people back to health while not hearing any noises from the entrances.
Waedin
20 min
30 min
Stepnik
40 min
Ustemir
50 min
60 min
Finally, Ustemir stores away his medicine kit, and looks at the hole in the ceiling. "Coming, boy. Wait there." He attempts to climb up to help Kolek reach the lower level. Once up, he scritches the bear, apologising for taking so long. "All right, let's get you down. Stay still." Ustemir ties a rope around Kolek to form a harness before lowering him down gently, then climbs back down.
Stepnik helps Ustemir lower the bear viewing the apparatus carefully and wondering how he would improve it.
RK: Crafting
Stepnik wipes the sweat from his brow with a stained cloth that leaves a reddish brown streak on his forehead.
"Boy! I hope there is another way out. As hard as it was to get him down it will be twice as hard to get him back up".
Ustemir chuckles at Stepnik's comment. "I'm sure we'll figure it out. Thanks for the help. How are you holding up? We had a few close calls, so I thought I'd ask."
Stepnik surmises that the issue with the elevator lies in the crank mechanism up top. The chains remain intact, and so it is operable, but if there is too much weight, the winch fails.
[/dice]
As Ustemir patches everyone up, further shouting and noises can be heard echoing down the cavern tunnels. The kobolds are not attacking, but you may assume they are on high alert and shoring up their defenses.
Waedin decides to check out the room to the south before pushing further into kobold territory.
Waedin finds a dour storeroom littered with crates and barrels, most of them smashed open, the room strewn with broken debris. Stone rafters criss-cross the ceiling, holding up the fissured bedrock above.
Someplace to fall back to I suppose. Waedin grumbles.
Sebastian seems a bit worried about the kobold activities that probably will involve many deadly traps of varying pain.
Prepared kobolds suck.
Waedin with her shield up, scopes out the northern tunnel.
Meanwhile, Ustemir pats Kolek for a while and feeds him some of his rations to calm the bear down. He walks up to Waedin and addresses her in a hushed tone. "See anything interesting?"
"If you don't see any other entrances to this room to the South... perhaps we just go check out the Western Door".
Unless Waedin replies otherwise, Stepnik heads in that direction.
Sebastian seems ready to proceed with any direction....
As Waedin approaches the northern tunnel, she hears the sounds of labor, the *tink, tink, tink* of metal on stone, and the crumbling of dirt and rubble. Her innate dwarven intuition may tell her there's a mining operation ahead. She also hears the sounds of a kobold shouting:
The cramped tunnel ahead opens into a large cavern filled with jutting rocky overhangs and large boulders. A single kobold miner works near a pile of rubble just at the cavern's entrance, and although you can't see much beyond that, by the sounds of it, you can assume more kobolds are working deeper within.
The kobold miner startles at your approach!
There's one of 'em mining ahead, I think the shouts are coming from someone else! she hisses with her dinged up shield raised.
Sebastian seems a bit concerned about the kobolds like he is concerned about sleeping on another hard ground tonight. A bit irritated, but not impressed.
The Bard voices his opinion.
He then casts Shield and hides behind a rock.
"Hm. If anyone can speak their language, tell them to be quiet and nothing will happen to them." Leaving Kolek behind, Ustemir rushes into the mine to stop the kobold from running away and alerting whoever else might be present.
As Ustemir rushes in and grabs the kobold , he gets a better view of the cavern. Two more miners work at the far wall, while a short but muscular kobold with a greatpick stands atop a flat boulder near the cavern's center, shouting out orders to the workers. He sneers and spits as the first kobold is apprehended:
The first kobold miner tries to wrest free from Ustemir's grip.
Then swings its pick at Ustemir's body!
Ustemir remains unharmed, and the kobold remains in his grasp!
Waedin's eyes narrow and she starts to stomp towards the leader, ending with raising her shield.
◆◆Move
◆Raise Shield.
As Waedin moves forward, she can see a little further still. There's one more kobold miner on the far back wall.
◆ Move
◆ Move
◆ Quick Vial (@ closest kobold along left wall).
Heave
Fire Damage (+1 Persistent, +1 Splash)
"Not very welcoming are they"?
Stepnik blasts one of the kobold miners with a fire grenade.
The mining supervisor grunts at Waedin's approach, hops off his rocky pedestal and moves towards her. He hefts his mighty greatpick and swings!
Waedin feels like crumbling loose earth as the pick stabs into her chest.
Waedin
◆shifts to get out of flank and tries to
◆ smack the leader before
◆ raising her shield.
This one seems like the leader!
Ustemir makes a grimace when Waedon is struck. "That looked like it hurt. Okay. Be right with you."
He attempts to strike the grabbed kobold. Twice.
"In a moment."