Vildran very quickly scurries back to the tunnel and stops just in front of Autumn again.
-
A half dozen tiny jinkin gremlins scurry and roll out of the various tiny tunnels. Each is armed with a sharpened metal spoon - a paltry weapon, except for the fact that you're hardly very well armed yourselves. They wave their spoons in the air and screech in unison, ready to leap upon your team! This takes them a little time, giving you all an opening to act first.
|||| INIT ||||
Morga (19 dmg)
San (15 dmg)
Vildran
Autumn (2 dmg)
Jinkins x7
“Don’t let them surround you,” Autumn cautions San and Morga, worried that they might get trapped in the middle of the room. Though she’s all too pleased to stay in the back with a protective wall of flesh in front of her, she also needs that wall of flesh to survive, for her own sake if nothing else.
She quickly incants a juddering phase bolt as soon as a target appears, launching it across to the far side of the room to strike just as a gremlin emerges from a tunnel. Then she leans in close against the western wall, taking cover against any ranged reprisals.
New sword in hand, San runs over to Morga's side to protect her flank before stabbing at the blue creature there.
Here they come... Grimly, Morga shoots a Divine Lance past San at the closest jinking, then steps back so none of them can slip behind her.
She feels naked without her shield.
With limiting view of the jinkins descending on Morga and San, Vildran looks for another besides the one Autumn is targeting. He follows the line of her tracer bolt and then looks to the side for the next one.
An orb of biting cold coalesces around that jinkin, freezing its body.
He then tries to flatten to the wall in the tunnel so that he's less of a target.
-
-
Morga blasts dark blue with a divine lance, successfully catching the little creature. Yellow critically fails against Vildran's frostbite, going stiff as its veins turn to ice. It falls over, instantly dead.
The rest of the jinkins shriek and shout in anger before rushing in with spoons at the ready . They get underfoot under Morga and San, stabbing at calves and thighs, kicking and scratching, climbing and biting. A sharpened spoon jabs in between gaps in Morga's armor . Another spoon slices San's thigh .
|||| INIT ||||
Morga (26 dmg)
San (21 dmg)
Vildran
Autumn (2 dmg)
Dark Blue Jinkin (8 dmg)
Green Jinkin (10 dmg)
Purple Jinkin
Red Jinkin
Orange Jinkin
“What … what are you doing?” Autumn asks San in bewilderment. She’s known a few people who can’t read unless they speak the words out loud, but she’s never heard of anyone doing the same in combat. Still, the tactic seems to work, so she doesn’t press the odd behavior and focuses on helping her companions.
She concentrates on the same jinkin as before, glaring at it with one black, melting eye, but this time she conjures a darker spell, one that wreathes her hand in shadow before flying over to directly attack the gremlin’s life force.
"Slash at the opening!" cries San as the first jinkin runs under his feet.
Taking a second to look at the sword in his hand, he asks "What the hells is wrong with this sword??" Shaking his head he engages with the remaining creatures before stepping away. "Strike carefully, avoid your own leg!"
RRrgh! This is what I was afraid of! Morga grouses internally as she casts Haunting Hymn on the gaggle of jinkins attacking San.
Then she punches backwards, hoping to catch the jinkin stabbing at her Achilles tendon.
It's a quick little bugger.
Morga sends a sonic shock through purple and orange , which proves brutally effective as they clutch at their oversized ears.
The few remaining jinkins break in a panic, running back for their tunnels . Despite the urgency of their flight, they keep their spoons with them and scoop a couple other rusty items of note from the piles as they go.
Combat Over! You each gain 80 XP.
|||| STATUS ||||
Morga (26 dmg)
San (21 dmg)
Vildran
Autumn (2 dmg)
Dark Blue Jinkin (8 dmg)
Purple Jinkin (12 dmg, deafened)
Orange Jinkin (12 dmg, deafened)
Vildran frowns as the final three scurry away.
Well, that's less food for the spiders I suppose. I just hope they didn't have an accurate count of the jinkins.
Well, that's less food for the spiders I suppose. I just hope they didn't have an accurate count of the jinkins.
“That is so unlikely. Anyway, help drag the bodies back to the spiders. Morga, you should tell them to eat the Jinkins right away, while they’re still fresh—we want them so full that they’ll at least put off eating us.” For all her talk about moving the dead gremlins into the web-filled lair, Autumn doesn’t engage in such manual labor herself. Instead she quickly searches the bodies, not with any real hope of finding anything useful—especially since the sharpened spoons seem to be their most valuable possessions—but more out of a force of habit.
After that, she examines and peeks through the holes in the eastern wall, where the light is coming from, to try to get a sense of where they are—and if there’s any chance of widening the holes to escape.
"Hm. Right." Morga does as Autumn suggests, tossing the dead jinkin bodies to the spiders and calling out in Goblin: "Fresh, warm meat from the little pests! We're not done yet, but this is the first batch." Then she ducks back through the door and closes it lest she get caught in the feeding frenzy.
"Hey Vildran, can you take a look at that sword San has? We should know if it does anything other than make him narrate his actions." Morga asks as she re-enters the chamber. As she passes by Autumn, she catches a glimpse of the scratch on her leg. "Dang. I really wish I had my healer's kit." Instead of treating her friends' wounds, she searches for traps and listens for sounds of reinforcements.
San also drags some of the bodies with Morga before examining the sword like he intended earlier. "It's odd but doesn't seem immediately harmful at least."
Autumn inspects the openings in the cave wall to the east. These holes are a foot or two across and look out into a much larger space that's lit by the moonlight outside. Looking through one, she can see the ledge that you all landed on to enter the Whistlefang lair. Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be a similar ledge on this side, only a drop down to a deeper level of the Pit. The other openings to the south end extend somewhere deeper into a gremlin warren. It seems like it'd be a very tight fit, but if you were determined you could squeeze your way through some of these holes to find what lies on the other side.
Morga hears panicked scrabbling for a while as the jinkins complete their retreat, but it ends after less than a minute, after which there's not even a peep from them. She doesn't spot any traps.
San can tell that the shortsword he's picked up is quite the powerful magic item, not only able to strike with greater accuracy but bearing a ghost touch rune that should allow it to hit ghosts and spirits easily. He can't detect anything about it that might explain the urge to shout whenever he tries to attack with it.
Vildran gives an admiring smile.
It looks like San can handle the identification himself.
Still, he wanders over to inspect the blade with Detect Magic.
After they finish tossing the bodies back into the webbed area Vildran looks to the goblin-speakers.
Are they happy with their fey snack? Do they sound "full"?
New sword in hand, San stalks through the tunnels trying to see if any more of the little fey tormentors are hanging about and easy to reach. "Not sure it's worth the trouble to try to squeeze through these tiny tunnels into their lair proper. Maybe this is good enough for Longfingers?"
"Dang. I really wish I had my healer's kit."
“It’s just a scratch,” Autumn smiles at the dwarf, genuinely grateful for her concern. “Really.” They might have quite different opinions and approaches to handle any given situation, but she always feels better knowing that the cleric is there to heal them.
With San’s sword proving useful and not harmful, in spite of its tendency to make San call out his attacks, she focuses on the problem of getting out of this situation alive. “The Pit’s right on the other side,” she points at the eastern wall. “You can see where we came down, so …” she takes a few moments to turn and orient herself, as if she had just descended into the pit, “the goblin lair must be that way.” She gestures north and east. “So that would be the way out of here.”
“Unless …” she stares at the tunnels to the south, pondering, “… there’s a way out through these tunnels? The gremlins must come from somewhere, right?” She sighs, not liking what she’s about to suggest but not seeing a better option. “I so wish we had killed all of them.”
The sorceress looks at San. “I think we should try to squeeze through and see where it leads—I’d much rather fight the jinkins than the spiders.” She eyes her companions, looking them up and down one at a time. “You and Vildran should check it out—you’re the skinniest.” The elves’ eternally slender physique is an obvious choice for this type of exploration.
"Maybe send a light down each of those little tunnels first, in case you can see the other side. They probably twist and turn enough that you can't, but it's worth a shot." Morga feels rather useless now. No shield, no healer's kit. Reserving spells. If only they could rest and get up to full strength before going back in to face the spiders and Lord Littlefingers. Wait... "Interesting thought. If we clear out the jinkins and find a safe place to rest, we can at least get up to full strength before we head out. Food and water might be tricky, but the jinkins probably have some we can take." They won't have their gear back, but a well-placed fireball would wreak havoc on all those webs. It sure would be nice for Vildran to be able to do that again.
Looking back, the giant spiders have retreated with their prizes. If they're full, they certainly haven't come back to thank you for it. Perhaps you'll have to go back and talk with Lord Longfingers yourselves.
You can see that there's a single larger tunnel out from this chamber to the west. It loops around and to the north again, and if you quickly check it you can verify that it takes you back into the spider-webbed caverns. The smaller tunnels are too wiggly and narrow to be able to see far through them. Most will require you to crawl and squeeze to get through.
Vildran incants four lights and sends them down different tunnels. For now he ignores Autumns content. The idea of squeezing into these deep tunnels is least appealing to him.
The smaller tunnels are too wiggly and narrow to be able to see far through them.
Autumn shakes her head after peeking down each lighted tunnel. “Morga was right—the tunnels twist and turn too much to see more than a few feet. You’ll need to crawl inside to check it out.” she says to Vildran and San. Seeing the wizard’s reluctance, she tries to entice him into action by volunteering “Here, I’ll search this one.”
Naturally she chooses to head down the larger western tunnel, the one that loops back to the spider’s lair. Without too much effort she quickly returns and reports “That just leads back to the spiders.” She looks at the dwarf. “Morga’s got a pretty good idea. The spiders won’t be able to reach us on the other side of those tunnels—I think Longfingers said so himself?—so we could rest and refresh all our spells. Besides, it’s nighttime outside.”
San's not eager to face the spiders as they didn't really complete the task yet. But those tunnels don't look very inviting either. "Oh well, not getting any stronger just waiting around."
With a resigned sigh, San starts wriggling his way though a hole.
Vildran's lights shine down the tunnels but only illuminate the wiggly paths to a depth of 5-10 feet, depending on the tunnel.
San spends some time slowly crawling is way through one of the tunnels. He proves as skilled as Autumn suggested earlier, and while his chosen tunnel only loops back to join a larger one, he finds a small branch which ends in something that feels very much like a gremlin nest. A small pile of rags, spoons, and trinkets is jammed up in the end of the branch. Its occupant is not home. A quick look over the pile reveals that there are a few somewhat valuable coins amid the junk . It seems the gremlins that remain are elsewhere.
Vildran exhales nervously, realizing the time has come.
Uh... okay. I hope I don't get stuck!
“You’ll be fine,” Autumn casually responds to Vildran in a falsely cheery voice. Seeing the heap of coins found by San, and eyeing his valuable sword, she sighs, her greed gradually overcoming her reluctance. “Come on, let’s check out the other tunnels.” Realizing that they’ll need to go through these tunnels anyway if they want a place that’s safe from the spiders, she gets down on her hands and knees and starts slowly crawling through one of the tunnels.
"Call if you need help. I'll stay out here so I can follow you if you run into trouble. I can only come after one of you at a time, though, so back off quickly if you need to." Morga wishes she could do more to help, but it would be foolish to be stuck in another tunnel when her friends need help elsewhere.
Vildran heads into the unexplored eastern tunnel. He squeezes his way a short distance and finds a side tunnel that leads to another gremlin nest before his tunnel turns north. Here it ends at what is clearly a barricade designed to keep gremlins out. Several ill-fitting boards have been placed to stop creatures from slipping through, though Vildran can see some attempts to pry them apart. Between the slats he can see into a familiar looking chamber - Tunch's workshop! Its hard to see with all the obstacles in the way, but he can hear the goblin hard at work on something.
Meanwhile Autumn heads south. Its a tough squeeze and she gets stuck a couple of times. The second of those times while she's stuck an opportunistic jinkin rushes out of a side tunnel and tries to shank her. She takes a hit but fires back with a spell and takes the already-injured creature out. Heading down the tunnel it came from she finds the wiggly path gets too narrow even for her. She returns back and sees that the main branch starts weaving to the west.
One down, two to go, Autumn thinks grimly after she dispatches the gremlin. It’s rough work, but she’s been in tight scrapes before and worse places than this—she remembers the miserable tunnel near Iron Harbor, the one filled with frigid water that led to the bottom of a well in Stonehome. At least this tunnel is relatively warm and dry. She takes a moment to gather herself before pushing on.
Hearing a commotion, San runs over to see if he can assist in any way. "Sounds like there's trouble down that way. I'd better see if I can help."
"Really? You won't be able to get past their feet, and they won't be able to back up," Morga observes incredulously. She twiddles her thumbs nervously, waiting for her allies to return from their disparate tunnels or call out for backup. It's agony waiting, but she knows that as soon as she goes down one tunnel, someone will need healing in another.
San comes from the other side, shortsword at the ready, and wriggles his way slowly through. He comes upon a widening of the tunnels deep within and also comes face-to-face with the last jinkin. It screeches defiantly as it attacks, but he's able to shout out his own attacks in response and bring it down.
With all the little gremlins defeated you're able to slowly explore their network of tunnels. The larger chamber San discovered is no more than five feet across in any dimension, but it clearly served as a communal chamber for these creatures. Amid the cloth and odds and ends, he discovers a cache of interesting treasures that they had gathered over the years.
a tigers eye gemstone worth 6 gp
an opal talisman
a sleek silver arrow
a toy key on a chain
a copper ring with engravings of strings
an unusually fresh looking sprig of mistletoe
a low-grade cold iron serving spoon worth 20 gp
Vildran squeezes back to the main chamber and informs the party he found a backdoor to Tunch's workshop. It's not of immediate importance, but it's good to know.
Autumn slowly drags herself out of the wretched tunnels, a bloody mess covered in cuts and scrapes. Her clothes are ripped and torn in a dozen places, and where they aren’t, they are completely stained and soiled with dirt and blood. “I am so not doing that again,” she grumbles, scowling in particular at the still pristine looking wizard.
“I killed two of the jinkins, so with the one you killed,” she looks at San, “that should be all of them. Let’s drag their bodies out for the spiders to eat. And bring all the loot you found out here so we can see if there’s anything we can use. Maybe something magical, like your sword.” She looks at the eastern tunnel to Tunch’s workshop. “Then we can figure out what to do next.”
For her part, she immediately pockets the gemstone for safekeeping, then counts and organizes the many various coins.
San emerges as well looking slightly worse for wear but not nearly as bad as Autumn. "Unfortunately there isn't as much space in their nest as we hoped. Barely enough room for one much less four." San does his part wriggling through the tunnels to pull the bodies out for the spiders.
"Drat. ... One thought on the bodies: If Lord Littlefingers has counted, he might know we got 'em all and open the doors for his spiders to take us. I say we don't feed the bodies to them yet, and take watches while we rest." She pauses to think for a moment, wishing there was a way to block both doors so the spiders can't interrupt their rest. "Pity we can't rely on using Tunch's workshop to rest. I doubt he would be hospitable now, seeing as how we didn't do his killing for him. ... How does everyone feel about sleeping in the tight tunnels?" It's clear she very much does *not* want to do that, despite suggesting it.
Hmm, hold back bodies to buy us some time. That's smart.
Then he scans the tunnels again remembering what that might mean.
I suppose I can learn to sleep standing up.
“How does everyone feel about sleeping in the tight tunnels?"
Autumn responds with the kind of look that is reserved for crazy people. The natural response for most people when faced with a threatening situation is fight or flight—being stuck in a tunnel would effectively preclude both. She looks over at Vildran.
“Could you—or San—break down the barrier to get into Tunch’s workshop? Then we could just exit the Pit and head back to Sandpoint.” How she would love to sleep back in her own bed tonight!
Glancing at the treasure pile, she snaps her fingers at the two elves and points at the miscellaneous odds and ends that San had gathered. “Hello? Magic? If one of these things could magically teleport us out of here, it might be nice to know.”
We can certainly get back into Tunch's, but if he's home we'll need to be prepared with a "good story." he gives a sort of resigned shrug with it.
He looks over at the pile of treasure and squints.
Isn't it just coins and trinkets? Sure I'll see if there's a diamond hiding in there.
"My concern is that he knows we didn't try to kill her, and will sick his weasel on us and throw all sorts of nasty bombs on us. I don't have much ability to heal yet, so unless his workshop is empty I don't want to risk it," Morga grumbles as the guys start looking through the "treasure" again.
Vildran will identify articles in the pile until others in the party become impatient :D
San nods at the idea and casts his analyzing charm over the items, 10 at a time, taking time to set aside anything that is magical vs mundane. "As for getting out of here, we still don't have any of our belongings back. Some of it is easy enough to replace I guess. We could explain to Tunch we were trying to infiltrate and things went poorly. That's not entirely untrue."
Autumn gives San an appraising look. “So what do you propose? Are you saying we kill all the goblins, except Tunch? Because I’m pretty sure they have all our stuff.” Her emerald eyes are keen and piercing, but she doesn’t seem opposed or horrified—she just wants a better idea of what San is thinking and how far he’s willing to go.
She looks askance at the trio of gremlins. “And do we really want to sleep next to a bunch of dead bodies?” She wrinkles her nose in distaste. “Even if Longfingers counted every single gremlin who came into his lair, he wouldn’t know if that was all of them, unless he systematically searched through all of their tunnels, which he hasn’t. Let’s get rid of them while they’re still relatively fresh, before they start to smell.”
-
Autumn's comments remind you that the slain jinkin gremlins are indeed not the best smelling. Nor are their tunnels, to be fair. As you discuss your options you can hear the sound of some crunching off in the direction of Lord Longfinger's realm.
"The goblins have to be easier to eliminate than Ripnugget... Maybe they don't expect us to still be alive and they'll just give our items back and we can avoid any hostilities." San's expression shows just how likely he finds that outcome to be, as in not at all. "Either way, I think we need to deal with the spider. We won't get much leverage trying to get the barricade off the tunnel to Tunche's chambers. And if he's not happy that we haven't eliminated who he call pretenders, we'll be in a tight spot there. There are no good options here. We may at least bargain for passage with Mr Longfingers over there. Just in case, lets see if we can barricade these doors if things go poorly."
"Yeah, fine. We can toss 'em the bodies. Just like last time, so it doesn't seem like we're finished." Morga grumbles. Yeah, she doesn't like being stuck here.
Vildran twitches nervously at the reminder that the goblins have their stuff.
My book... my staff...
He clears his throat and speaks up.
If they still want us to dispense of Ripnugget they'll certainly give our gear back to us. Perhaps they'll even be impressed that we made it out alive...? He's clearly not entirely convinced of that hopeful statement.