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"Littles?" Harrigan sputters in response to Brashen's quip. "I'll have you know I could break a halfling or gnome over my knee, bout as quick as any of you. Word of advice if you want to carry on a friendship with any dwarves in your future. Cracks about height and beards... not cool man." "And despite my uncle owning this mine I can't say I've ever put in a day's work in one. Even so, a dwarf finds a use for tools here and there." Harrigan digs a short crowbar out of his pack and waves that in one hand and a hammer in the other. "I reckon we oughta wrap the spike in some cloth so we aren't sending out the alarm from here to kingdom come, but these should do the trick."
Heading back, "Looks like we're sitting on the front porch here boys. Any further in and we'll be climbing iron spikes down a cliff face. Bit more bad news. That first one we hit up above... Looks like he already climbed down. Wherever the clan is, I reckon they know about our little run in now. Couldn't say whether they can tell us apart from the cultists though. If they come looking for what happened to the one they left behind, we're gonna get caught with our pants down. That said, it still looks like the best place to hole up we've come across so far."
Harigan pokes the stones confirming they are embedded into the flesh. "Huh." He motions Andolphas over, "What'd you make of this then?"
Harrigan roughly flips the grimlock over and pats him down before dragging all of the corpses off to one corner. With that taken care of the dwarf grunts and drawls, "Ain't exactly ideal, but it looks like this is gonna have to do for a while till the boys can get their mojo back. I'm gonna make a pass around and see what we've got here." That said, he creeps around the perimeter of the cavern looking for other entrances, drafts, or anything else to indicate possible danger if we should rest here.
A steady low roll of curses spill out of Harrigan's clenched jaws while he roughly draws another bolt, jacks it into the crossbow, takes aim and fires.
Harrigan tries to angle around for a better shot, but his bolt ricochets off a stalagmite with a crack sending rock chips flying.
Considering how things went last time Harrigan has decided to change tactics this time. The dwarf stalks the corridor behind Brashen with his crossbow out planning to make up for the treacherous footing in the cavern with range as well as keep the blinded grimlock out of ax length. At the first yowl, the dwarf snaps the crossbow up to his shoulder sights in on the krenshar and fires.
Harrigan recoils from the suddenly blood slick skull of the creature howling in his face, "Aiiieee!!! WHAT THE S*&+!?!?! HELL NO!!!" The dwarf turns tail and runs for the tunnel out of here.
Damion snaps off another quick shot at one of the guard beasts.
Harrigan notes Andolphas' entry to the fray and playfully calls out, "Hell- you sure you know how to use that thing twinklefingers? Where's the big man?" while waiting for an opportunity to bash another wolf-cat.
Harrigan springs up and hammers the skull of the first wolf-cat to pass him by with all his might. Ah hell. They would have a gang of em wouldn't they? The dwarf edges to the side putting the cavern wall to his back to prevent the cats from circling him.
"Alright then. I figure that things is gonna sniff me out before I can get up on it. Give me a minute to get in there and I'll hunker down between it and the cavern entrance. When you come in making a racket it'll have to go by me to get you and I'll try to drop it then."
Harrigan creeps back far enough to signal the others to approach. When they meet up he whispers, "Looks like the one you shot is sitting down in there, but they have some kind of guard beast- bout my size from what I could see. Furry. We have any way to shut that thing up before it alerts everything in hearing range? It's going to be tricky in there. Water run off trickles through the cavern and the whole place is on an incline. Gonna be slick and there are hiding places everywhere with all the stalactites and stalagmites."
"Fair enough. Taking them out ought to leave us some safe haven to fall back to if we need it. Let me get a little lead on you this time around. I'll signal if I see anything."
"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say the grimlocks don't have a lot to do with the cultists. They aren't the most sophisticated bunch. More likely we just stumbled into their territory. I reckon we got bigger concerns right now. Everyone okay?"
Harrigan barrels down the tunnel past the casters drawing his morningstar on the go.
While Boland and Andolphas examine the pool Harrigan scratches his beard while idly taking a look at the platform above the mysterious liquid. "Alright then. I got no interest in trying to splash around in a pool of something where I can feel the cold pouring off of it. Let's take care of this last rough passage first and then cut into whatever they figure deserves doors."
Harrigan's expression when the Inquisitor explains the tattoos is grim, but whatever he is thinking he keeps it to himself. "The lift is about as secure as we can make it without destroying it. Do that and we might find ourselves ourselves trapped down here. Its time to get a move on. Suppose you could swap out the miner disguise for these cultists clothes, but there ain't enough to go around and they aren't going to fit me. Little too skinny for your average handsome bearded man's man." He winks at that though it might be lost in the low lighting. "It is a thought though kid," he nods to Boland. We could take the tunnel the skeletons were guarding, but I'm going to bet it is the fastest path to another throw down. Might be able to learn something if we work our way in around the edges instead of charging right into the heart of it. What do you say?"
Harrigan takes a moment to kneel down and examine one of the guards while stripping him of any coin or valuables, "Red skin, sharp teeth... what the hell are these guys? Demon blood?"
Harrigan kneels by the hall where the skeletons came marching and begins scooping up his caltrops back into their bag. "How many coming down the lift? I'd jam it, but I have an idea they are gonna be down here before I can stop them. We want to take them out and lock down the lift? That'd keep them from piling in the reinforcements with ease. It's either that or we make ourselves scarce. Either way- I think we are fighting our way out unless we can find another exit or a damn good disguise."
There was no time to examine the unexpectedly fanged, red skinned sniper with a skeleton on his back. Harrigan shattered the skull with a powerful backhanded strike then stopped to assess the situation as the bones clattered to the floor.
Harrigan takes another swipe at the sniper before the skeleton can close in.
Harrigan breaks from cover and comes barreling towards the sniper's position. As he closes he lifts the silver morningstar up over his shoulder and growls, "I've had about enough of that!" as he brings it down like a hammer.
Harrigan darts across the room closing in on the sniper from one pillar to the next.
"I'm on it boss, but I need to spread out the welcome mat for your buddies first." Harrigan slips out of the smoke darting from pillar to pillar in an attempt to keep them between him and the direction of the sniper's last shot. On the way he grabs a pouch from his belt and loosens the string on it, dips low as he passes the entrance to the tunnel where the bells are ringing and drags the bag by the bottom in a line across th entrance leaving a trail of caltrops in his wake. All along the way his eyes are sharp looking for any sign of movement and listening for anything to give away the sniper's position.
Spoiler: Harrigan cracks the smokestick and tosses it over to Brashen's fallen form. The dwarf slips into the smoke grabbing a potion from his belt as he kneels next to Brash and whispers, "Hold on big man. You ain't done yet."
Spoiler: Harrigan darts from pillar to pillar toward Brashen keeping cover between him and the direction of the sniper when he can.
Spoiler: Harrigan continues heading toward the fallen form to see if it was indeed Brashen. The dwarf pulls a smokestick the holster on his leg as he moves.
Perception
Harrigan and Boland:
Spoiler:
Spoiler: Harrigan calls up to Boland in a low voice, "Clear down here, but no sign of Brash yet."
The dwarf slips the silver morningstar out of his bag and heads toward the dim light to see if it is Brashen.
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