Goblins at the White Deer: Round 5
MAP
Kenzo -Initiative:27 (unconscious)
Rilo -Initiative:14
Magazin -Initiative:11
Gyorgy -Initiative:10
Eugen -Initiative:10
Mounted Goblin -Initiative: 9
Aldern -Initiative: 8
Goblins -Initiative: 7
Kenzo lies on the ground and bleeds.
Kenzo continues to bleed.
Rilo moves to finish off the goblin he had just attacked "hang on kenzo!"
Rilo moves to finish off the goblin he had just attacked "hang on kenzo!"
Rilo moves across from Aldern and attacks but perhaps his concern for Kenzo weighs too heavily upon him for his attack is weak and his blade misses.
Gyorgy screws up his courage to do something a bit tactical.
Stepping back from the uninjured Goblin, he circles around Aldern to tackle the wounded Goblin and try to improve the odds.
attacking goblin, with bless and flanking (1d20+3=18)
damage to flanked goblin (1d4=3)
A string of exotic Varisian expletives fills the air as Gyorgy sees red and his starknife hits home at last.
As the goblin commando falls to the ground, stricken and bleeding, the remaining goblin shrieks - first in horror and then with mounting anger and conviction. He begins to chant as he focuses his attentions on Eugen, hoping perhaps against hope that he can take one or more of the 'longshanks' with him.
"Lamashtu Lammi, Ai... Ai...; ]Lamashtu Lammi, Ai... Ai...;" he repeats over and over as he crouches, shield up, looking for a hole in Eugen's defenses.
Again I swing my blade at one of these miserable creatures .
to attack flanked goblin, f11 (1d20 7=22)
to damage flanked goblin, f11 (1d8+3=5)
crunch! slice!
The goblin’s strange chant is interupted as Eugen’s sword crunches down upon him. A moment later Aldern plunges his blade between the goblin’s shoulder blades and the monster falls to the ground.
The night is strangely silent for a second or two, save for the weeping of Shayliss.
Then the sound of voices and running feet comes from the south. The voices are human.
[
The doors of the White deer open and men and women and children begin to creep out hesitantly.
On the ground Kenzo moans, indicating there is still life in the monk's battered body, though how long he can hold onto that life without some assistance is anyone's guess. The precious seconds tick by...
"I say, thank you for your assistance good men," says Aldern, "But shouldn't someone help that poor man on the ground?"
"May Desna give this valiant Monk the power to survive"
"Now, time to help get him to Father Zantus."
I grab Kenzo and throw him over my shoulder and start making my way to the Cathedral.
Before Magazin can get very far, the sound of feet coming from the south is, in seconds, revealed to be Father Zantus, the sheriff and a few of the guards.
“Good work men,” says the sheriff surveying the bodies.
“Is he hurt,” Zantus asks Magazin, and then recognizing the foolishness of his own question, the older priest blushes. “I am afraid I can do nothing until the morning,” confesses the priest, “There have been many injured this evening.”
“Three cheers for the heroes of Sandpoint,” shouts someone, one of those in the crowd coming out of the White Deer.
Shayliss runs and throws her arms around Eugen. “My hero,” she says breathlessly and then she notices Aldern once more and releases her grip on Eugen.
“Very good show, chaps,” says Aldern, “I would be honored to know each of you better.”
Rilo follows along with his new friends, keeping worry over kenzo's condition. "Heroes of sandpoint eh? that doesn't sound too bad". Rilo looks on as the girl throws her arms around eugen "Oh sure, he gets the girl" he thinks to himself. Looks away from this and to Aldern, "Of course, we should get kenzo to a place where he can rest first though."
Garridan Viskalai pushes his way through the crowd.
"Belor," he says grudgingly, nodding a greeting towards the sheriff who does not reply.
"Bring him inside," Garridan says to Magazin, "We can put him in his room."
Then cracking a rare smile, Garridan says, "I may not even charge him for the next week's worth of rent."
"What is his name?" asks Aldern. Shayliss moves over and hangs upon Aldern's arm. "I am Aldern, Aldern Foxglove. This is Shayliss Vinder."
I smile, "Good to meet you Aldern, I will be happy to talk to you more once I get Kenzo here off to bed."
"Rilo, you may want to check the Goblins for any information as to why they decided to attack today."
I leave to put Kenzo in his room.
"Well, I'm beat," i say to no one in particular. I am trying to figure out where to sit down for a minute while i watch my new companions.
"We oughta meet up and do this again tomorrow," i say, deciding to just sit where i'm standing, "it's good, ouch, exercise."
[nothing]
Gyorgy runs his fingers through his hair and surveys the carnage.
"I might be busy tomorrow, I don't know... can you do the day after instead?"
The sheriff takes a point of meeting each of those who fought, introducing himself and thanking them.
“We can’t ever repay you,” he says repeatedly, “It might have gone much worse for us without heroes like you”
“I’ll be in touch,” says Aldern as he escorts Shayliss back down the hill into the lower parts of the town
EUGENE
“I heard you helped save the town,” the half-orc effuses with a toothy grin. “You can crash by the fire at my place any time you need to.”
MAGAZIN
“The ceremony tonight was a disaster,” laments Father Zantus, and then he smiles a tight smile, “But the children of the dark won’t stop us. I plan on a little ceremony at the Cathedral in the morning. Would you please attend?”
GYORGY
“We were so worried,” says Luba.
“So tell us what happened,” says Gyorgy’s nephew excitedly.
“Would you mind sleeping here tonight,” asks Luba, still a little worried, “I’ll fix a place on the floor for you.”
RILO
Everyone wanted to talk to him. Everyone wanted to buy him a drink or some food. When Rilo made a mention of writing stories, everyone had a tale to share that he might find funny.
When Rilo does make it to his room, he sees that there is, strangely enough, a single gold coin on his freshly made bed.
KENZO
Kenzo can just make out a mountain at the end of the path but even as walks it remains some distance away. At some point in the dream Kenzo stops besides a statue of a stern man. The statue is made of gold but the gold does not tempt Kenzo. The butterflies surround the statue and then it is gone. Still in the distance the mountain remains.
Magazin:
Gyorgy will tell Aishe and Luca what has transpired, but he'll skip Kenzo and Eugen's serious wounds and generally downplay the scariness of the goblins and the gore of combat whilst playing up the brave and strong nature of his allies. He's not a braggard but he both wants his cousins to feel safe and can't resist the urge to spin a bit of a yarn.
Gyorgy returns his family's affection and is more than happy to kip on the floor, but when he does so he keeps his star-knife close and sleeps fitfully. Although he can hide it from his cousins, Luba tells him that he is; "On his own nerves" when he fails to finish the hearty breakfast she feeds to him in the morning.
He escorts Luba to work; "To get some fresh-air." and collects his other star-knives and harpy musk from the Rusty Dragon before heading back to Luba's house where the children still sleep (or are just still abed). To get them fed and dressed, and make sure they know what chores and schooling they have to do today.
Gyorgy's initial, vague plan for the day is to visit Sheriff Hemlock and Father Zantus to see if he can be of any use (further goblin threats, consectration delayed, anything else). He also intends to visit the Cathedral's shrine to Desna and offer a hearty prayer of thanks that he and his family got through unscathed.
Rilo Decides wakes up slightly early and heads down to have breakfast, hoping to see his friend kenzo in better shape.. he tries to be as social as possible though still shaken from the events of the night before. Rilo usually keeps a happy exterior in the company of others, joking and smiling as much as possible.
After breakfast he walks around town, trying to see what the damage from the attack is.
Kenzo enjoys his dream
[more nothing]
I wake up early and try to help with the setup for the tavern's morning business. As soon as I get a chance, I inquire of Jesk where I might find a cleric who could help me with my wounds.
I wake up early in the morning, pray for my daily spells and go check in on Eugen.
"Thank you for your work last night. The consecration ceremony will be happening this morning, and I am sure Father Zantus would be happy to see you there. I have to go find Kenzo and then I will be heading to the Cathedral."
After I find Eugen I go see Kenzo in his bed.
"Thanks for your help last night Kenzo. The consecration ceremony will be held thismorning in the Cathedral. If you feel up to it, you are more than welcome to join us."
I then head to the cathedral to assist with the consecration ceremony.
"Thanks Magazine!" i yell as he heads out, "See you at the cathedral!"
I too meander my way to the cathedral after getting a bite to eat.
After I find Eugen I go see Kenzo in his bed."Thanks for your help last night Kenzo. The consecration ceremony will be held thismorning in the Cathedral. If you feel up to it, you are more than welcome to join us."
Kenzo awakes in his room back at the White Deer, and finds Magazin praying over him. He thanks his new friend, and after Magazin briefly fills him in on the quick conclusion to the fight and takes his leave, he does some light stretching. He then heads downstairs and grabs a quick bite. Although he doesn't feel quite himself yet, he decides to hurry over to the temple to show his appreciation and, figuring Rilo may be there, to see what else he can learn of the goblin invasion.
Magazin
“Greetings,” she says, “I am Sabyl. I… I am in a way,… Kenzo’s teacher while he is in Sandpoint. It is quite upsetting he was injured.”
As Magazin goes to heal Kenzo, Sabyl quietly slips out of the room.
Rilo and Eugen
There aren’t many at the Cathedral for the ceremony, mostly priests and acolytes, though the Sheriff and the Mayor are both there as are some members of the five founding families.
The ceremony goes without a hitch and prayers are offered at all the altars. Finally when it is over, Brother Vosk rushes up to Father Zantus and speaks to him urgently and quietly. The priest’s face blanches and he motions for the sheriff to come over.
“Maybe you boys should come have a look at something,” the sheriff says to Magazin and the four around him.
'aha, these religious types lead exciting lives!' i think to myself and follow after with a glance and a smile to encourage my compadres.
Rilo looks back at the girls, completely oblivious for a few moments as to where he was walking. Rilo enjoys the ceremony as much as possible though, he still maintains his guard the entire time. Not that he had much confidence that he and his comrades could deal with another batch of goblins.
Rilo had a slightly bad feeling about what he was about to be shown, much like the bad feeling he got from the gold coin. He was able to shrug it off however, also much like the gold coin.
I walk over to the Sheriff and Father Zantus.
"Sheriff, Father," I nod to both, "What can we do for you?"
"Out in the bone yard," says the sheriff, leading the way.
"What is going on?" asks several people. Some others follow along behind.
"It's over here, says Brother Vosk, once they are in the cemetery on the east side of the cathedral. The hunchback seems close to tears.
A freshly dug grave has been dug in the cemetery, the dirt still lying piled besides the large hole. A toppled stone lies face down a short ways away from the dirt, its base indicating it had, until recently, been standing sentinel over a grave.
A quick look into the hole reveals it is not a fresh grave, it is an old grave and someone has smashed open a coffin.
"They stole his body," sobs Vosk.
"I don't mean to seem slow," i say quietly, "but who would do this? And why?"
"I've heard of goblins stealing odd things before..but never a body..I thought they opted for shiny things?" has a slight chuckle in his tone but quickly catches himself and becomes serious.
Leaving the house properly armed, I check on a few neighbours and friends to make sure they'll keep an extra eye out for the children. Then I accost a few guards and acolytes looking for Zantus and Hemlock and eventually hear that they went off with Brother Vosk and my allies from the night before.
Intrigued, I'll head off to the boneyard.
"I've heard of goblins stealing odd things before..but never a body..I thought they opted for shiny things?" has a slight chuckle in his tone but quickly catches himself and becomes serious.
Kenzo turns to Rilo and quitely says, "It looks like your story is writing itself."
Turning to the others, he adds, "Well, gentleman, the question is, what should be done to aaddress this? Although I'm not quite up to full strength and I may be speaking out of line, if you do need any assistance, Sheriff, I'd wager I'm not the only one that would be willing to lend a hand."
Gyorgy reaches the cemetery and quietly joins the group looking on.
"Who would do such a thing," demands one stern faced individual.
"I think the young man has it right," says the sheriff, nodding to Rilo, "There are goblin tracks here. Small prints all around the loose soil."
"It must have happened last night," suggests Father Zantus, his face pale.
"I'm not sure what can be done," says the sheriff to Kenzo with a dry, somber grin, "I'm not much of a tracker... and yourself?"
"I'm not sure what can be done," says the sheriff to Kenzo with a dry, somber grin, "I'm not much of a tracker... and yourself?"
I'm not a tracker either, although, again, I can't speak for everyone else. Tell us, whose grave was this? It is interesting that the body was taken last night, during the raid, and Rilo is right - that would be unusual for goblins, based on what little I know about them."
"It was the grave of Father Tobyn," says Father Zantus, true sadness in his voice, "He and several others are buried in this row, all victims of the fire that claimed the old chapel."
"I ask each of you," says Sheriff Hemlock, speaking as much to the member's of the town's nobility as to anyone else, "To keep this quiet. We don't want to make folks more upset than they already are."
"Perhaps he was buried with something valuable, but why would they wait until now to take it? Did anybody map out the general goblin movements yesterday? Was this what they were after the whole time?"
"I helped prepare his body," says Father Zantus, "And there was nothing unique buried with him, just his silver holy symbol but that would hardly be worth all this effort." He shakes his head sadly.
Slowly the crowd around the opened grave begins to disperse.
Genuinely confused I mull it over; "Why attack the consecration and then steal a corpse? and why this corpse?" Gyorgy then asks Father Zantus; "Will this have any bearing on the consecration? That sounds a bit sophisticated for Goblins..."
"Sheriff Hemlock, I have few duties here that bind my hands or eat away my time - in this investigation I am at your service."