"I can scout if necessary, though I'm not the most stealthy." Offers Devrin hoping not to hold up the group too long. "I'm forever skulking through the undergrowth it seems while wandering the great lands guided only by Desna."
Kyran taps Devrin on the shoulder. "Looks like our dwarven friend has the situation well in hand."
"Don't lose your focus just yet, Kyran. I'm....I'm worried about him. He could get ambushed."
Kyran nods silently at Fern, taps his right ear, and stands with his bow at the ready.
Umlo's explorations find the nettles to be so thickly grown as to make passage through them impossible without a great deal of hacking and slashing. Reasoning, however, that the goblins must have some means of coming and going, he checks the end of the tracks, finding that this particular section of nettles is actually dead, and lashed together to form a makeshift gate.
After a few moments' listening, to be sure that no goblins are lurking on the other side, Umlo moves the gate aside, revealing a series of tunnels through the spiky greenery. One leads off to the left, another more or less straight ahead, and a third to the right. Unfortunately, curves in the tunnels prevent him from seeing very far. The high-pitched goblin voices are coming from the right, though they're still not intelligible.
Umlo places the gate back in place and returns to the group he reports what he saw, "Gobbo hidey hole, lots of tunnels, sounds like a lot of em to the right are we ready, follow me longshanks, greenskins, and witches" Umlo states witch in an almost affectionate tone.
"Ready", Fern whispers, loading her crossbow.
Devrin nods his readiness as well, his starknife in hand.
Kyran doesn't speak, but nods and stows his bow in favor of his sword. In the close quarters of the tunnels, he figures, the ranged weapon will be less useful than the blade.
The group move cautiously through the tunnel, soon finding that it opens up onto a clearing. A half-dozen goblins are gathered here, including a couple who look suspiciously familiar.
"An' then they killed Bruzz," one says, "An' Lug!" the other interjects, "An' Merk!" the first resumes, "So we -"
At this point, one of the audience, more observant than his fellows, shrieks, "'Venturers! 'Venturers is here ta kill us all!"
The goblins scatter in terror, most heading off to the north-west, while a couple, not having figured out where the adventurers are, pass quite close to Umlo, making for a narrow exit to the north-east.
Umlo swings his axe at a goblin unfortunate to get too close in its attempt to escape.
Rnd 1 rolls.
Fern launches a bolt from her crossbow at the most accessible goblin in her line of sight.
Moving incredibly slowly, Devrin will move to mop up should there be any goblin standing when he finally goes.
Kyran swings the pommel of his sword at the temple of the nearest (presumed unarmed) goblin for nonlethal damage. Unfortunately, if anything, he pulls the swing too much ().
Umlo cuts down the first goblin to stray too close, but the second evades his axe. It pitches sideways as Fern's crossbow bolt slams into it, but fear puts it back on its feet and running again, yelling for someone called 'Gogmurt'.
By this point, the other four goblins are out of sight, while the wounded goblin is heading in the other direction. Another question may occur to people - where is Korpi?
Umlo takes some deep breaths to recover, Where's Korpi, that little greensnot turned on us, he has gone an lead us into a trap" Umlo screams with rage Umlo looks for the nearest greenskin to show himself and hopes it is this goblin champion they have called.
[occ]You are absoulutley right TS I totally was not thinking about the bonus feat we got. Nevermind moving along now :)[/occ]
Fern's next action is to conjure up a shimmering protective force around herself.
Kyran glances over at Umlo. "Should we look for him? I'm more inclined to believe he's gone off to settle a grudge with someone important. If that's the case, he may lead us around most of teir security. If we can take the head off this serpent, I'm pretty sure the body will die. Goblins usually aren't known for their resolve."
Umlo cuts down the first goblin to stray too close, but the second evades his axe. It pitches sideways as Fern's crossbow bolt slams into it, but fear puts it back on its feet and running again, yelling for someone called 'Gogmurt'.
By this point, the other four goblins are out of sight, while the wounded goblin is heading in the other direction. Another question may occur to people - where is Korpi?
Kyran chases the wounded goblin, and swings a farm-hardened fist at its head (attacking with improved unarmed strike for nonlethal damage). Attack=5. Unfortunately, his swing goes wide.
The relative peace and quiet - okay, the level of background yells and crashes - is abruptly shattered by a loud battlecry from somewhere in the direction of the retreating goblins, followed by a pair fleeing right back into the group's line of sight. They pull up short, seemingly realising what they were running from in the first place. Nobody ever accused goblins of having good short-term memories.
Kyran, putting on a burst of speed, manages to grab the fleeing goblin. The chase has taken him to another, smaller clearing. To his left, four goblin dogs snarl at him, thankfully tied to stakes and so unable to reach him. Just how secure the ropes holding them are is something of an open question. To his right, another tunnel branches to the north and south. Even as he takes all this in however, the nettles behind him abruptly come to life, writhing out to grab at him and the increasingly frantic goblin he holds.
Umlo, Fern and Devrin have little trouble determining the source of Kyran's difficulties. They can be attributed to a goblin festooned with bones, skins and leaves who has just stuck his head through the apparently impenetrable wall of nettles to their right. Pointing a fiery sword (which the nettles seem to avoid of their own accord) at them, he yells, "I know you come, Longshanks! You no catch Gogmurt napping!"
Fern launches another bolt from her crossbow. Soaring toward Gogmurt, she hopes for a decent hit.
Umlo starts to move towards the Goblin caster, as he pulls out his throwing axe and hurls it at the greenskin. "Back to the ground with ye you menance"
Made it! I'll await my turn in the initiative.
Fern's crossbow bolt flies true, clipping Gogmurt's arm. Umlo's axe, however, goes wide, winding up tangled in the nettles. A shriek of fear sounds from somewhere off to the left, but Gogmurt seems to be made of sterner stuff than his fellows, emerging fully from the nettles to strike at Umlo. The blade slices a burning furrow across his leg, but it's nothing too debilitating.
Devrin moves in to slash at the goblin but trips over his boot laces and nearly face plants into the thorns.
Reasoning that the entangling effect will keep the goblin out of his hair as he engages the greater threat, Kyran lets go of the goblin as he dodges out of the way of the grasping vines, charging Gogmurt with sword in hand.
Unfortunately, he seems to be trying to do too much in too little time, and his swing is badly telegraphed. He misses the goblin.
Having closed the distance Umlo pulls out his Dwarven war Axe and slices at the Goblin viciously "I'll gut you for that"
Fern drops her crossbow now that combat is joined, and scurries toward the goblin. She does her best to get into a flanking position, and conjures a deathly chill through her hands, ready to strike out given the chance.
Unfortunately for Umlo, his drawing of his axe provides an opening for Gogmurt to take another swipe at him, opening up and promptly cauterising a nasty wound on his arm. Umlo's return blow has considerably more force behind it, biting deeply into the goblin's shoulder.
Uttering a high-pitched shriek of pain, Gogmurt decides that the odds are against him with all these longshanks crowding in. He ducks quickly back into the nettles, the gap closing behind him as if it was never there.
"You leave, Longshanks!" his voice emerges from somewhere in the tangled mass, "You leave or die!"
Meanwhile, the clash of weapons dies out on the left, replaced by piping cries of triumph.
"Chuck him inna hole!" a voice proclaims.
"The hole! The hole!" others echo. The two goblins in sight seem to take heart from this, and square themselves up to fight, though they're not ready to charge the heavily armed longshanks on their own.
Those glancing about may note a decent-sized hole on the leftmost border of the clearing, from which the sound of surf echoes. It's a good bet this is the hole in question.
Umlo clutches at his new wound gasping, "Why that little trickster, that smarted, hiding behind a bush aint gonna save ye!". Umlo looks to the priest of Desna "Can ye patch these holes up, he got me better than I expected" states Umlo as he spits his beard out of his mouth. Umlo twists in discomfort and readjusts his armor to take some of the pressure away from his two wound sites.
Turning his concentration back to the battle at hand now that he's not stumbling about, Devrin moves quickly over to Ulmo and pats him on the back. "Of course let me take a look." he says administering a cure light wounds.
Fern will charge one of the closest goblins, and try to give it a fair slap across the face.
Startled by being charged by an unarmed gnome, the goblins take a few vital seconds to respond. Seconds which others might be able to use to intervene. Gogmurt seems to be biding his time for now. Certainly he hasn't stuck his head out of the nettles yet.
Kyran seizes the opportunity and moves after the same shocked goblin, swinging the pommel of his sword with force designed to stun.
Attack: 4+3-4=3
And misses.
The goblins are now giggling. Never a good sign. Deciding the longshanks aren't so tough, they go on the offensive. And miss completely themselves. The giggling cuts off.
Behind the two goblins, a small mob of comes into view (clearly the runners picked up reinforcements somewhere), four of them holding a limb each of the struggling Korpiklanni, who is shrieking bloody murder. They're not really moving all that quickly, but somebody should probably stop them before they reach the hole.
"Kyran, Devrin, Umlo! I'll keep these goblins busy, run past them! Go save Korpi! We need him in this fight, not in a pit!"
Umlo looks at the scene and smiles. He takes a deep breath and throws his beard over his shoulder, he puts his shield in front of him and bullrushes the group.
"UhhhArrrGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!
Bullrush.
Kyran, wearing an expression halfway between determination and desperation, charges the goblin holding Korpi's right arm, sword in hand. Figuring his recent bad luck might be a sign from Erastil that deadly force is warranted in this situation, he abandons all pretext of nonlethal engagement and slashes at the creature with the naked steel.
Umlo's efforts to send the goblins flying are less than successful, his charge merely carrying him into the centre of the mob as the goblins scatter to the sides. The goblins swiftly close in again, cutting at him gleefully with their crude weapons.
Kyran has more luck, cutting down one of the goblins holding Korpi and allowing the enraged goblin to kick one of the others in the face, causing him to release his grip. Though still held by two goblins, Korpi's situation is definitely improved.
Fern manages to fend off one goblin's attacks, only to step into the other's path, taking a stunning blow to the side of her head. Her vision clears after mere moments however, and the goblins are unable to follow up on their success.
Devrin, lagging behind the others somewhat, spins around at a sound behind him to find that Gogmurt has emerged from the nettles once more. The cleric manages to sidestep the goblin's rush with ease.