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.
Kyran drops his shield, pulls his handaxe with his off-hand, and hands it to Korpi. (I figure that's a round's worth of actions)
Korpiklanni! Now's your chance!
Devrin spins to attack Grogmurt as the goblin shaman pokes out of the brush attacking him. His swing is accurate but only just catches the goblin with a scratch.
Fern's target gives an involuntary yelp and releases Korpi, shivering madly for several moments before getting himself marginally under control. Gogmurt receives a glancing blow but is undeterred, screeching, "You no kill us, Longshanks! We kill you first! Send you to feed the Maw!"
Devrin continues to attack Grogmurt, but is completely unsuccessful this time around.
Still arming Korpi.
Fern takes another swing at one of the goblins in front of her, infusing them with a deep chill.
"Succumb to an icy death!"
Now covered in frost, Fern's target lets out a pained shriek. You can practically see the extremities blackening with frostbite before the eyes. Alas, cold and frostbitten or not, the creature still moves to attack - only to let out another shriek as it finds that its hand is stuck to its weapon. It grabs the blade in order to tear it loose... And now has both hands stuck to its dogslicer. Cue further frustrated howls of pain. Its companion, meanwhile, is reduced to giggles at the poor creature's predicament. No empathy whatsoever.
Umlo, stuck in the middle of the mob, lashes out at the goblins surrounding him, cutting one down in a spray of blood. Korpi snatches the weapon from Kyran's hand and lays into his captor, prompting the goblin to release him and leap back frantically.
Devrin has less luck, taking a searing cut to his weapon arm as he overextends. Gogmurt chortles with glee at his adversary's discomfort.
The mob is having a great deal of difficulty hurting Umlo, a certain reluctance to get within axe reach of him contributing to some rather half-hearted attacks which are easily turned aside.
Kyran, having armed Korpi, switches to a two-handed grip on his longsword and moves to engage one of the goblins surrounding Umlo from a flanking position.
Attack roll: 19(critical threat!)+5=24
Confirmation roll: 4+5=9 (Never Mind)
Damage: 1d8+3=8
Fern strikes another blow against the horrible thing. "You will fall now!"
Devrin grunts in pain and tries to retaliate, but his swing is less than accurate.
The unfortunate goblin in front of Fern does not, in fact, fall. Instead, he ices up completely, frozen in place like a malevolent statue. Deciding that maybe this isn't funny anymore, his fellow attempts to strike back, his swing going wide of the dodging gnome.
Umlo has less luck this time around, unable to get in a decent swing against the goblins. Of course, their focus on the dwarf means they're rather vulnerable to Kyran, who cuts one of the distracted creatures down with ease. Korpi, meanwhile, seizes his initial tormenter, shrieking, "You want to throw me in hole? I throw you inna hole!"
"Not so tough without ya mates, are ya, Longshanks?" Gogmurt taunts Devrin, flourishing his blade a tad too theatrically, giving him ample opportunity to jump back out of reach. The duel seems to be a stalemate for now.
Galvanised by the dwarf's failure to hurt them, the goblins press in, two of them scoring blows against Umlo. He shrugs off these minor irritations, determined to bring the cursed creatures down.
Kyran, sword flashing, casually moves on to the next distracted goblin.
Catching Grogmurt off guard, Devrin slides his starknife into the little annoying goblin.
Fern strikes the other goblin solidly in the chest, channelling her icy hate deep into it.
Fern strikes down the next goblin in line, as does Umlo. Kyran has a bit less luck, though his target is badly wounded. Korpi, meanwhile, attempts to haul his own captive goblin over to the hole, but the desperate creature breaks free and flees screaming.
Devrin and Gogmurt strike each other at almost the same moment, but Devrin definitely comes off worse from the exchange, a searing cut dropping him to his knees.
With two more of their number down and one running, the morale of the remaining goblins cracks. No longer outnumbering their opponents, and having failed to significantly harm them, the remaining three scatter, one going sprawling from an axe blow to the back from Umlo.
"Cowards!" Gogmurt rails, "You no fit to be Thistletops! I feed you to the Hole Beast myself!"
Kyran whips around and charges Gogmurt, but in his haste to interpose himself between his new foe and his old friend, comes up short on his attack.
As his sword whistles over Gogmurt's head, he shouts to Devrin. "Time to take some of that power you so generously share for yourself, old friend!"
Hoping to distract the flame-wielding goblin long enough for Devrin to act unhindered, Fern fills the mind of the Goblin with all the terror she can muster.
Devrin takes his friend's advice in stride and steps back from Grogmurt to administer some of Desna's divine blessing upon himself.
Gogmurt grins at the prospect of another one-on-one fight, but his expression is rapidly overtaken by one of fear, even as others close in on him, and he is reduced to frantically fending off attacks from Kyran, Korpi and - oh dear. Umlo's angry.
The dwarf's axe carves into Gogmurt's side in a spray of blood, as he finally gets to grips with the tricky little pest. Now thoroughly unnerved (not to mention severely wounded), Gogmurt scrabbles frantically backwards, the nettles opening to let him pass and closing behind him.
"This not over, Longshanks! Chief Ripnugget fix you good!" he shouts in parting. But it's easy to tell that he's no longer at all convinced of the goblins' ultimate triumph.
Those glancing about may note that the writhing nettles to the north-east which tried to entangle Kyran are subsiding, leaving the way clear. If they hurry, perhaps they can cut Gogmurt off before he summons still more reinforcements. Then again, it may already be too late. That other goblin who was entangled by the nettles seems to have vanished in the confusion.
Kyran grabs his shield off the ground and moves off to intercept Gogmurt.
Fern snatches up her crossbow and follows Kyran.
With none of the goblins alive in the vicinity, Devrin takes a moment to channel Desna's blessing for all his companions.
Kyran leads the rush, trailed by the others. His path takes him past the still snarling and straining goblin dogs an on to the next fork in the tunnels. To the north, a rickety rope bridge leads out across open water to a large, rocky outcropping of some kind. He has little time to take in the details though, as to the south is Gogmurt, skidding to a stop at the sight of a longshanks in his path.
"I gives! I gives!" he wails piteously as still other longshanks come into view, "No kill!" The shift from maniacal defiance to utter despair seems to be rather fast for goblins. Of course, the shift back could be equally fast.
Korpi, for his part, seems to have a great deal of rage stored up, "No kill?!" he yells, "You Thistletops throw me out of tribe! Leave me to Longshanks to kill! Why I no kill you?"
"We're here, Korpi. Here's your chance. Let him have it."
Devrin rushes to keep up with his companions but stops with Fern as Korpi advances on Grogmurt. Tempted to throw his starknife, Devrin holds back for now.
Kyran puts himself between Korpi and Gogmurt and makes very sudden, very intense (very shocked!) eye contact with Fern. "WHAT?!" Have you no sense of honor?" He looks back at Gogmurt. "Throw your weapons over there [he points to an unoccupied corner]. You've surrendered, I'm not going to harm you unless you restart the hostilities."
Korpi reluctantly subsides, remembering that talk of not killing surrendered goblins. He settles for making faces at Gogmurt, moving on to the odd hanging pantomime whilst Kyran's back is turned.
Gogmurt, for his part, reluctantly divests himself of his weapons. That nasty burning sword winks out of existence. He is, however, keeping his distance and looks ready to dive back into the foliage at a moment's notice.
"'S all stupid Longshanks' fault," he says bitterly, "Not you Longshanks," he hastens to add, "Other Longshanks. Movin' inta Thistletop, butterin' up Chief Ripnugget... Their fault, all of it! None of Gogmurt's doing."
"Other Longshanks? Who's been in to butter up the Thisletop?" Asks Devrin as he catches up on the conversation.
Relieved that the slaying of helpless foes will not soon commence, Kyran mentally sighs with relief and sets about thoroughly restraining Gogmurt. Take 20 on a survival check to tie Gogmurt up GOOD, and he'll enlist Umlo's aid if he's willing. In this latter case, allowing Umlo to tie Gogmurt up and using the aid another action to ratchet the escape DC up past what Gogmurt can (hopefully) actually escape from.
Gogmurt might have balked at the tying up part, but Kyran makes it in close before he quite realises what's going on.
"Other Longshanks! Four of 'em! They say they wake up old god, then burn Longshanks' town. Then Ripnugget be king of everything. I tell him Longshanks send 'venturers to kill us all, but he no listen! Longshanks cloud his mind!"
Gogmurt seems quite sincere in this. Then again, any goblin trying to shift the blame to someone else sounds sincere.
"Then why not just let us into Thistletop to remove the longshanks and your problem would be solved?" poses Devrin, though his logic may be above the goblin.
Kyran, having secured his prisoner, searches him for anything he might use to escape. Thoroughly. (Taking 20 again)
Umlo grunts at the thought of letting this goblin live, but is impressed with the worshiper of Desna's ability to get important information about the real threat behind this attack. Umlo grunts "Old Gods, that sounds lovely" Umlo spits at the ground.
"You do that? You no kill other goblins? 'Cept maybe Ligrit. He sneaking more'n his share of foods." Despite being tied up, Gogmurt's situation is looking up. Well, maybe not. It's probably that short attention span coming into play again.
Thanks to Kyran's efforts, the goblin is disarmed of a variety of sharp implements. He's also thoroughly trussed up, and unlikely to be going anywhere anytime soon.
Umlo asks the captive goblin, "Could you draw us a map of this place and list what the rooms are, that way we can avoid hurting any of the goblins... The thought of letting the greenskins live makes Umlo vomit a bit in his mouth.
"Map?!" Gogmurt is no longer in anything like a good mood, writhing against his restraining ropes, "Tricksy Longshanks! You try an' steal Gogmurt's soul! You say you help! I no fool! You no trick me so easy!"
"I think I've had enough of this. This goblin is trouble. I say we shut him up. Permanently."
Fern's eyes flash with a menace, and a deathly chill begins to emanate from her hands.
"Any objections?"
Kyran steps in front of Gogmurt and locks eyes with Fern. "Yes. One. Mine. If you want to harm a disarmed and restrained prisoner, you'll be going through me first.[He takes a step towards the gnome to emphasize this point.] I have no problem striking down enemies in honorable combat, but it is another thing entirely to summarily execute a surrendered captive without trial. If he needs to die, I'm sure the proper authorities will be more than capable of handling his execution.[He pauses, looks off to the side and then looks back at Fern] But if you really must kill him now, there's only a farmer with his father's sword standing in your way. I leave it to you." Kyran's eyes bore into Fern as he waits for her move.
As a side note, Kyran has Improved Unarmed Strike and may feint with his sword but won't use deadly force on Fern, even if she comes at him with full magical force.
"I'll attribute your short-sightedness to your honour, and not your ignorance. Remember that this creature fought you just moments ago with a blade made of flames, and flames alone. He conjured them out of thin air, and seared Umlo's flesh. He did it once, he can do it again. Do you forget his tricks so soon too, Dwarf? He may be unarmed, but that carries little weight for his magic runs deep."
Kyran's face softens ever so slightly. "He's restrained, Fern! Even I know those with the gift of magic have to be free to move to conjure it forth.[He gestures over at Devrin]I have a childhood friend who is a priest, Fern. i have some experience with this..."
Fern sighs, and the icy chill surrounding her fades.
"I'm sorry. Of course you know that. It's just....he...almost killed you all. Back there. Goblins lie. Goblins trick. Goblins kill. And I don't want this one to harm anything or anyone else. Ever."
Umlo spits on the ground at the goblins feet. "I'd rather we just run him through and be done with it, if he aint gonna help us no more, than his usefulness has run its course, to me he is just another vermin to be extinguished". Umlo hopes this intimidation tactic will make the goblin talk more. He turns to Fern "Aye I remember what this little snot is capable of, my flesh is still warm". Looking to the paladin with a sly wink "Kyran, if we could just cut both his hands off and have Dervin heal him, we aint have ta worry about no more arcane fire or witchcraft work from him". Pulling his axe out he growls "Lets just be done with him
"I talk! I talk!" Gogmurt says frantically, "No maps! Cross bridge and go into Thistletop. Take stairs down. That where you find Longshanks. Ripnugget in Great Hall, up top."
"That where we go," Korpi says, "I kill Ripnugget for what he does. Then I be king of Thistletop and alla goblins."