Kyran looks down at the cowering goblin. "You're not worth killing. Don't make yourself so while we're gone, and I'll consider letting you go free to warn the other tribes in the area. Try to escape or cause trouble, and I will let him,[he points at Umlo] her,[he points at Fern] or him[he indicates Korpi] decide what to do with you. If you're especially lucky, they may just throw you in the hole..." With that, he gives Umlo a knowing wink out of Gogmurt's line of sight and moves off in the direction the goblin indicated.
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Note that I feel compelled to add: Kyran's NOT going to consign a captive to a horrible fate, but he also realizes that fear is good at keeping goblins, who aren't known for their resolve, out of trouble. If Gogmurt does somehow make himself a pain, he'll get Umlo and Fern to help him decide what to do, but at that point, Gogmurt will likely be a combatant again and they'll just strike him down. Under no currently forseen circumstances will he tap Korpi's decision making abilities...
Umlo looks to Fern with genuine respect "Lass, I have to admit I respect the way you handle the greenskins Umlo flashes Fern a toothy smile
Fern winks at Umlo.
"So, Kyran? Back to town to hand this goblin in to the authorities? On what charges shall he be brought up on? Defending his home from us brutal murderers? Do we have enough information to place him as one of the attackers on Sandpoint? Do you think he'll tell the truth once we've handed him over? Either way, we are not prepared to storm the place on our own. We should get more guards and return later."
Kyran thinks for a moment and then replies to Fern with: "No, he's not a criminal, per se, unless he was part of the initial raid. He is, however, what I would consider a prisoner of war. We were attacked, this is a counterattack. That said, I think he's somewhat important. We could consider him an enemy officer. He's also helpfully provided us with the location of some of his own superiors. I say we strike while the proverbial iron is hot. If we can take the head off of this beast, it probably won't bite us again. We're not prepared to fight an entire nest of goblins alone, no, but we're more than scary enough to not have to. Goblin morale is nowhere near as solid as, say, hobgoblin or devilish morale is, knowledge you seem to already possess and have been exploiting to great effect."
"Well, if we charge in now, what are we going to do about this goblin? As soon as we get into a battle, you know he's going to be a liability."
"Well, if we charge in now, what are we going to do about this goblin? As soon as we get into a battle, you know he's going to be a liability."
"I say we tie him to a solid object and leave him here. We can always collect him on the way out. If we don't move now, we lose the element of surprise, and whoever is directing this rabble will be ready for us when we come back."
"I don't like it. Haven't you seen this goblin in action? The forest, the trees, and even the grass move for him to pass. He has them wrapped around his finger. If we leave him alone for a moment, he'll surely escape his bonds. Or, one of the skulking goblins will come and free him."
Fern takes a moment to point all around her.
"You'd have to be crazy to think that we're not being watched right now. With the commotion this guy's been raising, it's a wonder there's not a whole war party on our head right now. And that's because they are waiting for us to move."
"No. We're not going to execute a bound captive. We'd be no better than the goblins themselves if we did that." Kyran looks around. Is there anything sturdy Gogmurt could be lashed to?
"What exactly did you have in mind once we get in there? Are we going to bind and capture all the goblins? And Chief Ripnugget? And whoever else is assisting them? I hope you brought enough rope."
Fern senses Kyran's heavy heart and sighs.
"Let him go. Release him. I'll give him a ten second headstart, even. If being a captive is the only thing that's keeping him alive, then release his bonds."
Kyran crouches down grabs Gogmurt by the sides of the head and looks the goblin square in the eye, his features contorted with barely-restrained rage (only some of it is with Gogmurt, but he doesn't need to know that.). "I'm going to let you go. If you ever come back here, we will kill you. If you go and cause problems for other people, be they longshanks, stumpies, halflings, or anyone else, and we find out, and we will find out, we will find you and kill you. I am very good at finding hiding goblins. I am done with your excuses, and we are all done with your pleas. You get one chance to do this correctly and you do not get to stop for anything on the way out. Don't even try to convince me you can't survive in the wild. If you're looking for some idea of where to go, I suggest warning the other goblins in this area to clear out as well." With that, he hauls Gogmurt to his feet and marches him back to where the party entered. "Run, you vile little git. Run and tell all of the other little green skinned bastards in the Inner Sea that Sandpoint is off limits. Permanently. If we see any of you in the city limits again, we will slay you like wild beasts." Taking his knife from his belt, he cuts the goblin's bonds and gives him a very hard shove in the direction of the exit. "Now GO."
Fern has no intention of chasing the poor thing, but it doesn't stop her from counting;"One! Two! Three! Four!..."
Turning now to Kyran; "If this comes back to us, I hope you can see clearly then. Now. Let's shake this place up."
Fern has no intention of chasing the poor thing, but it doesn't stop her from counting;"One! Two! Three! Four!..."
Turning now to Kyran; "If this comes back to us, I hope you can see clearly then. Now. Let's shake this place up."
"He's been given every chance. If he comes back, I'll kill him myself if you or Umlo don't. I promised him as much."
Gogmurt, as it turns out, is gone by the count of three. No hesitation, no looking back, just gone at top speed. Fear of death clearly outweighs any residual loyalty he might feel towards Ripnugget or his fellows. With the troublesome goblin gone, the group are free to contemplate their next move.
A bit of cautious scouting reveals the bridge Gogmurt spoke of, a precarious-looking structure of rough rope and thick wooden planks, it sways in the wind some 80 feet above the surf below. The other end of the bridge is attached to a roundish, flat-topped island (Thistletop proper, presumably), atop which squats a single story stockade. Korpi looks out at the structure with an acquisitive gleam in his eye.
Alas, it seems the alarm has been raised, as watchtowers to the left and right of the stockade are manned by a pair of watchful goblins apiece. While they haven't spotted the group yet, it's unlikely they'd make it across the bridge without being noticed. On the other hand, no other goblins are visible outside the gates of the stockade.
8,14,11,24,16,6,22,24,15,8,19 and 16,13,7,2,7,2,19,19,8,14,18
"Sounds fair to me, Kyran."
Kyran, looking drained, rubs his face and sighs. "I don't think he'll be causing any more trouble any time soon or anywhere around here. I think the only fires he'll be setting will come from his tracks. He was running pretty fast when I left him." He looks at Fern. "But you have to understand something: I may be a warrior, but I'm not a murderer. There is a difference. I won't harm prisoners, and I won't tolerate others doing so.[He looks around at the others]Look, I like and trust all of you. But we need to be better than what we're fighting. Just because goblins will harm helpless victims doesn't mean we should. We came here to insure the safety of our hometown, not to match atrocity for atrocity." He pauses. "Didn't we?"
"I made it clear from the very beginning that I signed on with you guys to prevent the goblins from causing any more harm. I'm starting to see that we had different ideas in mind regarding what that meant. I will stick with you guys, but when push comes to shove, you must know that I am not here to parley, or hold their hands. You heard their singing. They would have set the whole town on fire, if we hadn't stopped them. They're not children. Capturing them, spanking them on the butt, and sending them on their way is not a solution that will last for very long."
Fern turns and points to the bridge and the goblins in the watchtower.
"Now, about this bridge. There are some guards posted on the watchtower. I need to know from you right now if you deem them as innocent."
Fern loads a bolt into her crossbow, sliding it into place with an audible click.
"I made it clear from the very beginning that I signed on with you guys to prevent the goblins from causing any more harm. I'm starting to see that we had different ideas in mind regarding what that meant. I will stick with you guys, but when push comes to shove, you must know that I am not here to parley, or hold their hands. You heard their singing. They would have set the whole town on fire, if we hadn't stopped them. They're not children. Capturing them, spanking them on the butt, and sending them on their way is not a solution that will last for very long."
Fern turns and points to the bridge and the goblins in the watchtower.
"Now, about this bridge. There are some guards posted on the watchtower. I need to know from you right now if you deem them as innocent."
Fern loads a bolt into her crossbow, sliding it into place with an audible click.
Kyran nocks an arrow, turns toward the towers, and pulls back his bowstring. "No, I do not. These are enemy combatants and we are within our rights to use deadly force. Granting quarter and accepting surrender are necessary, avoiding all violence is neither necessary nor smart. Do you want the one on the left, or the right?"
Devrin will spend his second channel divinity to boost Ulmo and himself. "Back." He says after returning from scouting. "We taking that place?" he says looking out over the rope bridge towards Thisletop.
"Thanks" Umlo states smiling at the servant of Desna. "I am alright with goining in there, but we may have some issues, we do have the element of surprise and we have the tacticla knowledge of the layout and that our targets are humans....we best be careful"
When Kyran gives the order, Fern will launch a bolt at one of the goblins. It goes wide, however.
Kyran lines up a shot on one of the sentries. "Now." And with that, he lets fly.
Umlo takes a move action to set himself up so he can watch the bridge and still have some cover. Umlo takes out a throwing axe and readies an action to hurl it at any goblin that runs towards them and enters throw range.
Devrin prepares beside Ulmo, lacking any real long range support. Should a goblin approach their position he throws his starknife at it.
As it turns out, Kyran is the only one who scores a hit on a goblin, the others being well out of range or, in Fern's case, missing. Kyran's target falls over backwards from the impact of the arrow, and doesn't seem in the least bit inclined to stick his head back up again. The other goblins let out a chorus of excited shrieks about longshanks, well and truly raising the alarm.
Korpi, clearly impatient with the idea of standing back and firing arrows, charges off across the bridge, setting it to jouncing and swaying madly. He reaches the far side and starts yelling for the goblins to come down and fight him.
Kyran calmly nocks another arrow and waits for a target to present itself. (Holding an action this round)
Fern reloads her crossbow, and takes another shot at any goblin she can see.
Devrin gets ready to rescue Korpi should bad things happen at the gate. He prefers not to jump out into the open at the moment, but assaulting a stronghold is not something he has any experience with. He looks doubtfully at Kyran, hoping his friend's tactics are sound.
Almost as one, the remaining goblins pop up to hurl javelins at Korpi. One takes a crossbow bolt in the arm courtesy of Fern, and the other two miss by a wide margin. Seeing that nobody currently visible wants to come out and fight him, Korpi kicks in the front door, revealing several armed goblins beyond.
"Do we follow?", Fern asks, almost as an afterthought, as she moves toward the bridge.
"Lets get in there!" says Devrin in hurried response as he charges across the rickety bridge after Korpi.
Umlo's stuby legs fly fast to his surprise to stand fast by his, he cannot even believe that he thinks the thought....to stand by fast to protect his greenskined companion...a GOBLIN! fury and rage fill Umlo and he is not sure if it is because he is going to battle, or because he has a goblin as a companion.....
Double move to get to Korpi's side. War axe and Sheild out.
Kyran mutters something unintelligible even to him under his breath (Rackum Frackum), stows his bow, and switches to his sword & shield, then follows Umlo.
The bridge, rickety to begin with, can't quite take the extra weight of three longshanks crossing it. Two of the support ropes on the far side give way, resulting in a sickening lurch downwards by the bridge. There are perhaps a couple of seconds' worth of grace period for people to react before the remaining ropes part under the strain.
Fern dashes across the rest of the bridge, hurling herself with faith toward solid ground.
Kyran, realizing his weight is the proverbial straw breaking the camel's back, launches himself back the way he came.
Reflex save: 20! (About friggin' time!)
Oh oh!
Umlo realising his stubby legs cannot get him saftly to either end of the bridge stows his weapon and sheild and tangles himself into the rope with his arms and legs and braces himself for the eventual pendulumn slam that the bridge will take as it swings hard to the end Kyran has jumped to with a loud Yell Umlo exclaims Kyran, Brace the rope and don't drop me! Umlo hangs on for dear life!
Assuming it is at all feasible to do so, as soon as Kyran clears the bridge, he throws whatever he's go in his hands at the time (sword, shield, bow, etc.) "inland" or away from the bridge. (Yes, not drop, throw; he doesn't want to be tripping. He's not aiming at all, just chucking the stuff in a general direction; think of it as dropping with feeling, I guess) then whips around to help anyone within reach who is dangling from the bridge. (Probably just Umlo, I'm thinking) His first instinct will be to brace his feet against whatever supports the ropes were tied to, grab the ropes, and pull (In other words, do exactly what Umlo is asking him to do). If that seems to be ineffectual, he'll go fishing for the rope in his pack if there's time. If he does that, Umlo should be fine. He's got 50 feet of hempen rope, minus, say, 5 feet used to tie Gogmurt up, so he's got 45 feet to toss to the dwarf and then rig a makeshift pulley off the bridge supports with.
Devrin tries to make it the rest of the way, grabbing Fern if he needs to. Or atleast that would be his intention if he didn't start screaming like a girl and fall straight down.
Kyran's leap backwards puts him clear of the bridge, albeit by a narrow margin. The decreased weight on the bridge buys the others valuable seconds, but the damage has already been done.
Fern uses that time to hurl herself at the far end of the bridge, her arms wrapping around one of the wooden supports. Although dangling over the edge, she should be able to pull herself up, though the goblins might have something to say about that. Umlo manages to wrap his arms into the ropes of the bridge, riding it down and clinging on as it hits the cliff face with a resounding crash. With Kyran's aid, clambering back up ought to be easy enough.
Devrin is less fortunate. His footing goes out from under him a few scant strides from safety, leaving him to plummet a long, long way down into the water below. He enters the water with a large splash, continuing down until he strikes the bottom with an impact that sends him spiraling into blackness.
Korpi, for his part, is standing over the body of one of the defenders, harranguing the rest, "You go tell Ripnugget Korpiklanni Horsekiller's here for him! I dance on his head!" He doesn't seem aware of the disaster on the bridge, his back being to the scene.
Umlo starts to climb down
Upon seeing his friend hit the water and not come back up again, Kyran shouts down to Umlo. "Can you see Devrin from where you are?"