Despite his resolve and the priest’s prayers, Feldard’s wounds were telling on the dwarf. He knew they needed to end this melee soon or his strength would fail him before long. With that in mind, the dwarf redoubled his efforts – going for the leader. With that one down, the others just might lose morale enough and flee rather than stand fight.
On the other side of the log bridge, Ludo advanced into the room sword ready. “I think we have the lair that Vlaak used,” he murmured to himself. He searched for traps and secret doors, if this room belonged to Vlaak or to the man in the yellow robes, he anticipated they would want to protect their secrets from prying eyes.
Satisfied the room held no immediate danger, he searched for anything that might lead to where the man in the yellow robes and his cohorts had gone. “Hasan, call the others and try and get them in here, this room will make a useful place to make a stand, the tunnel will make it difficult for the Gobbos to use their numerical advantage against us. I will check the other door to see what lies beyond.”
Hasan used his ventriloquism again to shout to his companions in the other room, in dwarvish and in elvish, “Fall back, fall back, we can end it in here!” He then drew his bow and waited, covering the thief all the while.
The dwarf had other plans. With a near berserk bellow, Feldard threw himself at the Wolfskull leader, axe swinging down in a beautiful arc aimed for the crook of the goblins neck where shoulder and neck met – normally well protected by armour, but oddly only covered by the marginal protection of a fur cloak on this goblin leader. Feldard planned to use the advantage.
Stephan checked his fighting retreat seeing that the clan was greatly reduced. While Feldard barreled into the goblin leader with his thirsty axe, Stephan took on the lesser rabble. They were still outnumbered but it was clear the goblin resolve was waning.
Maruc filled the gap between the woodsman and the dwarf as they sprang with renew’d vigor at the foe. They fought as if sensing some turn in the battle. The priest was not in tune with the ebb and flow but fought as he did as always, with faith. Red shot goblin eyes and crude steel flashed in front of him and a juddering blow splintered fine enamelwork from his shield. Maruc idly wondered who’d he get the fix it when this was over. his heart was beating fast and the swing of the chainflail was beginning to tell on his fatigued shoulders. He glanced left to see Feldard engaged in a vicious battle with the clan leader. He thought about suggesting that Feldard capture him for information, but with the press of the remaining goblins he would prove difficult to convince. If he was on his own however….
Maruc elbowed his way into the press and set about the place with purpose. Goblin blood sprayed from his flail.
Meanwhile, Miklos ducked back from the fray. He peered into the darkness beyond the bridge trap. Ludo had scouted ahead and seemed in no immediate danger. Both he and Hasan were keen to withdraw into the new chamber. But they didn’t know Feldard like Miklos knew him. The only time Miklos had seen fear cross those grizzled features were in the face of a terrible red dragon. The idea of even withdrawing from goblins would be alien to him.
“Let your arrows fly Prince Hasan, Master Feldard will never withdraw!”
Miklos edged his way around the press at the door. Unconscious goblins were complicating the footing but the sturdy dwarf hacked and slashed with his axe as assuredly as the StoneLord himself. Miklos jumped as something landed at his feet.
The decapitated head of the goblin king stared at him, its dead eyes glared in accusation. Nice, thought the mage.
Seeing the goblin leader fall, Stephan bellowed in goblinese, “Boss is dead! Run!”. Almost on cue, it seemed when he was able to catch a glance of the dwarf’s progress, the head of the goblin leader, by the action of a blindingly fast dwarf-wielded axe, was propelled through the dank air and deposited among the now headless leader’s ranks. In a collective wave of shock, the goblins inhaled in unison as the severed head made its final twitches. Stephan took advantage of the pause to finish off one of the nonplussed — which had just gave him a nasty cut — sending it falling, lifeless, next to the oozing head.
“Ayyyyyygh!” The goblins squealed in terror, falling over themselves to make a hasty exit.
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7:49pm, Soladain, the 17th of Thaumont, 1001AC
Heavy clouds, windy
Feldard -4hp
Stephan -3hp
Maruc -2hp
Maruc: 10xp+120xp
Miklos: 10xp+120xp
Feldard: 10xp+10xp+10xp+120xp
Hasan: 10xp+5xp+120xp
Stephan: 10xp+10xp+120xp
Ludo: 10xp+10xp+120xp
TOTAL:
Maruc: 20,645/24000
Miklos: 20,720/40000
Feldard: 20,815/34000
Hasan: 19,915/32000
Stephan: 19,750/32000
Ludo: 19,290/20,000
Ludo doesn’t hear anything from the other side of the door, which is locked.
(Sweet! Thanks for going along with the posts there DM.. I bet if I had to roll for that called shot.. I would’ve botched and ended up taking off Feldards own leg! LMAO)
The fountain of blood from the headless goblin, before it toppled, sprayed the battle-worn dwarf. There was just enough sense in him NOT to charge after the fleeing goblins. He wiped the spray from his face with his hand as best he could and turned to look over how the rest of the party fared.
“Did I hear Hasan call to us? Did they get the door open?” Feldard asked the mage.
haha, well the rolls don’t always go exactly the way you all describe in your posts, but if the end result is roughly the same, then I say, why ruin the fun!
After checking the door for traps Ludo quietly goes about his business of gaining entry. Again the lock mechanism seemed quite ordinary and not sophisticated. This will not take long, his work only being hampered by the sounds of combat in the background. He paused when he heard Stephen’s voice yelling that the Goblin boss was dead. ‘Good’ he though to himself, they should break now, he wondered if the boss was ‘Vlak’, most likely not, he sensed that ‘Vlak’ would not go down easy.
Setting back to work, he inserted his pick and set to work to align the tumblers, hearing them falling into place one by one. This was much easier to do this time without the distraction of a mob of Goblins breathing down his neck. He sighed with relief when he heard the click of the last tumbler falling into place. Ludo picked up his sword and indicated for Hasan to cover him while he pushed the door open as silently as he could using the wall to keep as much of his body covered as possible. Ludo looked around the edge of the wall and started to search for traps. He was wary, there had to be something more, this was almost too easy.
Hasan’s lips and nose twisted to one side of his face, lost in thought as he watched Ludo practice his craft. He nodded as the thin young man pulled the door free. “They will follow,” the elf said. “Lead on.”
Stephan hurried down the tunnel to join the others filtering through the door. He quieted his steps and general din as he approached, realizing he was barreling noisily into a situation that demanded a greater degree of silence. The hushed, exploratory air established by Ludo and Hasan served to focus the fighter’s eyes and ears. He was on full alert while entering the new room.
Miklos stepped over the the head. The scattering goblins were not likely to return but it was pointless letting these few unconcious foe awake at their backs. In reply to the dwarf he said “Ludo has gained entry to the room beyond. You have fought bravely my friend thank you. Sadly my sleep incantation presents us yet again with an ugly choice. We have to slay these foul creatures lest they surprise us whilst our backs are turned. Yet a more unpleasant task is searching the body of the Goblin King for clues as to our onward journey and the mysterious Xitaga.” the mage bent over the corpse with distaste. Best get this over as soon as possible.
(DM: Miklos will search the corpse of the chief of the Wolfskulls for anything that will aid the party.)
He tried to cut out the sound of twisting gristle. Feldard was nothing if not efficient.
Maruc grinned. Goblin blood spatters trickled down the garb of his friends, it would be comical if it wasn’t so macarbre. He swiftly scanned the injurys picked up during the fight, both Stephan and Feldard needed a rest but ludo had already opened the last door of the goblin nest so there was little opportunity for healing. It would take hours the beseach for further aid anyway. Time they could little afford to take here with goblin roamers abroad. He shrugged at the straps of his armour, funny, he thought he never remembered taking it off last night to sleep.
He followed the others stealing himself for the next nasty surprise.
Feldard nodded at the reminder from the mage and set to work, finishing off the downed goblins. The mercenary in him had him quickly checking the bodies for anything useful.
When that was complete, the weary dwarf padded and bounded those wounds he could get to. The voracious fish in the stream had done quite a number to him, leaving pained wounds in places that he wouldn’t have thought possible.
Seeing the others, already moving onward, Feldard motioned the mage forward , whilehe took up rearguard once more. He didn’t look happy about having to cross the log tunnel once again, in fact, if truth be told Feldard would rather face down a horde of goblins alone, than chance falling into the stream below again; but he strode on following the mage regardless of his … apprehension.