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[Lazybones]

Chapter 36


Jaron glanced back to see Devrem surging forward toward the pit, to help Mara. The pit was only ten feet deep, but it was full of rats, which were swarming over the dazed fighter, snapping and biting at every exposed bit of skin that they could get to. Mara snarled a curse as she tore a rat off her neck, and staggered to her feet.

But those up above had their own problems, as the two snipers reappeared, their weapons loaded and ready to fire. Jaron had his shot ready and fired first, but his arrow hit the wall and caromed wild, narrowly missing the goblin sharpshooter. The goblin returned fire, but Jaron shifted into the cover of the pillar, and the shot missed him by a wide margin. The other goblin shot Devrem, hitting him in the leg, but the cleric merely yanked out the bolt and dove down at the pit’s edge, thrusting a hand down to help Mara out. As soon as the goblins had fired again they slipped back behind cover again to reload. Even as they vanished from view Beetle stuck his head around the corner, and seeing the pair gone he darted down the hallway toward their positions. Jaron opened his mouth to shout a warning, but held his tongue; that would only result in warning the goblins, and he had to trust that his cousin could handle himself against two foes.

Something flashed by Jaron, and he turned to see Devrem stagger as a javelin stabbed into his side. Grimacing against the pain, the cleric let out a growl and pulled Mara up to where she could grab hold of the lip of the pit. The cleric fell back once she was clear, and pulled the missile out of his side.

Jaron spun to see that the source of the attack was another goblin warrior, who’d emerged out of another passage that exited on the left side of the room. The halfling reached for another arrow even as the goblin seized another javelin, but Elevaren beat both of them to the punch. The warlock’s eldritch blast hit the goblin square in the face with a sizzling hiss of fey magic. The goblin screamed and staggered back, and then turned to flee, vanishing down the passage before Jaron could get a clear shot at him.

“I’m going to help Beetle!” he shouted at his companions, emerging from cover to rush after his cousin.

The goblin sharpshooters emerged from behind the passage corners to take their next shot to find an enemy much closer than they’d expected. The first screamed as Beetle sliced his dagger across his hands, and he nearly dropped his crossbow as the bolt was discharged harmlessly into the floor. His companion lined up a shot at Beetle’s back, but the halfling twisted nimbly aside, and the goblin’s shot nearly hit his ally before it bounced harmlessly off the wall. The goblin bit off a curse and drew his sword, but before he could move to flank the halfling he had to dart back as another arrow from Jaron narrowly missed him.

Beetle’s foe recovered quickly, drawing his own sword. His first stroke caught the halfling rogue’s arm near the shoulder, but again Beetle slipped away, turning what would have been a nasty cut into a mere scratch. Beetle spun and lunged in again, and the goblin only barely avoided the thrust of his dagger. The two began an elaborate dance, the halfling’s superior speed partially countered by the longer blade of the goblin warrior.

The sharpshooter’s companion did not get a chance to come to his aid, as Jaron engaged him in close combat. Jaron was a decent fighter, but the goblin was clearly a veteran, meeting his first few swings with expert counters. Their small blades clashed several times without resolution, but while the goblin had a slight edge, Jaron had friends in a position to help.

The goblins realized this too late, and tried to break away even as Mara and Devrem rushed down the passageway toward the melee. Jaron got a good hit in as his foe retreated, and then the goblin was struck by an eldritch blast from Elevaren as it ran toward a door in the east wall. Beetle’s foe never even got that far; as he started to run the halfling leapt onto him, driving the goblin to the ground even as he slammed his dagger into his body once, twice, and finally a last time that left it limp and bleeding. Mara intercepted the other goblin even as he grabbed the handle of the door, blocking the portal with her body as she drove the goblin back. The goblin tried to run past her back down the passageway, but he was blocked by Devrem, who put him down with a solid smack from his staff.

“You should have tried to capture him,” Mara said, as they quickly checked the bodies. “We might have been able to interrogate him.”

“There is no time for that now,” the cleric replied. “One of them got away, and will likely be back any moment with reinforcements.”

“Then we’d better be ready for them,” Mara said, following the cleric along with the others as they made their way back to the entrance foyer. The light of the torches revealed that the passage forked to the right after a short distance; continuing straight where the goblin had fled, it culminated in a set of wooden doors about forty feet distant. “Here, or at the doors?” Mara asked. “The doors would give us a defensible chokepoint.”

“But if someone came through one of the other passages, we could be trapped,” Jaron pointed out.

“We can use the corners here for cover,” Devrem said, invoking a healing word that eased the pain of Mara’s wounds. Seeing the blood running down Jaron’s arm, he offered to do the same for him, but the halfling ranger shook his head, taking a rag and wrapping it around his arm to stop the bleeding.

He looked around for Beetle and saw him standing at the edge of the pit. “Come away from there, Beetle,” he said, as he took up his bow and readied an arrow.

They did not have to wait long.