Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Tales of the Legacy - Concluded
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Delemental" data-source="post: 1713605" data-attributes="member: 5203"><p>It took the group several minutes to collect themselves, burning away the last remnants of the <em>web </em> spell and finishing off the last dying kobolds. Xu returned to the party, her hands stained with goblin blood. The others could plainly see how badly hurt she was, and turned to Kavan. The elven priest shook his head sadly.</p><p></p><p> “My strength has almost entirely been depleted from this battle. I have only one minor orison left to me today.”</p><p></p><p> “I have the same problem,” said Ghurka. “Healing does not come as easily to me as it does to Kavan, and what little ability I had has already been used.”</p><p></p><p> “No problem,” said Kyle. He pulled a potion vial out of his belt and handed it to Xu. “This should help.”</p><p></p><p> Xu accepted the potion and drank it. It took another dose from Osborn’s supply before Xu’s injuries were healed enough to continue on. Others busied themselves with cleaning their weapons or binding minor cuts. Ghurka gleefully went about piling up kobold bodies and burning them. Kyle began gathering up the kobold’s equipment and tossing it into the single meditation cell near the stairway.</p><p></p><p> “What’s the point?” Arrie asked him. “That stuff isn’t really worth enough to bother with.”</p><p></p><p> “Not to us,” said Kyle. “But it occurs to me that even if we succeed in clearing this mine, it’ll still take a while for those townsfolk up there to get things going again, especially since they’ve lost so many. I figure they can sell some of this stuff off to bring in some money for food and supplies.”</p><p></p><p> Arrie nodded. “Or keep the weapons to use for their own defense. You have a good point.”</p><p></p><p> The party proceeded to explore the remainder of the second level. They found the bolt-hole that the mysterious kobold sorcerer had used to escape, and blocked it off using a barrel of foul-smelling spirits that Lanara identified as Thudrud. Ghurka desperately wanted to light the barrel and try to smoke out the kobold, but the rest of the party convinced him not to. Kyle ended up using a smokestick to try rooting out the kobold, but when nothing happened, the party assumed the sorcerer had escaped to the surface, and just plugged the hole again to keep it from sneaking up behind them. A quick count of the sleeping mats in the barracks told them that at most, only one or two kobolds had evaded them.</p><p></p><p> In the chambers reserved for the kobold’s leader, they found a stack of twenty silver ingots under a pile of rags, as well as two unmarked vials. Kyle attempted to determine what they were, but without proper alchemical equipment he didn’t get far. The party agreed to donate a few of the ingots to the town to help them recover.</p><p></p><p> In another side chamber they found a shrine, which Kavan said was dedicated to Qin-Chu, the demigod of lies and deception. After a brief debate, the party decided that the picks and shovels of the miners would best deal with this evil god’s shrine once they’d finished their job. Autumn seemed disappointed that she couldn’t personally tear it down, but understood that her efforts were better placed elsewhere.</p><p></p><p> They proceeded down the hallway from which the failed goblin ambush had come, with Xu carefully gathering the net the kobolds had set up. They easily found the door through which the goblins had come, and inside a small room they found two things of interest; a set of stairs going down, and a lone goblin corpse, lying in the middle of the floor. There were no signs of injury on the goblin, but one hand was stretched out rigidly.</p><p></p><p> Ghurka went to examine the goblin, and to his surprise found that it was still alive, but apparently unable to move. Kavan noted a circular black patch of the palm of the goblin’s outstretched hand. Lanara and Osborn, who were the only ones who could speak the goblin tongue, tried to get information from the goblin using a simple method of ‘one blink for yes, two blinks for no’. However, after a few minutes it became clear that this was not a prize example of goblinoid intellect. All the rogue and bard were able to glean was that there were more goblins downstairs, and that the item that had poisoned him was in the same room. A quick check revealed that the doorknob for the room was coated with a contact poison, placed by the kobolds to prevent goblin raids. This particular goblin had apparently been the sacrificial lamb.</p><p></p><p> The group debated briefly over what to do with the goblin. “We could burn it,” offered Ghurka.</p><p></p><p> Autumn’s stare informed the group that she did not approve of that idea, evil creature or no. “Well, we could tie it up and take it back to town later,” said Lanara. “Let the townsfolk do what they want. Give it a trial, or whatever.”</p><p></p><p> “Trial?” said Kyle incredulously. “Let me tell you, I know exactly what they’ll do with this goblin. They’ll use what they call ‘frontier justice’. Namely, they’ll just cut its throat as soon as they get the chance.”</p><p></p><p> “Oh, well, then if that’s the case…” Ghurka pulled out a dagger, and before anyone could stop him, he opened the goblin’s throat from ear to ear. It kicked for only a few seconds before going still. Then, while everyone was still trying to figure out what had just happened, Ghurka proceeded to saw off the head entirely and shove it onto the doorknob of the room. Everyone gaped at the druid.</p><p></p><p> “What?” he asked, wiping blood off his dagger. “It’ll keep us from accidentally touching the poison on the knob later.”</p><p></p><p> “Ghurka,” said Lanara after a moment, “one of these days I’ll have to explain to you what a handkerchief is for.”</p><p></p><p> The students decided to continue on down to the goblin’s level before things became heated. Osborn proceeded down the stairs carefully, and stopped at a wooden door. Listening at the door, the hin indicated that he heard nothing.</p><p></p><p> The group crept slowly through the door. At first it seemed to open into a long hallway of sorts, but the echoes of their footsteps indicated that it was a much larger room than it appeared in the darkness. They realized that the wall to their left was actually a pile of rubble that went from floor to ceiling, blocking off their view of most of the room. The rubble seemed to end about forty feet ahead of them. Osborn and Rupert took the lead, watching for signs of goblins.</p><p></p><p> Just as they reached the end of the rubble, there was a loud rumble, and a pile of rough bricks fell from the ceiling. Rupert managed to jump out of the way, but Osborn was struck by a few of the bricks and was nearly knocked to the ground. As a cloud of dust rose from the pile, they heard a shrill voice call out in a strange language. The party didn’t need Lanara or Osborn to translate the alarm the goblins had just raised.</p><p></p><p> Moving forward as Osborn pulled back to drink his last potion, the party could barely make out two figures huddled behind a smaller pile of rocks nearby. The figures threw javelins at the party even as Kavan tossed a pebble he’d cast light upon earlier toward them. The javelins skittered off Arrie’s armor as the goblin sentries were brought into sharp focus by the light.</p><p></p><p> Most of the group pulled out missile weapons. Kavan did well, hitting one goblin with his longbow. Next to him Kyle also fired, but though accurate his bolt barely seemed to penetrate flesh. Ghurka enchanted a dart with his own light spell and threw it, missing a goblin but giving more light to his allies. Even Autumn tried to shoot at the goblins, but her arrows skittered harmlessly off the rock pile.</p><p></p><p> Arrie pulled out her orcish shotput, and with a mighty heave launched it at the closest goblin. Her aim was true, and the sickening crunch of bone echoed through the large room as the goblin’s brains spilled out of its skull. Just as Arrie was about to go retrieve her shotput, she saw a group of five more goblins running up. Grinning, she uncurled her spiked chain and waited for them to come.</p><p></p><p> Most of them never got the chance. Raising his arms, Kyle uttered words of arcane power, and beneath the feet of the largest group of goblins a layer of slick, fatty grease appeared. Three of the five goblins slipped and fell. The other two charged toward Arrie, receiving a lash with her spiked chain for their trouble.</p><p></p><p> Unfortunately for the goblins, they seemed unable to mount a capable defense. Another shot from Kavan’s bow felled the last of the two original sentries, while Kyle blinded the grease-covered ones with a flash pellet. Xu and Autumn moved up to help Arrie, but then Xu noticed two more figures approaching. These were much larger than the others, and carried longswords instead of morningstars. “Hobgoblins,” muttered Xu, and she quickly leapt over the rubble pile to meet this new threat head-on.</p><p></p><p> Kavan and Kyle contented themselves with firing on the greased goblins. While Kavan continued to do well, Kyle once again found his bolts barely effective. “Something must need tightening on this thing,” he said to himself, putting away his crossbow. He was about to prepare a spell when he saw Ghurka walk up calmly to the cluster of goblins, a flask of oil in hand. After dousing the pile of struggling goblins, Ghurka called upon his Talent, and suddenly his entire body was engulfed in flame*. Though the flames seemed not to hurt him, the same could not be said for the goblins, who squealed in pain. Two of them died instantly, while a third managed to extinguish the flames and ran for the far end of the room, disappearing in the darkness. Arrie picked up one of the nearby light stones and threw it all the way across the room, striking the far wall but not spotting the fleeing goblin. Kyle tried to do the same with his own light stone, but his aim was off, and the pebble bounced off Autumn’s helmet. Kyle looked at her sheepishly.</p><p></p><p> Nearby, Xu was keeping the hobgoblins busy, their two on one combat coming up a stalemate. But then one of the hobgoblins was struck by a beam of pure blackness shot from Kyle’s hand, and then Ghurka, who was still aflame, came running up toward them, the flames shooting out in all directions and scorching the hobgoblins. Enraged, one of them slashed at this new combatant, and the strike hit true. Blood spurted across the floor, and Ghurka fell, trying to hold his own entrails in place.</p><p></p><p> The others rushed in to finish off the hobgoblins. Kyle cast another negative energy ray at them, while Xu and Arrie pelted them from both sides. Kavan rushed to Ghurka and used the last of his divine power to stabilize the druid before he bled to death. In a few bloody moments, it was over.</p><p></p><p> The party rushed in unison toward the area the lone goblin had run, with Ghurka and Kavan trailing behind after pouring one of Ghurka’s healing potions down his throat. The group hoped to be able to catch any counter-attack before it had time to organize. As it turned out, no counter-attack was coming. The goblins’ numbers were far fewer than the kobolds, and only a handful were remaining. They were scattered about the remainder of the third level of the monastery, hiding, and were easily rooted out and eliminated. Another shrine to Qin-Chu was discovered, almost identical to the one in the kobold’s stronghold. Within the hobgoblin chieftains’ chambers they found yet another stack of silver ingots, as well as a few gems and platinum coins. The hobgoblins also held a store of healing potions, which were happily parceled out among the party. The entrance to the mine was found, and the reason for the interest of the goblins and kobolds became apparent; though the mines did hold a few meager veins of copper, they came upon new work that had revealed a rich vein of silver ore.</p><p></p><p> “Well, that explains where the ingots came from,” commented Lanara.</p><p></p><p> “I think we should go deliver the good news,” said Kyle.</p><p></p><p> The party returned to the surface and reached town just as dawn was breaking. They were greeted at the inn by Parthus, who had obviously waited up all night for them. “What news?” he asked hopefully.</p><p></p><p> “Well, we managed to eliminate about fifty or so, but there’s still a good couple of hundred left,” quipped Ghurka. As Parthus’ face went white, Kyle elbowed Ghurka sharply in the ribs, aggravating his wound.</p><p></p><p> “Our druid friend is making a joke,” said Lanara quickly. “We’ve cleared out the ruins and the mines for you.”</p><p></p><p> “That’s wonderful!” Parthus exclaimed.</p><p></p><p> “Yes, and we have both very good news, and slightly bad news,” said Arrie. “The slightly bad news is that you’ll probably have to hire some guards for your mine. The good news is that the reason you’ll need guards is that a vein of silver has been unearthed down there.”</p><p></p><p> “Silver?” gasped Parthus. “Truly? This is better than I could have expected! Our town will be back on its feet in no time at all! Oh, brave adventurers, how can I…”</p><p></p><p> Parthus’ words suddenly became very faint, and his features blurred. Soon the entire in was a haze of colors, which quickly melted away to reveal a very bare room. Shilsen, their instructor, was standing where Parthus had been just moments before.</p><p></p><p> “Congratulations,” he said. “You’ve all passed. Granted, it wasn’t perfect, but overall very well done for the most part. There were, however, some glaring issues.” Shilsen looked directly at Ghurka. “Baobab Ghurka, I will need to speak with you in my office privately.”</p><p></p><p> The druid looked up, his hand resting gently on the spot where he’d received the terrible wound in his gut. “That… hurt,” he said, mostly to himself. “I don’t think I want to do this any more.” With that, Ghurka turned and walked out the door without saying another word to anyone, including Shilsen.</p><p></p><p> “Well, it seems as though he’s already made a decision,” Shilsen commented.</p><p></p><p> “Hope he can find his way out,” said Lanara.</p><p></p><p> “Well, he can always burn his way out,” added Kyle.</p><p></p><p> “Students,” Shilsen interrupted, “if you’ll follow me, you can receive your rewards for completing this exam, and we can discuss the details of your scenario.”</p><p></p><p> They followed Shilsen back to the classroom they had started in. Arranged on the tables were seven wooden chests of various sizes. A neatly written sheet of parchment on the table in front of the chest identified who it belonged to. As the students entered the room, they saw an eighth chest being carried out the back by two large figures.</p><p></p><p> “You may claim the contents of your chest as a reward for a job well done. You will also receive time to rest and prepare for your next exam. You will be joined by another student in a day or two. You will, of course, still receive instruction in your individual professions as needed, but from this moment on you are expected to spend the majority of your time with your classmates. How you choose to spend that time is up to you – the Tower neither condones nor discourages any type of social activities among students. Just bear in mind that the normal school rules still apply, and that you are still expected to perform at your best during exams.”</p><p></p><p> The students looked around at each other, not quite sure what to make of the situation. Kyle was the first to react, walking over and standing next to Autumn.</p><p></p><p> “Well, I for one sure would like to get a chance to have an actual conversation with you after all this. Let me tell you about an old home remedy I learned from my pa to treat a case of sore throat…”</p><p></p><p></p><p>* Ghurka's talent is <em>body of the sun</em>.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Delemental, post: 1713605, member: 5203"] It took the group several minutes to collect themselves, burning away the last remnants of the [I]web [/I] spell and finishing off the last dying kobolds. Xu returned to the party, her hands stained with goblin blood. The others could plainly see how badly hurt she was, and turned to Kavan. The elven priest shook his head sadly. “My strength has almost entirely been depleted from this battle. I have only one minor orison left to me today.” “I have the same problem,” said Ghurka. “Healing does not come as easily to me as it does to Kavan, and what little ability I had has already been used.” “No problem,” said Kyle. He pulled a potion vial out of his belt and handed it to Xu. “This should help.” Xu accepted the potion and drank it. It took another dose from Osborn’s supply before Xu’s injuries were healed enough to continue on. Others busied themselves with cleaning their weapons or binding minor cuts. Ghurka gleefully went about piling up kobold bodies and burning them. Kyle began gathering up the kobold’s equipment and tossing it into the single meditation cell near the stairway. “What’s the point?” Arrie asked him. “That stuff isn’t really worth enough to bother with.” “Not to us,” said Kyle. “But it occurs to me that even if we succeed in clearing this mine, it’ll still take a while for those townsfolk up there to get things going again, especially since they’ve lost so many. I figure they can sell some of this stuff off to bring in some money for food and supplies.” Arrie nodded. “Or keep the weapons to use for their own defense. You have a good point.” The party proceeded to explore the remainder of the second level. They found the bolt-hole that the mysterious kobold sorcerer had used to escape, and blocked it off using a barrel of foul-smelling spirits that Lanara identified as Thudrud. Ghurka desperately wanted to light the barrel and try to smoke out the kobold, but the rest of the party convinced him not to. Kyle ended up using a smokestick to try rooting out the kobold, but when nothing happened, the party assumed the sorcerer had escaped to the surface, and just plugged the hole again to keep it from sneaking up behind them. A quick count of the sleeping mats in the barracks told them that at most, only one or two kobolds had evaded them. In the chambers reserved for the kobold’s leader, they found a stack of twenty silver ingots under a pile of rags, as well as two unmarked vials. Kyle attempted to determine what they were, but without proper alchemical equipment he didn’t get far. The party agreed to donate a few of the ingots to the town to help them recover. In another side chamber they found a shrine, which Kavan said was dedicated to Qin-Chu, the demigod of lies and deception. After a brief debate, the party decided that the picks and shovels of the miners would best deal with this evil god’s shrine once they’d finished their job. Autumn seemed disappointed that she couldn’t personally tear it down, but understood that her efforts were better placed elsewhere. They proceeded down the hallway from which the failed goblin ambush had come, with Xu carefully gathering the net the kobolds had set up. They easily found the door through which the goblins had come, and inside a small room they found two things of interest; a set of stairs going down, and a lone goblin corpse, lying in the middle of the floor. There were no signs of injury on the goblin, but one hand was stretched out rigidly. Ghurka went to examine the goblin, and to his surprise found that it was still alive, but apparently unable to move. Kavan noted a circular black patch of the palm of the goblin’s outstretched hand. Lanara and Osborn, who were the only ones who could speak the goblin tongue, tried to get information from the goblin using a simple method of ‘one blink for yes, two blinks for no’. However, after a few minutes it became clear that this was not a prize example of goblinoid intellect. All the rogue and bard were able to glean was that there were more goblins downstairs, and that the item that had poisoned him was in the same room. A quick check revealed that the doorknob for the room was coated with a contact poison, placed by the kobolds to prevent goblin raids. This particular goblin had apparently been the sacrificial lamb. The group debated briefly over what to do with the goblin. “We could burn it,” offered Ghurka. Autumn’s stare informed the group that she did not approve of that idea, evil creature or no. “Well, we could tie it up and take it back to town later,” said Lanara. “Let the townsfolk do what they want. Give it a trial, or whatever.” “Trial?” said Kyle incredulously. “Let me tell you, I know exactly what they’ll do with this goblin. They’ll use what they call ‘frontier justice’. Namely, they’ll just cut its throat as soon as they get the chance.” “Oh, well, then if that’s the case…” Ghurka pulled out a dagger, and before anyone could stop him, he opened the goblin’s throat from ear to ear. It kicked for only a few seconds before going still. Then, while everyone was still trying to figure out what had just happened, Ghurka proceeded to saw off the head entirely and shove it onto the doorknob of the room. Everyone gaped at the druid. “What?” he asked, wiping blood off his dagger. “It’ll keep us from accidentally touching the poison on the knob later.” “Ghurka,” said Lanara after a moment, “one of these days I’ll have to explain to you what a handkerchief is for.” The students decided to continue on down to the goblin’s level before things became heated. Osborn proceeded down the stairs carefully, and stopped at a wooden door. Listening at the door, the hin indicated that he heard nothing. The group crept slowly through the door. At first it seemed to open into a long hallway of sorts, but the echoes of their footsteps indicated that it was a much larger room than it appeared in the darkness. They realized that the wall to their left was actually a pile of rubble that went from floor to ceiling, blocking off their view of most of the room. The rubble seemed to end about forty feet ahead of them. Osborn and Rupert took the lead, watching for signs of goblins. Just as they reached the end of the rubble, there was a loud rumble, and a pile of rough bricks fell from the ceiling. Rupert managed to jump out of the way, but Osborn was struck by a few of the bricks and was nearly knocked to the ground. As a cloud of dust rose from the pile, they heard a shrill voice call out in a strange language. The party didn’t need Lanara or Osborn to translate the alarm the goblins had just raised. Moving forward as Osborn pulled back to drink his last potion, the party could barely make out two figures huddled behind a smaller pile of rocks nearby. The figures threw javelins at the party even as Kavan tossed a pebble he’d cast light upon earlier toward them. The javelins skittered off Arrie’s armor as the goblin sentries were brought into sharp focus by the light. Most of the group pulled out missile weapons. Kavan did well, hitting one goblin with his longbow. Next to him Kyle also fired, but though accurate his bolt barely seemed to penetrate flesh. Ghurka enchanted a dart with his own light spell and threw it, missing a goblin but giving more light to his allies. Even Autumn tried to shoot at the goblins, but her arrows skittered harmlessly off the rock pile. Arrie pulled out her orcish shotput, and with a mighty heave launched it at the closest goblin. Her aim was true, and the sickening crunch of bone echoed through the large room as the goblin’s brains spilled out of its skull. Just as Arrie was about to go retrieve her shotput, she saw a group of five more goblins running up. Grinning, she uncurled her spiked chain and waited for them to come. Most of them never got the chance. Raising his arms, Kyle uttered words of arcane power, and beneath the feet of the largest group of goblins a layer of slick, fatty grease appeared. Three of the five goblins slipped and fell. The other two charged toward Arrie, receiving a lash with her spiked chain for their trouble. Unfortunately for the goblins, they seemed unable to mount a capable defense. Another shot from Kavan’s bow felled the last of the two original sentries, while Kyle blinded the grease-covered ones with a flash pellet. Xu and Autumn moved up to help Arrie, but then Xu noticed two more figures approaching. These were much larger than the others, and carried longswords instead of morningstars. “Hobgoblins,” muttered Xu, and she quickly leapt over the rubble pile to meet this new threat head-on. Kavan and Kyle contented themselves with firing on the greased goblins. While Kavan continued to do well, Kyle once again found his bolts barely effective. “Something must need tightening on this thing,” he said to himself, putting away his crossbow. He was about to prepare a spell when he saw Ghurka walk up calmly to the cluster of goblins, a flask of oil in hand. After dousing the pile of struggling goblins, Ghurka called upon his Talent, and suddenly his entire body was engulfed in flame*. Though the flames seemed not to hurt him, the same could not be said for the goblins, who squealed in pain. Two of them died instantly, while a third managed to extinguish the flames and ran for the far end of the room, disappearing in the darkness. Arrie picked up one of the nearby light stones and threw it all the way across the room, striking the far wall but not spotting the fleeing goblin. Kyle tried to do the same with his own light stone, but his aim was off, and the pebble bounced off Autumn’s helmet. Kyle looked at her sheepishly. Nearby, Xu was keeping the hobgoblins busy, their two on one combat coming up a stalemate. But then one of the hobgoblins was struck by a beam of pure blackness shot from Kyle’s hand, and then Ghurka, who was still aflame, came running up toward them, the flames shooting out in all directions and scorching the hobgoblins. Enraged, one of them slashed at this new combatant, and the strike hit true. Blood spurted across the floor, and Ghurka fell, trying to hold his own entrails in place. The others rushed in to finish off the hobgoblins. Kyle cast another negative energy ray at them, while Xu and Arrie pelted them from both sides. Kavan rushed to Ghurka and used the last of his divine power to stabilize the druid before he bled to death. In a few bloody moments, it was over. The party rushed in unison toward the area the lone goblin had run, with Ghurka and Kavan trailing behind after pouring one of Ghurka’s healing potions down his throat. The group hoped to be able to catch any counter-attack before it had time to organize. As it turned out, no counter-attack was coming. The goblins’ numbers were far fewer than the kobolds, and only a handful were remaining. They were scattered about the remainder of the third level of the monastery, hiding, and were easily rooted out and eliminated. Another shrine to Qin-Chu was discovered, almost identical to the one in the kobold’s stronghold. Within the hobgoblin chieftains’ chambers they found yet another stack of silver ingots, as well as a few gems and platinum coins. The hobgoblins also held a store of healing potions, which were happily parceled out among the party. The entrance to the mine was found, and the reason for the interest of the goblins and kobolds became apparent; though the mines did hold a few meager veins of copper, they came upon new work that had revealed a rich vein of silver ore. “Well, that explains where the ingots came from,” commented Lanara. “I think we should go deliver the good news,” said Kyle. The party returned to the surface and reached town just as dawn was breaking. They were greeted at the inn by Parthus, who had obviously waited up all night for them. “What news?” he asked hopefully. “Well, we managed to eliminate about fifty or so, but there’s still a good couple of hundred left,” quipped Ghurka. As Parthus’ face went white, Kyle elbowed Ghurka sharply in the ribs, aggravating his wound. “Our druid friend is making a joke,” said Lanara quickly. “We’ve cleared out the ruins and the mines for you.” “That’s wonderful!” Parthus exclaimed. “Yes, and we have both very good news, and slightly bad news,” said Arrie. “The slightly bad news is that you’ll probably have to hire some guards for your mine. The good news is that the reason you’ll need guards is that a vein of silver has been unearthed down there.” “Silver?” gasped Parthus. “Truly? This is better than I could have expected! Our town will be back on its feet in no time at all! Oh, brave adventurers, how can I…” Parthus’ words suddenly became very faint, and his features blurred. Soon the entire in was a haze of colors, which quickly melted away to reveal a very bare room. Shilsen, their instructor, was standing where Parthus had been just moments before. “Congratulations,” he said. “You’ve all passed. Granted, it wasn’t perfect, but overall very well done for the most part. There were, however, some glaring issues.” Shilsen looked directly at Ghurka. “Baobab Ghurka, I will need to speak with you in my office privately.” The druid looked up, his hand resting gently on the spot where he’d received the terrible wound in his gut. “That… hurt,” he said, mostly to himself. “I don’t think I want to do this any more.” With that, Ghurka turned and walked out the door without saying another word to anyone, including Shilsen. “Well, it seems as though he’s already made a decision,” Shilsen commented. “Hope he can find his way out,” said Lanara. “Well, he can always burn his way out,” added Kyle. “Students,” Shilsen interrupted, “if you’ll follow me, you can receive your rewards for completing this exam, and we can discuss the details of your scenario.” They followed Shilsen back to the classroom they had started in. Arranged on the tables were seven wooden chests of various sizes. A neatly written sheet of parchment on the table in front of the chest identified who it belonged to. As the students entered the room, they saw an eighth chest being carried out the back by two large figures. “You may claim the contents of your chest as a reward for a job well done. You will also receive time to rest and prepare for your next exam. You will be joined by another student in a day or two. You will, of course, still receive instruction in your individual professions as needed, but from this moment on you are expected to spend the majority of your time with your classmates. How you choose to spend that time is up to you – the Tower neither condones nor discourages any type of social activities among students. Just bear in mind that the normal school rules still apply, and that you are still expected to perform at your best during exams.” The students looked around at each other, not quite sure what to make of the situation. Kyle was the first to react, walking over and standing next to Autumn. “Well, I for one sure would like to get a chance to have an actual conversation with you after all this. Let me tell you about an old home remedy I learned from my pa to treat a case of sore throat…” * Ghurka's talent is [I]body of the sun[/I]. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Tales of the Legacy - Concluded
Top