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Watch For Falling Meteors [4E KotS] Updated Weekdays!
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<blockquote data-quote="Xorn" data-source="post: 4304521" data-attributes="member: 61231"><p>The air echoed a howling protest as the holes in the skull-shaped boulder whistled and the heavy rope which the stone secured to the ceiling with creaked. The north end of the chamber had been carved out of the rock, with two ledges ten feet off the floor looking out over the expansive chamber that looked to have once been a crypt. Piles of bones topped with skulls of various species sat on four coffins in the center of the chamber, at perfect height for the stone-and-rope device to strike them, if sent with the right trajectory from the ledges. A kobold on the right ledge had just sent the stone, which was carved to look like a giant skull itself, whistling out into the chamber, narrowly missing one pile of bones and careening through the top of its arc before crossing the chamber again to be caught by a kobold on the opposite ledge, separated by a solid wall set with two huge, iron-bound double doors. The missed swing was met with simultaneous barks of elation and scolding by the opposing kobold groups.</p><p></p><p>“Can you understand what in the world they are saying, Daichot?” whispered the halfling, peeking carefully into the chamber from the southern passage entering the room, at least fifty feet from the kobolds, and half that from the coffins. A huge pit separated the north and south half of the chamber, and the coffins, half as wide as the chamber and glowing with the same greenish luminescence of the last pit they came across. “What’s with kobolds and all that slime, anyway?” puzzled the rogue.</p><p></p><p>Daichot shrugged at the second question, still trying to answer the first. “There are two many shouting right now to make it out, but before that they were chanting ‘skull skull’ over and over, then started shouting, mostly curse words.” He looked at the dwarf and elf, pressed against the wall beside him, who were wondering if the tiefling really understood Draconic or if he was just making this up. “I’m telling you, that’s what I heard—what the hell are they doing in there, Percy?”</p><p></p><p>The halfing risked another peek as the chanting began again, and another kobold readied to cast the stone out into the chamber. “Um… I think they’re playing a game, actually!” he pulled his head back from around the corner as the rock smashed into a pile of bones with a heavy crack, followed by the clatter of bones scattering over the floor. Jabbing a thumb in the direction of the kobolds over his shoulder he grinned, “I think those guys are winning.”</p><p></p><p>Omar moved as quietly as he could to the corner, as Percy slid down the wall to make room for him, shooshing the blocky dwarf. As Omar got to the corner he waited for another outburst after the stone whistled through the chamber, and risked a glance out into the chamber. The dwarf quickly leaned back and faced the rest of the party, the halfling right before him, and the elf and tiefling crouching low as they huddled together at the end of the tunnel that brought them this far.</p><p></p><p>“Looks like at least half a dozen kobolds up on the ledges,” said Omar. “Half of them are here,” he motioned his hand to the northwest as if there was no wall before him and they were in the chamber already, “and the other half, here” he indicated to the northeast as Percy nodded in agreement. “There’s a set’o double doors innae middle o that wall,” he motioned straight north, “but one athose damned pits we saw up abov’n the middle of the room, like Percy said. Runnin’ aroun’ll take seconds we cannae afford so I think I should jump it an’ draw ‘em in while Oleaf finds some cover t’attack from. You two” Omar motioned to the rogue and warlord, “stay on ma flank and I’ll have tha door open afore ye get there.”</p><p></p><p>Daichot nodded, “I agree, let’s charge out together, and hit the door together.”</p><p></p><p>“You expect me to jump over that pit!? It’s like ten feet!” Percy expressed his problems with the plan plainly.</p><p></p><p>“Nae, I dinnae think ya have tha muscles fer that, so ye’ll hafta run around, lad.” Omar agreed with the halfling.</p><p></p><p>Oleaf shattered the conversation with her soft, whispery voice, so unaccustomed were they to hearing her talk. “I will cover you, Percy.”</p><p></p><p>As they lined up at the opening into the chamber, ready to charge, Daichot looked down to Omar one more time. “Are you sure you’re up for that jump? That dart that hit you in the crypt back there took the stride out of your step. I didn’t want to say anything while it didn’t matter, but your gait has been a little awkward since then.”</p><p></p><p>Omar started to protest without thought to the comment, and then thought better of it. “Yer right. That toxin hadda whallup on it, but I’ve had worse buzzes from elven wine!” he grinned mischievously. With one more nod they ran out from the chamber, Omar leading the way with a roaring battlecry, “Moradin’s beard protect us!” and they sprinted towards the pit.</p><p></p><p>To their credit, the kobolds reacted quicker than expected, as one on the left, currently holding the stone, deftly heaved it out to the side, arcing it expertly into the path of the charging humanoids in scale armor. With a heavy thud, the stone caught Daichot across the shoulder before creaking audibly against the rope and arcing back over to the opposite ledge, where it was caught. The warlord was sent flailing off of his feet, sliding back at least five feet and finding himself flat on his back gasping for a breath as his shoulder and back were exploding with pain.</p><p></p><p>Seeing the stone strike the tiefling, Percy snapped a quick shot with his crossbow, catching a kobold loading a sling on the left ledge in the leg as it howled in pain, then dashed into the chamber, somersaulting the last ten feet to the closest coffin, twisting mid-roll to end with his back flush against the intervening cover. A javelin skittered across the floor where he had been a second ago, and Percy looked back to see Oleaf calmly kneel at the opening to the chamber and loose her arrow in one motion, then draw and release three more times as she briskly sidestepped into the chamber with a fluidity that seemed impossible if not for the halfling witnessing it. Two arrows found purchase in the slinger, both through the chest, and he toppled to the floor from the ledge, as the two kobolds next to him, heaving javelins were both struck in the chest and fell as well.</p><p></p><p>Before he realized it, Oleaf had walked over to him with long, confident strides, pulling out two more arrows and placing them on the humming bow string with a practiced grace. “Ready?” she asked confidently, and Percy nodded, thankful to have Oleaf protecting his back.</p><p></p><p>Percy quickly placed another bolt into his hand crossbow and cocked it as he dashed out from behind his cover, skirting the edge of the slime pit as more kobolds appeared on the ledges, hurling javelins accurately down into the main chamber, but narrowly missing the charging adventurers. Catching the silhouette of the dwarf ahead of him, the rogue focused on him just in time to see him land on the other side of the pit with a heavy crash, skidding on the dusty stone as one of the kobolds on the right sent the stone for their game careening down at him. Omar was ready for the projectile though, and swung his maul around, connecting with a mighty crack that split the air in the room as the cascade of rock shards and dust exploded away from the impact, leaving only a shower of broken stone falling in the dwarf’s wake as he raced for the door, his lowering his shoulder.</p><p></p><p>The warlord was back on his feet as Percy agilely leapt over the last corner of the pit and slid to a stop behind a coffin on the north side of the room, loosing another bolt towards the right side of the room, where the familiar sound of a sling whirling through the air caught is attention. The bolt struck the kobold squarely and caused him to release the shot too early, sending a smoldering clay pot crashing into the coffin, igniting viscous putty contained in the pot across the north side, opposite the halfling.</p><p></p><p>Daichot landed heavily on the other side of the pit in the same moment, and he too barreled for the double doors, but several steps behind the dwarf. The zip of arrows cutting through the air overhead was a reminder of Oleaf’s presence in the back of the chamber, and the kobolds falling from the ledges was the overt display of her prowess at archery.</p><p></p><p>Omar crashed into the door first, visibly jarring him as the door didn’t give, just as the tiefling crashed into the door to his left, bouncing off the iron-banded planks as the door shook but did not give. Omar crashed his shoulder into the door again, rocking away from the second failed drive, and screamed, “MORADIN!” bringing his maul around in a hurtling path for the door. The wood splintered around the depression of the impact and rivets popped free of the iron bands as the wood broke and buckled, but the door was still standing. Two more arrows and another bolt from the rogue and ranger sailed overhead up to the ledges, and the kobolds ducked away from the ranged onslaught, throwing their javelins down hastily, missing their marks.</p><p></p><p>“As one, dwarf!” cried out the warlord, and with a nod he and Omar slammed into the door as one force, as the hinges bent against their frame with a protesting squeal, leaving the doors with nothing to support them as they crashed down into the corridor beyond. A pair of scaly brown guard drakes leapt back from the falling timbers with barking squawks, then following the barking command of the kobolds flooding down a staircase from the ledge above, they charged into the pair of combatants.</p><p></p><p>Bravely blockading the corridor to keep the beasts from getting around them, Omar received their charge headlong. He caught one of the ferocious creature’s maws with the haft of his weapon, but the second lunged in and viciously bit him across the thigh, nearly pulling him off his feet and into the corridor with them. With a mighty below of power, Daichot brought his axe crashing into the beast upon Omar, and his blow was answered with a spray of gore from the beast as it shrieked in pain.</p><p></p><p>Seeing an opening, Percy dashed out from the cover of the coffin he was behind, dropping his crossbow as he pulled free a dagger from his harnesses with each hand. Before Daichot realized what was happening, the nimble rogue ran up the tiefling’s body, still rising from his attack, and leapt over the ferocious drakes! As one followed the halfling’s leap, it neglected to watch the dwarf that quickly torqued the shaft of his weapon around, bringing the solid iron head crashing into the drakes skull with an audibly wet thud, and it rolled over with the force of the blow, howling.</p><p></p><p>As Percy flew over the drakes he twisted in the air till he was nearly upside down, flying backwards down the tunnel, till one of his daggers plunged deeply into the chest of a kobold that brandished a spear behind the drakes, and held tightly to the weapon, snagging himself out of the air and bringing him down behind the creature. As he pulled the dagger free from the already dead kobold, he lunged to the side with the other, catching another kobold through the spine as it turned to flee from the sudden appearance of flashing knives amidst a line they thought was secure. The remaining kobolds ran quickly back up the steps to the ledges they came from, deciding their chances with the ranger were better than the rogue.</p><p></p><p>Oleaf had turned her attention to the drakes now, and two arrows, arcing in less than a foot over the dwarf’s head, slammed into the maw of the drake before Omar, seconds before his maul crashed down into the beast, finishing it off. As the other beast lunged at Daichot, Omar managed to catch the beast with a jab from the haft of his weapon as the warlord stumbled backwards, out of room to move, as he saw two kobolds on the ledge above him ready to throw more javelins down. The tiefling roared in defiance at the kobolds, bolstering his comrades and chopping his axe into the drake, as a javelin struck the warlord high in the left shoulder.</p><p></p><p>The kobolds throwing the javelins both crashed down from the ledge, arrows protruding from their chests, as Oleaf continued to loose one arrow after the next with impossible precision and flawless motion. Percy, sliding deftly behind the drake, pounced on top of the beast and jammed a dagger into each side of the beast, piercing its lungs and diaphragm. The drake shrieked one more time as the halfling rode the thrashing creature to the ground, rolling away from the landing, and then the room was still.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Xorn, post: 4304521, member: 61231"] The air echoed a howling protest as the holes in the skull-shaped boulder whistled and the heavy rope which the stone secured to the ceiling with creaked. The north end of the chamber had been carved out of the rock, with two ledges ten feet off the floor looking out over the expansive chamber that looked to have once been a crypt. Piles of bones topped with skulls of various species sat on four coffins in the center of the chamber, at perfect height for the stone-and-rope device to strike them, if sent with the right trajectory from the ledges. A kobold on the right ledge had just sent the stone, which was carved to look like a giant skull itself, whistling out into the chamber, narrowly missing one pile of bones and careening through the top of its arc before crossing the chamber again to be caught by a kobold on the opposite ledge, separated by a solid wall set with two huge, iron-bound double doors. The missed swing was met with simultaneous barks of elation and scolding by the opposing kobold groups. “Can you understand what in the world they are saying, Daichot?” whispered the halfling, peeking carefully into the chamber from the southern passage entering the room, at least fifty feet from the kobolds, and half that from the coffins. A huge pit separated the north and south half of the chamber, and the coffins, half as wide as the chamber and glowing with the same greenish luminescence of the last pit they came across. “What’s with kobolds and all that slime, anyway?” puzzled the rogue. Daichot shrugged at the second question, still trying to answer the first. “There are two many shouting right now to make it out, but before that they were chanting ‘skull skull’ over and over, then started shouting, mostly curse words.” He looked at the dwarf and elf, pressed against the wall beside him, who were wondering if the tiefling really understood Draconic or if he was just making this up. “I’m telling you, that’s what I heard—what the hell are they doing in there, Percy?” The halfing risked another peek as the chanting began again, and another kobold readied to cast the stone out into the chamber. “Um… I think they’re playing a game, actually!” he pulled his head back from around the corner as the rock smashed into a pile of bones with a heavy crack, followed by the clatter of bones scattering over the floor. Jabbing a thumb in the direction of the kobolds over his shoulder he grinned, “I think those guys are winning.” Omar moved as quietly as he could to the corner, as Percy slid down the wall to make room for him, shooshing the blocky dwarf. As Omar got to the corner he waited for another outburst after the stone whistled through the chamber, and risked a glance out into the chamber. The dwarf quickly leaned back and faced the rest of the party, the halfling right before him, and the elf and tiefling crouching low as they huddled together at the end of the tunnel that brought them this far. “Looks like at least half a dozen kobolds up on the ledges,” said Omar. “Half of them are here,” he motioned his hand to the northwest as if there was no wall before him and they were in the chamber already, “and the other half, here” he indicated to the northeast as Percy nodded in agreement. “There’s a set’o double doors innae middle o that wall,” he motioned straight north, “but one athose damned pits we saw up abov’n the middle of the room, like Percy said. Runnin’ aroun’ll take seconds we cannae afford so I think I should jump it an’ draw ‘em in while Oleaf finds some cover t’attack from. You two” Omar motioned to the rogue and warlord, “stay on ma flank and I’ll have tha door open afore ye get there.” Daichot nodded, “I agree, let’s charge out together, and hit the door together.” “You expect me to jump over that pit!? It’s like ten feet!” Percy expressed his problems with the plan plainly. “Nae, I dinnae think ya have tha muscles fer that, so ye’ll hafta run around, lad.” Omar agreed with the halfling. Oleaf shattered the conversation with her soft, whispery voice, so unaccustomed were they to hearing her talk. “I will cover you, Percy.” As they lined up at the opening into the chamber, ready to charge, Daichot looked down to Omar one more time. “Are you sure you’re up for that jump? That dart that hit you in the crypt back there took the stride out of your step. I didn’t want to say anything while it didn’t matter, but your gait has been a little awkward since then.” Omar started to protest without thought to the comment, and then thought better of it. “Yer right. That toxin hadda whallup on it, but I’ve had worse buzzes from elven wine!” he grinned mischievously. With one more nod they ran out from the chamber, Omar leading the way with a roaring battlecry, “Moradin’s beard protect us!” and they sprinted towards the pit. To their credit, the kobolds reacted quicker than expected, as one on the left, currently holding the stone, deftly heaved it out to the side, arcing it expertly into the path of the charging humanoids in scale armor. With a heavy thud, the stone caught Daichot across the shoulder before creaking audibly against the rope and arcing back over to the opposite ledge, where it was caught. The warlord was sent flailing off of his feet, sliding back at least five feet and finding himself flat on his back gasping for a breath as his shoulder and back were exploding with pain. Seeing the stone strike the tiefling, Percy snapped a quick shot with his crossbow, catching a kobold loading a sling on the left ledge in the leg as it howled in pain, then dashed into the chamber, somersaulting the last ten feet to the closest coffin, twisting mid-roll to end with his back flush against the intervening cover. A javelin skittered across the floor where he had been a second ago, and Percy looked back to see Oleaf calmly kneel at the opening to the chamber and loose her arrow in one motion, then draw and release three more times as she briskly sidestepped into the chamber with a fluidity that seemed impossible if not for the halfling witnessing it. Two arrows found purchase in the slinger, both through the chest, and he toppled to the floor from the ledge, as the two kobolds next to him, heaving javelins were both struck in the chest and fell as well. Before he realized it, Oleaf had walked over to him with long, confident strides, pulling out two more arrows and placing them on the humming bow string with a practiced grace. “Ready?” she asked confidently, and Percy nodded, thankful to have Oleaf protecting his back. Percy quickly placed another bolt into his hand crossbow and cocked it as he dashed out from behind his cover, skirting the edge of the slime pit as more kobolds appeared on the ledges, hurling javelins accurately down into the main chamber, but narrowly missing the charging adventurers. Catching the silhouette of the dwarf ahead of him, the rogue focused on him just in time to see him land on the other side of the pit with a heavy crash, skidding on the dusty stone as one of the kobolds on the right sent the stone for their game careening down at him. Omar was ready for the projectile though, and swung his maul around, connecting with a mighty crack that split the air in the room as the cascade of rock shards and dust exploded away from the impact, leaving only a shower of broken stone falling in the dwarf’s wake as he raced for the door, his lowering his shoulder. The warlord was back on his feet as Percy agilely leapt over the last corner of the pit and slid to a stop behind a coffin on the north side of the room, loosing another bolt towards the right side of the room, where the familiar sound of a sling whirling through the air caught is attention. The bolt struck the kobold squarely and caused him to release the shot too early, sending a smoldering clay pot crashing into the coffin, igniting viscous putty contained in the pot across the north side, opposite the halfling. Daichot landed heavily on the other side of the pit in the same moment, and he too barreled for the double doors, but several steps behind the dwarf. The zip of arrows cutting through the air overhead was a reminder of Oleaf’s presence in the back of the chamber, and the kobolds falling from the ledges was the overt display of her prowess at archery. Omar crashed into the door first, visibly jarring him as the door didn’t give, just as the tiefling crashed into the door to his left, bouncing off the iron-banded planks as the door shook but did not give. Omar crashed his shoulder into the door again, rocking away from the second failed drive, and screamed, “MORADIN!” bringing his maul around in a hurtling path for the door. The wood splintered around the depression of the impact and rivets popped free of the iron bands as the wood broke and buckled, but the door was still standing. Two more arrows and another bolt from the rogue and ranger sailed overhead up to the ledges, and the kobolds ducked away from the ranged onslaught, throwing their javelins down hastily, missing their marks. “As one, dwarf!” cried out the warlord, and with a nod he and Omar slammed into the door as one force, as the hinges bent against their frame with a protesting squeal, leaving the doors with nothing to support them as they crashed down into the corridor beyond. A pair of scaly brown guard drakes leapt back from the falling timbers with barking squawks, then following the barking command of the kobolds flooding down a staircase from the ledge above, they charged into the pair of combatants. Bravely blockading the corridor to keep the beasts from getting around them, Omar received their charge headlong. He caught one of the ferocious creature’s maws with the haft of his weapon, but the second lunged in and viciously bit him across the thigh, nearly pulling him off his feet and into the corridor with them. With a mighty below of power, Daichot brought his axe crashing into the beast upon Omar, and his blow was answered with a spray of gore from the beast as it shrieked in pain. Seeing an opening, Percy dashed out from the cover of the coffin he was behind, dropping his crossbow as he pulled free a dagger from his harnesses with each hand. Before Daichot realized what was happening, the nimble rogue ran up the tiefling’s body, still rising from his attack, and leapt over the ferocious drakes! As one followed the halfling’s leap, it neglected to watch the dwarf that quickly torqued the shaft of his weapon around, bringing the solid iron head crashing into the drakes skull with an audibly wet thud, and it rolled over with the force of the blow, howling. As Percy flew over the drakes he twisted in the air till he was nearly upside down, flying backwards down the tunnel, till one of his daggers plunged deeply into the chest of a kobold that brandished a spear behind the drakes, and held tightly to the weapon, snagging himself out of the air and bringing him down behind the creature. As he pulled the dagger free from the already dead kobold, he lunged to the side with the other, catching another kobold through the spine as it turned to flee from the sudden appearance of flashing knives amidst a line they thought was secure. The remaining kobolds ran quickly back up the steps to the ledges they came from, deciding their chances with the ranger were better than the rogue. Oleaf had turned her attention to the drakes now, and two arrows, arcing in less than a foot over the dwarf’s head, slammed into the maw of the drake before Omar, seconds before his maul crashed down into the beast, finishing it off. As the other beast lunged at Daichot, Omar managed to catch the beast with a jab from the haft of his weapon as the warlord stumbled backwards, out of room to move, as he saw two kobolds on the ledge above him ready to throw more javelins down. The tiefling roared in defiance at the kobolds, bolstering his comrades and chopping his axe into the drake, as a javelin struck the warlord high in the left shoulder. The kobolds throwing the javelins both crashed down from the ledge, arrows protruding from their chests, as Oleaf continued to loose one arrow after the next with impossible precision and flawless motion. Percy, sliding deftly behind the drake, pounced on top of the beast and jammed a dagger into each side of the beast, piercing its lungs and diaphragm. The drake shrieked one more time as the halfling rode the thrashing creature to the ground, rolling away from the landing, and then the room was still. [/QUOTE]
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