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<blockquote data-quote="Xorn" data-source="post: 4363016" data-attributes="member: 61231"><p>The sound of the water crashing into the pool at the base of the cliff made it almost impossible to hear a normal voice, so as the four adventurers crouched before the frothing water, close enough to see there was indeed a cave on the other side of the water flow, they used visual cues to communicate. The water was only a few feet deep, which Oleaf explained meant this was a relatively new fall, probably created by an earthquake, and it didn’t hamper their movement significantly. They were all soaking wet from the mist billowing away from the impact of the water and with a dripping, gloved hand, Omar signaled to move into the falls as one.</p><p></p><p>Daichot and Omar strode into the heavy weight of the waterfall first, and were on the other side faster than they expected, lunging slightly off balance at the unexpected lack of resistance. Percy came in right on Omar’s heels, and Oleaf slipped gently behind Daichot. The four of them stood inside the mouth of the cave, still shin-deep in the water, as their eyes adjusted to the dim light of the cave. Torches burned in sconces about thirty paces away, where the rocky, slick chamber they were in split into north and south tunnels.</p><p></p><p>As they got accustomed to the lighting, they realized that ten paces away, four kobolds were eating. Four more were near the exits from the chamber, and a still more were leaning against the far wall of the chamber. All of the kobolds were looking at the newcomers, all of them looking quite surprised. “No.” whispered Percy, adjusting his grip on the dagger he held at his side easily.</p><p></p><p>“No, what, lad?” asked Omar, eyeing the kobolds as he stood at the edge of the pool, water still dripping off his helmet and armor, making a trickling gurgle in the water.</p><p></p><p>“No, I don’t think they heard us outside,” finished Percy. “You asked me that earlier, I thought I’d update you now that I know the answer.”</p><p></p><p>“Thanks, laddie.” Omar replied. The kobolds were looking about each other, all holding their spears ready, waiting for the first one to charge.</p><p></p><p>“How many—“</p><p></p><p>“A dozen.” Oleaf interrupted Percy, and then the kobolds sprang at them.</p><p></p><p>As the kobolds rushed in a spreading swarm at them, and a dozen spear tips raced at them furiously. Daichot was the first one reached, and he roared mightily as he grabbed the first spear to reach him by the haft and twisted it away from his face, nearly toppling the wielder. In seconds they were completely surrounded, between a dozen kobolds screaming war yelps and a crashing wall of water behind them. Omar had been grazed by one spear, Daichot took a glancing blow to the leg, Percy across the shoulder, and Oleaf gasped as a spear found purchase on her side. The kobolds were yipping enthusiastically at the luck of their first strike, which they soon found to be premature celebration.</p><p></p><p>Percy let out a feral growl as he twisted away from the kobolds rushing at him, narrowly slapping away a spear thrust meant to block him in with one hand while he drove his dagger into the wielder’s eye socket. Pulling the blade out quickly and continuing the swing of his dagger into a second kobold, he clipped the meat of its throat out with a sickening tear of flesh, and parried away another spear lunge with the sudden appearance of a second dagger in his other hand.</p><p></p><p>Turning its back on the others to face Percy was the last mistake that kobold ever made. Oleaf lunged through the water to slide behind Omar, letting her bow fall across her shoulder as she pulled a pair of elegant, curved short swords from over her back, slicing upwards with both blades, cutting into the kobolds sides from below the ribs, and slicing it deep to the spine. She pushed off with one foot in a round-off the sent a spay of water from her long ponytail twinkling through the torch lit chamber, resheathing her swords in the motion and gripping her bow as it fell from her shoulders. As she came upright again she had two arrows resting atop the bow and released them with one draw of the string. Both arrows hissed at their targets, and five of the kobolds lay dead on the ground.</p><p></p><p>Omar swore an oath to Moradin as he crashed his maul into one of the larger kobolds, who was trying to take advantage of their rapidly dwindling numbers, and the crunch of bone and gasp of pain from the reptile gave credence to the might of the dwarf’s swing. Daichot’s own fury added to the carnage as he shifted through the dissolving ranks of the kobolds and ended another of the beasts.</p><p></p><p>Their attack was routed before it truly began, and the adventurers quickly put down the crumbling charge with only minor wounds to show for it, but the bleating of a war horn was echoing from further down the northern passage of the cave. More yapping voices could be heard from the south, as well.</p><p></p><p>“The fight is not done!” bellowed Daichot, “Prepare your selves, heroes!” He held his greataxe ready to cut down whatever was foolish enough to enter the chamber. Oleaf crouched low behind Omar, one arrow on the string and another held between her teeth—her long hair was draped across her stern face, as her braids were loosened in the struggle, and she noticed the water around her boot was tinged with a reddish cloud; blood from her wound. Percy withdrew his arms into the folds of his cloak and pressed up to the dark shadows of the north cave wall. Even those looking at him found his movements difficult to track. “Omar,” he called out, the mirth and joy from his voice replaced with calculation and menace, “trust me—I’ll be there when you need me.”</p><p></p><p>Omar turned to see what the rogue was talking about, when he realized the halfling was not in the chamber. Whether out the waterfall, or someplace else—he was gone.</p><p></p><p>“Damn him!” roared Daichot. “He’s fled!?”</p><p></p><p>Omar gripped his maul tightly as he caught sight of a lumbering shape coming from the northern hall. “No, lad,” the dwarf said calmly, “he just said to trust him.”</p><p></p><p>The shape that came into view was a goblin, which Omar knew. What surprised him was that a goblin could stand nearly the height of a human. A large metal jaw piece was bolted to the goblin’s mandible, and his ground thumping strides chewed up the distance remaining to the dwarf, and a wicked greataxe was trailing above his head, ready to chomp into Omar ferociously.</p><p></p><p>Omar was more prepared though, and strode forward to meet the charge, snapping his readied maul in a full revolution about his body before crashing it into the huge goblin’s shoulder. The crushing blow shattered the bones in his arm, and his axe swing faltered, missing the dwarf harmlessly. Oleaf stood and released her arrow, catching the goblin the other shoulder, and shot another arrow in the span of two seconds, catching the goblin through the belly. The huge goblin did not falter, only roaring in anger.</p><p></p><p>Two more kobolds charged into the chamber from the south, one carrying a dragonscale shield, and the other wearing robes and wielding a rod; a dragonshield and wyrmpriest. The dragonshield charged over to the goblin’s aid, shouting out Irontooth in the Common tongue, but his short sword never reached Omar’s back as Daichot hooked the swing with his axe and spun the kobold about with the momentum of his charge, then counter swung the weapon into the kobold viciously.</p><p></p><p>The wyrmpriest cried out an unknown name in draconic to spur on the dragonshield, and hurled an orb of conjured acid at the warlord, catching him fully in the chest with the attack. His armor sizzled in protest, but protected his flesh from the hungry substance, but not the force of the magical impact.</p><p></p><p>Somehow, from the passage Irontooth had just charged out of, Percy rolled out of the darkness, and plunged both of his daggers into the towering goblin’s back, and the raging humanoid staggered to one knee as his lungs filled with blood. Oleaf loosed another arrow, and it slammed home into the goblin’s chest, turning it’s roars of pain and fury into gurgles of blood and choking.</p><p></p><p>Daichot steadied himself from the impact of the priest’s attack and roared with wild rage thrusting his chest out as his war cry threatened to bring down the ceiling of the chamber from its power. He kicked the dragonshield away from the dwarf’s flank and charged across the chamber, clipping the retreating kobold priest across the side and spinning it about, leaving a trail of blood flaying away from it and splattering across the wall.</p><p></p><p>Ignoring the kobold behind him, Omar’s muscles rippled with the power of his swing. The maul crashed into Irontooth’s face with an audible crack splitting his skull and driving the hulking goblin into the ground with a horrible shriek of tearing metal and flesh. Stooped low from the force of his blow, Omar was a prime target for the kobold behind him, bearing down with his sword, ready to impale the vulnerable dwarf.</p><p></p><p>An arrow slammed into the creature’s side and two strides closer another arrow thudded into it only inches from the first, but its charge was not stopped. About to drive the wicked blade into Omar, a flurry of cloak and blades tumbled past the dwarf and sprang up before the kobold, catching it under the chin as Percy leapt into the air, burying his dagger to the hilt; the blade protruded from the top of the kobolds skull as it fell.</p><p></p><p>Omar spun about, exhausted with the strain of his swings, in time to see Daichot cut down the wyrmpriest as it belched a spray of acid like a tiny dragon breathing fire. While he was caught by some of the blast, he lopped the foul thing’s head off before the attack overcame him. As the tiefling’s fury subsided, the wounds he had suffered started to grab at his frame, and the slumped against the wall of the chamber.</p><p></p><p>“Is that…” he panted, trying to regain is breath, “all of… them?”</p><p></p><p>Oleaf was favoring her leg as she knelt down to take the weight off the injured limb, and listened intently. “I think so.”</p><p></p><p>Percy checked that the graze he had received was a minor one, and satisfied, turned to the dwarf, “I’m sorry about outside, Omar,” he apologized, “I should have counted better. But I’ve always got your backs, I promise.”</p><p></p><p>Omar didn’t answer. He was staring dumbfounded at the ground in front of him, but not at the mangled, crushed body of Irontooth, nor at the twitching kobold Percy had saved him from. He was looking down at his maul, the family weapon that had been passed from each Irontoe father in his family to their son when they came of age.</p><p></p><p>At least he was looking at the broken half, that wasn’t in his hands anymore.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Xorn, post: 4363016, member: 61231"] The sound of the water crashing into the pool at the base of the cliff made it almost impossible to hear a normal voice, so as the four adventurers crouched before the frothing water, close enough to see there was indeed a cave on the other side of the water flow, they used visual cues to communicate. The water was only a few feet deep, which Oleaf explained meant this was a relatively new fall, probably created by an earthquake, and it didn’t hamper their movement significantly. They were all soaking wet from the mist billowing away from the impact of the water and with a dripping, gloved hand, Omar signaled to move into the falls as one. Daichot and Omar strode into the heavy weight of the waterfall first, and were on the other side faster than they expected, lunging slightly off balance at the unexpected lack of resistance. Percy came in right on Omar’s heels, and Oleaf slipped gently behind Daichot. The four of them stood inside the mouth of the cave, still shin-deep in the water, as their eyes adjusted to the dim light of the cave. Torches burned in sconces about thirty paces away, where the rocky, slick chamber they were in split into north and south tunnels. As they got accustomed to the lighting, they realized that ten paces away, four kobolds were eating. Four more were near the exits from the chamber, and a still more were leaning against the far wall of the chamber. All of the kobolds were looking at the newcomers, all of them looking quite surprised. “No.” whispered Percy, adjusting his grip on the dagger he held at his side easily. “No, what, lad?” asked Omar, eyeing the kobolds as he stood at the edge of the pool, water still dripping off his helmet and armor, making a trickling gurgle in the water. “No, I don’t think they heard us outside,” finished Percy. “You asked me that earlier, I thought I’d update you now that I know the answer.” “Thanks, laddie.” Omar replied. The kobolds were looking about each other, all holding their spears ready, waiting for the first one to charge. “How many—“ “A dozen.” Oleaf interrupted Percy, and then the kobolds sprang at them. As the kobolds rushed in a spreading swarm at them, and a dozen spear tips raced at them furiously. Daichot was the first one reached, and he roared mightily as he grabbed the first spear to reach him by the haft and twisted it away from his face, nearly toppling the wielder. In seconds they were completely surrounded, between a dozen kobolds screaming war yelps and a crashing wall of water behind them. Omar had been grazed by one spear, Daichot took a glancing blow to the leg, Percy across the shoulder, and Oleaf gasped as a spear found purchase on her side. The kobolds were yipping enthusiastically at the luck of their first strike, which they soon found to be premature celebration. Percy let out a feral growl as he twisted away from the kobolds rushing at him, narrowly slapping away a spear thrust meant to block him in with one hand while he drove his dagger into the wielder’s eye socket. Pulling the blade out quickly and continuing the swing of his dagger into a second kobold, he clipped the meat of its throat out with a sickening tear of flesh, and parried away another spear lunge with the sudden appearance of a second dagger in his other hand. Turning its back on the others to face Percy was the last mistake that kobold ever made. Oleaf lunged through the water to slide behind Omar, letting her bow fall across her shoulder as she pulled a pair of elegant, curved short swords from over her back, slicing upwards with both blades, cutting into the kobolds sides from below the ribs, and slicing it deep to the spine. She pushed off with one foot in a round-off the sent a spay of water from her long ponytail twinkling through the torch lit chamber, resheathing her swords in the motion and gripping her bow as it fell from her shoulders. As she came upright again she had two arrows resting atop the bow and released them with one draw of the string. Both arrows hissed at their targets, and five of the kobolds lay dead on the ground. Omar swore an oath to Moradin as he crashed his maul into one of the larger kobolds, who was trying to take advantage of their rapidly dwindling numbers, and the crunch of bone and gasp of pain from the reptile gave credence to the might of the dwarf’s swing. Daichot’s own fury added to the carnage as he shifted through the dissolving ranks of the kobolds and ended another of the beasts. Their attack was routed before it truly began, and the adventurers quickly put down the crumbling charge with only minor wounds to show for it, but the bleating of a war horn was echoing from further down the northern passage of the cave. More yapping voices could be heard from the south, as well. “The fight is not done!” bellowed Daichot, “Prepare your selves, heroes!” He held his greataxe ready to cut down whatever was foolish enough to enter the chamber. Oleaf crouched low behind Omar, one arrow on the string and another held between her teeth—her long hair was draped across her stern face, as her braids were loosened in the struggle, and she noticed the water around her boot was tinged with a reddish cloud; blood from her wound. Percy withdrew his arms into the folds of his cloak and pressed up to the dark shadows of the north cave wall. Even those looking at him found his movements difficult to track. “Omar,” he called out, the mirth and joy from his voice replaced with calculation and menace, “trust me—I’ll be there when you need me.” Omar turned to see what the rogue was talking about, when he realized the halfling was not in the chamber. Whether out the waterfall, or someplace else—he was gone. “Damn him!” roared Daichot. “He’s fled!?” Omar gripped his maul tightly as he caught sight of a lumbering shape coming from the northern hall. “No, lad,” the dwarf said calmly, “he just said to trust him.” The shape that came into view was a goblin, which Omar knew. What surprised him was that a goblin could stand nearly the height of a human. A large metal jaw piece was bolted to the goblin’s mandible, and his ground thumping strides chewed up the distance remaining to the dwarf, and a wicked greataxe was trailing above his head, ready to chomp into Omar ferociously. Omar was more prepared though, and strode forward to meet the charge, snapping his readied maul in a full revolution about his body before crashing it into the huge goblin’s shoulder. The crushing blow shattered the bones in his arm, and his axe swing faltered, missing the dwarf harmlessly. Oleaf stood and released her arrow, catching the goblin the other shoulder, and shot another arrow in the span of two seconds, catching the goblin through the belly. The huge goblin did not falter, only roaring in anger. Two more kobolds charged into the chamber from the south, one carrying a dragonscale shield, and the other wearing robes and wielding a rod; a dragonshield and wyrmpriest. The dragonshield charged over to the goblin’s aid, shouting out Irontooth in the Common tongue, but his short sword never reached Omar’s back as Daichot hooked the swing with his axe and spun the kobold about with the momentum of his charge, then counter swung the weapon into the kobold viciously. The wyrmpriest cried out an unknown name in draconic to spur on the dragonshield, and hurled an orb of conjured acid at the warlord, catching him fully in the chest with the attack. His armor sizzled in protest, but protected his flesh from the hungry substance, but not the force of the magical impact. Somehow, from the passage Irontooth had just charged out of, Percy rolled out of the darkness, and plunged both of his daggers into the towering goblin’s back, and the raging humanoid staggered to one knee as his lungs filled with blood. Oleaf loosed another arrow, and it slammed home into the goblin’s chest, turning it’s roars of pain and fury into gurgles of blood and choking. Daichot steadied himself from the impact of the priest’s attack and roared with wild rage thrusting his chest out as his war cry threatened to bring down the ceiling of the chamber from its power. He kicked the dragonshield away from the dwarf’s flank and charged across the chamber, clipping the retreating kobold priest across the side and spinning it about, leaving a trail of blood flaying away from it and splattering across the wall. Ignoring the kobold behind him, Omar’s muscles rippled with the power of his swing. The maul crashed into Irontooth’s face with an audible crack splitting his skull and driving the hulking goblin into the ground with a horrible shriek of tearing metal and flesh. Stooped low from the force of his blow, Omar was a prime target for the kobold behind him, bearing down with his sword, ready to impale the vulnerable dwarf. An arrow slammed into the creature’s side and two strides closer another arrow thudded into it only inches from the first, but its charge was not stopped. About to drive the wicked blade into Omar, a flurry of cloak and blades tumbled past the dwarf and sprang up before the kobold, catching it under the chin as Percy leapt into the air, burying his dagger to the hilt; the blade protruded from the top of the kobolds skull as it fell. Omar spun about, exhausted with the strain of his swings, in time to see Daichot cut down the wyrmpriest as it belched a spray of acid like a tiny dragon breathing fire. While he was caught by some of the blast, he lopped the foul thing’s head off before the attack overcame him. As the tiefling’s fury subsided, the wounds he had suffered started to grab at his frame, and the slumped against the wall of the chamber. “Is that…” he panted, trying to regain is breath, “all of… them?” Oleaf was favoring her leg as she knelt down to take the weight off the injured limb, and listened intently. “I think so.” Percy checked that the graze he had received was a minor one, and satisfied, turned to the dwarf, “I’m sorry about outside, Omar,” he apologized, “I should have counted better. But I’ve always got your backs, I promise.” Omar didn’t answer. He was staring dumbfounded at the ground in front of him, but not at the mangled, crushed body of Irontooth, nor at the twitching kobold Percy had saved him from. He was looking down at his maul, the family weapon that had been passed from each Irontoe father in his family to their son when they came of age. At least he was looking at the broken half, that wasn’t in his hands anymore. [/QUOTE]
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