"The Burning Plague" by Miguel Duran (WotC Free Adventure) - Part 5
Crouching at the door with his companions in a ring behind him, Mantreus strains his ears for any sign of inhabitants in the area beyond. Given the amount of noise the group has already made, he is sure that anything in the room would be alert to their presence, but he figures there might be a chance of learning something.
Hearing nothing, he straightens and - with a shrug at the others, who ready their weapons - the sorcerer pushes open the doors.
The group are greeted by two crossbow bolts, fired wildly by a pair of kobolds, which crouch behind an upturned table on the opposite side of the room. Against the bunched and flat-footed adventurers, these are both embarrassingly bad shots: but given the terrified expressions on the faces of the outnumbered humanoids, it is hardly surprising that their aim was less than steady.
The adventurers scatter for cover. Most head into the room, ducking behind tables, but Twinkle chooses instead to scream and dive behind the now open doors. Unfortunately, she happens to be carrying the group's lantern. With the light source now blocked by the timbers of the door, the room is plunged into darkness.
"Twinkle!" the Padre bellows his frustration - a futile exercise, given the gnome's deafness - and fires blindly at the kobolds. There's the sound of splintering wood as his shot punches through the kobolds' table, but no squeal of pain from the creatures themselves. Mantreus and Anastria also fire, but have no more luck.
Trying to peer through the crack of the door jam, Twinkle sees only darkness. Realising suddenly that the others can see nothing without her lantern, she shouts an half-hearted apology and scuttles out into the room, diving behind a row of chairs as the kobolds once more shoot wildly at the adventurers. At least the Company members had the excuse of near blindness to explain their lack of marksmanship.
Tiring of the impasse - and apparently suffering a loss of his instinct for self-preservation - Mantreus rushes forward, calling on his magical arts to cast a wave of fire over the cowering kobolds. A gout of flames sprays from his hands, charring the top of the table as it washes over the two humanoids.
Impressive as this action is, it proves largely ineffectual. The now blackened table shelters the kobolds from most of the flames, leaving them both only lightly scorched. To add injury to insult, one of the two actually pops up and shoots the sorcerer at point blank range. Mantreus falls back, his arm bleeding from the grazing wound.
The sorcerer's move has given his companions an opening, however, and the Padre charges forward, smashing the plucky kobold to the ground with a single swing of his heavy mace. Immediately, the second creature turns and flees, running toward an opening in the right hand wall.
"Somebody shoot it!" the Padre bellows, but the small humanoid is too fast: Anastria is the only one with a bow ready and she lacks the time to aim before the kobold disappears into the tunnel.
It doesn't get very far, however: a few seconds later its voice can be heard, raised in high-pitched yips of terror as it hammers on something that gives off a hollow sound.
Grabbing the lantern from the still-cowering Twinkle (the gnome has her arms over her head, and is oblivious to the fact that the combat is over), Stormstrider moves so that the light will shine down the tunnel. This reveals the frantic kobold banging at a closed door, possibly trying to force it open, though if so it is the most futile display the group has ever seen.
Still smarting from the failure of his burning hands, Mantreus speaks a string of arcane words and then gestures, a bolt of energy flying from his fingers to explode against the back of the creature's head, dropping it instantly.
With the efficiency of experienced corpse-robbers, the adventurers loot the bodies, netting only a pitiful handful of coins and a couple of serviceable light crossbows.
"Neither of them has the key." Mantreus reports, ignoring the absurdity of the kobold banging on the door if it had the means to unlock it. The still deafened Anastria and Twinkle stare at him blankly, while the Padre harrumphs, as if the news is a personal affront.
"There's probably more of these things behind that door." He reasons, "Just waiting to fill us with arrows when we get it open. These two were just the tripwire to let the rest of 'em know we're coming." He pauses, gauging the width of the corridor, "Give me a hand with one of those tables. It should just fit in there, and we can use it as a barricade when we open the door."
No-one objects, though Anastria and Twinkle are momentarily perplexed when it appears that Stormstrider and the Padre have decided to enter a career as furniture movers. Leaving Rose to pantomime their intentions to the deaf members of the group, the priest and the ranger manhandle the table into the narrow corridor. It's a very tight squeeze, and there are many stops and starts and muffled curses, before the table is finally in place.
"Right." The Padre claps his hands together in satisfaction, "Now we just pick a lock, tie a rope to the door, and pull it open once we're all safely behind the table."
Rose stares at him for a few moments, then stares at the door.
"We didn't bring any rope." She says, quietly.
The Padre blinks,
"Pardon?"
"We didn't -"
"No, I heard you. I just don't understand." The Padre pauses and stares at the others, "There are six of us. Adventurers all. Three of you are rogues, by the gods! Are you telling me that none of us have a rope?"
"I have a grappling hook." Mantreus offers, brightly.
"But no rope." The Padre shakes his head, "What do you plan to do with just a grappling hook? Scale really short walls?"
"The rope's in the wagon." Rose clarifies, "Which we left in town."
"It's a whole day there and back." Mantreus shakes his head, "We're going to have to open the door and take our chances."
The Padre is not willing to give up on his plan that easily.
"One of us could go over the table and open the door, then leap back to safety."
"Leaving the rest of us to catch their arrow-filled corpse?" Mantreus snipes, no doubt in revenge for the Padre's earlier comment.
Stormstrider shrugs,
"Let's just get the table out of the way, open the door, and kill everything in the room."
They go with that plan.
