Run down, run up! It's the stairmaster exercise plan!
Session #19: "The Goblins get a Surprise"
RL evening of Oct 16, 2003
"Quit yer yapping...err...Hey!"
Riva looked up from sharpening his axe at the top of the stairs. A few short steps below were a group of goblins, casually walking up, talking in low tones. They had bags slung over their shoulders, their weapons were stowed, and they shared looks of astonishment with the dwarven battlerager. Obviously, neither of them had expected the other to be there. And certainly not this close.
Riva stared at the goblins. The goblins stared back.
The goblins reacted first. Hoping to escape outside, they charged past Riva, past Tieran, past Lissia...and ran straight into Kytum-up, Garret, and the rest of the party. The lead goblin tried to bowl the kobold over and rush past, but Kytum-up rebuffed him. All drew blades, and the battle was joined.
Still in partial darkness, Tieran threw a flask of alchemist fire toward the rear of the goblin line charging up the stairs. Thaile added to the goblins' confusion by casting a
hold spell on the goblin lead captian. Then Riva waded in, greataxe swinging. Within a few short moments the goblins that remained alive fled back down the stairs, with Riva, Garret, Kytum-up, Tieran, and Rowan in hot pursuit. Slowly but surely, as the two groups raced down the stairs, taking one left turn after another, the goblin group was whittled away......five goblins....four goblins.....three goblins.....two goblins.....one goblin......
Thaile and Lissia stayed behind for a moment. After the halfling and kobold paladins were around the corner.....they quickly and efficiently slit the three captive goblins' throats. "So they won't cause us trouble later," muttered Thaile, as the once-farm-girl Lissia looked askance. Once done, the two women hustled down the stairs, to join their companions in battle.
At the bottom of the long, twisted stair the last surviving goblin raced out into a large, pitch-black room. Without hesistation, Riva followed. (His raging and his darkvision should prevent problems, right?) He was soon surrounded by surprised and excited goblins, their small spears trying their best to taste dwarvish blood. Kytum-up too went into the great room, but the rest stayed behind in the stair-hall, waiting crucial seconds for Tieran to bring up the torch so they could see. They could hear the dwarf and the kobold in the room, fighting hard. Rowan paused for a few moments, focused her divine power, and summoned a dire wolf to appear at the bottom of the stairs. Once the torch light had reached the room, Garret rushed passed the wolf, on his mount Bavic, and lanced the first goblin he could reach.
The room in which they fought was roughly circular, 50 feet across, with a ceiling some 30 feet high. Part of the ceiling had collapsed ages ago, and a huge mound of rough stone sprawled across the center of the room, forming a sort of hill.
Arrayed across the hill were 20 or 30 goblins, with bows, spears, or morningstars, and they surrounded the adventurers as best they could. Rowan made that more difficult by summoning another wolf (regular size this time, thanks). The goblins in front gave way.
But there were more goblins - many more - and they swarmed out of the two side passages of the room. Thinking quickly, Tieran strode into the room, and cast his most powerful spell. With a few arcane words and gestures, most to the room, including the side passages, were covered with a magical web. Most of the goblins were stuck fast, and those few that weren't would be dealt with quickly. And if the web should happen to catch on fire.....roasted goblin. The goblins were defeated! The adventurers moved in for the kill.....
(
At this point, Thaile's player turned to the DM and said, "Hey. Your being awfully quiet. You're not mad we're defeating them, are you?" The DM looked up with a sort of distracted air, "What? Oh no, not at all. I'm just thinking." An expectant silence fell over the table.)
.....and suddenly the adventurers heard dark arcane mutterings from the other side of the chamber. In an instant, their side of the room was covered in a familiar magical web, trapping them all. Then even more goblin archers came out from behind the pile of rubble, and they heard a shouted order in the goblin language.
"What did it say?" shouted Riva, struggling in the web nearest the edge and the goblin archers.
"It said 'Everyone shoot the dwarf'," said Kytum-up grimly, as he too, struggled to free himself.
"Figures." muttered Riva, straining against the entrapping webs.
"Everyone! Get out!" yelled Garret, "Tieran, use your torch to burn us a path to Riva! Riva, light a torch and get out of there!"
Goblin arrows thudded into the stout dwarf as he complied. Thaile and Lissia had at last reached the bottom of the stairs from their bloody business above, and they too lit torches to help clear a path of retreat for their companions. It was slow work; even a brightly burning torch could only clear away a few square feet of the web at a time. And any that were trapped in web burnt themselves to get free. Riva's life-blood was draining away, through more goblin arrow holes than even Tieran could count. The goblin arrows rained down.
Then they heard the dark arcane voice again.
It was a black, twisted phrase, which left a unclean feeling upon them. The sound covered them in inky, cloying blackness for a moment, and the darkness of it caused their souls to ache. Both Tieran, Riva, and Garret's war-dog Bavic nearly died from it. They shook off it's effects as best they could, then fled up the stairs, counting their blessings that they had been able to carve a free path to Riva in time.
The goblins did not, apparently, follow.
Rowan said:
From the journals of Rowan, Druid of Eaglesford
...So, in short, we escaped with our lives - and we managed to kill some of them. But there were a heck of a lot more of them down below, and Riva is telling me as I tend his wounds that almost all of their arrows were poisoned. From the look of the black goo around his wounds, I'd have to agree with him. And there's also that goblin wizard to deal with.
We've talked about what happened below and what we should do next as I write this. While we talk we're using our remaining healing magic. I'm not sure we've made up our minds, but it's clear we've got to do something, and soon, because.....
Riva got into the room the farthest, and he says that he saw some humanoid figures hanging upside-down on poles toward the back of the room. He thinks they're elves, and he thought he saw at least one still moving. He also saw......he also thinks he saw that they didn't have any....that they have been scalped. Scalped. The goblins we've been running into up until now have always had little....scraps of stuff tied to their belts. I guess I'd always thought it was bits of animal skins. I guess I know different now....
...
While we've been talking, Thaile's been going through the goblin loot we've found. I put the caltrops on the stairs below us, and Lissia has got the ballista ready and aimed down the stairs, so I guess we're safe enough for the moment. One of the things she's found is an ivory and wood bracelet of interlocking hands. When Garret and I heard this, we looked it over; we're both pretty sure this was an item the gnomish peddler Jingles had offered to sell us a month ago. It allows the user to cast the spell "mage hand". How did it get here? Is Jingles the one working with the goblins? Could he have been the one Thaile saw last night?
There was also a brooch of orcish make of a dragon's eye, with a ruby center. Carved around the edges are draconic words for sight and seeing. I put the brooch on and began saying the words. One of them activated it.....my sight was...different?
I look down the stairs......The caltrops at the base of the stair are moving. Garret is at the top of the stairs, his back turned, talking to me.....he doesn't see what's coming up the stairs....!!!!
But I do.
End of Session #19
