Part 3
Neek ducked under the bolt, and Hulk’s armor deflected it. Two more bolts shot down the tunnel, but both hit the sides before reaching the adventurers.
Neek reacted first, scuttling up the tunnel and motioning the others to go back. “I got a plan,” he mouthed.
Hulk ignored Neek, and crawled up the tunnel at full speed. Djora raised her shield and cautiously advanced up the tunnel.
More bolts shot out of the holes, and this time one hit Hulk in the leg. He grunted in pain and kept crawling.
Neek reached the grate, stabbed a shortsword into one of the holes, and was rewarded with a high-pitched scream on the other side of the grate, but his face sagged as he heard another kobold step up to the shield. To his surprise, the kobolds seemed to have given up firing at them. Unfortunately, he saw bottles of acid attached to metal bars extend out. Neek scoffed. As if he’d be stupid enough to place himself in the direct path of the holes. Then his wide grin turned into a grimace of pain as one of the bottles smashed into his side. Neek realized that the bars were bent at a 90-degree angle, so that they could twist at him.
Djora kept up her slow crawl, and Hulk kept going full speed.
Neek dodged the other two flasks, but he knew that he couldn’t keep it up forever. Neek silently cursed Djora for her arrogance and smashed his shoulder against the metal shield. It shuttered and slid back an inch, but seemed determined to stay in place.
The kobolds flicked their acid flasks around some more, and managed to smash another one into Neek.
Neek grunted in pain again and smashed his shoulder against the wall again. This time, he was rewarded with a heavy crash as the iron murder-wall fell to the ground. Neek drew both shortswords and prepared to make mincemeat out of the five very surprised kobolds behind the door.
***
Mik’tion cautiously came out from under the ballista. The tales must be true, he marveled. Humans were stupid after all! Mik quickly ran down the passage, ready to tell the other kobolds the first rule of fighting the invaders: STAY AWAY FROM THE HALF-ORC!
***
The five kobolds ran down the tunnel, scared by the Halfling. Neek sheathed his shortswords and drew out his crossbow, but cursed as the kobolds ran around the corner.
***
Mts’Hrnas waited silently over the corridor when he saw his friends run by. He was in a nitch above the passage, with two pitchers of oil poised to get the next one that came by. While they could easily see him if they came in the direction of the main cave, he would be nearly undetectable if they came from the side of the entrance. A small candle was at his side, and he knew from past experience that they would be badly burned, if not killed. Mts was fully ready to sacrifice his life for the tribe, a trait few kobolds possessed. He supposed that was why he had been given this post.
***
Neek waited for his companions to catch up to him. When they did, he Djora healed him, and Neek tore into her.
“I thought they wouldn’t be a problem!” He shouted. “Why don’t you go first, so you can be almost killed by these ‘Not a problem’ little buggers!”
“Fine”, Djora said. “It’s simple really. They had one serious defense for each passage. The rest of this won’t be a problem. I’ll take point, since you’re so scared.”*
*DM note: I almost cracked up at this point. As it were, I had a “coughing fit”
***
Mts had to wait for quite a while until the humans came. When the first one, a heavily armored human, came down the passage, he dumped the oil on her. Just as the first drops hit, she looked up. The look on her face as two pints of oil hit her was a treasure. Mts threw the candle.
