Part 2
First of all, sorry about the lateness of this update. My comp. crashed twice while typing this up (before I wised up and typed it on Word)
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Mik'tion was ready to repell the surface dwellers. A wizard, Mik was always scorned by the kobolds. Instead of harnessing his draconic blood, he had to learn magic by rote. While he knew enough magic to defend himself, he was nowhere near the power of the chief, so aspirations of ruling were pointless. What Mik really craved was acceptance in kobold society. And now, he thought he had a way.
Wheedled this command in the hopes that if he killed the invaders, he would have earned some acceptance into the tribe. He had a ballista, six archers, and himself. He had cast a simple spell to make the cavern look like a dead end. It was an ideal ambush situation. The archers and ballista fired, and Mik cast a spell to fire Magic Missiles at the half-orc.
The Half Orc took a ballista bolt hard, then had two bolts hit him in the arm. The halfling ducked under the bolts aimed at him, but seemed scared. The clerics armor deflected one of the bolts, while another got him in the knee.
Then things went wrong.
***
All three adventurers reached the conclusion that the dead end was an illusion, and they knew that the kobolds were shooting at them, though they reached that conclusion in different ways. Djora looked at the dead end and realized that it didn't reflect light quite right, so it had to be an illusion. Neek looked at the wall and realized that it wasn't quite the right color, so it had to be an illusion. Hulk knew that bolts don't fly out of walls, so it had to be an illusion.
Hulk jumped into the wall and rapidly took in the scene. A ballista was in the front, with a pair of kobolds manning it. Behind them, there were seven kobolds with crossbows.
Hulk charged the kobolds, and with two great swings chopped off six kobold heads. One of the remaining three hid under the ballista*, while the other two ran down the corridor.
*DM note: I removed the kobold figurine from the table after saying "one hides under the ballista" The players simply forgot about it! So I was able to save one of my "special" kobolds for a later battle.
Neek quickly drew his crossbow, and carefully took aim. Feeling a certainty that he would hit, he let the bolt fly. It seemed to slowly leave its stock, whistling through the air. Then it connected solidly with the kobold’s back.
Djora whipped out her own crossbow and shot the other running kobold in the back.
***
Mik had an invisibility spell ready, but he dared not cast it. If he did, the chanting would have alerted the humans. “You fool, you should have ran” he muttered to himself. He cautiously looked at the other two kobolds that had survived that initial, charging, attack. They were both dead, crossbow bolts in their backs. “On the other hand,” he muttered “excellent decision.”
***
The adventurers were victorious, and “knew” that the worst was behind them.
“Hah!” said Djora. “Well Neek, the worst is behind us now. I admit, they were rather clever with that illusion, and the ballista was good, but we’ve just destroyed their defenses. They may still have an arrow trap or two, but the worst is past.”
“Don’t get over-confident Djora,” Neek said, “They may have good traps of powerful leaders. Or both.”
“Powerful leaders my foot! We already killed their mage, without even knowing who he was. *”
*It was at this point when I had to hide behind my DM screen to conceal the evil smile on my face. They were just BEGGING to get killed.
Hulk groaned to get Djora’s attention. “Heal please?’
Djora healed him, and said, “Should we go down this passage, or double back and take the other turn?”
“Keep going” Neek said.
“Double back, Hulk.”
“Yes miss”
The trooped down the passage, took the other turn, and walked and walked. Hulk was the first to notice that the cave was growing steadily small. He made this observation by nearly giving himself a concussion on the ceiling.
“Tunnel too small, Neek go first.” He grunted.
Neek walked to the front of the party, drew his two shortswords, and flourished them before walking on. The passage got steadily smaller, until even Neek had to bend over, and the other two were crawling. Then Neek spotted something.
“Up ahead! It looks like a metal wall!” Neek shouted. “Only… it has holes in it!”
A crossbow bolt shot from one of the holes, speeding down the tunnel.