[KAUAI]The Rod of Seven Parts: Of Hexes and Gems

[CanadienneBacon]

The alcove is shallow at first glance, and then Maelicent spies what looks to be a small hidden door concealing some sort of room beyond. Standing on Voadam and easing his fingertips into the well-hidden crevice on one side of the small door, Maelicent pushes the door into a recess in the cave wall. The door itself opens to a hole about the same size, some two feet round in diameter. There's a short drop to a cave floor beyond and the room itself is lair-sized for maybe two goblins aplenty. Inside the small dark cave are what looks to be four miners' excavation tools, one length of moth-eaten thick hemp rope that reeks of mildew, and a moth-eaten cot. Just how the moths got in here to feast is an unknown.

 

[Ambrus]

Maelicent crawls up into the small room beyond, picks up the four picks and returns to the crevice to hand the tools down to Voadam below. Curious about the small space, the goblin executes a quick search of the room before crawling back out to rejoin the giant-kin; sliding the small door closed behind him.

 

[Voadam]

Letting out a sigh, Maelicent returns the arrow to the quiver at his right hip before taking the few steps over to Voadam. The goblin places his boot heel into the proffered hand and climbs up to retrieve the contents of the now-obvious alcove. Through gritted teeth Maelicent spits a question: "So what manner o magic brought ya down ta size?"

"Gamad is a transmuter, he does changing magic. It is a spell I never considered using before but now that I am actually experiencing it I can see the advantages of this size. Every target will be twice as large in perspective and I can feel the difference in . . . mass. I don't think I can swing as hard, but I'm so much lighter that I can swing faster, freer. And there is a little trick of the magic with throwing things that I think will work with my combat darts."

Voadam takes the proffered picks and heads back to the entrance with Maelicent. "Any signs of other inhabitants here? Your eyes are better for seeing in these conditions." Voadam will pass out a pick to Brakkus so he can begin work on that end.

 

[Ambrus]

The goblin glares at the back of Voadam's neck, uncertain if the human was purposefully mocking him or not. "Naw. Nothin else in here." Considering that he'd missed the alcove Maelicent sounds less than confidant with his assertion, yet can't think of what else to say. "So Albino's gonna use more magic ta get tha rest a ya giant-kin in here then? How's it come ta be tha y'all have so much damned magic?

 

[SlagMortar]

Brakkus takes the pick from Voadam. He props his guisarme to the side of the cave and asks Gamad, "So where's the best place to start to work? Dwarves always know all the weak points in rock, right?"

 

[Voadam]

The goblin glares at the back of Voadam's neck, uncertain if the human was purposefully mocking him or not. "Naw. Nothin else in here." Considering that he'd missed the alcove Maelicent sounds less than confidant with his assertion, yet can't think of what else to say. "So Albino's gonna use more magic ta get tha rest a ya giant-kin in here then? How's it come ta be tha y'all have so much damned magic?

"No. He could only perform the magic upon one person, casting the spell upon me exhausted his power in that regards for the night so we still need to break open the entrance a little more for everybody else to enter. As for how he has the magic, he is a wizard like me. That is why I had my eye on him in the Golden Cockatrice. He has gone through years of training to learn and master the arcane arts."

 

[Ambrus]

Feeling once more out of his element, the frustrated goblin considers asking some of the many questions he has about his allies' experience with magic but instead chooses to drop the subject for the time being. "Well if ya's gonna start whackin at tha rock with those things you's gonna let everythin aroun and under us know we's up here right quick. There's a crevice at the back end of this cave heading down deep. I'd best sit back there an make sure nothin comes up ta get'cha all." Without much more than a nod of his horned helmet, the Gudwulf warrior descends towards the rear of the cave to find himself a concealed vantage point on the edge of the crevice so that he can see anything coming up. Settling in, Maelicent draws a black fletched arrow from the quiver at his hip and nocks it to his bow string.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

His bow on his lap with an arrow notched, Maelicent settles in to watch the rear tunnel entrance. Aside from the occasional drip of water into the pool, the cave is perfectly still. If it weren't for the loud pickwork going outside on the ledge, the environ might even be called serene. The rock is good, solid quarry and resists being picked. After half an hour of work, the crack at the front of the cave is wide enough for Brakkus, Chev, and Gamad to worm through. Down below, Mazzel waves a last goodbye as the last of the companions shimmy through the crack. By the time everyone is inside, it is full on dark. Save for Voadam's lit torch, there is no source of light in the terraced cave.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Well before the others enter the cavern, Voadam suddenly resizes to his normal height, as does his gear with him.

 

[Mista Collins]

Entering the cavern, Chev takes in what he can see in the torchlight.

"While we were working on opening the entrance up a bit more, I got to thinking." Chev says everyone is standing there. "I think those gnomes are mistaken. It isn't a frog this fish creatures, known as kuo-toa, worship. It is more of a lobster. And the story of throwing lightning is true. Their clerics can call upon Blipdoolpoolp, whom they worship fervently, to be able to do this. It requires a certain number of them to be together to do so. The more that there are, the stronger it will be. They are great swimmers also. And be wary of their skin, it may look slimy, but in fact is really sticky."

Realizing he is starting to get as wordy as Voadam on one of his smaller rants, Chev smiles. "This is only true if they are in fact, mistaken."