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Message: <blockquote data-quote="arwink" data-source="post: 480712" data-attributes="member: 2292">Wednesday, August 16th, 518 AF The moathouse isn't the imposing sight the group was expecting.  They crest a nearby hill in the dim light of the morning, having left a sleeping Del by the ashes of their fire.  The Moathouse lies below them, a ramshackle ruin barely larger than a manor house.  The upper story of the small keep has fallen in, the moat has turned to a dank bog and the tower has crumbled to rubble.  Only the short walls that suround the building and the bare remains of the Boathouse itself remain, and even then the roof has caved in at various points.  While the party was expecting sinister, but instead they find themselves underawed by the supposed site of evil."Arg," Durhon curses.  "What a crock.""There's still a dragon," Taranos reminds him.  "That's not something to look forward too.""Like we're trusting the word of a looney who wanders the hills alone and can't properly cure a hide."Durhon tries to grin, but a faint undercurrent of fear can be detected in his voice.  He tightens his grip on his enchanted greataxe, ready for everything.The four companions head down the hill towards the ruined gate.  They can see a boggy pool of water filled with reeds near the path, but more worrying is three strong timber planks laid accross the ruined remnants of a drawbridge."Someone's been here recently," Warwind comments.  Everyone nods and starts heading for the drawbridge.Yip's emotions are calm this morning, and he feels a sense of inner peace he hasn't achieved since before the start of the war.  The feeling of hunting those who break the law, even such a simple law as those favored by Hommlet's locals, brings a sense of wellbeing he'd almost forgotten.  Perhaps its because of this inner peace that his senses become more attuned, and he's the only one of the party to notice a rustling in the reed-filled pool."Something moving," he hisses.  He pulls a fistfull of shiruken from the folds of his robe and drops into a defensive stance.  The rest of the party turns to follow his gaze."I don't see anything," Durhon complains.  "Bloody runts seeing things."Yip shakes his head."No, something there.  Definately."The reeds remain gently blowing in the breeze.  Taranos, Warwind and Durhon exchange glances - it's obvious Yip thinks there's something there, and they aren't heading forward until someone investigates.  Durhon suddenly realises that everyone's looking at him expectantly."What?" he grumbles.Taranos points at the pool."Yer kiddin me," Durhon says, but he moves closer to the pool none the less.  He walks up to the pool, armor clanking, and pokes at the reeds with his axe.  "See," he says over his shoulder, "Baint nothin' in here."About this point a sticky, pink tendril shoots out of the reeds and wraps itself a round the dwarf.  Durhon gives a short cry as the tendril wraps his arms close to his body, trapping his waraxe too close to his chest to be manavuered.  Everyone reacts at once, rushing to the waters edge with bows, crossbows and shiruken prepared, looking desperately for something to aim at.  They find nothing, and within seconds Durhon has managed to struggle his way free.  He backs away from the pool, axe at the ready, and everyone follows suite."Right," he orders.  "Everyone avoid the water."Warwind sniffs at the dwarves stench."How's that different from your normal policy."They give the reed sodden pool a wide berth and cross over the drawbridge.  They hide for a moment in the remains of an old gatehouse, small but serviceable enough to give them cover.  Durhon and Yip lean out past the ruined remains of the gates and look accross the courtyard.  There's a good eighty to a hundred feet between their hiding spot and the main doors to the keep, and the interior they can see betyond the main doors is murky to say the least.  There are also arrowslits, about half a dozen, that remain in the walls that haven't yet falled in.  Both of them go back to hiding.  If someone, or something, was planning an ambush, this is the obvious place."Go scout the doors," Durhon tells Yip.  The kobold doesn't look pleased at the prospect."Look, yer's the smallest and the quietest," Durhon says.  "Ye also smell the worst.  If there's something out there, maybe it wont want to take a chunk out of you.  We'll be here.  If something jumps at you, I'll be there to axe it down faster than you can scream."Yip looks to Taranos and Warwind for support, but they merely ready bow and crossbow and nodded support for Durhon's plan."There is no individual, only the team," Yip thinks, a mantra from his training.  Somehow, it had a lot more resonance when his team were similarly devoted kobolds.  He lets out a small sigh and prepares to creep into the courtyard.Yip keeps his senses alert and his mind focus.  Staying close the walls doesn't seem like a good option - he's had one bad experience to many with arrow slits in thives dens, so he tries to look small and innoffensive as he crawls towards the centre of the courtyard.  He crawls on all fours, close to the ground, and does his best to stay in the shadow of the keeps upright walls.  It's not a lot of concealment, but it may be enough.  He gets halfway to the keeps main doors when he realises its not.A draconic head, Lizardlike and covered with dark, heavy scales, lifts itself from the shadows of the doorway.  Yip's senses screaming danger and he reacts instinctively, his arm reaching for his shiruken and flinging them at the door.  Two of the throwing blades embed in the rotting wood of the door, while a third skitters uselessly of the stone wall.  Yip has enough time to curse his luck before the dragons jaws open, and the smell of ozone cuts through the air seconds before a blast of lightning leaps across the courtyard...</blockquote>

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