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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Olgar Shiverstone" data-source="post: 289738" data-attributes="member: 5868">Chpt 4, finis.The next morning they again assembled in the common room of the Lit Lantern, and then departed, following Johann’s directions.  They soon found his house, by the east gate of the city, and walked around it to examine it.Their curiosity soon attracted a pair of guards from the east gate.  The two burly, mailed men strolled up, inquiring “And what do you think you’re doing?”“Examining this house for the owner.” Wodyn replied. “He had a problem with some goblins, and was afraid to come back.  He asked us to take a look first.”  “He should have come to the watch, first,” the guard replied haughtily.  “There’s nought that rabble like you will be able to solve.  Go on then, do your investigation.  We’ll be watching you from the gate.  Report anything you find to us, first.”  He strolled back to his post.“Aye, ranger,” Wodyn said to Strithe and Wodyn, “do yer ranger thing.  Look fer tracks ‘n all.”There were the marks of many goblin feet around the building.  They went through the back garden, and over the city wall at the rear of the garden, out on to open pasture.  The party left the city through the gate, and picked the trail up on the outside of the wall.  The tracks headed to the northeast, across the pastures away from the city.Strithe kept an eye on the trail, as the others went back into town to retrieve their assorted mounts.  Once mounted, they followed the trail out of town and into the farmland beyond.They had traveled about eight miles beyond the city walls when the tracks ended at an old farmstead.  The place looked deserted – nothing moved about the large house or barn, no livestock were grazing or in the corral.  The windows on the house weren’t boarded up, though, so the place had likely not been deliberately abandoned.  The adventurers dismounted to take a closer look at the place.  The majority of the tracks seemed to lead straight to the farmhouse door.“Cats!” Strithe suddenly hissed.  Olgar turned.  A pair of large, odd-looking cats were stalking slowly toward them.  They were lion sized, with dark spots speckled over tan fur.  The beasts showed large teeth and non-retractile claws.  Their heads looked odd, as if the skin on them was too large for their skulls.  A quick glance around revealed that while there were two approaching slowly in the open, five more of the beasts surrounded them.“Into the house – quick!” Wodyn called, and the group ran for the front door as their mounts whinnied in fear and bolted back to the west.  They just made the front door, diving in and slamming it behind them, as the lead cat let our a howl and sprang at them, snapping at Belarn’s heels.Catching his breath, Olgar turned and leaned against the door, looking at the interior of the farmhouse.  It was a single, large room, about fifty feet on a side.  All of what had been furniture was smashed to splinters about the floor.  But that was the least remarkable thing about the place.“I think we found ‘r greenies,” Olgar whispered.  Twenty pairs of eyes looked back at him, staring out of the heads of a number of short green-skinned humanoids with pointed ears and bad teeth.  Most of them held some sort of weapon – a crooked spear or wicked looking short sword.  Standing in the center of the room, towering over the smaller goblins, was a huge specimen over six feet tall.  It had the same basic build, green skin, and pointed ears, but also had a coat of brownish fur – a bugbear!  The creature was holding a long, finely crafted sword in two hands.“Er, greetings,” Strithe said, speaking in the Goblin tongue. “We are seeking a lost sword, and have heard that you may know of it.”“This sword?” the bugbear replied in broken Common, waving it about.  Electrical discharges crackled up and down the blade, and the goblins in the room tittered and cackled.  “Grog be keeping.  Drop weapons and gold, and Grog let you live!”“I don’t think so,” Belarn muttered, releasing an arrow into their midst.  The goblins charged, quickly surrounding the entire party, pushing them into a small cluster by the door.  Luckily, the first wave of attackers were rather small and weak, and were not able to penetrate any of the adventurers’ armor with their little swords.  The bugbear remained in pace, laughing, while behind him an oddly dressed goblin began chanting something in its own language.Belarn dove and tumbled, bouncing up behind a goblin that was facing Strithe.  Two quick thrusts of a dagger, and the goblin collapsed to the floor.  Strithe meanwhile was launching arrows into the throng of creatures, and Wodyn was swinging and the three who surrounded him, trying to clear a path to get at the bugbear.Suddenly there was a flash of light and heat, and half of the goblins collapsed, forming piles of little goblin corpses on the floor.  Nelum had thrown one of the gemstones from the magic amulet, and the resulting fireball had wiped out most of the goblins.  The bugbear looked lightly toasted, and swung his sword in anger.  Likewise, the chanting goblin and two of its bodyguards remained standing in the center of the blast.  The goblins closest to the group, who were outside the magical blast, attacked in a frenzy.Olgar ducked and weaved, calling a sword of spiritual energy into being, that he sent to attack the bugbear.  He then pulled his own sword, and slashed the legs out from under a goblin that was threatening him.The bugbear charged, hitting Wodyn twice in quick succession, cutting into the bug man’s armor and leaving gaping wounds in his arms and torso.  The creature left himself open, though, as Belarn tumbled behind him and stabbed him it the back of the knees with his magical dagger.Olgar jumped over the body of a goblin, striking the bugbear with his own sword and the spiritual weapon.  The bugbear collapsed in a heap.Strithe bounded forward and scooped up the sword the bugbear had been using.  Before the others could act, he pointed it at one of the remaining goblins and said “Drop your weapons and we’ll let you live.”  Short swords clattered to the floor, and the six remaining goblins lifted their arms in surrender.“Oughta just get rid o’em,” Olgar offered, as Strithe and Wodyn rounded up the prisoners and tied them securely ina group in the center of the room.  “What’re we gonna do, just leave ‘em?  They’ll be back raiding when th’ rest o’ th’ clan returns.”“I gave my word,” Strithe replied.  He held a brief conversation in Goblin with the prisoners, then turned to the others.  “They say they’re the only ones left of the tribe.  The cats killed and ate the rest.”“Ye’ll believe th’ word o’ a greenie who’s jus’ tryin’ t’ save its skin?” Olgar asked incredulously.  “Fine, have it yer way, then, but don’ blame me iff’n we see these greenies again.”  He concentrated on healing Wodyn’s wounds with his healing wand.“We have a problem,” Nelum said.  He was standing by one of the windows, peeking out from between the closed shutters.  “Those cats – they’re called krenshars, by the way – are still out there.  It looks like they’re waiting for us to come out.  They look hungry.”Olgar looked around the room.  There was no other exit – just the one door and a number of windows.“We won’t make it if we run for it,” Wodyn said.“Toss ‘em a dead greenie,” Olgar suggested.  “Mebbe once they’ve had their fill they’ll go away.  Or maybe a live one.”  This last while glaring at the prisoners.Wodyn shrugged, and then took a toasted goblin corpse and pushed it through the door, which he opened a crack and slammed again.“One’s sniffing it …” Nelum observed through the window, “… no, they don’t seem interested.  Guess they want live meat.”“Give ‘em the greenies,” Olgar suggested again.“No, we’ll have to fight our way out,” Wodyn said.  “Nelum, use your necklace.  Maybe you can get most of them, or scare them off.”Nelum nodded, and prepared to open the window to throw one of the magical gemstones out.  Olgar cocked his crossbow and crouched down behind the prisoners, covering Nelum at the window.Nelum flung the window wide and tossed the small gem out into the group of cats.  Olgar could hear them scraming and wailing as the gem went off, but at least one cat was untouched, because it bounded in through the open window, knocking Nelum to the floor.  Olgar immediately fired, and his bolt caught the cat in the throat, killing it.  Wodyn rushed forward and slammed the window shut, then dragged Nelum out from under the cat corpse.The other window, on the opposite side of the door, then burst open, as a singed cat jumped through it, landing full in the room.  It turned and screamed at Wodyn, who rushed it and received a mauling in return.  Nelum, who had by this time recovered both his feet and his wits, launched a bolt of magical energy at the beast, which knocked it to the ground.  The krenshar did not get up.After a few moments, it became clear that those were the last of the beasts.  Everyone caught their breath, and then, leaving the six goblins tied up, they returned to Oerid, carrying the recovered sword.Johann met them back at the Lit Lantern, and was overjoyed at the return of his heirloom sword.  He paid their fee, with a promise that they would say nothing more of this to anyone.Olgar was examining the want ads again.  “Says here someone’s havin’ a problem with some lizardmen …”TO BE CONTINUED …</blockquote>

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