Revenge on the mountainside...
Dragging out the body of their foe, and momentarily leaving the issue of the crystal on one side, they check out the remainder of the room – and find a huge passage stepping down towards a cave mouth and the outside!
Very wary of an ambush, Trajan and M’ir work their way down the passage, using ropes that must have been left there by the goblins to descend to the first passage and then to the “balcony” at the cave mouth – a wide semicircular platform with piles of boulders, javelins and arrows. A quick search shows nothing hiding on any of these areas, so they start peering down the side of the mountain – and catch sight of a gnoll attempting to climb quickly down the sheer slope.
Grinning with glee, M’ir starts hurling rocks down the mountainside at the gnoll, shouting out “try some of your own medicine, you b******!). Trajan joins in with a few well-aimed arrows, and the gnoll is dislodged, and falls howling to his doom. A 650ft fall at that point makes for quite a long howl.
Checking further, M’ir’s keen eyes spot the goblin well hidden somewhat further down, and he starts launching a few more boulders. The sound of hammering wafts up from below, and they see the goblin gesturing at them ferociously as he lets out a long, long line of rope – then quickly abseils the rest of the way down to the scree slope.
Figuring that the goblin isn’t going to be a further threat, they go back to investigate the glowing blue crystal.