Storm King's Thunder [CLOSED]

[ramonlimon2]

Taking a second look at the ogre that just felled Torem, Aseir opts to charge away.

The genesis readies his spear as he runs and slams full speed into the worg that bears down on Lycan. Pushing the advantage, Aseir readjusts his hands for a better grip and stabs the beast a second time before it can rear back and strike.

 

[Ellywyck27]

As the ogre takes out Torem with one swipe, all the strength drains from Ruth. His limp body lies at the ogre’s feet, who looks deadly even with sleep in it’s eyes. But she would never leave an ally fallen in battle. Ruthenia swings at the ogre’s knee, threatening, “Give us back the villagers or die!!!”

The makeshift ogre club smashes into her, breaking ribs and knocking the breath from her lungs. She nearly goes unconscious, but, alas, is full alert to hear (and smell) the sickening ogre roar in her face. Confirming the grip on her shield, she swings again with a prayer for the divine to smite through her hammer, enjoying the thunk of the landing blow to the kneecap.

Frightened and near to death, Ruthenia tries to run backwards toward the tunnel for better cover, but her legs don’t obey. She’s frozen in this spot.

 

[Baba Luga]

Moments later, the frantic fighting has stopped. From a hiding place inside the ogre's stalagmite-ringed nest, Bell is able to place an arrow in the wounded worg's brain. The beast's death weakens the harassing goblins' morale. WIth some of the pressure lifted, everyone is able to focus on the lumbering ogre, who, soon tires of the pricks of spear tips and the burning smites of Ruth's hammer, drops her improvised stalagmite club and wanders off to the mud pool at the other end of the cavern. With a great yawn, she settles down in the thick bath and, with snorts and growls of contentment, drifts off to sleep.

Seeing both ogre and worg removed, the remaining goblins cry in outrage and flee into the two western passages. Lecuis rushes over to his comrades and begins reciting little songs of healing, first to Ruth, then to Torem.

Five fingers swing the hammerhead
five fingers soothe the hammered head
that's my philosophy

Come back from the slums of the dead, sleepyhead
these caves run five more levels deep at least
there's an elephant-dragon down below
with a treasure horde for good girls and boys.​

Torem slowly opens his eyes and looks around. He grips Ruth's arm. "We made it?" he asks.

Lecuis brings Aseir's dropped bullseye lantern with him. The swinging beam illuminates the immediate area around this northeast corner of the cavern: the nearby pool, slimy and stagnant, looks seriously unhealthy. Ruth has seen more than one desperate soldier made seriously ill by drinking from such. A thin scummy runoff dribbles out of it, down the northeast passage, which in short order leads to a smaller sunken cavern. Now that the sounds of snarls, shouts and steel no longer fill the air, intermittent dripping can be heard through the ogre's echoing snores.

 

[ZombWie]

Bell stands up a little straighter after the last goblin falls dead. He checks over himself for any injuries gone unnoticed, none found the kenku walks back to the group. With a low whistle and a gesture Bell indicates that there is something interesting in the cluster of stalagmites in the center of the room.

Once he is sure the others have their priorities in order, Bell moves across the cavern toward the fallen goblins in the western section of the cave. He stoops to give the grubby monsters a quit pat down while trying not to breathe though his nares. Scooping up any intact arrows that he find he quickly refills his quiver and takes any that he may be able to salvage for Lycan who was firing off twice as many arrows as Bell. With a shake of his head the kenku wonders how he might increase his firing rate. Two shots in the time an enemy can take one is a handy feature to have, He will have to discuss technique with Lycan at a future time when they aren't elbow deep in goblin muck.

Satisfied with his inspection of the bodies and collection of arrows, Bell moves back toward the center of the room careful not to disturb the slumbering ogre. The fight could have been much worse if they put down that monstrosity. They will need to find another, safer way out if they manage to rescue the townspeople. So far, both entrances that the group has used have been less than welcoming.

Seeing that Aseir has the nest inspection under control Bell continues to the eastern side of the cavern and gives a nod to Lecuis and Lycan when he sees them. The worg and final two goblins are two close to the ogre, so Bell decides to forego a closer inspection. He gives a look in that direction, but doesn't approach the ogre's mud pool. If there is nothing to see Bell retreats to the nest inside the stalagmite ring and gives Aseir a shrug as if to say, What did you find?

 

[ramonlimon2]

With the immediate threats dead or gone, Aseir turns to exploring the cave more fully. The nest of stalagmites offers some shelter so he squeezes in between two of the jagged pillars.

 

[Ellywyck27]

Ruthenia, kneeling beside Torem, returns the grip on her arm, and says grimly, “You made it. There is more to come.”
She helps him stand and motions for him to stay there and to keep quiet. She herself cautiously joins Aseir to see what might be found among the stalagmites.

 

[Baba Luga]

Nestled in the stalagmite nest, among the moldy hides and blankets, the cracked tuns and burst sacks, Ruth, Aseir and Torem see what Bell found earlier. Aseir reflexively turns back and cannot look, while Ruth examines the body of a middle-aged woman that has been partly eaten in big radial bites, like an ear of corn. Torem stands at Ruth's side, watching her reaction, which he does his best to mirror. "Ogogla," he says. "She was one of the Osstra family; wheat farmers."

A slithering, shimmery sound creeps through the cavern. Lecuis lifts his head. "That's a gong," he says. "They're just rubbing it with the mallet, but still, nobody ever wrote a lullaby for gong." He nods in the direction of the snoring ogre.

"Truuuuce? Parlaaay?" a high, scratchy voice asks from one of the western passages. The soft, shimmering sound of the gong drones on from the same direction.

 

[ramonlimon2]

"Who's there? I can't see you, " Aseir says, moving toward the voice. "Come out from where you're hiding and we can negotiate terms."

 

[Baba Luga]

Aseir's focused lantern beam swings away from the ogre nest, leaving Ruth and Torem in the murk with the savaged corpse. Gliding across the far wall of the cavern, the light sparks off the beaten bronze disk of the gong Lecuis foretold, as the goblin who holds it steps partly out from one of the tunnels. She wears a chaotic headpiece of bird skulls and other oddments. It's like something Snikket, the kobold from Dr. Lurr's circus, might have donned for his "Fire Seer" act.

"I speak for Boss Hark," the goblin rasps, blinking her red eyes at Aseir. "You are the speaker for the basher-smashers. What do you wish? Why have you come bashing and smashing?" Her gaze flits down to the dead goblin archer near her feet, and she adjusts her grip on the mallet.

 

[ramonlimon2]

"What do I wish?" Aseir mutters to himself. He begins to pace in a tight line for a moment, considering the question.

Perking his head up, Aseir speaks with the practiced drawl of a circus announcer. Loud enough to command the audience's attention, just slow enough for speaker and listener both to savor each word while still building a tempo.
"First, my lady, a question. You have us at such a terrible disadvantage, for you know us but we do not know you." He bows deeply, capping it off with a flourish. "I am Aseir the Unbound, genasi of some local repute and the unquestioned leader of this band of Basher-Smashers. I would know the name of you who speaks for Boss Hurk, my partner in negotiation."

Aseir pauses for a moment to let the words sink in, before continuing, "pray tell me, madam, what is to stop us from making a clean exit at this moment right now? There is the ogre which you are threatening us to wake by one exit, that slimy monstrous thing by another." He spits the word thing with venom. "What option do we have if I choose to withdraw my Basher-Smashers without another fight?"

 

[Baba Luga]

The goblin comes a bit more into the light, makes a sort of curtsy, and says, "I am Snigbat, provisional nilbog to Boss Hark of the Bigwig Doombringers." She grins a sly, toothsome grin. "You want to go now? You are tired of bashing and smashing? No, then, do not wake up sleepy Nob, Aseir of the Basher-Smashers, for then there will be more bashing and smashing. Oh, but if you were to go back through the good-water tunnels and use your smashing on the Blob, with finality, Boss Hark would be well pleased I think, and give you a reward and your own big wig!"

 

[ZombWie]

The sound of a rasping goblin voice sends Bell right back into the fight. As Aseir continues talking with the goblin voice Bell nods and makes a circular gesture with his hand to suggest that they keep the conversation going. Bell flattens his back against a rock away from the sound of the voice and slides into the shadows as best he can.

 

[ramonlimon2]

"I don't think we'll leave just yet, madam nilbog," Aseir says, mind racing to keep ahead of his speech. "I would be much honored indeed to know the meaning of that word, 'nilbog.' Is it a title given to negotiators, such as our ambassadors?"

 

[Baba Luga]

"Yes, provisional nilbog is my title," says Snigbat, looking a bit puzzled at this direction in the supposed negotiations, "just as genasi of some local repute is yours. Do you plan to occupy the dripping cave, Aseir Unbound? Is that why you have come? It might seem to be all yours now, but soon Nob will finish her nap, and then our hunting party will return, and then Nob's mate will return, and then you won't live here any more." Having lived his whole life in the complete absence of goblin table talk, Aseir finds himself unable to discern the truth or falsehood of these claims.

 

[Baba Luga]

Working the shadows, Bell is negotiating the narrow strip between the stalagmite cluster and the snoring ogre Nob's mud pool when Snigbat spots him. "Gahhhh!" she cries out as she impulsively smashes the mallet against her gong. The sound echoes across the cavern repeatedly as Snigbat strikes the gong again and again. Nob's massive head lolls to one side and she unleashes a deep, guttural belch. Her right hand reaches up and flops onto the cave floor right in front of Bell's feet. Then she snorts and seems to descend back into the depths of slumber.

"Bad faith! Bad faith!" Snigbat shouts as she retreats out of sight.

 

[Ellywyck27]

Ruthenia listens carefully from the disgusting nest. The smashing gong sends her hastening out, hammer still in hand. Her dwarf vision would allow her to pursue the noisy goblin up the tunnel. But as she passes Bell, she realizes the others won’t be able to see as well. She plants her feet at the tunnel entrance, sets her shield, and calls back softly, “Is it better to set up an ambush and fight here in the light?”

 

[ZombWie]

Bell's answer to Ruthenia's question comes when he passes her and heads into the darkness. The kenku suspects the strange goblin will not stop to ambush them, but rather flee to raise an alarm. Bell moves as quickly as he can with his right hand feeling the wall beside him as he chases Nilbog. He also attempts to listen for the goblin's footsteps in the tunnel ahead.

 

[Ellywyck27]

Ruth is too surprised to react as Bell flies past into the darkness. She glares grimly. These idiots. Going to get killed. Yesterday Lecuis. Today Bell. No order. No training. What I wouldn’t give for a half dozen soldier companions who know how to fight as a cohesive—
Her inner monologue is interrupted as she holds her breath and listens. Did a body just hit the floor?

 

[ramonlimon2]

Aseir sighs and purses his lips, thinking of all the ways that could've gone better.

"I think it's best we press the advantage to explore a bit, see if we can find what we're looking for. Our main escape route should be the way we came in, I don't think they'll follow us there. If we get separated everybody flee where they can and we'll meet up at the Nostril."

 

[ZombWie]

The kenku should have known he would land on his tail feathers charging into the dark cave without any light. From his knees Bell hears the tell tale two swishes of Lycan's arrow volley fly above his head. Instead of pressing forward he wisely retreats behind his fellow rescuers. In the dark, Bell holds his head, trying to think of a plan. He is out of his element in this dark and damp hole. For now, the bird man will stay behind Ruthenia and her shield until an opportunity presents itself.

 

[Baba Luga]

And with that, the ball seems to have opened again. Ruth presses into the southern passage, felling a mad, charging goblin before the rats come. Driven by a distant goblin cry, seven of the huge beasts swarm from the passages on either side of the high ledge that Bell clambers up to. They are easy enough to kill, but in the melee, another goblin uses the cover of the north passage to fire a stealthy arrow that sends Aseir unconscious and on the brink of death yet again. Lecuis rushes out to pull his friend to a more concealed location behind a large stalagmite.

Meanwhile, Ruth presses on step by step through the tight passage choked with rat and goblin dead, an implacable four-foot, nine-inch juggernaut. More goblins make hit and run attacks, calling back behind them as they retreat around the bend. Back in the main cavern, Lycan, who has the keenest ears of anyone, hears the faint beating of a gong from somewhere out on the moors.

 

[Baba Luga]

Lycan calls for a general retreat, and the others follow, scooping up dropped equipment along the way. Working together, Lycan and Lecuis manage to carry Aseir out.

Once outside the cave, where the sight and smell of the nearby slaughtered horses is an unneeded reminder of goblin brutality, everyone can hear to high-pitched gong smashing. It seems to come from high up on top of the hill above the Nostril. Mists hover over the midday moorland, limiting vision, but there don't seem to be any onrushing hordes responding to the alarm. Torem looks back at the looming cavern mouth, then at Ruth, with an expression she recognizes all too well from all those setbacks against the orcs in the last war: the shameful sting of retreat, combined with the relief of living to fight another day. In this case, the guard has the added grief of not knowing which of the residents of Nightstone he could be leaving behind in that cave.

The expanse of the moorland offers little cover—an outcropping here or there, an assortment of miserably boggy declivities, the fog itself. As finding a place to revive Aseir is discussed, the small forest on top of the Nostril and the other cave system, Melvin's Bunion, about forty minutes hike from here, are the most obvious shelters, though neither is without its problems. A full retreat back to the walls of Nightstone could take two hours, or longer if the task of carrying Aseir slows the group down.

 

[ramonlimon2]

"Alright, we need to move. The Nostril is the closest place with any defensible quality, so I say we head there to regroup. No sense escaping the cave just to get hunted down in the moor." Lycan is grim-faced as he speaks, his lips pulled tight.

 

[ZombWie]

Bell follows along with the group, but he can't help but feel retreat is a mistake. Maybe it's the spirit of the fight or maybe it's blind stupidity, but he doesn't see an obvious next step in this fall back. Either way, the fresh air outside the cave revives his spirits a bit and he follows the group.

 

[Ellywyck27]

Ruthenia keeps her eyes peeled for any shapes moving in the distant fog.
“I think you mean the Bunion. Back where we found... Noas? I’ll carry his stuff.” She shoulders his pack, and leaves the taller folks to carrying Aseir’s limp body.