Winter's Log: Part 4
We pressed on. I now had double my original amount of daggers, making me twice as useful in ranged combat. That wasn't my primary function, however. I had originally been hired to find and disable traps. Nobody but Jonah seemed to realize it, though, so I waited to see how long I could get away with allowing the others to trigger traps.
As Quince opened a door, a bell sounded and two javelins flew directly into his chest. At this point, the monk had been spending more time on his back than a drunken whore. But I didn't have time to pause and laugh at his misfortune. I dragged his unconscious body out of the way and ducked into the room. Thank the gods for my ability to step lightly! There were caltrops all over the floor that I narrowly avoided stepping on.
The room itself was more like a corridor with a half-wall in the middle. Two goblins were crouched behind the wall, preparing to throw more javelins at us. But Crons didn't give them the chance. In a blaze of glory, he ran out, trampled right over the caltrops, and cleared the wall with a single bound. Then he swung his axe and cleaved through both goblins in one sweeping motion.
As soon as everyone picked their jaws up off the floor, Jonah helped Quince back to his feet. Then he gave me a stern look and suggested that I be the one to check for traps from now on. I mumbled, "Yeah, okay," which is as close to a promise as I was going to give him. I was still in awe of Crons. That was the single most incredible thing I'd ever seen. I'm just glad he's on my side.
The next hall had a similar set up, but there was a curve to it. We saw the goblins practicing throwing their spears before they ever saw us. And as they went to retrieve their spears, we got the drop on them. The fight was over quickly. One of the goblins was carrying a key... A key that we used to open one of the doors on the side of the chamber.
This room was currently being used to hold prisoners. A few kobolds were tied up in a corner. On the other side of the room was a sleeping gnome in a cage that was a little too small for him. We first freed the kobolds, who chittered in their strange language with Meepo. After a moment, the kobold prisoners took off.
The commotion had awoken the caged gnome. He was dirty, hungry, clothed only in tattered rags, and clearly uncomfortable in his small cage. I took pity on him and picked the lock on his cage, freeing him. Then I offered him some rations from our supplies. He ate gratefully and thanked me.
The gnome's name was Erky Timbers. He'd been imprisoned and tormented for about a year, he said, though I'm sure the days were all a blur to him. He imagined he was only still alive and healthy due to the fact that he was a cleric of Kreyn. He knew nothing about Meepo's dragon, but he knew a little of the missing adventurers. He said three of them (the fourth being the one we'd already found dead) had been taken deeper into the dungeon, because the Outcast wanted them. The Outcast, he said, was an evil druid named Belak. Well that certainly explained the connection between the stick creatures, or twig blights as they were called, and the enchanted fruit.
Since he'd clearly seen quite enough hardship, I offered to let Erky escape the dungeon. The rest of my party seemed surprised at my sudden compassion. But they don't know what my life has been like. I'm very familiar with suffering, and I felt a kinship with the little gnome. He declined my offer, anyway, saying he had a year's worth of torture to repay the goblins. He armed and armored himself by looting the goblin corpses outside the room and joined us as a temporary party member.
The next room of note that we came upon was a long, wide corridor decorated with carvings of dragons in the support pillars. It was quite lovely, if one is into that sort of thing. There were several doors leading off the hall. The first one on the right led to a medium-sized room. Almost everything in the room had been overturned or broken by some sort of rampaging creature, and there was ice all over the floor. Hiding under a table in the back of the room was a tiny white wyrmling: the kobolds' pet dragon.
It apparently was not pleased to see us, especially Meepo, because immediately it sucked in some air to unleash its icy breath. "Don't kill it!" Meepo shrieked while he took cover in the hallway behind us. Great, so we had to somehow subdue a miniature dragon that had absolutely no reservations about killing us. As we rushed forward to get into range, Quince slipped on the ice and fell down. Crons and I had to laugh despite our situation.
After a valiant struggle in which the wyrmling got off three blasts of its breath weapon, we finally managed to knock it out and tie it up. We decided it was in our best interest to start heading back to kobold territory before the dragon woke up. Yusdrayl was certainly pleased to see us return with her pet, and she offered us a choice in our reward. In the end, we took the key that was presented, as none of the other items were particularly useful. Meepo also thanked us for securing his position in his tribe as the dragon's keeper.
After a bit of rest, the six of us (Crons, Quince, Midian, Jonah, Erky, and myself) returned to the goblin territory. One door I opened led to a huge room with dozens of goblins inside. Most of them were non-combatants (women and children), but still I felt some tactics were in order. I closed the door again and consulted with my party members. Someone pointed out that there was still a portion of the dungeon that we hadn't yet explored: All the way back in the beginning, the circular chamber with two doors. We'd taken the one on the right, leaving the one on the left undisturbed.
It didn't seem like it was going to directly help with our current goblin problem, however, there was always the potential to find better equipment. Also, it was a way of delaying our inevitable confrontation with the masses of goblins. So once again, we retraced our steps.
As Quince opened a door, a bell sounded and two javelins flew directly into his chest. At this point, the monk had been spending more time on his back than a drunken whore. But I didn't have time to pause and laugh at his misfortune. I dragged his unconscious body out of the way and ducked into the room. Thank the gods for my ability to step lightly! There were caltrops all over the floor that I narrowly avoided stepping on.
The room itself was more like a corridor with a half-wall in the middle. Two goblins were crouched behind the wall, preparing to throw more javelins at us. But Crons didn't give them the chance. In a blaze of glory, he ran out, trampled right over the caltrops, and cleared the wall with a single bound. Then he swung his axe and cleaved through both goblins in one sweeping motion.
As soon as everyone picked their jaws up off the floor, Jonah helped Quince back to his feet. Then he gave me a stern look and suggested that I be the one to check for traps from now on. I mumbled, "Yeah, okay," which is as close to a promise as I was going to give him. I was still in awe of Crons. That was the single most incredible thing I'd ever seen. I'm just glad he's on my side.
The next hall had a similar set up, but there was a curve to it. We saw the goblins practicing throwing their spears before they ever saw us. And as they went to retrieve their spears, we got the drop on them. The fight was over quickly. One of the goblins was carrying a key... A key that we used to open one of the doors on the side of the chamber.
This room was currently being used to hold prisoners. A few kobolds were tied up in a corner. On the other side of the room was a sleeping gnome in a cage that was a little too small for him. We first freed the kobolds, who chittered in their strange language with Meepo. After a moment, the kobold prisoners took off.
The commotion had awoken the caged gnome. He was dirty, hungry, clothed only in tattered rags, and clearly uncomfortable in his small cage. I took pity on him and picked the lock on his cage, freeing him. Then I offered him some rations from our supplies. He ate gratefully and thanked me.
The gnome's name was Erky Timbers. He'd been imprisoned and tormented for about a year, he said, though I'm sure the days were all a blur to him. He imagined he was only still alive and healthy due to the fact that he was a cleric of Kreyn. He knew nothing about Meepo's dragon, but he knew a little of the missing adventurers. He said three of them (the fourth being the one we'd already found dead) had been taken deeper into the dungeon, because the Outcast wanted them. The Outcast, he said, was an evil druid named Belak. Well that certainly explained the connection between the stick creatures, or twig blights as they were called, and the enchanted fruit.
Since he'd clearly seen quite enough hardship, I offered to let Erky escape the dungeon. The rest of my party seemed surprised at my sudden compassion. But they don't know what my life has been like. I'm very familiar with suffering, and I felt a kinship with the little gnome. He declined my offer, anyway, saying he had a year's worth of torture to repay the goblins. He armed and armored himself by looting the goblin corpses outside the room and joined us as a temporary party member.
The next room of note that we came upon was a long, wide corridor decorated with carvings of dragons in the support pillars. It was quite lovely, if one is into that sort of thing. There were several doors leading off the hall. The first one on the right led to a medium-sized room. Almost everything in the room had been overturned or broken by some sort of rampaging creature, and there was ice all over the floor. Hiding under a table in the back of the room was a tiny white wyrmling: the kobolds' pet dragon.
It apparently was not pleased to see us, especially Meepo, because immediately it sucked in some air to unleash its icy breath. "Don't kill it!" Meepo shrieked while he took cover in the hallway behind us. Great, so we had to somehow subdue a miniature dragon that had absolutely no reservations about killing us. As we rushed forward to get into range, Quince slipped on the ice and fell down. Crons and I had to laugh despite our situation.
After a valiant struggle in which the wyrmling got off three blasts of its breath weapon, we finally managed to knock it out and tie it up. We decided it was in our best interest to start heading back to kobold territory before the dragon woke up. Yusdrayl was certainly pleased to see us return with her pet, and she offered us a choice in our reward. In the end, we took the key that was presented, as none of the other items were particularly useful. Meepo also thanked us for securing his position in his tribe as the dragon's keeper.
After a bit of rest, the six of us (Crons, Quince, Midian, Jonah, Erky, and myself) returned to the goblin territory. One door I opened led to a huge room with dozens of goblins inside. Most of them were non-combatants (women and children), but still I felt some tactics were in order. I closed the door again and consulted with my party members. Someone pointed out that there was still a portion of the dungeon that we hadn't yet explored: All the way back in the beginning, the circular chamber with two doors. We'd taken the one on the right, leaving the one on the left undisturbed.
It didn't seem like it was going to directly help with our current goblin problem, however, there was always the potential to find better equipment. Also, it was a way of delaying our inevitable confrontation with the masses of goblins. So once again, we retraced our steps.