Clearing The Grotto

When Winnacer pats him on his back, Darius gives the human a strange, unreadable, look, changes into captured garb, pours some wine over it, grins, takes a hefty swig, looks around to make sure the rest are in position...and heads inside the cave with a swagger and a sway and a bounce against the walls....

Darius careers up to the four goblins on guard acting as if he were drunk. The goblins are very surprised to see him. Darius tells them that they've just captured some more gnomes outside. A couple of goblins start to make their way outside, but another is not so taken in and stops them. They tell Darius that they have been given strict instructions not to move from this position, or else they'll get a good whipping. Darius, getting a little desperate to move them, gets a bit insistent. This makes the 'clever' goblin suspicious and he tries to remove Darius' cap from his face. Darius, realizing that the game is up, starts to bolt towards the entrance. The four goblins immediately draw their swords and chase after him.

For an anxious half-minute, there is silence and the others start to get a little nervous. Then, the faint sound of a scuffle is heard. Moments later, the familiar form of Darius is seen, flying out the mouth of the tunnel. A couple of paces behind are four of his kindred, shortswords in hand, chasing after him. As soon as Darius is a couple of yards clear of the grotto entrance, he dives to the ground. Immediately, the air is filled with missiles.

Jihan is the first to fire, but his shot goes wide of the group. Felibarr is next, but he has similar luck. Winnacer is even less fortunate. As he pulls the bowstring back, it breaks much to his annoyance. Yaz's knife also falls far short of its target, but Xavier makes up for the others' misfortunate by shooting one of the goblins straight through the face with a crossbow bolt.

Seeing one of their numbers fall, the goblins immediately turn of their heels and head back towards the entrance of the grotto.

Jihan gets a second shot at them, but it too is well off target. Felibarr makes up for it, however, by letting fly a superbly aimed shot that goes straight through the back of the head of another of the goblins. Yaz's second knife is well on target, but it just manages to pierce the goblin's leather armor. Yaz looks on, somewhat pissed, as the goblin runs off, taking one of his prized daggers with it. Xavier struggles to reload his crossbow and Winnacer draws 'Old Bohavia' as the remaining two goblins reach the relative sanctuary of the grotto entrance.

Winnacer, Darius, Jihan and Yaz all immediately leap to their feet in order to chase after the running goblins, although the time it took to get off the last shots slowed them down a little.

Felibarr picks up Winnacer's shortbow and starts to replace the bowstring with another one that he produces from his pouch. Xavier finishes reloading his light crossbow and aims towards the grotto mouth, in case more goblins should appear.

Although Winnacer was the first to start towards them, the mail that he is wearing encumbers him compared to the goblins, Darius, Yaz and Jihan in their leather armor.

The goblins tear away. The certain death being the penalty for tardiness is a major incentive for speed. They both easily outpace both Yaz and Winnacer. Darius is pretty fast, but not quite fast enough in order to keep up with them. Jihan, however, manages to keep up with the one that took damage from Yaz's dagger.

With the flick of a wrist, a couple of silver tipped daggers drop into his hands, which he immediately throws at the back of the injured goblin. One of the daggers just misses the goblin's head, but the other strikes deep into the goblin's neck. He keels over and swiftly expires. The throwing of the daggers costs Jihan a few valuable seconds, however, and the last remaining goblin rounds the corner heading in the direction of the stairs. Realizing that he is not going to be able to catch him, Jihan picks up his daggers and then halts at the T-junction, to be joined a couple of seconds later by Yaz, Winnacer and Darius.

They take a couple of seconds to take in the inside of the grotto. It is lit with torches, so it will be possible to fight the goblins on equal terms without having to resort to the use of lanterns or other torches. The roof is around 5' 6" high, making it a little uncomfortable for all but Darius, as they have to stoop slightly. However, there is plenty of space to swing a sword without penalty. The walls, which contained some high quality tapestries and doors to the grotto have all been defaced with graffiti scrawled in goblin.

Realizing that it will be a matter of just a minute or two before the last of the guards alerts the others, there is no time to discuss tactics. The four of them all head for a door.

Yaz goes for the workshop door, quickly opening the door and rushing in so as to hide. As he enters, he sees two goblins busy rummaging through the tools and display cases in the room.

For a split second, Yaz stares at the goblins.

The goblins stare at Yaz, then draw their shortswords and run towards him.

'F***!' exclaims Yaz, and rushes back out of the door with the goblins in hot pursuit.

Winnacer, Darius and Jihan all come out of their rooms in order to see what the trouble is, surprising the goblins once again. Realizing that there is no escape from their current situation, they attempt to fight their way out.

The first tries to hit Yaz but, in its haste, sends his shortsword flying out of his hand. Seeing that his position is now well and truly hopeless. He falls to his knees crying for mercy. The other goblin is only slightly more successful, missing Yaz by a wide margin.

Winnacer easily reaps revenge upon the goblin, lopping its head off with 'Old Bohavia'. Realizing that there is no time for niceties, what with the remaining goblins potentially emerging at any time from downstairs, Yaz dispatches the begging goblin with his scimitar.

Just as this operation is finished with, the sound of rushing footsteps is heard coming up the stairs. As one, Yaz, Darius, Winnacer and Jihan all dive through the door to the dining room, which is right next to them. Panting, they stick to the wall of the room to see what happens next.

The footsteps come closer, but stop just before the T-junction in front of you. From the footsteps, it sounds like it is only a small group, which would tally with Felibarr's information in that there are now only four goblin grunts, the orc sargeant and the shaman left.

Perspiration starts to form on the four heroes' brows as they wait to see what happens next.

They start to hear voices chattering nervously in goblin. Darius presses his ear to the door in order to hear what's going on. He whispers a translation to the others as he picks up the conversation.

'Nervous, they are…not know what they do…making plans…shaman talks magic words…no understand I.'

Darius then looks disappointed.

'Hostage have they…plan to use get out.'

You then all hear the sound of a bit of an argument, followed by the crack of a whip, and then silence.

'Sargeant send out one to see what outside.'

Meanwhile…

Felibarr finishes restringing Winnacer's bow and then lays it on the ground in front of him. He then takes his composite short bow and aims at the entrance to the grotto. He keeps looking at Xavier, with some fear on his face.

Xavier is also aiming his crossbow at the entrance. He keeps looking over at the halfling bitterly.

Maire' and Corrow remain hidden in the bushes on top of the grotto, peering out so that they can see Felibarr and Xavier's positions.

They all wait anxiously, wondering what has become of the others inside the grotto. Xavier is very tempted to go inside, but decides to stay, thinking that someone needs to keep an eye on Felibarr.

Suddenly they see the face of a goblin appear at the entrance.

Felibarr and Xavier both fire at the goblin, but Felibarr's shot is wide, and Xavier's crossbow fails to fire as he pulls the trigger. Xavier lets out a stream of Saxon obscenities as he tosses the weapon to the ground in anger.

As soon as the goblin sees Felibarr's arrow miss him, he turns tail and heads back into the grotto. Realizing that they have no hope of catching him, Felibarr and Xavier remain in their positions.

Back in the grotto….

Darius translates again:

'Goblin grunt lives … he tell others many men wait them outside…they make plan now…they discuss to go to entrance …use hostage as shield…hostage die will if enemies attack.'

Jihan moves through the connecting door from the dining room into the workshop. He offers a quick prayer to Prirodna in the hope that the door can be opened silently. He then takes a deep breath and turns the handle of the door, then opens it just far ahead that he can peep through.

Obviously Prirodna answered his prayer, as the door opens without making a sound. He looks through the gap in order to observe the goblins.

The goblins are all bunched together, a couple of paces north of the T-junction. First he sees the goblin grunts, four of them in total, dressed identically to all the others you have seen. They have dispensed with their spears in the close confines of the grotto, and are now armed only with shortswords.

Amongst them is the taller figure of an orc, dressed in chainmail, which bears the same wolfshead markings as are featured on the goblins' leather. Jihan can just make out a broadsword at his side, although he currently has a whip in his right hand.

It's difficult to make out because they are behind the others, but Jihan can just make out the other two. He sees there is a young female gnome with them. She looks to be in a pretty bad way. She is half-naked and has her hands bound behind her. She has marks all over her body, and a vacant, shocked look on her face, which is bleached of all color.

Right behind her is the last goblin. From the fact that he is wearing russet colored robes over brigandine armor, it is easy to work out that this is the shaman. In his belt can be seen a flail. He is holding the gnome's bonds in his hand.

There are no obvious signs of anything magickal around the group.

Jihan carefully walks back to where Winnacer, Darius and Yaz are waiting and reports his findings to them.

There is some debate concerning tactics, but the decision is finally made for the party by the goblins.

'They move to exit.' says Darius, hearing their movements through the door.

'There's no time to get too creative, we need to act fast' says Winnacer.

'Just a minute' says Yaz as he pulls a shamrock leaf from his pouch and starts his arcane utterings.

Whilst he is doing so, they all hear a voice - not in goblin this time, but in crude Bohavian.

'Listen you who Nyemetz did to kill. Have here with us she-goblin. Very pretty is she,' the voice cackles.

'C'mon Yaz, quickly!' says Winnacer realizing that they have little time.

The voice continues:

'I know many goblins killed you have. Now to kill must to stop. We come out now. We hurt you not. You hurt us not. If hurt goblins, kill she-gnome will we.'

From outside, Xavier and Felibarr also hear the voice clearly. Xavier takes 'The Justifier' and holds it in both hands, moving slowly towards the entrance of the tunnel. Felibarr takes his shortsword and puts it on the ground in front of him, then resumes his aim with his bow.

'Know you all my threat is true,' continues the voice. 'If any tricks I see, kill her will we,'

Yaz finishes his chanting and is rewarded by the sight of his oaken cudgel glowing with holy light.

'Let's do it' Yaz says without emotion.

'We to come out now will. Big chief of you listen carefully…'

Darius opens the door as quietly as possible. The door creaks a little, but the goblins' attention is focused without rather than within.

'…all your men you tell to leave from cave.'

Darius creeps towards the goblins with shortsword in hand, his eyes totally focused upon the back of the shaman directly in front of him some ten yards away. Yaz, Winnacer and Jihan follow him as quietly as they can. Winnacer tries desperately to stop his scale armor from rattling too much.

'…one hundred paces from cave must they…TSO YEH?'

The shaman spins around, alerted by the clinking of Winnacer's armor.

Darius immediately charges into the shaman, who is totally taken by surprise at the sudden appearance of intruders behind him. Through the force of his charge, his shortsword bites through the shaman's brigandine armor cutting deeply. The shaman screams with pain, dropping the gnome's bindings as he does so, but he is still far from dead.

Yaz, seeing his opportunity, dashes past the shaman and grabs the hostage pushing her forcefully behind them in order to get her quickly out of harm's way. He then spins around ready to smite any of the goblins that try to get at her, or him.

Winnacer hurls himself at the orc sargeant, who has also spun around to see what the commotion is. 'Old Bohavia' connects with the sargeant, but his armor saves him from damage. Winnacer strikes again, with a perfect hit this time, hacking the confused orc's body in two.

Jihan, with Langzhan in hand, launches himself into the equally confused goblin grunts at the back of the group. His aim, however, is way off target.

Outside, Xavier hears the commotion and runs towards the melee. Felibarr also drops his bow, picks up his shortsword and follows Xavier in.

From their position, Maire' and Corrow both see Xavier and Felibarr rushing towards the mouth of the grotto and guess what must be going on. They start to run down the hill in order to lend whatever support they can bring to bear.

Back at the melee, Darius, with hatred burning in his eyes, swings once again at the shaman with all his might. The blow, however is off target and misses the shaman.

Uttering dark sayings to his evil god, the shaman's right hand starts to glow with unholy energy. He strikes Darius in the head, which sends him reeling for an instant as the pain runs through his body. It is not sufficient to fell Darius, however, and he resumes the fight.

With the gnome out of harm's way for the moment, Yaz brings his cudgel up in order to go goblin bashing, but misses the slippery fellow that he is aiming for. The goblin tries to defend himself, but his blow is also off target.

With the orc taken care of, Winnacer also hacks into the goblins. He raises 'Old Bohavia' above his head and brings it down upon the nearest one. The noble blade, however, does not penetrate the goblin's armor. The goblin strikes back at Winnacer. It is as if some unholy force guides the goblin's hand as the goblin finds a gap in the young lord's mail. Winnacer grimaces with pain as the blade bites into his flesh, but he knows that the goblins will have to do a lot more if they wish to bring him down.

Jihan faces two goblins. He lashes out with Langzhan, but the goblin's leather protects him from the blade. Both goblins try to hit the elf, but both are unsuccessful.

Xavier and Felibarr dash through the mouth of the grotto entrance and see the melee going on before them, readying their weapons to strike.

Mad with pain and rage, Darius once again hurls himself at the hated cleric. Again, through sheer force alone, he pierces the shaman's mail and cuts him deeply. But the shaman is obviously favored by the gods. Although he cries out in pain again, he shows no signs of going to meet them yet. Reaching to his belt, he pulls out his flail and lashes out at Darius. The gods are also watching over Darius too, however, as the force of the shaman's blow is absorbed by Darius' borrowed leather armor.

Yaz brings down his cudgel upon the head of the goblin that he is facing with all his might, smashing its brains out. Winnacer strikes out again with 'Old Bohavia'. His first shot is well off target, but his second connects with it, although giving the goblin only a glancing blow. The goblin tries to retaliate but, weakened by Winnacer's blow, his attack falls far short.

Jihan strikes again, but once again does not find his mark. The goblin's counterstrike also fails to connect with the nimble elf. Seeing Jihan in danger, Xavier raises 'The Justifier' above his head in order to bring the artifact down upon the goblin. The goblin sees the heavy blade about to cut him in two, and tries to dodge. The mighty sword still does terrible damage to the goblin even with just a glancing blow, although the goblin manages to struggle on.

Felibarr takes on the last remaining goblin, but his swing is short. The goblin strikes back at the halfling, cutting through his lather armor and cutting him deeply. Felibarr cries out in pain as he tries to remain in the fight.

Once again Darius tries to take out the shaman, but this time his blow is not sufficient to cut through its armor. The shaman swings once more at his fellow goblin, but hits just air as Darius easily ducks the blow.

Yaz looks around for a new target. He is right next to the shaman, but realizes that he would never hear the end of it if he finished off 'Darius'' shaman. Instead, he aims at the goblin which Winnacer is fighting, but can't get a good shot in without endangering the young lord. Winnacer had no need of the druid's assistance, however, as he easily cuts the weakened goblin in two with his next stroke.

Jihan also has a choice of targets. Seeing Felibarr struggle with his goblin, he launches in to help. However, once again his stab is short. Xavier tries to finish off the goblin he is facing, but the goblin ducks under the blade of the clumsy, yet devastating artifact.

Felibarr goes once again for the goblin that injured him, yet once again his blow fails to connect. The goblin's blow is also wide.

'Die, die, die!' screams Darius as he continues his one-on-one battle with the shaman, but his blade once again fails to pierce the dark priest's mail. The shaman, however, has even less luck, as his flail falls from his hands onto the floor in front of him.

Yaz again is short on targets. Deliberately avoiding the goblin in combat with Felibarr, he aims at the one that Xavier is fighting but, in the ferocious melee, once more he cannot find room to strike.

Winnacer, however, has no hesitation in helping the halfling out and lunges into the side of the goblin. Although the blow was not deep, it easily penetrates the goblin's armor and it sinks to the floor, dead.

Once again, Xavier lifts the weight of 'The Justifier' above his head. He then brings it down with all of his might upon the goblin. This time, Xavier's blow is right on target and he gives a display of 'The Justifier's' awesome powers as it cleaves the unfortunate goblin in two, from head to toe.

All of the Nyemetz are dead now with the exception of the shaman. Darius, seeing that the rest of the party have no further targets, screams at them.

'Shaman mine. No you touch. Mine to kill.'

The others look on nervously, wondering to themselves as to whether the goblin is capable of handling this powerful adversary. In case he cannot, they form a circle around the two combatants, ready to intervene if needs be.

Yaz's cudgel stops glowing as the holy energy residing within it subsides.

Maire' and Corrow enter the grotto and stand behind the ring of fighters. Maire' has her bag of herbs close to hand in case they are needed in a hurry.

Darius tries to use the fact that his opponent is unarmed to try and dispatch him, but his blow, yet again fails to penetrate the shaman's armor.

Showing a high degree of dexterity, the shaman manages to pick up his flail as Darius lunges at him again. With its attention fixed upon retrieving his weapon, the shaman is in no position to dodge Darius' attack. The goblin sinks his blade deep into the shaman's side. The shaman screams and staggers a little, but with his little remaining energy, strikes at Darius in retaliation.

But the shaman is weak through blood loss and his blow is clumsy. Darius easily manages to parry the blow and, once again, he sends the shaman's flail spinning across the floor. The shaman looks at his flail confused, giving Darius another easy opening. Once more Darius' blade pierces the shaman's flesh opening another bloody wound.

With his last gasps of life, he reaches down for his flail again. Darius takes another swing, but he too is tiring, and his blow fails to connect. The shaman manages to pick up his flail again and takes another half-hearted swing at Darius, missing him by a huge margin.

Darius takes another stab at him, but his aching muscles means that he cannot summon quite enough force in order to penetrate the shaman's mail again.

With a fearsome cry, the shaman summons up the last of his remaining strength in order to dispatch finally his foe. The others look on horrified as Darius takes an almighty blow to the side from the flail that sends him spinning, knocked completely unconscious.

The shaman looks around him briefly at the warriors surrounding him.

'SMURT, BOZYE MOYE!' he screams defiantly, knowing full well that it will be the last thing that he says.

Xavier sees to it that it is. He feels a surge of energy run through the blade of 'The Justifier' as if Spravedelna herself were guiding his arm. Xavier feels that the blade is as light as a dagger as he lifts it above his head and brings it down upon the head of the shaman.

The shaman smiles in the split second that he sees the glowing blade descend, knowing that he will be received with open arms by his death god. Then the blade descends, neatly carving the shaman in two.

Immediately there is a flurry of activity. With the Nyemetz all dead, they notice the gnome for the first time.

She is in a terrible way.

Large clumps of her hair are missing, obviously torn out by the roots. Her eyes just stare at them all, unblinking. Her left eye is terribly swollen, a deep red color where blood has run into it. Her face is a deathly white pallor. Her lip is cut, with coagulated blood stuck to it.

Her clothing is torn to shreds and disheveled. Her body is a mass of cuts and bruises. In a number of places, giant red wheals show that she has been burned with a hot implement.

As if this sight alone were not enough to horrify them all, they notice that an object is tucked into her robes next to her breast. As they investigate further, a sickness grips their stomachs as it has never done before. The object is a gnomish baby - the purple color in its face shows that it has been strangled to death.

She looks up at them vacantly.

'I don't know where the gems are…

please don't hurt me…

I don't know where the gems are…

please don't hurt me…

I don't know where the gems are…

please don't hurt me.'