Got a bit weird for this write up and gave it from the point of view of the 5 animals and the 2 nameless (until now) hirelings that Jessie brought along. :)
Follows:
Buddy the boar snarled aloud, “Damn it, Peasants! The GOD is here! The GOD with tits and her Godlettes are here!!”
“Don’t hurt the kids!” Jessie the Rabbit called back, hiding in the Chosen’s vest.
Grin snarled from the Chosen’s side, the wolfhound’s hackles rising. He glanced back, nipping his friend on the hand and pulling back down the hall. “Flee! Flee!”
The party turned tail and ran off as the Grue roared at them, Connal, Darien, Gryg, and Eoghan. They charged back down the hall as Wilhelm was running towards them. “Why he runnin’ so fast?” the first cat asked, jouncing back and forth.
“Why you ridin’ him?” The second cat panted from below. “You a playa? Ridin’ ‘im like a bitch? Got no respect for you’self?”
“Gag on a rat you gutter loving git,” the first cat yowled as Wilhelm charged into the next clear room. “Dis cave is nasty!”
The party charged up to the Druid and they looked back, not seeing the Grue giving chase. Eoghan pulled out an Arrow and after getting a light spell cast upon it, he took aim and fired it back down the hall. It struck the wall and stopped. Pulling it free had a second shot…and it too slammed into the wall, the head popping off. “Take your time, Boss,” Grin advised his friend.
“You can do it,” Jessie agreed. “Lathandar is with you.”
“Looks a friggin’ chump, you ask me,” Cat 1 responded, inspecting his crotch and then giving it an experimental lick.
The third arrow finally flew forth and hit the far end of the hall, but there was nothing down there except dust and rock grit. “The Tit GOD has moved on,” Buddy snorted, eyes flashing. “It’s time to venture forth, you cretins, and see what has happened to it!”
The rest of the party joined up, looking around at the passage as we made our way down the hall to the room the Grue had just been in. “How we doing on torches, Noah?” Jerome asked, the valet and torchbearer asked his counterpart.
Noah, all of 19, swung his pack around and was counting off the material within. “12..17..20..22..24. 24 torches.” He looked around and shook his head in wonder. “Can you believe this shit?”
Jerome smirked, whispering, “No. I mean I always assumed we’d find the monsters but I gotta say, actually being down here, torches and swords and fighting and screaming. I mean, nothing really prepares you for this.”
“You saw what happened to Ricktor?” Noah shuddered, “He got killed real fast. Makes me rethink being an adventurer and just going back to the cobbler shop, you know?”
“Maybe. I want my share of the bounty. 196 silver nobles. It’s practically a king’s ransom!”
The room had a section that had collapsed out, showing another passage that a few of the party members had gone down. It seemed to slope up quite a bit. There was talk of going down to investigate when Wilhelm instead called to Frey, “Ah, der he goad with the moojatiy moogatiy shit again,” Cat 1 complained.
“Have some respect, you walking bags of fleas!” Buddy scolded the feline, blowing spit from his snout. “I’ve spoken to this one, and he KNOWS what he's doing!”
“Fucking pig.”
“BOAR!”
“SHHHH!!!!”
There was an explosion of light and Lorthac, the Dawning Sun, Kestrel Eagle of the eastern Windcrag Mountains appeared. The majestic creature had once dove from a cloudless sky from 3,000 wingspans in height and skewered Fast Jacking, the Meadowshire’s most notorious rabbit. Lorthac had a clutchmate that had been hunting just moments ago with him when he felt the gentle benediction of Frey call out and coax him to come to this place now at this time of need. And Lorthac is nothing if not brave and fearless.
“Go,” Wilhelm pointed to the hall and slope going up, a haze of grit and dust in the air. “See what’s up there,” the Druid commanded.
Lorthac gave the cry of Honor, a three noted rise and falling crescendo that reverberated with the digesting stones in his gizzard. His wings spread and he pumped them down twice, gaining air amidst the subterranean pressure and then wheeling up, tail feathers spread in a fan of victory. “Fear me!” Lorthac called out. “I am Lorthac!”
A barrel fell from 60’ up the slope and smashed the Kestrel Eagle in mid flight, breaking his back, smashing him to the ground, and killing him; signaling the end of the spell and returning Lorthac from where he came.
“I’m gonna miss that guy,” Cat 2 lamented, giving a deep sigh.
The party did not want to go that way and they all backtracked, making their way through the caves, heading back to where they came. “What do you figure?” Jerome asked.
“They have got a plan,” Noah shrugged, swapping his torch out for another. He did the same for Darrien, the silent paladin giving the two youths a smile before heading back to the front of the line. “He’s so close to talking.”
“In your dreams,” Jerome sniggered. “Man’s a paladin. Knows how to keep his vows.”
“Unlike that bitch I was betrothed to,” Noah muttered, glancing down at his left hand and naked ring finger.
“Focus man, they’re looking at the ground here.”
The group had dragged a heel in the dirt at the head of one of the halls they had passed through as they made their way up slope to the “Y” intersection they had gone through earlier. “I smell…paint,” Grin whispered looking around at the hall here. There were stacks of yellow coins in the hall and the group was talking about it.
“You should tell the Chosen,” Jessie suggested.
“Good idea.” Grin looked up at Eoghan and said, “Friend. There is the smell of paint in the area. I do not believe the coins are real. Also, the air is redolent at least to me of the passage of the monsters we hunt. I would imagine they are nearby, we should be on alert and ready for a possible ambush.”
The Ranger gave a short glance at Grin, rubbed his ears, and muttered in his accented voice, “Good boy.”
Grin smiled, catching Buddy’s attention. “GOOD boy. GOOD boy. I’m a GOOD boy.”
“Daft moron,” the boar growled at him. “I doubt the gangly pissant even understood anything you were saying.”
“Jealous. I’m a GOOD boy.”
They went down the hall to a carved out chamber and then opted to go north on Eoghan’s suggestion. “Look alive,” Jerome hissed. “We’re getting close, I have a bad feeling about this.”
Noah snorted, “You have a bad feeling about everything.”
“I don’t know man. My momma? She went to a Tarokka Reader when I was young and the old woman said my mother had a bit of the Weave in her. And I do too. I can sense things.”
“You are full of shit, you know that?” Noah shifted his torch higher, trying to look down the hall. “There are a damn lot of us,” he muttered.
Buddy, Cat 1, Cat 2, Grin, and Jessie all perked their ears up, noses flashing, and all of them uttered at once, “Oh…no!”
The Grue burst around the corner and combat ensued. There were smashing noises and crashing sounds. Cries of spells and the twang of bows followed.
“I told you! I told you!” Jerome said from the back of the party. “Did I not tell you?”
“Alright. Alright. I'll give you this one!” Noah was standing on his tippy toes. “I can’t see what’s going on? Are we winning?”
Flacker, the Bristling Prince, burst into being, called into place by Frey’s will and Wilhelm’s call. “Who DARES to summon me? I shall have his lunch! I shall feast on his eyes! I shall…WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING AND WHY IS THIS GUY TELLING ME TO ATTACK IT!!??!?!? AHHH!!H!H!”
Buddy dodged left, avoiding the guts spilling out of the dead paladin. “Welcome to the party, pal!” He glanced over at Gryg and muttered, “What an asshole.”
“I think Darrien is down,” Noah said on his tip toes.
“Can you be sure?”
“Yep! There is a lot of screaming, Darrien is dead! And the monster has the top part of him in his mouth and is chewing…chewing…nope. He stopped.”
“Why?” Jerome asked on his haunches trying not to vomit.
“The monster swallowed him.”
“Blaaargh…”
Eventually the sounds of combat faded away and Jessie dared to look out. “Oooo,” the rabbit muttered. “This is a fine pickle.”
“That one is wounded,” Buddy pointed his snout at Connal who was in bad shape. “Will we kill him and make the rest of the pack stronger by feeding on him?” It was after some of the priests had laid their hands on him and closed up some of his wounds that the boar sighed deeply. “People are so damned wasteful.”
There was some discussion on where to go and what to do next. It seemed that the group was wandering out, checking out halls and chambers, Gryg and Eoghan leading the way. “We seem to be tracking the younglings,” Grin noticed.
“Hopefully to provide them support and succor in this time of great sorrow with the unfortunate but needed passing of their mother,” Jessie suggested.
“I’m not sure,” the wolfhound avoided making eye contact with the rabbit. “I guess we can see.”
“You t’ink I can tell her the truth?” Cat 1 chuckled on Wilhelm’s pack, the cat’s tail idly flicking back and forth.
“Rabbit is dumb and full of hope,” Cat 2 shrugged. “She’ll figger it out.”
They went through a chamber with some beds, other passages as well, hunting the grues and aware of the cavern around them. It was while walking down a long hall heading west that one of the party stepped in a goblin gopher hole trap, making the entire party nervous. “Glad that wasn’t me,” Noah said with a shudder. “That other guy? The elven guy? He was pretty hurt.”
“Who? Joey Bag of Donuts? Mr. How ya doing?” Jerome scoffed. “Looks like some low born piece of shit. Probably deserves it. I’ll bet he stabbed some hooker and took her coppers when he was done with her.”
“You are a cynical and angry person, you know that?”
Eventually the room had two passages out, each running west – one northwest, one southwest. Each sloped down into the gloom and goblin fetish markings, 5 ranks tall were in place. Eoghan mulled over the passages a bit and then led the group down the north one. At a “Y” intersection, Gryg and Eoghan led the party north and we followed eventually to a large chamber with 2 other ways out.
“He’s lost the scent,” Grin noticed on seeing his Friend milling about. “Where are they? Where are they? Where do you think they are, boy?”
“You are wasting your time,” Cat 1 chuckled. “Two legs aren’t much good at tracking stuff.”
“They’re a bit retarded,” Cat 2 agreed, watching the end of his tail with a distrustful frown. “I mean they get the job done, but it’s almost painful to watch.”
“Peasants and common folk, like 2 legs,” Buddy grunted, “Are an important part of any system. Without them to do the majority of the work, it would prevent kingly and lordly folk, like myself,” he belched, “to get done the things they need to get done.”
“I like my Chosen,” Jessie smiled, snuggling up to Eoghan’s chest. “He’ll figure it out. And save those kids. I just know it.”
“Can we tell her yet?” Cat 1 whispered, getting a resounding no from Buddy, Grin and Cat 2. “Fine. Whatever.”
“This was a long hall,” Noah noted, looking back. “If we were in fighting placement and form, we’d pretty much still be down almost its entire length.”
Jerome looked back, swapping out the spent torches for 3 new ones. “Yeah. You gotta sometimes stretch your imagination in places where things just don’t make sense.”
“Theater of the mind,” Noah nodded.
“Theater of the mind,” Jerome agreed.
“I think we got ta double back,” Eoghan eventually suggested, Grygmiir agreeing with him. “They definitely didn’t come down this way, and I think we might have passed something.” The party turned around and we headed back down the hall, eventually finding a section of stone on the east wall that had a hidey hole. It seemed the grue kids hid there, waited for us to pass, and then doubled back. We could see some barrels in here, and the chamber wasn’t very large.
We went back to the “Y” intersection and then headed up the slope where the group could hear goblin voices ahead talking.
“What’s going on?” Jerome asked.
“Goblin voices ahead.” Noah replied.
“What are they saying?”
“How the fuck would I know? I’m not a goblin.”
“I don’t know, maybe you might know some goblin?” Jerome asked. “My mother can say, ‘Wie viel kostet dieses Brot?’”
“Is that goblin?”
“Nah, some sort of elvish. How much is this loaf of bread. She picked it up from talking to the half-elven baker lady.”
“What does that have to do with goblin?”
“Nothing. I was asking if you knew any?!”
“Ugh!”
Grin was growling as Eoghan went up, trying to get the goblins to calm down, talking slowly and doing his best to diffuse the situation. “Say the word,” Grin snarled, “Say it and I’ll jump at your side.”
“That is a lot of goblins,” Jessie noted with some worry. “Like, a lot of goblins.”
Things got tense and then someone hurled a knife at Eoghan who rocked back, and STILL tried to calm the situation down. Even the hobgoblin leader, Cap’n Tharix, was doing his best to both save face, get some tribute from the ranger, and keep his people from blowing the situation up. But when swords were bared and the goblin slingers started to unravel their slings, Eoghan stepped back and dropped his bow to his hand. His fingers felt his quiver, selected the arrow with the marking of Sutur up and down the length of it, and nocked it place.
From Muspelheim, Sutur, The Burning Brand, Lord of the Fiery Planes, saw a rip in the space time continuum before him. He could smell the browns of the earth, the grays of the stone, the pale yellows and red of the human and demi human who lived there. “Ah,” he sighed taking a deep sniff. “Midgard.” He smiled, imagining sinking his toes into the loam of the earth and hearing the call of birds in the trees about him. “What a paradise.”
Clapping his hands together he pushed himself up and held his hands around the pulsating tear. “Time to burn it down.”
And then Sutur sent a wave of god borne flame through the tear where it seared the hole closed and burst through the other end of the enchanted arrow, frying Eoghan’s bow and hurling a 2 and a half foot wide shaft of eternal fire 100’ down the hall where it immolated half a dozen hobgoblins including Captain Tharix, leaving only motes and ash to fall away on the wind.
“That’s going to leave a mark,” Jessie lamented as the goblins ran away, the hobgoblins ran forward to attack, and the party charged up the slope to join the Ranger. Swords hacked, spells flew, arrows soared. Animals charged forward and the party shoved and pushed and tried to get up the hill. The hobgoblins had a shaman with them and the alarm horn rang out, calling other hobgoblins to the battle.
“We’ve GOT to get out of here!” Noah sobbed out, looking over at Micah, the Fighter running for the front.
“What about being an adventurer?” Jerome asked with a sneer.
“This is crazy!” Noah inched closer. “Someone’s going to get killed.” Eoghan screamed from the front line, his left hand removed at the wrist. “And there it is!”
More spells fired and the party dropped two of the hobgoblins by the front, allowing them to run forward and hit the hobgoblin chamber hard. “Run!” The group ran off through the room at a fast clip, spread out but hoping to make the eastern exit out of the goblin warrens and back to the territory the Grues had held.
Buddy reared up on hind legs and stomped the ground. “Now is not the time for weakness and fear! Muster your courage! Muster your will! Your lord and king asks for your strength, your will, and damn it, even your lives if need be! But to arms and run! Run!”
Cat 2 leapt on Wilhelm’s pack, hanging on with all 4 sets of claws as the druid charged for the exit. “I thought you weren’t going to ride?” Cat 1 asked with a side long glower.
“Fuck you, man. Fuck you.”
Hurting for his friend and not wanting to leave his side, Grin looked at the hobgoblins in a line before them, placing himself between them and his Friend. “Flee,” the wolfhound growled, “Flee now and I swear we will return for their blood at a later time.”
No comments:
Post a Comment