D&D 3.5: Champions of Gru IC

[inexorabletruth]

Lady Azra's guisarme goes high and arches down in a sideways chop at Goblin7a while he's reaching for a new javelin. He looks up just in time to raise a feeble defending arm. *Shhhck!* The guisarme's hook snags the joint at the elbow, ripping the limb from the body, then plunges down to bury itself in the chest, ripping through muscle and sinew like the claw of a dire lion. Goblin7a shrieks in pain and collapses to the ground into a growing pool of his own blood.

Goblin7a is dying.

TOP OF ROUND 2!

Albert Mooney, you're up!

Battle Map:

Spoiler

Show

[theduck]

Doing his best to not think about the blood that is flowing down his thigh and the javelin that is still in it, Albert reloads his sling and fires at the goblin who injured him.

[COLOR="rgb(255, 140, 0)"]What... what is going on here? Did you all bring the whole army out to fight you?[/COLOR]

Spoiler

Show

attack goblin 7a

(1d20+2)[17]
(1d4+2)[5]

[Lexin]

"No." Garrick answers quietly "Just about a third of it."

"Fluffy. Get them." he shouts, turning to his dog.

Spoiler

Show

If you don't mind it Inex, I will use the move action, I forgot about, to let Fluffy attack.
Handle Animal (1d20+8)[20] vs DC 10
... if not, than next round...

[ShadowDragon]

Netheron, amidst blocking and dodging blows from the goblins surrounding him, quickly glances at Albert and shouts "Oh! You want more of them?! Ask again in a couple a' moments and I'll tell you're right!" then concentrates back on the goblins around him, trying to leave no flank unprotected.

[inexorabletruth]

Albert's sling bullet whistles through the air and hammers into Goblin4a's chest, splintering armor and crushing ribs. Goblin4a quits reaching for his javelin and doubles over with all the air exploding from his lungs in shock. After staggering clumsily for a moment, he collapses to the ground.

Goblin4a is dying.

Goblin2a stumbles back into the cave, bracing his shoulder and grimacing.

Fast Forwarding: Goblins2a through 4a fail their stabilizing roll.

The armored goblin glances around at his diminishing ranks and roars in disgust. Then he hoists his mace high to deliver a vicious overhand chop at Netheron's shield.

Sunder Attempt:

Spoiler

Show

Netheron, it's a new round, so you may make another AoO before the Sunder.
Netheron, your shield takes 3 Damage.

As the mace crashes down against the shield, the armored goblin roars in rage. "Gresh, sas kura raemkurcakamsk, aeui cuvord!"

Goblin2a nods understanding…

Goblin5a looks to the dog, considering him to be the easier prey and thrusts his flimsy javelin at Fluffy, but Fluffy bats away the javelin as easily as batting away a toy. Seeing that the battle is lost, Goblin5a begins to retreat backwards.

Goblin5a shifts backward.

Goblin8a launches another javelin at Sulcu. It shears through Sulcu's armor ripping a grazing wound into Sulcu's side. Sulcu cries out in pain and clutches his side. The many wounds on his body drip with blood and his forehead is beaded with sweat.

Sulcu takes 1 HP of damage.

Goblin9a fails his stabilizing roll.

Goblin12a unleashes his javelin at the beleaguered Sulcu, but the javelin flies wide.

Antiel, you're up.

[ShadowDragon]

The elf resists back as the armored goblin smashes his shield, lowering it's angle as to deflect the weapon away from him, crouching a bit, he opens his shield in an arc, wide enough for his trident to find an opening in the goblin's attack, then thrusts forward in silent, angry eyes locked at his target.

Spoiler

Show

AoO: (1d20+2)[3]
Damage: (1d8+4)[8]

:|

[missmvicious]

Antiel notices the goblin moving back into the cave and mutters the eleven version of "Oh hells no", they were not ready for another dozen, two dozen or more goblins to come charging out helping their allies. Her eyes narrow dangerously as she takes aim at the would be messenger. "Ehlonna, let my aim be true."

Spoiler

Show

Hoo I hope this hits FML
Attack (1d20+3)[6]
Damage (1d8)[4]

After she misses Antiel curses a moment before shouting to the group Do NOT let that goblin escape back into the cave! and she hopes that one of her allies has better luck dropping the thing.

[inexorabletruth]

Netheron's trident whiffs past the armored goblin's head but the goblin doesn't flinch. This one seems to be unusually calm under pressure compared to your average goblin and doesn't seem overly phased by the possibility of death.

Antiel's arrow skips off the rock wall of the cave. Goblin1a yips in fear and begins chattering, but his words are impossible to decipher over the clamor of battle and the echo in the cave.

Goblin6 somehow manages to grit through the pain, and curls up in the fetal position, tying not to get stepped on by the armored goblin.

Goblin6 is stable.

Thrilled by the command to attack, Fluffy doesn't waste another moment! He dives, teeth first, at the nearest threat growling with delight in a way that sounds almost like a barbarians battle cry. Goblin5a barely has time to let out a shriek of terror before being taken to the ground with canine jaws clamped firmly on his throat.

Goblin5a is dying.

Naurmegil heeds Antiel's command and fires at the retreating goblin, but Goblin1a leaps away just in time to avoid the attack.

Netheron, you're up.

[ShadowDragon]

Now really angry at his mistakes, Netheron shows his teeth like a beast ready to attack, narrowing his brow with almost a fire in his eyes, he draws his trident then lunges it once again against his opponent with a shout.

Spoiler

Show

Attack: (1d20+2)[17]
Damage: (1d8+4)[12]

AMEN

[inexorabletruth]

Netheron's trident crunches through armor, flesh, muscle, bone, then organs, shredding and tearing along its way. The armored goblin's eyes turn from hate to surprise as it feels one of the pronged ends of the trident pierce his heart. Blood gurgles up from his mouth and his arms go limp. Both mace and shield fall to the floor. Supported by the trident, the goblin never falls, but just stands there weirdly, balanced by the strength of Netherons hold on the trident and his own perfect balance on his feet.

The Armored Goblin is dying.

Seeing the death of their superior, the other goblins are clearly beginning to lose heart in the battle and look like they may attempt to retreat.

Garrick, you're up.

[Lexin]

Garrick smiles when the goblins loose their spirit. They might actually have a chance to survive this battle...

He draws his bow once again, trying to shoot the goblin running towards the cave.

Spoiler

Show

He would try to shoot the one Antiel tried to stop from going back. If he is already too far inside, he would pick one closest to the cave entrance.
Attack (1d20+6)[25]
Damage (1d8+2)[8]

[inexorabletruth]

Garrick's arrow shears into the base of Goblin1a's skull, severing the connection between brain and spine. Silently, Goblin1a falls to the ground, dead before his face hits dirt.

Goblin1a is dead.

Sulcu fires another arrow at the retreating goblins, but his injuries are too distracting for him to aim straight. The arrow thuds into the dirt at Goblin8a's feet.

Lady Azra, you're up.

[Jormengand]

Spoiler

Show

Up 1, attack the nearest non-red goblin. You know how it is.

(1d20+2)[8]
(1d20+2)[9]
(2d4+3)[8]

[inexorabletruth]

Map Error:

Spoiler

Show

Apparently the goblin that Lady Azra attacked already had negative HP and I hadn't noticed the red effect wasn't made visible. My mistake. It's ok, I can fix it.

Attempting to dodge Lady Azra's guisarme, Goblin5a exacerbates the wound on his throat, causing another spurt of gore to fly loose. This time, he falls to the ground for good.

Top of Round 3:
Albert Mooney, you're up.

[theduck]

Frankly shocked at how the battle seems to be going, Albert flings one last bullet at the fleeing goblins.

Spoiler

Show

(1d20+2)[22]
(1d4+2)[6]
any of the goblins that are still up and healthy

[theduck]

Spoiler

Show

... rolling to confirm, I suppose

(1d20+2)[4]

[inexorabletruth]

All those who were dying before have failed their stabilizing roll.

Goblin8a looks around at his dead and dying comrades and sees the arrows pointed at him. He knows that he could never draw a javelin or run away without getting skewered. Letting out a heavy sigh, he raises his hands in surrender.

Goblin12a, similarly unarmed, does the same.

Antiel, you're up.

[missmvicious]

Antiel breaths an audible sigh of relief when the goblins surrender instead of retreating. "We accept the surrender." She says moving into the clearing. "Does anyone speak goblin? We need to tell them we accept the surrender and question them." Antiel looks to the group for some feed back. "They can tell us how many townsfolk are alive and how many goblins are in there."

[inexorabletruth]

The goblins look at each other with confused, but hopeful expressions, then look back at your group.

"Sirramdar! Wa kirramdar! Wa ora kreamdk. Dum's rirs ik!"

[ShadowDragon]

Netheron, after kicking aside the armored goblin's body away from his weapon, approaches slowly in a defiant look, pointing his weapon - yes, the one which the blood of their "leader" still drips from - towards one of the goblins and close to its chest "Let's see that those don't fall into doing anything funny. Tie their hands.", he looks over his shoulder to his companions, nodding "Great battle, all of you. Ehlenestra truly favors us today, let us make use of that in whatever we have ahead of us.", he pauses for a moment, then looks back at the goblins "These will also be of great help during the negotiations, despite the language barrier. Get a move on, everyone. We have people's lives to save, we are far from done here."

[Lexin]

"We survived. This time." says Garrick grimly as he walks to collect his arrows. "Fluffy. Defend." he shouts the order, followed by a short whistle.

"I say we check if they have anything we can use, finish off the wounded and go somewhere else with our... prisoners. I we were to fight more of them, I would at the very least want to have the element of surprise on my side, not theirs." he says and begins doing, what he sees as necessary in this situation. He binds the hands of the goblins, and checks if their fallen comrades have anything useful.

Spoiler

Show

Taking 20 for DC 35 for Escape Artist to escape from the bindings.

[inexorabletruth]

The goblin prisoners focus on the tip of the blood-soaked trident as the group decides their fate and put up no resistance when their hands are tied.

All the javelin throwing goblins carried 3 small javelins each, except the ones that threw, which only possess two now. The armored goblin carried a small mace, small light wooden shield and small leather armor. His shield possesses a familiar marking, similar to the tattoo the corpse back in the woods had. He also had some grubby, but well made bracers, a large nose ring, and a hoop in each ear.

It appears that the group that is carrying the villagers' supplies are still inside the cave.

[Lexin]

"Does anyone recognize that mark? Other than the corpse we've seen earlier... it just became a lot more important now." Garrick asks after pointing the shield.
He also focuses a lot on their prisoners, and even more so on their worlds. His father once taught him some of the goblin speech, as they talked among themselves, but he didn't need this knowledge in years.
Slowly he started to remember some of it... maybe it would be enough for their needs.

[Jormengand]

Azra shakes her head. "I don't think s... owah..."

Azra throws her head back in what seems to be an involuntary movement, and her eyes glow a strange blue. She nearly drops her guisarme, and seems to be held up only by the blue light that now surrounds her.

After a moment, the blue light goes to her mouth, and she speaks a garbled sentence in a long-forgotten language. As she does so, the universe answers her calls.

A single tendril of energy erupts from the ground near Albert, wrapping around him for a moment. Similar tendrils rise up near the other injured warriors, and then Azra falls to the ground, gasping. Those who were touched by the light heal rapidly for several seconds.

Spoiler

Show

Minor Word of Nurturing on all injured non-goblins.

"Uh... Okay... that was weird, but kind of cool. Like I said, I don't think I know what that is, but..."

Spoiler

Show

Knowledge (Arcana, Religion, The Planes or Engineering): (1d20+10)[29]
(Anything else): (1d20+5)[22]

[inexorabletruth]

The goblins cow in fear at Lady Azra's brilliant display of light and levitation and avert their sensitive eyes from magical effect. "Mosec ikark! Tra koksar verr derr ik orr!" the one closest to the cave shrieks.

When things appear to have calmed down, you see an injured form come out of the shadows, keeping a wide birth from Lady Azra and eyeing her with a mix of confusion and curiosity. Her gaze shifts from Albert to Lady Azra a few times as she shuffles her feet awkwardly. "Uh… if you're fine here, I'll be heading back to Gru. It doesn't look like I'll be much help here and there's still more wounded to tend to."

Most of you do not recognize her, but her injuries, accent and style of dress suggest she's one of the farmers from Gru.

[missmvicious]

Antiel is startled and confused for a moment with Azra's display but seeing it help Sulcu she decides that it must have been a good thing.

When the injured woman comes out Antiel stops her "Can you tell us anything about inside there? How did you get away?"

[inexorabletruth]

She looks at the elf with a hint of curiosity.

Kinda what she looks like:

Spoiler

Show

"I don't know. I wasn't captured. My father hid me in our cellar before our home was sacked and burned." She swallows a bit after mentioning the tragedy. "When Albert awoke from his injuries, he insisted on coming to help you." She shrugged. "Merida and I used to play out here a lot, so I offered to help him find you. He said he might be able to help you guys save the villagers."

[missmvicious]

Antiel glances back at Albert looking to confirm the woman's story.

[theduck]

Albert pauses for a moment, biting his lip. After a moments consideration, he smiles, keeping eye contact with injured girl.

She did help me find you all, and I'd be willing to put money that no one from Gru knows this area better.

[ShadowDragon]

After looking puzzled for a moment at the display of power, the elf shakes his head, "Your help will be appreciated, but your sister there should head home." Netheron says sharply, as is if to get things in motion again quickly, but immediately shifts his attention to his shield, raising it and facing its front, trying to scrape more of the paint from its surface, looking curious and uncertain about it "This is... A rather peculiar shield... That dwarf better tell me more about this one, heh...", straping the shield back to his arm, he looks at each one in the group and nods "What now?"