"Billy....? BILLY!! INVADERS!!!!" cries a goblin bowman in a gravelly voice as he sees his pet rat bleeding profusely all over the stone floor.
"Is that the only word these guys know?!" gruffs the paladin as he joins the fray.
With that, a second door along the back wall swings open with violent force, three more goblin bowmen, arrows knocked and drawn rush headlong into the small chamber! Stelios and Janic quickly account for their new odds, Murleck however never even looks up at the newly joined combatants, his focus purely trained on the rat that decided to make him dinner. Six slices administered with the savagery of a butcher and the precision of a surgeon leave the rat a pile of chopped meat ready for tavern meat pies.
"NOOOO! BILLY!" wailed the archer, his attack fueled by new found rage he starts slinging arrows recklessly towards the group, several arrows scoring hits on both Murleck and Stelios.
Standing farthest from the melee, Janic weaves his hand in an simple but concentrated manner and fires his plasmic fire at the newly entered goblins, the bolt leaving a 1 foot hold in the lead sniper's chest. The goblin's body falls to the ground, his knocked arrow clattering on the flooring stones harmlessly. As the lead goblin crumples, Murleck takes an arrow hit in stride as he spins a few spans over slashing his twin blades with the chaotic frenzy of a dire wolverine. The goblin archer falls, his blood spraying in a multitude of directions.
Meanwhile on the other side of the room, Stelios quickly snaps the arrow shaft off at the base, his blood flowing down from the puncture. Looking up he sees another sniper and a second dire rat in the back room off to the left.
"You're mine!" he growls rushing towards his two enemies.
"STELIOS! Tread carefully in there, that carpet does not sit well with me!" Murleck calls out, seeing the dragonborn rushing headlong into the back room.
"Thanks elf" replies the tank as he flashes his falchion towards the archer. Right before impact however, a sharp twang of pain from the arrow jolts through his sword arm, altering his ardent strike just enough for the sniper to dodge the blow. Angling for a powerful counterstrike the goblin goes to slash with his short sword. Blade still half drawn from it's scabbard, a green flash darts past Stelios and explodes in the face of the minion... a charred ball of flesh and bone all that remains of the imp's head. As the goblin falls lifelessly to the floor the dire rat rushes at Stelios gnashing and clawing. Backing off a step or two into the previous room, Stelios resets his footing, regaining the strength in his sword arm. With a quick shift to the left Stelios redoubles his attack with a vicious counter strike... blade biting deep into flesh, scoring bone. The rat howls in agony, his gnashing mostly involuntary twitches from spasming nerves and muscle fibers. The Tiefling seeing the creature in it's death throes, holds out it's hand and delivers one final magic missile. When the smoke clears, the rat's body lay lifeless, fur and flesh still smoldering with smell like that of a roast gone horribly wrong.
The band still tense with alertness scans the room for possible reinforcements. When the realization that they have a moment's reprieve sets in, the clang of a sword skittering on stone titles fills the chamber.
"Damn that hurts!" growls Stel has he favors his arm.
"Well done men" chimes in the half-elf as he licks the remnants of his enemies blood from his blade.
"No, not bad at all" finishes Janic "Not bad at all. I think we should halt our advance for a few hours and rest ourselves"
Nodding his head, Stelios looked over towards Janic... "I agree with the demon"
Murleck, giving his two companions a quick glance and nod, walks into the next room, his voice trailing off "Ok with me, but I wish to investigate these two rooms before we retire"
While Janic attended to magical wards of protection and Stelios found a quiet corner to meditate and offer his prayers of thanks and healing to his god Ilmater. Murleck inspected the walls, ceilings and floor tiles as well as anything that decorated the rooms. After a good hour of inspection which included the richly decorated red carpet with gold trimmings in the back room that gave him ill feelings... which was indeed trapped and would have give whomever stepped on the carpet a very deadly dose of toxin, Murleck returned to the main chamber. Looking around he decided to inspect the large minotaur statue in the far corner one more time. Looking the stone over head to toe, front to back he found nothing of interest. Weariness setting in from his battle and his exhaustive search he placed his hand on the statue to support his weight for a moment. When he lifted his hand he noticed tiny Davek print where blood still on his hand had smeared. Quickly darting over to the closest fallen goblin he returned to the statue with more coagulated blood on his hand and began to smear it over the area. Content that he'd uncovered all of the hidden text he studied it for a moment, trying to recall what he remembered of the dwarven script....
 |
| Davek script chiseled into the rear of the statue |
"I have found something interesting back here, listen up... 'Seven days have passed and I am the only one who remains. I fear I will never escape to bring word of this place to my clan, to warn them of the danger. Something has driven Morgana mad, and I despair of ever learning what it was. You who find this must warn--'
"Warn who...? There isn't any more of the message?" the Tielfing pondered to himself out loud.
"Nothing that I can find and I've searched the statue several times" Murleck replied.
"We'll worry about it in a couple hours! Let's get some rest. I'll take first watch" offered Stelios, rising from his mediation.
After one last check of weapons and armor and the application of salves and bandages, Janic and Murleck were soon fast asleep. Stelios looked over at his companions while he worked a whetstone over his blade, honing it's edge when he suddenly stopped mid stroke, grinning like the cat that eat the canary. Rising quickly and quietly, he slipped out of the room and quickly retraced his steps back to the healing pools and retrieved a goblet of water. Then, dropping in a flaming hot coal from one of the braziers he returned and sneaked as best he could over to the half-elf biting back a snicker. Placing the goblet next to the slumbering ranger he placed his hand into the warm water, the snickers slipping through his gritted teeth.....
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