scotland ♔ yet how the wind revives us here

[untethered]

♬ Presentiment - Manami Kiyota

WHO || Belle, Gold, Emma, Hook, Lila [closed]
WHAT || Several Knights take a secret journey to try to help Amara...
WHERE || Oakhurst, Scotland
WHEN || January 15th, 2014 [forward dated]
HOW || Actionspam

It's probably a very good thing that Gold sweet-talked them a car in the nearby tiny Scottish village of Oakhurst, because it is freezing cold out and snow blankets almost everything around. Walking the seven miles up the Old Road to the ruins would be a bitch and a half.

Instead, they comfortably drove past rocky downs, near stands of old-growth oak covered in snow, and past two farms that looked abandoned. No other travelers were visible on the lonely road, which finally curves, passing east of a narrow ravine. Belle signals for them to pull over here, where, at the road's closest approach to the cleft, several broken pillars jut from the earth where the ravine widens and opens into something akin to more of a deep, but narrow, cavern. Two of the pillars stand straight, but most of them lean against the sloped earth. Others are broken and several have apparently fallen into the darkness-shrouded depths. A few similar pillars are visible on the opposite side of the ravine.

Comments

[untethered]

[ the answer is many. know why? because she's peering into what is apparently a practice room of some sort. dozens of blunted and broken javelins lie on the cracked cobblestone floor, though a few protrude from three crudely human-sized targets, burlap dummies filled with hair and fur that vaguely look like humans and elves, along the center of the south wall. the northern third of the room is separated from the south by a crudely mortared and crenelated half-wall. racks of javelin line the walls.

emma's shot strikes, at least, managing to hit the goblin behind the wall, and he collapses out of sight.

belle takes a diagonal five foot step so that she's south of emma, and takes a shot at gobtwo (atk 8), but it goes wide. :c ]

[unhand]

[Hook slips past Emma, moving in front of gobone. At the very least, this should keep them from throwing their sharp, pointy things at Emma. He jabs the goblin with his sword, but it doesn't feel it (atk 9).]

[undealt]

[SIGH HOOK.

Gold moves just outside the protection the wall covers, putting himself in front of Emma and Belle.

Y'ALL KNOW IT'S TIME FOR SOME MAGIC MISSILE (dmg 2, 2, and 3).]

[uncurse]

[ with the goblin she'd hit ducking, she'll turn her gun on the nearer goblin and fire off another shot (atk 16, dmg 7). ] Don't let them get behind that wall!

[untethered]

[ gobthree climbs over the wall, just as she says that and picks up another javelin. meepo moves in beside hook, barely missing jabbing gobone with his halfspear (atk 14). gobtwo also scales the wall and locates a weapon. ]

[bittersweeter]

[ lila moves forward until she's behind hook, maybe she's using him as cover. aiming around him, she fires at gobthree. (atk 25, dmg 11) ]

[untethered]

[ belle moves all the way up next to hook. having studied it for a round, she can use exploit weakness, making her shot a 20, which is... not enough with that goblin behind that damn wall :( SO CLOSE SOB. ]

[unhand]

[Hook moves forward and hurls himself over the wall (jump 17), flicking his sword up towards the goblin's throat, but not actually attacking. For the moment.]

This would be a very good time to surrender, if you don't want to end up like your friends over there. [(Intimidate 23). Boy, he hopes that thing speaks English.]

[undealt]

[Gold holds action, but keeps an eye out, in case something else comes at them. (nat 20 spot check)]

[untethered]

[ the goblin rolls its terrible eyes up at hook, clenching its teeth and hissing, but it looks too cowed to move. however, it merely chitters back at him, which causes meepo to laugh raucously in delight and yap: ] "Goblin too stupid to understand clawed man!"

Wait! [ belle moves forward towards the wall quickly, scaling it slowly ] I can translate the goblin language. What do you think I should ask it?

[uncurse]

Tell it that it can live if it tells us where to find the dragon. [ she shakes her head. and since it obviously doesn't understand, emma will just ... explain her dodging of their actual goal in the same breath ] Better it doesn't know what we're really here for. It could give them a chance to move them.

[unhand]

[Hook gives her an admiring look. She's clever.] We should also tie it up.

[bittersweeter]

Let me try, in case you don't have to waste the rope. [ she moves forward and peeks over the wall, bare fingers drumming against it, nose wrinkling with a longer look at the goblin. ick. can she curse something that isn't human? hell if she knows, but it's worth a shot. she worked rose who is only half human... ]

[untethered]

[ belle does her best job of communicating the question to the goblin, which is pretty hilarious, i imagine, because goblins sound kind of like stitch and replicating their language has to be fun for the whole family when anyone is attempting to do so seriously. as a result, her delivery is hardly intimidating, but luckily the goblin still looks terrified of hook. it gnashes its short, sharp fangs again, but then chatters something back rapidly ] He says the dragon is in the trophy room... [ it keeps talking and she tries to keep up ] We just take that door there [ he points to the northern door ] and then go to the end of the hallway.

[undealt]

And hope it isn't lying and there isn't an ambush waiting for us. [Gold's staring at Belle with an incredulous look because that is both awesome and kinda creepy.

He shakes it off and steps forward, towards the door.] But we've come this far. [OH HEY REMEMBER THAT NAT 20 SPOT CHECK HE ROLLED. as he passes by the first goblin's corpse, he pauses as something shiny catches his eye and he leans down to retrieve... a key. BAM.]

[untethered]

[ with a 22 spot, belle notices gold grab the key and asks the goblin another question (diplomacy 25). he gives a begrudging reply and she follows his gaze to the door that stems off from the practice area, to the southwest. ] He says it goes to that door - it sounds like it's where they keep prisoners.

[uncurse]

Prisoners? [ emma looks viscerally bothered by this notion. so she'll hold out her hand to get the key from gold. ] They might be able to help us. [ she looks to hook and lila. ] Once he's tied up, we're bringing him with him. If he's lying about that dragon and there's a trap waiting, the least he can do is give us a shield.

[undealt]

[Gold hesitates before he hands the key off, leaning in to whisper.] This might be the trap, Ms. Swan. Is that a risk you want to take?

[uncurse]

There could be people in there. [ her voice is low but tight with determination. ] Who've been in there for who knows how long. If there's even a chance, we can't afford not to chance it. [ MINIMUM STANDARDS FOR DECENT HUMAN BEING. ]

[unhand]

[Hook reaches into his pocket and brings out a long coil of rope, looped over his hook. Since tying someone up one-handed takes a while if you want to do it well, especially when that one hand is currently leveling a sword at that someone, it's better he let someone else do this part. He holds it out towards Lila. He won't stop her from using her power, but he'd rather spare her the nightmares.]

Let's get started, then, shall we?

[bittersweeter]

[ she boosts herself over the wall slowly because she's actually secretly weak and, once over, takes the rope from hook with the beginnings of a pout. she knows why he's pushing the rope (sense motive 16), and it's sweet probably, but she doesn't like it -- this is why she doesn't tell people. tying up the goblin is simple at least, though she's not gentle by any means. and she's very thorough, leaving a little tail of rope like a leash. ] Do you want to hold him or me?

[untethered]

[ belle picks her way back over the wall to join emma and gold, glancing at the door to the stockade ] Emma's right. Nobody deserves to stay locked up down here in this horrible place.

[undealt]

[Gold takes a step back.] All right. Just keep your weapons at the ready.

[uncurse]

[ emma stares at the door in the southwest corner of the room, holding tightly to the key, then approaches and opens it with marked determination. she unlocks the door and yanks it open and ... ]

[untethered]

[ squalor reigns in this long low dungeon. 3 kobolds are roughly tied with crude ropes to a large spike near the entrance. Farther back, a battered gnome languishes inside a rusted iron cage, which is small even for his frame. Several sets of corroded manacles are connected to the walls, which remain empty except for the occasional crumbling skeleton. ]