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

[uncurse]

[ emma swings her sword at goblin 4 again, this time effectively getting in a shallow slash (atk 15, dmg 4). ]

Hope you've got more where that came from. [ the remark is directed at gold, though she doesn't turn her head. it seems obvious, ok ... ] I'm willing to bed that tree was a gift from our druid pal. He's probably expecting us.

[untethered]

[ a now barely alive meepo (although really, he's basically always barely alive with two hit points) moves towards the hobgoblin left standing and swings wildly at him (atk 9). erky draws his morningstar and moves inside to attack the same guy, bashing his skull in completely. (atk 22, 21 dmg.....) belle moves inside to try to trick the cleric, but she crit fails and winds up distracting meepo instead so now he'll lose his next turn. whoops. :x ]

[undealt]

Indeed. [He has one of those spells left. Unfortunately. And none too many others, so he hangs back. The cleric's almost a goner. And he's not bashing into the fray with his cane right now.] No doubt he means to exhaust us before we can reach the grove.

[unhand]

[Hook steps in towards the cleric and slashes his hook at her wildly (atk 6), then moves in with a more controlled attack with his sword (atk 15, dmg 3) if it hits.] Good thing we've got all those potions and spells.

[Those can't possibly run out, right...]

[untethered]

[ hook's second attack knocks the cleric unconscious once more, although her and the Chief are both stabilized.

goblin 4, in a show of extreme courage, does a full withdrawal to avoid provoking any attacks of opportunity and books it out the other door to the south.

/ INIT ]

[bittersweeter]

[ AND FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY, picking her way through the door, lila pokes her head into the room and whistles. ] Now that is a swath of destruction I can get behind.

[uncurse]

Let's not get too optimistic. There's no saying he won't grab his pals and catch us on our way out. [ emma is here to darken your doorway with world without magic negativity. ur welcome. she approaches the fucking middle circle weird thing the tree popped out of and leans forward to scrutinize it as she searches the room (search 11). ]

[untethered]

[ the shaft that emma looks down is lined with thick (though pale) vines, which seem steady enough to serve as scaffolding to climb down, as strong as any knotted rope. the shaft seems to reach about 80 feet down and the room below is lit by a violet light that doesn't illuminate whatever's down there from this distance.

all emma's search of the room gets her is that there's that big honking iron chest that the chief was using as a footstool... ]

Actually, if they know that we killed their Chief... and if those were the only hobgoblins about, we might be alright. Goblins need the leadership of more powerful races to really make any such organized efforts.

[ meepo stabs the unconscious chief to ensure that he's dead, and gleefully suggests: "Mount his head outside the door!" ]

[undealt]

[WHY MUST WE ALWAYS CLIMB THINGS, asked the guy who knew there would be spelunking involved and still dressed in a suit. He peers down the shaft, himself, and makes a face.]

I doubt their fear of us will give us any points with their druid friend, but that does mean it's safe to leave someone behind with the dragon.

[POINTED LOOK AT MR. TWO HP OVER THERE.]

[uncurse]

He makes a good point. [ she glances at meepo, eyebrows raised, while she approaches belle. ] Maybe you should stay here until we get back. { and like what are the chances his tiny ass can carry that unconscious dragon by himself lbr. he won't run back to his people without them. she turns her attention to belle as she reaches her. ] Any chance I can use one of those potions?

[untethered]

[ MEEPO CAN TOTALLY CARRY THAT DRAGON, ITS THE SIZE OF A CAT, OK. belle hands emma a potion and throws a look at the kobold ] And what happens to him if they do come to see if their Chief is dead? He'd be safer returning to his tribe. I think he's more than shown courage in helping us - he's nearly died twice.

[uncurse]

[ glug glug mm tastes like +12 hp ]

[bittersweeter]

[ lila wants to protest because she doesn't realize her kitten dragon is basically baby smaug so she still, irrationally, wants to protect it and keep it out of a cage, but she bites her tongue on that aspect. that doesn't mean she stays quiet though. ]

If Meepo takes him back, what's to stop the Kobolds from reneging on their deal since we didn't bring ol' Snowflake here back ourselves? I don't really feel like fighting a flock of dragon heirs on our way out.

[untethered]

The deal we asked for was help killing goblins and they offered us a single treasure, which I don't think we need to go to war with anyone for if they happen to back out. Meepo's helped us fight, as promised. He's an ally, not a prisoner. You can't honestly expect him to stay here and risk his life alone, not to mention potentially losing even more standing with his people if they come back and reclaim Calcryx.

[undealt]

Besides if Meepo were to suddenly decide we'd be better off dead, I believe he's witnessed enough here to to paint a decent picture of what would happen if his clan deigned to kill us. However this plays out, we lose nothing by letting the dragon keeper return his dragon.

[unhand]

Let's not be hasty. Depends what the treasure is. [#PiratePriorities. But Hook will for the most part let the issue rest. He'd rather just stick to people who won't die if he accidentally stabs him.]

Very well. Meepo? Take your beastie and go. We'll run into you again soon enough, I've no doubt.

[bittersweeter]

[ EXCEPT THE DRAGON, THEY'LL LOSE THE DRAGON. lila presses her lips together before her shoulder lift in a shrug like fine whatever i hate you all, before she holds out the dragon for meepo to take. ]

[sternshield]

Don't understand why you're making deals with these creeps in the first place. [ meepo, who is reaching eagerly for the dragon, snarls at erky. ]

"Nasty furry face gnome knows nothing! Meepo keep his word."

[uncurse]

Yeah, let's just hope the rest of your people do, too. [ emma actually listened to gold's warnings ok. she watches meepo with vague distrust for a moment, but then sighs and turns away. ] I'm gonna try to get that open - [ she points to the chief's chest. ] It might save us the trouble of going downstairs and dealing with that druid. If anyone else finds something, shout. [ approaching the chest now weee. is it locked? ]

[untethered]

[ it's not locked, but the moment she opens it a NEEDLE SHOOTS OUT and strikes her. make a fort save emma. ]

[uncurse]

Ow! [ the needle digs into her neck wow that was rude. she reaches up to pluck it out, muttering. (fort save 12.) ] Dammit.

[untethered]

[ emma takes 3 temporary Constitution damage as she feels the heavy poison coursing powerfully through her veins. (this also reduces her max hit points by 10 for now, so she caps at 16hp instead of 26.)

the chest, at least, is overflowing with gold pieces, on top of which rest two onyx gems, 2 vials of some kind of liquid, an arcane magical scroll, and a potion. ] Emma?

[unhand]

Swan? [Hook moves towards her, looking concerned.] What happened, lass?

[uncurse]

[ you know what con damage looks like in my head? it looks like emma slipping from a squat to falling onto her ass beside the chest, hand raising to her head at the lightheadedness. her skin feels hot, sickly feverish, and dizziness washes over her for a moment. ]

I-I don't know. [ she looks down at the needle (nat 20 wis wow where the fuck was that for my fort save. fuck you random.org) ] There was a trap. It's poison.

[unhand]

[Hook doesn't even take more than a glance at the treasure because he's too busy squatting down next to her, one arm going around her to hold her up. He shoots a glare back at Erky.]

Help her!

[Not that this is remotely Erky's fault... he just gets growly and shouty when he's worried.]