Initial Assault on the Kobold Lair (22nd of Haar'Kiev)

Box o Kobolds by HackPrincess

Sa'Mar, the 22nd of Haar'Kiev in the year 14063.
The party meets up at their usual meeting place of the Dark Titan Taproom. Rythax has breakfast since he is the only one who doesn't reside in town. They decide to go out and see if Lucky's snares managed to catch anything. Finding the minor side trail from the day before isn't a problem because they had marked it well. Rythax takes the lead and manages to avoid falling back into the pit trap they reset the day before. One of Lucky's snares had been set off, but the free end is swaying in the wind because the noose had been crudely hacked off. Rythax notices two pairs of kobold tracks leading away from the snare. The prints seem to be a bit closer to each other and more obvious than expected and he surmises that they belong to a pair of kobolds carrying a heavy load.

The party follows the tracks Northwest into the heavily wooded foothills. Up ahead is a cave. Lucky decides to scout out ahead and as he approaches the cave he notices a rather foul odor emanating from within. He scouts out the entrance and it looks like two tunnels merge together to form the entrance. The wider tunnel is between five and ten foot wide while the smaller one is, at best, three feet wide. He motions the rest of the group up to the entrance. Lucky goes and cuts down a small sapling to create a small (4') poking stick and prods the foul-smelling "mud". Half of the party, Lucky and Mykal, skirts the cesspool and the other two try the smaller path. By climbing up and traversing the small path from a higher elevation (exerting pressure against both sides) they can easily move along and join the others. Anise makes a fair amount of noise making the climb, but Rythax accomplishes it easily. The side path really isn't another tunnel, just part of the same cave separated by a small stone outcropping.

The next room is a large trash room. Bits and pieces of wood, skins, glass, etc. litter this large 20' across cavern. Most of the litter is pushed up against the sides of the room, forming a path down the middle. Lucky pokes and prods with his stick before tossing it aside. Since the group is venturing into a dark cave they wisely light a torch, which Anise carries from the middle of the party. Lucky decides to sneak ahead into the next room.

The next room is more a wide corridor with a rock outcropping off to one side in the back. There is a small tunnel leading down and back just inside the room on the left, but Lucky hugs the right wall. Unbeknownst to him, a trio of kobolds was on guard duty towards the back of the room, which drops down into darkness. Although he was being sneaky, the foul stench from the cesspool at the entrance gave his presence away. Two of the kobolds waited for him with crude crossbows, while the third scurried away. When he got close enough both kobolds hit him, with one being a crit! The first shot did a single point of damage and the crit only did seven. Lucky called out to his fellows who were now at the front of that room. Lucky immediately engages the nearest kobold while Rythax and Mykal move up to assist. Anise guards the rear, taking care to watch that back side tunnel. For nearly half a minute the trio trades blows with the kobolds before managing to ToP the pair. Just as the last one goes down wimpering Anise notices kobolds coming out of the side tunnel.

The group turns to engage three new kobolds and quickly discovers another three coming up from the darkness behind them. These final three kobolds emerge just as Lucky walks off with the corpse of one of the earlier kobolds, having just delivered killing blows to both ToP'd beasts. These new kobolds jog up behind the Mykal, Anise, and Rythax. Anise manages to kill one outright just before getting knocked out herself. At this point Mykal is engaged with three kobolds and Rythax with two. Lucky tries to use the body of the one kobold as an improvised weapon to no good effect on one of the kobolds engaged with Rythax. Both Rythax and Mykal are getting pretty chewed up by the kobolds to their rear. Mykal shift position to make the two kobolds behind her in front of her instead, which helps a lot. Lucky tosses his corpse at a kobold and then draws two daggers to fight offensively with both. The battle is dragging on with the kobolds getting the upper hand.

Anise comes out of her pain and from a prone position reaches out to touch one of the kobolds attacking Mykal. A jolt of electricity shoots from her hand, but has no initial effect on the creature. Three of the kobolds panic at the sight of this miniature lightning and immediately flee. Rythax cuts one down mid-stride and the other two escape, one to the side tunnel and the other out the back. The remaining two kobolds, now outnumbered, decide to go down swinging, but they do go down.

Anise quickly liberates the kobolds supply of left ears and trade coins while the rest of the group pepper her with questions as to what just happened. She convinces them they need to leave the cave and she will explain. Everyone but Anise trudges through the cesspool. Outside the cave, Rythax bandages everyone's wounds while everyone inquires about just exactly just happened. Anise explains that she can do this one thing where she can send a jolt of electricity at a target. Someone says it's just like "magic" and Rythax is convinced it is some fancy Elven ability. While Anise is close to the point of embarrassment, everyone else thinks this is the coolest thing in the world. Anise makes everyone promise to not tell anyone about her ability.

All the way back to town the group is elated having (barely) survived the encounter with the kobolds. They gush on about Anise and Lucky in particular cannot seem to stop asking inane questions like, "Can you make thing blow up?....can you make food spicy?.....can you..."

The group gets back into town early afternoon and after a quick trip to the barber to have their wounds looked at again they go to the furrier for their bounty and then the bathhouse to have themselves cleaned up. Anise needs some alone time and runs off to get her clothes sewn back up at the tailors while everyone bathes. They all meet up that night at the Dark Titan Taproom for some drinks and celebration. Rythax rents a room for "private reflection". The Gnome Titans try to get the location of the kobold cave out of the group, but nobody is professing to know exactly where it is, except Rythax...who isn't telling.

"Loot":
6sp, 98tc

Moon:

Arlora is Full Moon
Bardra'Kar is2nd Quarter Waxing
Shadara is Half Moon Waxing
Light Level: Bright




NPCs Introduced:
Carna Foxhigh (Human Female: Bathhouse Attendant)
Werter Blasfist (Human Male: Tailor)