Adventure Log, Session 16 The Cult of the Cannibal Goblins, Part 2
General Summary
Sounds of movement echoed throughout the tunnels, reflecting off of the myriad of curved surfaces and muddling the noises into something barely recognizable, a cacophony of nearly randomized sounds.
“What the hell are they doing?” Almë asked. “We don’t have much time. We’d better hurry!” He and Eykit were looking through the crates while Taid checked the chests. In the crates and barrels were primarily various sorts of housewares. The chests held personal gear and extra clothing. But they were only taking quick glances, as there was that sense of urgency that the noises they were hearing were enforcing. A cursory check for loot was all the time they could spare.
Elitheris finished tying the bandage around Mr. Wiggle’s leg. He was well armored, for a dog, but his rear end was exposed, and the bastard Goblins kept hitting him there. Fortunately for the borderbull, the wound was mainly muscular in nature; the weapon’s point hadn’t pierced any organs or his intestines. “There you go, boy,” she told her dog, giving his head a scratch between the ears. Tongue lolling, Mr. Wiggles closed his eyes while she gave him the scratchings. “Time to go, pups.” She stood, and Mr. Wiggles got to his feet, limping a bit due to his wound.
The tunnel forward led in a slight curve to a larger space, also with some bunk beds in it. The four of them and the dog moved down the tunnel, and it opened up into a largish, oblong cavern on two levels, connected by shelves of flowstone forming a sloping stairway of sorts. In the upper section were six sets of bunk beds, and in the lower section there were eight sets. Near each bunk bed was a pair of chests. Obviously, this room was a companion to the previous room, only larger. Like the other room, the natural cavern had been modified by cutting out the stalactites and stalagmites to open up the space. Some of the stalactites stumps hanging from the ceiling were lit with magical light, giving the impression that the yellowish tan stone room was lit by torches.
Two tunnels led off from it on the northern side. The room appeared unoccupied, but Almë checked under the lower bunks to make sure there weren’t any cannibals hiding under them. There didn’t seem to be any that he could see. A cursory check of the chests showed that they held personal items and clothes, nothing worth looting at the moment. Mr. Wiggles scurried about the room, sniffing industriously.
Large barracks cavern
Taid started dragging a bunk bed across the uneven floor. It was heavy, even for him. It was sturdily built of wood, with a latticework of rope supporting the mattresses. “We should barricade one of the openings,” he urged, “I don’t like the idea of them coming up behind us.” The tunnel he wanted to block was flanked on both sides by bunks, and he wanted to add a few more between them to make it difficult for any enemies to attack them from there.
Almë grabbed the other end of Taid’s bunk, and they moved it over to the opening, tipping it over to block the tunnel. Elitheris and Eykit were dragging another over, and the four of them each grabbed a corner and lifted the heavy bunks onto the first set, to completely block the opening to the tunnel. Anyone coming through there would have to take the time to move the beds out of the way first, making noise and delaying their advance. Satisfied, the group turned towards the other tunnel. That one had a sharp bend to the right.
Eykit led the way, stealthily creeping up the tunnel, which was, for a natural tunnel, relatively straight after the initial tight bend. A curtain had been placed at the far end, of a bluish patterned fabric. As Eykit got closer, he could tell that the curtain was worn, tattered, and stained by countless hands. The room smelled unpleasantly of waste. Pulling aside the curtain and peeking past it, he saw a smallish room with a low, seven foot high ceiling. A series of chamber pots were arranged around the far periphery of the room. No other tunnels led out.
He walked back, saying “It’s a privy. I seriously doubt if there is anything we want in there!”
If Eykit was saying there wasn’t anything worth looting, then one of two things was happening: either he had already looted the place, or there truly was nothing anyone would want in there. Eykit’s greed wouldn’t allow him to leave money “on the table”. And if he had looted anything from the privy…well, no one else would want it anyway.
While Eykit was exploring the privy, Elitheris, along with Mr. Wiggles, had stayed by the barricade, bow ready, arrow nocked. Nothing had stirred beyond the barricade, although the echoes of moving things could still be heard coming from whence they came. But so far, nothing had snuck up behind them. Which, in her mind, implied that the cannibals were setting up somewhere, waiting for them.
The rest of the crew came back to the barricade. Eykit used his keen ears to see if he could hear anything. From up the tunnel he thought he could hear the sound of wood on stone, much like the sounds the beds made when they were dragging them over to make a barricade out of them. “I hear wood scraping on stone,” he told the rest of them. “But that’s about all I hear. The hard stone tunnels are really messing with my ears. The echoes make things confusing, even for me.”
“When we move the barricade,” Taid suggested, “only move it enough to slip past. If we need to retreat, we want it easy for us to push it closed quickly.” Nodding in agreement, and with significant effort, they slid the stacked bunks open a bit. Taid was the largest around, so while he had to squirm through the opening they made, the rest of them had little trouble slipping through the tight space between the beds and the cavern wall.
Cavern tunnel
They emerged into a tunnel about six feet in width and maybe eight high, with an oval cross section. There were occasional spots of magical light on the ceiling or high up on a wall giving off just enough light to navigate by. A Human would have trouble, but Goblins, Elves, and Dwarves all had excellent night vision, and Mr. Wiggles depended primarily on his nose.
The tunnel, snaking through the stone, sloped down, then up, and in the middle of the upward slope, was a pit. They got to the edge, and its bottom was in darkness. It was about eight feet wide. Jumpable, with a running start. The edges looked pretty solid, though, so if they didn’t make the jump and had to grab onto the edge to keep from falling in, it would be doable.
The privy and the twisting tunnel
“I’ve got rope,” Elitheris stated. “Can anyone see something on the other side we could tie it to?”
There really wasn’t anything. Any stalagmites had been removed to ease passage through the tunnel.
They checked with Taid to see if he could throw them across the pit. The answer was no, even his strength wasn’t good enough for that. Not even Eykit was light enough for that, even if he stripped to his skivvies. And, of course, that would be exactly when the enemy decided to ambush them….
“What about using the bunk beds?” Taid asked. “Like a bridge.”
Looking at the pit’s size, and the sizes of the bunks, it wouldn’t work. They were too short, and would just fall into the pit.
“I’ll jump across,” Almë offered. “But I want that rope around my waist, just in case.” Elitheris tied the end of the rope around him.
“There you go,” she said, “good luck.” She played out about twenty feet of rope as Almë moved back down the tunnel to get a running start. She and Taid held onto the other end of the rope, in case they had to check Almë’s fall.
He ran towards the pit, leaping as he got to the edge, and sailed across the pit with plenty of height to spare. He was going to make it!
Except he didn’t. He screamed as he slammed into something at the far side of the pit, something he couldn’t see, and he fell back into the pit, two large holes in his thigh. He hit the pit with a thud and a groan of pain, the blood starting to ooze out of the holes in his leg. He lay on top of the pit, as if there was a glass sheet over it.
It didn’t feel smooth like glass; no, it felt rough, uneven, and stone like. Just like the rest of the caverns.
Elitheris dragged him back to their side of the pit, his body appearing to hover over the hole as if floating. Once on their side, she started bandaging his leg. She saw, in a depression in the stone, some dust and gravel. She grabbed it, and tossed it into the pit—onto the pit. It clattered onto and laid on the surface, floating there, suspended over the drop.
His leg bandaged, the bleeding stopped, at least for the moment, Almë broke into his pack. He pulled out a vial, unstoppered it, and drank it down. The healing potion flowed down his throat, sat in his stomach like a warm lump for a moment, then warmth spread out to his extremities. The holes in his leg closed and scabbed over. He was up against a bunch of cannibalistic, trap-setting Goblins. He didn’t need the handicap of leg wounds slowing him down.
Taid and Eykit tested the edge with their feet. It was solid. The pit didn’t seem to be a pit. Still not trusting it, Taid extended his halberd over the pit, and hit something unseen on the other side. Using his pole arm as a blind man’s staff, he poked and prodded at the object, and discovered it was roughly rectangular in form, with protrusions. The tip of the halberd disappeared, reappearing when he pulled it back. There was some kind of vision screen hiding the object, and anything that went past the far edge of the pit.
Feeling his way across the pit with his halberd, as he didn’t trust the pit to be “solid” all the way across, he was able to grab the side of the object and shove it out of the way. His hands disappeared too, and when he stuck his head through the screen, he saw the rest of the tunnel curving up and around. The object was a wooden frame, with a wall of spikes attached, two of which dripped blood.
The screen was very similar to what he had seen Elitheris do on occasion, when she wanted to camouflage herself. It was an illusion! He kicked himself. “Sun’s tears, we didn’t even throw anything into the pit! We could have figured it was an illusion!”
“We certainly got suckered,” Eykit said. Almë nodded ruefully.
They moved on, up the sloping tunnel, then it leveled off and turned left.
The tunnel’s ceiling was uneven, varying between eight and ten feet, which made carrying the halberd challenging. Taid solved the problem by resting it on his shoulder so the head would stop bouncing off of the stone ceiling when it dropped too low.
Up ahead of them, Taid could see the tunnel curve sharply to the right. All of a sudden, the butt of his halberd ran into something unyielding, and he had to quickly control the polearm to keep it from hurting anyone behind him. He managed to prevent an accidental impaling, demonstrating his reflexes. The open tunnel ahead of them was blocked by a solid but invisible wall.
“More illusion bullshit!” he grumbled, as he started tapping on the invisible wall ahead of him. The others started feeling around also, and Elitheris found that there was an opening on the right, hidden by an illusory image that made it look like the wall of the cavern. The illusion this time was that of the actual curve of the tunnel, shifted six feet ahead of its actual position. More of a prank than a trap, like painting a tunnel on a cliff face.
“Anything could be an illusion!” Taid mentioned. “Crap. Now we have to test everything!” He began tapping around the walls, floor, and ceiling as they went down the tunnel. Side tunnels could be masked, and they didn’t need any ambushes if they could help it. Their pace slowed to a crawl.
A side corridor was visible after a little ways, looking less natural and more artificially formed. It was regularly shaped, like a mine tunnel, rather than the random slopes and curves of the natural caverns most of the complex seemed to be. It was also straight, running thirty or so feet to a dead end, with a wooden disk set into the floor. The sound of rushing water could be heard plainly from the end of the seven foot high and four foot wide tunnel.
It appeared empty, so Taid strode to the end and lifted the wooden disk. It had a simple handle attached to the center. Below it was an eight inch wide shaft, dropping about ten feet to the surface of an underground river. Shining a light into it, he could see reflections and glints of light off of the water’s surface, and dark stains along the edges of the shaft. It stank, despite the best efforts of the fresh water. He thought he knew what this was.
He replaced the lid, and walked back out to where the rest of the group stood, waiting for him. “Just where they dump the chamberpots. We’ve located their sewer.”
“That must be the underground river that we keep hearing,” Eykit mentioned. “Flushing their shit into the water supply.”
“And without a rinqualastë to clean it up first,” Almë added with disgust. Rinqualaster were Elven-designed colony organisms that acted like sewage treatment plants. Every Elven settlement had a few or more, and even some Dwarven and Human settlements had adopted them as well. Apparently, these Goblins hadn’t.
They heard a scraping, skittering sound just before a giant spider barreled down the corridor, filling the tunnel as it rushed towards them. It leapt onto Elitheris, its bulk knocking her down as she shrieked in alarm. Taid, standing behind her, leaped to the side, avoiding being hit as well as the pair as they both hit the ground. It perched over her, its mandibles dripping venom. It sunk them into her chest, and she screamed in pain, and what felt like fire flooded into her torso.
The spider filled the tunnel, its bulk seemingly barely able to fit
Taid stabbed at the spider’s bulky body, cracking the chitinous armor and sinking the spike of the halberd into it. It flinched, feeling the wound, as Almë, with a strong swing of his staff, cracked it just behind the eight eyes. It shuddered under the blow, its eight furry legs flexing with the shock.
The spider, reeling from the two blows, attempted to bite into Elitheris again, but she rolled aside and its clumsy attack missed.
Taid struck it again, slamming the tip of the halberd home into its body, and it collapsed onto Elitheris, unmoving, oozing ichor from its wounds, and globs of webbing from its abdomen. It had been starting to truss up the Elf woman, but it hadn’t really had much of a chance, leaving globs of sticky residue on her legs rather than actual webbing.
Elitheris was trapped, under the spider’s dying body, and the burning in her chest was becoming alarming. Spider venom dissolved their victims so they could be slurped up for food later. And that was beginning to happen to Elitheris.
Taid tried to heave the spider off of his friend. It didn’t work; the spider was too big and heavy. He was worried; it was possible that the body was heavy enough to keep Elitheris from being able to breathe, and, if his eyes didn’t deceive him, she had been bitten. By an immense, carnivorous spider. He shoved the end of his halberd under the body of the spider, and used it like a lever, and had more success, although it was hard work and he had to really strain his muscles. But he was able to get enough of the spider’s weight off of Elitheris so that Almë could pull her out from underneath it.
The burning feeling in her chest was getting worse. She could see two spots of blood on her gambeson. The holes weren’t large, but they certainly hurt. Out of the corner of her eye, the spider came apart into flakes, which then turned to ashes and faded away. In moments there was nothing to tell that there had ever been a spider.
Taid cast a spell of Major Healing, and that was sufficient to close the wound channels that had pierced deeply into Elitheris’ chest. A few moments later, and the burning sensation began to fade, the venom finally spent and no longer causing damage.
Once Elitheris was able to move again, they continued onward, along the downward sloping, twisting tunnel. They came around a corner, and what they saw made them duck back around it.
They had found what seemed to be the main cavern of the complex. The Cathedral of Kalshebba.
The Cathedral of Kalshebba
The space was roughly oval, maybe thirty feet wide and forty long. A stream trickled lengthwise through it, not very deep through most of it, but pooling on one side before draining out. Stalactites hung from the ceiling like fangs, but the corresponding stalagmites had been cleared out from the center of the room. Around the periphery of the room they were still there, left in place. On just about every wall were murals, painted in several different styles, showing Kalshebba mostly, either alone or against backgrounds of stylized Goblins and animals. Kalshebba was always shown much larger than the Goblins around her, and in each picture she was surrounded by a yellow or golden aura or halo, as befit a goddess. In the woodland scenes, the stalactites and stalagmites and columns gave the impression of tree trunks, adding what amounted to a third dimension to the wall paintings.
Example of wall art
Another mural
The ceiling, festooned with the stone outcroppings, arced above their heads, rising up to about forty feet at the apex. The room felt large and expansive. At one end, by the pool, was a large throne chair, made of wood and bones, lashed together with rawhide. For the most part, the bones are human-sized. Near the throne was a table with benches on either side. There were half a dozen other benches, at the other end of the room, so the table near the throne must have been for Kalshebba’s favorite followers. There were three cages, lined up along the northern wall, between the throne and the set of six tables. In one of them was a naked male human, covered in bruises and filth. He wimpered in fear and pain.
The throne of Kalshebba
In the center of the room was a large fire pit, complete with a roasting spit and a butcher block prep table nearby. A large chunk of meat was hanging on the spit, burning on one side now that no one seemed to be rotating it. Along the south curve of the wall were some instruments. Apparently, the Goblin cannibals liked to listen to music while they ate. There was a t’rong, a marimba-like instrument made of bamboo and slung much like a hammock, some drums, and a large horn that likely had a very deep tone. But no one was playing them at the moment.
T’rong
There were eight people in the room. Far fewer than the room could seat. Six of them, Goblin warriors, waited with spears and shields, in a shield wall near the opening into the room. Arrayed as they were, getting into the room and bypassing them would have been impossible. Behind them, by ten or more yards, were two other figures, one Goblin, one much, much taller.
Kalshebba, Goddess of Food, Drink, and Feasts (“Hand me my mallet—I must tenderize the area before making the first incision!”)
She dominated the room. Kalshebba, for it could only be her, stood twelve feet tall, twice the height of a Human or Elf, and about three times that of a Goblin. She was bulky, stocky, immense, with a large belly. Eykit wasn’t sure, but it looked as if things were moving in her distended gut, under her robes and likely under her skin. She was clad in decorated robes, and a colorful, feathered headdress that flowed back over her head. Her head was surrounded by a soft, golden light. On her hands were lacy, fingerless gloves that went up her forearms, disappearing into the voluminous sleeves of her robes. On her feet were bejeweled shoes, covered in blood-colored rubies.
In one hand, she had a club. The other was a large cleaver. And she did not look happy about her feasting being interrupted by a group of intruders. Her tusked mouth was set in a vicious snarl. Saliva slicked her lower lip and chin.
High Priest Jakkora Tongue-Biter
Next to her stood a Goblin, also dressed in colorful robes and decorated in colorful feathers, much like Kalshebba herself. He didn’t look terribly happy either, but the expression on his face indicated that he was sure the intruders would be dealt with, with extreme prejudice and not a small amount of pain and suffering.
The odds weren’t good. They did have the advantage that none of the enemy appeared to have any ranged weapons. Those spears gave them a decent reach, though, and while the four adventurers had fought stronger enemies before, these cannibals seemed to know how to fight well enough.
“There are a lot of them in there,” Almë said. “Any ideas on how to even the odds?”
“Yup,” Taid said with a grin. “I may have something that can help.”
Taid figured this was a good time for some magical aid. He began casting a Flash spell; when it was nearing completion, he stepped around the curve, holding out his hand, and fired off the spell. His upraised palm exploded in light, blinding those unlucky enough to not to have blinked at the right moment. Even those who were lucky enough to have blinked or averted their eyes still suffered from spots in their vision.
Two Goblins flailed about blindly, the rest squinted and blinked, trying to clear their vision. It wouldn’t help much, not for a little while, but they could at least function, if at a disadvantage. Dark spots floated in their vision, aftereffects of the bright flash.
Elitheris stepped around the corner, her bow drawn, letting loose an arrow into the Goblin warrior on the left of the line. The arrow’s flat trajectory sent it into her target’s face, snapping his head back and causing him to fly backward a yard or two, landing on his back, an unmoving tangle of limbs. Blinded by the flash attack, he hadn’t even seen the arrow coming.
Taid laughed. “Hah! Fuck you! Good shot, Elitheris!”
Almë had started to meditate, to try to get into Elven Focus. He was distracted by his companions’ shouts at the flashy demise of that first cannibal.
The cannibal Goblins, however, were not so thrilled, and scattered to find cover. The robed Goblin in the back, High Priest Jakkora Tongue-Biter, began casting a spell, and a giant spider appeared next to him.
No enemies were in melee range, so both Eykit and Taid took stock of the situation. Eykit’s knives were out; Taid readied his halberd. Almë tried again to meditate, this time succeeding, and it helped him get into the proper “flow” mindset.
Elitheris, in a single, smooth motion, drew an arrow and nocked it, drawing the string back as she aimed at the large figure of Kalshebba on the far side of the room. She focused her aim on Kalshebba’s greenish face.
She let fly the arrow, and it sped across the intervening distance, spinning, the barbed steel head glinting in the light of the glowing tips of the occasional stalactite, and then buried itself in the goddess’ face. She screamed in pain, and stumbled backward into one of the cages, her body bending backward over it until her head smacked against a stalactite. The cage rocked back under her weight.
The high priest said something and gestured, indicating the four interlopers, and the spider scuttled across the intervening distance, rushing the intruders. Taid set his halberd into floor, bracing it with his foot, as Almë, remembering they were facing an illusionist, tried to disbelieve the reality of the spider. His mind must have been too full of doubt, or the spider wasn’t an illusion, because it still came at them like a runaway carriage at full speed.
It slammed into Taid’s set halberd, the shock of impact resonating down the shaft, and it was brought up short, its legs spasming as they lost purchase on the ground for a moment.
The arrow strike to the deity Kalshebba had widened the Goblin priest’s eyes, and he looked worried. He dived behind one of the tables, seeking cover from the deadly archer. Kalshebba herself seemed angry now, as she fumbled around, trying to get back to her feet.
Elitheris drew a pair of arrows from the quiver at her hip. Almë, figuring that the spider was more-or-less taken care of by Taid and Eykit, moved around it to get at some Goblins. After all, it was the cannibals he was after. That was the reason he was here.
Eykit slipped between the impaled spider’s legs, stabbing into its furry body. Taid, for his part, did a quick jab with his halberd, delivering the killing blow, and it slumped into an immobile mass. Moments later, it fell apart, the pieces flaking apart and turning to ash. Taid thought he could see faint motes of magenta light, but he couldn't be sure.
Despite the death of three of his companions in not much more than that many seconds, one Goblin was able to keep it together long enough to strike at Almë with his spear, but Almë, the veteran staff fighter that he was, knocked the point of the spear aside without much effort. The cannibal’s nearest companions weren’t so lucky; they had just seen one of their squad leaders laid out with an arrow to the face, a giant spider butchered in mere moments, and, worst of all, their goddess hit in the face by a war arrow. They weren’t having a good day, although one was able to get to some stalagmites that gave him some cover.
Kalshebba managed to get back to her feet, and, with a grunt of pain, pulled the arrow out of face. It tore its way out, and blood flowed down her face. Her eyes were filled with rage, although the glow around her head obscured most of her features. That glare could almost be felt, though. A cloud of smoke formed between her and the intruding Elves, Goblin, and Dwarf, roiling and black in color, obscuring all vision through it.
The only person Elitheris could see and target was the guy behind cover. Despite that cover, her arrow sliced across his belly, and he fell back against the stalagmites as blood flowed down his stomach in a flood of red. His hands clutched at the wound in frantic spasms of movement.
Rightly thinking that their morale at the moment might be a little lower than usual, Almë screams, “Drop your weapons and surrender, if you want to live!”
For the most part, his “diplomatic overture” went unacknowledged, but one Goblin dropped his spear and ran toward an exit tunnel. Two others teamed up on Almë, striking at him with their spears, but both were denied any satisfaction as the staff-wielder demonstrated his parrying skills. “You’ll have to do better than that!” he told them with a smirk.
Eykit, his attention attracted to the tunnel behind the group, heard movement coming from up the tunnel they entered from. Quick footsteps and the creak of leather, with the occasional sound of metal on stone. Reinforcements were coming up behind them.
The main threat is Kalshebba, Elitheris thought. And she’s behind that cloud. She loosed her arrow where she thought the goddess should be, given her bulk, and the fact that the cloud wasn’t much bigger than she was. The arrow flew true, and the heavy wooden shaft tipped with a hardened steel broadhead hammered into Kalshebba’s skull above her left eye. Her head wrenched to one side, snapping back, as the missile plunged into her brain. It was a miraculous shot, and the immense, bulky body fell back, crumpling over a corner of the cage before rolling off and falling to the floor. She was dead, killed by a blind, lucky shot, if indeed a goddess could actually die.
Almë tried to sweep the Goblin he was fighting’s legs out from under him, but the quick little cannibal hopped over the swinging staff with a display of fine dexterity. His agility wouldn’t help him for long, however….
Mr. Wiggles ran into the fray, barking, and charged into the rightmost Goblin spearman, leaping into him and clamping his mouth down onto the warrior’s arm. Both the Goblin and the dog fell to the ground in a tangle of combatants, the dog growling, the Goblin grunting and swearing.
Just as the Goblin who had shown such remarkable agility was about to make an attack, Taid stabbed the point of his halberd into the him, hitting him in the crotch and knocking him down, the spear falling from his hand as he clutched at his groin, trying desperately to staunch the flow of blood from the puncture wound. A red stain spread through his pants as he whimpered in pain.
Eykit, meanwhile, was creeping along the wall of the tunnel back the way they had come, investigating the sounds he had heard. He didn’t want to be surprised by anyone.
The borderbull gnawed on the cannibal’s arm, although the sharp-toothed Goblin didn’t appreciate the irony. His right arm effectively pinned by a thrashing, fifty pound canine, he used his left instead, slamming the edge of his shield into the dog’s back leg. Mr. Wiggles, hurt by the shield’s rim, held onto the arm, working his teeth deeper through the gambeson armor.
The priest, still crouching behind the bench, created a second cloud of smoke next to the first, forming a thick, black wall of smoke. His goddess was dead, or at least this avatar of her. Either way, things were not looking good.
Elitheris, elated from her successful godslaying shot, again loosed an arrow into the cloud, in an attempt to hit the mage hiding in there somewhere. She was less successful, hearing only the thwak as the arrow hit the stone wall and the clatter of shrapnel as her shattered arrow fragments rained on the stone floor of the cavern.
Several of the enemies were down, but a couple were running away. Almë and Taid didn’t want them to escape, so they took off after them. Eykit, knives at the ready, crept forward towards the oncoming enemies that were attempting to flank them from behind.
The Goblin fighting with Mr. Wiggles was still struggling with the dog, and with a sudden wrench of his head, Mr. Wiggles tore into the Goblin’s arm, finally getting past the protective layers of linen. Blood flowed, the coppery taste making the dog even more vicious. The Goblin yelled in pain and rising panic.
With a pained grunt, the Goblin smashed his shield rim at the dog attached to his arm again, but the squirming, biting dog managed to slip out of the way.
The cannibal who Taid knocked down with a groin wound was slowly getting up, trying to stifle the flow of blood down his legs with his hand, putting pressure on his crotch. He held his spear in his other hand.
The enemies that Eykit knew were coming popped around the corner. There were four of them, again armed with spears and shields, in a two by two formation. There wasn’t enough room for any more; they filled the corridor from side to side, a bristling wall of spears. Eykit tossed a knife at the lead Goblin, and it bounced off her leg, barely cutting the gambeson armor. It didn’t hurt her, but it made her flinch back, along with the rest of her companions, buying a bit of time. He started back, retreating from the superior numbers. “Elitheris! We’ve got company! Four more!”
Elitheris drew three arrows out of her quiver. She had only tried for two, but the third one seemed to be in just the right spot to be grabbed as well, so….Two went into her bow hand, the other went to the string.
Almë could hear the wizard running up ahead, but he was coming up to the wall of smoke. He had no idea what was on the other side, but without hesitation he plunged into the acrid smoke, only to almost run into the corner of the table and bench hidden in the obscuring smoke. Fortunately, he came to a stop in time before running headlong into it and likely falling over it in a tangle of arms and legs. Taid followed, not far behind. Eykit backed up, until he stood just in front of Elitheris. There he crouched, his knives ready, as the enemy approached.
Mr. Wiggles worried at the Goblin’s arm, tearing into the flesh of his forearm. He squealed in pain, desperate to get the damned dog off of him. He tried again to slam the dog with his shield rim, but missed again. The angle was bad, and the panic was rising in him. He had to get the dog off of him!
The four spear-wielding Goblins maneuvered closer to Elitheris and Eykit, ready to attack.
Elitheris snapped a shot off at the lead Goblin’s leg, but it was a hasty shot, and the leg armor the Goblin wore absorbed the blow. Eykit, for his part, readied for defense, his eyes flicking from enemy to enemy. He didn’t have to kill any of them, Elitheris could do that. All he had to do was keep them off of her so she could do her job.
Mr. Wiggles, with a final wrench of his strong neck finally hit a tendon, his sharp teeth ripping through the Goblin’s muscles. The arm went limp, and the foe was unable to use the arm below the elbow. This elicited a pained cry from the hapless Goblin, who was too much in pain to effectively fight off the dog for the moment.
Almë emerged from the smoke and ran down the tunnel, coming around a corner. Ahead of him was about ten feet of tunnel, which then spread out into a small cavern about fifteen feet across. At the far end was another tunnel. Standing in it were two Goblins, the mage and a warrior. The mage, grinning, held onto an oversized wooden lever, set almost too tall for him to reach.
“Come on, then! You bastards!” the priest yelled as he saw Almë. “Come and get me!”
The room with the lever
Almë moved up to the end of the tunnel, but stopped before going into the room. He looked about, expecting a trap. The room had a ceiling twelve feet high, with no stalactites hanging from it, except around the periphery of the room. Similarly, there were no stalagmites in the center of the floor. There was no net strung up at the ceiling, either, and no obvious pit trap in the floor.
Taid was following, emerging from the smoke and beginning to make his way down the tunnel towards Almë.
Almë cast a spell, the arcane words and finger gestures gathering power, coalescing around the two Goblins on the far side of the room as a cloud of pollen that immediately started to make Jakkora’s and the warrior’s eyes water. Both of them managed to control the sneezing and coughing, however. Although there was nothing they could really do about the tremendous itching they felt.
Taid moved up to stand by Almë, surveying the situation, his eyes flicking about the room looking for any obvious trap. He didn’t see one. But that lever did something.
Almë yelled out some gobbledegook at the mage and his companion in an attempt to intimidate them. As the mage was the one holding onto the Lever of Doom, he was unimpressed, as he had the upper hand. Taid raised up his crossbow, and snapped off a shot, hitting the mage in the groin, but the bolt simply lodged in the armor, doing no damage.
Shocked the powerful crossbow failed to do damage, the high priest smiled. “You’re pathetic!” he yelled.
“Enough of this!” Almë cried. “I can make it to him!”
Taid gave him a look as the Elf took off running into the room, too fast for him to keep him from doing so. This won’t end well, he thought. He was right.
Jakkora Tongue-Biter pulled the lever, and the roof caved in. Almë leapt forward, but rubble from the roof collapse came down on him and pinned his legs. He was half buried in fallen rocks and dirt. It hurt; the falling rubble had done some damage to his legs. But he could still feel them, so his back wasn’t broken, thank the gods. The two Goblins backed up the tunnel. Almë sneezed; he was trapped right where he had cast his pollen cloud. It didn’t help that the air was filled with dust from the collapsing roof. And now, in addition to the pain of the heavy stone burying his legs, he itched horribly.
“Shit!” Taid exclaimed, as he started climbing up the pile of rubble. There was likely space above the pile of rocks for him to crawl up and over, and get to the other side. Hopefully before Almë died. He could hear Almë groaning in pain and exertion, so he knew that the overconfident Elf wasn’t dead yet. The climb was slow going, two feet up and one foot back, as the rubble shifted under his every move. And he couldn’t go too fast, or risk the shifting rubble fall on him.
His prey not dead from the rockfall, the disappointed Jakkora started mumbling under his breath. Almë could tell he was casting. The mana was forming something…something large. He could feel it.
Almë watched with wide eyes as the flows of mana coalesced into yet another gods’ damned giant spider. “Kill him,” Jakkora said, indicating the pinned Almë. The spider started towards him, gathering speed. Taid was nearing the top of the pile. There was indeed a space between the top of the pile and the new level of the roof, but it was rough and uneven, and the footing was still very precarious. And it didn’t help that he was lugging his eight foot long halberd with him, trying to navigate its rigid length through a curving, sloping, unstable path.
Seeing the spider coming for him, Almë started to try to excavate his legs. He wasn’t going to make it before the spider got him. That wouldn’t work. He needed something faster.
Almë cast the Spell of Earthshaping, moving five cubic yards of rubble off of him and the pile of rubble, making the earth flow towards the onrushing spider. The shifted material opened up an easier path for Taid to climb through, which the Dwarf used to good effect, sliding down the last part of the pile in a loud clanking clatter of metal on stone.
The giant black spider skittered heavily towards Almë, who was still on the ground, not having had time to get up yet. It leapt onto Almë, but as it did so, it also entered the pollen cloud. Assailed by the itchy pollen, and its breathing apparatus irritated and inflamed, it was unable to coordinate an attack on the victim it had just jumped upon.
The spell still active, Almë moved the stone up the spider’s legs, letting it solidify there, miring the spider in what amounted to stone manacles. Or cement overshoes.
Taid, on his knees, stabbed his halberd at what he hoped was the last fucking spider, ripping a hole in its bloated body, killing it. Its body hung there, propped up by the stone encasing its legs, a macabre sculpture that dripped fluids onto Almë and the rough stone floor.
Almë crawled out from under the spider and started to stand up, dusting himself off as he did so. Taid also got fully to his feet. Both of them could hear the slapping of shoes on stone from up the tunnel. Jakkora and his companion were getting away while the spider bought them some time. Like the other two spiders, this one also disintegrated into ashes, which faded into nothingness as they watched.
“C’mon!” Taid said. “They are getting away!”
Almë and Taid started after Jakkora and the other cannibal, moving out of the itchy, sneezy pollen cloud, and began to follow Jakkora.
Meanwhile, the four Goblins attacked Eykit en masse, thrusting their spears at him in an attempt to overwhelm his defenses. One bounced off his armor, two were parried, and one missed so badly Eykit barely had to move to avoid it.
Elitheris spun one of the arrows in her bow hand with her fingers, grabbed it with her right hand, nocked it, and drew in one smooth motion, letting fly as the feathers touched her cheek. She aimed it at the Goblin’s face, but he ducked, and the arrow went sailing past him and the Goblin behind him into the wall, where it shattered.
Mr. Wiggles released the limp arm, and the Goblin hit him with the shield rim again, but it bounced off of the chainmail armored harness on his back. The borderbull yelped, growled fiercely, and clamped his strong jaws on the Goblin’s leg.
Eykit slid forward, his knife blade finding the Goblin’s groin in a quick thrust. Eyes clenched shut in pain, the Goblin spearman’s legs went a bit weak, and he cried out in pain. His olive green knuckles nearly white with the effort, he managed to hold onto the spear.
The other three spearmen attacked Eykit again; two missed as Eykit dodged and spun out of the way, the third one glancing off of the chainmail hauberk he wore.
Elitheris flipped another arrow around, nocked it, drew, and released. It thunked into the Goblin’s shield as he blocked it. The Goblin’s eyes went wide as he realized that the arrow stuck out a few inches on the inside of his shield.
Eykit struck with daggers in each hand, leading with the left dagger. The cannibal parried it, and Eykit used that to push the spear off line as he followed up with the dagger in his right hand, causing a minor wound in the enemy’s chest. He was starting to breathe hard; the fighting was beginning to wear on him. But only a little.
The dog, still keeping the Goblin busy and out of the fight, gnawed on the man’s leg, but the armor held up under the assault. The Goblin, frantic, hammered at the armored back of the dog with his shield, the blows not doing much.
A spearman, his pants red from the blood loss of his groin wound and ignored in the fighting, crept towards Elitheris from the Cathedral. When he was in range of the archer, he took the opportunity to strike at her, hitting her in the foot. After all, a war bow couldn’t be used from the seated position. The spearpoint stabbed into the foot, sliding between the metatarsals. The foot collapsed under Elitheris’ weight, and her natural acrobatics skill kept her from falling over. She used the wall behind her to stay upright.
The Goblin in close combat with Eykit, having choked up on his spear, stabbed at his arm, but Eykit’s armor did its job admirably.
Eykit stabbed at his foe with both blades, again hitting with one of them. This guy doesn’t know how to fight very well, he thought. He should be grappling with me and trying to control my knives, instead of trying to use his spear in close combat. Moron!
Frustrated, the Goblin fighting the borderbull tried to hit him with the shield again, but the clever pup shifted at the last moment, and the shield edge glanced off his back harmlessly. The angle was awkward, and the hits he was getting with the shield weren’t as forceful as he would like.
The spearman, elated that he forced the Elven archer to hop around on one foot, grinned, and struck out again at her. She dodged, doing a backflip and coming down on her one good leg, wincing as the damaged foot struck the ground, sending pain up her leg.
But now it was her turn. She put an arrow into his leg, the barbed head punching completely through his thigh, and it collapsed under his weight. He went down with a scream, as a pair of new red stains were absorbed by his already bloody pants. His spear clattered to the floor as both of his hands went to his leg to try to do something about the blood loss.
Eykit struck with both daggers again, but one was blocked. The other slid wetly into his enemy’s groin. The Goblin groaned surprisingly softly as he fell to the ground, curled around his wound. The other two spearmen attacking him stabbed at him with their spears, but his mail hauberk protected his vital bits and the spearpoints skidded off the mail harmlessly.
Elitheris drew an arrow and nocked it as she turned her attention back to the fight in the tunnel. Eykit got intimate with a new foe’s privates. As Eykit pulled out the bloodied dagger, the spearwoman crumpled to the ground, unmoving, a spreading red stain pooling between her legs.
Elitheris loosed an arrow at one of the Goblins, hitting him squarely in the chest, staggering him.
In shock, staring surprised at the shaft that was now growing out of his chest, he took a step back on wobbling legs. Grimacing in pain, he weakly struck out at Eykit, but his spear was parried. His companion also stabbed at the closing rogue, but missed as Eykit twisted out of the way.
Mr. Wiggles elicited a loud swear from his victim as his teeth finally made it through the multiple layers of linen armor, drawing blood. The damage too much for the belabored cannibal, and he fell unconscious. The dog didn’t notice, continuing to treat his leg as a chew toy.
Elitheris prepped an arrow while Eykit kept one of the two remaining Goblins busy, his knives flashing as he struck, the enemy struggling to defend against them.
Elitheris drew back the string, the arrow’s fletchings brushed her cheek, and she released, aiming at the Goblin that Eykit wasn’t attacking. The arrow quickly flicked through the air and lodged deeply within the cannibal’s ribcage. The struck Goblin flew back, propelled by the momentum of the arrow, and hit the wall of the tunnel behind him. He slumped to the ground unmoving, his eyes staring blankly into the darkness.
Eykit struck twice in quick succession, a pair of torso hits, and the system shock was too much for the cannibalistic Goblin. With a soft groan, consciousness fled and his body slumped, sliding wetly off of Eykit’s paired rondel daggers. Blood pooled around the body, in little spurts at first, then just a slow, steady flow.
“What the hell are they doing?” Almë asked. “We don’t have much time. We’d better hurry!” He and Eykit were looking through the crates while Taid checked the chests. In the crates and barrels were primarily various sorts of housewares. The chests held personal gear and extra clothing. But they were only taking quick glances, as there was that sense of urgency that the noises they were hearing were enforcing. A cursory check for loot was all the time they could spare.
Elitheris finished tying the bandage around Mr. Wiggle’s leg. He was well armored, for a dog, but his rear end was exposed, and the bastard Goblins kept hitting him there. Fortunately for the borderbull, the wound was mainly muscular in nature; the weapon’s point hadn’t pierced any organs or his intestines. “There you go, boy,” she told her dog, giving his head a scratch between the ears. Tongue lolling, Mr. Wiggles closed his eyes while she gave him the scratchings. “Time to go, pups.” She stood, and Mr. Wiggles got to his feet, limping a bit due to his wound.
The tunnel forward led in a slight curve to a larger space, also with some bunk beds in it. The four of them and the dog moved down the tunnel, and it opened up into a largish, oblong cavern on two levels, connected by shelves of flowstone forming a sloping stairway of sorts. In the upper section were six sets of bunk beds, and in the lower section there were eight sets. Near each bunk bed was a pair of chests. Obviously, this room was a companion to the previous room, only larger. Like the other room, the natural cavern had been modified by cutting out the stalactites and stalagmites to open up the space. Some of the stalactites stumps hanging from the ceiling were lit with magical light, giving the impression that the yellowish tan stone room was lit by torches.
Almë grabbed the other end of Taid’s bunk, and they moved it over to the opening, tipping it over to block the tunnel. Elitheris and Eykit were dragging another over, and the four of them each grabbed a corner and lifted the heavy bunks onto the first set, to completely block the opening to the tunnel. Anyone coming through there would have to take the time to move the beds out of the way first, making noise and delaying their advance. Satisfied, the group turned towards the other tunnel. That one had a sharp bend to the right.
Eykit led the way, stealthily creeping up the tunnel, which was, for a natural tunnel, relatively straight after the initial tight bend. A curtain had been placed at the far end, of a bluish patterned fabric. As Eykit got closer, he could tell that the curtain was worn, tattered, and stained by countless hands. The room smelled unpleasantly of waste. Pulling aside the curtain and peeking past it, he saw a smallish room with a low, seven foot high ceiling. A series of chamber pots were arranged around the far periphery of the room. No other tunnels led out.
He walked back, saying “It’s a privy. I seriously doubt if there is anything we want in there!”
If Eykit was saying there wasn’t anything worth looting, then one of two things was happening: either he had already looted the place, or there truly was nothing anyone would want in there. Eykit’s greed wouldn’t allow him to leave money “on the table”. And if he had looted anything from the privy…well, no one else would want it anyway.
While Eykit was exploring the privy, Elitheris, along with Mr. Wiggles, had stayed by the barricade, bow ready, arrow nocked. Nothing had stirred beyond the barricade, although the echoes of moving things could still be heard coming from whence they came. But so far, nothing had snuck up behind them. Which, in her mind, implied that the cannibals were setting up somewhere, waiting for them.
The rest of the crew came back to the barricade. Eykit used his keen ears to see if he could hear anything. From up the tunnel he thought he could hear the sound of wood on stone, much like the sounds the beds made when they were dragging them over to make a barricade out of them. “I hear wood scraping on stone,” he told the rest of them. “But that’s about all I hear. The hard stone tunnels are really messing with my ears. The echoes make things confusing, even for me.”
“When we move the barricade,” Taid suggested, “only move it enough to slip past. If we need to retreat, we want it easy for us to push it closed quickly.” Nodding in agreement, and with significant effort, they slid the stacked bunks open a bit. Taid was the largest around, so while he had to squirm through the opening they made, the rest of them had little trouble slipping through the tight space between the beds and the cavern wall.
They emerged into a tunnel about six feet in width and maybe eight high, with an oval cross section. There were occasional spots of magical light on the ceiling or high up on a wall giving off just enough light to navigate by. A Human would have trouble, but Goblins, Elves, and Dwarves all had excellent night vision, and Mr. Wiggles depended primarily on his nose.
The tunnel, snaking through the stone, sloped down, then up, and in the middle of the upward slope, was a pit. They got to the edge, and its bottom was in darkness. It was about eight feet wide. Jumpable, with a running start. The edges looked pretty solid, though, so if they didn’t make the jump and had to grab onto the edge to keep from falling in, it would be doable.
“I’ve got rope,” Elitheris stated. “Can anyone see something on the other side we could tie it to?”
There really wasn’t anything. Any stalagmites had been removed to ease passage through the tunnel.
They checked with Taid to see if he could throw them across the pit. The answer was no, even his strength wasn’t good enough for that. Not even Eykit was light enough for that, even if he stripped to his skivvies. And, of course, that would be exactly when the enemy decided to ambush them….
“What about using the bunk beds?” Taid asked. “Like a bridge.”
Looking at the pit’s size, and the sizes of the bunks, it wouldn’t work. They were too short, and would just fall into the pit.
“I’ll jump across,” Almë offered. “But I want that rope around my waist, just in case.” Elitheris tied the end of the rope around him.
“There you go,” she said, “good luck.” She played out about twenty feet of rope as Almë moved back down the tunnel to get a running start. She and Taid held onto the other end of the rope, in case they had to check Almë’s fall.
He ran towards the pit, leaping as he got to the edge, and sailed across the pit with plenty of height to spare. He was going to make it!
Except he didn’t. He screamed as he slammed into something at the far side of the pit, something he couldn’t see, and he fell back into the pit, two large holes in his thigh. He hit the pit with a thud and a groan of pain, the blood starting to ooze out of the holes in his leg. He lay on top of the pit, as if there was a glass sheet over it.
It didn’t feel smooth like glass; no, it felt rough, uneven, and stone like. Just like the rest of the caverns.
Elitheris dragged him back to their side of the pit, his body appearing to hover over the hole as if floating. Once on their side, she started bandaging his leg. She saw, in a depression in the stone, some dust and gravel. She grabbed it, and tossed it into the pit—onto the pit. It clattered onto and laid on the surface, floating there, suspended over the drop.
His leg bandaged, the bleeding stopped, at least for the moment, Almë broke into his pack. He pulled out a vial, unstoppered it, and drank it down. The healing potion flowed down his throat, sat in his stomach like a warm lump for a moment, then warmth spread out to his extremities. The holes in his leg closed and scabbed over. He was up against a bunch of cannibalistic, trap-setting Goblins. He didn’t need the handicap of leg wounds slowing him down.
Taid and Eykit tested the edge with their feet. It was solid. The pit didn’t seem to be a pit. Still not trusting it, Taid extended his halberd over the pit, and hit something unseen on the other side. Using his pole arm as a blind man’s staff, he poked and prodded at the object, and discovered it was roughly rectangular in form, with protrusions. The tip of the halberd disappeared, reappearing when he pulled it back. There was some kind of vision screen hiding the object, and anything that went past the far edge of the pit.
Feeling his way across the pit with his halberd, as he didn’t trust the pit to be “solid” all the way across, he was able to grab the side of the object and shove it out of the way. His hands disappeared too, and when he stuck his head through the screen, he saw the rest of the tunnel curving up and around. The object was a wooden frame, with a wall of spikes attached, two of which dripped blood.
The screen was very similar to what he had seen Elitheris do on occasion, when she wanted to camouflage herself. It was an illusion! He kicked himself. “Sun’s tears, we didn’t even throw anything into the pit! We could have figured it was an illusion!”
“We certainly got suckered,” Eykit said. Almë nodded ruefully.
They moved on, up the sloping tunnel, then it leveled off and turned left.
The tunnel’s ceiling was uneven, varying between eight and ten feet, which made carrying the halberd challenging. Taid solved the problem by resting it on his shoulder so the head would stop bouncing off of the stone ceiling when it dropped too low.
Up ahead of them, Taid could see the tunnel curve sharply to the right. All of a sudden, the butt of his halberd ran into something unyielding, and he had to quickly control the polearm to keep it from hurting anyone behind him. He managed to prevent an accidental impaling, demonstrating his reflexes. The open tunnel ahead of them was blocked by a solid but invisible wall.
“More illusion bullshit!” he grumbled, as he started tapping on the invisible wall ahead of him. The others started feeling around also, and Elitheris found that there was an opening on the right, hidden by an illusory image that made it look like the wall of the cavern. The illusion this time was that of the actual curve of the tunnel, shifted six feet ahead of its actual position. More of a prank than a trap, like painting a tunnel on a cliff face.
“Anything could be an illusion!” Taid mentioned. “Crap. Now we have to test everything!” He began tapping around the walls, floor, and ceiling as they went down the tunnel. Side tunnels could be masked, and they didn’t need any ambushes if they could help it. Their pace slowed to a crawl.
A side corridor was visible after a little ways, looking less natural and more artificially formed. It was regularly shaped, like a mine tunnel, rather than the random slopes and curves of the natural caverns most of the complex seemed to be. It was also straight, running thirty or so feet to a dead end, with a wooden disk set into the floor. The sound of rushing water could be heard plainly from the end of the seven foot high and four foot wide tunnel.
It appeared empty, so Taid strode to the end and lifted the wooden disk. It had a simple handle attached to the center. Below it was an eight inch wide shaft, dropping about ten feet to the surface of an underground river. Shining a light into it, he could see reflections and glints of light off of the water’s surface, and dark stains along the edges of the shaft. It stank, despite the best efforts of the fresh water. He thought he knew what this was.
He replaced the lid, and walked back out to where the rest of the group stood, waiting for him. “Just where they dump the chamberpots. We’ve located their sewer.”
“That must be the underground river that we keep hearing,” Eykit mentioned. “Flushing their shit into the water supply.”
“And without a rinqualastë to clean it up first,” Almë added with disgust. Rinqualaster were Elven-designed colony organisms that acted like sewage treatment plants. Every Elven settlement had a few or more, and even some Dwarven and Human settlements had adopted them as well. Apparently, these Goblins hadn’t.
They heard a scraping, skittering sound just before a giant spider barreled down the corridor, filling the tunnel as it rushed towards them. It leapt onto Elitheris, its bulk knocking her down as she shrieked in alarm. Taid, standing behind her, leaped to the side, avoiding being hit as well as the pair as they both hit the ground. It perched over her, its mandibles dripping venom. It sunk them into her chest, and she screamed in pain, and what felt like fire flooded into her torso.
Taid stabbed at the spider’s bulky body, cracking the chitinous armor and sinking the spike of the halberd into it. It flinched, feeling the wound, as Almë, with a strong swing of his staff, cracked it just behind the eight eyes. It shuddered under the blow, its eight furry legs flexing with the shock.
The spider, reeling from the two blows, attempted to bite into Elitheris again, but she rolled aside and its clumsy attack missed.
Taid struck it again, slamming the tip of the halberd home into its body, and it collapsed onto Elitheris, unmoving, oozing ichor from its wounds, and globs of webbing from its abdomen. It had been starting to truss up the Elf woman, but it hadn’t really had much of a chance, leaving globs of sticky residue on her legs rather than actual webbing.
Elitheris was trapped, under the spider’s dying body, and the burning in her chest was becoming alarming. Spider venom dissolved their victims so they could be slurped up for food later. And that was beginning to happen to Elitheris.
Taid tried to heave the spider off of his friend. It didn’t work; the spider was too big and heavy. He was worried; it was possible that the body was heavy enough to keep Elitheris from being able to breathe, and, if his eyes didn’t deceive him, she had been bitten. By an immense, carnivorous spider. He shoved the end of his halberd under the body of the spider, and used it like a lever, and had more success, although it was hard work and he had to really strain his muscles. But he was able to get enough of the spider’s weight off of Elitheris so that Almë could pull her out from underneath it.
The burning feeling in her chest was getting worse. She could see two spots of blood on her gambeson. The holes weren’t large, but they certainly hurt. Out of the corner of her eye, the spider came apart into flakes, which then turned to ashes and faded away. In moments there was nothing to tell that there had ever been a spider.
Taid cast a spell of Major Healing, and that was sufficient to close the wound channels that had pierced deeply into Elitheris’ chest. A few moments later, and the burning sensation began to fade, the venom finally spent and no longer causing damage.
Once Elitheris was able to move again, they continued onward, along the downward sloping, twisting tunnel. They came around a corner, and what they saw made them duck back around it.
They had found what seemed to be the main cavern of the complex. The Cathedral of Kalshebba.
The space was roughly oval, maybe thirty feet wide and forty long. A stream trickled lengthwise through it, not very deep through most of it, but pooling on one side before draining out. Stalactites hung from the ceiling like fangs, but the corresponding stalagmites had been cleared out from the center of the room. Around the periphery of the room they were still there, left in place. On just about every wall were murals, painted in several different styles, showing Kalshebba mostly, either alone or against backgrounds of stylized Goblins and animals. Kalshebba was always shown much larger than the Goblins around her, and in each picture she was surrounded by a yellow or golden aura or halo, as befit a goddess. In the woodland scenes, the stalactites and stalagmites and columns gave the impression of tree trunks, adding what amounted to a third dimension to the wall paintings.
The ceiling, festooned with the stone outcroppings, arced above their heads, rising up to about forty feet at the apex. The room felt large and expansive. At one end, by the pool, was a large throne chair, made of wood and bones, lashed together with rawhide. For the most part, the bones are human-sized. Near the throne was a table with benches on either side. There were half a dozen other benches, at the other end of the room, so the table near the throne must have been for Kalshebba’s favorite followers. There were three cages, lined up along the northern wall, between the throne and the set of six tables. In one of them was a naked male human, covered in bruises and filth. He wimpered in fear and pain.
In the center of the room was a large fire pit, complete with a roasting spit and a butcher block prep table nearby. A large chunk of meat was hanging on the spit, burning on one side now that no one seemed to be rotating it. Along the south curve of the wall were some instruments. Apparently, the Goblin cannibals liked to listen to music while they ate. There was a t’rong, a marimba-like instrument made of bamboo and slung much like a hammock, some drums, and a large horn that likely had a very deep tone. But no one was playing them at the moment.
She dominated the room. Kalshebba, for it could only be her, stood twelve feet tall, twice the height of a Human or Elf, and about three times that of a Goblin. She was bulky, stocky, immense, with a large belly. Eykit wasn’t sure, but it looked as if things were moving in her distended gut, under her robes and likely under her skin. She was clad in decorated robes, and a colorful, feathered headdress that flowed back over her head. Her head was surrounded by a soft, golden light. On her hands were lacy, fingerless gloves that went up her forearms, disappearing into the voluminous sleeves of her robes. On her feet were bejeweled shoes, covered in blood-colored rubies.
In one hand, she had a club. The other was a large cleaver. And she did not look happy about her feasting being interrupted by a group of intruders. Her tusked mouth was set in a vicious snarl. Saliva slicked her lower lip and chin.
Next to her stood a Goblin, also dressed in colorful robes and decorated in colorful feathers, much like Kalshebba herself. He didn’t look terribly happy either, but the expression on his face indicated that he was sure the intruders would be dealt with, with extreme prejudice and not a small amount of pain and suffering.
The odds weren’t good. They did have the advantage that none of the enemy appeared to have any ranged weapons. Those spears gave them a decent reach, though, and while the four adventurers had fought stronger enemies before, these cannibals seemed to know how to fight well enough.
“There are a lot of them in there,” Almë said. “Any ideas on how to even the odds?”
“Yup,” Taid said with a grin. “I may have something that can help.”
Taid figured this was a good time for some magical aid. He began casting a Flash spell; when it was nearing completion, he stepped around the curve, holding out his hand, and fired off the spell. His upraised palm exploded in light, blinding those unlucky enough to not to have blinked at the right moment. Even those who were lucky enough to have blinked or averted their eyes still suffered from spots in their vision.
Two Goblins flailed about blindly, the rest squinted and blinked, trying to clear their vision. It wouldn’t help much, not for a little while, but they could at least function, if at a disadvantage. Dark spots floated in their vision, aftereffects of the bright flash.
Elitheris stepped around the corner, her bow drawn, letting loose an arrow into the Goblin warrior on the left of the line. The arrow’s flat trajectory sent it into her target’s face, snapping his head back and causing him to fly backward a yard or two, landing on his back, an unmoving tangle of limbs. Blinded by the flash attack, he hadn’t even seen the arrow coming.
Taid laughed. “Hah! Fuck you! Good shot, Elitheris!”
Almë had started to meditate, to try to get into Elven Focus. He was distracted by his companions’ shouts at the flashy demise of that first cannibal.
The cannibal Goblins, however, were not so thrilled, and scattered to find cover. The robed Goblin in the back, High Priest Jakkora Tongue-Biter, began casting a spell, and a giant spider appeared next to him.
No enemies were in melee range, so both Eykit and Taid took stock of the situation. Eykit’s knives were out; Taid readied his halberd. Almë tried again to meditate, this time succeeding, and it helped him get into the proper “flow” mindset.
Elitheris, in a single, smooth motion, drew an arrow and nocked it, drawing the string back as she aimed at the large figure of Kalshebba on the far side of the room. She focused her aim on Kalshebba’s greenish face.
She let fly the arrow, and it sped across the intervening distance, spinning, the barbed steel head glinting in the light of the glowing tips of the occasional stalactite, and then buried itself in the goddess’ face. She screamed in pain, and stumbled backward into one of the cages, her body bending backward over it until her head smacked against a stalactite. The cage rocked back under her weight.
The high priest said something and gestured, indicating the four interlopers, and the spider scuttled across the intervening distance, rushing the intruders. Taid set his halberd into floor, bracing it with his foot, as Almë, remembering they were facing an illusionist, tried to disbelieve the reality of the spider. His mind must have been too full of doubt, or the spider wasn’t an illusion, because it still came at them like a runaway carriage at full speed.
It slammed into Taid’s set halberd, the shock of impact resonating down the shaft, and it was brought up short, its legs spasming as they lost purchase on the ground for a moment.
The arrow strike to the deity Kalshebba had widened the Goblin priest’s eyes, and he looked worried. He dived behind one of the tables, seeking cover from the deadly archer. Kalshebba herself seemed angry now, as she fumbled around, trying to get back to her feet.
Elitheris drew a pair of arrows from the quiver at her hip. Almë, figuring that the spider was more-or-less taken care of by Taid and Eykit, moved around it to get at some Goblins. After all, it was the cannibals he was after. That was the reason he was here.
Eykit slipped between the impaled spider’s legs, stabbing into its furry body. Taid, for his part, did a quick jab with his halberd, delivering the killing blow, and it slumped into an immobile mass. Moments later, it fell apart, the pieces flaking apart and turning to ash. Taid thought he could see faint motes of magenta light, but he couldn't be sure.
Despite the death of three of his companions in not much more than that many seconds, one Goblin was able to keep it together long enough to strike at Almë with his spear, but Almë, the veteran staff fighter that he was, knocked the point of the spear aside without much effort. The cannibal’s nearest companions weren’t so lucky; they had just seen one of their squad leaders laid out with an arrow to the face, a giant spider butchered in mere moments, and, worst of all, their goddess hit in the face by a war arrow. They weren’t having a good day, although one was able to get to some stalagmites that gave him some cover.
Kalshebba managed to get back to her feet, and, with a grunt of pain, pulled the arrow out of face. It tore its way out, and blood flowed down her face. Her eyes were filled with rage, although the glow around her head obscured most of her features. That glare could almost be felt, though. A cloud of smoke formed between her and the intruding Elves, Goblin, and Dwarf, roiling and black in color, obscuring all vision through it.
The only person Elitheris could see and target was the guy behind cover. Despite that cover, her arrow sliced across his belly, and he fell back against the stalagmites as blood flowed down his stomach in a flood of red. His hands clutched at the wound in frantic spasms of movement.
Rightly thinking that their morale at the moment might be a little lower than usual, Almë screams, “Drop your weapons and surrender, if you want to live!”
For the most part, his “diplomatic overture” went unacknowledged, but one Goblin dropped his spear and ran toward an exit tunnel. Two others teamed up on Almë, striking at him with their spears, but both were denied any satisfaction as the staff-wielder demonstrated his parrying skills. “You’ll have to do better than that!” he told them with a smirk.
Eykit, his attention attracted to the tunnel behind the group, heard movement coming from up the tunnel they entered from. Quick footsteps and the creak of leather, with the occasional sound of metal on stone. Reinforcements were coming up behind them.
Mr. Wiggles ran into the fray, barking, and charged into the rightmost Goblin spearman, leaping into him and clamping his mouth down onto the warrior’s arm. Both the Goblin and the dog fell to the ground in a tangle of combatants, the dog growling, the Goblin grunting and swearing.
Just as the Goblin who had shown such remarkable agility was about to make an attack, Taid stabbed the point of his halberd into the him, hitting him in the crotch and knocking him down, the spear falling from his hand as he clutched at his groin, trying desperately to staunch the flow of blood from the puncture wound. A red stain spread through his pants as he whimpered in pain.
Eykit, meanwhile, was creeping along the wall of the tunnel back the way they had come, investigating the sounds he had heard. He didn’t want to be surprised by anyone.
The borderbull gnawed on the cannibal’s arm, although the sharp-toothed Goblin didn’t appreciate the irony. His right arm effectively pinned by a thrashing, fifty pound canine, he used his left instead, slamming the edge of his shield into the dog’s back leg. Mr. Wiggles, hurt by the shield’s rim, held onto the arm, working his teeth deeper through the gambeson armor.
The priest, still crouching behind the bench, created a second cloud of smoke next to the first, forming a thick, black wall of smoke. His goddess was dead, or at least this avatar of her. Either way, things were not looking good.
Elitheris, elated from her successful godslaying shot, again loosed an arrow into the cloud, in an attempt to hit the mage hiding in there somewhere. She was less successful, hearing only the thwak as the arrow hit the stone wall and the clatter of shrapnel as her shattered arrow fragments rained on the stone floor of the cavern.
Several of the enemies were down, but a couple were running away. Almë and Taid didn’t want them to escape, so they took off after them. Eykit, knives at the ready, crept forward towards the oncoming enemies that were attempting to flank them from behind.
The Goblin fighting with Mr. Wiggles was still struggling with the dog, and with a sudden wrench of his head, Mr. Wiggles tore into the Goblin’s arm, finally getting past the protective layers of linen. Blood flowed, the coppery taste making the dog even more vicious. The Goblin yelled in pain and rising panic.
With a pained grunt, the Goblin smashed his shield rim at the dog attached to his arm again, but the squirming, biting dog managed to slip out of the way.
The cannibal who Taid knocked down with a groin wound was slowly getting up, trying to stifle the flow of blood down his legs with his hand, putting pressure on his crotch. He held his spear in his other hand.
The enemies that Eykit knew were coming popped around the corner. There were four of them, again armed with spears and shields, in a two by two formation. There wasn’t enough room for any more; they filled the corridor from side to side, a bristling wall of spears. Eykit tossed a knife at the lead Goblin, and it bounced off her leg, barely cutting the gambeson armor. It didn’t hurt her, but it made her flinch back, along with the rest of her companions, buying a bit of time. He started back, retreating from the superior numbers. “Elitheris! We’ve got company! Four more!”
Elitheris drew three arrows out of her quiver. She had only tried for two, but the third one seemed to be in just the right spot to be grabbed as well, so….Two went into her bow hand, the other went to the string.
Almë could hear the wizard running up ahead, but he was coming up to the wall of smoke. He had no idea what was on the other side, but without hesitation he plunged into the acrid smoke, only to almost run into the corner of the table and bench hidden in the obscuring smoke. Fortunately, he came to a stop in time before running headlong into it and likely falling over it in a tangle of arms and legs. Taid followed, not far behind. Eykit backed up, until he stood just in front of Elitheris. There he crouched, his knives ready, as the enemy approached.
The four spear-wielding Goblins maneuvered closer to Elitheris and Eykit, ready to attack.
Elitheris snapped a shot off at the lead Goblin’s leg, but it was a hasty shot, and the leg armor the Goblin wore absorbed the blow. Eykit, for his part, readied for defense, his eyes flicking from enemy to enemy. He didn’t have to kill any of them, Elitheris could do that. All he had to do was keep them off of her so she could do her job.
Mr. Wiggles, with a final wrench of his strong neck finally hit a tendon, his sharp teeth ripping through the Goblin’s muscles. The arm went limp, and the foe was unable to use the arm below the elbow. This elicited a pained cry from the hapless Goblin, who was too much in pain to effectively fight off the dog for the moment.
Almë emerged from the smoke and ran down the tunnel, coming around a corner. Ahead of him was about ten feet of tunnel, which then spread out into a small cavern about fifteen feet across. At the far end was another tunnel. Standing in it were two Goblins, the mage and a warrior. The mage, grinning, held onto an oversized wooden lever, set almost too tall for him to reach.
“Come on, then! You bastards!” the priest yelled as he saw Almë. “Come and get me!”
Almë moved up to the end of the tunnel, but stopped before going into the room. He looked about, expecting a trap. The room had a ceiling twelve feet high, with no stalactites hanging from it, except around the periphery of the room. Similarly, there were no stalagmites in the center of the floor. There was no net strung up at the ceiling, either, and no obvious pit trap in the floor.
Taid was following, emerging from the smoke and beginning to make his way down the tunnel towards Almë.
Almë cast a spell, the arcane words and finger gestures gathering power, coalescing around the two Goblins on the far side of the room as a cloud of pollen that immediately started to make Jakkora’s and the warrior’s eyes water. Both of them managed to control the sneezing and coughing, however. Although there was nothing they could really do about the tremendous itching they felt.
Taid moved up to stand by Almë, surveying the situation, his eyes flicking about the room looking for any obvious trap. He didn’t see one. But that lever did something.
Almë yelled out some gobbledegook at the mage and his companion in an attempt to intimidate them. As the mage was the one holding onto the Lever of Doom, he was unimpressed, as he had the upper hand. Taid raised up his crossbow, and snapped off a shot, hitting the mage in the groin, but the bolt simply lodged in the armor, doing no damage.
Shocked the powerful crossbow failed to do damage, the high priest smiled. “You’re pathetic!” he yelled.
“Enough of this!” Almë cried. “I can make it to him!”
Taid gave him a look as the Elf took off running into the room, too fast for him to keep him from doing so. This won’t end well, he thought. He was right.
Jakkora Tongue-Biter pulled the lever, and the roof caved in. Almë leapt forward, but rubble from the roof collapse came down on him and pinned his legs. He was half buried in fallen rocks and dirt. It hurt; the falling rubble had done some damage to his legs. But he could still feel them, so his back wasn’t broken, thank the gods. The two Goblins backed up the tunnel. Almë sneezed; he was trapped right where he had cast his pollen cloud. It didn’t help that the air was filled with dust from the collapsing roof. And now, in addition to the pain of the heavy stone burying his legs, he itched horribly.
“Shit!” Taid exclaimed, as he started climbing up the pile of rubble. There was likely space above the pile of rocks for him to crawl up and over, and get to the other side. Hopefully before Almë died. He could hear Almë groaning in pain and exertion, so he knew that the overconfident Elf wasn’t dead yet. The climb was slow going, two feet up and one foot back, as the rubble shifted under his every move. And he couldn’t go too fast, or risk the shifting rubble fall on him.
His prey not dead from the rockfall, the disappointed Jakkora started mumbling under his breath. Almë could tell he was casting. The mana was forming something…something large. He could feel it.
Almë watched with wide eyes as the flows of mana coalesced into yet another gods’ damned giant spider. “Kill him,” Jakkora said, indicating the pinned Almë. The spider started towards him, gathering speed. Taid was nearing the top of the pile. There was indeed a space between the top of the pile and the new level of the roof, but it was rough and uneven, and the footing was still very precarious. And it didn’t help that he was lugging his eight foot long halberd with him, trying to navigate its rigid length through a curving, sloping, unstable path.
Almë cast the Spell of Earthshaping, moving five cubic yards of rubble off of him and the pile of rubble, making the earth flow towards the onrushing spider. The shifted material opened up an easier path for Taid to climb through, which the Dwarf used to good effect, sliding down the last part of the pile in a loud clanking clatter of metal on stone.
The giant black spider skittered heavily towards Almë, who was still on the ground, not having had time to get up yet. It leapt onto Almë, but as it did so, it also entered the pollen cloud. Assailed by the itchy pollen, and its breathing apparatus irritated and inflamed, it was unable to coordinate an attack on the victim it had just jumped upon.
The spell still active, Almë moved the stone up the spider’s legs, letting it solidify there, miring the spider in what amounted to stone manacles. Or cement overshoes.
Taid, on his knees, stabbed his halberd at what he hoped was the last fucking spider, ripping a hole in its bloated body, killing it. Its body hung there, propped up by the stone encasing its legs, a macabre sculpture that dripped fluids onto Almë and the rough stone floor.
Almë crawled out from under the spider and started to stand up, dusting himself off as he did so. Taid also got fully to his feet. Both of them could hear the slapping of shoes on stone from up the tunnel. Jakkora and his companion were getting away while the spider bought them some time. Like the other two spiders, this one also disintegrated into ashes, which faded into nothingness as they watched.
“C’mon!” Taid said. “They are getting away!”
Almë and Taid started after Jakkora and the other cannibal, moving out of the itchy, sneezy pollen cloud, and began to follow Jakkora.
Meanwhile, the four Goblins attacked Eykit en masse, thrusting their spears at him in an attempt to overwhelm his defenses. One bounced off his armor, two were parried, and one missed so badly Eykit barely had to move to avoid it.
Elitheris spun one of the arrows in her bow hand with her fingers, grabbed it with her right hand, nocked it, and drew in one smooth motion, letting fly as the feathers touched her cheek. She aimed it at the Goblin’s face, but he ducked, and the arrow went sailing past him and the Goblin behind him into the wall, where it shattered.
Mr. Wiggles released the limp arm, and the Goblin hit him with the shield rim again, but it bounced off of the chainmail armored harness on his back. The borderbull yelped, growled fiercely, and clamped his strong jaws on the Goblin’s leg.
Eykit slid forward, his knife blade finding the Goblin’s groin in a quick thrust. Eyes clenched shut in pain, the Goblin spearman’s legs went a bit weak, and he cried out in pain. His olive green knuckles nearly white with the effort, he managed to hold onto the spear.
The other three spearmen attacked Eykit again; two missed as Eykit dodged and spun out of the way, the third one glancing off of the chainmail hauberk he wore.
Elitheris flipped another arrow around, nocked it, drew, and released. It thunked into the Goblin’s shield as he blocked it. The Goblin’s eyes went wide as he realized that the arrow stuck out a few inches on the inside of his shield.
Eykit struck with daggers in each hand, leading with the left dagger. The cannibal parried it, and Eykit used that to push the spear off line as he followed up with the dagger in his right hand, causing a minor wound in the enemy’s chest. He was starting to breathe hard; the fighting was beginning to wear on him. But only a little.
The dog, still keeping the Goblin busy and out of the fight, gnawed on the man’s leg, but the armor held up under the assault. The Goblin, frantic, hammered at the armored back of the dog with his shield, the blows not doing much.
A spearman, his pants red from the blood loss of his groin wound and ignored in the fighting, crept towards Elitheris from the Cathedral. When he was in range of the archer, he took the opportunity to strike at her, hitting her in the foot. After all, a war bow couldn’t be used from the seated position. The spearpoint stabbed into the foot, sliding between the metatarsals. The foot collapsed under Elitheris’ weight, and her natural acrobatics skill kept her from falling over. She used the wall behind her to stay upright.
The Goblin in close combat with Eykit, having choked up on his spear, stabbed at his arm, but Eykit’s armor did its job admirably.
Eykit stabbed at his foe with both blades, again hitting with one of them. This guy doesn’t know how to fight very well, he thought. He should be grappling with me and trying to control my knives, instead of trying to use his spear in close combat. Moron!
Frustrated, the Goblin fighting the borderbull tried to hit him with the shield again, but the clever pup shifted at the last moment, and the shield edge glanced off his back harmlessly. The angle was awkward, and the hits he was getting with the shield weren’t as forceful as he would like.
The spearman, elated that he forced the Elven archer to hop around on one foot, grinned, and struck out again at her. She dodged, doing a backflip and coming down on her one good leg, wincing as the damaged foot struck the ground, sending pain up her leg.
But now it was her turn. She put an arrow into his leg, the barbed head punching completely through his thigh, and it collapsed under his weight. He went down with a scream, as a pair of new red stains were absorbed by his already bloody pants. His spear clattered to the floor as both of his hands went to his leg to try to do something about the blood loss.
Eykit struck with both daggers again, but one was blocked. The other slid wetly into his enemy’s groin. The Goblin groaned surprisingly softly as he fell to the ground, curled around his wound. The other two spearmen attacking him stabbed at him with their spears, but his mail hauberk protected his vital bits and the spearpoints skidded off the mail harmlessly.
Elitheris drew an arrow and nocked it as she turned her attention back to the fight in the tunnel. Eykit got intimate with a new foe’s privates. As Eykit pulled out the bloodied dagger, the spearwoman crumpled to the ground, unmoving, a spreading red stain pooling between her legs.
Elitheris loosed an arrow at one of the Goblins, hitting him squarely in the chest, staggering him.
In shock, staring surprised at the shaft that was now growing out of his chest, he took a step back on wobbling legs. Grimacing in pain, he weakly struck out at Eykit, but his spear was parried. His companion also stabbed at the closing rogue, but missed as Eykit twisted out of the way.
Mr. Wiggles elicited a loud swear from his victim as his teeth finally made it through the multiple layers of linen armor, drawing blood. The damage too much for the belabored cannibal, and he fell unconscious. The dog didn’t notice, continuing to treat his leg as a chew toy.
Elitheris prepped an arrow while Eykit kept one of the two remaining Goblins busy, his knives flashing as he struck, the enemy struggling to defend against them.
Elitheris drew back the string, the arrow’s fletchings brushed her cheek, and she released, aiming at the Goblin that Eykit wasn’t attacking. The arrow quickly flicked through the air and lodged deeply within the cannibal’s ribcage. The struck Goblin flew back, propelled by the momentum of the arrow, and hit the wall of the tunnel behind him. He slumped to the ground unmoving, his eyes staring blankly into the darkness.
Eykit struck twice in quick succession, a pair of torso hits, and the system shock was too much for the cannibalistic Goblin. With a soft groan, consciousness fled and his body slumped, sliding wetly off of Eykit’s paired rondel daggers. Blood pooled around the body, in little spurts at first, then just a slow, steady flow.
Rewards Granted
3 Character Points
No one has done any looting yet.
Missions/Quests Completed
They killed Kalshebba, the Goblin Goddess of Food, Drink, and Feasts
Character(s) interacted with
Kalshebba, Jakkora Tongue-Biter, and several nameless Goblins
This session was pretty much the first session that any of the player characters took any damage. Almë got hit by a pair of traps: the first was a "pit" with a hidden wall of spikes at the far end, so when he jumped over the pit, he hit the spikes; the second trap was when the roof collapsed on him, pinning him underneath some rubble. Elitheris was hurt by a giant spider when it pounced on her and bit her. She lost the use of her foot for a while when an ignored spearman snuck up behind her and stabbed her in the foot. That foot will be crippled until it's healed. Eykit did a good job of defense, but even when hit, his armor was good enough to deflect or absorb all of the damage. Taid didn't get attacked; the enemies went for the lighter-armored foes. Mr. Wiggles got some minor damage to his hind leg.
So, overall, the enemies did much better this time around. I'm a bit disappointed that Kalshebba got two-shotted; I was really hoping she would get into combat. But that's the way the dice roll....
Report Date
14 Aug 2022
Primary Location
Secondary Location
Related Plots
Related Characters
Comments