Chapter 1: Burnt Offerings

Ryco leans into whispering distance with Gongar "Babies are a complicated matter, I imagine even more so for Shadow. It's best to let them talk it out...poor girl."

Shadow again gives Ryco a puzzled look, but replies, "They have nowhere to go; this is there home. They are worried about a 'demon lady'; I wonder if she is the same 'pretty lady' the other goblin was talking about? They are willing to help us...give us information. If any of you have questions, just ask and I will translate."

Gongar straightens at the mention of a 'demon lady'. That is the reason we are here, we are hunting a Sucubus that helped organize the attack on Sandpoint and apparently is planning an all out assault on the city in the near future. Ask them if they know where she is.

"And quickly." Urthask adds, trying but failing to hide his impatience.

Shadow repeats their words in Common then pulls out a piece of chalk and begins drawing the layout of the floor they are on, from what she knows. She proffers the chalk to them and asks, "What else you know? Where you not allowed to go?"

Shadow duly translates and then suggests, "Why not leave them here, and go explore where we haven't been yet? Maybe the secret door is in the quarters of this beast...they did call him the "Chief"."

Ryco seems a bit flustered "Is...is that really our best course? I don't think we should press our luck, one person already fell and I managed to steal Urthask from Death's grasp by luck; we need rest, for body and mind."

As much as I would prefer to return to Sandpoint and rest we are already in the belly of the beast and leaving now would negate all the progress we have made in tracking the demon. She would know we are coming for her, if she doesn't already, and be able to prepare even deadlier traps for us. Gongar shrugs I have a healing wand that can restore us unfortunately it can't do anything for our fallen. As he mentions the wand he pulls it out of his pouch.

"I would not call this 'the belly of the beast' if we are to descend deeper to fight a succubus. Nothing she can do can negate what we've done here; she can't erase our memory, we will know this places layout when we return, she cannot relocate this entire stronghold in a day. You want to know what will negate the progress you've made? Blindly running into a fight that we aren't ready for, again. Look what happened here, we blindly rushed in to fight someone in the middle of fucking and you lost someone, almost two." Ryco kneels down to Gongar eye level "I'm a man of base pleasure, trapped in a jail, and abstaining from release out of respect for my traveling friend; you're asking me to fight against the embodiment of sex in demon form. If you choose to continue to the succubus, I will not be following—I know my limits."

So your telling me you are going to leave an active demon threat loose in this fort because you want to get laid?! Gongar is incensed with Ryco's answer. Visibly shaking One of my closest friends died moments ago to clear out the threat to Sandpoint and you want to just saunter out because you can't keep it in your pants! No sir! You couldn't have been a prisoner for long or the goblins would have eaten you already, so stuff it back in your smalls, man up and help us defeat this threat.

"Among other things, yes...but you talk as if I don't want to return." Ryco places a hand by his heart "I know how you're feeling, truthfully, I do; I know your heart is aching to revenge your friend as quickly as possible but you need to think realistically. Believe me if I knew I'd be able to reject her advances I would march with you to her hidden lair and clear the threat with you. Realistically though, I know I can't; my weakness is for pleasures of the flesh and the very thought of what a being like her is capable of makes my heart start to race, it makes my legs quiver, and my body start to sweat."

Ryco stands "We weren't eaten because they forgot about us; they haven't fed us in three days, when they did feed us it was inedible at best. It's not just about getting laid, if I was that desperate there is a room full of half naked goblin women right next to us. I want freedom, I want to smell fresh air again, I want a fulfilling meal, a bath, and yes, to get laid."

"I'm not a warrior like you and your friend; hell, the only scars I have are from bedroom play. Is it so wrong to ask for a bit of indulgence before going against a stronger opponent than the one we just faced? I'm not asking you to abandon Sandpoint to come watch me perform and do nothing; I'm not even asking for anyone to come with me, I'm just asking you to think, think before you rush into another fight—now at a minus one. As it stands for me, I'll do more harm than good. You can spend the time I am resting, honoring your friend, giving him a proper burial that isn't this hellish pile."

Shadow looks at her friend a long moment before nodding. "I agree with Ryco. We come back, but better prepared."

Urthask hesitates to chime in. On one hand it is against his code of honor to back down from a fight. But the Order of the Bear are not foolhardy - they do believe in going to battle prepared. If he's being honest with himself though, this whole expedition has soured for him after having to leave Arktos behind.

Seeing Urthask hesitate and coming to the conclusion that he isn't going to be able to convince Ryco and Shadow that they should continue, the fire goes out of Gongar and he nods gently. If we leave, we destroy anything that could be used against Sandpoint.
There was a goblin armory back the way we came in, we will junk all their weapons on the way out. Hopefully we will be able to rejoin our other companion once we are back at Sandpoint.