The Old Forest

TR2
Gennadius

The thrown javelin pierces into the wild goblin's shoulder near the clavicle. The beastman grimaces from the pain, but quickly pulls the shaft out and moves forward with grim determination, brandishing his crude axe.

Hit

After a few steps though, the brawny goblin's eyes glaze over. Blood is pouring out of the high chest wound now.

His axe droops down and falls to the ground first.
Then he follows, tipping forward for a rough, face-first splatter into the mud.

G6 Defeated

TR2
Syrena, Gundus

Syrena decides against going downhill towards the light and continues the loop back to the trail through the restrictive brush growth.

The quick scout adeptly selects advantageous steps and weaves through at a faster pace.

It is difficult for Gundus to mimic the fleet-footed woman’s technique, but her lead helps him keep sight on the best path to crunch through, even if a bit slower.

Difficult Terrain Movement

TR2
Syrena

Knowing that time is of the essence, Syrena attempts a desperate burst of exertion to make the final break through the thicket. Tucking her bow in close and using her other arm as a shield, she tilts her head down and charges against a wall of tight brush.

Driving her legs and leaning into it, Syrena explodes back onto the trail. She knows her stability is sacrificed, so she controls her inevitable fall, hitting the ground on her shoulder and back but ensuring her bow is extended and her other arm is free for draw. From there lying on the ground she draws and fires.

The arrow flies true, hitting the armored goblin in the back, below the smaller rear-facing shoulder plates.

Hit

Not knowing what hit him, the veteran goblin stumbles forward and crashes into Xenophon's shield then bounces to the ground, armor clattering in a heavy heap.

G5 Defeated. Trail goblin pair cleared.

Content revealed, previously exclusive to @Leo9sign

The loud sound of the Magic Mouth resumes as a booming shout.

The "I AM YOURS!" programmed statement repeats on loop again and again, distorted and irregular but extremely loud.

The goblins managing the pit scream out in fear.

One holding the rope runs away. The other two struggle to hold the weight alone, now that Ish'tauxi hangs with Damanandros. They slowly loose control and then give up entirely.

Damanandros feels himself being lowered during the embrace, then the tension on his arms fall slack. For a moment they are falling, but Ish'tauxi flaps her wings twice and turns them in the air. In a soft landing she guides Damanadros onto a pile of broken logs emergent from the water in the ditch.

Finishing the long kiss, Ish'tauxi rises up and kneels over Damanandros. In quick movements, she pulls all three of her brutal stabbing needles from his wounds. As he winces from the surprising pain of it, she unbuckles the leather straps at his wrists and casts the shackling harness aside into the mud.

Damanandros's arms ache as he takes them back to position, stiff from the long strain of hanging.

Damanadros notices for the first time that the glowing light in the area is completely gone now. The darkness has overtaken everything again, but a flash of lightening gives a quick image of his view there in the ditch with Ish'tauxi leaning over him.

He feels her hand on the side of his face.

"Come and find me if you seek your revenge...," she says in the Ancient Words. Touching him softly, she adds, "... or my love."

With a leap up and a single flap of her wings, she is gone in silence, lost to the darkness.

Damanandros can hear the vultures flapping and barking wildly above in their flight.

The goblins are chattering and shouting out to one another in their confusion, fearfully speaking their degenerated version of Zaharan.

The Magic Mouth blares in the repeating sequence "I AM YOURS! I AM YOURS! I AM YOURS!", garbled and broken but near deafening, echoing through the low ground depression.

Damanandros sits up on the pile of logs, sore and injured, but alive there in the flooding ditch, the rain coming down.

Current HP: 1
Maximum Movement Rate: 5' per round

Gundus reunites with the others on the trail, and Syrena stands to recover from her rough landing.

Without delay the group steps over the defeated goblins and resumes the quick march, downhill and toward the glowing light. They no longer hear the screams, but they approach the direction from which they heard them previously.

They can see that they are approaching an edge, arriving at the top crest ahead that falls away to low ground beyond.

They see the silhouette of another goblin.



This one is a bit smaller but holds a knife and a sizeable horn.

He scans the trail, sees the group charging in, and raises his horn to sound the signal.

Encounter distance: 40'
[color="blue"]
Required Action: Roll Initiative! Individually!

Situational Criteria: Any PC who 1) beats this sentry goblin's Initiative, and 2) uses Ranged Attack can get off a shot before the warning signal is sent.
If he wins Initiative, or if Ranged Fire attempts miss or don't kill him, the goblin will do his guard duty assignment and blow the horn.
Sentry Goblin AC: +2

Syrena's arrow hits the goblin guard in the throat.

Hit.

He stiffens in the jolt of it then tilts backwards, falling into the ditch behind as he drops his signal horn and knife.

Suddenly the glowing light ahead goes out. Darkness takes over in the area forward, at the end of the trail.

Gennadius's lantern again becomes the only constant light source in a sea of blackness and drizzling rain.

A flurry of sound ahead!

The sudden flight of birds flapping their wings, and unnerving barking and grunting sounds.

Then a savage screech of some sort - perhaps a woman's furious yell?

All coming from the recently darkened area in the low ground ahead.

The party has to slow slightly but continues the move forward. New sounds emerge, and the next is shockingly unusual.

A loud voice booms out from the dark depression ahead. The voice is distorted and muffled, something like a man with a strangely broken voice shouting from within a tunnel. It sounds remotely human, but something is disturbing about it, and the volume is unnatural.

It continues in a repeating cadence, again and again the same three syllables. It is difficult to decipher for certain, but it seems to be saying "I AM YOURS! I AM YOURS!" over and over.

Squeals and shouts of goblins ring out after the loud pulsing voice begins. Their beastish words are unknown, but the tone and inflection suggests fear and confusion among the little brutes - whatever they are doing.

The companions reach the ledge to peer over and downward, Gennadius's lantern crests over the edge and bathes the pit-like ditch in dull light.

They see Damanadros!

The mage looks haggard and wounded, soaked and exhausted. But he is alive!

He is low in the large ditch, struggling to sit up on a rough pile of broken logs and branches. This pile of wood and debris rises higher behind Damandros, with a large broken leaning tree serving as its highest pinnacle.

There is a rope and pulley apparatus of some sort swinging back and forth slowly overhead, attached on a large tree branch that hangs over the ditch from an oak on the other side.

Nearby Damanadros in the low ground, half submerged in the flooding water, is what appears to be the felled body of a giant black vulture.

More vultures, though normal in size, fly around the scene, anxiously springing from one branch to the next. They flap and hold their wings wide and out. Many of them are hissing and barking. There are perhaps a dozen or two of them all around, and it is an ominous sight and sound.

Within and on the far bank of the ditch, the companions spot several goblins - lurking and running about in the confusion. It is impossible to say how many, but a half-dozen at least are seen in motion. They are soon on a scramble when the light waves through from the high ridge.

Damanadros distance from party at high ledge: 40' 70 feet

OOC:

yikes - edit: I meant this to be 40 yards, not 40 feet. I have to make an adjustment, but since I wrote it and may have caused influence, I'm adjusting it further out from the mistake, but changing it to less (closer) than the original plan. Sorry folks.

The bank of the ditch is a precarious drop-off. Descending down into the ditch would be easy enough, but terrain is treacherous below. Speed would be degraded once down in the low ground flood, mud, and debris zone.

The distorted and bellowing "I AM YOURS!" repeat is pulsing as a frightening echo in the low depression.

The rain drizzles. Thunder and lighting scatter through intermittently.