18th April 2021 - Session 9 - Let's Save Some People - Matthew

After watching Dunbarr run into the cave, Dipple hears the shout of Bree-Yark! He decides it’s probably best to back up Dunbarr and follows him into the cave. Noticing some goblins, he summons up a sphere of fire but then realizes that he has alerted all the monsters to his presence. Feeling the pressure of the situation he loses control of his sphere of fire and it fizzles out on him. Suddenly from the shadows, an arrow goes flying into one of the goblins, killing him on the spot! Dunbarr, looking back, only sees Dipple. Was that you? Dipple hesitates for a moment and then says yes.

Back in the cave where the slime was, Bearnabus heals Graupel after her mid-fight snack went awry. She then immediately transforms herself into a bear and squeezes herself down the narrow cave passage, stopping at one of the cubbies to allow people to pass. Graupel follows the same cave passage and meets up with Dipple and Dunbarr. Just as she arrives, she sees Dunbarr running at one of the ogres, he’s got fire in his eyes (metaphorically speaking) and takes two massive swings at the ogre doing a decent bit of damage. Dipple feeling more confident after seeing Dunbarr in action, summons up another sphere of fire and throws it successfully at the ogre doing more damage to it.

The ogres are pissed! They were just relaxing and then suddenly this small person followed by a fire thrower come in and start causing trouble! Thinking they could get rid of the small person first they go to take swings at him but in their rage seem to have miscalculated just how low they would need to have swung and completely miss him. From the shadows, another arrow arrives striking one of the ogres quite deeply. It just wasn’t their day.

With all the commotion going on, more goblins are drawn to the battle. They pick out Dipple as a target and fire upon him. Only one of their arrows manages to land a damaging blow. It’s not enough to slow down Dipple though. From out of the cave passage Bearnabus comes running but it seems she exhausted all her energy getting to that point and she stops to catch her breath.

Dunbarr is un-phased by the ogre standing in front of him and is still swinging into him which is making the ogre quite concerned that he is going to get killed by such a small foe. While in the background, Dipple is seen concentrating. Then suddenly, on top of the ogre that Dunbarr is fighting, a twisted crown of jagged iron appears on its head, and a madness glows in its eyes. All of a sudden, that ogre then takes a swing at the ogre beside him, giving them a fair wallop. It seems as though the emotional toll of ogre to ogre violence caused the crown to disappear from on top of the ogre’s head. The other ogre, even though they just got attacked by the ogre beside them, realizes there must have been something going on with that jagged crown that appeared, full of anger she spots Bearnabus right beside her and brings down her massive tree trunk upon her. It does a lot of damage and if Bearnabus had been in human form it may have taken her completely out of the fight.

Meanwhile Kin notices his hidey spot has started to fill back with ooze. Especially around the well where the ooze first originated from. He decides it’s probably best to move further into the cave passage. Sighting the ogre again from the passage he lets loose another arrow but unfortunately, it glances off the ogre doing no damage at all.

One of the goblins who had Bearnabus and Graupel race up to him decides it’s best to put some space between himself and them so he could use his bow and arrow properly, but luck was against him that day as he gets cut down by Bearnabus and Graupel in his retreat.

One of the goblins, noticing this maniac of a dwarf laying into one of the ogre’s, fire upon him. The arrow is just no match for the dwarf armour, and it pings off of him. Another of the goblin’s fires upon Dipple and is more successful. Dipple is concerned with the number of arrows hitting him and thinks in future it would be best to avoid getting hit by them. The final goblin fires at Graupel but he never trained enough with his bow and arrow and misses the shot.

Bearnabus, after taking a tree trunk to the face, bites into the ogre doing a great deal of damage. From that position though Bearnabus just can’t quite reach with her claws. Dunbarr decides it’s time to put these ogres to sleep. He reaches out his arms and casts his spell. Nothing seems to happen but unbeknownst to him, all the goblins around him fall to the ground into a deep sleep. The ogre in front of Dunbarr sees him with his hands out and takes the opportunity to swing at him. Unfortunately for the ogre, he is not good at maths and still hasn’t calculated how low he has to swing and misses Dunbarr again.

Kin, seeing that Dunbarr might be in potential trouble, fires another arrow at the ogre standing in front of him not realising that it was the final blow the ogre needed to put him down for good.

The other ogre noticing that the situation is starting to turn dire gives Bearnabus another whack but Bearnabus being a bear and all launches at the ogre again but this time positioning herself just right to dig both her jaw and her claws into the ogre making it cry out in pain. Hearing that cry Graupel does an acrobatic leap towards the ogre and brings her maul down upon its head, making it fall to the ground permanently.

All the foes have been dealt with and Dunbarr, feeling mercy, didn’t have the heart to finish off the sleeping goblins so he decides to tie them up instead and leaves them some rations. Other members of the party wonder how the goblins will actually eat the rations with them being tied up but don’t seem too concerned about that quandary.

Kin arriving at the main part of the cave inspects the north part of it. He notices green slime leading to a pool and then also what also appears to be the villagers guarded by one goblin. He also hears a flapping noise but isn’t able to see where it’s coming from.

Through telepathic communication, Dunbarr tells Kin to shoot the goblin but Kin says to bring the others in case he misses. Dipple decides to make the first move and fires a firebolt at the goblin. It seems to just singe the goblins face making him cry out in pain. At that moment though bats swarm the cave, making it very difficult to see. Graupel tries to move closer to the villagers but the sheer number of bats stops her in her tracks. She decides to light her bullseye lantern but there are so many bats it is unable to penetrate through the wall of darkness that they are creating.

Bearnabus takes action by charging at the goblin, she misses with her claws but her jaw clamps down nicely into the goblin finishing him in that instant.

Kin feeling that there is nothing he can do about a swarm of bats and sits down on the ground with crossed legs.

Dunbarr decides to take the initiative in dealing with the bats and blows his horn. It seems in the flow of battle the horn got turned around and Dunbarr ended up blowing on the wrong end of his horn. It does nothing to the bats.

Dipple, while getting swarmed by the bats and having no visibility, decides it’s a good idea to cast an illusion of an explosive sound right in front of the party. This does not end well; the bats end up swarming the main cave giving everyone in the party little annoying scratches and bites. After a while, though it seems the bats have had enough and fly back down the hole they originated from.

With the bats gone it is possible to see all the villagers. Bearnabus being the only one visible to the villagers and looking like a bear causes one of them to take a defensive position with a rock in his hand. Graupel arrives on the scene and exclaims that they are there to rescue them. It turns out that person who took up the defensive position was the dwarf Morak the owner of the inn.

As they are moving out of the cave, Morak explains that there are still people missing. That Lady Nandor’s Lady in Waiting and the shop owner were taken by rats and they are possibly still further on in the cave.

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