The goblins loitered in the first room, talking in their indecipherable language (no, that was not true–I had some guesses as to what a few words might mean due to the gesticulating and pointing). “Hey, there is an exit over there!” “Woah! That dead homee is wearing some sweet armor!” “That loser said to grab the keys.”
Anyways, the big tough goblins acted tough and groused orders to the lower-leveled goblins to do stuff. The scout looked around; the hunter poked the skeleton on the floor with his spear over and over. Frustrated with the lack of action, one of the fighter dudes stomped over and proceeded to thoroughly smash the skeleton with its foot and then tear the armor off, flinging bits of bone and dust everywhere. Par for the course!
The goblins were not interested in collecting the armor either (sure, it was in terrible condition, but it could be melted down and reused!). After a few minutes of observing the debris, the lead goblin fighter barked orders to the scout, who dutifully went to grab the keys off the wall.
The scout grabbed the keys. The trap sprung.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
The trap went off exactly as intended. The steel darts came out of the ceiling in the randomized pattern set when the first goblin had entered. Fortunately, the pattern had been a good one–an effective one. One of the darts slammed into the unprotected head of the goblin scout, killing him immediately. One of the goblin fighters, who had been standing in the danger zone behind the scout, screamed as one of the darts pierced through his leather armor and struck deep into his shoulder.
The other goblins ran back towards the entrance, even the guy hit in the shoulder stumbled back a few steps, fearing another trap. After a minute, they collected themselves and carefully crept forward, checking the ceiling as they went. Hunter goblin poked the holes in the ceiling with his spear but nothing happened. While the hunter did that, one of the fighters helped the injured one by roughly pulling the steel dart out of his friend’s shoulder, eliciting a heavy grunt of pain. The hunter ripped up the dead scout’s shirt and made an impromptu bandage for the injured shoulder of the soldier.
The fighter who had taken the steel dart out of the other’s shoulder tucked it in his belt. He also went over and looted all the other darts on the floor, and even went so far as to violently pull the dart in the skull of the dead goblin scout.
The hunter grabbed the key ring and they moved on.
Alas, the Spider Pot Room turned into a dud. The goblins smashed everything with even more prejudice than before. One of the spiders was killed by shards of the pot as it was smashed in. The other spiders got out, but when released quickly suffered death by stomping or weapon. The hunter collected the keys and the goblins moved on.
The goblins came to the bridge and huddled near the entrance. They were a little surprised by the giant slowly swinging spiky ball of doom, as the hunter still checked the ceiling (but couldn’t see anything anyway). The hunter went first, carefully walking across the bridge until he was near the middle point, the giant spike swinging over it. He waited for the ball to pass then hustled across to the far side of the bridge, at the door.
He looked up and around, expecting something deadly to happen, but nothing happened (I really should have put a trap there!).
The goblin tried the different keys until he got the right one. Then, he slowly opened the door ajar and stuck his head through (this could have been a fatal mistake, but he was lucky!). When nothing was amiss, he signaled to the others and they carefully crossed the bridge one at a time.
They circled down the stairs and came to the door to the Skeleton Room. The goblin hunter repeated the process of opening the door, but upon seeing the darkened room he wisely scampered back, expecting an attack.
The goblin with the mace took the lead, with the others in a row staying a few steps behind. Macegoblin stepped into the room and bellowed a challenge, before backing up into the hallway. As expected, the skeletons activated and marched towards the invader. Just like before, the hallway was too narrow for more than one skeleton to enter, so they also went in one at a time.
The lead skeleton marched forward without hesitation and attacked the lead goblin. The skeleton activated its skill and made a mighty down-swing with its club. But the goblin had anticipated this and braced for the attack with its shield. The club smashed against the shield and the goblin staggered a little from the powerful strike. Nevertheless, he pushed his shield up and to the side, opening the skeleton to a vicious counterstrike. The goblin smashed his mace into the hip of the skeleton, breaking the bone and causing the skeleton to fall down. A quick follow-up smash and the monster was done in.
The goblin backed up and reset for the next one, and the new skeleton attacked and died much the same as the first. But the goblin’s shield cracked from the second Bone Bash. He threw his broken shield down and switched places with the goblin behind him. Even then, he kept his free arm down and loose, the powerful strikes had rattled his arm sufficiently to render it hard to use.
The new lead goblin was the swordsman. Like the mace goblin, he followed a similar tactic; taking a blow on his shield and counter attacking with the sword. He swung his sword at the skeleton’s midsection, but when it struck against bone, it cut into the bone, but not all the way through.
The goblin grunted in frustration and reset his stance. The next time the skeleton attacked, the goblin took a step back, causing the bone club to miss. Then, he quickly darted forward and, using his momentum, swung at the skeleton’s head. His sword struck the skeleton’s neck and this time cut through the spinal bone. The skeleton collapsed.
The fourth skeleton stumbled over its dead-undead kin and swung at an angle, surprising the sword goblin with the different angle of attack. It wasn’t much, but the attack forced the goblin to take the Bone Bash on part of his shield. The club hit the edge of the shield with enough force that it actually splintered off a small chunk of the wood. The goblin was pushed off balance but attempted a quick slash to counterstrike. Unfortunately, it was only a glancing blow and the skeleton fighter drew back its club and prepared to strike again. The goblin lunged forward and made another quick slash, trying to hit the skeleton before it could start its downward swing. Surprisingly, the skeleton reacted by blocking the attack with its arm bone. The sword just managed to cut off the arm but lost too much momentum to do more damage. Realizing his mistake, the goblin ducked down and raised his shield over his head.
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Whomp went the club against the shield and the goblin fell backward onto his butt from the force of the blow. But he didn’t panic; instead, he shimmied back and near to the wall, letting goblin fighter number three step over him and take his place.
The last goblin fighter made extremely quick work of the one-armed skeleton.
With the fight over, the goblins checked themselves for injuries as well as their equipment. The chipped shield was deemed still serviceable, but the other shield suffered too much damage and was promptly discarded.
The goblins proceeded back to the darkened room with the chest. The room was scoped out fully this time, and when nothing was found, the hunter, not bothering to check if it was trapped, opened the chest. The goblin shouted excitedly and pulled out the two magic coins. The sword goblin with the good shield (I was fairly certain he was the leader) promptly came over and grabbed the coins from the hunter’s hands, then tucked them into a small pouch at his belt.
The goblins looked around again but seemed at a loss as to what to do next. They had a conversation for several minutes until the leader came to a decision and issued some orders.
The goblins returned to the first room and the hunter went through the portal back to the atrium, exiting my demesne and also my vision. He came back a minute later with a backpack that had, among several things, a long length of rope. These guys came prepared; that was annoying.
Returning to the bridge, the goblins set a metal spike into the floor and tied the rope to it. They then dropped the rope down into the lower chamber. The hunter went down first, landing near one of the stone spikes. Fortunately, the two skeleton warriors didn’t react yet. So when the goblin looked around and didn’t see anything unusual, he signaled to his superiors up to top and they descended too.
If this were a Hollywood movie, the four goblins would spread out and explore different sections of the chamber individually. These goblins, however, were not idiots; they moved as a group away from the shaft and towards the wall, eyes peeled in every direction.
The two Skeleton warriors moved, but they didn’t move to attack; rather, they moved away from the goblins and to the other side of the chamber. As they moved, their armor clinked softly. The goblins heard the noises and shifted about, eyes wide. The spikes and the dark armor of the skeletons both helped to hide them from the Goblins’ Darkvision-enhanced eyesight. Nevertheless, the goblins slowly crept along the wall, wary of an attack.
When the goblins moved a quarter-turn, they spotted the two skeleton warriors side-by-side, slowly tracking them. The initial surprise quickly gave way and they took a formation in preparation for the fight. The two swordsgoblins, still in relatively good form, took the center while the other two goblins took the flanks.
One-to-one, I put my chips on the warriors: they had superior armor, shields, and weapons. The goblins, however, had numbers and real-world fighting experience. I watched tensely as the two sides maneuvered towards each other.
The two groups traded attacks and blows a few times. The skeleton facing the two injured fighters (the swordsgoblin with an injured shoulder and the macegoblin with a bum arm) was kept on the defensive. The leader, on the other hand, struck and defended against his opponent, while the hunter opportunistically used his spear to jab at the undefended side of the skeleton warrior.
However, the warrior was not like the previous level 2 fighters–
Bone Dense - Bones are reinforced for greater durability and damage resistance.
–meant that when the hunter struck against the warrior’s sword arm or leg, he only chipped the bone a little bit. On the other hand, my skeleton warrior fought well enough, but couldn’t find any openings due to the hunter’s harassment.
But then the warrior used its special skill to create an opening. Shine On activated as if a switch had been flipped. The moss on the skeleton’s armor and shield instantly went from absorbing light to creating a massive flare of light.
The goblin leader and the hunter were blinded and reeled back. The swordsgoblin kept enough wits to cover behind his shield, but it didn’t matter. The warrior turned to the side and struck down the hunter with a single, powerful, slice of its sword.
Then the skeleton warrior spun and ran towards its brother, still lit up like a flare. The light distracted the other goblins for less than a second, but it was enough time to save the beleaguered skeleton. The bright warrior forced the macegoblin to pull off and focus on the defensive. Facing a brightly glowing monster without a shield made the goblin maintain a cautious stance.
The shining moss turned off, returning the chamber to its deep blackness again.
The leader had recovered and started running so as to attack the skeleton warrior from behind.
Then, a quick series of actions turned the tables. The warrior on the right (the one now facing the macegoblin) lunged a short step forward while thrusting its shield out as if to bash the goblin, forcing him to retreat further. At the same time, the left skeleton warrior activated its own Shine On, stunning its opponent. But then both warriors turned and swapped targets. The first warrior turned to its left and with a quick, powerful strike, sliced right into the side of the stunned goblin, sending him to the ground. Meanwhile, the shining warrior turned and pivoted to its right and just barely caught the attack of the goblin leader.
The coordinated attack had worked. Now, it was effectively two one-on-one fights, and the goblins were severely disadvantaged. The fighting dragged on, but as it did so the skeleton warriors’ better equipment and final skill showed its legs:
Inexhaustible - Does not tire or suffer fatigue.
Macegoblin, lacking a defense, went down first. Then the skeletons beat on the goblin leader, cutting and stabbing him until he could barely stand. He weakly tried to hold up against the wall, but when he stumbled, one of the skeletons took the opening and sliced its sword into the goblin’s skull.
The two warriors had battered equipment and damaged bones in several places, but they had emerged completely victorious.
A total party kill.