A Wellspring of Regret

[Shameless]

Brarga nodded.  "Two days is alot, but then it's goblins we're talking about.  We're faster, and provided they aren't smart enough to cover their tracks, then we should easily catch them."  His yellow eyes narrowed.  "Let's not dance around the thought I'm sure we've all had.  Someone must have sent them."  He looked to Tooli.  "Someone else knew the significance of these ruins, what was beneath them, and wanted to see just how far you'd gotten.   They don't want you dead, just to leave it would seem.  Else, they'd have sent the goblins to attack while you slept one night, and been done with it.  They likely don't know everything, but got impatient, hence the attack to see what you'd uncovered."  

"The question now, is do we try to follow the goblins, or from your memory, could there have been anything important here, enough that someone would want to keep it secret?  Have you uncovered in clues to where it might be, or barring that, your dig journal would have revealed where you'd already dug, and such a thing, if it exists, isn't."

[Nina]

"Of course we should go after them and crush them!" Marida was gripping her weapon as she spoke and glaring north where she figured the little pests had gone.

 

"No there is no reason to chase off," interjected Toolie, "there is nothing stolen that matters. The journal simply logs what we accomplished and the maps are just drawings of the location showing our dig. Everything is staked here and can easily be seen. those things were just to show my master when we returned or he came here and I can always rewrite and redraw them," she taps her temple, "its all here. besides I am sure the goblins are long gone by now."

 

"I don't think so, Tooli." Altares stepped close to the young woman. "I believe we are being observed even now. There are two sets of eyes on us. A goblin high up in the third pine past that large elm and another above the falls at the other end of the lake."

 

Altares hadn't cautioned anyone but they were all experienced and so they took care not to reveal themselves but each casually looked and spotted the watchers.

 

Brarga sniffed loudly but spoke softly, "If they are watching us then they may be planning to attack us after dark. and even if not I would suspect the band to be nearby and not run off to the hills."

 

"Maybe," said Tooli, doubt in her voice," or they may have gone south toward the village. we should warn them."

 

"Warn them? That would take a full day and if that's not where they went we would risk losing them." Marida protested.

 

"It will take less than a quarter hour. I will send a message with magic."

Spoiler

Tooli will be casting a ritual spell wich will take some time. What are the rest of you doing.

 

[Shameless]

"This may draw an attack if someone's watching the watchers."  His hands went to his sides, ready to grab his twin axes should he need to do so,  and he nodded to the others.   "Be ready for anything."

He was facing the trees where the goblin was, though not looking at them specifically.    He figured the others would do similar things, and he was ready for whatever might come.  

"We never take the simple requests, do we?"  mostly this question was asked of Kathra, who he'd traveled with the longest.

[Nina]

Tooli gathered her tools from the back of the pack horse then found a spot that she quickly swept clear of rubbish and debris with a flick of her hand and a muttered phrase.

 

Sitting down she began drawing symbols in the dirt with a wand she had drawn from a sheath under her cloak, all the while whispering a long incantation. Those watching her saw that she did all of this with her eyes closed.

 

Those keeping an eye outwards noted that the goblin on the cliff above the falls had gone but the one in the tree remained.

 

After an interval of time Tooli sighed and opened her eyes. "There I have warned one I know well in the village. I hope it was in time."

 

Altares, called form the boundary of the camp, "The goblin in the tree is gone! Best prepare I think they have not gone to the village but are coming here, now!"

 

Spoiler

post what preparations you are making

 

 

 

[Asarasa]

While the power of her Vow had granted her gifts, Kathra hadn't had much personal experience with magic, and she'd never been apprenticed to the Runecarvers of Landsend. Standing close to Tooli while she worked her dweomer, though keeping her eyes on cliffs and tree, Kathra nodded with a grin when the scholar said her warning had been sent.

"Handy magic, that," Kathra said, readying her shield and pulling her warhammer free from its loop. "Tooli, do you fight with steel or spell?"

Keeping an ear open for an answers and her eyes open for goblins, Kathra tossed her head, fiery red-orange braids flipping over her broad, armoured shoulders, and began a deep, steady chant. The chant ended when she clashed her hammer against her shield with a rippling clangor and a sense of assurance settled upon the dwarf, the dragonborn, the grugarch, and the eladrin.

"Stand ready, friends!"
 

Spoiler

Kathra casts Bless using a 2nd level slot on herself, Brarga, Marida, and Maighan, letting you add 1d4 to your Attack Rolls and Saving Throws (Not Damage Rolls or Skill Checks). 

 

[Shameless]

Brarga drew his axes, and growled.  "Let them come.  We shall meet them, ready and willing."  He paused for a moment.  "Be on the lookout for one who looks somewhat different, if we can capture it without loss, we may be able to glean some information from it."  It was a slim possibility, but one he had seen realize more than once.  Goblins did have some intelligence, he had heard one speak more than once.

"Only if such an opportunity presents itself."  He'd rather everyone get through safely, than keep one goblin alive.

[Nina]

On 12/13/2023 at 10:51 AM, Asarasa said:

"Tooli, do you fight with steel or spell?"

 

"I would rather not fight at all."

 

The party stood alert. Maighain and Mariday both tilted their heads as distant sounds as yet unheard by the others were captured by their keen hearing. "Cover!" cried Marida, "There are more than what we surmised." said Maighain calmly.

 

It was then that the cloud of arrows broke from the trees, a dozen, two dozen and more flew in a high arc to fall toward the heroes!

 

And behind the arrows a horde of goblins screaming... this was no raiding party, this was an army.

 

Then the arrows fell among them. A hundred arrows fell but only six found a target, three struck the centaur, two into his unarmored equine body and one into his human torso. Also Brarga, Kathra and Marida were struck. 

 

Spoiler

Marida take 7 damage, Brarga takes 4 damage, Kathra takes 5 damage before any reductions you may have, Antares takes 13 damage. you may each take a single free turn before the horde arrive then it is initiative. Post the your free action and put your initiative in a spoiler. There are over a hundred goblins pouring from the trees and hills on the north side of the ruins.  Goblins AC 15 HP 7   Have fun 

 

 

[Exile_Jeane]

"Ye know how tae pick ye foes, Tooli," Marida grunted, examing the arrow embedded in her side gingerly, "Or all de baed luck en dae world. Teks aloot tae breng so many goblinken taegether. Naething fa' et but tae play hunt tae champion, I suppose." 

 

The Grugach warrior almost quite literally exploded into motion, stature doubling as fire burst into being around her greatsword, she crossed over 60 feet in that initial surge in the time it took to bring her weapon to bear in both hands, a looming ashen giant making herself quite front and center in the fight before it could even reach the rest of the party. She could do with a few tall trees packed full of archers and casters behind her, but this? This would do, and if she had any luck she'd draw out the brains behind this hoard while the others started blowing said hoard to bits.

 

Spoiler

All right. 87/94 HP 3/4 Rages left. Res to piercing, slashing, and bludgeon. AC: 16

To Hit Roll 1...

Exile_Jeane Request: [1d20+7] Roll: [11] Result: 18

Minimum damage I can deal is 10...

Exile_Jeane Request: [3d6+6] Roll: [6, 6, 4] Result: 22 One dead gobbo.

To Hit Roll 2...

Exile_Jeane Request: [1d20+7] Roll: [7] Result: 14 

And a miss, lol.

 

Iniative with Advantage...

Exile_Jeane Request: [1d20+2] Roll: [20] Result: 22 Heh. Not gonna do better then a nat 20. I'll take it.

 

Edited December 19, 2023 by Exile_Jeane
Missed a Thing.

[Shameless]

"A goblin army. "   There was a certain level of disgust in Brarga's rumbling voice.   Still the glint in his yellow eyes and the way he moved as he rushed forward to meet them showed he was somewhat excited.  "Good I could use something that isn't made of stone as an opponent."

He'd drawn both axes and set about laying into as many goblins as he could.   He trusted in the others to not hit Marida and him in with their spells as they sought to engage the main body.   

His blades slashed and flashed, hacking through first one goblin, then another. His third strike was mighty, and took the heads of two goblins with a stroke, as he completed his turn and split another goblin from shoulder to hip.  Their gear wasn't sufficient to stop the rampaging grugach, or the veteran Dragonborn warrior, and the fields would be soaked in goblin blood before the day was done.

 

Spoiler

Initiative  22  AC 19
4 attacks, all hit.  all do lethal damage to the goblin targets and one enough to kill 2.

 

[Asarasa]

As the rain of arrows eased, Kathra lowered her shield with a sharp motion, scraping off an arrow stuck to the steel protecting her thigh. She watched the wide front of goblins descending from the trees and rocks in a disorganized mass with narrowed eyes and a tight grin. The dwarf decided to see if she could add to the chaos, and perhaps funnel some of the goblins towards Marida and Brarga, leaving the lake to protect their left flank.

"Sometimes, you have no choice but to fight," Kathra said to Tooli, firmly, but not unkindly, as she stepped forward to put herself between the scholar and the horde of goblinoids.

She planted her warhammer head down on the ground and from her belt, pulled free a squarish brass bottle hung by a braided leather thong about the stout neck. She pulled free the lead stopper, and thick billows of dark smoke began spilling free even as she spun the bottle with the leather thong. With her planted stance, mighty arms, and the solid mass of the bottle itself, when Kathra let it go, the bottle flew well over hundred feet to the north and east, already hidden by the ever growing cloud of smoke before it landed, shrouding the trees and rocks about it. Goblin cries of rage and fury turned to cries of distress and confusion.

Kathra's grin turned fierce as she reclaimed her hammer and waited for the onrushing horde to break upon them. A part of her hoped they weren't fishing a red herring while Renn risked her body and soul in eldritch captivity.

 

Spoiler

Initiative: 11
AC 20 - Cloak of Displacement: Attacks have disadvantage to hit her, until she takes damage, then effect is suppressed and resets at the beginning of her next turn.
HP: 91/93
Spell Slots: 1st 3/4, 2ns 3/3

Eversmoking Bottle:

a cloud of thick smoke pours out in a 60-foot radius from the bottle. The cloud's area is heavily obscured. Each minute the bottle remains open and within the cloud, the radius increases by 10 feet until it reaches its maximum radius of 120 feet.

The cloud persists as long as the bottle is open. Closing the bottle requires you to speak its command word as an action. Once the bottle is closed, the cloud disperses after 10 minutes. A moderate wind (11 to 20 miles per hour) can also disperse the smoke after 1 minute, and a strong wind (21 or more miles per hour) can do so after 1 round.

 

Edited December 20, 2023 by Asarasa

[SalmonMax]

Maighan's nose wrinkled faintly on seeing the goblins and she reached back for her instrument. The gilded bandore slid around easily on its strap. She strummed, and magic streamed forth from the strings, and the play of her fingers over them. Golden filaments of light twisted and whorled, like rivers with eddies and rapids twining around Maighan and up into the air over her. Then they collapsed down, flared out as they settled around her shoulders and back.

 

Wings. On wings of light, she ascended into the sky. Above the fray. Above the noisome smoke.

 

From this vantage the eladrin surveyed the field and pouted.

 

"It seems I will be needing just a touch of Summer today..."

 

Her hair, which was more pink than red in this incarnation, was suddenly shot through with crimson. Her left eye shifted from the verdant green of fresh-cut grass, to a bright yellow-green. Her playing took on a new tone as well...faster, louder, with a thumping beat that she played against the side of the bandore itself. Not music to dance to, exactly, but music to get angry to. Music to rage to. It evoked wailing discords and strident crescendos.

 

So fast was her playing that sparks and flames wafted ghostlike between her fingers and the strings. As Maighan finished the measure with a huge mid-air strum, those flames erupted from the instrument, from her hand, and roared across the field to detonate in the heart of one of the larger knots of goblins, sending torn green flesh flying in all directions and scouring a smoldering crater in the earth!

 

Spoiler

1st turn, Maighan casts Fly, and goes 60' straight up. 2nd turn, on her initiative of 22, she goes another 60' straight up (altitude 120', meaning shortbows are at disad to hit her) and unleashes her first Fireball. This is a circle 40' across (20' radius) that does 8d6 damage. She aims for the area that has the highest concentration of goblins in it. They take 26 fire damage, or 13 if they make a DC 16 dexterity save. Maighan's AC is 16.

 

[Nina]

The charging goblins were vary surprised to find their charge met at only halfway through their charge not by one of the defenders but by two of them. Furthermore, they had not expected such ferocity. The charge at that point stalled as goblins met their death before they had even known that death was among them. 

 

On the goblins right flank confusion was sown from the thick bilious smoke which rose and engulfed the savage goblins there halting that charge as well, some broke to the left and cleared the smoke and reoriented their direction toward the two defenders battering their line.

 

And on the left that charge was broken when the flame of elvish music erupted in their midst incinerating dozens of the enemy and ignited fires in tree and brush!

 

Behind, back in the hills the fourth and fifth ranks advanced and the archers dropped their bows, drew wicked sickle like blades and joined the march. Further behind out of sight of the heroes the warbands leaders. Two goblins and a single human female quickly conversed. The woman stepped forward as the goblin officers blew signals on horns telling their troops where to advance.

 

Spoiler

We are now in round one. The initial charge has stalled but a second advance can be seen behind coming down from the hills. the place to the ruins right where Maighan cast her fire ball is a burning charnal pit with about thirty incinerated goblins scattered over a forty foot circle. Trees and brush in that are are burning. beyond that area another group of goblins can be seen making to flank the ruins on that side in an obvious attempt to surround the heroes.

 

Merida and Brarga are pretty much surrounded by goblins and will be attacked this round.

 

Maighan is up

 

 

[SalmonMax]

Maighan spotted the distant leaders and her eyes glittered. But she knew her tools. Blasts of fire were for the clearing of chaff...and one had to do that before charging in, lest one be picked to death by a thousand pecks before setting foot in reach of the commanders.

 

She wheeled in midair, trailing gleaming lines of light, and strummed another dischordant blast on her bandore. The strings grew hot as they vibrated under her fingertips, until a great flaming comet was belched forth! It hurtled down at the goblin forces, trailing thick sulfurous fumes as it went, until it found the heart of another goblin formation...

 

...and with incredible fury, exploded in a cyclone of flame and concussion, sending charred goblins flying!

 

 

(34 damage in 40' diameter sphere targeting the most goblins Maighan can spot....DX 16 dexterity save for half damage)

[Shameless]

Brarga could only smile at the second fireball, trusting it to do more work for them, thinning the warband considerably.  He and Marida were well and truly surrounded, but anything that came near would  meet their steel and find death at their hands.   He swung his axes in a sweeping, relentless flurry, careful to not cull so many as to give them a chance to shoot arrows at them again, but with all his draconic fury, so that the numbers would definitely lessen.   He seemed to smile in the thick of battle, as goblin after goblin fell before him, still, there were so many more, even using some of the tricks he'd learned had certainly helped, but it wasn't quite enough to kill an additional goblin, though certainly, it would die shortly, one way or another, as his axe sliced off the arm carrying it's weapon, and bit deeply into its torso before tearing free.

 

Spoiler

brarga hits with four attacks, killing each goblin he strikes, and two with his second attack for a total of 5 dead.   His final attack he uses a maneuver called sweeping attack which allows him to connect to another creature within 5 feet for 1d8 damage, in this case 5   he kills 5 goblins and severely wounds a 6th with this round.

 

[Exile_Jeane]

"Well, ef ye are all sae eager tae meet ye maker, ye little gits, c'mon then!"

 

The smart play would have been to fall back and cloak herself from sight with her cloak. Re-engage. The smarter play would have been grabbing their squishy scholarly guide and dragging her up a tree. But those two trains of thought were firmly trapped on a sideline while making sure the dragonblood at her side got out this alive long enough for their allies to pinpoint and pick off the leaders. The bloom of fire silhouetting in the direction of the horns made her chuckle with contralto menace that progesss was being made on that front. So she lashed out with her own burning sword, once, twice, and the result was many pieces of charred goblin splashing over their peers.

 

Spoiler

Rolling to hit..

[1d20+7] Roll: [18] Result: 25

Damage

[3d6+6] Roll: [6, 4, 2] Result: 18 One very dead gobbo.

Second Swing...

[1d20+7] Roll: [14] Result: 21

Damage

[3d6+6] Roll: [5, 2, 2] Result: 15 Two very dead gobbos.

  

[Nina]

Maighan had shifted her aim toward the goblins making the flanking maneuver, the blossom of flame engulfed thema nd left charred corpses amid  a now raging inferno!

 

Brarga and Merida cut goblins down with scything axes and burning sword, but their effort did not stem the tide for each goblin that fell, two, no three crowded behind trying to reach the raging warriors. Short curved swords slashed and stabbed and spears thrust over shoulders to cut, slash and stab the heroes with a dozen wounds each.

 

Back in the ruins Antares loosed arrows atthe horde but didn't seem to have and effect.

 

Then a woman dressed in dark robes and wearing veeiled mask appeared between the horde surrounding the elf and dragon born and the fire , she leveled a crooked staff at Maighan and intoned a loud incantation and a bolt of writhing violet force shot from the staff and hit the wall near Maighan showering her with chips of stone as the wall shattered and fell!

 

Spoiler

Bragra takes 7, 5. 7, &3 pts damage before any resistances all slashing. Marida takes  6, 6, 7, & 4 before resistances. Bragra and Marida are still surrounded and cutoff by about thirty or forty goblins. Maighan takes 1 pt fromthe rock shrapnel.

 

[Asarasa]

The Dragonborn and the Grugarch were surrounded by an unrelenting tide of goblins. Kathra feared their arms would tire before the horde subsided and she was about to wade in to stand with them when the masked witch made her appearance and flung magic at the Eladrin.

Maighin had been most effective in curtailing the mass of goblins with her balls of fire, so Kathra redirected her charge towards the witch. Goblins impeded her way, but with her focus aimed, Kathra invoked the power of her Vow and skipped pass the intervening space to appear at the Witch's side.

Kathra slammed the Witch a glancing blow with her shield, but with powerful build in comparison to the Witch's more slender figure, the Witch was knocked clear off her feet. 

"'Ware you magicks, Witch! You shan't be so free to cast them!" Kathra shouted as she brought her warhammer down to smash the veiled bitch, but the Witch managed to bring her staff up to intercept the blow, jarring her arms, but saving her sternum.

 

Spoiler

AC 20 - Cloak of Displacement: Attacks have disadvantage to hit her, until she takes damage, then effect is suppressed and resets at the beginning of her next turn.
HP: 91/93
Spell Slots: 1st 3/4, 2nd 2/3

Move Action: Move towards the Witch
Bonus Action: Cast Misty Step to get adjacent to the Witch
Action: Attack

1st Attack - Shove to knock the Witch Prone
Strength (Athletics) Check - [1d20+8] Roll: [1] Result: 9
Witch's Opposed Roll - [1d20] Roll: [3] Result: 3 - Prone

2nd Attack with Advantage due to Witch being Prone - 
[16] Result: 24 - Hit
[8] Result: 16

Damage Roll - [1d8+5] Roll: [1] Result: 6 Bludgeoning Damage to Witch

Witch is Prone. Requires half her movement to stand up.

 

[Nina]

The witch snarls and raises her staff the gnarled end flickering with purplish light,  they point it at the mighty dwarf and fingers of evil energy extend from the flickering toward the paladin...

 

Tooli with a curse steps from the what little cover the ruins offer and reaches to her back and draws forth a narrow want made of red oak and alabaster, The wand is raised in her right hand above her head in a stance very reminiscent of the stances the warrior priest Renn might have taken with her sword. Her left hand extends forward her fingers weaving intricately in the air as she mutters strange unheard words of power.

 

The wind blows picking up force and the air cools rapidly a hint of frost flies toward the Heroes Braga and Marida. Suddenly above the two warriors the sky cracks and clouds form some 40 or 50 feet above them swirling a cold icy wind blows around them. The goblins sensing something unearthly hesitate and them the sky above opens and hail and sleet rain down upon all in a wide circle.

 

The pummeling is severe and relentless the goblins are frozen and crushed from the hail. the onslaught even reaches as far a Kathra who watches as the witch's staff is shattered by the ice and the being covers herself and howls from the impact of the ice.

 

All in the area of the storm of ice are crushed, all except our heroes. a warm wind circles each of the company tightly like a cloak of summer air driving the cold away from them and sloughing the ice and sleet toward those with evil  intent.

 

Spoiler

Tooli has cast Ice Storm centered on Braga and Marida. Kathra and the witch are caught on the edge of the storm. All of the goblins in this are 20' radius cylinder are mangled crushed and frozen... dead. The witch is badly hurt but still alive her staff broken.  our three heroes in the midst of the storm are un fazed and unhurt as they were protected.

 

 

[Shameless]

Brarga moved up as the storm of ice and cold abated, taking advantage of the Goblins' reluctance to press their attacks even as he bled from the smaller wounds they'd already inflicted on him.   "Nice one." he growled, and then inhaled.   Kathra alone of course knew what was coming, something Brarga didn't do very often.  Sparks of flame escaped his mouth, before he opened his mouth fully at the largest concentration of goblins, and exhaled a torrent of dragonfire at the hapless goblins.  He turned his head toward the second largest group, and cut loose once again with another torrent of dragonfire.

 

Spoiler

Brarga moves close to the goblins, and then uses his breathweapon twice

each attack is a 30ftx5ft line of dragonfire  anything within those lines, must make a dex save vs dc 15 to take half damage
the first blast does 10 damage 
the second does 6 damage

 

[Exile_Jeane]

Spoiler

76/94 HP left. Yay, damage resistance.

Move up to stab the prone witch with a flaming great sword.

To Hit number 1

Exile_Jeane Request: [1d20+7] Roll: [19] Result: 26 If that hits...

[3d6+6] Roll: [5, 3, 1] Result: 15 14 Slashing, 1 Fire, damage

To hit number 2

Exile_Jeane Request: [1d20+7] Roll: [17] Result: 24 And if that hits...

Exile_Jeane Request: [3d6+6] Roll: [5, 4, 1] Result: 16 15 Slashing, 1 Fire, damage

 

The dwarf looming over the arcane caster was suddenly in the shadow of another threat to said arcane caster's well-being. Marida dripped blood from 4 new wounds, on one case the splintered end of the spear that caused said wound sticking out of her leg. There was murder in her eyes and fire on her sword, the magic strength of the giants flowing through her towering frame.

 

"Sae cocksure, ye fynne dandee casters. Thair's e reason ye hide behind someone akin tae 's en a scrum," she declared with dismissive grunt and lashed out her blade, once, twice, a blazing mass of life-ending iron seeking further blood. It'd be a nice warm up to whatever champion the goblins were really hiding in the direction of the horns.   

[Nina]

Ice crunched and flew under Merida's feet as the dark elf sprinted and lept upon the prone witch and proceeded to violently butcher the creature.

 

It was this singular act as much as the storms of ice and fire which caused the Goblin army to hesitate, halt and then turn in terror and fly away back up the hills from whence they had come. 

 

Antares stepped out and flung arrows after them but they were little noticed.

 

The Goblin chiefs, still at the rear, tried to stem the flight of their troops but they failed miserably and were run over by the fleeing horde and trampled into the dirt.

 

The Goblins were routed but the danger was still there for the fires started by magic had grown in to a conflagration  to the east and northeast of the ruins and was moving south spurred by the wind.

 

Heat and smoke could be felt by the adventurers as flames began to ignite the brush by the ruined walls.

 

Spoiler

Combat has ceased the foe flees but the fire rages on and now threatens the party.

 

[Shameless]

As the tongue of flame tapered off, Brarga closed his mouth, and looked around.  Marida's quick and efficient butchery of the witch combined with everything else had broken the goblin's morale, and they trampled their leader as they fled, showing they were truly little more than a mob.  His old unit hadn't ever broken like that.  He watched as the fires began to grow, and looked to his comrades.  "We need to be leaving if we cannot do anything about those flames, or the winds driving them."  It was true he could resist the effects of flame, even make himself immune thanks to his heritage, but that would only last so long.  

It was an obvious statement, a question and more.   "Is there anything anyone can do, or should we be leaving?"  He was asking Tooli and Maighan mostly, as he was unaware of the extent of their magical abilities, and whether they still had the ability to cast spells that could contain the blaze.

As he waited for the answer, he had sheathed an axe, and placed a hand on Marida's shoulder.  "You fight well, damn well."  Of course the two of them were still bleeding from their wounds, but he smiled, "I'm glad you were here."   

[Asarasa]

Land's End was a Hold under the mountains and by the sea. Fire was rarely a concern, perhaps occasionally in the brush of the pastures in the high plateaus, and usually left to burn out on their own. Fist on a hip, Kathra glowered down at the witch before assessing the rising flames and thickening smoke. The enchanted bottle of smoke - originally used in some specific forgings at Land's End - was hidden in there, but it would be too dangerously to recover at the moment. It was one of the only items she yet possessed from Land's End, but it was only a thing. As long as she lived, Land's End still lived.

Slipping her warhammer in its loop and slinging her shield back over her shoulder, Kathra gave the broken witch a cursory search, lest she held some clue to the reasons for her shenanigans with the goblins. Finishing her search, Kathra straightened up with a last frown for the enchanted bottle lost amidst the ever growing smoke and conflagration, then clapped her hands clean and nodded.

"South about the lake, I say, and we let the fires burn out," Kathra suggested. "Afterwards, we can decide where to next, and if we track the goblins back to the witch's domain, to see what we can find, and end the threat to the villages with finality."

[Exile_Jeane]

Shrugging off the lingering exhaustion that always accompanied the release of her enlarged state, Marida took in the devastation and grunted in satisfaction at fell work done well. Goblinoid hoards were always a menace to the Radha enclaves if the druid enclaves were not available to contain the worst of their ravages. The Grugach Warrior had played her part in two such incursions and the clean up was almost as bad as the fighting.

 

Goblins were not something she regretted fighting in her years of blind obedience to Grugach isolation.

 

That said, there was a fire to avoid and a human witch to consider. She stooped to throw the ruined body of the woman over one shoulder, jerking a thumb at Kathra. "What shae said," Marida grunted, "An' we can sae ef thes daid one has any clues on 'er."

[SalmonMax]

"Oh my," Maighan said as she lowered down to hover about a foot's height above the ground. "I'd forgotten how flammable your world is. It will go out eventually, yes?"