Kicking The Anthill

The party had penetrated the outer defenses of the underground fortress that had been the prison of the oni of the Five Storms for centuries. But they knew that there was far worse ahead. They stood in the body-strewn vestibule and took stock: the small balcony on which they stood had two doors leading out of it, one to the south and another to the north. Bella, on high alert from the many traps they’d already encountered, checked the south door carefully, as well as the small alcove that it revealed when opened, but everything looked safe. There was another door leading out of the alcove, and after a thorough inspection, she pulled it open.

She was greeted by more carnage. Broken bodies, some of which seem to have died where they were tormented, lined the walls of a long, arched corridor amid carvings and figures of torture and anguish. It seemed that simply creating images of horror and vice wasn’t enough for the oni – their vile artwork wasn’t complete without the torture and debasement of living beings. Struggling to hold down her last meal, Bella averted her eyes from the stomach-churning scene. To her right was a narrow window, barely wider than an arrow slit, covered by a metal screen. Peering through it, she found herself looking down into a vast, dimly-lit natural cavern. In the distance, she could see a crude stone building, sitting on a small rise of the cave floor, but the narrow field of view limited her ability to see much else. A flicker of movement caught her eye, and she saw a hobgoblin trudge around the corner of the building, then disappear out of view.

The hallway continued on to the north for nearly 100 feet, where it appeared to widen out. She let the others know what she’d found, then crept on down the hall. Sandoval checked the other door from the balcony as best he could, and found a mirror image to the alcove Bella had entered, and it also led out into the same hallway. As he came up against the tableau of suffering in the hallway, his eyes fell on the body of a middle-aged Tian woman, tied and impaled on the wall. Her fate was no more or less horrible than the score of others in the hall, but the bard suddenly found himself sobbing uncontrollably, overcome with grief and an overwhelming sense of the loss of a life cut short. It was as if he were looking at his own body hanging there. He became aware of a small, female voice in his head, begging him: “Please! You must slay our murderer! You must kill Munusakaru, before she inflicts this suffering on others!” As the voice faded, he felt his mind grow still with a focus and clarity of purpose that he’d never possessed before. He nodded grimly to the shattered corpse, wishing he had time to lay her and her fellows to rest as they deserved. As he turned to follow Bella down the hallway, he was already beginning to compose a lament in her honor: Kusatsu Yuka, The Soul of Unending Misery.

As the others quietly filed out into the hallway, retching at the sight and stench, Bella had already reached the end. The corridor widened out into a broad stone shelf, perched above a large cavern whose floor lay some 60 feet below. At the far end of the ledge, a waterfall tumbled down from the ceiling, the roar of water drowning out all but the loudest sounds and its mist making footing slippery. A rickety wooden ladder led down from the ledge to the floor of the cavern. There, strange hovels constructed from assorted debris cluttered the floor of the huge natural cavern. Dozens of hobgoblins could be seen scattered across the cave, coming and going on unknown business, along with countless small pigs, rooting among the leavings of the hobgoblins.

To the east, it looked like a natural cave had been bricked-over, leaving a doorway through which occasional hobgoblins passed. To the south, a deep chasm bisected the cave, bridged by two stone arches. Beyond the pit, the floor rose, and a crude stone keep had been constructed on the high ground far away in the gloom. No doors or windows could be seen in the keep, but it looked like some sort of catwalk extended from the roof of the keep to the opposite wall of the cavern.

Bella slunk back to the cover of the hallway, and filled everyone in on what she’d seen. They briefly considered resting before moving on: this was a pretty defensible position, Marie was running low on healing, Sawyer had used all of Suishen’s Air Walks, and Nicki and Zhustin had both expended a lot of their spells. But that idea didn’t gain much traction, and the group determined to press on. But how? If they tried to climb down the ladder, they’d surely be spotted by the mob below before they got very far. Marie still had some flying-type spells to offer, but maybe not enough for everyone.

If they didn’t want to go down to the hobgoblins, then they had to get the hobgoblins to come to them, right? Marie, who spoke goblin, decided to try to lure them up. “HELP!” she cried in goblin from just beyond the edge of the corridor’s wall, “We’re under attack! We need reinforcements up here!” Her goblin was good, and her accent flawless, but it was difficult to get Marie’s natural contralto to sound very, well, hobgobliny.

However, she’d succeeded in getting the attention of the group below. Hobgoblins began wandering towards the foot of the ladder, looking up at the ledge with a mixture of confusion and expectation. One of the big Withered Blossom Warriors marched up, clearly in charge. “Who’s up there?” he bellowed. “What’s going on?”

Marie really hadn’t thought this through. “Um … the general needs reinforcements! NOW!” But the warrior down below wasn’t buying it. “Who is that?” he demanded, unlimbering his bow. Whoops. They hadn’t bothered to get names from any of the guards they’d killed. Marie thought fast. “We’re being attacked by humans! They’ve broken through! They’re … ARRGGHH!” She did her best impression of a hobgoblin death-rattle, then fell silent, hoping her ruse would work.

Down below, several more Withered Blossom Warriors had gathered, along with a good sized crowd of hobgoblins. The sergeant (he had to be a sergeant – he just had that attitude) began ordering them into position to cover the ledge with their longbows. Then he ordered one of the hobgoblins up the ladder. It took a few kicks, and the threat of smashing his skull with a morningstar, but the hobgoblin reluctantly began to climb. The others kept their bows trained on the ledge.

Apparently there would be no mob of hobgoblins blindly rushing up the ladder. This 60-foot wall, with its single, wobbly means of descent, was their next line of defense, and they knew that it was almost as hard for a force to attack down a sheer cliff as it was to attack up one. The party realized that their plan (such as it was) was out the window. They hurriedly tried to concoct another, but they were out of time. “Oh fuck this,” Bella grumbled, and stood up. She stepped around the corner, leaned out over the ledge, and fired a pair of arrows into the hapless climbing hobgoblin, who’d almost reached the top. He fell back with a scream, and kept screaming all the way to the ground.

All hell broke loose down below. Hobgoblins began emerging from the huts, scrambling to figure out what was going on. Sarge was bellowing orders, pointing people into positions, and groups of hobgoblins and Withered Blossom Warriors began clustering around the bridges, guarding their approaches. One of the warriors took off at a dead run, headed for the distant keep. Arrows began whistling past Bella’s ears as she fired off another brace of arrows a Sarge, grazing him with one.

“Are they clustering? Are they clustering?” Nicki was asking eagerly. Not getting a response, he moved forward anyway. He stepped to the edge of the ledge where he could get a good view, quickly surveyed the battlefield, and dropped a Fireball into the hobgoblins gathered below. He scorched Sarge, but sent a half-dozen of his hobgoblin lackeys flying through the air.

Hobgoblin Warcaster

That changed the tenor considerably. The warriors redoubled their arrow fire, but the hobgoblin grunts scattered in panic. But one of the hobgoblins walked calmly forward. He had on tattered robes and wore fetishes made from human bone. He pointed a bony finger at the ledge, and a powerful Fireball went off among the party. Another Hobgoblin Warcaster emerged from the mouth of the walled-off cave, and his Fireball followed his brother’s. Within seconds, the party was badly burned, and had inflicted very little damage on their enemies.

As Sandoval started singing, Marie began casting her last two Channel Divinity spells, trying to bring the group back to fighting strength. Even with that help, Zhustin retreated into one of the alcoves to quaff a Potion of Cure Serious Wounds; he’d been especially badly scorched. Sawyer was grinding his teeth in frustration at not being able to Air Walk down to engage the enemy. He drew his bow, and fired at the nearest Warcaster. Bella joined him, and both of them hit the spellcaster, but they each took arrows from the warriors for their efforts. The other Warcaster, seeing the effect of the deadly arrow fire, cast a Mirror Image on himself, just to even the odds.

Nicki knew he was running low on spells, but he had other resources at his disposal. He taken a Wand of Lightning Bolts from one of the Wu sisters at the end of the Tournament, and he’d been dying to try it out. He stepped up to the ledge and fired it off at the Warcaster who was trying to pluck out the arrows that had just hit him. The bolt sent him flying back into the wall behind him, and he fell with smoke streaming from his ears.

Sandoval centered a Rainbow Pattern among a group of hobgoblins, but unfortunately none of them were affected by the spell. Undeterred, he moved the shifting display of light to a different part of the cave, and one of the Withered Blossom Warriors began staring slack-jawed into the pretty colors.

Sawyer redirected his arrow fire to Sarge, and Bella focused on the remaining Warcaster; she appeared to hit him twice, but each time one of his images vanished instead. Nicki decided his wand had worked pretty darned well, so he turned it against the Warcaster as well. It hit, but without Sawyer and Bella’s arrows to weaken him, he was able to shrug it off, and returned the favor with a volley of Magic Missiles that pounded into Nicki. The Withered Blossom Warriors on the ground understood the danger of magic, and they focused their arrow fire on Nicki, hitting him several times and forcing him to retreat out of view.

Marie decided it was time to move the battle to ground level. She moved up behind Sawyer, Sandoval, and Bella. “Ready to D-Door down?” she asked? Sawyer and Sandoval nodded eagerly, but Bella equivocated. “I’m not sure. Should we coordinate with …” She found herself talking to empty air. She looked down, and saw that Marie, Sawyer, and Sandoval had teleported to just in front of Sarge. “Be that way then,” she sniffed. She fired off two last arrows then stepped off the ledge, counting on her Ring of Feather Fall to carry her down safely.

Nicki risked exposure to fire off one more Lightning Bolt against the Warcaster. It struck, but he was still standing. But apparently injured enough to decided it was time to get out of sight. He dashed around an outcrop, then cast Haste on a group of soldiers guarding the bridges. Seeing his allies begin to disappear from the ledge, Zhustin ran to the top of the ladder and began scrambling down.

Almost as soon as he appeared on the ground, Sandoval used his Jaunt Boots to slip behind the surprised Sarge, stabbing him with his echoblade. As the hobgoblin warrior spun to confront this threat, Sawyer slammed into him from the other side. With a gurgle, the hobgoblin non-com slumped to the ground. But the sight of enemies on the ground apparently emboldened the hobgoblin grunts who’d been cowering in the shadows. Several charged at Marie and Sandoval, and a horde emerged from out of the mouth of the walled-up cave, surrounding Sawyer. The muffled blare of a horn suddenly sounded from the direction of the keep. They weren’t sure what it heralded, but it couldn’t be good.

No new XP for now – I’ll wait to tally up XP until the encounter is over. We’ll be at Leo’s next week, although Rich will be pickin’ and grinnin’.