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Of Magic and Dungeons [IC/PG-16/Accepting]

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The group was not quick to take up Estelle's offer of a flashy distraction and it was for the better the more the mage thought about it. Once she made her move they would be forced into action. Not escalating where it wasn't needed seemed wise. And so the lady Fereis followed Chris and Lana as they moved quietly about the collection of buildings. The group wasn't long to run into more goblins which Chris and Lana moved in to attack. Despite the circumstances the mage never seemed altogether ready for battle when it broke out. It simply wasn't her instinct. Added to this Chris' narrow evasion of a mace and Estelle could hardly suppress a loud gasp. Lana was quick on the save and the group was back to stealth for the moment. The group now gathered in the cleared building, Estellise tried to take stock of the surroundings. She could hear something, perhaps other goblins. But it did not seem to carry the sound of an alarm. Their presence was still largely concealed for now. Through the window of the building there was a shadow cast, like something was close to the fire, but they were in no good position to find out what from this angle.

"Something or someone has moved to the central fire. I think it best we find out what." Estelle offered as she stepped out of the building cautiously. To the northwest was another building, barely any different from the one the mage was exiting. The woman stuck to the wall as best she could, taking great effort to keep her footsteps quiet. Once she reached the corner Estelle peaked around the corner ever so slightly which brought the fire into view. Meat was roasting over the flame, a large rat carcass. But much more menacing was the hobgoblin that stood head above the other goblins at some six feet tall. He wore rudimentary armor and bore a sword and shield and seemed to be directing the others as if trying to encourage patience in the ranks of his fellow goblins.

"They know something is amiss." Estelle whispered back to her allies. "Unless a well placed dagger toss might fell a large armored goblin I think we ought to consider making a distraction and running for the stairs." the mage offered the ultimately less glorious but in her mind safer route to progression.

Edited by Doggo

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Things were, for the moment at least, taken care of which was good because Chris didn’t feel like he had really done much of anything besides maybe not get hit (though at least that was still a net positive). It was Lana who dealt with the remaining goblins and it was Estellise who took stock of the new situation. “They know something is amiss,” she said. “Unless a well-placed dagger can fell a large armored goblin, I think we ought to consider making a distraction and running for the stairs.”

Chris took a peek towards where Estellise had just scouted and nodded his assent. He wasn’t going to say that a sufficiently aimed dagger couldn’t find its way past any armor, but was also sure in a case like this that it wasn’t going to be his dagger. Speaking of which, he’d forgotten that one was still in a dead goblin and he scurried over to retrieve it before returning to the group. “You’re right -- you were probably right the first time, yeah,” he said. “But now that we’re here and not at the entrance we can try and put as many goblins behind us as possible. Estellise, do you think you could do the same thing, uh…” he did some quick maths “five floors ago but over by the entrance this time?” Chris pointed to where he meant. “Where we came in?”

Estellise’s hands were already glowing. “Yes, it would be a simple thing to reproduce the spell. I shall release it on your signal.”

“Okay,” Chris said. He took a few more breaths and nodded at Lana, making sure she was ready as well. “I guess the route is running towards the far wall and then turning towards the exit from there.

“One… two… three… now!” And they took off.

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A small sphere of light formed between Estellise's hands as she readied a repeat of the trick that had gotten them past an earlier floor without fighting anything. The Fereis seemed to be making a concerted effort to control the magic so that the orb's light was dim until it was ready and in place. It expanded to about a foot in diameter, large enough that as it sailed above the buildings it would catch the eye of the goblins. The mage listened intently as Chris began the count. No sooner had the man spoke the word now than did Estelle send her spell on its way. The orb flew out toward the way they'd come in some ten feet before rising above the roof level of the village to start gathering attention. It's velocity slowed to almost nothing as it reached its destination where it began to shrink and intensify in brightness.

"No looking back now." Estelle quickly reminded her allies as she turned to move in line with the plan. Not but a moment later the spell expelled its magic outward in a blinding flash off light that filled the room for a handful of seconds that would prove difficult to maneuver through even if not directly looking at it.

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The hob stood around the fire. Pacing back and forth. He hated this job. Having to stand near the food, smelling the delicious meat, and having to wait for it to be cooked. He remembered last time he took a bite before it was done. It was...unpleasant to say the least.

Still it was even more annoying when his fellows wouldn't stop badgering him. He was in the middle of arguing with one of them when suddenly a bright light soared across the 'sky'. He stared for a moment before turning to the other hobgoblin standing in the doorway of his home.

Barking at them to go check it out the hobgoblin grumbled but started moving. Before leaving the house he bashed the Warning Bone against the Warning Steel to gather the other gobs.

The creatures, along with a third Hobgoblin, left their homes at the noise. Two of them were closer to where the hobgoblin was headed and joined him there.

However as the group ran along the outer edge they saw a couple goblins exit the same home near the stairs. The two goblins were the only among them that shared a home, despite there being enough for them to be separate.

They must have been very good friends indeed.

The one in front held a dagger and the goblin behind him, slightly bigger, wielded a mace. They seemed surprised at seeing the group advance but started towards them. Calling back towards the hobgoblin that resided in the house near theirs.

Spoiler

Map

 

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Chris was a little worried that, by being the one to give the signal, and thus the fastest reaction to Estellise’s distraction, there was a worrying possibility he was leaving his compatriots in the dust? After all, he was so focused on forward, what if they stumbled or something and, in his blind rush, he didn’t even hear them call out? Of course, then again, they’d fled towards floor exits before and had no problems at all, and really, someone had to be in front so it might as well be him.

All that being said, as he neared the far wall he couldn’t help but at least take a peek over his shoulder just to make sure, and- gah, was Estellise’s light always that bright? He immediately had to look away, back to focusing on the main task: getting out of there. The door was to their left. “This way!” Chris shouted.

A few problems arose. The first three and most glaring were the two goblins and a hobgoblin within line of sight -- this wasn’t even counting the several others that were surely alerted by the commotion. The remaining problems, though certainly no lesser than the hostiles, were the locks holding the door shut.

Chris grit his teeth. He could probably deal with those too, just like the chest lock from the room before, but there was a whole lot of pressure this time. And, of course, those first three problems. But now that he was at least acknowledging them, he could start finding a way to solve them.

The goblins he could just get around. There was space, after all. As he moved to the side and drew his sword, though, he saw the flash of each of the goblin’s weapons coming after him -- the dagger to his side and the mace to his knees. He could only block one, and chose the latter, guiding the mace with his sword safely into the ground.

Meanwhile, of course, the dagger was finding a nice home in Chris’ side. Adrenaline kept the pain tolerable for a moment, but it came in with a vengeance after a few more steps. He had to focus on his goal. The hobgoblin, then, if he was still conscious, the locks on the door. He raised his sword again and kept going, aiming for the head.

His sword bounced off the hobgoblin’s shield. In retrospect, it was obvious. The hobgoblin could see him coming from a mile away and though he was fast, he wasn’t that fast, especially with his wound. But it still gave Chris a lot of pause. The dagger wound was already catching up with him, even though he wasn’t still moving to agitate it. His shoulder was starting to ache as well, memories of the last time he’d been so injured.

It wouldn’t be for nothing, though. He had to keep fighting. Chris raised his sword again and took another swing.

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The two goblins that Chris passed by clearly hadn't expected him to rush past them. Especially not after being stabbed in the side. The shorter goblin took a look at his dagger. Examining it to make sure that, yes, there was blood on it.

They watched the human engage the hobgoblin and glanced at each other. Then at the other two who had been behind Chris. Moving from standing front and back they shifted side by side to make sure that it'd be harder to run past and started advancing towards the two girls. The one with the dagger closer to Estelle and the other nearer to Lana.

The hobgoblin had blocked the first of Chris's attacks. Upon this success they gave the human a cocky sneer. Clearly pleased at how they had managed to stop the human. Even as Chris went to attack he, too, swung his weapon. it seemed to be better quality than the goblin's but it was still marked here and there with notches. Still the hobgoblin swung the sword down in a heavy arc, putting plenty of weight behind the swing.

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With the group having decided on their plan of action and getting ready to follow through with it, Lana followed after Chris as Estelle's distraction flare was sent off. Though the sounds of alarm rang throughout the camp, feeling a bit unnerving to say the least, running forward Lana had found that it was mostly working. There were only a few goblinoids in their path, which proved to be the only obstacle in their path, and so naturally they were going to have to bowl them all down. As Chris sprinted ahead, going past the first two, he seemed to then be locked in a melee with the big guy in the back. The two other goblins, now seeing Estelle and Lana, had opted to make their way towards them. 

Seeing the one with the dagger approach Estelle, Lana disregarded the one going towards her and opted more to help keep her friend safe. Bringing her greataxe up, the girl swung the weapon in a horizontal arc towards the creature. Shocked that she would do so - and break the unofficial rules of honorable combat at that - the goblin quickly scrambled backward, using its dagger to attempt to defend itself while it's very good friend had decided to aim to kneecap Lana with its mace. With the first moving out of the range of her swing and not wanting to leave with a hobble, Lana continued the arc of her swing and spun on her feet, bringing her axe into the creature's backside. With the weapon burying itself in the goblin, it stopped its own swing as it was now dead and not very capable of using a weapon. Nevertheless, Lana couldn't save herself from harm as she and Chris had a new thing that they shared in common. A sharp pain suddenly appearing in her side, Lana looked to see that the goblin from before had run over and stabbed at her during her own attack. 

The girl looked at the goblin, then back to Estelle before gesturing with her head towards Chris, telling her to go ahead and help him out instead. Frustration evident on her face, the girl powered through her wound and brought her axe back around, swinging in a horizontal arc in the opposite direction towards the goblin. The creature ducked underneath her swing, putting it in prime boot kicking range. And Lana was not one to ignore such a range. Using the momentum of her swing the girl kicked into the goblins face, who in its desperation bit into her leather boot. Wincing in pain from the accumulating wounds, Lana still pressed onward, literally as she shoved her bitten foot into the goblin's face once more, practically stomping on it. 

The goblin then reached up and grabbed at her ankles, trying to pull the girl off of itself. Bringing her greataxe back around, Lana lifted it into the air before bringing the butt of the weapon down into the goblin's face. Losing its grip as she did so, Lana pulled her foot away as she stepped back before bringing her axe down and killing the goblin once and for all. As she was recovering and getting ready to press onward, the girl heard the sound of the hob goblin by the fire shouting, barking something in what the girl could only assume was a rude tone in goblin. Unsure of what to make of the exchange, the girl simply muttered, "we should hurry," before going to meet up with Chris at the front. 

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The hobgoblin wasn’t even trying to block his second attack, instead raising its sword in a counterattack that- how did their sword get so fast? It was already crashing down, and Chris had to give up on his swing and leap off to one side to avoid it. He even tsked, but it came out more like a grunt of pain as the movement caused his wound to beat past the adrenaline again. Still, he knew he had to focus. The hobgoblin’s sword came crashing down right next to him, and Chris immediately swiped his sword at their now-vulnerable sword-arm.

He managed a pretty deep wound. Not all the way or anything dramatic like that, but certainly deep enough to keep the hobgoblin occupied. He left his sword still sticking in their arm and closed the remaining distance between them, bringing out a dagger as he did so. Chris’ next attack was upwards, aiming the dagger into the hobgoblin’s neck.

And it worked! He was able to hit exactly where he was aiming. Chris took his dagger back out and was about to go for his sword too when the still-barely-alive hobgoblin swung its shield right at Chris’s head and he found himself eating dirt for the second time in only a few minutes.

Chris staggered to his feet. Now everything hurt, from his head still getting clipped as he flung himself out of the way to his side to his shoulder to his knees, but at least the thing was dead now. He retrieved his sword properly this time and turned around to see Lana running up after him, wounded as well, but with two dispatched goblins behind her “Good,” Chris said, before wincing again at the pain. He called out, “I need to focus on opening those locks, can you cover me if anything else comes?”

Edited by radio414

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The Hobgoblin frowned as he looked from one side of the village to the other. Scratching his head he considered the situation as best he could.

He saw the light. It went that way. But the noises were from that way. So what did that mean?

Were there two intruders? Did one of them go up that way while the other, shiny one, went the other way? What could they want...the food? Yes, that would make sense. The rat did smell delicious.

The Hobgoblin looked at the roasting meat and licked his lips. Maybe he could have a taste...no, not yet. It's almost ready he had to wait for the perfect moment so he could truly savor the meat. Plus what if the other one came here while he was eating?

He waited a moment longer then decided to check on it himself. He didn't think he would be gone long so the food wouldn't burn in that time but he had to be fast.

So the armored creature hurried over past the houses towards the direction he heard the noise. He saw a couple dead Goblins and...two human females! He cringed as he saw them. Compared to hobgoblin, or even goblin, females they looked so...smooth. It grossed the Hobgoblin out to know that some of his people claimed these things to be superior.

Taste aside he knew they must be dangerous so he approached the two. One of them looked less armed than the other but the Hobgoblin was smart enough to know that might mean they were more dangerous. So as he went for them he would try to dodge around the armored one to slash at the other woman.

Meanwhile the other remaining Hobs and Gobs chattered at each other. Each arguing about where the light might have gone to.

Spoiler

map

 

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Lana nodded at Chris's comment, saying, "leave it to me," leaving the locks to him and the bodyguarding to her. She didn't pay much mind to her own wound and instead braced herself, waiting for any other goblins that would round the corner and start to confront them. The next contender to come at them was none other than a hobgolbin, Lana grimacing at it as she couldn't help but she was suddenly feeling judged by it. All the same, as the monstrous creature seemed ready to come and attack them, Lana readied her axe charging in to meet the creature head on and go for a wide horizontal swing. The hobgoblin, armed with more than just a rusty dagger shanker like most goblins, brought up his shield to defend against the blade. 

With her large weapon blocked, Lana was a bit off balance from it, but continued her assault against the creature. Lowering her blade to the ground, the girl then twisted her grip and brought the greatxe in an upward arc towards the hobgoblin. The hobgoblin, with more wits than your average bear, opted to not be bisected from this attack and instead stepped back away from the girl. Brandishing his blade, the creature then moved forward and went to swing his blade at Lana. With the her axe still up in the air, Lana simply let gravity do its work and brought the blade down. With the two steel weapons clashing, the girl and goblin were locked in a power struggle, Lana grunting as she continued to try and push forward and out muscle the creature. 

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Between the exertion of magical energy and the brightness tied in to her own spell, Estellise was somewhat disoriented as she began moving with the others. It was simple enough to keep her eyes fixed on Lana's back and simply follow it as best she could but that still didn't mean she was processing the physical space around her quite as well as she needed to. Thankfully she hadn't as yet tripped but she was slow to react to the few goblins that had come into their path next to her more martially inclined comrades. Both Lana and Chris rushed into battle and both seemed to trade injuries but ultimately handled the threats well enough that the latter was moving on to trying to get the lock to the next set of stairs open. With the briefest moment to ground herself, Estelle wanted to begin healing them but wasn't granted the time as the hobgoblin approached the group. The look it gave her and Lana spoke to some form of intelligence but the mage wasn't entirely sure she liked that.

As Lana charged in to clash with the armored goblin, Estelle moved to the side toward the cavern wall. As the Fereis channeled magic into her hands the air about them seemed to ever so slightly shift and distort yet there none of the characteristic glowing. As light had been the diversion the mage was not looking to use light here in case they suddenly find themselves swarmed by a village's worth of goblins at once. Instead she opted for an enchantment and only when she had a clear line of sight on the hobgoblin that didn't go through Lana. A bit tricky perhaps given the clash of axe and sword they ultimately settled into but nothing Estelle couldn't manage. The spell successfully landed and if the dulled look in the hobgoblin's eyes that took hold didn't give it away the mage's words soon would.

"That should have confused him!" Estelle called to Lana, inviting her to break the clash and take advantage of her dazed opponent. 

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Chris had to marvel at the goblins’ level of engineering, not because the locks were any sort of masterwork or even competent, but that they held together at all. He also had to commend them for seemingly knowing the level of their craft, and compensating with double the locks. It wasn’t going to keep him out, obviously, especially not if Lana did her job and kept everyone off his back, but the effort was still appreciated.

The first lock came off without difficulty outside of the obvious pain in his side still burning away, masking some physical sensations even as he grit his teeth. Before he could start on the second, he heard some chatter behind him. It was indecipherable to his decidedly non-goblin ears, but the intent was still clear: the goblins were on their way back. He had to get this door open quick.

He continued to bite through the pain and practically forced the pins into the right place -- there was no time for finesse now -- wrenching the door open with a final heave, and looking over just in time to see Lana manage a hobgoblin, a vertical cleave with her axe dealing the finishing blow. “Door’s open, let’s go!” Chris said, beckoning both her and Estellise onwards with a frantic wave of his hand.

He just managed to get the door shut behind all of them, narrowly blocking a few extra goblin projectiles, whereupon he collapsed to a sitting position on the stairs, back against the wall. “Two down, three to go,” he said through heavy breaths, clutching his side. “How are you two holding up?”

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As the girl and hobgoblin continued to clash blades, Lana kept pushing against his until suddenly the larger goblinoid seemed to become unfocused on the fight at hand. Hearing Estelle's comment, Lana called back saying, "got it!" With one final push, Lana forced the hobgoblin's sword down before pulling back up with her axe. With a vertical cut into the creature, she felled the hobgoblin in one decisive strike, letting out a huff in confirmation of her victory over it. Bringing her axe back to a manageable state to run with, she looked over as Chris called out to the both of them and nodded, following after him with a sense of urgency. 

Letting out a sigh of relief, Lana placed her great axe against the wall and caught her breath. Smiling at Chris's progress report, the girl nodded again saying, "and I think we've been doing pretty good for ourselves too. Hardly an injury to show for our progress." Confidently stating this, Lana then realized there was a dull pain in her side, looking down to see that her stab wound had not magically fixed itself in the few minutes she had had it. Patting at it and wincing as she did, she said, "well, not much of one at least." 

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When the group eventually descended the next staircase they would slowly start to feel a dampness in the air. Once they reached the bottom of the stairs and through an open hole where a door would be they would find the air more humid than previous.

They found themselves in a long, dimly lit, cave. As far as they could tell there wasn't any creature from there to the other end where they saw an opening for another staircase. Though prior events taught them that this was unlikely to be the case.

Around of the cave floor, near the entrance to the lower level, was covered in water entirely. The only way across were a trio of wooden bridges large enough for two people to walk side by side spaced roughly evenly apart. As they entered the humid cave they would hear a noise. A light splashing noise coming from partway across the expanse of water. As though something had just dove underneath the surface of it.

Spoiler

Remember you don't have to immediately go to the next floor but this shows you what you'll see upon entering. As usual lemme know your initial actions and such.

Map

 

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With Lana confidently triumphant over the confused hobgoblin, Estelle sighed in relief and quickly moved herself back to Chris' side. Some few hitches aside the plan seemed to have worked well enough. At the least they hadn't had to fight the entire village. The mage's concern for herself was minimal such that Chris' asking them had her more focused on scanning for wounds. Though nothing looked severe as Lana observed it was still a cause of concern. Better the noble thought to patch everyone up than risk any sort of infection or furthering of the injury through sloppy movements. But any sort of glowing magic as her healing often tended to be seemed like a bad ideal until the group was well on their way to the next floor.

"Mind your step as I close your injuries." Estelle spoke softly as the group began descending the stairs. A hand glowed for each of her comrades, imparting the familiar healing power to dull pain and stitch wounds like they had never happened. It wasn't much of an exertion due to the nature of the injuries but it was always best to be thorough. It seemed well timed as the humidity in the air began to grow as they approached the next floor. The sight before them was water and a small bridge. Just how deep the water went was a question the mage was not eager to answer.

"I can light the room as before if we would like a better look. Though I fear it may similarly rouse something to attack us." Estelle spoke in regard to the splash they had heard. She had a glowing ball of light at the ready, only waiting for confirmation that it was what they all desired.

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Chris felt, well, he felt physically better after Estellise healed everybody up to tip-top shape, but he still wasn’t quite sure about the thought process behind “the last floor went quite well” so the mental component was still a bit shaky. He felt like he had been put in charge of maneuvering and screwed up at every turn, first by missing his second dagger throw on the initial pair of goblins, then by getting spotted by another pair, and then, to cap it all off, his final plan ended up with injuries on both Lana and himself. If they’d wanted to be stealthy, they had done a lot of not being stealthy.

At the same time, if Lana and Estellise were okay with it, it wasn’t like he could complain too much, right? He peered into the next room and saw nothing too suspicious except, of course, for the errant splash which was very suspicious. He walked into the room, looking for other suspicious things, and, seeing none, even looked up to make sure there wasn’t anything about to grab him that way.

Like the first floor they had been through that day, the ceiling was barely visible. Still, Chris could definitely see that something was moving up there, or at least he thought there was something. “My guess is we’re going to have to keep our heads up again, and I guess we should probably stay away from the water until we know what’s down there, too.” He bit his lip. “Lots of guessing, I know, uh, that’s why we should start finding things out. Whatever it is would probably attack us anyway if we didn’t go looking for it.”

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Lana was glad to have the familiar relief of Estelle's healing mend her body up once again. Giving a thumbs up to the girl as they made their way into the next floor, Lana looked around, taking stock of everything around her. The only real unique thing about this room was the bodies of water located in it, which there was certainly something off putting enough about those. As both Chris and Estelle discussed how best to approach the situation, Lana first checked to the ceiling to make sure there was nothing there waiting to kill them. And to the best of her perception she could not discern any such things, which gave her some amount of relief. Next came checking the water. Looking around, Lana picked up a loose rock looking to the others. "Well, if we're going to go find things out then I guess we'll start with this?" Without waiting for any real confirmation, Lana tossed the rock into the pool of water. 

And then it came back to her. It was closer to it being thrown back to her then anything else, but it still elicited a shocked and somewhat befuddled expression from Lana. Picking up the now soaking rock, unsure of what to make of it, the girl simply tossed it back into the water. And back it came. "Well, there's certainly something in there." The girl commented to the others. Picking the rock back up, she looked to the others saying, "I uh, I guess it doesn't want to come out, so...well." The girl looked to the water, then back to the group nodding in the direction of the water, before starting to walk cautiously ahead of everyone. 

As she got closer to it, she noticed that the water was rippling every now and then, only prompting her to look back to the others before going back to walking forward. As she stepped on the bridge, the girl continued to walk forward. Once she got a fourth of the way across the bridge, the ripples in the water got more intense before somethings burst from the water.

Out from the water, two on either side of her, came what Lana could only describe as fish goblins. Well, they weren't exactly small, being taller than her, and they weren't really goblin like either, but she felt the name would stick. The two in front of her were bearing tridents while the two behind her - blocking her path from whence she came - were armed only with their clawed flippers and horrible fish goblin teeth. Lana had her axe readied and was, of course, ready to brawl with these creatures. But before that she was surprised by how dire her situation had suddenly become, prompting her to let out the universal call for help. "Uhhhhhhhhhhh!" 

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Chris initially objected to Lana’s going on ahead, especially when she made it clear she wasn’t concerned about the movements on the ceiling, instead pushing on further to the pools of water. “Wait, you don’t -” He cut himself off when he realized she was still being at least a little too cautious, like, she could take care of herself, right? Wasn’t she older than him anyway? 

Lana was clearly aware of some amount of danger, anyway, even if she hadn’t spotted anything just yet. When the rock came back out of the water, it was at least apparent to Chris what she was thinking. Of course, when the actual danger appeared, when four fishy goblinoid creatures emerged from the water, surrounding Lana on all sides. “Uhhhhhhhhhhh!” Lana called out.

“Hang on, Lana, I’m coming!” Chris responded. He drew his sword and literally leapt into the fray, jumping forward and letting his sword cleave in front of him in a wide arc.

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The creatures that Lana thought of as sea goblins, real name sahuagin, didn't react much to Lana's nervous call for help. Both of them moved along the bridge towards her. Their flippered feet slapping the stone as they slowly made their way.

They didn't respond either to Chris's shout. Seemingly more concerned with attacking the girl on the bridge before she got her bearings. Which turned out to be not so good for the sahuagin nearest to the entrance. Chris's blade sliced into the monster's scaly back. Tearing open a deep gash in their back and causing a spray of purplish blood. It let out a pained noise, which sounded similar to the noise of gargling water, and stumbled forward.

Bleeding, the creature turned towards Chris. Letting out a warbling, angry, shout it stopped its advance to focus on Chris instead. With its broad, fin-like, hand, with several hooked claws at the end, it swatted at Chris. The attack seemed more aimed to cut a gash in Chris's face with the claws than to wallop him with the broad hand.

The sahuagin on the other side started moving a bit faster. Though they seemed to be trying not to fall to the side as they moved with their webbed feet. When it got close enough it braced itself and thrust the trident at Lana's chest.

Up above any who were paying attention would notice something stirred when Chris landed his blow on the monster. Yet nothing happened beyond that.

Spoiler

Map

 

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Rather than send lights out to get the residents of the floor angry at them, Lana had offered herself as tribute. Estelle couldn't argue the results but still would have rather her friend not immediately be in harm's way. Chris was faster to respond to the prolonged um calling back to the party as he usually was. The mage recognized the creatures as sahaugin from a book she'd read once about a human woman falling in love with one. That had not been her most productive weekend but the occasional fantasy reading never hurt. Regardless there was no time to be kissing any fish even if they wanted to and the mage took stock of the two sahaugin in the room. With the exchanges thus far that seemed simple enough but it was difficult to say what else could be hiding in the water.

It was time to multitask Estelle decided. She readied magic and soon four orbs of light flew into the room overhead forming a diamond with each of her friends at one of the corners with the other corners straddling the central bridge they all stood on. These served to light up the room before they began pulsating two spheres each would soon fire blasts of magic at the two sahaugin, diminishing their own brightness in the process. Letting the spell aim also made for some less than perfect aiming but each orb would have a few shots left. Surely the quantity would make up for it. Estelle was already on to the next spell, preparing for situations she hoped would never happen.

"How does one walk on water again? Solidify water beneath your feet, have a soul lighter than air, just believe, no no no..." she mumbled to herself while wracking her brain for the theory behind the intended water walking enchantment for the group's shoes.

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Chris was used to filth and he was used to stench -- he had suppressed his aristocratic background well enough -- and he had even gotten blood all over him countless times in just seven floors, but there was just something about purple fish-goblin blood that was especially revolting, like, even if he washed it a dozen times, it was probably just going to smell like that now. Still, he had hit one of them, which was step one.

Meanwhile, Estellise had lit up the ceiling like requested, but now everyone’s attention -- well, his at least -- was obviously elsewhere. The light did let Chris get a good look at the fish’s counterattack, though, a swipe to the face with razor-sharp claws that he just avoided by leaping backwards nearly off the bridge.

He landed in a crouched stance, both his feet underneath him, which he used to push off and leap forward again, this time sword outstretched and aiming for where he thought the heart was supposed to be on a fishy sort of goblin. He was significantly faster than the thing, it turned out, but the sword only went part of the way through, definitely not enough to pierce any sort of heart. Tough skin, probably, he thought.

But while he was thinking all that, the monster started making moves trying to get Chris into the water. It was making a lot of gurgling noise too, like it was saying, “I’m going to get you in the water now.” Chris wasn’t about to let that happen. Who knew what else was lurking under there? Also, more importantly, he couldn’t breathe underwater and the fish-goblin obviously could. Just as he processed the need to pull back yet again (and make sure to take his sword with him), a blaze of light whizzed past his head, and he got the distinct impression that unless he got out of the way, another one was coming right for him.

He dodged back yet again, and sure enough, there one was. Estellise’s light sources, it seemed, served an additional purpose. “You’re aiming for them, I hope,” Chris muttered under his breath. It made lunging in again tricky, though; he was basically letting himself get flanked by getting in the way. At the same time, the problem wasn’t going anywhere. He saw another ball of light come flying in and started in on the attack just after it. “Alright, well, third time’s a charm!”

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Lana continued to stay put where she was as the sea goblins slowly made their way towards her. She couldn't really back up because she could hear the terrible fishy noises coming from behind her and obviously there was one with a pointy trident barring her from going forward. So she only hoped that her cry for help was well received and decided to move forward in her own strike. The amphibious creature brought up its trident to spear at her, to which Lana brought up her own axe. Swinging down at the weapon, she managed to clash her blade against the spear weapon, pushing down on it and parrying it downward though only by virtue of the weight of her weapon. As the trident didn't fully hit the ground, she started to feel her own blade be pushed up.

Lana grimaced, even more so as she heard a very unsettling scream of pain behind her, as the creature continued to struggle with its weapon against her own. Her foe then attempted to use the prongs of its weapon to hook around her greataxe, starting to pull back with it. Digging her feet into the ground as best as she could, Lana grinded her teeth in turn as she started to pull back herself, revealing to her that both her and the creature were evenly matched in strength as they were caught in a deadlock. After a few second of this tug of war Lana was struck by inspiration, noted by the sudden flash of light that appeared in the room. 

Pushing down with her axe, such that her weapon and the trident formed a straight line, Lana stepped forward and thrust her axe forward. Being caught off guard by the sudden change in direction of force, the sea goblin unhooked its weapon from hers as it stumbled backward. Walking forward to follow up now that she had the initiative, the girl stumbled as she suddenly felt a sharp searing pain go through her back. Gritting her teeth as she felt the burning sensation, it had seemed that her foe wasn't spared as well as a bolt of light had hit it as well, causing a similar reaction. Now close enough, though without much in way of preparation as a result, Lana swung her axe's shaft into the face of the creature. Being dazed yet again, the creature stumbled back once more, giving Lana the time to step back and hoist her axe into the air. Shaking its head, recovering, the sea creature went to stab at Lana, prompting the girl to twist her body. 

The trident grazed her side as a result, but Lana's foe was about to be far worse off than her. Bringing her blade down from an angle, the girl smashed the axed into the skull of the monster, causing a sickening crush and gross noise to come from it before the sea goblin's posture crumpled and it fell down to the ground dead. 

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Seeing the other sahaugin fall the one by Chris seemed to be driven to act more rashly. It moved forward and grabbed at Chris's sword arm. As it did it brought the other fin-hand towards Chris's neck. It attempted to use its strength to drag Chris off of the bridge and into the water nearby. Its attempts would be hindered as the light ball splashed against its back and burned through part of its body. While the monster would be distracted by this it also gripped tighter in pain.

As Lana was wounded by the monster's trident, while the blood dripped out from her wound, a noise could be heard.

The sound of wings beating up high. From the ceiling they finally could see what creatures lurked just out of sight. They came down in a group of eight. Large, red, creatures that looked a mix of bug and bat with long proboscis coming from their heads and four wings beating rapidly as they descended. Nearly one foot long with a two foot wingspan they were larger than most bugs OR bats they had seen. Each of them made a nearly straight path towards Lana as though drawn by the blood that came from her wound. They would attempt to surround and swarm her once they got nearby. Aiming to jab their proboscis into her body.

Spoiler

Map

 

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The fish goblin really seemed to want to get Chris into the water, and that was definitely not something he was about to have happen. Estellise’s bolt of light striking true was his chance, but keeping his eyes on it also meant that he didn’t manage to see the claw grabbing at his wrist until it already was. And it was his good wrist, too! His stabbing wrist! It certainly put a dent in his “ram the thing with his sword” plan. It came at him with its other claw too, but Chris managed to duck around that one which gave him just enough time to pull a dagger out too.

He felt the thing pulling on his arm. “I’m really not in a swimming sort of mood,” he grunted, and jammed the dagger into the fish goblin’s wrist. The move worked as he’d hoped (even if the line was a bit of a clunker), and just like that he had his sword arm back. Having accomplished that goal, he took a step back to evaluate his options.

Things were pretty middle-of-the-road all things considered. Like, the fish goblin wasn’t dead, obviously, but he had hurt it a couple times and now it was flailing around making all the noise -- he just needed to keep at it. Behind it, Chris saw Lana had just managed to dispatch hers. So yeah, it definitely could be done. He dashed forwards again, sword at the ready…

…and right into an outstretched claw, seizing him by the neck and throttling him, hissing and spitting all the while. But he kept his arms -- and thus, his sword -- moving forward, aiming for the wound he’d created in its chest. The blade went in further, much further, even, than his first strike, and with a final gurgle, the goblin released its grip on Chris’ neck and collapsed, dead.

Chris very nearly collapsed too, just managing to keep on his feet even as he rubbed his neck with his off-hand, feeling it just to make sure he hadn’t been completely close to death with such a stupid maneuver. It hurt to breathe a little, but he was okay. The sounds of tiny wingbeats interrupted his respite, though, and when he looked up to see just exactly what it was, he couldn’t help but exhale sharply. “There was something up there after all, huh?” he said, and readied his sword to swing at the next threat.

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Lana's victory over her foe was somewhat short lived as suddenly bugs had descended from the ceiling. Huge ones. Eight of them. All with huge stabbing bug mouths and fast beating wings. Lana frowned in disgust as she saw them and simply muttered, "ew, gross." This sense of revulsion was only enhanced as she realized suddenly that it was she that they were going straight towards her. Taking a single step back, before realizing there was still a brawl behind her, Lana rotated the blade of her axe before going to swing the flat of the blade at the bugs like some kind of oversized fly swatter. Swinging it as such certainly made the already heavy and slow weapon all the more awkward, but she had managed to keep a large collection of them at bay. One had slipped under her reckless swinging, though, diving straight at her wound. 

Sticking its proboscis into her wound, the girl wretched as the bug started to suck her blood out. Taking one hand off of her great axe, with great ferocity the girl almost immediately went to start punching at the gigantic bug, shouting, "get off of me, get off, get off!" The bug eventually listened, being forced off of her and buzzing away in a slight daze. Now furious, the girl rotated her blade again before going into a swing to cleave straight through the disgusting mosquito. After killing it, the girl continued to swing in a wild frenzy, clipping one of the bugs as well, before hearing Chris's comment. "Yes there was something on the ceiling, get them away from me!"

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