CH. 2: Bear in Mine

[JadedDM]

Coroccoco, realizing the danger has passed, suddenly feels the pain of her wound as the adrenaline wears off. She drops to her knees, panting. Kynaston, likewise, lowers his axe, leaving the remaining kobolds to his companions.

Haahqae starts his search with the nearest kobold, the one he just killed. Searching it, he finds it is wearing small leather armor and is carrying a club. He also finds a crude looking flute carved from wood stuck in its belt, a small belt pouch with a baker's dozen copper coins in it, and a similar pouch, this one filled with some kind of white power.

Darga performs a quick visual survey of his companions injuries. Gregeddin looks about ready to pass out at any second, and Coroccoco is on her knees. Aside from these two, and his own wounds, it doesn't appear anyone is too badly hurt.

Bear turns his attention to the two remaining kobolds near him. One drops his spear and attempts to run for it. In the blink of an eye, Bear cuts it down with his massive axe. The other one, panicking, starts to back away. That's when Gregeddin throws his torch at it. Despite his injuries, his aim is perfect. The torch hits the kobold right in the face, flame-first. It screams in horror and agony as it tries to put itself out, before falling to the ground and going silent.

The final kobold, the one facing Kendra, starts to turn to run. "Oh, no you don't," Kendra warns in Common, before twirling toward it and cutting it down with her twin blades.

=============

Initiative
Kendra (1d10+5): 6
Haahqae (N/A)
Darga (N/A)
Gregeddin (1d10+3): 6
Coroccoco (N/A)
Bear (1d10+5): 7
Kynaston (N/A)
Kobold Stabber 12 (1d10+3): 6
Kobold Poker 15 (1d10+3): 5
Kobold Poker 16 (1d10+3): 10

Round 4!

Coroccoco does nothing.
Kynaston does nothing.
Haahqae begins searching the body of Kobold Basher 02. He finds small-sized leather armor, a club, 13 copper pieces, a crude flute, and a tiny pouch of a white powder.
Darga notices that aside from himself, both Coroccoco and Gregeddin are badly wounded. The latter, especially, is in awful shape.
Kobold Poker 15 turns to flee down the south tunnel.
----Bear gets a free attack with Reaver (+1) with great skill (+1) against his back (+2) (1d20+4): 20, critical hit! for (2d10+3): 14 damage.
Kendra attacks Kobold Stabber 12 with her primary long sword with great skill (+1) (1d20+1): 3, miss. She then attacks with her secondary long sword with great skill (+1) (1d20+1): 19, hit for (1d8+3): 4 damage. Kobold Stabber 12 is killed.
Gregeddin throws his torch at Kobold Poker 16 (1d20): 20, critical hit! for (2d3): 6 damage. Kobold Poker 16 is burned to death.
Kobold 12 is dead.

(OOC: Combat ends. Posting returns to normal time.)

[HorizonsDream]

Kendra takes a moment to clean the blood off of her blades before she finally turns to look at the others. She frowns upon seeing those that are injured. "Is there anyone that knows first aid?" she asks.

[mgbevan]

Gregeddin sits on the crate by the lantern, puts his broadsword on the ground and slips his pack off too.
Now with weight off his body and the fight over he turns his attention to his wound.

Being the first time this has happened to him, he takes a minute to stare dumbly at his side.
Eventually he concurs with Sinclair "Yes... if anyone knows anything, we should continue the fine tradition of passing on knowledge from one generation to the next." His voice a little flat, unsure whether the it carried his intended humour.

Finding it a difficult to see clearly, he curiously touches around the wound, trying to discern if he is loosing a torrent of blood. He notes that the crack in his leather feels quite nice and springy, right before he gets to the painful part.

[JadedDM]

Getting to her feet, Coroccoco croaks, "I do," in response to Kendra's question. "Step forward if you need aid," she says, approaching Gregeddin first.

Helping him out of his armor, she then pulls out some bandages and starts wrapping up the wound carefully. Once she is done, he feels slightly better, but is still in pretty rough shape. He is now free to put his armor back on, if he wishes.

"Who else?" the hobgoblin asks.

==========

Coroccoco performs a healing check [12] on Gregeddin (1d20): 5, pass. She restores (1d3): 1 HP.

[Haahque]

Haahqae, somewhat impressed with the flute, looks it over to see if it has any demonic writing or magical symbols on it, then plucks up the coins and the bag of powder before moving onto the next kobold to search for his ammo and loot.

[JadedDM]

Haahqae does not find any symbols or writing on the crude flute. Moving a bit north, he checks the next body (Kobold Basher 01) and discovers a small suit of leather armor, a club, 11 more copper pieces, and a small bottle with a quart of liquid in it. He also finds two of the sling stones he fired nearby, as well.

Meanwhile, Coroccoco pulls out another bandage and starts to wrap up her own wound the best she can. However, it does little to improve the large bruise she has.

========

Haahqae acquires 13 copper pieces, a crude flute, and a tiny pouch of a white powder.
Coroccoco performs a healing check [12] on herself (1d20): 8, pass. She restores (1d3): 1 HP.

[HorizonsDream]

"Are you finding anything of interest," Kendra asks Haahqae.

[Haahque]

Haahqae picks up the bottle, sling bullets and coins. "They just have a few copper on them, and a couple small items. Look this one's got an ale!" Haahqae replies, handing off the bottle of liquid to Kendra on his way over to search the next Kobold.

(ooc: should we just say Haahqae and/or others search the rest of the kobolds?)

[djhyland]

Noticing that his companion is injured pretty seriously, Darga rushes over to Gregeddin and offers him a steadying hand, a shoulder to lean on, or whatever might help. His voice thick with concern, he mutters, "Yer lookin' pretty bad there. I think ya should sit down fer a while." Once he's more confident that with his help Gregeddin won't collapse (or at least that if he does, he'll be able to catch him), Darga calls out to the others. "This 'un is lookin' like he needs some help!"

[mgbevan]

"Thank you. Thank you both" Gregeddin says to Coroccoco and Darga.
To Coroccoco, Gregeddin asks "Does this encounter shed any light on your elder's words? platinum dragon... or something..." He trails off sounding tired.
"Darga, would you help me with the leather please?" Gregeddin clambers back into his armour and sheathes his sword, but leaving the pack on the ground for now.
"Have we found anything on the creatures to indicate what is up ahead?"

[JadedDM]

Haahqae spends the next 14 minutes searching the remaining bodies of the kobolds. He finds the following: 14 small suits of leather armor (some damaged, some intact), 2 clubs, 4 hand axes, 4 short swords, 4 spears, 192 copper coins, a whetstone, a tarnished silver ring, another small bottle with a quart of liquid, a small wooden bowl, a smooth stone, 1/2 a pound of raisins, a needle and some black thread, a crude drawing of a five-headed monster on some stained parchment, a sprig of some kind of plant, and a couple of corks.

"There is nothing more I can do for him," Coroccoco tells Darga. "Except...no, that is all," she says, uncertain, her hand unconsciously going to her neck. To Gregeddin, she answers, "No...but at least we know that the 'demons' are mere kobolds. What troubles me is that it is unlike kobolds to be so bold as to take over a mine. I suspect there is someone else--someone stronger and smarter--pulling their strings."

[HorizonsDream]

Kendra takes the liquid that was handed to her before she walks over to Coroccoco, Darga, and Gregeddin. "Are you going to be able to make it through the rest of this mine?" she asks.

[mgbevan]

"Yes Kendra, I'll be alright, although I think I may keep towards the back and get my throwing arm working."

With that, Gregeddin finds all his (six) knives and stuffs them in various crevices on his person, and hoists his pack on.

Turning back to Coroccoco he muses "Curious that their behaviour is so strange. If it truly is as you suspect, then we should kindly ask them to leave and not to rally these creatures, or you know..." Gregeddin makes a swipe across his neck with his index finger accompanied by a short whistle.

Glancing at the paper drawing Haahqae collected - "Do you think that bears any relevance to our foes?"

[Haahque]

(ooc: Haahqae pockets the copper, silver ring, and smooth stone, while he gathers the whetstone, bottle, wooden bowl, needle and thread, the drawing, and sprig onto a crate to show off to the others.)

"Oh Definitely," Haahqae replies to Gregeddin, "I bet it's a picture of the demons that infest the mine. Or is it just a picture of one demon? Well the good news is it looks like there aren't many of them to kill, it shouldn't take long."

Then turning to the rest of the group he gathers them over to take a look at the items he found. "The kobolds have quite an assortment of odds and ends here, does anyone think they can find a use for any of the rest of it?"

Next Haahqae uncorks the bottle and sniffs it, "I wonder what kind of brew these kobolds keep on tap."

[JadedDM]

"I'll live," Coroccoco tells Kendra. "But we should act with more caution in the future, I think."

Haahqae uncorks the bottle he found and smells it. He nearly staggers at the potency of the odor. It's some rather crude moonshine, as far as he can tell; and quite strong, at that.

=========

Haahqae adds 192 copper coins, a tarnished silver ring, and a smooth stone to his inventory. Haahqae is now in light encumbrance by 0.5 pounds.