Open Chronicles The Goblin King [Dungeon Raid | Allir Reach]

[Alona Hawse]

"Sounds like research is the main goal here." She added her own outlook on the situation, having approached the door with Abir and looked in as well. Likely enough for a swift vampire to dart inside if she wished. Alona had the feeling of being followed, but with so many people around, she ignored it for the moment. "I was hired to help clear this area of goblins. The way I see it, if we do your research, the goblins will come to us."

Research was something she understood, being the child of academics, wizardly ones to boot. She'd done some of her own, but that was mostly in regards to learning various styles of combat. Being the only magicless child in a family of Wizards made her feel like she needed to have a passion, a niche. Looking at the statues, she could tell that they were ancient, and they seemed familiar to the art in some of the cuts she'd been able to review from the Allir region. That was as close to her current knowledge area as she was likely to come, however.

"We'll need to clear each area before research can happen. I can be left out of the intense research and focus on keeping an eye on doorways and such." She finished, returning to the axe wielding goblin, retrieving her dagger, and removing a few body parts. She, likewise, knew their worth, and she was here for coin. She was obviously not comfortable with it, however.

Kyver | Owain d'Athée | Acillio Nazzaro | Rose | Kasim Areth | Douglas Haley​

 

[Rose]

Rose darted into the dark hallway with much relief, avoiding the candlelights as she walked around the length of the room. She looked over what she could with great curiosity, her eyes wide and lips moving as she whispered inconsequential observations to herself. The humans, for a moment, were dismissed and ignored. In many ways, they were all just vessels to her-- a means to an end to find something that could stimulate her. You know. Besides the murder attempts whenever she slipped up. Her fear of being attacked grew from a wariness to a certainty as she watched them hack apart the goblin bodies and ...keep them...????

She circled back around to the main entrance and listened to the tail end of the conversation. She immediately slipped into the apparent scholar's shadow, deciding at once that he would offer the best entertainment for the night. Not to mention he'd be the least likely to chop her up and wear her for a necklace. She eyed Alona wearily.

Douglas Haley

 

[Kara Orin]

“Clearing rooms for research sounds good to me too,” Kyver said to the group.

Looking to Alona Hawse, Kyver added, “The goblins will come to us anyway, like you said.”

Taking a step toward the temple entrance, Kyver then said, “Once Abir sets up light stones in the entrance, my group’s ready to start. Everyone else?”

---

Meanwhile, Rose looked over what she could within the temple entry hallway.

She certainly would have noticed the two doors leading further into the temple. The floor- made of stone – was warped and cracked. One could easily trip if in a hurry.

In addition, the walls contained a mural carved into the stone. The one Rose looked at showed many figures of different races prostrating. The subject of their worship unknown. What should have been these peoples’ “god” was clearly defaced. Something drew a symbol over the damaged mural – painted with dried blood:

Douglas Haley Owain d'Athée Acillio Nazzaro Kasim Areth

 

[Rose]

Waaaait waaaaait waaaaait.

Rose froze.

Light stones?

She jerked back out of the scholar's side and took several quick steps away from the group. Her heart slammed in her chest as a sense of panic was beginning to form. Did she just trap herself? She looked wildly around the room for another exit, one that wasn't being guarded by sun or human. The only way out was to go deeper in, but that mean lingering around to encounter these 'light stones', which frankly sounded like a horrible idea.

Oh shit, oh shit. Oh shit. She rubbed at her face and paced, thinking fast. There seemed to be only one rational thing she could do. People responded a lot more rashly to sudden fear, it seemed suddenly much more prudent to announce herself and then... she didn't know what then. But she had gotten out of tighter spots before. If only she could see the best course of action. She pushed her fingers into her temples, desperately trying to summon a vision. But the blasted things never came when she needed them. She really made a shit attempt at a mage.

She took a shaky breath and shook out her hands, steeling herself for another inevitable encounter.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," she told them, a soft voice slipping from the shadows that obscured it. In fact, if one looked hard enough, they might even catch the ever subtle ripple around her location.

 

[Douglas Haley]

________________________

As the other’s spoke, Douglas quietly pulled out his book and began to sketch what markings lay on the wall, despite their worn nature. Anything that could serve as studying fodder was fair game, and he’d do everything in his power to ensure the retention of these historical grounds; as the intention of those who had hired the group were still unknown. He offered something soft in his throat, on par with a murmur before looking back to Kyver;

“Got any idea how many goblins might be nesting in this place? Or how deep and expansive the rooms or tunnels might be?”, he said quickly.

“Might be worth it to send a scouting party deeper into the ruins, make sure whatever that rumbling was, wasn’t somehow going to cause this place to collapse around us.”

However, his attention quickly turned to the young Rose's disembodied voice, she who had protested the implementation of light stones for the ease of not straining the eyes. With a cock of his brow he realized however that naught was there, quickly putting a hamper to his protest;

“And why wouldn’t we-”, he'd stop, before starting again, "... Someone else heard that, right?"

Once again, the party seemed to dissent. Too many opinions, too many needs, Douglas only hoped there wouldn’t be another schism that would weaken them further.

Rose │ Kyver │ Owain d'Athée │ Acillio Nazzaro │ Kasim Areth​

 

[Alona Hawse]

"I wouldn't do that if I were you,"

“And why wouldn’t we-”, he'd stop, before starting again, "... Someone else heard that, right?"

Hearth's Edge still drawn, Alona slid back into a ready stance. Her eyes scanning the dark room.

"Get the light's up now." She very rarely wished she'd been a mage like her family, but times like this it would have been nice to just produce a light from her hand.

 

[Kara Orin]

Douglas Haley would have noted the same bloody mark that Rose saw earlier. It would not feel out of place if dropped into an ancient Ozkavosh word – despite not having an apparent meaning.

Kyver walked with the group into the entryway. He answered Douglas with a shrug and, “Tough to know, and I don’t think we have enough people for a solo party. Very dangerous.”

Abir managed to set two light stones before he heard Rose's voice tell him, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“Wha?” Abir questioned as he began to turn around with a lightstone in hand.

Shadows danced around the room as Abir moved – their positions unstable. Abir’s eyes saw nothing that caught his attention. He stopped moving.

When Alona Hawse gave the command, Abir replied, “I be doing that, ma’am.”

Then, Abir turned back around. As he placed the third light stone down, he added, “Didn’t think there’d be ghosts.”

Owain d'Athée Acillio Nazzaro Kasim Areth

 

[Owain d'Athée]

At first Owain didn't even register the voice, but when the bookworm mentioned it his mind raced with the possibles.

Owain had little desire to fight in the tight confines they had found themselves in, so when one of the new explorers began striking a light in response to the short haired womans command Owain quickly backed himself against the nearby wall, his large two handed sword ill suited for combat indoors. Owain had some experience with the nefarious things that lived in the darkness, those monsters which preyed on the edges of humanity - he had seen men rise from their graves, men ripped to shreds by huge bipedal wolves and even haunting spirits wailing on the battlefield and from his experience fighting such creatures was a quick invitation for death.

His cold eyes scanned the room nervously, his body shaking with sudden anticipation - the tension of an upcoming battle was returning to him, and his body reacted as it always did; shuddering to release itself. Owain's face twisted into a fierce scowl, readying himself to cut down whatever foul horror stepped into his range.

He didn't want to fight in these tight confines, but damned be to who or whatever was foolish to step too close.

 

[Rose]

Rose rolled her eyes. "I wasn't warning you about me. There is something wrong here, why would you want to light yourself up like a beacon?" She took a deep breath to steel herself, then stepped out into the flickering light of the light stones.

She stood as far as she could from each person while remaining as close to the door as she could manage. She would have already tried to dart out of it, but she had the body of a weak 16 year old girl and even the gifted speed of her disease would not move her fast enough to avoid harm from the warriors within the room.

She appeared to be no threat. Her brown curls were wild and unkempt around her face, as if she hadn't thought to brush them in a while. She was pale and scrawny, her frame stuck in an awkward phase that it would never have the chance to finish filling out.

To the untrained eye, she appeared to be just girl that had no business being among this crew. She held up her empty palms and shrugged, pretending to be abashed.

"I wanted to come but my mom wouldn't let me..."

 

[Alona Hawse]

Alona shifted her feet, angling her blade to be pointing at Rose.

"Goblins can see far better in the dark than a human, if we remained without light we would be at a distinct disadvantage when confronting them." She told the apparent girl in response to her entreaty. "There is also the fact that you just apparated from either the shadows or some adjacent plane..." Being the child of mages gave her a far better understanding of magic than your typical guardswoman.

 

[Rose]

"The shadows," Rose confirmed softly, giving the light stones a wary glance. "I wanted to come, I didn't think you'd let me otherwise," she said with a child-like demeanor. She even crossed her arms stubbornly, relieved that her nature wasn't immediately recognized.

"I don't think goblins are your real problem though. Unless you think they've gained enough brains to start defacing their own gods..." She gestured to the back corner she had scouted previous, where a religious mural sat damaged and covered up with a bloody symbol.

"Strange, isn't it?" She asked, happy to keep the attention off of her.

 

[Khehe]

Sinnata kept to the back of the group as they entered the temple ruins. Her eyes were keen in the dark -- not nearly as sharp as Caran's, but better than the standard human's. And, after the natural disaster that had been the start of this mission, her eyes were focused on the door to their left. Caran, keeping beside her, watched the one on the right.

This was why she didn't like working with strangers. She had been reluctant to team up with a gaggle of randoms, but a job was a job and she liked getting paid more than retaining a comfortable party atmosphere.

There was still hope, however, as there was now talk of establishing some kind of order, she nodded her head. She was a natural follower, and was ill-suited to commanding even their small group. But she was a very opinionated person, and would gladly offer her vote for whoever she thought would be the most qualified... among strangers.

At the mention of clearing rooms, Sinnata's eyes left the door and flicked to Caran's. She heard him sigh. The healer didn't seem very enthused by the excited grin on her face.

She had returned to sentry duty, content to let the group sort this out until it was time to offer her opinion, when a new voice emanated from the darkness. A chill ran up her spine and she jerked her bow up, aiming an arrow toward the sound.

It was a girl! Sinanta muttered under her breath about her foolishness for having snuck up on them as she lowered her weapon. She was the last person to deny a young adventurer their fun, and clearly the girl was capable of some excellent stealthing if she had snuck up on all of them -- a few among them seasoned adventurers.

Whatever was going on, she was itching to get to it. Sinnata might have been a damn good ranger, but she wasn't well equipped for the intellectual half of this endeavor. She tracked things and killed them before they knew she was there. She couldn't read the glyphs on the wall, didn't know much about how goblins worshiped, and certainly didn't have a clue what the symbols on the doors meant. There was a reason she hadn't been a very good solo adventurer.

Kyver // Alona Hawse // Owain d'Athée // Douglas Haley // Rose // Acillio Nazzaro​

 

[Alona Hawse]

Alona regarded Rose with a wary eye. She appeared to be a young girl, but she was able to sneak in here without alerting any of them, something even the best sneaks in Elbion had found difficult to do around her. Alona felt there was more to the girl, but for the moment she seemed harmless.

"These weren't their gods initially..." Alona lowered her blade and turned to look at the walls. "...no, these goblins took up residence here after this temple had been abandoned, if I don't miss my guess. However, you are correct, there is more at work here than a common goblin."

She moved further inward, placing herself to the side of an exit on the interior side of the temple, taking up her self-assigned watch while those more research inclined reviewed the walls.

 

[Douglas Haley]

______________________

“Perhaps.”, Douglas said with a quiet regard for the architecture.

“Though I’m not entirely sure it’s our place to be questioning the motives of our contracters.”, he said as he quietly moved to look through one of the still darkened hallways.

He had magic potential, but the use of such in such a confined area with the others sat with him poorly. Although he’d only hunted a few times with his master, Agron, he thought the idea of killing a few goblins wouldn’t bother him, though the off chance he didn’t control his spell well enough, or someone was somewhere they weren’t supposed to be all made it so he didn’t want to have the chance to make a mistake. If worse came to worse, he wouldn’t get a choice however.

With a small huff, he glanced back to the others, furrowing his brow;

“I think we should work on clearing the temple out for now, and looking into conspiracies after. No point doddling on ‘would-bes’ if we can’t even kill a few goblins, now is there?”

Rose │ Kyver │ Owain d'Athée │ Acillio Nazzaro │ Kasim Areth​

 

[Rose]

"How exciting," Rose breathed, her face cracking into a large grin. "Well come on then, let's go deeper." she insisted, moving towards Alona and the door she had just taken guard at.

She jerked her chin at the woman to skadoodle, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"And how about we, uh, leave those light thingies, uh, behind. Please." She crinkled her nose at them, uncomfortable by their presence. While things were currently going smoothly for her, that didn't mean they would remain so. Shadows had always been a safe exit strategy for her, and those stones made that... complicated. She crossed her arms again.

 

[Alona Hawse]

Alona's left eyebrow rose towards her short cropped hair as she looked at Rose.

"You aren't hindered in the dark as the rest of us are, do you think you can handle the goblins below by yourself?" She asked, not being very quiet about it, but then she lowered her voice to continue. "Even Elves and Dwarves would prefer the light, yet you are uncomforted by it. Do you mean harm to myself or my companions?"

Her eyes held a suspecting look. Vampires had cropped up in Elbion once or twice, but there could be other reasons for the behavior Alona was seeing. In either event, she wasn't automatically hatful of Vampires, knowing that at least one taught night classes at the College of Mages and enjoyed conversing with Alona's parents about their research.

She wouldn't hesitate to kill one if it attacked them, but the same held true for most creatures.

"We bring the light, or else my blade is just a weight I carry."

 

[Rose]

Rose gave the blade a long, distasteful look. "Well I don't know, maybe you just get off on frightening people with it. In which case, we don't need the light at all," she jutted out her hip, placing her hand on it and raising a brow at Alona. Checkmate.

She avoided the first question. It felt like a trick question.

 

[Alona Hawse]

Alona was not so easily dissuaded. She had asked in a low tone so as to not make a scene, but the answer to her question concerning Rose's intentions with the rest of the group. Her blade rose slightly, and her eyes locked onto Rose.

"State your intentions, do you mean myself or my companions harm?" The tone of voice brooked no misunderstanding. Alona had decided what she believed Rose to be, and while she wasn't going to automatically assume Rose was a danger to them, she wasn't going to chance anything if the creature avoided the question.

 

[Rose]

Rose shied back, unable to help the vulnerable pucker to her expression. "No," she whispered, horrified by the thought of meaning to eat them all. It was never intentional. Never. She didn't say it, but her eyes pleaded for that understanding.

"I just want to participate, please," she continued to whisper, eyes jerking panicked to the side where the rest stood. "Don't tell." Or kill her. But you know. Let's start with the basics first.

 

[Alona Hawse]

Alona paused for a moment, then lowered her blade. Her eyes met Rose's and she nodded, a smile coming back to her face.

"Participation sounds excellent. The light is a bother for you, and you are excellent with stealth. Would you be willing to scout for us?" And just like that, Alona seemed to accept Rose as part of the group. She'd keep an eye on the girl, but had no intention of either telling, nor striking the girl down. "By the way, I am Alona Hawse, currently a mercenary with the Blades of Alliria." Then she switched to a lower tone once again. "Keep your word, and you will be safe with me."

 

[Rose]

Rose stood there unresponsive for a moment, shaken to her core. After a pause she managed to swallow hard and nod, jerking back to life.

"Right. Yes. I can scout. I'm good at that. Um-" she managed a hesitant smile at the woman, then reached out, touching the shadows along the door frame. She dissipated from sight, and if one watched carefully they'd see the flickering glimmer of her form, growing smaller then sliiiipping through the door crack.

As soon as she crossed the threshold, she came back, her discombobulated voice adding, "By the way-- collecting goblin parts? Ew. Really? Ew." She left for good this time, going to scout the room over.


What would feel like a quick moment later, far too fast for conversation, they'd hear a playful pattern knocked against the door, then a lock clanking as it was undone.

The door opened, revealing Rose. "Allll clear. Well. Minus the body over there. Wasn'tme," she insisted quickly, glancing in panic at Alona for her response.

Rose stepped to the side, granting the woman entrance to a welcome chamber. It was a square, meant to host new arrivals comfortably as arrangements were made for them within the temple. The stone floor was equally warped and what furniture remained was overturned or discrepant. All of this couldn't be seen though, the light stone's reach barely breaking past the threshold. They would only see a hole of darkness.

Rose poked her head back around the door jam, looking at all the others still gathered in the hall. "Well, you coming?"

Kyver │ Owain d'Athée │ Acillio Nazzaro │ Kasim Areth | Alona Hawse | Douglas Haley | Sinnata Wynralei

 

[Alona Hawse]

"Allll clear. Well. Minus the body over there. Wasn'tme,"

Alona nodded, not even worrying that Rose would abuse her trust so quickly. She stepped in, looking around the walls for a moment, then moving to the corpse.

"Well, you coming?"

She heard Rose speak to Kyver, Owain d'Athée, Acillio Nazzaro, Kasim Areth, Douglas Haley, and Sinnata Wynralei.

Alona inspected the corpse, seeing the dirtied and bloody robes that had once been white and orange with firey motifs. The cause of death was quite obvious, as the body had a rent in the back that went clear through the rib cage and cut into the spine.

Using her sword, she flipped the body onto it's back, her eyes fell upon the symbol that gazed back at her. It was a stylised bird, wings stretched upward with the talons grasping a bright red gem. The bird was done in either bronze or gold, she couldn't tell right off.

The symbol called to her, the room around her fell away, and she found herself reaching for the symbol. The next thing she knew, the holy symbol was in her hands. The grime and blood sloughed off at her touch, and she was left holding a golden figure on a leather thong.

She heard her blood rush into her ears for a moment, then she came suddenly back to the present. Her heartbeat was going fast as she stood up and looked to Rose, trying to see if she had experienced anything unusual just now. Not seeing anything that made her think the girl had, she turned to the opening.

"Let's go, the goblins won't kill themselves off." She slipped the idol into a belt pouch and moved towards Rose.

 

[Rose]

Rose was watching her carefully, her head tilted at the woman as she stood. Her attention followed the woman as she pocketed the idol. But by the time Alona looked up, Rose's attention was intentionally put elsewhere, watching her back for the presence of stabby-stabbers. She didn't yet trust the others on this adventure and it really hurt to be stabbed, you know.

"A priest, right?" She asked curiously, glancing at the body for a last time before moving towards the inner door. "What'd you think he was doing here?" A pep remained in her step, the girl awfully enthused to crawl her way deeper into a dangerous crypt.

She paused at the door held out her hand to the woman, quickly dissolving into a shadow ... The door creaked then cracked open, revealing Rose on the other side.

"Clear!" She side-stepped from the threshold so Alona could rejoin her and continue their conversation.

 

[Alona Hawse]

"A priest, right?" She asked curiously, glancing at the body for a last time before moving towards the inner door. "What'd you think he was doing here?"

"This expedition was partially funded by local temples." Alona replied while waiting for the others. "I assume that was their first investigator. The symbol looks familiar, but I'll have to do more digging..." She trailed off, like something was on her mind, but she didn't know how to speak about it. "...the symbol seemed to be calling me...I've got it here..." She patted her pocket, not being the type to take and not at least mention it. "Something is drawing me towards it and keeping me curious about it..."

 

[Rose]

"Magic?" Rose offered, breaking of to skim curiously around the room. "Or a nasty enthrallment," she concluded simply, tilting her head at another mural on the wall.

"What do you think use to live here then, if not the goblins. Cave people? Gnomes! Do gnomes have gods? I'd like to think so..." she prattled, unused to company. "Maybe you shouldn't listen to it." She turned to Alona, expression abruptly somber. "Maybe it's a trap."