The group sighs with the realization that this combat is over for the moment, though they realize that the last goblin did flee, surely for reinforcements.
Panting with exertion Rhune looks up as the last wolf is felled. She smiles at Asif in doing so. Calling out to the others, "We need to get across to the other side and quickly I think. Unless someone can lend me their bow so I can continue to shoot arrows.....If we stay on this side we may end up with some sort of stand off. What do the rest of you think?"
"Si Rhune, I agree. While Dakath gets himself in hot water again, we should take up defensive positions on the other side of the river, so that if the same thing happens again we will be ready," says Tag as he gathers up as many crossbow bolts from the wolves as possible.
Two of Taglio's bolts are broken and useless, while two others fell into the water, which he does not think he wants to retrieve.
Following Tag's lead, Forte collects as many arrows as he can find and returns them to the archers in an equal distribution, bypassing Rhune who has already collected hers.
Similarly to Taglio, half of the arrows are either damaged or lost to the waters, but he collects what he can and shares them with Asif. Forte now has one dozen arrows, while Asif carries only eight.
Dakath bends over checking his stomach, grinning slightly, "Maybe I should have counted before I carelessly wandered into their field of vision?" He shakes his head, "I should know better. Now does anyone have any oil? We could make it very difficult to cross this bridge."
"An excellent suggestion mio amico. Although we would not want to foil our own retreat. Unfortunately my lamp oil is now depleted," Tag replies.
"I might still have some left. I don't know. But there is something in the water and if we burn the bridge we won't be able to cross it and see if Stephan is there," Rhune replies as she looks curiously at the water.
Both Dakath and Rhune realize that the stone log forming the bridge would not burn in any case, and any such impediment would only be temporary. Filing it away in case another wave of wolves come up, they think of other options.
Ullar, panting from exhaustion looks up at Dakath. "Glad. You realize that," he says, a grin on his face. Again his plate mail saved him several times from getting wounded. He takes Forte's greatsword, which flew from his hand and quickly searches the goblin bodies for anything out of the ordinary, like a tattoo or something.
"We need to bind the ones Amibar felled with his spell," Ullar speaks out, while nodding appreciatively at the little gnome. "Perhaps we can use them in exchange for any prisoners inside!" says Ullar, a light bulb emerging above his head.
Ami lowers his eyes, as if embarrassed. "It's the little I could have done to help," he mutters.
"Little?" asks Forte incredulously. He smiles at the shorter companion, "It probably saved our lives."
"Yes it did, Amibar." Rhune agrees with Forte. "Not sure if we could have fought many more of them,” she adds with a rueful smile.
The little man's face turns red beneath the heavy scarring covering his features. He mumbles something incoherent, while avoiding looking into the warriors' eyes.
Dakath looks at the sleeping forms, "These are goblins were dealing with; we'd be better off killing them whilst they sleep."
"Although I don't like goblins either, I will not allow anyone to murder them while they are asleep. That would make us just as evil as they are. Tying them up and perhaps exchanging them for prisoners they have taken seems a much better plan to me," replies Ullar, eyeing Dakath with grounded suspicion.
Dakath grins, "Such noble sentiments my friend, I'm sure they'd do the same to you if the situation were reversed."
"I doubt it," replies Ullar. "However, honor is sacred among Gladiators. And those noble sentiments, as you call them, are distinguishing us from the savages they are."
Dakath shrugs, "Very well."
Asif finishes cleaning his tools of war and then, looking up with interest at their words, interrupts:.
"Ah Efendi, the land of my forefathers has given birth to many wise men. One of these gave those who follow the warrior's path the following advice. Nourish a raven and it will pluck out your eyes. From my limited experience of this enemy we fight, honor is not held to any degree by them. If we treat them as equals without accepting their nature we shall find ourselves victims of their treachery. I doubt that the goblins have enough honor to abide by any deals we might make. So as much it tastes like ashes in the mouth, killing them while they sleep may be the greater mercy."
"Goblins have no honor. They attacked us before we even raised a finger. So let's just dump them all in the water before they wake up, escape, and kill again," Forte looks at Ullar. "Unless you want to take the risk of keeping them alive."
"Although I can see the advantages this would have, I can not agree with it. They may be evil, have no honor and attack us before we even do anything, but killing defenseless creatures, no. If I'm the only one who objects to it, you go ahead, but let's just say I will not participate in it and if this is what you believe to be the way to handle such things, now and in the future, I'll have to reconsider being part of this group."
Ullar’s face is quite serious, giving Dakath and Forte cold looks, clearly disapproving this kind of action.
"Why don't we just tie them up for now," Rhune says as she starts to tie them up.
"O.K. Let's bind them securely. Then let's have a trial," says Forte. "Then we can kill them. And in the meantime, hope they don't kill Stephen, or bring back 100 reinforcements."
"Anyway, is everyone alright?"
Then, finally realizing the suggestion of Dakath, Ullar turns around to face the rogue. "Ehm. If we put oil on that bridge, it would be hard for us to pass it just as well. I think we have the advantage here, so perhaps it is better for us to advance towards their stronghold!"
"By the way, did you all see what has happened to the goblin which fell in the water? Yikes..." is Ullar's dry comment.
"Yes I did...There is something there," Rhune muses
Dakath moves to the bank and looks down into the water, he returns to one of the wolf carcasses and pulls it to the bank, before pushing it into the water, watching the results.
The wolf body erupts in another frenzy of bloody activity. It almost looks as if the thing is ground up like Dakath has seen at some of the most modern butcher shops. It is a messy and disturbing sight.
"So, we're going to cross the river and advance?" As he says this he turns his attention back to the branches he had noticed before. Dakath rubs his chin thoughtfully as he looks above him. "Rhune can I borrow your bow?" he asks her as he begins to strip off his armor. "I can get a good position up there and provide you with covering fire." He indicates the branches that connect to the fortress.
"You can borrow it Dakath, but it won't do you any good. I snapped the string and I don't have a spare,” she replies to him.
Asif coughs. "One needs but ask. A faris is always prepared for such things. I have a spare one. Use it with my best wishes." Asif fumbles with his garments and pulls out from within his ropes a coiled bow string. This he tosses to Dakath.
"Seems like the best thing we can do now. Unless someone has a better plan of course" says Ullar, while looking at Rhune, Asif, Forte, Kyo and Amibar, waiting for them to reply or just nod in agreement with the plan to advance.
"Nope." Forte moves over to a sleeping goblin and tosses it into the water. "That's for hitting me with a spear." He turns to look at the others. "Maybe if we feed the fish now, they won't eat us if we fall in." He tosses another goblin in. "And that's for sending those damn wolves after us."
At Ullar's disapproving glance, Forte ceases tossing the sleeping goblins into the drink. He did toss in the fellow that creased him with a spear, though, along with another, leaving six firmly bound and still sleeping.
Dakath hits upon an idea, "If you wait until I can get into position, I may be able to judge their strength. I can fire an arrow down here, and each notch will indicate a foe. At least then you'll know what your getting into. Oh, if I etch an X into the shaft, run as fast as you can."
"Sure thing. Any extra info will come in handy. Just make sure you won't be caught. I'm sure we'll need you in whatever lies ahead of us" says Ullar, in a sincerely worried voice.
The dark haired rogue grins, "I've no plans to die in the near future, have no fear!"
"Great! Please do inform me when you have plans to die in the near future, so that I can take that into account as well," replies Ullar, smiling from ear to ear.
Dakath grins, "Oh don't worry, I plan to live forever...so far so good."
Realizing that the goblins hurled several spears to them, Ullar gladly picks them up, thinking they may come in handy when he has to do some ranged attack as well.
While he is doing this, Dakath begins climbing up into the trees. Realizing that all the smaller boughs on either side of the river have apparently been broken off, Dakath sees that to cross over the river by climbing would require an ascent of perhaps a hundred feet into the air, then a precarious crossing of the larger boughs. However, as he has often proved, he does not lack courage. Taking up several of the spent arrows from the ground, he borrows Asif's bow (the only other short bow in the party) and strings it over his back.
As Dakath picks up Asif's bow and goes to put it on his back Asif speaks. "Efendi if trouble it is to string your bow, may I show you how. Happy would I be to lend you mine, but it is so simple for me to fix the bow Rhune has."
Forte turns to Rhune and Asif. "Can you use a long bow? You're more than welcome to use mine until we can get yours-" he nods toward Rhune "-restrung and Dakath returns your bow," he finishes glancing as Asif.
"I can use a long bow as well a short bow. But if we head underground the long bow will be difficult to use in close quarters. I would, however, be happy to use yours if Asif doesn't mind," Rhune replies, looking toward her love.
After looking to Asif for his consent, Forte hands her his longbow. "Do you need more arrows?" he asks, offering his quiver as well.
"Yes I could use more arrows. Thank you Forte. I will try not to break the string on this bow,” she says with a smile.
He begins his ascent, finding the stone tree more difficult to climb than a regular tree, but not quite as difficult as some stone walls from his past life. Quickly he is far up enough into the darkness that he vanishes from the party's sight. Suddenly the group hears a loud cracking noise from above, though no cry from Dakath. Then they hear a thump from the other side of the bridge. Clearly something, hopefully not Dakath, dropped from the trees and fell into the goblin encampment.
(Dakath's view)
Dakath makes the hard climb into the dizzying heights. Looking down, he sees the group get smaller and smaller until they are the size of goblins themselves. Finally he reaches a point high enough to begin the cross over, which he does, very cautiously. This is certainly the most dangerous part, as a misstep could cause a hundred foot fall into a pool of something very nasty and toothy.
With his usual foolish good luck, Dakath makes the crossing. He sees the unoccupied, dimly lit guard room across the bridge, and keeps moving, moving over the area with the large central tree. As this is unlit, he cannot make out any details here. He then moves to what appears to be the center of the "island". Ahead there appear to be three ways to go. Each is lit, Dakath can see from here. Looking about, suddenly the bough beneath him snaps off!
Grabbing another bough, Dakath narrowly averts falling to his death, but unfortunately, he is now hanging loosely by his arms some ninety feet in the air. Scrambling, he finds that he cannot get purchase for his legs to drag himself back up. And thus he hangs, uncertain what to do.
The bough that snapped off dropped into the middle of the intersection below, surely alerting anybody that remains in the area, but Dakath still cannot do anything to make his scouting worthwhile, hanging from his precarious perch.
Looking down, Dakath sees the unforgiving floor. He sees light moving toward him from the eastern area, unoccupied when he crossed over it, and hopes it is his companions, but cannot for the life of him imagine what they might do to help. His grip on the bough begins to loosen slowly......
Dakath curses his ill luck "This was precisely the reason I became a con-man, less danger." He looks above him trying to wrap his legs around the branch that is holding him. He then waits to see where the light goes before climbing down.
Unfortunately, Dakath is too weary from the climb and the recent combat, and is unable to twist his body up and catch hold of the limb. As he begins to feel his arms getting weary, he hears something chittering about and something moves in the darkness some distance below him. Looking further down, he cannot see who it is, but straining his ears he hears the familiar voices of Forte and Rhune talking. From what he can tell, they must be almost directly below him.