Episode 21: Kobolds are annoying

When last we left this band of adventurers we had fought a darkness monster in an abandoned village on the 3rd floor of the mad mage Hallister's lair. It was a difficult fight but we were victorious. They then had found the stairs down to the 4th floor of the lair. As a reminder this group consists of:

Unit 2408, the Warforged (humanoid living construct) Barbarian

Luthis, the Kenku (humanoid raven who can not fly) Blood Hunter

Dancing Wind, a Tabaxi (humanoid cat) Wizard

Elniss, a Human Cleric of Ilmater

Evangeline, the Tiefling Paladin of Tyr

As the party made it to the room at the bottom of the stairs, we heard a YIP! and the sound of scurrying feet to our right. Turning to look, we see a Kobold, so off we go after the creature. We figured it was some sort of scout or something and didn't want it to have too much time to warn its clan, so off we go chasing the creature.

Following the creature we find ourselves in a largish room the little creature scurried across quickly to the opposite side. However, us entering the room triggered a catastrophe. Apparently, it was a trap. The floor around us starts crumbling to the ground below, which unfortunately appears to be a pool of lava.

Dancing Wind, Luthis, and Unit 2408 proceed to use their skills to get across. Evangeline however was not convinced she had the strength to jump across successfully, so she summoned Viscol. That would be her Paladin mount, a celestial being who she's bonded with, in the shape of a blue roan heavy war horse.

As Evangeline mounted, she realized Elniss hadn't made the leap yet and it didn't look like he was going to make it. So she offered double riding Viscol to Elniss. Viscol is a big strong being and he wound himself and we made a mighty leap across the divide. We did not, however, make it. Elniss and Evangeline were able to make a desperate finger grab on the ledge and scramble up with an assist from Unit 2408. Viscol however plummeted into the acid pit below.

After catching our breath from that fiasco we continue following the dratted kobold through a few more turns to find ourselves in another largish cave full of stalagmites and stalactites. And giggling kobolds. See, they were waiting for us to arrive and proceeded to attack. And as this is a catch-up post I do not remember the details of the fight, but we were successful in defeating the dratted things.

Continuing our exploring the tunnels on this floor we eventually come to a very, very, VERY large chamber with a wide, cavernous, ravine. There's a rickity looking rope bridge going across the ravine that is super deep, incredibly long, and it appears something lives in the ravine.

Much exploration of what there is in this cave occurred and there was shenanigans done by Dancing Wind, and for some reason we decided we needed to get across this ravine. So with a lot of very very VERY cautious work, we got across without waking the slumbering creature in the ravine.

So we found ourselves outside a door with a lot of noise behind it. Cautious exploration got us into a bit of a pickle though. See, behind that door, turned out to be an arena. A prize-fighting arena. With all sorts of unsavory sorts in the stands betting and cheering. The emcee is a two-headed ogre. He welcomes us and encourages us to "just do one fight".

After much back and forth with the ogre, and several death glares from Evangeline to make him uncomfortable, we agree to do a fight. So he asks us our name. Thankfully Unit 2408 was quicker on his feet than Evangline was and called us the "Slaughterhouse 5". Evangeline would be more likely to go with her name as she smashed the hell out of the ogre.

But. We agreed to a fight, so we fought a pair of big, burly, beefy brothers. Much to the delight of the unsavory crowd. Evangeline is pissed. But she did her part in the fight. And we were successful. Not sure the crowd was happy about it, but the two headed ogre escorted us out of the arena and gave us our pay for the fight.

We found ourselves in a bar/lounge sort of area, a green room if you will for the fighters. Not wanting to stay in here any longer than necessary we started asking questions and gathering information. And we eventually found a way out, a portal, back up to the 1st floor. And we know how to get back to the arena if we ever want to explore that option some more.

And more later!