Chapter 3a – Gully Re-visited

Chapter 3a – Gully Re-visited

“Well, there's still a treasure there” said Leggyass “and there's a reward there for the taking”

“How many goblins are there?” asked Norm the spellcaster “we're a bit short handed with the 3 fighters gone”

Goldylox had stayed in town while Sir Baltimore and Thrilly still had a bit of recuperation to do.

“We can always get more cover in the armed man department” said Leggyass, the other spellcaster joining in through her translators. Try as she might, she couldn't get the hang of the common tongue.

“Usually there's a band of about 20” she said “but perhaps the old Frale family breeding experiments still spook the place, too”
“Who are those blokes over there? They look useful” said Norm.

Two bedraggled and thirsty looking chaps in plate mail were hoovering back an ale at a table further down the saloon.

And so, after a round or two of negotiations, Rockall & Bailey Greiski were recruited to accompany the team on a 2^nd sortie up to the Goblin stronghold.

The Greyskie Cousins - dungeon ready 

 

Leggyass was a veteran of this route and poibnted out the sights and featurs on the way. She had to point them out as communication was a big problem for the Elf, not speaking the common tongue.

Slowly and carefully they approached the big tree that they knew overstood the entrance. But today, there were no arrowshots, no cackling laughter from the boughs of the trees and no need to cast a sleep spell.

She crept up to the tree and stealthily down the stairs. Nothing.

In past the first room and down to the Big Room, where the Dwarf had cleaved so many goblins. Nothing.

They stood at the Huge, Laughing Horror-Mouth, ready for action, ready to go through the black velvet curtains.

“Torch them” said Dexter, not understanding the value of surprise.

Rockall shot him a glance that said “You're kinda new here, aren't you” and turned back to the curtains.

He parted slowly them with his sword tip and they saw daylight on the other side.

Gradually they inched through the curtains.

Before them, beyond the arched doorway, lay the gully and the rope-bridge going over it.

From Rockall's point of view, it looked precarious. “This looks iffy”

“Nah, it'll be a doddle” said Dexter, with a confidence belying his impossibly low agility. “You go first”

They roped up and Rockall inched his way over the bridge. Once he was on it, he realised it was quite well built. But it was a long way down and there was no guarantee that some fun-spoiling goblin hadn't sabotaged it.

Still, he got to the other side, untied himself, had a quick look around the entrance chamber there and then signalled that the coast was clear.

The rest of the group made their way over the bridge, with various degrees of confidence.


Leggyass - ready to go

 

At the far end of this chamber, there were a set of spiral stairs leading downwards. And after Dexter tripped over a hoop concealed in the floor, they noticed a hole above it, in the roof-space. The hole was big enough to get a man through it and appeared to lead to a chimney going straight up.

The Party stared long and hard at the hole and the ring in the floor. Eventually, they figured that the ring might help to hold a rope fed down from the chimney, to steady it.

But for the life of them, they couldn't figure out how to get up that chimney.

Moving on, finally, they headed down the stairs to discover a large chamber at the bottom. It looked recently vacated. It was beginning to dawn on them that the goblins had moved on. The death-dealing swordplay of the female Dwarf had scared them away. Whatever treasure they had acquired had been packed up and they had legged it.

Still, there was a door at the far end of this chamber. This needed exploring.

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