Page 36You block two arrows with your shield as you dodge behind the tree to the northeast. All five kobolds soon converge on this position, but you are able to scramble down the decline to the north without taking any hits. Amxu however, is not so lucky. He is stabbed by a spear and shot by an arrow, then ganged up on by the kobolds, who mercilessly beat him with their bare hands. His sacrifice was not in vain it seems, as it has given you the chance to disappear from the kobolds' sight.
You crawl in the soil and through shrubs away from the encounter. After reaching an apparently safe distance from the bandits, you remove the crossbow from your bag, and leave the bag open so that you can easily reach your bolts. You load one into the crossbow menacingly with a murderous look on your face (which is still covered in blood, so that adds quite a bit to the effect). Now with a suitable weapon, you slowly crawl back to the site of the ambush. You first spot a Kobold bowman, but the other kobolds and your goblin comrade are out of view. You let loose several carefully aimed shots to no avail until, on the sixteenth bolt, you narrowly miss the bowman's head. The kobold's cat-like agility proves to be a detriment to him: he instinctively dodges out of the way of the bolt, but falls down the side of the sand dune. Despite this minor victory, the kobold is largely unscathed and he gets up and dusts himself off, still unaware of your location. He seems extremely confused and paranoid, but does not call to his comrades or run away. You shoot the remaining bolts and achieve many narrow misses, but no hits at all. Frustrated with what you deem a useless contraption, you throw the whole crossbow at him and redraw your battleaxe. You creep up as close as you can to the bowman,
but he spots and fires upon you before you enter striking distance. You deflect the shot with your shield and hack at his arm, but he dodges away. You charge at him, trying to strike him in the ribs with the pommel of your axe. You slam into him and he falls over, but you miss your aimed strike. You strike again with your axe pommel, but he scrambles away. Unfortunately for him however, he scrambled into a position that gives you a perfect shot at his head. Your axe splits his skull with a satisfying crack and sends brain and blood everywhere.
You resume your sneaking position, this time with your axe at the ready, and continue back up the dune to where you left Amxu. You spot the mangled goblin corpse with 2 iron arrows sticking out of it and are filled with a pure dwarven rage. You completely black out and come to completely unscathed, in a
pool lake of kobold blood, with seven kobold corpses that you can find scattered in the area around you.
You take Amxu's carving knife to remember him, and try to loot the corpses of the dead kobolds. Unfortunately, their equipment is too small for even a dwarf to fit into and you have no use for a spear or those silly projectiles. You are a bit peckish and thirsty from the battle, so you open your pack and take out a fistful of raw lion meat and shove it into your mouth. As you are sucking the lion blood off of your teeth for hydration, a cleansing rain descends from the heavens and night begins to fall.
If you...
Continue on to the bandit camp, Storber, in the dark, turn to page 37.Return to the lion's former den to rest for the night, turn to page 38.
Return to Sweetnessgraves, turn to page 39.
Return to the fortress, turn to page 40.