Tradok moves forward, carefully staring at the unmoving bodies, trailing rope behind him. He quickly realizes that, despite them apparently being covered in blood, he can't smell anything. They also seem to be unusually still; there's a slight breeze blowing up from the entrance of the ravine, but their clothing doesn't so much as ruffle. The conclusion is obvious, even for him: they aren't people at all!
Ruvitsuvi doesn't need anyone to tell him that this reeks of an ambush; he quickly reaches the same conclusion as Tradok regarding the apparent bodies. They aren't natural, and he could swear that he has heard of something like this before -- it's just at the tip of his tongue, but he can't quite remember.
He doesn't, however, notice anything else unusual in the canyon.
Cernan, displaying markedly less suspicion than his comrades, calls out, but receives no response. In fact, the sheer lack of response, not only to his shout but to all external stimuli, tips him off that the bodies aren't what they seem.
--
Ruvitsuvi and Cernan hear a few slight creaks from behind them, as well as the sound of moving cloth alarmingly nearby. Nobody else notices a thing, and thus are taken completely by surprise when the walls of the ravine collapse behind them, and even more so when mottled sheets of canvas -- apparently painted and studded with bits of rock -- are flung aside from small alcoves in the walls of the canyon and shallow pits in the ground, revealing... kobolds. Well, that was underwhelming. They do seem to be unusually well-organized, though, and are all wearing strange goggles with tinted lenses.
On the bright side, it looks like they weren't quite prepared to trigger their ambush so soon. Four spear-wielders and one of the swordskobolds are badly out of position, their dugouts in the more open area, scattered between ten to thirty feet ahead of Tradok on both sides. Another pair, one with a shortsword and the other with a spear, are on the left, equidistant between Krag and Tradok. Two more spear-wielders are directly at the party's rear, with a third holding a sling leading over the edge of the canyon near the collapse.
The collapsed section itself is less than imposing -- it's an inconveniently placed mound of rubble, but it doesn't reach higher than ten feet, and that only in a few places. More worrying are the three kobolds atop the right-hand edge of the canyon. Two are carrying shortbows, obvious threats there, especially considering that they're both scarcely ten feet away and twenty feet up from Cernan and Osoero respectively, but the third is apparently unarmed, standing far enough forward that he's only visible to Tradok and Krag. Those two do notice, however, that the "bodies" disappeared when he rose up to face them.
One of the shortsword-carrying kobolds yaps something along the lines of
"Front band [drive off/kill] [surfacedwellers] fast now!" in Draconic, but it's not entirely comprehensible for those of you that speak the language; the Draconic appears to be slightly intertwined with words and grammatical constructs from an unfamiliar tongue. You still get the gist of it, though.
--
The unarmed kobold mutters a few words of Draconic and twirls his scaly fingers, sending a beam of arcane energy at Krag! The ray [16] strikes him dead on, [2 nonlethal] chilling him slightly.
The further swordskobold closes on Tradok, but doesn't quite reach him.
The second, already near to Krag, takes a small step and swings at him [13], the short, narrow blade practically bouncing off.
Kobold Caster Healthy (20)
Kobold Swordsman 1 Healthy
Kobold Swordsman 2 Healthy (19)
Ruvitsuvi [6/6] (18)
Kobold Archer 1 Healthy
Kobold Archer 2 Healthy (16)
Kobold Warrior 1 Healthy
Kobold Warrior 2 Healthy
Kobold Warrior 3 Healthy
Kobold Warrior 4 Healthy
Kobold Warrior 5 Healthy
Kobold Warrior 6 Healthy
Kobold Warrior 7 Healthy
Kobold Warrior 8 Healthy (11)
Cernan [9/9] {8)
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Topic: DnD 3.5: Brackenreach/End IC (Read 10302 times)