Return to In Search of the Unknown part 2 "Dire Weasels die easy."
by Greywolf-ELMGorga and Sharraxtharkhul begin binding the various wounds that were picked up fighting the deceptively tough Horned Kobolds. Ierkh grumbles the whole time about "Hornsy's" being hard to hit, but they "crack good" when you do.
Sharraxtharkhul slaps on a horrible smelling paste to the wounds, but who can tell with the smells coming from the Half-Ogre and Barbarian Orcs. Gorga points Rhgl off around the corner to begin scouting again.
The warband readies weapons and slowly move off behind the goblin about 8 shins behind, listening for squeals of pain from up ahead. Rhgl, for his part, pulls off quiet sneaking as well as ever. The hallway turns back around the way the Orcs came in, turning back before it meets up with the original hallway. After coming to split in the hallway, Rhgl waits for Gorga and the others to catch up with him. Straight ahead or left; Rhgl points the two directions with a questioning look on his face. Gorga points at his right hand, scowling, then further straight down the hallway and shoots his foot forward as if to kick the goblin.
Rhgl hurries down the hallway thinking vile thoughts back at Gorga. He sneaks up on a large room, with pillars supporting the vaulted ceiling. Two large creatures covered in fur rest at the far end of the room. He quickly backtracks to the warband.
"Great Gorga, huge furry creatures are in the large room. Two of them, and rock pillars rise to the top."
Gorga considers this. "Show me." Looking back to the others in the warband. "Wait here for our return, the creatures might be angered and follow behind us."
Gorga and Rhgl move quietly up the hallway to survey the room from the dark hallway. 8 Pillars keep the roof off of the floor here. Hallways lead off in two or three other directions from this end of the room. More exploration will come soon. Rhgl points out the resting forms in the room, and Gorga pulls out his bow, claimed from the leader back at the roadside keep. As he is preparing to fire an arrow, one of the two creatures jerks its' head up and begins sniffing the air. Gorga lets the arrow fly into the one that has just been alerted. It turns just in time to be on the receiving end of a masterwork bow propelled arrow, screeching in a near deafening high pitched voice, it leaps up and begins running towards Gorga and Rhgl. Gorga hisses, "Run for it!" and looks down to find Rhgl gone. You don't have to tell him twice.
The creature is up and scrambling across the floor towards Gorga, hissing the whole way. Gorga turns and follows the retreat of the goblin as quickly as he can muster. Racing down the hall, with a large furry quadruped quickly gaining on him, Gorga sees his warband waiting with weapons ready. As Gorga passes the front rank he sees Rhgl peeking out from behind Ierkh's leg. Hobna fires an arrow into it, and Tyco and Scrag both lay into it with their Axes. It falls just in time for the second one to come running down the hallway. Arrows, and a smashing blow from Ierkh's club, and both enemies now lie dead on the floor.
Sharraxtharkhul approaches and investigates the bodies. With a grunt he picks at the fur, turns and looks at Gorga and the others. "Dire Weasels. Kobolds train the beasts as mounts." Some of the Orcs nod sagely at "Shar" as if they knew it all along. Scrag cuts a haunch out of one of the Dire Weasels, and begins munching on it. The warband moves up to investigate the room further. "Shar" marks the wall here again, and Ierkh drags the bodies back into the room, blood trailing the whole way.
The room is large, 8 by 12 shins at least, with 8 large stone pillars. There is a raised platform with two white marble chairs sitting atop it, in the centre of the far end of the room. Tattered sets of draperies hang on the far wall behind the chairs. There are large sleeping nests in front of the platform. After searching the room and finding nothing of value, Gorga orders the warband to secure the room, and tells Ierkh to "Come with me."
Gorga and Ierkh move to investigate the hallway that heads back south. With the hallways that have been travelled already, Gorga doesn't think there will be much this way. They follow the hallway back and around to a wooden door. Only this door has a leather skin covering, with some brass bits hammered into some kind of writing. Gorga points and gives the order "Open it."
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Glick was having a bad day. Minsk was surly today, and kept nipping at the whip. The Kobold friends were agitated all morning, as if they knew something was going to happen. Glick did not understand, and the whippings were not too severe. Sitting on the old human bed here, Glick looked around at the fine harnesses he was teaching the females to make. Soon there would be enough for all of the Dire Weasels. Now if the breeding program goes as expected, most of the warriors will have a Dire Weasel to ride. All trained by Glick.
A loud screeching that sounded like Minsk drew his attention away from his daydreaming. Glick moved over to the wall, and picked his training harness off of a peg and began to don it. That weasel was in for it for sure. It takes some minutes for Glick to pull on the leathers, and just as he was admiring their fit over his small wiry legs, the door slams open, and an ugly Ogre and scary looking Orc are standing there. It looked like the day would get worse.
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Meanwhile there's trouble back with the warband. The goblins are bored again, and Tyco keeps trying to test the powers of his cloak. "Hobna, shoot an arrow at me." As Hobna moves to comply, with a wicked grin on his face, the Goblins head off down one of the Northwestern hallways, just to investigate.
Next Up: Return to In Search of the Unknown part 3 "We didn't do it."