Chapter Text
"All right roll initiative."
Everyone sat around the table roll their respective dice.
Scarlett charges in first, scythes whipping around her in a whirlwind of death as she attacks the nearest goblin. It goes down swiftly, unexpecting the attack.
Kakashi appears next, daggers finding their way into another nearby goblin. It goes down with a cry, alerting the nearby goblins.
They all whip their attention to the commotion, weapons at the ready.
Cleo isn't deterred, striking next. The blade of her axe imbeds itself in the shoulder of a goblin who swings a sword back at her in feeble retaliation. It doesn't do very much damage but the wound stings nonetheless.
A few more goblins make their attacks, aiming for Scarlett and Kakashi. Very few attacks actually hit due to the rouge's evasiveness and the barbarian's skill with her blades. Overall they take very very little damage.
Smajor is next. The crystal on his staff glows with a blue light before shooting a lance made of ice out at the nearest goblin. The ice pierces clean through, shattering on the stone ground.
Ember goes next. He helps Smajor out, casting a fire spell to incinerate the goblin.
Solidarity stands there, a bit horrified.
"Wh- no don't- oh- please no-"
"What's wrong Solidarity?" Scarlett asks as she cracks open the head of another goblin. "You seemed fine before."
"Th- people were in danger then! Innocent people!" He blocks with his shield, reluctant to fight back. "We could have been diplomatic!"
Cleo glares in his general direction, snarling. "They killed my people." She shoves a goblin to the ground for emphasis. "They deserve no mercy."
The party make their way further into the cave when a large goblinoid monster steps out. Cleo and Scarlett ready their weapons as Smajor prepares a spell.
"Ah. There's the leader."
The goblinoid is far bigger than the goblins and frankly a lot uglier. Its big and brutish, eyes glinting maliciously. Approximately four goblins and two bugbears stand by it's side. There's a large group of wolves as well, likely from the surrounding forest.
Pearl gasps. "What do the wolves look like?"
"I'd say there a bit unkempt and skinny. They seem to be pretty hungry from what you can tell."
"I roll animal handling to feed them some of my rations and tame them."
"Roll for it."
"NAT 20!" Pearl cheers, jumping out of her seat. She leans over her character sheet, muttering to herself as she does a bit of math. "That'll be a 22 Impulse."
She grins at him proudly and Impulse sighs. "I should have known you'd do this."
Scarlett throws a bit of jerky to the dogs. Hungrily they descend on the meat, devouring it quickly. They seem very content to listen to her now.
The goblinoid rumbles in annoyance, issuing a command to its soldiers while pointing it's large axe at the party.
The enemies surge forward. A few of the wolves seem a bit confused at first, rushing forward only to turn back when they notice they're the only ones following the order given.
Everything depends into chaos.
Solidarity blocks an attack from one of the bugbears, protecting Smajor in the process.
Multiple goblins pile onto Cleo, attempting to bring her down under their combined weight. The gorgon doesn't go down easy, ripping them off and throwing them to the ground.
Kakashi vanishes, appearing a moment later with his daggers buried in the goblinoid. They don't seem to do much damage, though.
Scarlett easily fends off the other bugbear on her own, wolves jumping in to assist the woman who showed them kindness. They bite and tear at their ally turned enemy, a swirling mass of teeth and claws.
Ember aims to help Solidarity, shotgun loud as it fires.
Smajor does all he can to help. As a cleric there aren't very many attack spells at his disposal and keeping enough spell slots to heal the party after combat is probably a good idea. He decides on hitting any nearby enemy with his staff. That enemy happens to be the bugbear. He doesn't do much damage but it's something.
The goblinoid throws Kakashi to the ground and the ninja lands hard. He's quickly back up on his feet, dodging expertly to the side as it's large axe come down, blade disappearing inside the stone as the material cracks around the weapon.
The ninja sprints forward, attacking once more as Cleo rages. The goblins around them are quickly killed and they slither forward once free. With all her strength, she buries her axe in the knee of the giant monster before them.
Scarlett dodges. She's well within range but much too quick for the bugbear to hit. She even takes a few of the weaker attacks.
It isn't very long before it goes down. Scarlett and her wolves rush in to help Kakashi and Cleo.
Solidarity swings frantically with his sword, landing hits as he blocks with his shield. He attempts to keep the bugbear's attention as Smajor and Ember each do their own bits of damage. Eventually, the bugbear goes down.
The aarakocra turns his attention to the goblinoid. It lumbers over the party, swinging it's axe around destructively. Cleo takes a bit to the gut, falling over to a moment before getting up and rushing back in as fast as they can.
Smajor heals the party when they take too much damage as Ember fires from a safe distance. Kakashi blinks in and out of view, abusing stealth attacks as any good rouge does.
Scarlett and Cleo are both raging, doing as much damage as they possibly can. Scarlett's wolves are excellent backup, tearing at the goblinoid relentlessly. Really it's a bit brutal.
Solidarity shudders before running in to help, hitting with all of his might. Divine smite is definitely one of the spells of all time.
Eventually the goblinoid goes down. Aside from Ember, who kept his distance, the party is a bit worse for wear. Smajor runs around, using his remaining spell slots to heal everyone. They don't get to full health but at least they aren't on death's door.
"Ok. Now that we're out of danger. WHAT THE HECK IS THAT!?" Cleo gestures wildly to the goblinoid. Kakashi is already looting the corpse, mostly disinterested in whatever he finds.
"Dunno. Weirdly strong though." Ember supplies helpfully.
"I wonder where it came from." Smajor questions out loud.
Scarlett just sits down, bonding with her new dogs as Kakashi ventures further into the cavern. Solidarity follows him, curious to see where he's going.
Ember and Smajor are quick to follow as well, leaving Cleo to angrily desecrate a corpse and Scarlett to feed her wolves in an attempt to ensure they stay loyal.
The back of the cave is interesting. Sleeping covers and tents have been set up for the now deceased army. A large chair sits at the back before a table, a map of the world on it. Various cities are marked, some crosses out entirely, and wooden figures are set up. It looks like a war plan, the figures representing various groups, a visualization of an attack.
Smajor studies the map intently as Ember pokes around the space. Kakashi does the same, though he's a lot more thorough than the tiefling.
Solidarity wanders, poking at various things that catch his interest. Eventually he picks up a sending stone, wondering where it goes as he sits down in one of the chairs around the table.
Ember sits next to him in the large chair that's clearly meant for the goblinoid. He is dwarfed by the sheer size of the chair yet he looks perfectly at home in it.
He looks over to see what's in Solidarity's hands.
"A sending stone?"
"I wonder where it goes. Could the goblins have been working with someone else?"
Cleo comes in at that moment, infuriated. "They have to be working with someone else! You don't wipe out a whole village of gorgons with that pitiful display of power." She gestures to the carnage as a whole. "We can turn beings to stone for gods sake!"
They put their axe away and begin to study the map with Smajor.
"I think it's probably their battle plans. What they are I wouldn't know. I wasn't there when they were made."
Cleo hums at Smajor's comment. She doesn't stop studying the map through.
The stone on Solidarity's hands begin to hum, drawing everyone's attention. Scarlett even pokes her head in to listen.
"We have heard of your failure. Strike at midnight and leave no survivors. Our Lord will not be happy to hear of this."
"Wh- who?" Solidarity asks instinctively.
"How did you get this?! You heard nothing."
The sending stone stops humming abruptly. They won't be getting any more information from it. For now at least.
Solidarity looks up to observe his party's faces. Scarlett and Smajor are intrigued, one moreso by the potential violence in her future and the other simply curious. Kakashi seems a bit suspicious of the message, the hears obviously turning in his mind. Cleo is livid. They slam their battle-axe into the table, right in the middle of the map. Ember's expression is unreadable, turning to surprise as Cleo puts a nice hole in the table, the action causing the party to jump.
"So they were working FOR someone?!"
Smajor rests a hand on the gorgon's shoulder. "Calm down Cleo. I know you want to rush in and fight them but we don't know who them is. They don't seem like good people though so I'm sure we're all down to help you get revenge."
She huffs but ultimately relents.
The group make various noises of agreement.
"Can we try to talk things out next time though? I'd like to try and get as many people onto a better path as we can. Preferably before we resort to violence."
Ember seems amused by this statement. Kakashi seems indifferent. How they handle their enemies doesn't particularly matter. Scarlett groans, definitely the type to attack first and ask questions later. Smajor seems a bit annoyed but ultimately doesn't say anything.
Cleo doesn't seem happy though. They cross their arms and level a glare at Solidarity.
"So are you saying I should just let a bunch of murderers go?"
"No! No no no!" He quickly rushes to correct himself. "I'm not saying they should get off without a punishment. I just think we should try to get them onto a better, less evil path is all."
Ember chuckles. "I say we do it. I'm curious to see what happens."
Kakashi nods. "Less work is less work. As long as I'm not doing the talking."
"Very well. I suppose we may attempt civilized justice." Smajor says.
Everyone looks expectantly at Pearl and Cleo. Sure, they have majority but they need their participation for it to work.
"Please Pearl. Its Jimmy's first time playing let him try." Scott attempts to reason.
Scarlett sighs. "Fine. But only cause I wanna laugh when it totally doesn't work."
Cleo grumbles something under their breath.
"What was that Cleo? I couldn't exactly hear you from over here." Ember blinks innocently at the gorgon.
"I SAID that we can try it because I'm out voted. Don't think I'm happy though."
Solidarity nods, just happy that he was given the opportunity to help people.
"Alright now that that's taken care of." Kakashi starts, bringing the group's attention to him. "Where do we go from here?"
"That's something you can figure out next session!" Impulse cheers happily as he snaps his computer shut.
Its a lot later than they'd expected it to be, combat taking a lot of time.
"Awww." Tango whines.
Impulse shoots him a look. "You have a test tomorrow."
Tango mumbles something incoherent as everyone gets up to leave. Jimmy goes home with Scott as his ride once more, mulling over the new information.
The session only rewarded him with more questions than answers.
He goes to bed, mind a jumbled mess.
An issue for tomorrow, though. For now, he needs sleep.