Everybody Was [Goblin] Fightin'!
The wine was still in the air when AC eased through the door.
The chamber was bigger than Koblob had let on. A stage, yes — and a throne, and Queen Bargnot on it, white-haired and furious, with two warriors at her sides. But beyond the platform: an open room. A desk pushed against the far wall, with a map laid across it and a goblin in fine robes leaning over the map, studying it. The goblin held a staff topped with a skull, and the skull's eyes were burning a low, slow purple. Behind him, two more lackeys. And somewhere — somewhere in the rafters or the dark or the understage you couldn't see into yet — a sniper was already nocking an arrow.
Initiative.
AC strode in sword-and-shield and marked the goblin at the desk. The throne hissed: "SWARM HIM!" and three lackeys peeled out of the shadows. AC opened one across the ribs and it went down.
Moist saw the silver anklet on the queen's leg and chose violence. Heat Metal. Bargnot screamed. His Phoenix-spirit familiar caught AC mid-charge and teleported him to the desk — fire splashed and two lackeys were dead before the round was halfway done.
The warriors fired back. One missed Moist; one didn't. The hidden sniper — gods, the sniper — drew on Koblob and put an arrow through his throat. He never threw the javelin again. His hot pepper was still in his fist.
Dhuxtyn painted the desk-goblins in Faerie Fire. Ubys reached across the chaos with Command and dropped one word into the queen's ear — "SURRENDER!" — and you watched it worm its way past her teeth. Lessie CRIT a Magic Stone at the magic-user; lackeys threw themselves into the path of the throw to absorb it for him, and he didn't even thank them. KeYs dropped a warrior with a clean javelin throw. Falkor breathed radiant lightning at the queen, eight points of it, and you saw the bronze in him for the first time outside training.
And then Teppo — Teppo who you'd been hauling on a cart, Teppo who'd just lost his journal once and his writs twice, Teppo who'd never lifted a finger in a fight — Teppo stood up at the edge of the cave and gave KeYs Bardic Inspiration.
You absorb that for a second.
The queen tried to hex KeYs. It failed. Lackeys appeared from nowhere. The math was getting worse.
Round two. AC hammered the magic-user for sixteen and the lackeys threw themselves in the way again — three more dead. The queen dropped her shortbow as the anklet began to cook her ankle. Moist tightened his grip on the spell, hit her for fourteen more, and entered the room. The sniper came back for him — fifteen damage, and the heat-metal broke. Dhuxtyn kept blasting. Ubys CRIT Guiding Bolt on the sniper for forty-one damage and the sniper was gone.
Lessie caved the magic-user's skull with one more Magic Stone. Teppo inspired her while reciting battle-stanzas about the War of the Lance. KeYs dropped a lackey. The lackeys swarmed back; one of them critted Falkor for two.
Round three. AC leapt onto the stage and moved his sigil to the queen.
She roared. Summoned more. Took three jabs at AC and only one connected. Moist healed himself, then — calmly — teleported the entire inner cluster out of the swarm, splashing five fire on each lackey on the way through. Two more died from that alone. Lessie crooked the last warrior dead. KeYs hammered the queen for eight. The lackeys swarmed again. Bargnot screamed "KILL!" and they swarmed harder.
Round four.
AC CRIT.
Twenty-four points of damage all at once into the queen's neck. She tried to shout one final command and the only sound that came out was the gurgle of her own blood, and then — only then — the smell of sulfur drifted up off her body and the lackeys turned and fled into the dark.
It was over.
You looked around. The desk had a map on it. The map had attacks marked. Companies plundered, raids planned, dates noted. Beside the map, on the throne's armrest: a letter. Addressed to Queen Bargnot, signed by someone who called himself The Spider.
You hadn't heard that name yet. You filed it.
Then you looted, because you'd just done a lot.
A silver crown set with moonstones. A goblet made out of a halfling's skull. A fancy sword. A small bag of holding — six slots — packed with a Potion of Climbing, two spell scrolls, a recipe for Glowing Poison, and a gold-rimmed Monocle of Secrets. AC pocketed the monocle without asking. Cargo: silvered arrows, flour, ginger, salt, cloves, iron, saffron, linen — a merchant's whole inventory in stolen freight. 193 copper. 110 silver. 83 gold.
And Teppo's writs. Right where they were supposed to be.
You cleared the den. You set up camp nearby. The map and the letter went into the cart with everything else.
Koblob's body did not.
Next session: a long road, a stand of trees on the horizon, and a story Teppo wants to tell around the fire.