[SirFozzie]

Chapter The First: The Frantic Four and the Goblin Tower (Final Part)

This is where things went bad to worse. As explosions go, it was a pretty good one, sending force and explosive energy everywhere. Alexandras caught the brunt of it, and was knocked off the landing, plummeting several stories down to the floor, knocking her unconscious and lucky to be alive (two HP from instant kill). Dagon stumbled on the icy landing and also tumbled to the ground, knocking himself unconscious as well (he had already taken a decent amount of damage from the tentacles). Demeter managed to stumble OUTWARDS (into the tower wall) and taking only a little damage. He raced down the broken remnants of the steps to heal his wounded compatriots while.. Jeremy...

Well, Jeremy was lucky enough to have STONE between him and the blast and managed to keep his feet.. He grinned at the cowering Goblin Wizard. "Now.. about that parley.."

The frightened goblin immediately pleaded with the fighter not to kill him.. Jeremy grinned. "Well, if you tell me what you know about the portal and things going on at the tower.. for example, where are all the goblins.. where does that portal go.. and what were you doing with the portal.."

The goblin was a great source of information.. The rest of the Mucklescar tribe was.. on the other side of the portal. Apparently it was difficult to keep large amounts of goblins on this side of the portal, so "Master Sanorti" decreed that small scouting parties would stay on this side of the portal, and when a juicy target was spotted, the tribe would pour through the portal to attack the luckless merchants. Had the plan been successful, trade via the Trade path would have become very difficult, if not impossible, choking off a supply of trade (and thus gold) to the Barony. The rest of the tribe was currently on the other side of the (now violently defunct) portal, electing a new Chief (apparently the old chief had displeased the Master in someway and died of "Sword Poisoning".

Jeremy: "You mean the Master stabbed him?"
Goblin Wizard: "No, Master melted a sword into molten metal and poured down Chief Yucklepuck's throat."

The rune stones were a method of directing a portal from past ages. If you placed the rune stones in the right order, you could travel from one portal to another instantly. It was the fact that Hertem (the Goblin Wizard's name) had been in a hurry, and grabbed the wrong rune stones that had caused the portal to malfunction. Hertem bragged that his Master had several other portals in other locations. When asked where his home base was, he answered "Master Sanorti holds the key to Ullem, the city of Portals". Unfortunately for Jeremy, Ullem is considered to be "Atlantis", ie, a legendary lost city from the past ages (here, before the God's War) believed to be forever lost that no one can quite agree where it is.

And then Jeremy, feeling that he had extracted all he could from the Goblin Wizard, decided to use the dubious loophole in his promise to the Goblin. Realizing that the portal's destruction had pretty much eliminated the stairs (and the area beneath the ladder), he explained to the Goblin that they'd have to climb down the outside and climb in through a window on the lower levels (assuming that they were still functional). He told the goblin to find a part of the wall that they could attach a grappling hook to and climb down to enter a window to make their way further down..

The goblin really should have not trusted Jeremy, as soon as the goblin peered over the edge, Jeremy snuck up behind and tossed him over the edge, to the cobblestoned ground well below him..

Hertem's last words as he plummeted was "You promiseeeeeeeddddd.." *THUD!*

Jeremy smirked "I promised not to kill you, and I didn't.... after all, as they say, it's not the fall that kills you, it's that sudden stop at the end."

He managed to make the descent, and join his colleagues who were resting somewhat more comfortably (thanks to the last healing spells of the day from Demeter), and managed to make a discovery..

(FILTHY LUCRE)

Alexandras's fall had been broken by.. well, the breaking of a hidden door set into the ground (under a rug). After Demeter had stabilized Alexandras's slightly smoking body, they managed to clear the wreckage of the door and while it appeared the Goblins took valuable valuables of the merchants they raided through the portal for their Master.. they hadn't sent through the less valuable coins.. and while it wasn't a huge amount compared to gold, there is a certain allure of a couple thousand "coins of the realm". (1400 CP, 1300 SP and 70 GP).. and even better there was a couple items that appeared magical... thankfully the agreement with the town stated that not only would the "Traveling Militia" get to keep any magical items they found, but that the town would absorb the costs to identify such items.

The party quickly headed back to the town of Glory..

One of the items was a Gem of Brightness, which would be a useful tool in battles against units (it's like a permanent 30' light spell (30' more dim light, without using charges, and can blind creatures that fail a saving throw, either one at a time (1 charge), or a 30' Cone (5 charges).. considering it has 37 charges, they are jammy gits.

The other, when I (the GM) generated it, I just started telling the warlock that I though he was an extremely *bleeping* lucky *bleeping* bastard.. it was a Rod of the Pact +1. Not only does it provide a +1 bonus to spell attacks and DC's to resist warlock spells, by holding the rod in his hand, he could instantly regain an expended spell slot (once per long rest). I mean, talk about a perfect item for a Warlock

The town's Mayor was.. surprised by the successful nature of the Frantic Four's mission, and agreed to live up to not only the letter, but the spirit of the bargain (unusual for elected officials, probably not so much for a Paladin, even one who wishes that there was a "Smite Greedy Merchant and/or Quarreling Townsfolk" method of channeling divinity making sure that the houses built for the four were well built and in decent locations.. Jeremy's house was built by the river, a reminder of his ocean-gong past life, Demeter's house was built close to the town's center of worship, Alexandra's house used a good deal of the stone that the town had received (since it was well known that mage's domiciles were more likely to be combustible), and Dagon's house.. well.. by mutual consent, Dagon's house was at the edge of the settlement, well away from others.

The town's mayor informed the Four that while they would send details of what the four had found, it would be.. highly unlikely that those off in far-off Klavan city would take heed of the town's warning.. (after all, "the yokels are just jumping at shadows"), so urged them to continue to seek out information about this "Master Sanorti", his plans, and his location.