(1875-10-19) Finally, The Heart
Finally, The Heart
Summary: Our merry adventurers go seeking a crystal heart.
Date: 2019-10-19
Related: None
NPCs: None
Players:
Elian  Kenthadus  Lillian  Maud  

A Ruin, Ryalta
Once more…into the breech.
1875-10-19

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Back in the saddle—er. Yes, once Again, Lillian had returned to Ryalta, trudged through the jungle, and found her way to the site that the Guild had indicated for the ruin the wished to have explored. Something about a crystal at its heart. Lillian, to be sure, was wary, given the information she had received recently, but it seemed important to try to seek for what might be worthwhile in these dungeons. And so, she stood, waiting by the ruin, which, was large for the island, nearly three stories, and fairly stable, though that was no guarantee of safety, adjusting a few items in her pack, and securing her horse to the tree she had chosen as its post.

-

Bandit hunting in Galenthis might be profitable, but Maud's primary job was out in Ryalta, so her she is again. Fortunate;y she doesn't mind the heat, which is bad, even as the year starts to turn. Noting Lillin as she arrives she inclines her head to the Reliant, offering a respectful "Sir," to the knight as she checks over her kit. "We're expecting a third I'm told," she states, "then we should be ready to go."

-

Sometimes you just have to escape from court and do a little self serving action. Thats probably why Elian is here. His armor has been rubbed down until there isnt a trace of aequorian blue on its banded surface. His belt carries a lightsilver sword. There is a winged spear in his hands. And he has a long knife in case of goblin swarms. "I'm here." he says on the tail of Maud's words. "My horse had a minor issue." He looks up at the building. "Large place."

-

"Lillian or Lilli is fine, Maud. I don't think these sorts of places invite formality." Her eyes glanced away as she saw another familiar figure approaching, "Sir Elian," because some did prefer formality, "Good of you to make it. We were just about to go and seek our fortunes." Once the trip was together, Lillian turned to make her way inside, the passage blocked off on one side, forcing them to proceed towards what would have been the back of this floor, the archway opening out into an old, abandoned kitchen.

-

"Lillian," Muad replies with a short nod, apparently the shortening is just that little too much given the difference in status between the two. "Sir Elian," she greets as the Tribune arrives, noting the lack of blue but remembering the neutrality of the guild and asking nothing. As they start moving she dons her shield, draws her sword, and follows Lillian inside, eyes flicking left as the kngith goes right, and visa-versa, making sure all angles are covered. "I think I smell goblins," she mutters as they enter the kitchen, but there's no sign of the creatures for now. She's just checking out what looks to have been a pantry cupboard when she hears a rumble though and dives for the cover of the large kitchen table, "ceiling!" she calls in warning as masonry starts falling.

-

"Just Elian is fine." Elian smiles at that. "I'd offer a shortened version but I really don't like either Eli or Ian. So Elian it will have to be." He looks around at the interior of the kitchen with only mild curiosity. "This doesn't look too bad. Perhaps it wont be gree." but then Maud is bringing down the ceiling. Literally. And he stops speaking in order to try and avoid falling masonry. If only it worked. He stands up, shaking himself off, and checking he still has all his fingers. Grumbling. "This place better have a good purse attached to it."

-

Lillian did not manage to avoid the collapse, but then, it was not actually as easy as it looked to move someone covered in as much armor as she was. She took the worst of it from a chunk of the ceiling that barely missed her head, sparing her the potential brain injury, but glancing off of her shoulder and bringing with it that flare of pain as her joint dislocated. By the time she was far enough from the collapsed ceiling to worry about her shoulder, she was nearly to the wall, frowning as she looked at the others. For herself, she found a edge of one of the fireplaces, trying to leverage it and her armor to set the joint back into place.

-

Kent would have been late but a wizard arrives precisely when they mean to… Which means he arrived just after the ceiling fell on the rest of the party. Standing in the doorway he looks around as everybody starts to pull themselves out of the rubble, "I swear we only end up getting tasked to enter into the ruins that are fall apart with the slightest sneeze."

-

Maud manages to get under the table as part of the ceiling comes down, but sadly she misjudges the width of it and before she can tuck her head in safely it gets hit by a chunk of masonry that rebounds off the floor. "One's flaming…" she starts to curse, then remembers there's a Reliant there and stops herself. Once she's happy nothing else is going to fall on her she hauls herself out from the table and stands, using one of her own bandage supply to dab against the blood on her head. "I think you're right," she replies to Kenthadus with a faint smile. I reckon the Pirate Queen has her own teams for the more stable ones."

-

Elian grits his teeth and gives Lillian a nod when she comes over and starts manipulating his bashed shoulder. By the One. Thats not something a person ever enjoys. He does an experimental movement. Nods and says "Good enough" before stepping back towards the door. "I'll go first for this next room then."

-

Once everyone was patched up and Maud was definitely only seeing one of anything she glances over to Elian and shakes her head, "I've got this one, you can have the next, hows that?" Stepping over a few chunks of fallen stone she pauses at the door onwards to ensure everyone is ready, then pushes it open with her shield. Beyond lies a communal eating hall of no real note. There's benches, tables, tattered wall hangings… and five goblins, one of whom definitely seems bigger than the others. "Damn it," she mutters, "I knew I could smell 'em!"

-

"I have no complaints" Elian says with a ghost of a smile. "You can have all of them if you want." He sighs as the goblins are properly spied. "Goblins. Well. I suppose it is better than demonic sorcerer possessing entities."

-

Lillian, having put everyone to rights who needed it, including herself, moved to follow Maud, though, the call from the woman and the glimpse of the goblins she pointed out brought her up short. "The best armored should move in ahead of the others. I can try to draw that big one's attention.

-

Lillian did not wait for her word to be gainsayed. She simply charged in, putting her bigger bulk and her better armor to work as she descended on the largest of the goblins, bashing one of the smaller ones on the way. Which both worked, in that it got the big goblins attention and didn't, as it left her with two of the things to contend with rather than just one. But that seemed a fair price to pay to avoid the others having to take on more than one. Lillian settled into the work, slashing at the larger and opening up its side, before she took a stab through the softer padding at her elbow, with brought a hiss of pain to her lips. It did not, however, get her to drop her shield, not cause her to give quarter to the two goblins she fought, as she took down first the larger, and then, after she had kicked its body away, the second, before she spun, eyes darting to see which of the goblins was still standing and moving in that direction.

-

Kent draws his blades when he steps in with the goblins stalking towards the one that seems to want to square up with him. Then with a flash of the steel he kills his little goblin. Then he stalks towards the next one glaring at it as he moves to engage it, "Stinking goblins. Why can't we face something like an empty ruins? Ever?"

-

Perhaps Maud is unlucky, perhaps she's still a little wobbly from the blow to the head, either way she can't seem to make headway with the goblin that attacks her. It can't seem to make headway either, which helps somewhat, but she spends most of her time blocking with her shield, unable to get a blow in anywhere.

-

Elian meets the goblins assault with a twist of that winged spear and a shift from one stance into another. He moves, easily and confidently, from one position into another, weaving a circle of steel around him that first stops the goblins attack and then steadily presses it into making a mistake. And when that mistake happens he reverses the attack quickly, taking advantage of the speed provided by the two handed grip, and chops the poor thing almost in half. Eyes flick up across the scene as he checks for the next opponent, counting corpses before settling on one of the two remaining creatures. "I ended up in a ruin full of undead. Trust me." He moves to find a good position. "Goblins aren't that bad."

-

Lillian had to jump one of the fallen chairs to reach Maud, but she did it in her stride, as she brought her sword to bear, moving in concert with Maud, who managed one slash at the creature, causing it to stagger back away from her and into Lillian's striking distance, allowing her to finish the thing off. She came to a halt as she say the thing fall, "Anyone need healing?" She did, of course, but her priority was her companions.

-

As the other adventurers deal with their goblins and become free to help, Maud finds it a little easier as her opponant has to start worrying about attacks from other angles as well. Or it would, it if wasn't so keen on burying it's teeth in her arm, leg, or nay other limb. She manages a blow, then spots Lillian inbound and makes sure the creature is looking at her, not the advancing knight. Once it's dead she nods a silent thanks, then shakes her head, "I'm fine."

-

Seeing that everyone is dealing with their goblins easily enough Elian moves to the next doorway. He gently nudges it open just after the last goblin has fallen and checks beyond. No goblins. Good. Strange to have a totally empty room but thats whats here. Still wondering what its purpose is he moves to push the next doorway open. Cautiously peering inside and seeing nothing to worry about he heads inside and then smiles to himself. Weapons. When the others catch up he's going through the racks, hoping for something worth taking. "No goblins yet."

-

Lillian flexed her arm, as she moved to join the others, as if she were weighing the expenditure of supplies against the severity of her wounds. In the end, she did not choose to heal herself, and simply readjusted her armor before she followed Elian into the next room, walking between the racks in the hopes of drawing out whatever might be in there. And if they found anything, well, that would be a bonus.

-

Kicking a goblin corpse as she goes past, Maud follows Elian through the empty room and into the armoury. With him checking one set of rusted racks she checks another, but there's nothing that's survived the test of time. She's about to turn abck to the others when she spots a pile of rags in the corner that seems to be moving gently, rhymically, almost as if soemthing, or indeed two things, were breathing beneath it. Holding a hand to her lips for quiet she points to the corner and mouths 'sleeping goblins'.

-

Kent looks around as they enter the armory and smirks some, "Wonder if any of these weapons are still viable. Never much left after all these years but it'd be nice right?"

-

Kent steps into the next room with the others and spots the sleeping goblins and starts to creep towards them along with Maud. As he gets close to the first one he puts a dagger through it's throat and as the last one wakes up and grabs a weapon to attack Kent he slices it's throat open with his sword, "Okay that was brutal. Everybody ready for the next room?"

-

Elian somehow managed to miss a bunch of goblins? He stares at the moving bundle and carefully starts to shift his spear into a working grip without disturbing the weapon racks. Before he can move to help dispose of them the others have dispatched the lot. "No more brutal than what they would have done to you."

-

Lillian was a Reliant. She should have been more put out by this, right? Well, no, once she caught sight of what Kent was doing, she simply waited, having started forward and then stopped when she heard herself in the silence of the room. Goblins, well, they were evil creatures, and they brought death and destruction wherever they roamed. And so, once Kent had dispatched the goblins, she simply nodded ehr thanks, said a silent prayer because perhaps it was better to ask for foregiveness than permission and looked towards the door to the next room, "My turn?"

-

With the goblins dead Maud takes one final glace round the armoury, but as nothing seems to be worth saving she hefts her shield and moves on, stopping a thte next door only long enough to make sure everyone is ready. Pushing it open with her sheidl she takes half a step into what seems to be another kitchen, although since part of the ceiling has alreasy collapsed it's trickier to tell, "Watch out for the ceiling," she mutters to those behind as she steps in, raising her shield over her head just in case. It was a timely thought, for as she took another step another small fall started directly above her, but thankfully her protection held.

-

Elian filters through after Maud. "Thanks. My shoulder cant take another beating like that."

-

Kent looks as they get ready to enter into another room and the ceiling falls in again, "I swear it's going to be a ceiling that kills me not something like a goblin. Thanks for looking out though. Everybody okay?"

-

Lillian kept close to the edge of the room as she saw Maud deflect one of the bits of ceiling coming down, trying to use the wall itself to support her as she kept to the perimeter, and made her way towards the back exit. Peeking out, she called back, "A landing, but there are more room beyond." She seemed ready to continue on and clear this floor, "We can double back, but I'd rather not leave this floor half unexplored and find goblins coming up behind us."

-

Keeping her shield up as she crossed the rest of the kitchen Maud took it slowly, taking care to skirt round fallen masonry where she could. Finally making it to the landing beyond she lowers her shield and unslings it a moment, letting it rest against her leg so her arm can recover. Nodding to the theory of staying on the same floor she keeps her eyes on the stairs, and listens for motion either above oor below.

-

Elian says "We can clear this floor."

-

Lillian nodded, though her eyes were still straight ahead as she bypassed the landing to move ahead towards the next room, which, once she pushed it open, appeared to have been some form of a barracks. All we well, until it wasn't, as the door banged a bit too hard against the wall, unseating one of the rotted timbers that formed the ceiling, sending it crashing down, the sound barely allowing Lillian to dive to the side, but not far enough to avoid it. Instead, it drove the woman to the ground, falling across her at chest level. The sound of her shield and then her good self hitting the floor was nearly as loud, louder than her voice, which came back in the silence after, "Mind your heads." Because that was sound and good advice. Hopefully they would heed it as she rolled with some difficulty, to try to push the beam off.

-

Hearing the series of impacts from the barracks, Maud backs up towards the door, keeping her eyes on the stairs until she can duck in and help try to prise the timber off Lillian. "Anywhere hurting more than you'd expect?" she asks, trusting the Reliant to know if she needs attention or not, "that sounded like quite a bang."

-

Elian moves to help Lillian get the beam off her. "Alright there?" he asks. Although the answers relatively obvious. "Here. I'll go ahead now." And so he roves on ahead. He peers into a space but ducks back out, returning with a length of timber and using it to prop a loose rock into place, before squeezing past. "Just one of their observatories." He calls back. "They must really have loved the moons." He picks up a box of ancient lenses and spends a few moments trying to blow dust off them before tucking them away inside his gear. "Does anyone really want a looking glass or should we keep going."

-

Lillian shook her head at Maud, "Ribs, but there's nothing I can do to set those." She would simply need to live with it. "Thank you, Elian," as the knight, along with Maud helped to lift the timber high enough that she could squeeze out, "This is not the sort of thing I expected to be doing in my retirement, I have to say." But she was soon back on her feet, though her expression was pinched with pain, as she fought to get herself back upright. "I can go on."

Lillian says, "Nothing for me. Let's continue."

-

Kenthadus shakes his head, "I'm good let's move on. I don't like to see my face anyways."

-

"I can help with them after if you need," Maud offers to Lillian, then she moves to follow Elian into the observatory. Peering over at the looking glass indicated she shrugs then holds her hand out, "I reckon I can get a few crowns for that so sure, I'll take it." It is, after all, all about the money. That said she hunts through the room, finding nothign salvagable from the scrolls and tool therein.

-

Elian gives Maud a looking glass thats seen better days. "Are we going up or down? Up I think given the places height?"

-

Kent shrugs a bit as he moves back towards the next area, "So which are we doing going up or down? I say down but it's up to you all?" He looks up at the ceiling, "Although I think the further up we go the less likely the ceiling is to fall." As they enter the next room after the observatory he blinks a bit and then shakes his head, "Looks like this is it.." The heart of the dungeon's here a seat for the champion and various altars for the goblins. Kent looks around some and sighs, "Goblins." Then he starts to move forward his blades in hand waiting for the others to enter in behind him. Looks to be two regular goblins and a champion.

-

"I wouldn't expect anything else." Elian says. "Already moving to enter the room and set his spear to repel any attack. Alas. None of them attack him and he's forced to instead pick a goblin to stab. After a moments thought he goes after the big one harassing Lillian. A decision that possibly wasn't the best for his long term health seeing as how the goblin boss turns, ripostes and draws blood from the young al'callenta's wrist.

-

Lillian was well enough to continue. She had said so, hadn't she? And Reliants weren't supposed to lie. So when Kenthadus called the goblins, she nodded, more to herself than to her companions, before she lifted her shield and advanced into the room just behind him, moving towards where the cluster of goblins was waiting, striking at the first goblin to approach her. Which was the largest, and she brought her shield up to deflect his blow, which left her no room to make a decent strike of her own, barely catching sight of Elian coming in to assist her and taking a hit for his troubles. "Stay out of range, try to use me as a shield." It was what she was for.

-

Moving through into their target room behind Kenthadus Maud soon finds herself being charged down by a screaming goblin intent on murdering her brutally. Fortuantely for her, it's enthusiasm is not matched by it's skill, and it's a fairly trivial task to step aside and strike it down as it hurtles past. Noting the large goblin attacking Lillian she moves to help, noting to her and Elian as she nears, "shield coming in on your flank, I'll try and block it's sword."

-

Kent slides through his goblin like it's barely even there. The body dropping to the floor behind him as he moves towards the champion, "Lets get this over with." As he approaches he flicks the blood off his sword and smirks at the champion.

-

Lillian could see the rest of her companions coming in to assist, but she did not back down. Easier to keep the goblin focused on herself, and allow the others to take hits as they could get them. She managed to draw it's blood with a slash across its chest, stepping back, in the hopes that it would press forward and give the others an opening to get in a good strike.

-

"Don't be foolish." Elian says to Lillian when she tells him to hide behind her of all things. "It wont work." He moves to try and strike the goblin again. Hopefully at least distracting it. But Lillian hacks it down before that overlarge spearhead can claim any goblin blood. "I kind of need to check the armories. Do you think theres more in here?"

-

"It isn't foolish to use the advantages you have. You don't have a shield, I can serve as one allowing you to strike around me." Lillian, seeing Kent put the goblin down, straightened. But only so far, as she caught her breath as she felt the muscles of her side tightening, "But we should finish the job before we come back and poke around. And I need to get out of this armor and see how bad these ribs are."

-

Kent thrusts his sword through the goblin around the same time that Lillian hacks it down as well and as the champion falls to the ground he looks around a bit, "So that's the crystal heart we're looking for right? It does need to get back to the guild although looking through the rest of these ruins almost interests me."

-

Elian looks faintly annoyed at Maud's answer. But what can you do? He nods. "Fair enough." and moves to follow her.

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