The party managed to descend the steps without encountering any traps, or without any of the crumbling steps collapsing underfoot. The dungeon itself seemed eerily quiet, not even the sound of mice or bats could be heard as they filed into the room the stairs had descended into only their steps and breath echoing. Umla opened her mouth to speak, however before she could say a word, Amber had covered her mouth while giving a dark look.
It was stated harshly in many lectures that if a location, in a dungeon or in the world was too silent things were most likely not as safe as they seemed. And if the goblins were not aware of the group being there it was better they were not alerted by the half orcs loud voice, However like almost all lessons Umla slept through them all.
Daylor raised his hand twisting it with two fingers and a thumb up, gesturing for the team to look around the room for something out of place. The group then spent a few minutes checking every part of the room, even the walls and the archway that lead further into the dungeon, they then returned back to the centre of the room shaking their heads to show they had found no traps or hidden pathways. Daylor then took a look down the narrow corridor before whispering his commands to his party. "Umla, draw your axes and take the point, Amber you follow behind. Then I will be behind Amber with Khurda behind. Then Aiko with Inarus taking the rear."
The group silently acknowledged their orders as they walked in formation keeping their eyes open. This was a formation they usually followed, Umla and Inarus were the two who could take the most damage in the group. However Umla took the front because she gets stronger with every hit she deals or takes, meaning she is the perfect party member to be the first to engage in combat. Amber was then behind Umla as in the carnage she would be able to slip into the shadows and appear behind the enemy. Daylor sat in the middle because his hand crossbow and rapier meant he could fight either at a distance or in close combat, and being in the middle he could help either the front or the rear. And Khurda and Inarus were always at the back in case the party got ambushed from behind, it also helped that Khurda was further back with how much noise he made with each movement.
The tight path only seemed to get tighter and the ceiling lowered in height, which caused the large figure of Inarus to crouch down to get through. Weirdly the passageway seemed to be empty of traps as they travelled, however the dungeon smelt so terribly that most of the party pulled out fabric or masks to cover their noses. With Daylor and Aiko passing out their perfumes for people to spray onto the fabric to cancel out the stench, however Inarus himself seemed not to be bothered by the horrible smell of decay and manure.
"From how you all look I have never been so happy to not have a nose." The towering figure said in a hushed tone, his creepy voice sounding bemused at the looks the rest of the party gave him.
"Ugh it smells worse than Khurda after he works thirty six hours straight on a project." Umla protetested, not bothering to lower her own voice, or caring about the offended scoff that left the dwarf.
After a little while of them walking the corridor opened into a large dark room, Umla poked her head into the room and looked around, before shrugging and walking in with the rest of the team. They carried on their formation while they moved deeper into the room, each of them keeping their eyes open. Daylor himself noticed that the stone on the wall looked oddly shaped, yet he could not quite put his finger on the issue he had with them. His thoughts however were interrupted when Amber stopped Umla with a hand on her shoulder, and raised her other hand in a stop sign to the rest of the party.
"It's too easy… And silent" the normally silent assassin stated. As Daylor went to open his mouth there was the sound of many panels opening. The group looked around startled as stone in the walls moved, many of what had appeared to be stone blocks opened to show little passageways that half of the party would have no chance sliding into. Then from each of the passageways little yellow orbs started to shine, the orbs moved closer and closer until they were revealed to be the eyes of a swarm of goblins. Their razor sharp teeth showing as their bulbous heads seemed unnaturally large for their bodies, they were all holding crude weapons made from sharp stones or flint tied onto bones and crude wood. Their mouths opened as they let out screeches that sounded like nails scratching down a chalkboard and rushed the party, swarming in numbers that the party had no time to count.
"Finally!" yelled the half orc as she struck one of the goblins down with both her axes; it was instantly replaced with two more. The half orc seemed to get bored if she wasn't fighting, drinking, eating or sleeping. Daylor rolled his eyes as he drew and fired his hand crossbow, its bolt piercing a goblin in the eyes as he skewered another with his rapier, his movements and twists as he avoided each strike before lashing out with his thin blade looked more like a dance than a fight to the death.
Heads went flying as Inarus' hand scythes removed a head or two with every swing, his movements much faster than most would expect from his large form. The assassin had virtually disappeared, If not for the blade of shadow in the back of a goblin to the left of Daylor he would have thought she had fled. The Dwarf was cursing loudly in his native tongue over the sound of the horrible crunching of goblins' heads under the stout man's warhammer as he was standing in front of Aiko who was just taking notes instead of fighting.
A goblin jumped to the side of the dwarf but as Daylor was about to yell a warning the scholar's quill flashed as she wrote an almost artistic word in the air, a blade of shimmering white light appeared out of thin air and impaled the goblin, pinning it into the wall. Yet each time they killed a goblin more would arrive to take their place, and due to being swarmed on all sides the group's formation had broken apart. It seemed the swarm would be never ending and occasionally a goblin would even manage to land a small hit on one of the party members, as much as the hits were not fatal each small wound started to build up. With a nod to his party the group started to try and reform.
"Buy necro boy enough time" he yelled as the group cut goblins appart to reunite. They surrounded Inarus in a circle, with him in the centre as he placed his scyths away and started to channel power. The rest of the party kept fighting tooth and nail to keep the goblins back, but the goblins just climbed over the growing pile of corpses to attack the adventurers. And even if they lost the hands holding their weapons they would start trying to bite their target instead, they seemed like creatures possessed.
After a few more moments of constant fighting the knight loudly chanted in a long forgotten language, and a wave of dark green energy seemed to roll out from him, flowing into the ground and over the piles of corpses. Then the slain goblins started to rise, ignoring the missing limbs or wounds they had, and the few without eyes found their sockets to be emitting a sickly green flame.
They then turned on their former brothers and sisters and opened their mouths, letting out a horrible shriek in unison as they started to tear into them. With their barbaric weapon's or if missing those, tooth and nail. The team all relaxed as they lowered their weapons. The undead goblins chased their prey as what remained of the living green creatures fled into the walls, seeming to have finally lost the moral to fight. Somehow the worst injury the group had was a deep gash along the dwarfs cheek, nothing fatal but it would scar over. The assassin reappeared beside the knight with an impressed grunt.
"I think we need to take a small breather," Daylor said between pants. As he took a medical kit from his backpack. Gesturing for the dwarf to come close, with a grumble Khurda walked to him and let him seal up the cut on his cheek. After Stitching the cut up Daylor took out a little healing balm and attended to the few small cuts some of the other party members had obtained from the short spears and daggers. The only sound from the room for a few minutes was a loud chewing as Umla had pulled out some jerky from her own pouch and started ripping into it. When everyone looked at her she shrugged and smiled.
At that time Khurdas stomach rumbled, and Daylor realised that with the time they had taken to arrive at the dungeon it was probably approaching midday. With one last look around the room for any waiting traps or hiding goblins Daylor then decided the room was safe, and with a slight gesture conveyed as much to the team.
The dwarf let out a happy sigh as he started to pull items from the many pockets in his jacket. Within minutes the Dwarf had set up two small stoves, one with a pot of water boiling on it, the other empty with a pan next to it.
"Your turn to cook 'orns." The dwarf said in his gruff voice as he placed the packages of sausages and bacon next to the pan, and then started to pull plates out from his backpack.
He had even placed some oil, salt and pepper and a block of cheese on a board, Daylor stretched out his wings before he then sat down and started to cook the bacon and sausages. Under his request Aiko even used her magic to turn some bread they had brought with them into slices of toast. Each time just before he would put the cut sausages and bacon on toasted bread for his party he would cut a thin layer of cheese and melt it slightly over the bacon.
As Daylor would hand each person their plate of food Khurda would also hand them a cup of tea, starting with Umla, then Amber, Aiko, Khurda and finally Daylor. Inarus, as usual, did not take or request any food from the party. Once the party had their fill of food Aiko used another spell to remove any trace of food or dirt from the plates before the dwarf returned them to his bag, the group however remained resting for a little while, each of them pouring themself another cup of tea after a little while.
During this Inarus had pulled out a book that seemed to almost be falling apart from age and use and had sat down, starting to read the book as he relaxed. Umla had started to sharpen her axes after she finished her own meal, making sure they were ready to cut down more foes. Amber had started to polish her copper moons once again, even though they already seemed as clean and shiny as they could ever be. Khurda once he had finished packing the food items away, had started to perform maintenance on his blunderbus to ensure it was still in perfect order after receiving a few hits from the goblins. Aiko was doing what she usually did, she had a flask of strong smelling alcohol in one hand, and her quill in the other. Daylor was not sure how she could write or move so gracefully as it seems she was often intoxicated.
Daylor himself was instead sketching an illustration of one of the goblins into a black book, his drawing seeming to be spot on showing the creatures they had recently just fought. Once he finished the drawing he started to write on the page next to it, however he had only just written [dungeon goblins] before Umla was behind him.
"What's that?" she asked, pointing at the book in his hand.
"This? It's just a project of mine." Daylor said as the rest of the party looked at him, his cheeks began to redden a little at the scrutinising look he was receiving from the rest of his party.
"And this project is?" Aiko asked with interest, as she moved her mask back to covering her ruby painted lips. She joined Umla and looked down at the drawing of the goblin. "Impressive I did not know you could draw so well."
"Actually it doesn't shock me, Daylor took a lot of extra classes. It's why he missed many of the party's social gatherings." Inarus stated, adding to the conversation.
"Really I just thought he was chasing after men and women." Umla stated, looking at the demon with a slight different light than the rest of the party. "Anyway, what exactly is your project?"
"Well it's an encyclopaedia." Daylor stated slightly shyly as he forced the blush away from his cheeks. "On monsters we encounter."
"And why are you making that?" Inarus asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well it's actually something I spoke to the headmaster about, a lot of our lessons are on etiquette, combat styles, skills, magic and of course whatever you decide to specialise in. But I do not remember any lessons about specific creatures, in fact it seems people have not really documented much about many of the monsters or creatures you can find in adventuring. They just kill them and loot the dungeon, or if it is above ground, kill them and claim the bounty." Daylor said with a shrug and a slight chuckle. "And the headmaster says if I fill a book he will pay for it to be published and the university will pay me for a few copies to go into its library. And who knows, it might save the life of some young adventurers."
"Humm that is not a bad idea, though I would also recommend adding the loot they carry." Inarus stated as he then started to summon the undead goblins back, once they returned to the room carrying what they had killed back they collapsed. This was because the magic holding their form was pulled out by Inarus, at his current level of power he could only animate twenty goblins for half an hour. "Just because that is what most adventurers will pay attention to."
"I would also recommend adding in monster parts that can be used in alchemy." Aiko added as she pulled out pliers and started to take the canine teeth out of the corpses, moving to the next goblin after taking the tooth.
"Sure, just what loot do you find on a dungeon goblin?" Daylor asked the party who had started to go through items they could find.
"Humm It seems between five and ten crescents , and whatever gear they are holding." Inarus said after going through a few of the corpses, Daylor carried on with the entry in his book.
[Dungeon Goblin's.
Tactics: these little creatures are not overly strong, in fact even a farmer could deal with one or two without issue. Their strength seemed to come from the fact they seem to be able to make hideaways in the walls to create perfect ambushes, and their sheer numbers. They will swiftly try to drown you in a sea of green, whatever you do, try to avoid letting them encircle you in an open space.
Xp:
Weapons: they seem to wield mainly crude weapons made from flint or stone and whatever they can tie it to, if they don't have access to wood they will instead use bone.
Loot: whatever crude gear they are holding and a small amount of copper, on average around seven copper crescent moons.
Components: Dungeon goblin teeth can be used in the bases of many basic potions and poisons, however it is to be remembered this is not true for goblins above the surface, only the ones found within dungeons.]
When Daylor was finished with writing the information about the first enemy they had fought within the dungeon he got up and stretched, placing his book back into his coat as the rest of the party followed him.
"Well that was easy, I don't imagine it will get much worse." Umla said as the group got ready to set out, and like usual she was not aware just how wrong she was.