Chapter 24

Thistletop (still)

October 15

Kieron is just lifting her backpack when goblins start coming in from behind. Neiia begins casting a fumble spell on the goblins, and Agnarr comes out with his axe. Ertak also hears Neiia’s shout that they’re coming again, so he starts returning as well. The first goblin entering falls, but the next jumps over it and comes after Kieron. Neiia sees four goblins coming in with a large spear, and she casts a fumble spell on the foremost one, who falls. The goblin falls but lets go of the spear before falling. The next goblin runs forward and falls on the first goblin, dragging the spear down to the ground with him. The last goblin grabs the end of the spear, and since its point is against the ground, he does a fine pole vault directly at Agnarr but misses.

The boss comes in and shouts to the guy attacking Kieron to get out of the way, and after he moves to the side, the boss attacks Kieron, but he doesn’t hit Kieron. Agnarr hits the goblin in front of him so that the axe goes through on both sides, and the goblin falls to the ground dead. The other goblins decide to flee at this point, and even the fallen goblins who get up run after the others. Only the boss doesn’t notice anything because he has a full helmet with only small eye-holes. The boss tries to swing at Kieron with his funny sharpened metal stick but doesn’t hit even once.

Neiia shoots at the boss with a fire bolt, but the boss’s armor catches fire before the fire goes through the armor and damages the boss, and then the armor releases the fire back into the wound, healing it at the same time. Neiia remembers that such items exist, but they usually only work once a day, so she shoots again. Kieron hits the boss at a weak point in the armor, and the boss falls to the ground after this.

After this, the group starts running toward the basement, but Ertak has put his shield on the ground and starts blocking everyone else by casting magic at the corner of the corridor for a long time. Kieron tries to get past Ertak without disturbing him but falls to the ground and then crawls past Ertak before jumping up. Neiia bypasses everyone and goes to the door to listen. Agnarr waits for Kieron to get up before coming after, just a little before Ertak finishes his spell. Ertak casts his spell, and after that, the group continues on its way.

They come to the next door, and when Neiia opens it, large flames flash toward her from the other side. Neiia jumps backwards and falls. Kieron takes a step backward, at which point Agnarr, who is behind her, also takes a step backward, falling at the same time. Ertak, who is behind Agnarr, also takes a step backward. Neiia notices that the fire spreading here to the stairs is just an illusion, and when she explains this to the others, they also notice it. The group enters the room. They next examine the lab, where there is no one, before continuing forward. After the corridor, they come to an art gallery.

On the walls of the gallery are painted with blood and the pictures are of goblins killing people, horses, and especially dogs. The central figure of all the pictures is a six-armed goblin, who has a really big sword in four hands. Neiia and Ertak remember that the stories of Thistletop tell that this is probably the local goblins’ god or demon named Malfesnekor. Apparently, he doesn’t usually interfere with goblin matters, but according to the stories, goblins have the opportunity to speak to him directly or at least to communicate with him or something.

The group continues on its way and comes to a corridor from which corridors lead in different directions. On the right are double doors with some devil-like reliefs. The group goes left. After the door, they come from a human-made corridor to a cavern, where there is, however, a very leveled, polished, and waxed floor. Next, they come to a room where there are various animal bodies, etc. The bodies are as if eaten from the inside, but their skin is completely intact. Neiia notices that there is a magic item to the side and tries to levitate it out of the pile.

Neiia tries to get it out for some time, but Kieron gets annoyed and goes to pick up the magic leather armor. Kieron states that “here it is” and throws the leather armor really well directly toward Neiia so that it would be easy for her to catch it. Neiia has a bag in one hand and a large fireball in the other. Neiia yells at Kieron that “how do you imagine I can catch this when my hands are full”, while she threatens and aims at Kieron with a fire bolt. Kieron states that you have a levitation spell on that leather armor, so you should have easily been able to stop it. Neiia states that oh, yes, but still decides to shoot a fire bolt at where Kieron was standing a moment ago. The group continues on its way.

Kieron finds her backpack again on the ground at the spot where Ertak had put it down, so she picks it up and tells the others to go past. Neiia moves to the front and steps forward. She comes to the next space, where a large creature suspended on tentacles appears before her eyes. Agnarr jumps forward and hits the creature in the midriff, but it seems to have thick skin. The creature splashes Agnarr with its tentacles, and finally, a very thin filament shoots out from under it, which hits Agnarr. This filament causes severe internal damage.

Neiia shoots her first fire bolt wide because the creature dodges (the fire bolt goes through the wall, and on the other side, the sea is visible). The second fire bolt hits the creature well, and it seems to get annoyed. The creature attacks Neiia, but she manages to dodge most of the strikes; only one tentacle hits.

Kieron gets her backpack put down and draws her pistol. Neiia starts to flee and runs past the others while the creature attacks Agnarr. Kieron shoots the creature with her pistol, but the bullet just bounces off. The creature manages to capture Agnarr in the grip of one tentacle, so it makes it difficult for him to dodge, but Kieron shoots at that tentacle so that the tentacle goes limp, and Agnarr gets free. Agnarr also starts cutting off tentacles. Kieron shoots a couple of times, but when one shot ricochets very close to Ertak and Neiia, she switches to hacking at tentacles with her sword. Agnarr falls to the ground, so the creature attacks Kieron, but Kieron manages to dodge.