“Yeah,” admitted Dakkon. “If it weren’t for Cline telling me when to come out, I never would have gotten the jump on the first one, either.” Dakkon felt something like a glow of foolhardy accomplishment.
Mina looked troubled. “That was almost a disaster. I know Dakkon pulled it off somehow, but two of us almost died. There were, what, at least 30 of them that you and Cline saw? How are we supposed to compete with that?”
Dakkon’s glow dimmed. She was right, after all. The situation seemed unwinnable. Even more so now that he knew there was no chance two goats wouldn’t manage to kill him without the element of surprise. Cline ran back to the rest of the group.
“Doesn’t look like any of them are coming,” Cline said as he slumped to the ground. “You just pulled that whole engagement right out of your ass. There’s no way that should have worked. You’re a madman Dakkon. You’re certifiably insane. I like you, you’re good company.” He smiled a broad, sincere smile.
“I think we might need to throw in the towel on this one, guys,” Mina said with a frown on her face.
“Please!” exclaimed the long-haired woman they had saved. “You can’t go yet. I overheard some of what the leader of the goatmen has planned for tonight.”
“Those things can talk!” Melee asked, shocked.
“To some extent they all can, but their leader is clever and he’s doubly so wicked” said the girl.
“What’s so important that we can’t regroup and come back with a strike force?” asked Roth.
“Now that they’ve struck the village and taken what they wanted, they plan to use the supplies they’ve gathered to salt and burn the fields.” The girl was terrified. “With most of the animals taken or slaughtered, the fields are all we have. There’s no rebuilding from salted soil.”
“That’s awfully cheeky of them,” said Cline.
“Since they’ve already attacked earlier today, everyone will need to focus on holding the area around the inn,” reasoned Mina. “A good portion of the players won’t be able to log in for four more days. It does seem like a bit of an urgent problem.”
Getting to his feet, Dakkon came to his decision. “We might as well scout out the area. If we can move quickly and make plays like this one—No, more carefully than this one, we may be able to prune the force so severely that they’ll abandon their plans for the night. Plus, double experience and item drop rate isn’t something we’ll get again here if we wait.”
“I have already gained a level,” chimed in Cline, as if conceding some ground in his internal argument to leave.
“We all have,” said Roth with a smile. “It’s fast EXP. Perhaps even more important: it’s damned exciting. I’m on the edge of my seat. Metaphorically, anyway… capsule, full immersion, and all of that.”
“Ok, count us in,” Melee said while wrapping her arm around Mina’s neck. “You guys sure know how to sell a suicide mission.” Mina seemed uncomfortable, but didn’t challenge the statement.
“You know I’ll do it,” said Dakkon.
“The thing is,” began Cline, “I don’t really want to die. I suspect I may be something of a coward. I’ll come along, but if things look particularly bad, I’m legging it.”
“Then how about this,” Dakkon proposed, “if I go down, or there’s no way I can escape from a tough spot, you guys take off while you can. I get the feeling this would be a lot tougher down one person and without my dagger, anyways. Any objections?” There were none. “Good. Also,” Dakkon turned to the girl they had rescued, “do you want to head outside and back towards Greenburne on your own, or stay here and wait for us?”
“You can’t be serious!” the girl came close to shouting. “There’s nothing that could make me stay down here hoping that the goats don’t come back.”
“Fair enough,” said Dakkon. “When we’re back to the entrance you’ll slip out and head back towards town to warn your village. Be quiet and careful.” The girl nodded at his words.
The group quickly searched the contents of the room, leaving alone anything that would be troublesome to move, take time, or make noise. Besides the pen filled with animals, they found supplies from the village and travelers. On the bodies of the four goats they found a pair of leather vambraces they decided would go to Melee, a necklace studded with clear gemstones that went to Mina, and a simple quiver that would hopefully soon be useful to their ranger, Cline. Of the goats’ weapons, three more bone clubs were picked up by Roth as spares, and a low-quality sword was given to the recently rescued NPC who was instructed to take it with her on the road back to town. Dakkon didn’t feel shortchanged. In fact, he insisted that Melee get the vambraces and the sword go to the girl. It wasn’t that he didn’t want loot—he did, but he also wanted to wait for something particularly interesting to drop so that he could lay claim to it with no hard feelings. Double drops in an ancient temple for the God of Luck? He’d take his chances on missing out for now.
The party of five plus one worked their way back to the entrance of the temple, taking care to pause and look around the main hall to ensure the downed lookout had been undisturbed. It had remained so, and if any goats saw the body, then they must have simply figured it to be a dead drunk trest. The party escorted the NPC to the forest outside and bid her farewell.
A brief pause in the antechamber was spent on strategy. If they came across too many to take by surprise, they’d try another area before coming back. They would pick off any stragglers and hide their bodies as best they could. Setting plan into action, they entered another of the unexplored passageways that connected to the main hall, to the right of the first they had entered. This one did not curve to the left or right, but had an inclining grade. Sneaking ahead of the rest of the pack, Dakkon stealthily approached the next, darker room and looked around. Here, six goatmen slept. Dakkon was dumbfounded by the luck of it. He backed up and explained the situation to the group, then the other four party members watched on in muted fear as he delicately walked up to a sleeping goat and slashed its throat, with one hand held gently over mouth to prevent its death rattle from alarming the slumbering neighbors.
Dakkon repeated this, goat after goat, flawlessly. For his troubles, he gained a rank in Stealthy and leveled up nearly twice.
The work was grim, but simple. The experience was incredible. The loot was somewhat lacking. They had found a coin purse, a common straw hat which one trest had worn in its sleep, three copper coins, and seven more bone cudgels. Roth decided he was at his maximum capacity for cudgels made of human bone and opted to leave them, lest he be mistaken for a peddler of such wares when back in town. Following that logic, the remaining party members thought it was best not to bother with them at all. No one knew what sort of harm it could do to their reputation to try and sell such a thing. Who would buy it, anyway?
When they returned down to the main hall, their guts wrenched collectively and involuntarily at the sight before them. A trest was poking with its hoof at the body of the lookout that they had killed upon entering the temple. Instead of inspecting the body further, the trest let out a chuckle and picked up the bottle by the downed lookout’s strewn out hand. As the goatman turned and began walking towards one of the four corridors they had yet to explore, everyone let out a small collective sigh and Cline received a pat on the back courtesy of Melee. Dakkon slipped up behind the goatman before it could make any real progress down its desired path, and as it tilted its head upward to take a sip, Dakkon stabbed it in the back while reaching up with his free hand to grab the dark glass bottle that would have otherwise dropped to the stone beneath their feet and shattered.
[You have sneak attacked a trest for 590 damage. Trest has been slain.]