Raichel nods to her sis, hops over the stream gracefully and hurries in to the gobbie guards, knocking one out instantly while hitting the other hard enough to NEARLY knock him out. She hopes her allies will descend on this poor guy quick enough for him to not make a sound!

Making note of Rai's actions he looks down the sights of his
rifle at the remaining gobby and fires not wanting to take
the risk it might raise alarm or attack Rai.
The shot met its mark and left a nice burn mark on the gobby's
back as he slumped over to the ground.

With the last of the outside guards soundly defeated, the scene goes silent.

(( Sticking with initiative order for the duration of this dungeon crawl.  So Ben's next, followed by Mittens then Bri'kus then Darcy. ))

  With the guards swiftly dealt with, Ben steps somewhat closer to the cave, though hardly close enough for something to suddenly stab him from the entrance (or so the working theory goes).  "Is this the part where we stop to question the guards about the obvious, or the part where I will need this slight head start on Mittens to keep up with her?"

Mits peeks into the cave...

KENNEL

Just inside the cave mouth, a few uneven stone steps lead
up to a small, dank chamber on the east side of the passage.
The cave narrows to a steep fissure at the far end, and is filled
with the stench of animals. Savage snarls and the sounds of
rattling chains greet your ears where two wolves are chained
up just inside the opening. Each wolf's chain leads to an iron
rod driven into the base of a stalagmite

She returns and reports.  "Well the wolves musta heard me.  But I didn't hear any other alarm.  So maybe we tie up badguys and wait outside for a few minutes to see if the goblins check on their wolves."

Bri'kus felt really confused at everything that just happened so quickly, but shrugged it off, assuming the party had been working together for a while and could deftly deal with combat situations on the fly.

He took Mittens suggestion of tying the Goblins up to heart and snuck his way up to the KO'd duo to search them and bind them.

It was Darcy's turn to make a low whistle as she moves up toward the cavern, then waits for the others to catch up.

"Nice shot, Meiou..." Raichel commends.

Raichel helps Bri'kus with tying the goblins up and gives him a smile as she does. Then says, "I agree, Mitts." and beckons Darcy over. "Wakey wakey on the gobbies?"

Once the goblins wake, Raichel says, "No loud sounds, or else. Now... tell us what we can expect inside the cave."

He shrugs and just provides the rope for tying them up.
He wasn't really used to be praised for anything.
This whole adventuring thing was new to him and not something
he had really signed up for so much as had been drafted into.

  "Hmm, I wonder if they are firmly secured. Or they have some way to quickly release the wolves to chase intruders.  It's amazing how often people with horrible workmanship standards are suddenly competent when it comes to things such as that."  Even hut dwelling savages who have no idea what a warforged is will turn out to know how to build hang gliders and siege equipment.

Once Darcy wakes the surviving goblin, and Raichel intimidates him, he spills the beans.

"You want Klarg stuff?  You find Klarg and stuff in Klarg room.  Turn right after bridge.  Then up steps across from pool.  Or climb garbage chute behind wolves."

The goblin chuckles darkly to himself when he suggests that second idea.

"Wolves fed.  They no try break free.  Hmm...  You make them grondo mad, they break free.  Eat your face.  Happen before.  Teasy get new name.  No Face!"

He cackles with malevolent glee.

Mittens shakes her head and clicks her tongue disapprovingly.  "Wow talk about poor working conditions.  I should report these guys to the Better Bandit Bureau.  'Missing fingers, eaten faces, and unfair pay.  Zero stars.'"

By now it is apparent no one is coming to calm the wolves.

"So which way should we go?  Past the wolves and up a garbage chute?  Or 'round the bend?  My vote is for the long way around.  Climbing a garbage chute doesn't sound like a smart invasion plan in this case."

Bri'kus thanked Meiou, but he used his own rope to bind them.

He thought about the options for a moment and realized,

Bri'kus thinks both ways are most likely traps!

"You might be right," Darcy said as he patted Bri on the head, "But I have a hunch that we have to try both.  We have an obligation to take out this Klarg, and we have two missing people to deal with."

She then looked back at the party and smiled.  "At least we have the needed skills, if you ask me."

Raichel says, "I vote we avoid the garbage chute. Those wolves bark so much, that if they stop barking, the enemy will think something is up. So we save the wolves for after we have gotten to Klarg."

He looks over at ben "yknow you sound like this half orc guy i read about once. Really into work place safety. Came up with this helmet to protect your head on the job."

after that reminiscence he looked back at mitts " I'm good either way though i feel like if we did take the chute only a couple of us might fit if its small. "

he put his rope away and fiddled with his weapon to have the magic core
recharge for more shots.

  "I can't decide if that is the sort of boring I would enjoy, or hate, Meiou.  These places can be as hazardous as they want, so long as it hurts the inhabitants more than visitors."

  He nods to Raichel, "While a good possibility for a few sneaking around, it does not sound quite so practical for a whole group of people to awkwardly shove themselves through in a row."

"Mittens thinks Bri'kus is right!  Both are likely traps.  So let's stay close and move slow.  More eyes means more chance of finding trouble before it finds us.

"Good thinking, Rai!  Let's make that Plan A, then.

"And yes!  I agree that we've got what it takes, Darcy!  Especially when we're taking out goblins so fast I don't even get a swing in..."

Mittens does not confirm nor deny any knowledge of a certain half-orc safety enthusiast.  She draws her weapons and starts entering the cave cautiously.

"Anyone got a torch or something?  My hands are full."

Bri'kus is glad that the party choose the slightly more stealthy approach and nodded along with the decision to avoid the chute altogether.

As the party proceeded and he followed close beside Darcy, he stopped for a brief moment to rummage though his pack and produce a flint, steel, and torch for Mittens to aid the quest. He lit the torch and handed it to Mittens.

Here you go. Bri'kus help!
This message was last edited by the player at 09:07, Sun 03 Dec 2017.

Darcy smiled at the Kolbold when he did that.  Then looked as far as she could into the cave.

"Two questions then.  One: what to do with the wolves?  Two: once we get to the fork, do we go right or left?"

Raichel smiles at Bri'kus.

Raichel's expression changes back to serious as she answers Darcy, "Whatever direction gets us to Klarg faster. He's their boss, so if we take him out, the others are more likely to surrender rather than fight. As for the wolves... I'm sorry to say, but they are too dangerous to allow them to live. When we are done with Klarg and his band of evil, we kill the wolves. If we set them free, they will injure or kill innocent travelers in the future."

A rickety bridge spans the passage ahead, connecting two tunnels that are 20 feet above the stream.

With the weak light of the torch, Darcy barely spots a bored-looking goblin lookout on the bridge.  He's flat on his back and playing with a stone, tossing it into the air and catching it.  If the torch is brought any closer, he'll likely notice the increase in light, but he seems otherwise oblivious.

( Confirmed by player:  Darcy lets the group know what she saw. )
This message was last edited by the player at 03:39, Wed 06 Dec 2017.

He grumbled quietly to himself. Yes lets leave the goblins who even without a bug bear boss around will likely continue to hurt people alive but kill the wolves who can possibly be tamed to not hurt unless told to. He didnt understand this logic but
as he was always told in some of the worst ways it was none of his dang business.
If this was what being a hero was like he wasn't sure he liked it.

  "The general idea of leaving the wolves until later is that wolves barking is less attention getting than wolves suddenly being silent, even without the obvious howls of pain before such."

  Given roaming packs of Elk will accost travelers for no reason, wolves already known for eating faces and fingers for laughs rate much higher to Ben than goblin bandits on the fantasy threat level.  It's all sympathy and putting them on shirts, until you are violently reminded bandits will never compare to deliberately homicidal wildlife.

  "I'll leave it to the rest of you to decide if we opt to fill this guard so full of holes he has no idea what happened, or try to take him alive as well."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:12, Wed 06 Dec 2017.

Mits smiles to Bri'kus' help.  "Thanks!"

She tries to hide cringing at the idea of killing the wolves and offers, "I'd like to try and tame them.  But we can fuss over what to do with the wolves after we've rescued the prisoner."

To Ben Mits answers, "Me and Rai can try and sneak up on him to knock him out.  If he resists arrest, feel free to go with the Swiss Cheese plan."

(( Mittens' 15 stealth result is enough to evade the notice of the goblin guard because she leaves the torch behind.  Her move speed is enough to get her to the bottom of the bridge.  Anyone entering the cave must make a DC 9 stealth check.  Anyone entering the cave with a light source automatically fails.  At this point, anyone with ranged attack options can ready a ranged attack against the goblin guard.  Ranged attacks against the prone goblin have disadvantage. ))