Zyman had surgical and medical knowledge and expertise, but Rollo seemed to be fine superficially, indicating likely a magical or psychological problem. Not wanting to shy away from the task, he instead spent most of the days' travels silently observing the dwarf, trying to gage any information by the slightest reactions the dwarf showed. 

 He was feeling uneasy about their mission: they were a mixed bag, and too large for effective scouting, yet too small for dealing with any sizable enemy groups. If they had to fight, then he'd have to use his powers again, although he was frightened of whatever that entailed… he still shivered when remembering that voice.

Gaston's hideout is a welcome surprise, and Zyman humbly accepts the invitation to enter the shelter and partake of the dwarf's food. As he sees Edeleth reacting to the scratching sounds, he readies himself for action too, casting mage armor on himself and getting towards the far wall, towards the back of the room.

After examining Rollo, Zyman sees something wiggling in the corner of his right eye...some sort of larva...

The shovels get louder, as well as the voices...anyone who speaks draconic can DEFINITELY understand them by now...

Gaston pulls out his crossbow, kicks one of the beds sideways and takes cover ..."Kobolts..."

Roscoe grabs his two battleaxes and finds comfort in knowing that he kept his armor on. He lets out a low growl as a start of a battle cry and moves towards where Gaston has taken cover. "This happen often here?," he asks Gaston.

Edeleth backs away from the wall so as not to get a pickaxe through his head.

"This seems like a lot of trouble to go to just to steal your secret fishing spot."

He'll switch to his bow and join Gaston behind the bed.

The Southernmost wall of Gaston's hideout starts to slowly crumble apart as the shovels pierce through it...minutes later, a Kobolt, covered in dirt, and wielding a pickaxe, stumbles through the first opening big enough...at first, he just looks surprised to find the hideout, and just looks around blurting "Eeeeh?"

Everyone may roll a Stealth check to be hidden when he finally stumbles through, or at least take about 5-10minutes to prepare/do something...

Rosri will hide behind one of the beds furthest from the wall. stealth: 22 

He shoots the Kobold once it stumble out. 

Ooc: Can Rosri load both his hand crossbow and after shooting disregard one of them? if not ignore the first shot

Attack: 25 Damage: 10  sneak damage: 8

Attack: 26 Damage: 10  sneak damage: 6

Stealth 9

Edeleth had assumed that any fighting they would be doing would be outdoors in wide open spaces, and so as usual, had prepared the completely wrong spell list for the current situation. Most of his prepared spells will hurt his friends as much as the kobolds in tight, close-quarters fighting.

If they get surprise he shoots an arrow first. 14 to hit 11 damage

If not, or in the next round, he casts Create Bonfire in the tunnel mouth as soon as the first kobold comes through. Any kobold who comes through the fire must make a DC 15 Dex saving roll or take 10 fire damage.

The dice thing came up because I inserted the part about the arrow attack after initially just saying the Bonfire...no point wasting stealth on a spoken spell right away. Looks like the arrow will miss, anyway.

Zyman quickly grabs Rollo, and shoves him outside, to the mules. "Rollo, stay here. You are to protect our transport, without this, we can't carry on, you hear me?"

It was a less than elegant solution, but if they were about to be attacked by kobolds, there was no time to deal with the relatively likely scenario that Rollo had some kind of parasite controlling him. At worst, he was controlled by someone to observe them, in which case that entity might try and escape with the transport he so obviously pointed out. Another possibility was that Rollo was dead already, and in fact simply acted as a shell to whatever crawled around in there…

"Focus, damnit!" Zyman told himself. He'd have time to ponder Rollo afterwards, for now, he readied himself, opening the inner door to that whirl of dark power, whispering to him and waiting to be unleashed. "No, I don't want to destroy them… maybe there's a good reason they are here. Whatever it is, I want to have time to ask them… For that, I want them to hold still"

Roscoe, ready to attack whatever came through the wall decided to wait patiently behind the makeshift cover until the moment was right. If he could surprise the threat, maybe the fight wouldn't have to be a long bloody one.

Stealth: 16

SURPRISE ROUND

Edeleth fires an arrow and misses, but Rosri immediately shoots the confused Kobolt through the skull.

As the next one steps in, Gaston unleashes a crossbow bolt, and kills him instantly. And as the third one stumbles in, Zyman is able to cast Hold Person on him. The Kobolt just stands there, blocking the way for the others. Roscoe's danger sense definitely kicks in, as he can see a long, long tunnel behind the Kobolt, and dozens of his buddies trying to get past him.

Rollo is outside and left him with the Mules....

Now, Everyone roll INITIATIVE!

17

Rosri ducks down to hide 29 and reload his crossbow. 

ooc: the 17 is initiative

Edeleth initiative 23

Zyman initiative: 14

Before any more kobolds can burst in through the hole, or end up getting killed, Zyman shouts: « We clearly have you outmatched. What do you seek here? Because if you do so with blade and violence, you shall find nothing but the anyss! »

Intimidation: 10

OOC: How far can we see down the tunnel?

Only about 20 feet. The Kobolts cramped up in the tunnel kind of block the view

OOC: Does my intimidation have any effect? Any of them hesitating or willing to talk?)

OOC: Well, since we are waiting--how wide is the tunnel?  Can we see what weapons the kobolds are carrying? Wondering if any have ranged weapons.

EDIT: I suppose a perception roll might help. 14

Roscoe Initiative: 14

(OOC: Well, pretty sure the Kobolds won't beat an initiative roll of 23, so....)

Edeleth can see far enough down the tunnel to do what he needs to.

Taking a handful of thorns from his component pouch, he gestures and speaks some sharp words in Druidic.  The earthen floor of the tunnel twists, and spiky, razor-sharp thorns burst from the ground. 

Spike Growth has a 20 foot radius and Edeleth casts it 20 feet down the tunnel: 40 feet of the tunnel are now hazardous terrain, camouflaged so that anyone who was not in the spell area and could not see the ground before the spell was cast is unlikely to even notice the danger. (Wis save DC15 to recognize it.)

After casting the spell, Edeleth drops prone, taking cover behind the bed where he was crouching as completely as possible.  For the next ten minutes (or until his concentration is broken) any kobold who moves into or within the spell's area takes 2 piercing damage for every 5 feet they move.

That should give Zyman all the time he needs to chat with them...unless they are stupid enough to keep moving. In which case, very few of them will survive the tunnel of thorns.

(Edit: assuming that the spell extends from the point where it is cast, the thorns should start right inside the tunnel opening.)