Neffy

---

For the first few steps of the encounter, it seemed like things were going relatively well. Neffy had struck her targets the blades of water slashing and slamming into a goblin, nearly taking its head. In the ensuing confusion, Neffy would attempt to disengage, moving away from the others to get a bit of room to assess so she could strike more effectively and quickly...but it seemed the Goblins had a nasty little surprise up their sleeve.

"...Necromancy! A magic-caster?" Neffy would question. Well that would prove difficult to deal with. This would be a battle of attrition if they couldn't get to the one casting that magic then...thankfully, she liked to think she was good at moving through the battlefield quickly. "...Let me...handle it. Cover me." Neffy would say, wanting to get this threat finished off before it would take too much longer. If the others could at least clear a path or occupy the others then the easier time she'd have a chance of slipping in and finishing him off.

Of course she didn't have long, so she'd go ahead and keep her blade drawn, darting past the nearest goblin as she'd make an attempt to look for the one chanting those spells and preparing one of her own in to retaliate if she needed.

"Get down!" was the only warning anyone got before Corinne's spell completed, courtesy of Liliane watching Nerffy dive into the mass of goblins. Not that she was in too much danger, thanks to Leon's unexpectedly preparatory work. The staff lowered, pointing at one damp goblin, and a brilliant bolt arced out from it, striking the goblin square in the chest--and then jumping to another one, and another, and another, the jumping arc of lightning accompanied each time by a near-deafening crack of thunder. Thanks to the water, the chances that it would divert to Neffy were slim.

It wasn't enough to get all of them at all, but the magical blast would certainly reduce the numbers to something more manageable for the warriors to cover, and maybe even give Neffy a distraction to bring down the necromancer before it raised any more enemies. Corinne's panting strongly suggested she wasn't going to pull off something like that again, not for now.

Just as it seemed like they had the goblins on the verge of defeat, a spell flashed from behind the goblin horde. The goblins slain by the adventurers stood back up, reanimated by foul magics, and the still-living greenskins rallied around it, unconcerned with seeing their fellows' bodies defiled by such dark magic.

There was a necromancer among them.

Neffy surged forward, asking the others to cover her. No doubt she intended to slay the necromancer and destroy the keystone holding this goblin band together. Unfortunately, she did so just as Corrine finished channeling another one of her destructive spells.

"Neffy! Be careful!" shouted Léon as he watched the Nem Corrine's spell finish and fire. Fortunately, thanks to the cleric's water magic, the lightning chained to the wet goblins instead of the dry Nem. It hadn't been his intention to soften them up for a lightning spell, but it was a welcome surprise. Clearly, Corrine was smarter than she let on, to utilize lightning magic on soaked goblins.

There was no time to admire his companions, though- they had to shut down this necromancer before it could cast more of its evil magic, and Neffy needed support to keep the goblins from surrounding and overwhelming her. Léon put away his scepter, grabbed his hammer, and followed the Nem into the fray, striking a goblin in his way with enough force to send it flying. Normally, such an act would no doubt be foolhardy and risky, but the Nem needed them to back her up, and he was confident that Nuri would be right there with them.

@Rune_Alchemist

Nuri flinched away as the lightning bolt plowed through the goblins. "Well struck! We'll just have to kill them twice!" Nuri shouted boistrously, her heart racing. Necromantic goblins. What was next? It didn't matter. A paladin destroys all evil, regardless of the form it takes.

The momentum of the team swung into a more offensive approach. Nobody wanted to deal with the necromancer constantly bringing goblins back to life. Therefore, they had to push forward and through. Nuri was more than happy to take said approach. She followed Nem and Leon into the battle. As Leon knocked one away, she bifurcated a goblin right down the middle.

"Let's turn up the heat!" Nuri shouted. She lowered her sword to her side, and leaned forward. Sprinting, she yelled out and Flameburst right through the goblin lines. Several would be sent scattering if they couldn't dodge, burned and battered to boot. Nuri shot forward at high speed, leaving a trail of flames behind her.

Surging ahead, she hoped to bully her way through the orc-kin, make her way to the necromancer, and chop their head clean off their shoulders.

The foul scent of burning flesh filled the air, and the shrieks of goblins whose confidence had been dealt a severe blow. Emboldened by the revival of their dead, the greenskinned orc-kin had immediately set upon Neffy to try and cut her down or do any number of terrible things to the nem. While her agility meant she was difficult to catch, there were still a considerable number of goblins... until the crack of thunder came and the creatures began to fall to the ground, twitching and smoking before lying still. Certainly, not all of them were caught in the spell's effects, but even the chanting ceased for a moment as the unseen necromancer was clearly startled.

Surviving goblins closer to the fight leapt back with cries of fear, only for one of their number to be sent flying with his chest caved in and several others to be sent hurtling into the air, burning as they did.

But the ominous chanting was already resuming, and the most intact of the deceased goblins were beginning to twitch.

Only...

Neffy would be the first to see him.

The Goblin necromancer was immediately recognizable, clad in ragged robes of black fur and feathers with a helmet fashion from the skull of a deer covering his face. In his hand, he gripped as staff topped with a human skull, one that looked like it had only recently been prepared for such a purpose, various fragments of bone dangling from round it. The eye sockets were glowing a sickly green.

He was still some distance away, but if he could be stopped quickly...!

@Rune_Alchemist@Raineh Daze@Crimson Paladin@Zoey Boey

Neffy

---

Another, less trained individual, might have flinched or otherwise faltered at hearing the words get down, shouted across the field, or taken their advice. But of course, doing so wouldn't be her job, now would it? It was certainly dangerous, but if they couldn't get to the necromancer before he overwhelmed them with the dead, then that would be even more dangerous. The smell of burning flesh assaulted her nostrils, but she didn't think of it.

Her target had already been spotted. A foul creature, clad in black robes decorated with feathers. A skull of a dear, for a helmet. It was already attempting to channel more foul magic. Faster, she had to be faster. She focused energy from her blade towards her feet. Desert winds carrying her swiftly as she could across the floor. Quickly, before he could raise them again!

"Mist...!" And just to be safe - a flash of her blade, a brief incantation and a thick mist would escape from the enchanted weapon, a few steps later the area around her had been obscured by the thick fog, blocking the target from seeing her. A brief moment more of confusion while he couldn't see her was all she'd need. Second, two watery blades towards the goblins staff and body - for a distraction as well as interrupting his spellcasting. She wasn't going to attack him head on, no. Instead, hopefully while distracted, she'd drive the sword into the Shaman's back.

Of course, she was utterly terrified of fighting a goblin like this.

Trina had hidden up high, far out of eye level of a bunch of goblins. Now they were all being rather focused on her teammates and being mowed down... Sort of. The ones that should have died from that electricity just now were starting to twitch. "Damnit, who fu--" Trina started to question before looking over at the group of goblins and noticing a certain one with a staff. "Fine, if no one else will, I damn well do it my damn self." The little flying fairy said she hugged the ceiling. She quickly zipped along the corner, above Goblin eye level and away from goblin focus. Quiet as a mouse, she made it to the back of the goblin troop and looked at the one with the staff and a deer skull with sickly green glowing eyes. From a position basically above this magic user, she descended quickly and put her hand to the creature's neck, delivering a rather obnoxious shock to it's neck.

At least, that was the plan. As she got closer, she noticed a certain partner of hers was using her amazing attack powers to fog the area. None of those other bozos would have the brains to do something like this after all! Still... she was just about at the Goblin's neck when the blades of water hit the goblin. Well, this was actually a pretty good thing. Water just made the electricity hurt more. There was that one time.... Uhh... What's her name. The Lightning Fairy girl from forever ago.... She accidently hit that pond with electricity and all the fish went glugglugglug.... It was kinda funny. As soon as the Goblin staggered from getting hit, the fairy quickly went to his neck and delivered as strong an electric shock as she could muster before backing off... And picking his spooky deer skull hat off his head with her super special lifting magic!

Animal skull helmet, human skull staff, that must be our necromancer, Léon thought to himself as the uniquely attired goblin came into view. They needed to move fast, as the necromancer was already casting another spell of reanimation, raising the goblins that they had just killed. There was still a bit of distance to traverse,

He didn't get a lot of time to get a good look at it, though, because Neffy cast a spell conjuring a shroud of mist, obscuring both her and their target from Léon's view. While his powers over water would probably allow him to dispel or shift the mist so it wasn't in his way, he didn't want to risk interfering with whatever plans Neffy had. Instead, he would make his way around the fog and attempt to flank the necromancer.

He rested his hammer on his shoulder and used his free hand to draw his scepter, which he used to fire another torrent of water at whatever goblins were in his path. Killing them seemed pointless as long as the necromancer was alive- they'd get back up regardless of whether they were dead or alive- and at this moment he just needed to move them out of his way so he'd have a path to the necromancer's right flank. Once he was through, he'd holster his scepter so he could wield his hammer with both hands. It'd mean he'd have to fight the necromancer without full use of his magic, but with goblins on every side, he didn't want to be without a weapon that could be swung in a wide arc.

The goblin Necromancer staggered back, surprised to be so directly attacked so quickly. First the blades of water sent him staggering, then the shock to his neck drew forth a garbled screech as he lost his headdress, waving his staff frantically. His twisting caused him to immediately notice the man attempting to flank him, the sickly green light building in the skull's eyesockets-

And then the nem's sword plunged into his back.

The necromancer let out an awful shriek, dropping his staff with a clatter and weakly clutching at the blade protruding from his chest, cutting his fingers on the edge as dark red blood splattered onto the floor.

After a few moments, his movements slackened, and he fell limp.

The goblins that had been reviving abruptly dropped back down, falling still.

The living goblins watched in shock as their leader died before their eyes.

With a flurry of frantic chattering, they immediately began to scatter, their morale shattered. For the moment, at least.

@Rune_Alchemist@Raineh Daze@Crimson Paladin@Zoey Boey

Neffy

---

Oh thank the goddess.

Neffy would pull her blade from the goblins corpse, glad that it had worked. Really, she was glad she hadn't ended up a Nem-kebab or something. Thankfully it all went well. She had already been thinking of all the ways it could have gone wrong. She would turn to face the others with her, breathing a bit heavily but otherwise, outwardly fairly calm looking despite her thoughts traveling faster than Trina ran after stealing a cake.

"...I-is that all of them?" She'd quietly ask aloud, taking a quick look around, prepared to do her job more if she had too. Ugh, direct confrontations like this wasn't what she liked doing.

"There is no payment for eradicating all the goblins, non?" Corinne wondered, looking around at the fried corpses and giving the continued impression of being just a little out of place: noble, well-dressed, and just not someone who should be surrounded by a pile of dead goblins. But even a rather incompetent Hundi couldn't look too out of place in this sort of situation.

"Maybe a second job if we tell them," Liliane stated, fastidiously cleaning off the poison and sliding the daggers carefully away, looking thoughtful, "Three if you worded it the right way."

The pouting expression on the mage's face suggested that she wasn't on board with a mercenary idea like sparing the goblins and trying to extract as many easy jobs as possible. "But if we do it now...?"

... of course, neither of them were in a position where they'd starve if jobs dried up, even if Liliane wasn't used to that. Others might have different thoughts on the matter.

Nuri kicked after the goblins. "Begone! You little worms." There was a laugh in her voice.

She walked over to Neffy and leaned over, setting a hand on the little woman's shoulder. "You did spectacularly! What a stab!" She mimed the motion with her free hand. "And the rest of you, too. We make a great team. I sense good times, real good times, ahead."

Nuri reached into her satchel and pulled out a rag, and she began to wipe her blade down. "No, we're not here for the goblins. We're just here to take what we can find." She flipped up her visor to peer at her allies with her eyes. "But. The little bastards are evil incarnate. See a goblin, kill a goblin, it's as easy as that. We'd be doing the world a favor." Though. Once again. Pet goblin? Friend goblin..? Maybe. No. Probably not. If she got enough money she'd try it one day. But she wasn't planning on letting someone get their face eaten off for one of her whimsies.

Let's follow them. They probably have the artifacts tossed in a big pile somewhere." With that Nuri turned and began to jog after the goblins, hoping to track their little foot prints and listen for their chattering.

The battle was over. The necromancer had been slain, the undead goblins fell lifeless, and the living survivors retreated. Léon took a sigh of relief and lowered his hammer. He lifted his helmet just long enough to look over himself robes to ensure that there were no wounds on him. Fortunately, the blood splatter on his robe was not his.

Now would be a good time to provide any healing required, he thought. He wasn't a very experienced adventurer, but he understood that these moments of calm were the time to provide healing, because they couldn't be sure the goblins would come back, and there was no telling when they'd get another opportunity. None of his companions appeared injured, but he knew better than to make such assumptions.

"Is anyone injured and in need of healing?" the cleric asked the group. "Did anyone get scratched or nicked by the goblins?"

Nuri, as was fitting for a Reonite paladin, was already planning to pursue the goblins further into their cave. Léon was a bit uncomfortable killing retreating foes, but there was some logic in her actions. The goblins could regroup and return, and as long as they were nearby, the group would not be able to relax. On the other hand, there was some risk in pursuing them into their tunnels, especially at a hasty pace. If the goblins made their home in these tunnels, there could be traps, fortifications, and even more goblins.

Assuming nobody needed healing, Léon hurried after Nuri, not wanting her to go unsupported.

"Careful, Nuri, there could be traps ahead," he urged her. This seemed like a rather risky course of action to rush in like this without letting the Nem and fairy scout the tunnels out, but he simply didn't have the boldness to directly tell Nuri that. He was fearful of where they would go, and certainly didn't want to go down this path himself, but it was his duty as a Cup, as a cleric, and as a Mayonite to support, protect, and look after the well-being of his companions.

@Zoey Boey

Trina for her part took to the air, making sure to stay out of the way of any of the retreating goblins. She watched as the goblin necromancer's headdress was left on the ground and she was interested in it. After the goblins retreated and her party gathered back, she flew down and picked up the headdress. She struggled a small bit at first until she got the center of gravity right and was able to float around with it over her head.

First she floated over to Neffy and bragged. "What do you think? Stylish, huh?"

Then she saw that one paladin run off, getting into some sort of trouble. Then the one cleric said something after her. "Ahh, she ran off like an idiot." The fairy floated over to the cleric and spoke, "If the idiot wants to get skewered by a ton of arrows on our behalf, I ain't saying no to that kinda' shit!" She didn't seem all too bothered about it. Or worried. Really, nothing seemed to worry her too much so far. "We just follow behind her and if we find a paladin with all sorts of wooden shafts poking out, we know where to be careful." From there, she floated back over to Neffy with a tiny cackle.

The goblin's chattering was slowly fading into the darkness. It still sounded quite frantic, terrified even, at their situation. One of their leaders had just been slaughtered, perhaps the leader of this entire band of goblins. And now they were seemingly being pursued. While it first seemed as if there would be no-where for the orc-kin to go, but then it became clear there were crevices, gaps in the walls in some places, through which they were able to slip. Indeed, the buried temple was quite large in size, and rooms branched off on either side.

More disturbing was the sheer amount of bones now scattered across the floor. Somewhat reassuringly, they were extremely aged. While it still implied a tragedy, it was a distant one.

With that being said, the presence of the goblins meant that there had to be some kind of other access point to the buried temple. Additionally, there were multiple paths deeper, and while the goblins were fleeing in terror that didn't mean there were no further threats.

There were no signs of any relics here, so the only choice was to go deeper.

@Rune_Alchemist@Raineh Daze@Crimson Paladin@Zoey Boey

They didn't manage to catch the goblins, but fortunately for both the paladin and cleric, they did not run into any traps either. It was evident judging on where they had found themselves, in a path branching off, that the temple was bigger than Léon had anticipated, and that they'd need to do quite a bit of exploring in this place.

With the adrenaline of the battle dissipating, the dread that this place emanated came back over the young cleric. How exactly does a temple end up buried underground like this? This strange, underground, desecrated place was like something out of a nightmare. At least he wasn't alone down here.

The cleric cast a small light spell to get a better look at their surroundings. The bones he saw at his feet looked human, but also quite old, old enough that they were evidently of no use to that goblin necromancer. Perhaps they were from people who discovered this place by accident years or decades ago, or perhaps even the original inhabitants.

"We'd better not split up," he advised the group. "The goblins could regroup, and there could be more out there, so it'll be safest if we stick together." It'd mean more time spent combing through these ruins, but even with the apprehension he felt, Léon wanted to be quite thorough in their search of this place. Given the age of this place, even seemingly innocuous objects could be considered coveted relics. It was also imperative that they be very careful when handling any ancient trinkets they find.

"Oh, and perhaps we should leave some sort of mark to help us find our way out of here?" he asked. "I don't know how big this place is, and I'd rather not get turned around in here in case we need to make a hasty exit."