Goblin Quest - Loot Goblins

Beneath layers of stone and silence, the Bayside Stranglers descended deeper into the heart of the dragonslayer's tomb. They passed through a chamber where an altar bearing a winged eye marked the wall’s eastern curve. A chalice of gold rested beside a leather-bound prayerbook—its pages old and brittle with time, filled with words once whispered to the god Aroden. Being goblins with little use for longshank religion, and even less for the written word, Xmoek pocketed the chalice and left the book to continue to rot.   Beyond the shrine lay a larger domed chamber. Lightning tingled in the air, and the floor shimmered like the skin of a brass dragon. Blue glass mosaics of dragons glinted with malice. Standing too long sparked pain—subtle, but growing. Gakk quickly bypassed the door’s lock with a grin and a click.   The next room curved like a hunter’s draw. Four statues of archers aimed at the corners of the room. Xmoek read the inscription beneath the statues and gave the command. Gooch manhandled the statues into alignment, and with a groan of shifting stone, a staircase revealed itself beneath their feet.   It led to a death chamber.   Four tiers descended toward a central sarcophagus. Fourteen statues loomed—hammer-wielding guardians frozen in judgment. Gakk stepped forward. And the statues moved.   Four Azer guardians struck with brutal force, their flaming bodies crackling as if alive with trapped infernos. Gakk danced between them, drinking a mutagen mid-vault over the stone sarcophagus. Gooch lunged with a furious glee, tearing into the constructs with flaming claws. Xmoek’s Snowball Swarm shattered their defenses. The guardians were not meant for this kind of assault. When the dust settled, silence returned.   Inside the sarcophagus lay a long-dead warrior in golden full plate, ringed with draconic engravings.   Back in the entryway, the stairs spiraled further into blackness. The next chamber stank of mold and iron. Water filled the floor, knee-deep and cold. Around the room, sealed sarcophagi waited like unopened threats.   They did not wait long.   The dead stirred—drowned priests or cursed knights, it mattered little. They rose in ones and twos. Gooch tackled the first with his jaws wide. Gakk bombed the second. Xmoek rained fire and ice indiscriminately. But these were not mindless corpses—some drained strength, others life.   A spectral figure rose from the central sealed coffin, wreathed in spite and armed with a Rod of Wonder. Gooch was nearly torn down. But the goblins were no strangers to suffering. The last shade fell to magic and teeth.   Time to recover. Xmoek produced a scroll of Restoration to help Gooch regain his strength. The first scroll misfired and exploded in Gakk's face. But the second scroll casting took—and Gooch was made whole.   Back in the blue dragon room, a section of the wall had slid open. Beyond was the final tomb. A carved woman in armor lay atop a sealed sarcophagus. This was no trap.   Lady Tula—the famed dragonslayer, long dead but not forgotten—spoke to them in an ethereal voice. She recognized the ring they carried, her beloved’s. She did not weep. She only nodded. A spectral hand retrieved the ring from them.   In return, she gave them her legacy.