This scene was originally written within Google Wave. The scene has been transcribed here for completeness, and has been edited where required.

The original Wave is now lost with the demise of Google Wave, but the PDF extract of that original scene is provided here.

Complete
Combat Encounter Completed

01) [25] Kireth - 1d20+6+2: 25 - HP: 17/23
03) [16] Khalin - 1d20+1+2: 16 - HP: 23/26
04) [13] Celestia - 1d20+1+2: 13 - HP: 10/26 (Bloodied)
05) [11] Tradden - 1d20+3+2: 11 - HP: 26/32
06) [10] Zero - 1d20+4+2: 10 - HP: 25/30

Removed from Play:
02) [18] Hobgoblin Mercenaries - 1d20+7: 18
Hobgoblin Mercenary #01 Dmg: 7+11+6+8+6+7=45 (Bloodied)
Hobgoblin Mercenary #02 Dmg: 5+10+14+8+9=46 (Bloodied)

All squares that contain a small triangle in the bottom right hand corner are marked as difficult terrain and cost two squares worth of movement to enter.

Illumination: Darkness, with light provided by torchlight. Visibility shown on map.

The smell of oil played on his mind almost as much as arrows sailing passed. Fire in this room may well cause the death of their assailants but, considering the enclosed nature of this chamber, how much peril would it also put himself in?

Easing himself just past Tradden, to better see this latest ‘test’, Kireth caught sight of the creature.

Steeling his eyes on his foes, Kireth began to weave his hands around an unseen object, his pace quickening. Small sparks began to crackle in the space between his hands and the small hairs on the arms of his comrades raised slightly. ‘Templa Koron!’ The sparks, now moulded into a spherical shape, shot from Kireth’s grasp straight towards one of his foes.

‘Ow!’ Zero screamed, staggering back a step.

Khalin exchanged a wink with Tradden then scuttled forward as quickly as he could behind his shield, staying low to the ground and behind the line of the nearest sarcophagus.

As he reached the first tomb he dropped into a crouch behind the cover and raised his shield above his head.

Celestia moved forwards carefully, eventually passing Zero as she sought to gain a suitable position from which to attack the first hobgoblin. The scent of oil certainly perturbed her somewhat, but she reasoned that any damage from her action would surely engulf her enemy who was hidden behind his protective barricade. She remained at what she believed would be a protected distance and took out the Holy Symbol, which she raised aloft and prepared to strike.

Tradden had fallen into a slow trot behind Khalin as the warlord had charged forward behind his shield. As the dwarf slid to a halt and hefted his shield above his head, Tradden burst into a sprint, his two swords now drawn and flailing behind him.

As he reached the kneeling dwarf, Tradden leapt up onto the shield, now held up at an inviting height, and as both feet took purchase on the detailed reliefs and carvings which adorned its surface he used his momentum to leap again, this time assisted by a hefty shove from Khalin, who roared mightily with the effort.

Tradden was catapulted forward into the air!

It was about this time that Celestia’s Sacred Flame had powered down onto the other hobgoblin, who shrieked with pain as the energy lapped around him. As the magical light flickered out of existence the hobgoblin the other side of the sarcophagus from Khalin squinted to recover his low light vision, only to find that when he did his enemy was a whole lot closer than had previously been the case — the young human with the two swords was suddenly right in front of him! Tradden had indeed fleet-footedly leapt right over the sarcophagus and down onto the other side.

‘Have at thee, cur!’ snarled Tradden. He had read it in a book.

Tradden’s nose wrinkled with the increased smell of oil — it seemed to be stronger here.

As the fighter steeled himself for any retaliation from the greenskin, he began to worry that he may, once again, have charged in without thinking things through properly…

Zero watched the athletic Tradden, half-impressed, half-baffled. He was very comfortable where he was, thank you.

He raised his crossbow and let a bolt fly at the other hobgoblin.

Kireth’s mind swam slightly, a dizziness from the pain in his arm overcoming him momentarily. He had never been hurt like this before and the sensation was… irratating. He looked up from his wound and made direct eye contact with the hobgoblin. The hobgoblin smiled a jagged toothy grin back at the mage daring him to ‘do something about it’.

Kireth did.

‘Gurtha da Sinome!’ A purplish dart streamed through the air, striking the grinning hobgoblin right between the eyes.

Khalin lowered his shield and jumped onto the top of the sarcophagus ready to attack the hobgoblin.

Khalin managed to stumble out of the sarcophagus and past Tradden before the lantern’s fire spread through the oil, creating a burning inferno that would surely seriously harm anyone entering. Without looking back at the flames, Khalin continued his attack against the hobgoblin.

…which opened up an opportunity for Zero to let loose a bolt into the hobgoblin’s midriff.

It was clear now that the the hobgoblin before her was in bad shape, blood was dripping to the floor directly in front of it and weak moans we issuing from its lips. She decided to soften him up a little further and perhaps also provide some advantage to her allies. Once again she raised the golden symbol above her head and spoke softly to it.

Enthused by the pulse of golden light that had emanated from Celestia, Tradden continued his assault on the hapless hobgoblin, determined that it would fall beneath his blades, which flicked out viciously, one after another…

Tradden felt the satisfaction of both blades biting home.

Wasting no time, the young fighter raced off down the passageway in the hope of flanking the other greenskin.

‘Come on Khalin — I am one up already — you don’t want to miss the next one as well do you?’ echoed Tradden’s mischeivous taunt around the corridor as his disappeared around the corner, leaving the warlord in his wake.

Zero took careful aim at the remaining hobgoblin, patiently waiting for it to pop its head over the sarcophagus.

Kireth watched one of their enemy fall and the other staggering woozerly, a crossbow bolt sticking at a jagged angle from its thigh. This was exhilerating, this was brutal, this was… fun.

Were it not for the pain emanating from his arm, he might even laugh. Raising his arm once more, ‘Gurtha da Sinome!’ came the familiar call.

Khalin lumbered round the corner, his shorter legs unable to keep up with Tradden initially.

‘You’re only one up by standing on the shoulders of… er.. dwarves!’ Khalin reminded his comrade as he drew alongside and immediately struck at the ailing hobgoblin — keeping his shield at the ready for any counter.

Celestia needed to get closer to the action; but first she would have to scale the obstacle that was before her.

Tradden heard a clatter, a splash and a female scream from around the corner. Having seen Khalin nearly come to grief with the trapped sarcophagus he and the warlord had just negotiated, even though he could actually see Celestia from where he was, he knew that the elven cleric had fallen prey to a similar trap on the other tomb.

Even though the lady had to date shown him nothing but an icy cordiality, Tradden still found his blood boiling with the thought of her fair form coming to harm, and with a vicious war cry he smashed into the wounded and dazed hobgoblin, focusing on catching the fiend with enough of a blow to finish him off…

The abrupt cessation of the gurgled cry from the greenskin told Tradden everything he needed to know about its status in the mortal world, and so he did not even stop to make sure of the kill, but rather kept moving, careening around the corner to the inferno now blazing in and over the stone coffin.

Dropping both blades onto the floor he seized his chance when almost straight away there was the briefest of windows in the rolling flames — reaching into the flaming maelstrom he was elated to immediately get a solid handhold on part of her armour, and he heaved with all his might with one arm whilst using his other to maintain a levering purchase on the edge of the sarcophagus.

Tradden was well built for this kind of effort, and whilst it was neither gracious nor gentle, it was effective — the priestess of Melora came flying out of the conflagration and landed heavily on the stone tiles. Not oblivious to her wails of pain but mindful that she was not out of danger yet, the young fighter, now on his knees next to her prone form, quickly rolled her over a few times away from the fire, his hands at the same time working to extinguish any flames that remained and wipe off as much as of the remaining oil as was possible.

The whole thing had happened in a handful of heartbeats, and now Tradden sat back, exhausted, hoping that he had done enough to prevent the elf from an earlier than intended meeting with her patron, Melora.

Tradden, still sat on the floor, piped up. ‘You know,’ he said, fixing the ghost with his best angry stare, ‘I get the distinct feeling that these chaps,’ he motioned in the vague direction of the two corpses, ‘did not have to go through all these games and tasks!’

He stood up, dusting himself off and wiping his oily hands on the wall. ‘Also, we are just here to find two lost boys, not desecrate old tombs and set up incendiary,’ (he was pleased with the use of that word — it was one of his favourites, and he got very little chance to use it) ‘traps for the unwary. Where were you whilst they were doing that, hmm?’

Rant over, the young fighter knelt down to again tend to Celestia.

Zero nearly jumped out of skin at the reappearance of the spirit. He froze, praying it wouldn’t turn around and look at him instead of the others.

Celestia was a bit frazzled, but seemed essentially alright, so Tradden turned his attention to the apparition, leaving Khalin to stand guard over the way further into the complex.

Stood with his hands on his hips at one side of the coffin which had nearly done for Celestia, he surveyed the main area, strewn with the remains of warlords long departed.

‘Right, fine,’ sighed Tradden, and with that he picked up his swords and re-sheathed them before lightly vaulting over the sarcophagus. As he worked he could be heard muttering under his breath about how he thought that fine warriors were buried with ornate armour and magical swords. He would have worked faster but for Zero, who had taken to standing very close and moving around so as to always keep Tradden in-between him and the spectre.

Before too long he had collected up all the bones and laid them, gently in the end because he was a bit superstitious, back in the open tomb. The lid was a lost cause given the way the traps had been constructed  — the young fighter hoped that this would not be a problem for the ghost.

Ignoring Zero’s reaction, Tradden walked over to the stairs and knelt down to inspect the small crack.

Tradden looked at the crack, and then the shadow. Then the crack again, and once again at the shadow. All that time a more incredulous and dark look appeared on his face.

He turned around and stalked back to where Khalin stood, hopping over the now bone filled sarcophagus along the way. Stopping next to the dwarf he drew his longsword with a flourish.

‘From what I can gather, yonder ghostie is now concerned about the finer points of ongoing damage to the stonework of the tomb. I for one have had enough of this nonsense — you are a master craftsman, you go see if you can help out the see-through, mad old coot!’

With that Tradden fixed his gaze on the southern passageway.

‘I can take a look,’ Khalin shrugged. He wandered back over to the bottom of the staircase and dropped onto a knee to cast his artisan’s eye over the crack…

‘Fascinating. Fine craftmanship to be sure,’ Khalin turned the bracers over in his hand. ‘Flames. Hmm, more reference to the dragon-god perhaps? But these don’t look like dwarven runes.’

The dwarf turned his attention to the small bottle next. ‘Kireth, Celestia, you’re man and maid of magic, what do you make of this vial? Some potion within perhaps?’

Whilst Khalin, Kireth and Celestia were looking over the items found in the secret compartment, Tradden called over Zero. The two chatted as they searched the bodies of the two hobgoblins, and then lifted down the lid of the remaining sarcophagus and found some loose bits of masonry to place on either side to allow the group better passage up and down.

‘You ok, Zero? That ghost really seemed to spook you?’ enquired Tradden of his friend as they worked.

‘Hmm,’ said Tradden, grinning. ‘Just remember my invite!’

With that, the two went back to the southernmost sarcophagus and clambered over to the otherside. As Zero started to check the passageway for any tell-tale signs of trap or secret door, Tradden took down the now unlit lantern, filled up its reservoir and clipped it to his belt. It was an old, rickety thing, and it clanked about a bit as he walked, but it would do.

‘Just in case,’ he said, to no one in particular.

That said, he stood with Zero, drawing his shortsword, ready to move down the passage when the others were ready.

Whatever Khalin had just mumbled to him, something about a bottle, was completely lost. Kireth’s eyes blazed intensely, fixated entirely upon the bracers the dwarf was rolling around in his hands.

He marched directly to Khalin and reached a hand to take them. Then he paused. ‘Umm, may I?’ he asked politely.

‘Er, aye, alright,’ stammered Khalin quite taken aback.

Were it possible, Kireth’s eyes flickered more, excitement dancing in them for all to see. ‘These,’ he said holding them up to the light, ‘are very special my friends. But how special? I wonder.’

‘Yes, hmm, yes.. ok . Rig…’ The mage’s eyes opened to a new level. ‘Oh my g…’ Kireth looked up at his companions’ faces.

‘Oh, nothing special about these old things,’ he said, folding them away within his robe. Tradden’s mouth opened slightly.

‘I’m joking,’ Kireth jibed taking the bracers back out.

The party did not quite know how to take this new, excited Kireth. He narrowed his eyes at the lack of response, as if to confirm this lighter mood was not to last. He looked from Khalin to Tradden and back to Khalin. He held the bracers out to the dwarf. Khalin looked at him.

‘Well take them, then!’ snapped the mage. The good mood had passed.

‘It is my understanding, if I have interpreted it correctly, that these bracers have a magical link to the fire element. Should you manage an exceptional blow whilst wearing them the aura of fire and flame will reach out to assist you. Also,’ he said, pointing at some smaller glyphs, ‘once, between rise of sun and fall of moon, the word of ‘Oscanov’ will bring forth flame to strike your foe. I do not know who or what Oscanov is.’

‘And if you’ve not interpreted them correctly?’ enquired Zero.

‘Then the dwarf may explode,’ said Kireth quite calmly. ‘Either way, very impressive. These would be worth quite a coin back on The Islands. I wouldn’t guess how much.’

‘Note to self,’ said Tradden, as the warlord held the braces at arms’ length, the look on his face suggesting that they might conflagorate at any second. ‘Don’t stand next to Khalin — just in case,’ he continued, giving the dwarf a mischievous grin and a wink.

As the group prepared to move themselves on, Celestia took a quick look at the marble vial.

[…Continued in Book #01, Chapter #01, Scene #03…]