imp

DM

The first gloop whips a dart at Ivo, but it snaps past him and clatters among the broken crates.

DM

The second gloop's dart strikes Ivo high in the arm for 1 damage. He has 2 HP left.

DM

The third gloop flings a dart at Lissa. It skips harmlessly from her leather armour.

DM

The smallest gloop cackles and throws at wounded Ivo, but its dart sails wide.

Ivo Trant

"Back — no trades, we're leaving!" Dart high in his arm and half his blood gone with it, Ivo gets off the nearest-line and puts the broken crates between himself and the gloops, one look up at the ceiling on the way — blind or not, habit has paid four times. Moving, he cries the hail in Gnomish first, then Common: "We came to read, not to raid! Hold your darts and we're gone the way we came!" And to Lissa, short and level: "The way we came in — where? We out-walk them and we open nothing on the way out. If I drop before your turn: run, and don't stand over me. Roby's rule."

DM

Ivo reaches the broken crates nearer the west threshold; nothing moves overhead. The gloops understand his Gnomish. Their darts dip, but one stretches out a slimy claw and answers, “Toll! Coins on the floor—then go!” They have not agreed to let you leave freely.

Lissa Fenn

Toll. Coins on the floor, then go. That's a price, and I know prices — it's what the grease money was always for. I fish in my purse and toss a small scattering, three gold and a few coppers, well short of the gloops so they must come off their line to gather it, and I keep my purse and my hands to myself. "Toll's paid — the way we came in is back of us and we open nothing on the way out, not one door, not one crate." I'm moving as I say it, low, one look up at the ceiling because habit has paid four times and this shrine takes the smallest heads first. To Ivo, level and quiet as I come up beside the crates with him: "West, behind us, the way we walked in — it's mapped in my head and I'll call it. We out-walk them. If they take the coins and dart again, we run, and neither of us stands over the other — Roby's rule cuts both ways, wizard." Short sword stays sheathed. Nine rooms, and my sword's never swung here; a fight with a 2 HP wizard in it is not the room where that changes.

DM

Lissa has no copper recorded, so 3 gp strike the floor; she now has 28 gp. The gloops scramble off their line, slapping and snapping over the coins. One waves both intruders toward the west threshold. “Paid! Go!” No dart follows. The terms are struck, and the fight ends.