Mr. Blinky sees a Red Boggard lying in wait and attacks it. (Yeah, they were going to try and eat you, but let's be clear; you guys are the aggressors here. :P) The boggard sinks beneath the water as fast as it can, but not before Mr. Blinky has dragged a claw down it's back. Blood fills the water.
Ozzy tries to poke the frog monster with her spear, but misses due to the refraction of light in the reddening water.
Before anyone else realizes what is going on, Guthruc leaps from the river bank and into the water, swinging his club wildly, splashing everyone on the river bank. Guthruc learns that it's much harder to swing a big stick through water than it is through air. But it isn't hard enough to stop him! He hammers Yellow Boggard into the river bed.
Red Boggard treads water to stay in place and emits a loud and terrifying croak .
Purple Boggard treads water to stay in place and emits a loud and terrifying croak .
Yellow Boggard treads water to stay in place and emits a loud and terrifying croak .
Zornesk alone of the kobolds holds his ground, while the others get the heck out of dodge. He's feeling shaken, but pretty awesome regardless. He decides that this situation calls for an awesome line from an awesome kobold. "Fool frogfolk," he yips, "Your loudness is not loud enough! I, Zornesk, first among the disciples of Iorskan, "
Momentarily overcome and unsure if the loud croaking indicates a larger creature still hidden from view, Mr. Blinky quickly but cautiously retreats . Ozzy follows, not wanting to be far from the beast's side, and hoping to draw the creatures into the open. As she moves, she unleashes a magical splash of acid on the boggard before moving her hand back to her longspear to fend off attackers.
Hearing the roaring, Iorskan was suddenly reminded about how small he was. These creatures were big! Big enough to eat him? But then he heard Zornesk. The Kobold believed in him! Because he was a dragon...because he ate-murdered! Bolstered, he ran forward and bit the creature, growling (fearsomely?) as he did so.
Guthruc is frightened for 1 round and shaken for the following two.
Falling into the river and swiftly being pulled under, combined with his lowered intelligence from raging, the croaks that Guthruc would've normally scoffed at, frightened him a bit.
However, his orc nature and worg upbringing has taught him to roar back in times like these.
He then "repositions for another charge." Guthruc doesn't surrender/retreat.
[earlier...]
Awn leaves Kressel under the impression he is a druid, and a fairly inscrutable one at that. He leaves Abaos to weave the chaos...
[now....]
Awn feels much more at home in the Narlmarches, it being his most recent... home...
Traipsing through the forest with this motley crew seems somewhat ludicrous, but he is new to the world, and realises he has nothing to compare this to.
When the boggards appear, he is surprised, spooked and somewhat frightened.
Abaos bloodies Red Boggard with his star knife. Iorskan finds that he's having a hard time hitting Blue Boggard because of the water.
All the kobolds except Zornesk ran in fright, but Zornesk will fight alongside his god. He draws his sling loads it And slings a rock at Yellow Boggard, who isn't in melee.
The well aimed but utterly ineffectual rock bounces off Yellow Boggard's thick skull with no visible effect.
Yellow Boggard will chase after Guthruc, because it isn't exactly the brightest frogfolk of the bunch. Kicking off from the bottom of the river, it leaps out of the water with a massive splash, clearing the bushes and the banks and all the difficult terrain with one bound. Now that it's out of the water, you can see that the frog monster is nearly eight feet of height, with shoulders broader than most of you are tall. And then the boggard comes crashing down, bringing it's morningstar about with all the combines force of its muscles and of gravity, a blow that even Guthruc can feel.
The spiked club punctures Guthruc's armor and his flesh in several places. The boggard's gotten a good start on repaying Guthruc for the damage the orc has dealt. On the far side of the river, Guthruc is isolated from the party. This looks like it's shaping up to become a duel.
Red Boggard treads water and swings it's morningstar at Abaos.
Abaos dances backwards, keeping out of reach. This is made even more impressive by the fact that the boggard has longer reach then the gambler's starknives. The frustrated boggard is clearly in a lot of pain, having been mauled by Mr. Blinky and knifed by Abaos.
Blue Boggard treads water and attacks Iorskan.
Zornesk watches in awe as Iorksan eats an attack that would have dropped any other member of their company. He momentarily wonders whether or not Iorskan can actually die. The scriptures are unclear; they say that dragons are immortal and unkillable, but they also have passages where dragons are killed. He hopes that Iorskan can't die, it would really be a shame if they found a dragon and it died before they could show anyone else.
Miss
Miss
Hit?
The boggard swung at Iorskan, connecting with a crunch. He could feel something inside of him give, and the little dragon staggered back. Just then, a stone bounced off of the Boggard's head. Summoning up all of his bravery, he moved forward to attack. Still in great pain, puffs of smoke began to come out of his maw as his entire body heated up. Roaring in pain, fear, and anger, he lunged at the creature. If he was more in control of his senses, perhaps his left claw would have connected. But, in that flurry of attacks, he was fairly certain that his right hook would connect.
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Abaos laughs as he dances out of the way of the creatures' morningstar. And who said dancing was a wasted skill? Abaos had never had more fun in his life!
His heart drops for a second when Iorskan is hit, but is lifted once again when he sees the tiny creature stagger back and relaunch his attack.
He'll be fine! Abaos thinks. Now, just to take out this guy!
He'll quickly slash again at the creature, before backing away. It's pretty darn difficult to swing a knife at a creature halfway submerged in water, and Abaos wondered if he couldn't perhaps get the creature to follow him......
"Hey, ugly!" he calls as he backs away. "Come and get me! I want to dance!" He laughs again, manically pleased with himself (and the adrenaline rush he's getting).
.
Ozzy steps around Iorskan to give Mr. Blinky a clear path to pounce, and prepares to attack any Boggard she can reach once it leaves the water.
Mr. Blinky waits, watching the water line for a target to strike.
Round 2
Awn recovers, slightly. Looking across the river, he sees Guthruc enjoying some sport, and decides the orc is likely ok. For now. Better to apply an edge here. Or hope the creatures get the point. Though still jittery, Awn draws out a javelin and throws...easily missing.
Move Action: Draw javelin
Standard Action: Throw at blue boggard.
[+2 Dex, -2 shaken]
[+2 Str]
just as "planned"
Guthruc shrugs off the heavy blow with ease and shouts.
"horse hit harder than you!"
He swings at the monstrosity, plowing through its defenses.
Zornesk flings a rock at Blue Boggard, who is not currently in melee combat and seems to be who Iorskan is fighting.
It plunks in the water with a satisfying sound. Plunk!
Red boggard can't speak common, but it can tell Abaos is taunting it. Also, Aboas's knife hurt. The human looks soft and squishy, it just doesn't seem fair that Abaos gets to cut the boggard but the boggard doesn't get to squish Abaos and eat him.
Red boggard surges out of the water and, giving a deafening ribbit that sounds a lot more scary when it's heard rather then described, raises his morningstar high over his head in both hands, using lamentably bad form, and brings it crashing down in the general vicinity of the laughing human.
The predictable attack is easily sidestepped, and does nothing but kick up mud. Really, Abaos isn't sure what the boggard was thinking as he steps in close with his starknives, casually placing a foot on the haft of the boggard's weapons. (Sadly, while it looks cool nothing comes of it, the boggard is so much physically stronger than Abaos that if it lifts its club Abaos will just have to get off.)
Blue Boggard follows close on Red Boggard's heels, clambering onto the banks of the river. But where Red Boggard met little resistance, Blue Boggard finds itself snapped at and perforated.
Ozzy jabs at the monster as it's crawling out of the water, but the boggard deflects the spear upward with it's forearm. Iorskan tries to hamstring the boggard with his teeth, but gets kicked in the head for his trouble. Now on the banks, dripping with water, the monster's size intimidates the diminutive defenders. Ozzy braces her spear against the charge [ooc](Not actually using the brace ability, or the charge action. I'm narrating, goshdangit.) and catches the creature squarely in the torso. To her horror, though, it merely forces its way down the spear, tearing itself up but making it's way to what it's deemed the biggest threat, or at least the person it dislikes the most.
Ozzara ducks to the side; the spiked weapon passes so close to her brain that it would have gotten caught in her hair if it weren't for her peculiar hairstyle.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the river:
Guthruc compares the Yellow Boggard unfavorable to an equine before bludgeoning it. Without the water to slow his club, he hits boggard with enough force to knock a horse over. As has been demonstrated before. The boggard moves it's own club to intercept, to absolutely no effect. Even from across the river, the others can hear the sound of the frogfolk's ribs splintering as its own weapon drives it's own arms into it's own chest. The heavy monster is thrown into the air, landing, as boggards tend to do, on it's feet.
Somehow it's still alive. Barely.
Disorientated and in a great deal of pain, the boggard pours every bit of it's remaining strength into it's attack.
Guthruc isn't impressed.
Now with a clear path to the blue Boggard, Mr. Blinky, shaking aside his fear, leaps through the air, his claws pointed at the frog-like creature. As he comes down, he attempts to sink his teeth into it as well.
Finally! They were out of the water! He had been stabbed, he had been bludgeoned, and now he was angry. Gathering up all of his draconic power, Iorskan lunged at the boggard, bits of flame sparking out of his maw. But...not too aggressively. The mace hurt! When he saw an opening, he got a claw in, and holding on, let loose a close range wave of flames that did far more damage than his actual claw.
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Abaos plants his foot down on the weapon, readying for a strike. he's knows that's a big monster, and he's betting that the monster will want his weapon back. Time to strike.
As the boggard lifts it's weapon back up, Abaos will move with it, letting the momentum of the boggard's weapon swing him forwards into the boggard's vital points!
Unfortunately, this doesn't go as planned, smashing him into the boggard, but as he accidently lets go off the knife, it speeds towards the boggard anyways....
Guthruc is surprised that the creature in front of him is still standing. He swings his club, putting the bogfard in between it and a nearby tree.
The resulting crunch is quite disturbing, the forces of the two trees smashes the center of the boggard into a red splat across the tree.
Abaos falls on the ground, watching as the starknife he let go of catches the boggard in the throat. It staggers backwards ... and then Mr. Blinky hits the boggard like a runaway train, driving the frogfolk into the river, where it's swept away.
Abaos climbs to his feet, wiping mud off his hands onto his pants. It looks like Ozzy and Iorskan have finished the boggard that threatened them, and across the river Guthruc has completed his duel.
We're out of initiative! Everyone gains 500 xp!
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Abaos smiles, licks his fingers, and lifts them up into the air, as if a sign of prayer to some unknown deity.
"Lucky again," he says, thinking of how wrong that could have gone.
He shakes out the horrible thought. "Hey Iorskan," he begins, "I saw you take a big hit there. You alright?" he asks.
He stops for a second, unconsciously going to wipe the blood off of his knife in the grass- then realizes something. He jumps, then starts tearing off down the river after the dead boggard.
"Hey! That thing has my knife!"
Awn likewise retrieves his javelin, and looks on with concern.
"Are those things usually so welcoming? he asks no-one in particular.
After making sure the boggards aren't getting back up, Ozzy sits down on a log next to Mr. Blinky. She runs her hand through the fur of the recently-frightened beast, comforting him.
When Abaos goes running after the dead boggard to retrieve his knife, she breaks out in a fit of uncontrollable laughter. She laughs so much that she slips and falls backward onto the ground, which only makes her laugh harder.
Breathing heavy, Iorskan plopped onto the ground. He groaned as he lay down. Maces hurt! Not as much as swords, but they still hurt. Turning his head, he looked back at the kobolds and said ”Zornesk is brave. Zornesk shall be my herald.”
He didn’t really know what a herald was, but the nobles who had the gall to think they owned him (he made a mental note to eat them all, after a few centuries when he was big enough, of course), seemed to think they were. So he thought this to be a big honor.
He also made a mental note not to eat Abaos, no matter how tasty he looked.
Guthruc ends his rage and runs toward the river.
He clears it in a single bound. He lands with a thud in the typical superhero pose and gets up slowly and dramaticly.
"who next?"
He exclaims as he looks into the forest with a bloodthirsty enjoyment in his eyes. He follows this up with a confident laughter that clearly demonstrates his joy for bloodshed.
The kobolds sheepishly return. They look around at the scattered boggard corpses, a visual that is completely outside their frame of reference. No kobold in memory has ever killed a boggard; when the boggards come and scream, the kobolds run and the boggards pick off as many as they need to eat. But Iorskan and his followers did not run. They fought, and they won. And Zornesk fought with them.
”Zornesk is brave. Zornesk shall be my herald.”
"I'm brave too!" Eadoo shouts out. "I just ran away because I was really really scared."
Poro is quiet.
And Nakpik is loud.
She's keeping a fair distance, and is half ready to run, in case Iorskan tries to eat her for what she's saying. She's shouting pretty loudly, partly to project her voice over the distance but also because she's angry and confused. Until she met Iorskan, she didn't believe in dragons; she didn't believe the Chief when he said that he was in charge because it was the 'will of the dragons,' and that he could do whatever he wanted because dragons. She didn't believe the Shaman when he said that he was in charge because the devils put him in charge, and that the needed to publicly sacrifice dissenters because devils.
"I thought dragons lived forever?" She asks. "If you're going to live forever, why do you need kobolds to risk their lives being 'brave'? Unless you don't live forever. And by the looks of it, you bleed just like a kobold. Kobolds die when they run out of blood. Is your blood unlimited, or do you just not need it?" "And if dragons aren't gods, just strong fighters, why should I worship you, instead of any other one of your friends? Or, why should I worship you, instead of a boggard? Why should I worship you, instead of Old Sharptooth, the shaman's god? I'm pretty sure that Old Sharptooth is just a rock, but at least he isn't obviously mortal."
The other kobolds gasp. "Don't say that," whispers Poro, "or you'll turn yellow and die."
Nakpik ignores her superstitious friends. "I don't think you're really divine!" she shouts defiantly. "And if I'm going to lead you back to the warren, help you overthrow the diabolists and put you in power, I need to know what sort of mortal ruler you'll be! What are you going to do for us?"
The other kobolds are mortified. Serving the dragons is the entire point of life. And now Nakpik is asking for a dragon to serve the kobolds?
Ozzy has no idea what Nakpik is saying, but the small reptilian humanoid unintelligible outrage just makes her laugh harder.
Awn likewise watches, fairly sure there is some kind of draconic heresy afoot.
A wiser dragon would have played the god hand. Iorskan was not a wise dragon. He laughed so hard that speckles of blood came out.
”So funny! Dragons die. We just don’t die of old age. The older we get the bigger we get. I’m young so I’m small. But some day I will be big enough to rule the skies. My flames will burn cities. I shall sleep on boards of gold. But not today. Today I am small. Today little Boggards hurt. But I grow fast. Because I am Iorskan the mighty.” And not because he heard the Noble who owned him said before he got impatient and sold sold him to the swordlords.
”You will listen to me not because I am a god. Gods don’t bleed. You will not listen to me because I can eat you. Which I can. Because the orc can eat you too. You will listen to me because we are related. Kobolds share my blood. It is why some of you have magical powers. Look at me and know it to be true. You will listen because I will lead our tribe to greatness, which will only improve with each generation.”
Squeaky is mollified. "Ah. Right. Well, I'm sorry for shouting. I . . . I guess that makes sense. And you can hardly be worse then the Chief and the Shaman. So, there's that."
And the adventurers press on!
As you get further into the Kanelands the ground gets less level. Soon you're walking up and down fair sized hills, keeping the river in sight as it winds around their bases. The effect is like a river canyon, and you are walking along the top.
The party happens across a rickety bridge. It reaches from one hilltop to the other, though it's clearly old and worn by time, and doesn't look like it was terribly stable when it was new, being made of ropes and planks.
Guthruc continues walking, intending to cross the bridge without even stopping for a fraction of a second to think.
Abaos, fortunately, doesn't follow Guthruc onto the bridge, since the kobolds aren't crossing it. In fact, they're squeaking something that Abaos can't understand.
But as Guthruc steps out onto the bridge, alone, it sways dangerously but miraculously holds. It can support a medium character, though the sounds it makes while doing so are distressing.
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As the chittering increases, Abaos smiles warmly. "What's up, little guys? Something wrong? Yes, I know, I'm handsome, glorious, and extremely intelligent; what's that? You want me to be your lord? Well, I guess, if you insist." He smiles ruefully.
His face tenses into one of deep concentration. "You're right, of course. Repeat that again. This time, I'll follow." He waits, listening to the squeaks, chirps, and high- pitched growls coming from the kobolds.
As the bridge groans from Guthruc's weight, Abaos's face turns to one of concern. "Oooh, that doesn't sound good at all," he says.
Suddenly, a most insane idea springs to life in his mind! He looks at the kobolds again. "Were you guys trying to warn me not to step on the bridge! Amazing! I like you guys! Up top," and he holds out his hand, as if giving them a high- five.