As is summoned by Oomlowt's words, Gird appears from no particular direction, was she sleeping behind a shed?
"I hope you lilylivers slept well in your beds last night.
She then leans on a wall and looks as haughty as she possibly can.
She hated being a Paladin sometimes.
"Paladins are overrated..." Huey hissed to nobody, kicking some stones while chewing his bad-tasting hay. He wasn't going to listen to any replies to his words, that was sure. It was his opinion.
"Well I guess the gang is all here, so shall we head out? If nobody has any other business."
If Oomlowt's scales didn't cover it, his friends would have seen the blood drain out of his skin at Huey's muttered words. He would not want to be in Huey's shoes if Gird heard that too!
"Yes, heading out is something we should definitely do!" Oomlowt said to Woden, hoping it would distract the party from a possibly lethal fray.
Garhan really hoped Gird didn't hear that, either.
"I completely agree on the heading out!"
Oomlowt looked at the map. "I kinda want to just head west. Anybody want to just head west?"
Garhan nodded and crossed his arms.
"Yes, west is good. I vote for west too."
Oomlowt was so good at starting things! Gotta give the little Kobold credit for that.
"I think west is a good direction, lets see what we can find shall we?"
Your direction picked, you set off to explore the land to the West of Oleg's.
You travel for half a day before reaching a wall of trees, you have reached the Greenbelt proper.
The forest is thick with trees, mostly oak, birch and elm, and the undergrowth is cloying, but there also happen to be many game trails in the forest, so it is possible to bypass the worst of the vegetation.
You slip through the forest, making notes on your maps, and camping at night for two days before you happen upon a clearing.
Well, you don't actually notice the clearing at first, instead you notice the moaning.
You cautiously approach, and see the trees part to reveal an arrowhead-shaped clearing, the floor of which is covered in what appear to be radishes.
And lying in the center grumbling are four Kobolds with shiny black scales, their bellies fat with the radishes strewn about the ground and in three overfilled baskets.
One of the Kobolds groggily lifts its head, thinking that it might have heard a noise from the surrounding forest.
What do you do?
Day: 23rd of Pharast
Roll:
Updated map.
Gird stiffens, trying not to let the kobolds see her. Great, Omelet's people. On the bright side, I can probably take them. Slowly lowering herself into the ground, Gird attempts to hide from the crafty kobolds.
Stealth check:
Zounds, fellow kobolds! Oomlowt was unsure of how to react. However, he could already predict his companions' wishes - "oh, speak to them, lizard face!" the mammals would say. "You're one of those, aren't you?" Either that or they would kill the little things outright. Oomlowt didn't fancy either outcome, but if he had to choose.
"Stand back, friends," Oomlowt said. "I'll see what they're up to.
The Kobold shrieks and unsteadily clambers to its feet when it sees the Half-Orc crouch down, as if it was going to pounce.
Then Oomlowt steps out and the Kobold looks puzzled, as does its fellows, who are all doing their best to get on their feet quickly.
The first Kobold replies in Draconic: "Explooring? Why exploree when theres is other thinngs too doe?" The Kobold stops for a second before narrowing its eyes and saying, "Youre not heere for radisheses?"
No matter how much she hears Omelet talk, Gird can never get over how silly kobolds sound. It's even worse in Draconic. Seeing that Omelet is appearing to speak to them, Gird gives up the goose and straightens up, rolling her shoulders.
Intimidate check:
Oh god, they were plant matter eating hicks. This was going to be painful.
The Kobold still looks at Oomlowt suspiciously, "Therere otherss. Dowwne by the rivveer. and no oothre koboolds butt for the tartuk annd the cusre." The first Kobold's eyes brighten, "Heeey mabye youse can fixx thee curser? jsust have to kill the miites who toook orur staptue."
Glowering, Gird tries to look even more menacing. Omelet seems...uncomfortable, not nervous, so that's a good sign, but whatever, being scary never hurt anyone.
Oh thank Lamashtu, they were so backwards they hadn't... well...
No sense dwelling on the past! Time to look to the present. It'd be kind of neat to have a kobold tribe indebted to him for once instead of... yeah.
Oomlowt looked back to see Gird pulling the strangest face and pose he had ever seen. Had... had she eaten bad eggs or something?
Huey stares Grid, chewing a little stick between his teeth, keeping his halberd on his shoulder. What that paladin was doing?
Maybe he could play this game, too.
The Kobold stares at Gird for a second before shrugging, "Theyrer to the soouth, in thee reelly BIGTREE. the mitses have stooled ourr godstature for third tiime and thee godis anngrey and were cursesed. tartuk smakings us go to warr, butt youscan heelp us beet mites."
The Kobold burps, and you can smell the overwhleming stench of radishes and... is that? Fish? At least they eat some meat.
Feeling frustrated, Gird kicks at the underbrush. She probably looks sullen, but whatever, it's not like it can get worse. Plus, everyone's talking and Gird doesn't know what they're saying. She looks over at Huey. At least he looks confused.
Oomlowt waved to the slovenly gluttons before turning back to rejoin his allies. "They're harmless enough," Oomlowt said. "It seems their tribe is being menaced by some mites to the South. If we kill the mites and return the kobold's god statue, we'll have the tribe's gratitude and help in exploration. Seems like a good idea to me, how about you?"
Woden looks onto his comrades...are they alright? They seem to be developing a nervous twitch? ..No wait, I think they're trying to be scary, and some how Gird is failing at it.
Not wanting to feel left out, he tries to put on as scary a facade as possible, let's see what happens.
Gird justs gives up and goes for just standing there. "Yeah, actually, I think Erastil would be down with that? These guys seem like farmers. Will there be beer? You can make beer out of turnips, right?"
Gird definitely has her priorities straight.
Oomlowt spared a glance towards the kobolds behind him. "They seem like the type to enjoy their kobold moonshine, yes," he said.
Seeing as how his ruse is no longer necessary, Woden drops the surprisingly scary act and assumes his normal disposition.
"Hmm, sounds perfectly fine to me. And mites can't be that big of trouble after all can they?"
As if backing up Oomlowt's statement, the Kobolds all begin to shuffle around their Radish baskets protectively, shooting furtive glances your way.
Especially at you, Woden.
"Then I say we go for it. What could go wrong?"
Proud at having handled things so well, Oomlowt decided to victoriously take in his surroundings. Like ya do.
Now that that's over and done with, Gird decides to see if anything around her is worth noticing. While doing this, Gird decides she also wants to go fishing. It's been a while, and d***, she wants some fish.
Woden also takes a look around for anything of slight value.
- Save the magic statue kidnapped by the Mites at the BIG TREE
You begin your southward journey, finishing up the exploration of the forest before stumbling out into the hills beyond. You travel for another four days, and you had another friendly run in with the killbillies, during which you learned the name of the one who spoke with you, Ahir, (And she wasn't buzzed on radishes this time, either.) as well as the name of their tribe, the Sootscales. Ahir told you that their lair was located twelve miles south of the BIG TREE, for when you have saved the statue.
The other Kobold's names are Whetver (male), Spub (also male), and Ne (another male).
At the end of the hex, you can see in the distance the faintest outline of a tree. It must be miles away, but you can still see it, if only just.
As that is your goal, you explore your way towards it, and after three days of winding through the hills you find yourself at its base, the 100 foot tall tree looms over all the hills for miles around. It is a graying hulk of a sycamore tree and clings precariously to its last years of life.
What do you do?
Experience Rewards: For successfully dealing with the Kobolds and exploring two Hexes, you all get 150 XP! This brings your totals up from 576 XP to 726 XP!
Day: 1st of Gozran
Updated map
"Hmm," Oomlowt grunted. "I guess we should investigate this weird tree."
"Sounds like a plan!"
Our tiefling hero says brightly.
"This tree looks intimidatingly huge too, so I'm sure we'll find... Something there!"
While he hadn't seen anything fishy, Oomlowt's inherent kobold paranoia still made him very cautious - especially since he knew their enemies would be looking for kobolds like him. He tried to approach the tree as stealthily as possible.
Garhan sees Oomlowt being really stealthy! Boy, his kobold friend is so stealthy he's practically a chameleon!
Garhan tries to follow Oomlowt's example and be very unnoticeable.
Calanthe rolls her goat-eyes at this tomfoolery. Morons.
Oomlowt checks out the tree in more detail on account of his stealthy approach!
Everybody being so stealthy... Oh well, maybe he should try that, too, then.
Oomlowt sneaks towards the BIG TREE, looking around for any mites.
You're not totally sure what mites are, exactly, but you're sure you'll know them when you see them.
But instead of mites, you spot something odd nestled in the ancient tree's roots. It's a root lined shaft leading down into some sort of den beneath the tree! It looks fairly dark in there, the Elf and Human will be mostly useless without a torch.
Torches are not cool.
You're not sure, but it looks like the shaft may go down ten feet before opening into the darkened den.
What do you do?
"It seems pretty dark in there..."
Garhan's voice is worried. Darkness could be a problem.
"What do you guys think? Should we go in?"
A deep hole, eh? If these mites were smart like kobolds, it would be littered with traps. Best to think of a good plan.
"There's a hole here!" Oomlowt shouted to Gird and Woden. "And it might have treasure or something! Would you like to check it out?"
Letting the big people go first was always a good plan.
Gird harrumphs before stalking towards Oomlowt, "What? Are you to much of a princess to go into a hole by yourself, omelet?" she looks down the shaft before addressing Oomlowt again, "Really? I thought Kobolds like you loved this sort of thing."
Woden strode over before asking, "Are you sure there's enough light for us to see down there?"
"This isn't a nice kobold hole," Oomlowt said sagely. "And didn't you bring torches?"
Garhan looks at the tree.
"Torches... Kinda sound like a bad idea. This tree is pretty dry-looking, and if this hole goes deep underground, well, fire in a small tunnel doesn't sound appealing... Though I guess we don't know how big it is down there yet."
Oomlowt's eyes lit up at the prospect of burning the tree. Oh, how wonderful it'd be to vanquish his enemies with arson... to watch the world burn.
"Say... why don't we just break off a branch and use it as a torch?"
"...Oh."
Huey gets his backpack off his back and searches something inside of it for a couple of seconds. He pulls out a common lamp
"Does this help at all?"
"Or a lamp. Lamps work."
"A lamp works a lot more nicely than a torch!"
Garhan was all smiling again.
Gee that guy is easy to please.
Gird rolls her eyes, "Whatever. I can see in the dark, I'll go down first since you're all girls and can't handle a few roots."
And without leaving any room for argument, she descends into the pit, oblivious to the breakthroughs in dramatic lighting going on above her.
Hopping to the mulchy ground of the tunnel Gird can see it stretches to her right and left about twenty feet, before rounding corners. The veiling is low and littered with hanging roots and thin stalactites, she has to crouch to even move. She does not envy pretty boy one bit, once he finally gets his lanky rear down here.
As a fairly well trained Paladin, Gird realizes it would probably be for the best if she makes sure there are no enemies nearby.
There are definitely voices coming from her right. They're high-pitched, squeaky, and a little throaty at the same time. It's actually really unsettling, especially since she doesn't have a clue what they're saying. She considers getting help from the girls upstairs, but decides they're not worth it. She's sure she can take these mites, they're at war with Kobolds after all, and the ceiling here is so damn short!
How bad could mites possibly be?
And so, with only a triumphant glance up at her comrades, Gird begins to sneak towards the right, sword slowly drawn.
"Oh no, she wen't there already..!"
Garhan bit his lip.
"I'll go after her too, you follow when you get your lamp lit up."
And with these words our darkvisionary hero climbed down the hole.
Calanthe looks at the hole, very unimpressed.
Now how is she going to go down there?
Well she... Obviously knew how but... Being in a small dark place with lots of sweaty humanoids didn't sound appealing.
On the other hand it's not like she could leave that stupid boy alone...
Ah damn.
This was not a very well designed hole. Oomlowt had doubts he could make it down without spraining his ankle. The small kobold looked at his grappling hook and rope, then back at the hole. He could try to shimmy down, or...
"Well, if we are going down there, could someone help me out?"