As soon as the airship stops, Molok is off the vessel as quickly as possible.
Illuvin starts making his way towards the cave entrance. "Jax, you seemed to know a lot about these mounds before. Anything we should know before entering?"
Urth, while they seem fairly tight lipped about Klauth's specific intentions, they freely discuss the well known hatred that has existed between giants and dragons for all of history.
Urth disembarks the ship like a sailor and tries not to fall on his keister on the ice.
"Does anyone want me to cast Arcane Eye to scout ahead without endangering us?" He asks again. They didn't want to at the giant's oracle, so he guessed that they would want to charge in again.
"You could do that!? I never could get the hang of that spell. By all means, I'd rather not go in blind."
You create an invisible, magical eye within range that hovers in the air for the duration.
You mentally receive visual information from the eye, which has normal vision and darkvision out to 30 feet. The eye can look in every direction.
As an action, you can move the eye up to 30 feet in any direction. There is no limit to how far away from you the eye can move, but it can’t enter another plane of existence. A solid barrier b locks the eye’s movement, but the eye can pass through an opening as small as 1 inch in diameter.
Thick ice hangs above the pillared entrance to Great Worm Cavern, and the interior walls of the place are covered with an icy glaze and lined with massive icicles that gleam and glitter in reflected light. The walls are too slippery to be climbed without gear or magic.
The cavern floor is a sheet of slippery ice, somehow even glossier than that outside, flanked by 70-foot-high ledges of rock, atop which stand two totem poles of chiseled ice with carvings that resemble winged snakes. The walls of these ledges are riddled with caves resembling living quarters. Natural steam vents in the rock must keep the caves warm throughout the year. Through your arcane eye, you note a small group of tribal warriors huddled near the entrance, seemingly awaiting your entry on a ledge with spears. Further above the ledges, dug into the cavern walls, are narrow crypts where perhaps the honored dead are placed, their frozen corpses propped up in a standing position.
Rising from the back of the cavern is a triangular promontory of ice-covered rock, 120 feet above the cavern floor at its peak. Thereupon stands an altar of frost-covered stone, carved in the shape of a coiled serpent with great wings. Also at the back of the cave hangs a massive crescent-shaped gong in a crude stone frame, cracked and ancient possibly sized for a giant.
Urth says, "there's a small group of tribal warriors huddled near the entrance, seemingly awaiting our entry on a ledge with spears. Further above the ledges, dug into the cavern walls, are narrow crypts where perhaps the honored dead are placed, their frozen corpses propped up in a standing position.
"Do we want to parlay or just rukking slaughter them?"
"Before, they were trying to invade our friend's holy place. This time we are the invaders... I'm sure they'll be open to negotiation! Shall I go see what I can do? "
"We can all behave. We'll tagalong incase they feel the need get nasty. They've a reputation. They might have more than just the one white dragon as a pet."
"Negotiation sounds like a good approach, but prep up because I doubt it's going to work out very well. But if we can avoid killing, I'm all for that!"
”Unless anyone objects, I can send in an illusion of myself with my hands up in the air, and someone can holler in behind it to say we just want to talk. That way we can see if they attack first or are willing to talk.” With a shrug, Pindleton casts silent image.
As the image enters to about 50 feet, one of the tribal warriors chucks his spear inches from the imaginary Pindle-toes, fracturing the ice with its strength and bellowing a warning cry "Drogosh et neet...shorog tesh et nock raf neet!"
And in common he adds "...you not!"
Urth uses his minor illusion to increase the volume and lower the pitch of his voice, "your chief is dead. His dragon is free. Leave this place at once or be destroyed!" Then, he shrugs to the group.
"Perhaps they are just in a bad mood today?" Illuvin shrugs. "These seem like the type of people that listen to strength. Let me see what I can do to change their attitude." He casts a spell before speaking again.
Shouting to the warriors, "Warriors of the Great Worm Tribe! I'm sure by now you've heard of the fate of your chieftain Wormblud. We are the ones who captured his war party. We are the ones who slayed your chief! Stand down or we will be forced to kill more of your people. Let us get the item we came for unmolested or face our wrath!"
Thumps chuckles, "Negotiating?" He shrugs and checks his hand crossbow is ready.
Molok looks over to Thumps and gives a very grim smile.
"Can not say they were not warned..."
After a brief silence "You kill our chief, come steal our most holy relic? You want kill our women and children too?? That is all you find here. Maybe you strong and we no stop you...but the Great Worm will know what you do...."
A closer look through the eye confirms, these 4 warriors are older teenagers with the rest of the inhabitants being women, children, and elders.
Elain whispers "Maybe try to beat some sense into them, but leave them conscious, a little pain never hurt"
To his group, "I don't think a beating will be necessary. Lets just grab their 'most holy relic' and get out of here. You think it's that giant gong over there?"
Shouting to the warriors, "The great worm can know what he wants! You all just have to know we have the power to slaughter the lot of you if we choose to, and that we choose not to do so! Don't force our hand!"
After his warning, Illuvin strides confidently into the caves.
|
We really would prefer peace, a contract between the giants and the humans. For years, it was humans here and giants there. Actually before the giant and human war, Tiamat and her cult was the problem.
He turns to his party. Oh and when I said human, I meant any medium or small sized civilized creature walking on two legs, not the race human.
"By Volkur's Beard, there is no honor rukking killing women and children." Urth confirms.
In his booming Minor Illusion enhanced voice, Urth tells the cave, "We will not make war on women and children. Stay out of our way, and do not test our patience."
Illuvin, you pass through the gaping mouth of the great cavern and step off the crunchy frozen snow onto a sheen of solid ice.
The tribe doesn't respond, but nor does it shout battlecries. It seems to wait, following you from afar as you probe deeper into the place towards the sacred altar, with their creepy blue eyes.
NG Pally
You make your way up a gentle slope towards the gong at the back of the cave, and a voice enters your mind! It is a voice both impossibly distant and simultaneously right on top of you, so beautiful even the hardest among you can not stop a tear of joy ::I sense the taint of a revenant's curse upon you, Slayers. You have murdered, and are targeted from beyond the grave...you have taken the life of the evil chieftan holding sway over the tribe of the Great Worm, Wormblod, but not destroyed him...he will not rest until he extracts his vengeance.::
From Molok and Mel's perspective (the only non-good characters) everyone halts in their tracks and starts crying out of joy.
"well than let him come and TRY to extract his vengeance, we'll see how well THAT goes for him
"What is everyone waiting for? Why have you all stopped? Is something wrong?"
Molok looks around trying to decipher why the others have stopped.
"Well there's rough luck. Kill an evil prick and get cursed for it. Oh well that's the dice."
The overwhelmingly beautiful voice filled with positive energy and peace returns ::Finish it, Slayers. When he comes for you, send Wormblod into the Fugue where he belongs. Give my people a chance to choose a new leader free from a heart of rage...do this, and I offer you a divine boon.::
"I would gladly kill that son of a bich for you, but who are you exactly my lady"
"Re-kill Wormblud? I don't think we'll have any problems doing that. Though I think we're here for something else at the moment... He wouldn't happen to be around here is he?"
A dirty little boy with a super runny nose is staring at the group standing around. The voice returns ::My people call me Elren, the Great Worm. Wormblod traveled west, rising up the chute by my graces in search of his beloved concubine...but now he hides within the dead beyond my sight.::
"Who might his concubine be, we might need to protect her from an undead psychpath"
::Your boon would be a crystalized form of my essence, a gift of the divine...capable of renewing the body and soul. Noori was the concubine's name, tired of Wormblod's anger she fled in the night...:: Perhaps his story of looking for a missing tribe member was true, after all.
"Would you be able to direct us towards Mrs. Noori, so that she can be protected"
A maiden runs from her former love gone mad for power? These are the things ballads are made of...
Illuvin replies to the voice "Thank you for the information honorable Elren. We will keep a lookout for the revived Wormblud and put it back in the ground. Unfortunately we are here on another errand. We need the holy relic of your clan to enable us to quell the madness that has afflicted the giants. If we find Noori in our travels we would gladly return her to your clan."
::I share no connection with Noori as I did with Wormblod, it was he who received the ritualistic sacrament during his ascension. The relic is nothing to me, but to my people it is their connection to Uthgar...they will die, even foolishly, to prevent it from leaving this cavern.::
As you move beyond the altar the voice fades until it is nothing but a sweet memory, finding a place right next to that one of you relaxing on a summer day amidst green leaves.
At the back of the cave hangs a relic obviously of giantkind: a crescent-shaped gong in a crude stone frame. The gong, a circular disk 13 feet in diameter, seems to actually be the shield of some giant champion, but perhaps broken in combat and is now missing a large piece. What remains of it might weigh 250+ pounds. The shield/gong is made of red dragon scales bolted to a beaten copper frame. Its leather arm straps are long since rotted and gone. The ropes holding up the gong can probably be cut with a few swings of a sword.
The 4 teenage warriors and their moms and little sisters continue to gaze upon you in disapproval.
Urth is moved by the divine presence. He was surprised to be lumped in with the group as a slayer, since he entered the oracle when the chief was alive.
Urth, perhaps it was calling you as all else have been: the Slayers of Grudd Haug.
"Right. So, we'll have to rukking lash that giant relic to the ship. I rukking wonder if the ship can float the relic and all the women and children to the oracle. Anyone got a better idea?" Urth asks the group.
