DM Bloodgargler's Kingmaker (Inactive)

Game Master BinkyBo

Dolgrym shakes his head at the interaction between the two. "Quit your arguing and one of you accept this mongrel's surrender. We can figure out later who exactly he is surrendering to! Complaining like children wanting mommy's attention," he grumbles, beginning moving to the gnomes, to make sure they were okay.

"The Foul King came from the far marshlands. He walks with those we used to fight... nasty fey, hags, and trolls. Toppled our chieftain - many tribes follow. He gave choice to leave, and we did... but it was a trick. They push out further out, and send spies who poison our river..." He throws a sneering look in the direction of the gnomes at the river.

"These old ruins of man on River of Sick have been our home..." His gaze moves upriver... apparently referring to somewhere not visible from here.
"Today our number could barely fill the crumbling halls."

And then back to Sonechka...
"The hag is known as Old Beldame... to devils she sold her soul for power. This power is bought by the Foul King with the wealth he takes from the conquered tribes. I am Ike'yurot."

The Green Man, not understanding all that was being said was just about to head over to the gnomes to inquire about any wounds sustained when a part of the conversation suddenly struck him.

"Just one minute here, you KNOW who is responsible for the stench of the river?
We've been looking for a way to stop that for some time.
Tell me more, but don't throw accusations around, believe me as a warrior and spirit walker to another, these gnomes have nothing to do with what is happening to the rive."

"It has always carried a sickness... but worse it gets with each day. Caught these... gnomes we drive from our waters... with warm-ice bowls filled with the yellow rock. The evil smells of our dying unborn."

"The smell of yellow rocks, it smells like rotten eggs yes? It crumbles if you touch it?
It is called Sulphur, and there must be a source somewhere, probably upstream...
I'll talk to the gnomes, maybe we are getting close to the solution to this mystery."

The Green Man will approach the Gnomes now, together with Dolgrym.
"Ho there travellers, we arrived just in time no?"

Sonechka does look away from Ike'yurot when Dolgrym yells at them. "I am questioning him, Dolgrym. He has surrendered and it sounds as though he need not be our enemy. In fact, it sounds as if he has information about someone more worthy of our... attentions." She quickly relays what the shaman had said before turning back to Ike'yurot and speaking again in Draconic.

"Ike'yurot, you have our terms. Harm no humanoids and we will not wreak vengeance upon you. You can live your lives and try to reestablish your tribe. If you help us, though- with information, with spears, with succor if we need it when we inevitably fight this Foul King and his followers- and we can be allies, maybe even friends."

She nods at Green and the gnomes, continuing in Draconic. "Do you think these gnomes are the ones who poisoned the river? Why do you think they work for the Foul King? Does he have humanoids who work for him?"

"Do you think these gnomes are the ones who poisoned the river?"

The shaman eyes Green as his walk to the gnomes takes him out of earshot... he starts to respond, but as Sonechka's questions continue, his eyes turn pensive.

*** *** *** ***

At the river the gnomes greet Dolgrym and Green.
"Nice to see a friendly face! And you too sir! Jubi Narthropple here... just caught me in the middle of a daring rescue. We just got to the exciting bit when you showed up."
By the look of the other gnomes' exasperated faces, Jubi is alone in his enjoyment of their predicament.

"I rather cleverly ran over a couple barricades which got caught on the undercarriage of the wagon. My inexplicable foresight enabled us to repurpose these beauties of lashed wood into bridges with which we nearly made our escape! Fancy that! Ha... hmmm."
He looks down at the wagon - one wheel on the improvised bridge, one dangling over in the water.
"I must admit the current challenge has caused things to go a bit off schedule. Lizardfolk were right on time though! I admire their strict adherence to non-adaptability... but only a little bit."

Dear god, I forgot how most gnomes aside from Furiel behave, they are so full of energy, and so little common sense.

"Oh yes, well I am sure you could have handled yourself, but I doubt you minded us stepping in."

"As a side note, I hate to be brusque, but I have a question or two now that the excitement has passed.
The first one is of course, who were you rescuing? The second is, do you know anything about why this river is so polluted?
We are the new rulers of the realm, and we are very keen to not only clean it up for use, but also to maintain good relationship with as many neighbours as we can."

"Rescuing my father's employees." Jubi notices a couple dirty looks... "Oh yes.. and myself..." He leans in "...at the same time." and winks - fully aware of the awe that he should be inspiring in his audience right now.

"The river? This river? Yes... sulfur... great deal of it." He chuckles. "Quite funny, really." Jubi reaches into the wagon over one of the few injured, and grabs a glass jar filled with nuggets of light yellow rock.
It takes him a moment his current audience has no idea what is funny.
"Oh! yes! It seems when these lizardfolk tried to make their new home more home-y, they ended up flooding a bank full of the stuff... contaminated their own river!"

You notice now that all of the gnomes appear to be sporting nearly identical bruises on their faces.

Sonechka wrote:

"Do you think these gnomes are the ones who poisoned the river?"

The shaman eyes Green as his walk to the gnomes takes him out of earshot... he starts to respond, but as Sonechka's questions continue, his eyes turn pensive.

"I do not... No... I do not know. Trolls and fey, but..." He looks up as a thought occurs to him. "These gnomes are children of fey, yes?"

Sonechka looks skeptically at the gnomes in the distance. "Were I the Foul King, I would not seek such creatures as these as my servants. Hags, trolls, and evil fey, yes. But these?" She shakes her head. "I believe you were mistaken, Ike'yurot. What gnomes are is clever. They may have some idea what has poisoned your river or some way to cleanse it. With your leave, shaman, we will ask for any insights they may have into the poisoned river." Giving some semblance of choice here could go a long way to letting him save face and keep control of his warriors.

While the situation is not perhaps the funniest, The Green Man cannot help but heave one of his deep rumbling belly laughs at the sheer irony of the situation.
"So it was sulphur like I suspected. And you know where it is? Does that mean we can remove it and allow the river to recover?"

The shaman nods, and responds in his native tongue. His demeanor while speaking shows signs that he snatched up Sonechka's opportunity to save face... with his "We were all a little naive back then" delivery.

Draconic: "My downfall was being too quick... too eager to shed blood. Many of our kind have faced "karmic- punishment-coming-in-the-form- of-impossible-battle" for such a thing. You must carry the wisdom of many generations to see so clearly."

**** **** ****
Some of the other gnomes hem and haw... Jubi furrows his brow. "I'm certain I can give you a swift reply to that shortly. Give us a moment would you?" Jubi joins the gnomes outside the wagon in a huddle.
One of the gnomes lying in the wagon, raises his hand.

"Yes? An idea?"

"No sir... I think I have to go again. I swear its dysentery... Don't.. please don't tell my love, Jeni... how I... met my end... with me rump in the river."
You notice that the "injured" in the wagon have no visible wounds - other than the bruised faces. They are mostly showing clear signs of everyday stomach cramps.

"Allow me to have a look at that, I think it is possible you have been contaminated by the sulphur yourself you know..."

Heal: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18

Kane Isn't sure he can trust the NPCs around him right now, but wants to go along, so okay. Anyone observing Kane can notice this about him.

It seems to Norton that his diplomacy strategy has finally sinked into the group. He watches from a distance, as long as the mates can make progress without him he will not interfere. If more diplomatic manners might be needed he stands at disposal.

Dolgrym wasn't sure about the sulfur, but he thought trying to think of the best way to clean the stream.

Know. Nature 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19

Sonechka inclines her head to the shaman and continues speaking in Draconic. "I have seen more than most. I'm glad to find you are wise and your tribe's trust in you is well placed." She gestures at the other lizardfolk. "Call your warriors, tell them what we spoke of. I will see if the clever gnomes have any solutions for the river."

She turns to look at Furiel and switches back to Common. "Let him go and let's go speak with the gnomes."

Furiel explains.
"Not gonna happen yet."

Furiel speaks to the shaman.
"You need to make this good with those you attacked. This isn't hapning on my watch."

Sonechka speaks slowly in Common, as if to a child. "And we will go talk to the gnomes to see how the shaman can make amends. Do you already know what they want? We need to let him go so he can explain to the warriors that the fighting is done. If you have your elemental hold him the whole time, they will think he is being coerced. Let him go, let's go talk to the gnomes and come back to talk to the lizardfolk. I doubt the gnomes want to be in proximity to them right now."

She shakes her head and returns to Draconic, looking back at the shaman. "This one is young. You must forgive it for being... too eager to shed blood." She might have smiled at the use of the lizardman's own phrase, but she wasn't sure if baring one's teeth was considered a threat to them, so she restrained herself.

The shaman turns to Furiel and speaks to him in Draconic. He does not struggle against the elemental.
"Your heart still pumps flame when your female speaks of peace, but how many of our lives must end to equal wounds to yours which will heal? My words as leader spilled my own warriors' blood, broke their bones, ended their name. My fallen chieftain teachings were not in my mind when needed."
He shakes his head. "I hear your anger... see the fire in your eyes... a hatred for our kind."

"I cannot quench your hate, gnome.... Carry that fire to face the Foul King... " The shaman becomes more animated, but the earth elemental keeps him from standing... "Slay me, skin me, drink your fill from my skull. Hate our kind, but gather your tribes and crush him!

Any info from the heal check?

If it's about capping wherever the sulfur is coming from and keeping it from getting into the river, maybe Know: Engineering? Whenever Sonya gets down there.

Know:Engineering: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17

The earth elemental only pulled the shaman to his feet because it was not necessary for him to kneel. It lasted only 40 seconds.

Furiel laughs.
"I harbor no hatred for you--just for bullying in general. I hold out my hand to you--you hold out your hand to those you wronged."

Furiel extends a small hand to the shaman.

Any info on the Knowledge Nature check I rolled in my last post?

Furiel - ooooh oops

"Yes, I believe you have been drinking contaminated water. You are passing your food too quickly to absorb any nutrients.
A supply of clean water and some weak food your body can absorb fast will set you right in a few days.
So don't worry, you're not dying anytime soon."

Sonechka nods in agreement. "Excellent. Ike'yurot, I believe your presence may make the gnomes anxious. Please stay here and explain the situation to your warriors while we speak with them. We will come back and relay their insights in a few minutes."

At the shaman's acknowledgement, Sonechka turns and heads down to speak with the gnomes.

"All I know we can do to fix the sulfur problem is to cut off the source of contamination. It'll clear up...but it might take a winter's freeze to clear up completely."

"Hmmm, depending on how big the source is, we might be able to make the skunk river lose it's name permanently.
But if we can at least make it clean enough for things to live in the waters, that is a good start."

Furiel motions for the shaman to accompany him, and moves over to talk to the gnomes. He speaks to Sonechka on the way.

"Bringing all the principals together should work better than addressing this issue in pieces. The gnomes may listen to me as I am a gnome."

Furiel introduces himself to the gnomes.

"General Furiel of Stagfall. It appears we arrived in time. This is the Green One, or Green for short."

He indicates the large half orc.

Kane examines the NPCs carefully to see if he can trust them sense motive: 6 + 1d20 ⇒ 6 + (1) = 7

Sonechka listens carefully to the conversation between the gnomes and Green and Dolgrym. "Could we see the source of the sulfur? Depending on the footing abutting the contaminated rock, walling it in with stone could be merely difficult or completely prohibitive."

"Yes, clearly that should be the next move. Find out what we are dealing with, so we can decide how best to get rid of the sulfurous material.".

The shaman's shoulders drop and he inhales deeply as if he had been holding his breath.
He says nothing, and takes Furiel's hand. He then begins to speak with his warriors as instructed.

*** *** *** ***

The gnomes greet those just arriving. The chatty apparent spokesgnome introduces himself again.
"Hello! Jubi Narthropple Chief Explorer of Egiard and Narthropple Enterprises. General! Good to meet you! Oooh nice hat!"

Jubi responds to Sonechka "Could tell you where to go easy-peasy... ruins of the fort upriver just less than a half-mile. Its the lizard-peoples' home - the ones that beat us up... so...."

Another gnome speaks up "Beat you up, sir. Was you who beat us up."

Jubi facepalms with the totally irrelevant correction, "If our bruises didn't match, they would be able to tell us apart!"

"Hrrrm, are you boys capable of traveling? I would suggest that you leave here and go to Stagfall to take care of your injuries and illnesses while we travel with the lizards to scout out the area.
That way we can save time and avoid any further...unpleasantness..."

While The Green Man is voicing it as a suggestion, he is enforcing said suggestion with enough strength to push it as the best idea.

I need to try to be more in command, need to learn the ways of a leader.

"Stagfall! Heard of that... may be neighbors one day! Could use a bit of help here though... There should be enough wood here to construct scaffolding for a pulley crane system... Hmmm ... what else will we need...."

The wagon is "off the track"... Strength DC22 to lift the dangling side back onto the improvised bridge.(can use aid anothers from others DC10)

Or handle animal checks to get the horses back in line, and to give the extra effort needed. DC14 to get them in line, and DC14 to get them to pull despite the conditions and resistance of the stuck wagon.

Trying to get the horses in line: Handle animal: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16
Trying to get the horses to pull; Handle animal: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11

Trying to get the horses to pull again: Handle animal: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23

"There we go, now get going. You have enough daylight to get there if you leave now.
Besides...if we are to deal with the lizardmen, we may make smoother progress without you here.
No offense intended, but they still do not trust you altogether."

kane helps to get the wagon back on track to whoever wants to be the main person to do so. str aid: 2 + 1d20 ⇒ 2 + (13) = 15 and if not then he is doing it alone and he could never lift that by himself.

As Green gathers up the horses, and Kane appears on the dangling side ready to lift... the shaman leads his warriors to you. He points, and they move around the wagon while the horses pull.

"Oooh what?" one of the gnomes looks a bit skittish.

The warrior near him speaks - broken Taldane... "Ike'yurot say help. You kill Foul King."

The horses pull, but have difficulty... one of the bruisers lets out a loud extended grunt... the wagon pulls free, and moves fairly easily over the second bridge to the south bank.

"Congratulations, now you can be on your way, and while the lizardmen may not trust you fully, they think you are responsible for poisoning the river you see, they have agreed to put such things aside in exchange for help in defeating a great evil.
Do not worry, you won't be fighting on the front line in this, that's OUR job."

Turning to the lizardmen, especially the Shaman, The Green Man nods.
"We are going to your new home as soon as we see these good folks off, and while we travel, you will tell us all about the foul king."

Any knowledge checks to tell us about the Foul King?

The Green Man's mind is being filled with ideas of the possibility of a small unit of loyal lizardmen guards, but he realizes that some of the ideas would require knowledge of engineering, something that he himself lacks.

"Does anyone here know anything about architecture? We have of course the dwarven builders in stagfall to ask, but just in case we do not need to wait that long?"

You're looking in the wrong direction. Personally I'm paranoid of engineers and architecture, I always worry they build bridges that collapse within a year, or catwalks on a building that collapse with very little weight applied. When I was little, I read a book, called "Engineering disasters 101" this idea was inspired by a 1 hour movie

After the gnomes head out, the lizardfolk lead you upriver toward their home. The shaman does as requested by Green.
"Many generations ago we lived far from here. There were many tribes of us, and many enemies.... The boggards fought us many times. Our chieftain made tries to make allies to fight, but they would think us weak... come take our females to build their own tribe."

"Our chieftain led us here... only few angry men to fight for new home. We did not know of the Foul King... so close. Where river to the... sow-uth?... south river runs to lake." He points south-southeast.

"His own tribe lives in his lair. Many tribes call him king - fight for him... have camps closer. Foul King has lived for many generations... giant and strong. His trident is known - Gra'Whahar. No thrown spear will touch him with it in his hand."

He points ahead, and you see the crumbling stone fort in the center of a reedy pool. A hill of boulders is on the side opposite the river, and there are a few disheveled wooden cabins on the other side of that.

The side of the river which feeds the pool looks to be about 25-30' in length. The smell of rotten eggs is in the air - even several dozen feet from the water.

>Lizard Lair<

Know. Geography 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16

Dolgrym fills the others in on what he knows. Please read both spoilers as I speak Draconic and hit the Geography check.

From the watery lair, a few lizardfolk warriors scramble atop a pedestal (like that which would bear a statue, but does not) and the wide stone pillars in the water - the remnants of the crumbling keep's corner supports.

The shaman waves in a gesture - likely some gesture to lower their combat readiness.
The shaman then speaks to you as you continue to approach. "Gnome leader spoke of yellow rock... say it is much as... tarrasque snow angel?... then try to enter our... hatch-er-y." His expression changes with this last bit, showing how distasteful he found the intrusion.

Know. Engineering 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18
Heal 1d20 ⇒ 17

"We can block off the River, no problem, but getting rid of all the contamination in the lair would be nigh impossible. Another thing...the lizard folk don't seem to be in nearly the gastrointestinal distress that the gnomes are in."

"Can you show us where you were making improvements to your home? According to the gnomes, that is where the sulphur was found.
If master Sharpaxe is right, we will need to consider a good plan to help you further."

Sonechka doesn't bother speaking to Ike'yurot in Common, given the shaman's clear lack of fluency. She shakes her head at his last comment and asks for clarification. "Tarrasque snow angel? What does this mean?"

She nods at Dolgrym. "If the lizardfolk aren't bothered by the sulfur, all we need do is stop it from contaminating the river."