”What?! Why be lord if I can’t stop my kobolds from being tortured?! Why let these things live? We are here and we should eat-murder-burn!”
Guthruc looks onto the scene with a mix of hatred for the torturers, pity for the one being tortured, dissapiontment for the dead, and familiarity for himself. He had been in this situation and made it out.
The weak died and the strong survived. That's how it went then, that's how it goes now. He had someone to help him escape though, and hell if the kobold doesnt escape for that reason.
Ozzy addresses the mites torturing the kobold. We're going to see your leader. You should all come along. You're going to want to hear what we have to say to him.
While the mites' attention is on Ozzy, Mr. Winky sneaks off to the threshold of the next room to see what they'll encounter next.
The mites are nervous. "We're going to see your leader, you should all come along"?? Uh oh. What did they do wrong?
"Er, right," says the mite with the stick. ". . . after you then." He's not standing in front when they find out why the King and all these strange apefolk need to talk to them.
Mr. Winky flies ahead.
A deep and ominous chasm splits the passage. The chasm is a few yards wide, and twice as deep, but thick ropes of tangled roots fill the entire area. The passage continues on the far side of the chasm, and between the two ledges, numerous loops have been tied into the roots to serve as hand- and footholds.
The chasm is only 20 feet deep, and its rough walls make for a relatively easy DC 5 Climb check thanks to the numerous roots hanging from the walls. The loop knotted roots between the two passageway ledges form a sort of crossing—by using the loops, a creature can clamber across the chasm with a DC 5 Climb check.
Beneath the tangled root ropes is a monster. A twenty-five foot long centipede lies coiled and sleeping, but a creature noisier than Mr. Winky would be liable to wake it up.
Geophry leads the way into the chasm. He'll be using vermin empathy every round until everyone has crossed, to keep the centipede from eating one of you. "B'careful crossin'," he warns, "As somuv those root-ropes are sophistimicated traps. Step wrong an' you'll fall to yer doom!" He recommends you follow close on the heels of a mite and step only where it steps. If you do that, you can make it across with a DC 5 athletics check.
Meanwhile, back in the chamber of torment, the kobold cracks open one eye, splitting the mask of caked blood he wears. He's wondering why he isn't being stabbed anymore. "Are you real?" he whispers to Iorskan, hoarsely.
”Yes. You are now under my protection. We are here to end the war with the mites, as it was Tartuk the shaman who engineered it. If they do not decide to accept peace, we will destroy them.” Iorskan walked forward to free the hapless kobold.
The kobold falls limp in it's bonds, breathing ragged. "They took Old Sharptooth. From us. From me. But I never. Forgot about the dragons. And here. You are. Am I. Going to die. Dragon?" The kobold closes it's eye.
He's still breathing, but is bleeding fairly profusely from his numerous stab wounds. A charge from your wand might be appreciated.
Looking back at the party, Iorskan growls ”Wand him. And it better be worth it to not just raze this place to the ground.”
As the mites lead the way, Ozzy lingers for a moment and discretely uses a charge from the wand to heal the kobold before following, being careful to only use hand- and foot-holds that she sees a mite use first.
Mr. Winky's flight allows him to cross the chasm easily, and he checks the next room before the others enter.
Guthruc is too impatient to climb along the roots so slowly. Instead, he will attempt to clear the chasm in a single bound.
Mr. Winky flies ahead, into a room large enough that medium creatures don't have to squeeze to fit.
Rows of wooden pegs line the earthen walls, some hung with tiny, filthy cloaks. In the center of the room stands a rickety table held together with twine, covered with a filthy red checked tablecloth and heaped with mounds of dirt and twigs and gravel, apparently arranged to form some sort of map. Sitting at the edge of the map, weighing down a scrap of paper, is a bloodstained ivory statuette of what looks like a crouching reptilian devil. A bulging burlap sack sits under the table.
Seated around the table are five mites, arguing in undercommon. At the head of the table, facing away from the party, is King Grabbles, immediately recognizable by his opulent throne (decorated with bones and feathers), well-crafted black chitinous armor (decorated with bones and feathers), and the enormous tick seated behind his throne (decorated with bones and feathers), taller than Ozzy and heavier than Guthruc, equipped with an exotic saddle (decorated with bones and feathers).
While Mr. Winky watches silently, King Grabbles leans forward on the table and addresses his advisers. "Let's be very clear here," the gap in his teeth makes him whistle as he talks, and he spits on hard consonants, but otherwise speaks far better undercommon than the other mites you've met, "I'm not afraid of kobolds, I'm not afraid of skeletons, I'm not afraid of their new god," he pats the blood-soaked statuette, "or their new shaman. I'm not interested in negotiating, I'm sure as hell not interested in running away. I've only got one problem, and that's the effing zombie centipedes. We are not discussing anything, except the effing zombie centipedes. Are we clear on that? Because if we aren't, I'm going to let Tickleback drain some cowardly traitors of their blood." Grabbles eyes seem to bulge out of his ugly face while he says that last line, and his advisors shrink back in fear, babbling apologies.
Around that time Mr. Winky hears a ground shaking crash (it shakes some spiders off the ceiling) as Guthruc hits the ground. King Grabbles and his advisors jump to their feet as nine mites, a number of armed apefolk, a kobold, and a dragon enter the War Room.
There are exclamations of suprise from Grabbles' advisers, one shouts, "On who's authrity didja let these people in?"
King Grabbles claps his hands together. In the language of the apefolk, King Grabbles shouts out, "What how're you ape-bandits here? Is you work for Deer-King?" he seems more pleasantly surprised then angry.
"Who are we? I am Lord Iorskan of the Sootscales! They are *my* tribe now. And this, is Ozzara. Ozzara, convey our message."
Iorskan had no idea what the message was. He wasn't quite sure what everyone planned to accomplish here. The mites were gross, they tortured, and he didn't like the way they talked. Or, more specifically, he liked kobolds. And anyone who tortured his kobolds was someone he didn't like. But the group had proven to be incredibly wise and forward thinking thus far. In fact, he couldn't think of anyone more wise than the people in this group. So best to let them do whatever it is they planned to do. Maybe they wanted their own tribe? Though he couldn't think of anything as distasteful as these mites. He wouldn't stand in their way...
...but with a kobold of his tribe here, he couldn't do anything but act like the lord that they expected him to be. And thus, his dramatic entrance.
And this, is Ozzara. Ozzara, convey our message."
Ozzy approaches the table casually as she begins to speak in undercommon for everyone to hear. Friends! We come bearing good news! Your conflict with the kobolds is over! Their shaman, the false prophet Tartuk... Ozzy leans in toward the leader as if to share a secret, subtly resting her hand on the statuette as she does so. She lowers the pitch of her voice, but keeps the volume loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, (who, as it turns out, was actually a gnome in disguise) She keeps her hand on the statuette as she rises back up to continue addressing the group more formally. ...is dead, by our hands! Then, switching to common, Guthruc! She suddenly flings the statue into the air, on a trajectory to fly over the mites' heads and reach its apex, almost pausing in the air, right in front of the orc, who she hopes will take the hint to swing his club and smash it to bits that will rain down on the assembled creatures. If not, she is confident that Iorskan will finish the job.
Guthruc swings his club at the Idol, pleased to be smashing anything.
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Abaos watches as Iorskan makes his dramatic entrance, and Ozzy obviously speaks eloquently as she throws the statue into the air, for Guthruc to destroy. He's not too worried about things, now, except the fact that they are completely surrounded by mites. Something he does not, in fact, appreciate. He tries to discreetly move around the mites, putting his back to a wall, so he's less surrounded. Best have a clear path to the outside if things go wrong.....
"Oh, good. You speak mite," the king says, staring at the statue shattered on the ground. "A gnome, huh? Wouldn't've guessed it."
The ugly fey king stands up and casually places his foot on the giant tick's stirrup. "What I'm really curious about," there's a note of annoyance in his voice, and beneath that is the simmering fury all mites harbor, "is which idiot let you in here without taking your weapons."
Geophry pipes up. "It'sall good, m'lord Grabbles, king've mites, don't none of 'em know how to use'em."
There's an incredulous pause while the king absorbs this. "The green one. It doesn't know how to use a stick?" he finally manages. He shakes his head and swings himself onto Tickleback's back.
To Ozara, he says, "Is there any reason you smashed my rock? As far as I know, it had no powers, but it wasn't a bad paper weight. And you still haven't answered my question; whether you work for the Deer-King, chief of the apefolk. I sent him a letter, but I haven't heard back yet ... but I guess that you don't. The lizard one says it's a Sootscale." Grabbles spits.
King Grabbles draws his lance and points it condemningly. "I'm no fan of Sootscales, but I'll give you this one chance at an unconditional surrender. You were stupid to come here, you're outnumbered, with no where to run. Want to negotiate? You better have good terms.
The Deer-King. Ozzy laughs. The only "kings" in the stolen lands are my friends and I. The bandits belong to our new empire. The kobolds whose, false god we just destroyed, belong to our new empire. We have come to offer you the chance to join our empire as well. As she says this, she looks around, as if speaking to the mites assembled here rather than to their leader.
Some of the bandits opposed us. They're dead now, and the other bandits will prosper. Tartuk opposed us. He's dead now, and the other kobolds will prosper. Those of you who choose to oppose us... she pauses to look Grabbles right in the eye, then looks down and the ground, and with an exaggerated motion, stomps on the first spider she sees, twisting her heel to grind its exoskeleton into the dirt. Then she looks around to the others, ...but the rest will prosper. The Deer-King will be next, and so on until, one way or another, there will be nobody left who hasn't joined us.
Don't you see? We've come to offer you a great opportunity. It's the greatest opportunity of your lives, and not just because, if you choose to reject it, it will be the last.
At the twitch of Ozzy's finger, Mr. Blinky lunges at the mite leader.
The beast's claws sweep past the mite , then but its jaw opens wide, and slams shut on the leader's head before he can react.
Ozzy continues , turning to survey the room, I suspect the rest of you will be more reasonable than your former leader.
Iorskan blinked with confusion. So...assassination was the plan? He tensed, ready for a fight.
The rest of the party, not understanding undercommon, must simply conclude that negotiations fell through.
Pulling his head out of Mr. Blinky's mouth, King Grabbles shouts out in fury, "Kill the apefolk! Kill them! Kill them!" Then, taking his own advice, he spurs Tickleback into action. The mighty arthropod clamps it's own vile mouth parts on Mr. Blinky.
Disease (ex) Red ache: Bite—injury; save Fort DC 16; onset 1d3 days; frequency 1 day; effect 1d6 Str damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Ticklback then takes a five foot step back so that King Grabbles can attack with his lance.
The Tunnel Tick and King Mite together reduce Mr. Blinky to -4 hitpoints. The dark monster collapses to the ground, leaking fluid shadows that spread across the floor.
Ozzy will use her Link ability to sacrifice her 7 of her own hitpoints to keep Mr. Blinky from going down.
For her turn, Ozzy stands her ground (total defense action) and addresses the mites. Your "king" is weak! Look how he bleeds! Those who get in our way will die alongside him! Those who don't will take his power for yourselves!
Mr. Winky, flying above the fray, tries to use the wand of Magic Missile on Grabbles...
...but needs more practice.
Awn easily traverses the roots in the crevasse, his smile losing none of its lustre as he spies the Centipede...
Awn had great trouble following the "negotiations" and couldn't understand why the strange idol was destroyed, though Guthruc evidently did a stellar job of that. With the ground littered with artefact-dust, and mites surrounding the group, Awn spies Abaos somewhat more surrounded than the rest of the party. The woodborn steps closer and makes a slight adjustment to the refraction of causality in the room. Of a sudden, the tide of battle ebbs, and flows, and the balance is struck.
Round 1:
Enact Aura of Treachery: Enemies who enter or begin their turn within the aura must make a Reflex save against the aura’s effects. If affected,
to diagonal between Abaos and Mr Blinkster.
Use second sight to add +1 to Ozara's Diplomacy check.
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Abaos snaps. He suspected that this was turning out poorly, with all the shouting and stuff. Now it was time to act.
He quickly snaps his wrist sheath, drawing his hidden starknife, and closes on Mite 10.
"Surprise!" he yells as he stabs the mite.
He's a little off- balance, but it doesn't matter, as the spring loaded knife propels itself into the mite anyways, completely missing Abaos' hand! He then stumbles into the mite and grabs it.
Unfortunately, the starknife hits the mite with no force whatsoever, so Abaos basically just elbows the mite and grabs his knife.
Abaos is off balance, off target, and less lucky then he's come to expect . . . but mite number ten, a particularly ugly creature, is caught flat footed and unfocused, suddenly suspicious of his friends. Abaos's starknife opens it's throat, and it topples to the ground.
The mites attack.
Howling battle cries, they swarm the party with daggers, darts, and spell like abilities. One tries to stab Iorskan but is too nervous to get close. Thirteen attacks Guthruc but can't get through his armor.
Two, a portly mite that is one of the kings most trusted advisors, climbs atop the table and attacks Ozara with her dagger from higher ground , Ozzy sidesteps the attack. Three takes a five foot step backwards and uses his doom spell like ability on Mr. Blinky.
Five takes a five foot step to put herself between Mr. Blinky and her king, trying to distract the monster so that someone else can get a solid hit in. Four draws his dagger and stabs Mr. Blinky with it. It has little effect.
Six is too far back to use any weapons, and draws on her inherent magic powers in an attempt to frighten Mr. Blinky. Her eyes seem to bulge out of her head as she lays a curse on him.
Eight will move forward and try for Mr. Blinky's attention.
Mr. Blinky can't keep track of all the different people attacking him from so many different sides. Seven takes advantage of his disorientation, attacking with her dagger. But being swarmed does nothing to decrease the attempted king-killer's natural defenses, and the weak blow can't penetrate his hide.
Nine takes a five foot step backwards and jinxes Abaos.
Eleven attacks Abaos with his dagger catching the overextended gambler by suprise and slicing open his thigh. (The mite was aiming a bit higher, but Abaos's luck pulls through for him.)
Twelve takes a five foot step away from Abaos's starknife, and throws a dart. Abaos dodges the projectile while twisting away from Eleven's attack, and feels pretty good about his multitasking abilities.
”Stay behind me!” Iorskan snapped at the nearest mite, forcing it back. He then lashed out at one going for his kobold subject, before quickly catching another of the creatures with a swipe of his other claw. He didn’t even bother with his flames. Such creatures were not even worth the effort.
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Guthruc grabs the potion of haste off of his belt , Drinks it and enters rage
Guthruc feels the magically enhanced energy drink coursing through his veins as he enters his rage. He unleashes his usual war cry, but those watching can tell right from the start that this rage will be different. First, Within his battle cry of anger and rage, you can hear pain as Guthruc's bones and muscles shift and bend, cracking, and reforming under the pressure. His bare legs twitch and jerk as his shin and femur shrink and his ankle rises. His toes deform grotesquely as they split and fuse until only four remain, one being shoved backwards, where a heel might belong. His nose elongates and hardens, taking his mouth along with it, resembling a plague mask of flesh and bone, still filled with his sharp teeth. And most noticeable of all, additional bones, muscles and ligaments extend and protrude from his shoulder blades, bending and stretching the skin into secondary limbs. Across his body, Guthruc grows feathers matching those of his recent prey, especially on his newfound wings. The result is something neither orc nor bird, but a fusion of the two, something horrible to behold; the transformation, vomit inducing; and the result, a monster.
The mite in front of Iorskan is backstepping too fast for the dragon to hit him at first, the fear evident on it's face. Iorskan isn't feeling particularly compassionate, though, he recognizes the mite as one of the ones that was torturing the kobold. He catches the mite and disembowels it.
King Grabbles tries to poke Mr. Blinky with his lance. His odds of hitting are not good, since the mites in the way give partial cover.
The King snarles in frustration as his minions foul his attack. Mr. Blinky chewed him up worse then anything's chewed him up in years, and it frustrates him.
Guthruc can hardly guard himself while chugging a potion. Thirteen takes the moment to stab the orc.
Instead of bleeding to death, the orc turns into a mutant bird monster. To the side, the winged lizard is spitting out what remains of One. Thirteen decides that if he survives this, he's asking for a raise.