Jeji doesn't hesitate to retreat out of harm's way and hurl a fiery bomb at the mass of worms, considering the slurk to be a lost cause.
Fire damage
Splash: 5 Fire (DC 15 Reflex for 1/2)
Sa'rah'then'al hissed as he pounced forwards attempting to snatch one up into his maw. He was filled with rage at the vermin that ate his brother and attempted to eat one of them himself, his fangs dripping with acid and his eyes burning with blightstone.
His teeth sink into the pesky black and orange eel as he starts to shake his head.
Reep hisses violently and stumbles back from the knot of worms, raising his rod to his shoulder, but not taking a shot... not yet.
Reep moves back with Jeji taking aim while the unstable one hurls something at the mass of worms. The bomb explodes in a mini-mushroom cloud over the mass. Blisters and charred flesh cover the vermin, but their slimy flesh quells the flames before they are killed, the slurk looks fairly cooked as well.
Sarahthenal decides to see if he can eat fried worms and jumps in to bite one in half. The tangle of worms moves quickly then. One slithers up nostril of the smoldering slurk. Two immediately strike Sarahthenal knocking him unconscious and quickly coiling around him.
That leaves two to move out against the encircling kobolds. They do not move quickly, but wriggle fast enough to catch Jeji. The last two go after Jeji. One strikes the new kobold and slithers around his legs attempting to bind him!
Jeji gasps and struggles to escape the worm's embrace.
Dranjek rushes to aid his clutchmates, aiming for the nearest grappling worm!
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Dranjek boldly rushes to his imperiled companion's side and pins one of the pernicious worms to the ground.
At the sight of the orange and black worms, Olp hisses and moves to strike at the worms coiling around Sa'rah'then'al.
Reep holds off on using one of his bullets, not eager to spend his precious ammunition. Instead, he manuevers so that he can hit as many worms as he can without endangering his companions.
The worm Dranjek has pierced stops moving just as Olp pounces forward to gnaw the last one on their inquisitor. It tastes foul and sour. The two offending worms on Sarahthenal are dead, but the kobold doesn't stir.
Reep holds off firing anymore bullets for now and once Jeji breaks free, sends a magical burst of flame over the last two long worms. They writhe aside and their mucus protects them from the meager flames that pass over them. They strike at Jeji again, but miss.
Jeji skirts around the worms to try and position herself between them and her fallen tribesman.
Olp lashes out at the last two worms.
Reep dances around, trying to find a clear shot. If any remain, he fires! for damage!
Dranjek charges back at the last two worms, but stumbles on a tuft of grass and his spear point digs into soil instead of a worm. Jeji retreats from the worms to move to his fallen companion's side. Sarahthenal appears to have stabilized, but remains unconscious.
Olp bounds over to the enemy. The violet kobold snaps at a worm, but it twitches aside. Reep blasts a worm to slimy pulp. The last worms turn on Olp and he is hit by the heavy barb. Before the worm can wrap him up though, Olp cuts it in half with his dagger.
Olp rubs at his bruised ribs where the worm hit him with it's barb. He moves back to Sa'rah'then'al's still body and crouches down next to it, sniffing at him and gently prodding him with a single claw.
Reep walks over to the downed Sar and the bruised Olp, staring hard at the dead worms. "Am ssslurk dead too? I sssaw a worm ssslither down itsss gullet."
At the lack of response to his inspection, Olp mutters, "Dead.", before moving on to the slurk. If it is not moving, he opens it's mouth and looks for any sign of a worm inside. If it is not readily apparent, he starts to climb down it's throat looking for the foul tasting thing.
Sarahthenal is still breathing, but the slurk is indeed very dead. Olp opens the slurk's mouth to find a wormy tail retreating down its gullet.
Baring his fangs and hissing in a mixture of anger, disgust and delight, the violet scaled kobold shimmies down after the worm snapping at it as he tries to bite it to death.
Olp sinks his fangs into the wounded worm killing it. He comes out with a strange expression on his face from the painfully tart slime covering the thing.
Spitting to get the awful taste out of his mouth, Olp slithers back out of the slurk's gullet. Taking a last look at the dead kobold, he hangs his head and sighs before reaching down and taking the backpack from off of the corpse and heaving it onto his back with the other two packs.
Dran peers around, wary of further threats. He also inspects the body of Sarathenal, listening and looking for signs of life.
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Dranjek's tending at least elicits a groan from Sarahthenal, but the kobold is going nowhere for a while.
Reep sighs in relief when Sarahthenal groans, glad he is alive. "We must find a place to allow him to heal enough to pray to hisss god. I am Reep. This isss Olp and the injured one isss Saranthenal."
"If you give me a moment, I believe I can mix something that can get him back on hissss feet."
Jeji spends a minute dropping bits and pieces of various substances pulled from pouches scattered all over her person. She shakes the contents violently until it changes color.
If so,
The kobolds fuss about their fallen companion, but sadly, it seems there is nothing to be done except wait, pray to their blighted god and curse the humans again for depleting the tribes' store of healing potions. An early night is called and the kobolds huddle under their camouflaged shelter getting reacquainted and hoping that no more wolves come sniffing about. It is early the next evening when the heat of the day has subsided some that Sarahthenal awakens.
Sa'rah'then'al awakens with a groan, his claws going to his face. He felt like he had been run over by a heard of Slurk. He could barely move but at least he was able to pray.
He could feel that his father was with him on this mission as the blightburn power spread over his body and his injuries practically vanished altogether in a matter of seconds. He hissed softly as he rose, whole again and looked at his tribe.
"The godsss demand that we make hassste, it isss ssshown in the power that hasss healed me, we move." he stated as he searched for his pack and put it back on ready to move on for the night.
Dranjek speaks with the others.
"Yes, it seems we must press on. Brothers, you may remember that I bear the honor of our kinship more seriously than some of our more capricious clansmen. I will defend you, and the honor of our tribe with my life, if necessary. "
He seems a bit uncomfortable afterward, as if making such an altruistic statement is somewhat shameful.
He checks the straps on his armor, then regrips his spear, ready to follow.
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With the inquisitor restored to health by the power of Gakzara, the bold warband puts the setting sun behind them and continues east with a sense of urgency. Again, the guiding purple light fails to show and the kobolds are left to wonder if somehow the humans have discovered their plans and destroyed it.
Worry goads them forward though Dranjeks heavy armor slows travel somewhat. Still, none can begrudge the magnificent armor made from the shed scales of one of the tribe's distant dragon benefactors. The vile steaming marsh is soon left behind, but it takes four more days to cross the plains before the light of a half moon reveals the Hill of the Violet Flame.
The kobold expeditionary force is not surprised to find it covered by a human settlement. A dark lumpy hill lies in the center of a plateau. A trail is seen to spiral up the rise and stops not far from the peak. This is likely where the flame once burned. Several large ponds have collected on the west side of the hill and a river drains south down the escarpment toward you.
The east side of the plateau, around the base of the hill are larger, more spread out homes and fields. To the west, near the ponds, the buildings are closer together. The houses unfortunately, look to be make of stone and metal. Most are roofed with ceramic tiles. It would have been far easier for you if they were made of dry wood, but the humans are crafty.
The road into town climbs up the slope of the plateau and enters the town on the east side.
Sa'rah'then'al hisses "Filthy humansss, they ssseek to desssecrate holy land. We ssshall punish them indeed if they have destroyed the great violet flame but we mussst be careful. Let usss first make hassste while the humans sssleep to the peak, we ssshall dole out jussstice after we sssee with our own eyesss what evil they have done.""
He looked around the area to see where best to approach the peek in a manner that would give them the most concealment and keep their war party at its best for longest.
At this late hour, the town is quiet. Sarahthenal spots a few lights in a couple of the big buildings on the west side just north of the town's entrance, but he think it would be easy to avoid them and move up to the hill if everyone is quiet. He sees no light or activity on the east side or on the trail up the hill.
The slopes of the plateau are climbable, but would take some skill. Probably the roads are safe during the night if the kobolds move quickly and quietly.
Sa'rah'then'al pointed out all the various things that he could. He then motioned for them to follow along quietly up the eastern side. Dranjek was a bit nosier then the average kobold and it worried Sa a bit. He thought about sending of them into town to steal some rope and have two of them take it up the hill for them to haul Dranjek up the side of the hill as a precaution. He voiced the idea to the group and looked around at them for their input.
"Very risssky to go into town...to sssplit up...why not jussst take off armor and carry it? We sssstay together, keepss armor clossse."
"Yesss, I can carry my armor. I will be unprotected, but I can face that risssk. We must avoid detection, but splitting our force would be very dangerousss, thisss close to the humansss."
It is quickly decided that kobolds stick together. The dragon knight is extremely uncomfortable without his legendary armor, but happy to make the sacrifice for his tribe. Even without the armor, Dranjek is something of a liability with his pale scales. A dark cloak would be of use to cover him up.
Nonetheless, the kobold warband moves in to infiltrate the sleeping human city. The road climbs up the bluff to a square at the town's entrance. There are a couple corrals for the human's horses and three streets that lead through the buildings. The east street leads past some living places and one building that Jeji notes has a potion on a sign in front.
The road intersects the stream you saw earlier and you pass over a bridge to the eastern side of town. You startle when a dog loudly barks somewhere nearby, but no one appears and you continue past a couple small farms to another square. A large building stands at the end of this one and you see a watch tower with two humans above. Fortunately, they don't see you and you creep just a little ways farther up a street going north to reach the hill at the center of town.
The path ascends up and around the western hillside above the ponds. You note some strange building with many weird pipes lies on the bank of the biggest pond. It makes mysterious chugging and sloshing sounds which leave you wondering.
The north slope of the hill is the steepest and the cliff drops away hundreds of feet to the plains below. The northeast slope is where the holy flame should burn. It bears a landing that has rigging to hoist heavy buckets of ore up from a foundry below. You also see what must be a guild hall and junkyard next to the foundry at the foot of the hill below. As for the holy flame, now there is only a pit filled with bubbling, foul smelling sludge that gleams faintly in the moonlight.
** spoiler omitted **
Even without the armor, Dranjek is something of a liability with his pale scales. A dark cloak would be of use to cover him up.
Nonetheless, the kobold warband moves in to infiltrate the sleeping human city. The road climbs up the bluff to a square at the town's entrance. There are a couple corrals for the human's horses and three streets that lead through the buildings. The east street leads past some living places and one building that Jeji notes has a potion on a sign in front.
"I think there would be helpful sssstuff in that building, healing potionsss and sssuppliesss. We could be in and out quickly" Jeji says pointing at the building with the potion sign.
Olp gasps in shock as the dead kobold that was Sa'rah'then'al rose up from the ground. When it spoke in his voice, the violet kobold skittered back behind several of his fellows. Baring his teeth from between the legs of the other kobolds, he watched as the corpse-come-alive used magic and the grievous wounds sealed shut with nary a scar. He hissed until he realized that the undead creature was actually still the unholy inquisitor. His scales slowly smoothing back out, he cautiously approached the risen kobold until he was close enough to smell him. When there was no scent of rot, he pounced on the black scaled dragon and embraced him in a powerful hug. Unslinging his backpack, he handed it back to the other kobold and happily followed his tribe mates.
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Following his fellows, he quietly crept along through the human settlement. Staring down at where the unholy light should be shining, he nearly wept in disappointment at it's absence. Olp looke to the others for a sign of how to proceed.
Reep hisses as he sees the human town, but keeps his teeth firmly shut as they move through it. "No, Jeji. Humanss must not know we are near. If you sssteal from them, they will know."
At the top of the hill, he stares at the bubbling pits. "What hasss happened to the flame? Where iss it?"
"Very well. It wassss jussst a thought. I no want to endanger our group or the missssion."
Dranjek speaks quietly to his fellows:
"I am sure these humansss will not open their doors to usss. If we are to succeed, we will need suppliesss. I am not fond of theft, but in need I am not opposed either. But as you say, we should try to leave no trace."
He's not really sure which choice will further their the cause the best, though.
Re-supplying at the potion shop was my suggestion, but that appeared to be voted down. Otherwise I'm just following the lead on this one.
If we absolutely need supplies, then Reep will agree to the potion shop idea.