Kricker groans as the weight of his equipment starts to drag him down.
I have the zombies, you all kill that damn thing!
Kricker feels his strength drain away, but at least he is able to fight off further deadly effects from the envenomed quill. He sends out another blast of death destroying energy. Another zombie falls and the last two are left tattered and barely standing.
[ooc]Nope![/dice]
"If the poison kills me, burn my body or I'll come back as a zombie." Perrik takes a crossbow shot at the creature. It misses cleanly, though.
Hearing Perrik's words triggers Drahlneep's rage. He spins about and Yanks free the recently patched laser pistol and taps the trigger twice at the new priority target.
Following Kricker's order, Jeji stepped back away from the zombie next to her, pulling out another vial in the process.
The already somewhat frail oracle suffers greatly as the deadly venom races through his system. He tries to fire a bolt at the creature, but the shot is poorly aimed. Drahlneep switches sidearms from bullets to laser beams and blasts the little spiny creature twice. It let out a strange growling cough and flicks a pair of quills at Drahlneep. One hits!
Jeji hurls another bomb past the zombies toward their master, but a flailing corpse tags it, interrupting its journey and setting it off. The bomb doesn't reach its intended target, but at least takes out another zombie. The final zombie manages to pound the kobold bomber while her attention is elsewhere.
Perrik takes another shot at the monster slowly killing him, but the poison is taking a grim toll on his accuracy.
Perrik looks shaky and gags as the zombie dart begins to shut down his body. He squints against his fading eyesight and releases a bolt that misses once again. He is unable to reload the crossbow as his claws grow numb.
Kricker calls upon his god one more time to try to finish off the last zombie, while drawing the chain sword.
The final zombie goes down, burning from divine wrath.
Hey Drahlneeo. No worries. It is small, same size as a kobold.[/ooc]
Hefting his shield with a growl, the kobold savage rushes the deadly creature intending to tackle it.
Jeji steps away from the remaining zombie again and hurls a long bomb!
It hits the necromantic hedgehog in a bright, fiery flash. Drahlneep follows, rushing forward and bowling into the menace. It tumbles backwards landing hard. Unfortunately, Drahlneep finds that a spine has stuck in him from the contact and he is again exposed to the venom.
The final zombie follows Jeji. It hits her hard! The zombie master stands.
Perrik collapses in an ungraceful heap, still twitching in agony as the poison burns through him.
Ignoring the toxin from the spine, Drahlneep stands over the thorny critter and lets loose a pair of laser blasts.
Drahlneep blasts the wicked little blighter in the face as it stands. It staggers a step back and suddenly disappears from view again. Perrik falls to the ground and Kricker, barely able to lift his heavy weapons, calls forth another burst of divine wrath to destroy the last zombie. Now free from any threats, Jeji rushes over to their fallen companion. Kneeling beside the gasping kobold, she tries to counteract the poison from the quill.
Ugh, we need to retreat somewhere to rest up and recover. I don't have the right spells prepared at all to help with recovery. Drahlneep, can you find us a good bolt hole?
Perrik begins to convulse, choking.
Drahlneep struggles to catch his breath and turns to face Kricker. I don't know he will make it, but I will see what I can do." He turns and begins scouring the area for a suitable shelter.
Drahlneep quickly circles around looking for someplace to hide. He finds a large hollow tree currently unoccupied. He quickly weaves together some branches to form a screening door to hide the entrance hole.
Meanwhile, Jeji helpless cradles Perrik as the kobold convulses a final time and then stops. His eyes dim as they stare up through the darkness at the tree canopy.
Damnit! I am sorry brave Perrik. I feel I was woefully unprepared for poison...
"Can you prevent him from turning without...without... making it impossible to return?" Drahlneep asks the others in a flat tone of voice and staring a out the mesh door into empty space. "Return alive, I mean?"
Kricker knows that most undead rise again on the night following their death. He knows that if he prays for the proper spell to sanctify corpses, he can ward off Perrik's undeath for a day at a time. Then if Kricker can keep Perrik from turning before they reach the Blightscale warrens perhaps a wise elder kobolds will know how to raise the hero once again.
Ah, a plan. I just have to hope he doesn't rise until a little after dusk when I get my spells refreshed by Gorum's grace!
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Jeji rocked back and forth as Perrik's head laid in her lap. As the kobold's life force left his body, a single tear rolled down Jeji's face, soon followed by another and another. At first she brushed them away. But after the first, stopped, and simply let them fall. She could not hide it anymore. The toll this journey was taking on them was high indeed. She quietly began to sing, a quiet song she remembered from her rearing. She didn't know what else to do. She wasn't inspired by the divine, didn't have Kricker's gift of magic, or Perrik's, so she did the only thing she could think to do in such a situation. She sang, a woeful song to let the dead know that another was coming to join their warren.
Jeji's mournful song makes the smoggy forest feel even more oppressive. There is nothing to be done for their slain companion though, but try and prevent his turning until they can return Perrik's body to the warren.
Kricker's divine magic is good though and Perrik does not rise desecrated. They continue their journey with little joy over the remaining miles through rainy nights and it is a somber holecoming when the kobold heroes finally reach their Snarl in the eastern Echowood near the Dragontongue River. The maze-like warren has new traps, but the koboolds are familiar with their ways and soon anxiously approach the hidden inner chambers once again.
A kobold guard with yellow scales so bright that they seem to gleam gold spots them first with an excited yip. He introduces himself as Dranjek the Bold.
Dranjek hops up and down excitedly. "Jeji! You have returned!"
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Drahlneep hardly noticed anything, his mind wracked with guilt and despair. He took to silently blaming himself. His new people needed him to be the one their enemies tried to bring down. His body. Not the body that Drahlneep gently carried back home.
They could come for Perrik's mind, he could have handled that fight, not his body, he kept thinking as they trudged through the wilderness.
"It is good to see you Dranjek. Our journey has been...costly. This is Drahlneep, and Kricker. Perrik here recently fell and needs powerful magic to save him. We must see the chief, and quickly. There is not a moment to spare."
"Come quickly then!" the strange gold kobold commands. He leads the warband deeper into the Snarl with a green kobold escort. Finally, they enter the throne room and see old Yammarayk slouching on the throne. The Egg Warden and First Horn yet lives, though it looks like sitting is about all the exertion he can take anymore. Black-scaled Sahrahthenal stands at his side; the wise inquisitor ready to weigh the words of all who speak to Yammarayk. He does smile and nod in greeting to the familiar kobolds though.
Yammarayk leans forward rasping his greeting and asks how the far travelers of the overground have fared and what they have discovered.
"We have traveled to many pink-skin towns and deeper into the ground than most kobolds. We have slain many, and returned with strange weapons that even I don't fully understand. We have see towns and...things, made entirely of metal, and we have made new allies and lost brave ones along the way."
"This one is Drahlneep. He burns with a rage I have never seen before."
"And this is Kricker. He speaks to a different god, but one that has aided us as well."
"We have returned with several treasures, some weapons, some not. I need more time to study them to understand them and hopefully make more of them. They are powerful."
"We have also spread the word of the dragon and put fear into the pink-skins. It was not without cost though. We carry one who needs aid."
Sahrahthenal steps forward hissing as is his wont. "We are glad that you have returned, Jeji. Well met again, Drahlneep. Greetingsss, Kricker. It has been some time since we departed after the great battle with the humans in the ssstorage house of the headache machine. Dranjek and I sssought Olp in the lair of the Hidden Onesss, but by all evidence he ran away down the deep pit to the Deeperlandsss. Sssso we returned here."
"Reep and the pale one, Vornop, returned sssoon after, but they were ressstlessss after seeing the many wonders under the Mountain of Violet Fire. They ssstill sssought revenge on the human raiders of Iadenveigh. When Cassssandalee, the TEK spirit, sssaid she could sense more TEK under the human town, they left with a warband, but haven't been heard from sssince..."
"It is good that we are ssso fecund. Many die, but more eggsss hatch," the inquisitor finishes. He notices something. "Where is Perrik? Has he fallen, too? You said one of your band needss aid? Who requiresss assssistance?"
"Drahlneep carries Perrik's still body. He fell to some kind of poisonous creature. He yelled something about rising as the dead but Kricker's magic seems to have halted that affect."
"We could also use some food and rest. We are exhausted" Jeji said as she fell to her knees. She smiled meekly before collapsing even further. It had been a long time since she had felt safe.
The common kobolds watch with interest, but not with pity or compassion which are very atypical qualities among kobolds. They sniff the air for the scent of opportunity though there is some confusion about where exactly in the kobold hierarchy the newcomers rank. Yammarayk senses the eager looks among the lower ranks at Jeji's collapse and raises a loose skinned old claw. "Know your place kobolds," he rasps. "These kobolds have traveled far and bring weapons and information that will strengthen the tribe." The ancient kobold still retains the respect of the snarl and the lesser ranked slip away to go back to their duties.
Sahrahthenal tends to the returned warband. He tells Dranjek to see that Jeji is made comfortable in the warm sands by the nests and then leads the others to the labs to inspect Perrik's remains.
Drahlneep gently and wordlessly lower's Perrik's body. When draconic greed and the need for status makes the younger kobolds whisper and point, he sneers, ready to tear a head or two off before the wise old one speaks to his people. He nods deeply to Yammarayk, thanking him for his quick intercession. He follows along to the labs, proudly carrying the hero through his home.
Kricker explains what he knows about what happened to Perrik and what he has done to keep him from rising again.
Sahrahthenal sniffs at the corpse. "He hasss been dead for ssseveral daysss. You did well. The corpsse will not rise now. The necromantic poissson of the pukwudgie only lasstss long enough to raise a zombie the next night. By preventing that, you sssaved Perrik from dessecration. As for what can be done now? I have heard of priessts among the foul humansss that can perform miracles to resssurrect the dead. But no kobold hasss this power."
The kobold inquisitor bows his head reverently over Perrik's dead form. After a few moments of silence, he suddenly looks up squinting his eyes in thought. "No kobold, no, but what of the ancients? Do you remember the Casssandalee, Drahlneep? The ssspirit in the crysstal? Most of the time, she makes no sssense, but now and then she knowsss thingss... in much the way that Perrik did."
What is this spirit in the crystal you speak of? is it magic or TEK? Where was it found?
"Both?" Drahlneep replies to Kricker's question about the nature of Cassandalee. "Neither? But it knows things. I just hope we do not discover it is really some devil that wants to make a deal. Because I will have to make it."
"Kept in a devil box, but not a devil. An Inquisssitor can tell," Sahrahthenal gives a hissing laugh and opens a cupboard to remove a devil box, a magical kobold container that holds more than its appearance suggests and is very hard to open if you don't know the trick. He opens it and extracts a thin panel of blue crystal inside a metal frame. It measures some 20 inches long by ten inches wide with technical pieces and sockets attached at the bottom. The face that sleepily appears in the crystal is a human-like female with blue hair, eyes and lips. She blinks at the kobolds in front of her.
In common: Hello. I am Kricker Godridden, Who/What are you?
The image in the crystal tilts her head inquisitively and replies in Taldane. "Why are you speaking in the human language? Don't you speak Draconic like the other kobolds? I am Casandalee."
Sahrahthenal draws her attention speaking in Draconic, "Casssandalee, we have lost one of our koboldsss. I do not remember if you met Perrik. He fought with uss in the town below the Mountain of Violet Fire."
The floating face looks down at the fallen kobold and replies in Draconic, "Yes, of course. Perrik. He asked about the power relay. He wanted to know about the destination of the transmission. He went there, didn't he? I sense it... He found Hellion."