Fel warms up, yet continuing to provide the boost to the party.
Begin Round 2
The young drake wheels on Khamul and immediately thrashes with tooth and tail:
sinking into his hip for
bouncing off his armored leg.
Then with near supernatural speed it leaps away. It was shocking how quickly it moved after such an attack. Still, it draws from everyone surrounding it. If you don't kill it here and now it's going to escape.
Baddies: Done
Kageko: Current
Khamul: TBD
Chusynd: TBD
Marika: TBD
Fel: TBD
Sigrun: TBD
Drake: 20
Viper: DEAD
Tail slap on Khamul
Sigrun's quick response is more than enough. Just a split second before it makes it over the side, the warrior slices a wing clean off, preserving the scales.
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Sigrun grabs the fallen drake as it crashes to the deck, hefting its considerable weight in her arms and more gently lowering it to the floor of the ship. "Whoa. It's heavier than it looks." She glances around, ascertaining everyone else was okay. Khamul looked worse for the wear, but the the snake-blood down Kageko's blade spoke to her finishing off the viper as well.
"Odd that a dragon - drake - whatever - swooped us like this. They normally do this kinda stuff?" Sig looks to Khamul for answers.
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"That trick with the viper was pretty clever, though. Pissed off snake ready to bite anyone, but too small to actually eat any of us. Poison someone on the ship, then swoop in later to grab the corpse." Marika says, looking a little frazzled. Well, moreso than usual with her unruly hair. "Just how smart are they?"
It looks like you will finally get a night's sleep before approaching the inn tomorrow afternoon. Dinner seems to be going well... at first. The food is good, and the drink is rationed, but also good. After dinner the convoy and the Pathfinders go their separate ways. That's when Passad approaches the lot of you,
"The Pathfinder Society continues to amaze me, and it seems to me increasingly prudent to enter into a business arrangement that would certainly be to our mutual benefit—particularly for those with an eye for spotting profit." This comes with a look particularly geared towards Sigrun. "Let me make my case simply: my trade network is growing and already blankets the Inner Sea like no other, and the dwarves cannot hope to compete with the prices I offer. Let us not forget that the Pathfinders have had many mutually profitable business dealings with me in the past.”
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Khamul snorts. "Didn't you capture a Pathfinder years ago and hold them ransom in your mansion surrounded by traps and monsters, and announce to the world that if they wanted some ancient Manual or this fellow back, they'd have to fight their way through your sociopathic treasure hunt?"
Khamul calms down and clears his throat. "At least, that's what I heard."
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"Oh, yeah, I heard about that incident during my training. Something about reducing multiple agents into, and I quote, a puddle of sentient goop, right? Heard it took three clerics and a month of research to sort that out." The girl's voice is pretty casual, but you can hear her suddenly being on edge.
Passad, "“a minor quarrel between old friends long ago resolved—water under the proverbial bridge. As a token of good faith take this." He hands Khamul a potion of CMW. "Just think it over.... let me know your thoughts."
Passad then makes a someone abrupt retreat. A few minutes later, Metella finds you, "Yes, Temel Passad has his bejeweled fingers in many pies and can offer cheaper wares, but consider the advantages of a business relationship with my mercantile concern: our network is many centuries old, and the quality of our goods is unrivaled. Furthermore, an arrangement with a firm with such deep roots in the Five Kings Mountains would reinforce the military alliance the Society is already negotiating.” she too offers a potion, this one Bear's Endurance. "Think it over. Make a smart business choice."
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Marika frowns. "...can't really argue that. We're talking about who will ultimately be underwriting the whole Mendev venture. There may be some competing interests, but in the end I think we're better off with a sponsor who isn't likely to sell us swords made of pig iron and sunrods that go out in a stiff breeze."
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Kageko holds her peace until both groups are well out of earshot. "If that's what he calls a minor quarrel, I'd hate to find out what he considers a major one," she notes. "I'd say the Society has foes enough without 'friends' such as him..."
She nods at Marika. "More than that, if we deliver a mass of supplies and weapons to aid the Crusade only to discover that they're junk, our reputation would take a long time to recover. While economy has its merits, this is no time to skimp on quality in favor of quantity...
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Sigrun remains rather bemusedly silent throughout both exchanges, rather focused on cleaning and preparing the drake corpse.
... The end result is a rather neat pile of meat for the ship's kitchen, a collection of guts and offal for the fish, and, of course, the scaled hide.
"The dwarves of Janderhoff were quite open to forming trade agreements," she notes idly, "and - though Metella may have thought I was just talkin' her up - I do know that they make quite high quality goods and are very fair and trustworthy in their dealings. I don't reckon the dwarves of the Five Kings Mountains would be any different."
"As for Passad," she shoots a look at Khamul, "if what you say is true... yeah, I dunno. Fool me once kinda thing, y'know?"
Sigrun cleans her hands in a bucket of seawater and dries them on an old scrap of cloth. "Maybe we can seal the deal with one of 'em with some dragonhide, eh? I'm leaning to the dwarves for now."
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"Not only that but my good friend Amenopheus, the Sapphire Sage, is interested in locating other Jeweled Sages in Osirion, although they have proven elusive. I have a feeling Amauhak's strange order of mystic sand-dwarves may hold some information about this that he has not yet revealed to me. This deal with the dwarves could convince him to share what information he may have about the Jeweled Sages."
Near dusk, the captain of the boat points out a pleasant country inn up a hill on the north shore of the Glass River, where a small dock offers a berth for the Abacus. Passad meets you on deck, "We're here sooner than expected. We'll wait out the night in our cabins. I suppose it's up to you if you opt to complete your mission tonight." Amauhak speaks up too, "I strongly advice you refrain from violence on Razmiri soil if it can be helped" Metella and Passad, in rare agreement, concur.
A stone path leads from the dock about 200 yards through some light tree cover to the villa. All appearances suggest a very cozy establishment. To learn more will require approaching.
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With the group seeming to be in more-or-less agreement, Sigrun decides to broach the topic with Metella. She calls the dwarf up onto the deck to talk business (Amauhak may come too, if he wishes, but she does her best to keep things out of Passad's earshot).
"I heard some rather... unfortunate rumours about Passad," she begins carefully. "Seems he's been up to some shady stuff in the past. I for one don't trust him."
"But anyway, we've been talking," Sig gestures to the rest of the Pathfinders, "and we reckon your mercenary concern's gonna offer the Society much better than what he could. Higher quality and no shady business. Like I said before we left," the Ulfen warrior adds with a grin. "You just can't beat dwarven craftsmanship."
Sigrun nods at the freshly-prepared drake hide. "We, uh, caught a dragon just earlier, and I thought you might appreciate it as a sign of the Pathfinders' good will. Y'know? I'm sure you've got an armoursmith mate who'd do wonders with it. Whaddaya say?"
"... Oh, and like I said before, I've got some other friends from Qadira who'd be interested in talking to you as well. Consider that as well, yeah?"
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Despite being rather hesitant to do so, Sigrun removes most of the arsenal of weaponry about her person as they arrive on the docks. She keeps her shield on her back with a coat worn over it, and her axe on her belt - but a small handaxe wouldn't be that odd to see anyway.
"Right. So we go right in and book a room - and maybe sniff around once the inn's gone to sleep? Or do some early sniffin' before we head in?"
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As the boat approaches the dock, Kageko nods at Amahuak. "I would certainly prefer discretion to a running battle, myself," she agrees. "Especially since such an incident would make it hard to continue other operations in these lands -- which was the original purpose behind coming here in the first place, after all..."
She ponders for a moment, then nods again. "In a way, the lateness of the hour should work in our favor; when a small band of pilgrims staggers ashore and tiredly ask for lodgings, people are more likely to be understanding if we don't feel up to answering many questions about our travels thus far."
She turns to Passad. "That said, I would consider us all in your debt if your night watchman kept an eye out and your crew slept lightly; should things go badly awry, we may find ourselves in need of a very quick exit..."
The dwarf gives a knowing nod before cracking a wry grin. "We will have much to discuss. More specifically, my people and your people have oh so very much to discover..."
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Kageko smiles widely, eyes glinting with mischief for an instance before an expression of exaggerated naive innocence slams into place "Milady sometimes has trouble sleeping, especially in strange environs. I was worried she might have wandered off somewhere ill-advised, so I went to search for her..." she explains to an imaginary guard.
I'll take a stealth check from anyone attempting to reconnoiter the inn.
So currently Marika and Kageko are reconnoitering. Others?
Chusynd and Khamul?