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You and the many other Pathfinders on this expedition disperse and begin exploring the frozen terrain. Soon, you descend a gentle slope toward a frozen lake to the west with the mountains rising to the north and east.
Through the trees, you hear and observe a very hostile exchange. A bunch of kobolds, one dressed a bit fancily holding a greatsword, presumably the leader, and four regular looking ones carrying spears and slings. Across them, a humanoid that looks like a representation of a coniferous tree. A lot of shouting can be heard with strong gestures to suggest a strong and growing dislike of one another.
One of the kobolds spot your approach and soon the rest are made aware! They scream hostilities that can only imply an end by combat!
You think perhaps you can convince the tree person to assist you in the kobold attack!
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Kahwen was more than a little frustrated by the fact that they could not finish off that last skeleton before Medda appeared and used her magic, broken dagger to (mostly) seal the rift to some place...ELSE.
His eyes widen as the voice from the other side speaks and he looks visibly shaken.
"We will be happy to help you, Medda. We can't let that thing through," he says.
He is also visibly excited as mention of a dragon is made, though just as obviously crestfallen when it becomes evident that they will not be facing the beast.
"I can handle traps, companions. Don't worry," he tells the group as they see another Pathfinder ensnared. He pats his pack where his tools are stored.
It is not hard to pick a side when they come upon some sort of disagreement. Almost anything is a good guy compared to most kobolds.
He doesn't know much about kobolds in general, but spots something unique about the one who appears to be the leader and easily identifies the dryad.
As he moves awkwardly forward on the ice, he calls out to her for assistance.
"We've come to help you with these invaders, Miss! But any assistance you can provide us will be greatly appreciated. With our combined might we can drive them out!"
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As soon as it becomes clear the expedition is hiking into the colds of a frozen tundra, Angela whips out an empty vial and a small alchemy set and mixes up a small potion. She downs it, really not wanting to adventure out into the cold. The next morning she mixes up two of the extracts. "I can make a few extracts of that 'resist elements spell' but only enough for myself and one other person. Anybody want it? Kahwen if you're feeling cold, we can share body heat..."
Angela watches as the pathfinder gets sent flying, noting how high and how far he flew. "Well, these kobolds sure know what they are doing when it comes to traps! We should be careful form here on, that looked like it would hurt, considerably."
Angela stops for a second as she takes in the scene below with the tree person and kobolds, dredging up anything she might have read about these creatures.
"Most of these look like basic kobolds, not anything special except that black tinged one over there he's... and the dryad looking thing is actually..." Angela starts listing off anything special she can note about the basic kobolds and what special attacks that the black-edged one might have. She also gives an extensive background to the tree looking one and explains what some of it's special adaptations are.
She then draws her longspear and moves closer calling for the dryad-like thing. "I know not what you are arguing about, but it looks like you could use some assistance driving these kobolds out of here so they don't hurt the natural environment here anymore."
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Nigel gets ready for his adventure into the cold. I am not prepared for this kind of weather, I hope my clothes are enough to keep me warm!
When we run into the kobolds and the tree creature, Do you see that tree! It looks so unique! I have never seen anything like that! I hope we don't need to kill it... but I am ready to kill those gross kobolds....
Not wanting to get ahead of the group, he stayed put. He summons an eagle to go out and try to attack the enemy.
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The group recognizes the tree-person to be what is called a Dryad. Dryads are tree-fey who prefer secluded woodlands far from humanoids in need of lumber. To everyone's surprise, they don't have any special attacks nor defences.
The minions are nothing but good old regular kobolds, with nothing special to mention about them. But the leader is a barbarian, also known as a Kobold Dragon Herald, he has no special attacks, but can be intimidating when he rages.
The eagle appears 30 feet from Nigel. As soon as it appears, it begins to fly into battle. When it sees the blue kobold he calls upon holy power to help it fight. When it gets in range, it bites at the smited enemy.
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The group hustles to the Dryad's aid in all directions! The lack of co-ordination almost looks like a planned strategy. Angela and Kahwen additional appeals to the Dryad's nature, and both seem successful in seeking for the aid as she turns and nods.
The dragon herald kobold watches the group make ways and eyes himself on Haska who makes quite the advance! The kobold makes his way through the trees getting very close towards the alchemist.
The dryad too watches eagerly at the situation unfolding and decides to cast a little bit of magic to aid your efforts. She turns her eyes to the kobold advancing on the elf and cast a little magic to cause him to go confused momentarily.
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Hadza also rumbles through the foliage, while Dark tries to release to cold spell. Unfortunately the spell gets lost in the woods before it reaches it's target.
Two of the Kobold engages the eagle while the other two come around to provide support to their leader moving through the trees. And as usual, the eagle takes quite a beating to a point that it falls unconscious and returns back to it's home plane.
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Angela feels like she was saying something but instead finds her feet moving her closer, and even closer to the kobolds. Once she stops and gets into a defensive position, she finally finds the words to call out to the dryad. "That spell will hopefully be useful, but are you sure you want to let kobolds live near your forest? They are liable to cut many of these trees down and use them to make traps."
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The Kobold herald unaware of Kahwen's presence, takes a hit his the arrow in the knee, and not soon after, a bomb blows up in his face courtesy of Haska! As he takes the beating, his face turns red in anger, but in his confused state, he turns against his own kind! Swinging his sword brashly.
Angela reaches out to the Dryad once more, hoping that the creatures sides again with them, at first she seems hesitant to react but then releases another spell of magic on to the kobold causing him to be confused once more. "I suppose you have a point."
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Dark and Hadza finds themselves extremely unlucky, their bodies react to the cold that causes their muscles to sore and shrink rendering them incapable of doing their regular duties with the usual vigor.
The Kobolds continue to shift through the woods and engage the Pathfinders. One of the Kobold thrust his spear towards Hadza, but inadvertently finds the same tree that blocked Hadza's weapon to be in his way.
Haska throws another bomb into the fray, but it falls slightly short this time causing an explosion in the midst of the chaos!
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"Friend Angela, keep talking to the other pretty lady...I mean the pretty lady who is taller than you...I mean the pretty lady who is not you...I mean..." Kahwen trails off, clearly flustered.
Whether it is from embarrassment or a tactical choice, he disappears in the underbrush again.
When he reappears, he is right next to one of the kobolds and has swapped his bow out for his sword.
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Nigel contemplates and struggles to make himself relevant to the situation! Attempting to throw more acid to a clear target, to his surprise the splash hits the tree adjacent to the Kobold.
Kahwen tries a shadowy approach but fails to make an impression as he swings his weapon too slowly in the cold enable the confused Kobold to react timely.
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Angeal stopsand blinks a few times in response to Kahwen's words, her mind going blank for a few seconds as she tries to process the information. He thinks I am pretty? And his he comparing me to a dryad? Women considered by many druid-scholars to be one of the most beautiful creatures in creation? He is so smooth even when it's clear he is flustered!
With an expression very rarely seen on her face, Angela smiles and follows Kahwen's advice. "Thank-you Honorable Dryad! Your help is greatly appreciated. But I'm sure there is more you could do to help us. You do realize just how destructive a tribe of kobolds can be right? In AR 3506 Karvin Treestrider studied an environment where a tribe of about a 100 kobolds had been living. He wrote that the tribe, on average, used over 90 fully-grown trees a year..." Angela continues to spout off statistics about the environmental dangers that kobolds can present as she steps to one side of Dark, giving the man a "Why-are-you-standing-right-in-front-of-me-and-blocking-my-spear" look.
She then takes her spear and tries to distract the kobold in case it decided to attack Dark.
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Angela attempts to reach out once more to the woodland being hoping to build an emotional connection. Although the human sounds extremely convincing, the words are brushed away by the Dryad.. "Too much chaos.. No more.. I cannot help.." But she continues to watch intently as to how the situation would unfold.
The Kobold leader confuses one of his own again as the enemy, and strikes with a strong grip! "EEEEK!" His underling yells in pain as the blood spews when he falls into deep unconsciousness to a possible death.
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Dark swings his sword with as much strength he can muster, but does so inaccurately. The Kobold retaliates but with the same effect. Perhaps the cold environment is getting to everyone.
The last Kobold makes his way towards Hadza, but his attack is distracted by the polearm branished in his direction.
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In a series of what one can presume to be coordinated attacks, the Kobolds fall one by one. As the yellow eyed kobold approaches Hadza, he pierces the kobold, and the creature bleeds into unconsciousness.
Kahwen comes around silently and slices the leader. He hits a primary nerve causing blood to spurt everywhere. The kobold yells in pain as he falls to the ground bleeding to a certain death.
To finish it off, Nigel and Haska both throw alchemical attacks on the last enemy. He burns from the acid and the bomb and the pain causes him to fall over.
The fey creature approaches you and begins to speak. "Good day, I am Enzial. I apologize for my behaviour, but you must understand, we are not creatures of war. I am in gratitude of your assistance, you see, we are at a sensitive situation. The white dragons from the mountains have hatched a new clutch of wyrmlings. This has spurred the kobolds who serve these dragons to hunt a staggering number of local animals for meat. This has caused a great deal of hurt to our white forest."
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"Wait, what?" "The dragon is not dead." "You mean there is a real nasty white flying fortress lurking somewhere near here." "And, not only that, there is a bundle of death breathing dragonlings too." "I was seriously counting on the wyrm being dead and defeated by "what's her name". Haska looks rarher deflated by this news.
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Angela's face darkens as she hears the news about the dragon. "We should hurry then. There are probably hundreds of other kobolds wandering around here and mama herself might fly over here at anytime."
She then gives a glance at Dark and Haska. "I agree it is disheartening to hear that the white dragon wasn't finished off all those years ago, especially as it has likely grown stronger, but we are many where she was one, I believe we have better chances!"
Glancing at the rest of the group she continues. "Alright, unless anyone has an objections I say we move on! Oh gentle Dryad, do you know where mama and her wrymlings are? WE probably need to head there to find the information we need!"
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As Kahwen strikes an adept and telling blow, he glances subtly over at Angela to see if she saw.
"Huzzah!" he cries as the last of the kobolds is taken down.
He sheaths his sword as he listens to the dryad.
"Huzzah!" he exclaims again when there is mention of an actual, alive dragon they might get to face.
His eagerness is tamped down somewhat by the fact that many in his group do not seem as excited by the chance of proving themselves against such a mighty beast.
"Before we go, should we not check our opponents for useful information and gear?" he asks, and starts looking over the bodies for anything of interest.
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Besides they're obviously mundane gear, the kobold has two potions each, seemingly of the same concoction.
"I have not met Ivvora, I've heard of the name.I know that the powerful wyrm Grathatonhakis terrorized this region for centuries before dying unexpectedly nearly a millennium ago, but it stopped when Ivvora appeared. Although if you plan to fight the dragon you may want to might speak with Vallahk and Quiselle, the protectors of the forest. Although they are difficult to convince of anything, if you were persuade the two to aid your cause, the pair could provide considerable assistance." Enzial suggests.
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Kahwen will study the potions that he finds, taking a sip of one of each and swishing it around in his mouth and making clucking sounds with his tongue as though he were sampling fine wine.
"Don't know what these do," he says pointing to the first set he tasted. He hands a couple of the others to Hadza. "But friend Hadza you should take some of these. They'll embiggen you! You'll hit even harder! And from further away! Just what you need for dragonslaying."
He listens intently to the Dryad speaking. He is not able to frown but his brow furrows in thought and a bit of disappointment.
"As much as I'd like to hurry to fight the dragon, my mother didn't raise any fools...well, one but we won't speak of Weequa. Any assistance we can get in facing a dragon is certainly welcome. I say we go talk to the other fey."
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Dark double checks the results Kahwen comes up with on the potions. He is not able to accurately identify the second potion but the first one is clear.
"This potion will heal light wounds." He will hold it out for anyone that might want it. If none do, then he will hold onto it encase of emergencies.
"I agree with Kawhen here. If we are going to be facing dragons, we should get as much help as we can. We might be able to take out a couple of wyrmling dragons. But anything older, I am fearful of the results."
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"Very well, I'll lead you to the fey court."
Enzial leads you into a nearby cluster of birch trees so dense that it seems not even a sparrow could fly between them. As she approaches, the trees seem to leap aside, clearing a short path. Traveling this path causes the scenery to blur, as though each step were carrying you several miles at a time. After walking what feels like a few dozen feet, you arrive in a clearing surrounded by a living palisade of birch trees. At the center stands a lopsided oak tree with green leaves, and two regal fey sit atop the roots while holding court before several dozen other First World beings like dryads, pixies, satyrs, and awakened animals.
As you approach, the fey king, a creature with birdlike wings covered with pine needles instead of feathers extend from the back of this regal, elf-like humanoid. And the fey queen, a dryad but, resembling an ancient oak who’s branches twist and bend, creating a throne whenever she begins to sit. This elf-like woman wears a dress of pine needles and crown of geraniums. They are locked in debate, they are discussing the “dragon problem” and seem to be considering all-out war. But there is clear concern about the safety of those under their protection and if they lose and upset the dragons, that no one will remain to protect the forest. The king seems to advocating for eradicating the threat, while the queen wants a gentler approach that still deals with the problem.
"Well Enzial you've brought us guests!" The king says in a friendly tone that doesn't seem to match his somewhat intimidating presence." Welcome friends of Enzial, I am Vallahk and this is my queen Quiselle. Now who are you and why have you come to my court?"
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"King Vallahk, I am Hadza of the Ice Chasm Following of the Realm of the Mammoth Lords. We of the Mammoths know that to bring down large and dangerous prey, you need the might of many. We will bring down each of these dragons and their spawn like a wolf pack. Aid us, and the dragons will fall even sooner."