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Well gang, the little guy here is claiming that nobody started the war, they just hate other. They took the statue cuz they knew it would make the kobolds mad. Clearly he wants us to let him out. But I'm inclined to see what the chief has to say, before doing anything.
In my family's encounters with kobolds they were always selfish, cowardly little bastards, but I dunno about the local tribes. I really dunno much about these mites at all.
Kaeso and Norn go down a few tunnels in the old mine. The walls and ceiling are dilapidated, but all seem very structurally sound. With some TLC it could even be re-constructed into a working silver mine again, although neither of them have any idea if there is actual ore left in here.
Both of them face the Kobold Chieftan, Chief Sootscale. He tell Nakpik, "You, you have brought big folk down to our caverns! What is the meaning of this!". Chief Sootscale is much like all other kobolds, except his scales are a dark charcoal gray.
The little kobold starts rambling quickly trying to explain himself and starts to convince the chieftain to listen to him and come upstairs.
"Chief Sootscale, I am sure you are protective of your caverns and your tribe. Please come upstairs with us, where my companions and I may have the means to help you retrieve this statue you lost."
"Well, I guess, choosing between kobolds and mites is like choosing between slimy doom and filth fever," the witch chuckles, "but as long as we can make a good deal with one of them..."
"You servant Nakpik thought we might be able to give some aid, but didn't want to leave the captured mite alone. Our companions are guarding the mite, while we came down to your domains to show our willingness to help.
Diplomacy:
Hah! Well, that probably won't work. I suppose I'll need to be scary. If it doesn't work, the following:
Drawing himself up to full height and grasping his hammer, Kaeso goes red-faced: "Listen, we came down in good faith. We could have taken your mines by force. We chose not to. But we could choose differently! Now, will you let us give you aid?"
Intimidate:
Chief Sootscale, about to laugh in the face of the big folk attempts at Diplomacy, riles back a bit when Kaeso almost shouts in his face.
"I guess no harm in seeing what big folk want right? I go look, make sure they haven't taken prisoner out of cage. Blue uglies suck, and they are evil! And I woudn't start any trouble, big folk. Our shaman is powerful enough to decimate you all."
With that, the chieftain steps down from his chair, and with two guards starts heading back out to the mine entrance.
Everyone else outside, about 5 minutes after they went in, Kaeso and Norn return with a gray-scaled kobold, with a fancy headdress and makeshift rod.
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All your shiny base are belong to us!
Judging by the way this little bugger gave me raspberries, after my goddess-like rapprochment, I'd say they can't be trusted. But... that doesn't mean they can't be useful.
When the chief arrives, Drispeera will give him a dazzling smile and wait for an introduction.
All your shiny base are belong to us!
Bingo really doesn't care about the mites and kobolds. He just wants to find some more bandits.
Bingo really doesn't care about the mites and kobolds. He just wants to find some more bandits.
Aside to Bingo: "Think how much armor and weapons we could get for 800 crowns!"
"Well, what do you want, big folk? Nakpik tells me he thinks you can get our statue back? It's a statue of our god! And the evil blue uglies took it from us! Our shaman say we must go to war with uglies, to let our god know that we are still faithful even if his image has left us. So we do as shaman say, and slay the blue uglies from the tree! They captured one of our own, Mikmek, so we take one of them too!" pointing at the mite in the cage, who is still sobbing and blowing raspberries at the chieftain.
He overhears Kaeso talking about bandits to bingo. "big folk bandits?! We saw some of those. A logging camp to the north. Led by some lady with twin axes. Scary female. We fight blue uglies near there. They win. So they got rights to loot the bandit's stash. HAHAHA so funny when uglies got caught. Bandits chase them back to their tree for days."
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Hmm... honored Chief, I am Drispeera of... of the Big People. We killed the bandit axe woman easily with our great magic and mighty strength. We might be willing to help the Sootscale Tribe, but you must answer some more questions.
Do I understand you correctly? The blue uglies took treasure from the bandits? And the blue uglies live at the tree? Is that the big dead sick amore tree in the direction of sun-goes-down? And, most important question, what will you give Big People if we get back statue?
How does she do that? One minute she's hard as nails, and the next she's smooth as butter. Kaeso looks admiringly on as Drispeera sweet-talks the kobolds. But why is she blue?
"Blue uglies live in tree yes, big old tree to the north ish. They take shiny stuff from bandits. They take lots of shiny stuff, all the time. They steal, from everyone! Old Sharptooth will have great rewards for you, says our shaman, upon the return of his effigy. He speaks big words for kobold, but he a powerful shaman."
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Yes, great rewards, the Big People will help you against the blue uglies for this. Do not attempt to be cheap if we do this great favor for you. You do not wish for the anger of the Big People.
To mite:
Yeah, he seems to have no disposition to warm up to you.
Old Sharptooth is basically the Kobold patron deity.
Kaeso checks out his fingernails while he waits, then picks out the dirt with a twig.
"Well, looks like we should at least check out the Mite lair. We obviously missed something at the Old Sycamore. We could head there, or go west first and then back up north. Erastil of course would like us to help the creature of the wild, even if they are... these creatures... Besides, if the mites looted the bandits, we might recover what they stole from Oleg's in the first place."
"Perhaps the other mites might be more amenable to persuasion?
Heh. "mites might!"
Kaeso is ready to go back to the Sick Amore tree. Maybe we could explore on our way.
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Sounds good to me. Either these mites will see reason and give us the statue-- or they won't and we'll take it by force, plus anything else we find. I did wonder if they had Svetlana's ring, since the Bandits were the last to have it. If the other ring we found isn't it. Back to the Sick Amore tree we go. Like Kaeso said we can map anything we didn't get to on the way here.
With somewhat of a bow, the Kobold chief takes his leave, and leaves Nakpik back in his post guarding the mite. It starts blowing more raspberries at the little kobold, cursing in Undercommon.
The group gathers and heads west to map out the area before heading back to the Sycamore tree. At the point where the Thorn and the Shrike rivers meet, the Thorn River grows unusually shallow here just before it empties into the Shrike. The resulting ford is never deeper than 3 feet, allowing easy crossing of the River itself.
As the party heads back northward, the weather has taken an odd turn. Although the sky is clear and no rain clouds are seen for miles, there is a rainbow above your heads, and it feels unnaturally breezy today.
After a small gallop, the party once again approaches the Sycamore Tree.
Kaeso looks around as well as he can, looking for mite tracks, and wondering what they might look like.
Survival:
"I don't know. Do they even make tracks?"
"Lemme check, kid," says Bingo, as he scouts the area round the sycamore.
Survival
With the new found knowledge that there IS something under the tree, bingo is able to find the entrance to the lair. It is indeed quite small, tucked in between a few of it's massive roots. a small sized humanoud should have no trouble going in, and mediums will have to squeeze.
As the party gets closer to the entrance, two things are amiss from your last visit here. First, laying on the ground is a finely polished tankard, emblazoned with the holy symbol of Cayden Cailean. Next to the mug, is a small smattering of blood.
Second, there are human screams and grunts in Common coming from the hole. Whoever it is, he is currently in pain and suffering. High-pitched voices laughing with barely comprehensible words in Undercommon are heard between the human's shouts...
Norn will snag the tankard, draw his Falchion, and get in there!
"Sounds to me they skipped it first!"
Kaeso:
Drispeera:
Mornaura:
Bingo:
Norn:
???:
BBEG:
Round 1 will be:
Drispeera
Baddies
Mornaura
Norn
Bingo
Kaeso
???
I'm working to get the map up, in the meantime, theater of the mind.
Drispeera, you can see fairly well in here, with light coming down from the surface still. Three crude, wooden workbenches occupy the center of this room, their tops strewn with various tiny tools, metal and wooden hardware, and blocks of wood.
Two mites are here, one poking the human with a spear and the other throwing caltrops at him as if they were weapons.
"Oh, seriously? Even though I'm really willing to regard that strange cloudless rainbow as a good omen, I haven't changed my mind - squeezing into the burrows of supposedly friendly small buggers is a stupid idea, let alone those of crazy fairy bastards," the witch grumps. Nevertheless, she follows her companions through the mite hole and unsheathes her sickle.
Kaeso squeezes his way in after Norn, trying and failing to hold back a grin. "Hulk Smash!" Wait. What's a Hulk? Why did I say that?
Finally,thinks Bingo, Comfortable surroundings! He draws his sword and skips down the spacious hallway.
That will touch one and splash the other one. damage?
Round 1 will be:
Drispeera
Baddies <--
Mornaura
Norn
Bingo
Kaeso
???
Both mites step up to attack Norn, who was first down.
Mite 1
Mite 2
Both miss, even flatfooted.
Round 1:
Drispeera
Baddies
Mornaura <--
Norn
Bingo
Kaeso
???
That will touch one and splash the other one. damage?[dice=damage]d6 and I think just 1 point on the other.
Yep. Norn is in the splash too, but takes no damage (ER fire 1).
"For the love of Cayden someone is tossing Alchemist Fire! Careful now! Theres a man down here!' Edwyn says loudly trying to make out the humanoid figures rushing into the room.
Accompanied with some screeching noises from the hawk on her shoulder, Mornaura chimes "Let's see if those uglies fall asleep as easily as bandits!" and casts her slumber hex on the not-burning Mite.
Zonk
Round 1:
Drispeera
Baddies
Mornaura
Norn <--
Bingo
Kaeso
???
"Erastil, guide my blows"
Whiff from Norn
Round 1:
Drispeera
Baddies
Mornaura
Norn
Bingo <--
Kaeso
???
Bingo moves up to the right of the mite to the right and attacks with his shortsword.
Acrobatics (if needed)
Attack
Damage
Being asleep, he cant defend himself and falls. Even so, you feel like your short sword should have dealt more damage than it did.
Round 1:
Drispeera
Baddies
Mornaura
Norn
Bingo
Kaeso <--
???
Kaeso moves toward the remaining mite, and takes a mitey swing.
Warhammer:
Damage
BONK. Like bingo, you feel that your smack should have hurt more than it did, however, both Mites are not unconscious, Dropping us out of initiative for now.
A handsome clean shaven man (surprisingly so) who is bound by the Mite's crude rope speaks up. To the ground not far from him is a rapier, He wears relatively pragmatic clothes with trims of green. His brown hair is relatively neat considering where he has been. He is about 6'1" and fairly athletic looking.
Looking towards the Mornaura and Dispeera, "Ah it is true then? The Mites killed me off and now I am in Elysium with the angels. What are your names Angels? And, not to complain but if this is Elysium, land of eternal freedom why am I still bound?"
"I am Edwyn Cailean, cleric and keeper of the faith of the great Cayden Cailean." He gives a slight bow, but the bindings prevent him from moving to much.