There's a moment of silence, then the shaman bursts out in laughter.
"You do not speak your own tongue?" he asks, mocking. "The Five-Fold Maw claims this swamp as his own, and demands you tell him what you do here."
Knowledge (Arcana) = 23
Grash realizes there's something vaguely draconic-looking about this hydra...
Grash snorts. "Of course I speak the hydra tongue! Lots of good fighty words in it, like 'RAWWARRRR!!', 'GAARRROOO!' *HISSSS*, and 'Tasssty!'. I don't think that be what this other one be speakin', though. Looks like he be a half-breed, probably with a dragon. Dinnae want ter know how that happened. Should make this next bit interestin', though!"
Grash starts thumping his drum ominously, quietly working up to a battle beat.
"Ye can be tellin' big blacky here that we be goin' ter settle this here territorial dispute like proper hydras! With fang and fury! And ye, little feather-lizard, can either sit an' watch like a coward, or join in tae battle and feel our wrath!"
Grash's old wounds seal up somewhat as his eyes fill with berserker fire, ready for the inevitable conflict.
Grash votes for the body to surge forward and wrestle epically with the rival hydra like proper giant monsters! Or trample something, whichever has more support.
"Look, please help me tell him that he needs to leave our friendly lizardfolk alone. He can have the rest of the swamp if he wants."Ziphora explains to the shaman. "And we are here to stop whatever that's been bothering our lizardfolk friends."
Tomorbatar looks around, the body's shared heartbeat slowly growing. Hold still...just a little bit longer...
Tomorbtar votes to keep waiting.
The lizardfolk smiles mostly unpleasantly and says something sharp in his strange tongue, while you waver between turning and trying to trample him and holding still, your body twitching as it is torn between two equal sides. The other hydra roars and surges to attack!
Zip zaps a charge of electricity into everyone.
As the hydra moves forward, Tomorbatar sees red. It was attacking when it was still time to negotiate, completely without provocation. They had been the picture of peaceful diplomats, prepared to walk a knife's edge to a successful deal, but that had all been ruined. Such a dishonorable act could not go unpunished. He looks closely at the hydra, noting each loose or fallen scale, old battle scars, and which heads seem to be moving quickest.
Beachhead bravely vanishes.
When the black hydra is within range , he roars "NINJA!" and sinks his teeth into a neck. Preferably one belonging to the other hydra. But I'm not picky.
*ahem* "RAAWWARRRR!! GAARRRROOOO!!! *HISSSSSSS!!!*"
Grash roars in incomprehensible hydra tongue as he continues to thump upon his drum. Then, with a sharp flourish, he summons up a cluster of images of himself, before visibly sticking his tounge out at the rival hydra.
Grash reminds everone to vote for movement by continuing his push for suging forward and wresltling epically with the rival hydra.
Tomorbatar votes to charge the hydra.
The massive dragon-haydra charges towards you! Tomorbataar bashes one of its heads as it nears, then Beachhead appears and sinks his teeth deep into it, tearing its throat out. He then does so again to another head!
But then it strikes back! Two of the heads exhale streams of acid, managing to catch each of your heads in one.
The other remaining head snaps at Grash.
Tomorbataar, still rather angry and worked up, blunders right into the acidic cloud, which sears away at his exposed flesh and eyes. Streaming tears, he responds with several vicious blows, biting and thrashing away with great aggression.
"Im not feeling too well, guys..." Ziphora admits shakily even after she manages to dodge the worst of the acid cloud.
She dutifully taps the hydra body with an electric charge, but is clearly running out of steam.
"Im not feeling too well, guys..." Ziphora admits shakily even after she manages to dodge the worst of the acid cloud.
"Well, if we make it feel even worse than you feel, we win!"
Beachhead vanishes, only to reappear seconds later at an unexpected angle to attack another neck. This time, definitely one of the black hydra's necks.
Grash takes a full blast of the acid, but doesn't let it daunt him... partially because he's much too deep in his berserker drumming to care.
"GRAWAHA! Good acid blast, ye big blackie, but yer gonna need better aim wit' yer teeth ter hit me! Guess yer breath be worse than yer bite!"
Then, much too worked up to consider options carefully, he seizes his drum in his jaws and does his very best to slam it on the other hydra's head(s).
He also continues to push his vote for charging/wrestling/trampling. As long as the body does something violent, he isn't picky which.
Oh, hey! Need to do this, too.
Grash, Tomorbataar, and Beachhead make a bloody mess of the remaining three heads. The other hydra collapses, but the lizardfolk seem unconcerned.
You look at the stumps of the other hydra's necks and notice they're starting to bulge...
Beachhead hides.
He continues to vote to trample the shaman, but now he votes extra hard to do so.
"Oy, I remember what need ter be done here! That one pointy-eared wizard tried it on us, and I be pretty sure it be what we need ter to do here!"
With a bobbing and weaving and thumping of drums, Grash summons up more ancient hydra magick (totally not a ripoff of previously-witnessed elven magic), and spits a small bead at the rival hydra... which promptly detonates into a sizable fireball, roiling over the black hydra's body and neck-stumps.
Then in a reprise.... "Hah! Now ye cannae regenerate yer heads, blackie!"
Grash also votes for trampling, just on principle.
Grash also votes for trampling, just on principle.
"Shaman, throw down your arms and kneel before us, or else face consequences beyond my control."
Tomorbataar votes to wait and see how the shaman reacts.
A cry of dismay rises from the crowd of lizardfolk as the Five-Fold Maw burns, and it becomes clear that it will not regenerate. The shaman seems to stunned to react... until one of the lizardfolk next to him steps forward, spreads his arms, and proclaims, "You have proven your might! We welcome the new avatar of our god!"
Tomorbatar votes to not trample the shaman
"See now, no need for that level of violence. MMmm...violence." Tomorbatar bashes the dead hydra a few times to make sure it isn't moving.
"Uh oookay..." Ziphora is clearly quite taken aback by the sudden turn of events. "Look, I don't need any worshipping, so why don't you just live in harmony with our lizardfolk friends and send an envoy to them saying you want peace and will be willing to share territory."Ziphora suggests.
Vote to stay put. Not be trampling anyone here
Grash snorts. "I dinnae know about being an avatar or whatever-no got had ever done anything fer me-but we certainly did prove our strength!"
He then gives the shaman a narrow glare. "As I said before, I nae have any patience fer cowards. Get lost, ye chicken-lizard; ye dinnae even stand beside yer black hydra when ye had tae chance; flee now, ere I convince tae rest of us ter stomp ye."
Grash still votes to trample the coward shaman.
Grash still votes to trample the coward shaman.
Beachhead, too!
You turn to face the shaman, but caught between two equal votes, you don't move towards him.
He finally seems to recover his senses... well, sort-of. "No! Kill the blasphemer! Kill them! Kill them!"
Yeah... definitely not making sense right now. The rest of the lizardfolk seem... hesitant to follow his lead.
"Look, if you keep calling us names, we'll have to take rather drastic action." Ziphora looks pointedly at the shaman as she points out that not so pleasant fact.
Grash doesn't feel a need to say anything he hasn't already. Instead he just gives the shaman a Crazed Look, with heavy breathing, slavering, the works.
His teeth look particularly pointy today.
Grash also votes to TRAMPLE SOMETHING ALREADY!! TRAMPLE!!!
Tomorbataar votes to trample the shaman.
"Why would you choose to do that to yourself? I don't understand this at all..." Tomorbataar shakes his head in disdain.
The lizardfolk seem quite nervous about you, even the shaman... and when you surge forward, they break and run. The shaman holds his ground a little bit longer than everyone else, but still turns and starts to swim away... too late.
Out of nowhere, Beachhead snaps the shaman's head off, which elicits no small amount of yelling and shouting from the fleeing lizardfolk. Except for the shaman. He doesn't have a head to shout with any more.
"Urm...I'm not sure if that was the right thing to do." Ziphora remarks at Beachhead. "But at least our friendly lizard folk should be safe now!" Ziphora exclaims brightly.
"Lets go back to them."
Vote for body to return so we can tell the friendly lizard folk that the problem has been fixed!
"Urm...I'm not sure if that was the right thing to do." Ziphora remarks at Beachhead.
Beachhead swallows the shaman's head before responding to Ziphora.
"We had a whole conversation about it being okay to eat a thing that attacks us! The shaman summoned the thing that attacked us, and he maybe could have done it, again!"
Beachhead inspects the shaman's body.
"He seemed rather confused...on whether he was wanting to attack us or not."Ziphora answers doubtfully.
"Confusion is not what we deserve, and thus, the lizardfolk are now leaderless. Leaderless...headless!" Tomorbataar looks proud of himself.
"They did proclaim us their god. Maybe wait just a bit and see if they come back?"
"Urm...." Ziphora clearly isn't good at this godhood business. "I'd like all of you to be friends with the neighboring lizard folk."
A dove pops on top of Ziphora's head. "Yes we should all live in peace and harmony!"