Aka pauses in her dancing long enough to enjoy the speachifying, the shootbangburns & the more speachifying. As the barrel of fermented apples is rolled out, she swaggers forward. Thrusting her hand in she grabs the squishiest, most over-ripe apple she can find, pulls it out & takes a big bite.
"Mmm, you Oh girthy one!" she sprays as she once more undulates into a bow before Gutwad.
Zurk moves forward, looking for the biggest and nastiest of Gutwad's personal guards, chuckling and circling them for a moment before he howls a tirade of what he would do to them, if they were one of those nasty, crunchable longshanks the group is likely to encounter.
Zurk moves forward, looking for the biggest and nastiest of Gutwad's personal guards, chuckling and circling them for a moment before he howls a tirade of what he would do to them, if they were one of those nasty, crunchable longshanks the group is likely to encounter.
[dice=Intimidate]1d20+14
Zurk moves forward, looking for the biggest and nastiest of Gutwad's personal guards, chuckling and circling them for a moment before he howls a tirade of what he would do to them, if they were one of those nasty, crunchable longshanks the group is likely to encounter.
[dice=Intimidate]1d20+14
Spug relies on his charm with the fe-gobs to take on a task that few would try. Spug spryly walks up to one of the chief's daughters, whispers some sweet golin nothings to her, and attempts to woo her into giving him a big sloppy kiss.
Um looks nervous, as his plan to impress everyone by lighting the bonfire was completely lost in the fact that everyone was staring at the firework going off as his arrow hit. He looks around for a second and then smiles to himself, he quickly runs to a fallen log where he knows a wasp swarm has made their nest. He quickly pushes it hard and leaps to the top, riding it down the hill till it splashes into the swamp, dodging fast enough to keep the swarm from stinging him.
Reflex to leap on and avoid swarm
Ride log
Swim to shore
As Um emerges from the muck he shouts forth"I the quickest, smartiest, gob ever live. I so quick n fast I ride great cloud of stings face many makes goblin swell and puss's night night place all da way to swamp floor n I not get stinged"
Zoog takes a group of the goblins over to Squealy Nord's pen. "Zoog gunna dance with Nord!" He carefully mounts the tethered beast, and prays to Zarmongel that he doesn't eats poor Zoog. "Zoog best rider in Licktoad tribe! You gobbos see!" He signals to a goblin to realease the pig into the pen and clings on for dear life.
Legs and ears flapping in the wind, terrified screams filling the assembled gobbos ears, he successfully clings on to Squealy Nord without falling off! After Nord is brought back under control, Zoog puts both of of his hands in the air triumphantly. "See you stupid gobbos! Zoog best rider ever! Zoog not fall off stupid fat boar!" he yells between frantic pants.
Marrowdown stands amid a crowd of smaller goblins, surprised and rather flattered by the attention. He decides to impress through his vast knowledge of the marsh. After all, he has spent much time in its depths, and has found secrets and treasures there. A few stories of his findings were sure to impress.
Unfortunately, halfway through his spiel, he reaches into a nearby wicker basket, unaware of its contents, and takes a bite. His gag is of unparalleled loudness, unprepared for the extremely foul taste of the bull slugs, and the following spluttering is nearly drowned out by the cackling of the younger goblins.
In a huff, Marrowdown marches off once again to the sidelines.
Alright, I'm replacing the Dares listed in the module with a more free-form style of doing this. Each of you that wants to accept the dare needs to make a saving throw or skill or ability to check to prove how skilled and bigbad you are. The DC is 15 for saves, 15 for straight ability checks, or 20 for a skill check. Be aware, though, that the first one to post using a specific save, ability, or skill has it easiest--anyone who posts after them using the same has to best them at their own game, meaning the DC goes up by 5! Every roll needs to be accompanied by flavor text explaining just what you're doing to prove yourself and it needs to have a clear connection to the roll itself.
Gniffles chants to himself and wanders aimlessly into the shallow waters at the edge of the camp, as those eager for a display of prowess are left pondering his stability.
After about 10 minutes sloshing through the mud and mire, Gniffles emerges from the shallows--putrid water dripping from the hanging folds of his clothing and a sinister grin curling upon his wicked mask. Using his cane his slowly climbs his way on top of a large stump, kicking the toadstools off of his make-shift stage and thrusting his arms into the air. "Behold!" The booming voice whispers in every goblins ear within 100 ft. of the stump, causing them to pause in their revelry and destruction to face the stump.
With one hand holding his staff in the air, baubles and trinkets dangling; and the other dangling 3 pulsating, brightly colored slugs. The slugs wriggle in the witch's grasp as he raises them higher and higher, finally letting a deep purple one slide through the mouth hole of his mask and into his gullet.
Next the bright, blood orange slug...
Finally the green and blue striped one...
With each slug, a spray of slime and mucus sprays from the mouth hole of Gniffles mask--coating those standing nearby. If anyone could see the poor goblin's face, they would note the rather unhealthy color beginning to wash over his features.
Aka exclaims at this display of Goblin fortitude before tossing him the remains of her apple. "Here, wash those down with something!"
Gniffles had forgotten about the apples! After what just wriggled down his throat, he is quite eager and pounces upon the half-eaten fruit. Then quickly tries to recompose himself, leaning casually against the stump that recently served as his stage and lifts the apple up beneath the base of his mask and begins to munch away.
After a couple of noisy apple crunches, a low rumbling can be heard emanating from the witch's stomach. Even the once sinister and gnarled looking mask is beginning to look somewhat afflicted and uncertain. As the rumbling grows, the munching stops and Gniffles slowly buckles at the waist... reaching out to hug his knees up to his chest beneath the folds of his ragged robe.
For a moment he rocks himself slowly, maintaining this fetal position.
Then the rumbling stops. And the deluge begins. Vibrant colors and textures spew forth from the goblin, knocking the massive wooden mask from his face and blotting out the moonlight before dumping the rainbow upon those lucky enough to be standing within his cone of influenza.
Following the geyser burst, the goblin continues to heave as if his body wanted to purge even the organs from his system. Finally, the convulsing subsides and the shivering goblin wipes the colorful slime from his lips and positions the mask back over his head.
He slowly raises his staff in the air. "Gniffles?"
Zoog falls to his back and begins rolling back and forth, laughing uncontrollably!
Aka's display of fortitude impresses the goblins greatly. They cheer and hoot, praising her "bigbad stomach of hard stuff!" Several attempt to find apples almost as squishy and rotten, gobbling them with much enthusiasm--and vomiting them with much moaning.
Zurk launches a tirade of insults and threats to Gutwad's guards, who seem quite offput and rather afraid. Then Gutwad himself laughs, so the guards nervously laugh along, and the effect of the bugbear's words and size and fearsome appearance is lost in the forced mirth.
Spug gets a shriek and a slap in the face, but he counts himself lucky--he was neither kicked in the loins, nor did Gutwad appear to see his actions.
Meanwhile, Horsecutta earns his place in Licktoad history (oral history, of course) with his amazing feat of agility and bravery. Many goblins watch the event and cheer with great shrieks of joy, only to have those screams turn to anger and pain as the swarm comes out. After a lot of splashing the water and waving of fiery sticks, the wasps are driven off and all the goblins hold up Horsecutta, shouting his name in praise.
Next up is Zoog, who dares to face the terror of Squealy Nord, fearsome beast and mascot of the Licktoad Goblins! The great beast relies in his Pit of Squealing Death, where Zoog bravely jumps in to ride his back. Though the creature bucks and jumps and shrieks in anger, waving its great ead with razor teeth threatening to tear the goblin limb from limb, Zoog bravely hangs on for almost half a minute before dismounting with a flourish and climbing out to the roars of the tribe.
Marrowdown tries to tell everyone about how amazing the wonders of nature are and impress them with what he knows, but very quickly the crowd decides that he knows nothing whatsoever about the swamp. "He bigdumb scatterhead?" one child asks. "Yes!" the group shouts, and they leave the barbarian with his bull slug.
Despite just how undeniably goblin Gniffles' actions are, and the fact that he impresses the group by finding very nasty slugs and dealing well with the orange one--known to be rancid and spicy--his inability to hold down the slugs keeps him from impressing the crowd too much. Those sprayed with vomit groan and yell and smear the stuff back on the goblin witch, while the others laugh and pat him on the back.
Zoog basks in the glory of success! He parties with the other goblins late into the night before retiring for sleeps.
Aka primps & flounces at the adulation of the tribe, sinuously making her way over to Gniffles to lay a commiserating arm across his shoulders before hoisting him up on her shoulders, with some effort, and parading him around the fire, culminating in a failed attempt to climb up Zurk's back.
Zurk grumbles and goes for an apple, knowing the Hungry Lady isn't the only one with an appetite to sate. The nay-Sayers would be put in their place soon enough. He'd show Gutwad what it meant to be big, scary, nasty bug-gob, THEN they'd see who got last laugh.
Seeing the strange little gobo trying to climb up him, the bugbear shakes the little green humanoid off. "Zurk not made for climbin'! Get off before Zurk go a smashin' and then feed dah pulp to the Hungry Lady!" After the tirade before, it's pretty obvious that he has at least the knowledge to back up the threat.
Gniffles shrugs and turns back to the water to wash himself off. No! He thinks and stops himself. Gniffles have inner beauty, show it to world! Like that glob... so colorful! Instead he does his best to scrub his mask clean, leaving the rest as accents on his matted robes.
Spug appears quite disenfranchised with the celebration after being publicly humiliated. His great charm having failed him, he grabs a large jug of cider and chugs it down quickly and walks over to a quite clearing.
Deeming that his connection with Venklevore must be weak, he decides its time to appease Her. He pulls Splushy out from his pouch. He feeds and waters the toad, who seems to have healed quite well over the last few days. Spug pulls some tongs and clippers out from his torture kit and begins to "play" with Splushy, just as the inebriating effects of the cider begin to kick in...
Zurk leans over the Venklevorean cleric, taking a close look at the torturing. "It's not screaming yet," the bugbear comments simply, obviously not pleased.
Spug nods. "Not yet. Me likes to do this slowly. Have to make sure it not kills him, while making it last longer to appease Hungry Lady."
Spug continues working with the tools, making all sort of interesting noises emanate from the toad. The whines and croaks bring a smile back to Spug's face. [b]"Hrmm, me wonder how loud me could get Squealing Nord to cry out?" Spug grins devilishly. Hrmm... maybe Cheev not like that? Grumbles
Spug pulls some long pins out of his belt pouch and removes a block of cork from their sharp ends. "Zurk, could you stick these in the hot coals of the fire until they glow and bring them back here. Oh, and you might need these..." The Cleric of Venkelvore hands Zurk some tongs.
If those not help Splushy squeal like pig, then maybe we see if we can get Nord to croak like frog?
Zurk grins and his laughter rumbles out, as he begins rubbing the pins between his fingers, the pins looking quite small in comparison.
"Toad goes squish/ Toad goes squeak/ Burn his legs n' throw in dah creek" Zurk sings and grumbles along, heaating up the nice little pins, using the quite necessary tongs.
Ziki's over zealous love of fire resulted in her inhaling too many of the fumes, and she passed out on the ground still licking her toad. Truly a noble endeavor.
While impressed with Ziki's zeal & curious as to how long she might survive if she were to catch fire; Aka was not that curious and so she pulled Ziki well away from the blaze before once more continuing her dance, all the while making faces at Zurk when he couldn't see her.
Everyone: I'm going on a trip for the next week or so. I'm going to bring my laptop, but I'll be visiting family and spending time traveling, so I can't promise that I'll be able to post every day. If I can't get on to move things forward, I advise that you take some time being goblins and "getting to know" one another. No eating is about the only rule.
Having recently completed his ritual torture for Venkelvore, Spug fails to feel the blessing of the Hungry Lady. Spug shakes his head disapprovingly and looks towards Zurk, "Poor little toad, just not have enough life force to give gift big enough for a blessing for a mission this big. Me thinks we need to poke at Squealy Nord a little."
"Can you help me git that piggy? Him's usually guarded, so we might need others to help us. Maybe we ask some of them other gobo's? Cheev probably only git upset if we kills the gobo guards or Nord? So best we tell anyone help'n not to do that. If we complete this ceremony, maybe Cheev wake up sooner and send us on mission? What you's think?", Spug asks Zurk.
"Zurk likey this idea. We make Squealy squeal and give big, powerful gift to Hungry Lady. That get dah mission starting." He seems almost giddy at the prospect of causing more pain.
Spug attempts to gather the other goblins. "Listen up gobo's. We's go'n to git bless'n from the Hungry Lady for this mission. We needs to capture Squealy Nord. Him's squealies is gunna git us much bless'ns. Me sees there is only two gobo guards at his pen. We need help take'n out the guards - but not kills them. With the guards down, Zurk can jump in and tackle the piggy. Then we can start the ritual. Who can help us with this?"
Marrowdown has skulked over, happy about the prospect of fighting. He's not particularly pious, but their mission seems to be most perilous. Any assistance, even divine, he would appreciate. "Blessins be good! Me's in - Marrowdown's good for fightin', though dunno how good at fightin'-not-killin' me be. Mebbe not very, though can try my teeths at it!"
After several more hours of reveling in the village, the goblins begin to succumb to fatigue and pass out one by one. The plan to "get" Squealy Nord is interrupted when the Chief calls Spug over and the guards begin laughing at Zurk again when he approaches. Eventually, everyone falls asleep.
The next day, in the late morning long after the sun has come up, the gobos begin to awaken. The Chief himself has a massive hangover, so he retires quickly to his Moot House--Slorb instructs the goblin heroes to go get the fireworks and bring them back to the village.
After about half an hour of walking, you hear a noise in the trees above you. Looking up, you see a hideous sight--two giant spiders coming down on strands of webbing! It must be Lotslegs-Eats-Goblin-Babies-Many (and a mate, apparently). Ready your weapons!
Horsecutta
Lotslegs & Mate
Other Gobos
Zurk, even though a bit unnerved by the giant spider, he makes several wide howling swings of his axe.
If surprise round as I am assuming by the way you describe events.
Um will pull his bow and be ready for these creatures, hoping they pay more attention to the bigger food types.
If not surprise then Um will also take a quick shot at the descending bugs.
Um Horsecutta quickly pulls out his bow and fires a shot at the larger of the two spiders. While it is a good shot, it pierces into one of its legs rather than striking into the body itself.
The spiders descend quickly. The larger one drops by Um Horsecutta and attempts to bite the poor little archer.
As the larger spider viciously sinks its fangs into Um, the smaller one remains about ten feet above the goblins' heads. It launches a small grouping of web at Zurk, the largest and most dangerous-looking member of the group.
However, the webbing gets caught on its legs and ends up dropping to the ground, uselessly.
Zurk responds by shouting and waving his axe at the thing, and the spider rears back, retreating up its webbing a tiny bit.
I don't think there's anything Zurk can do with a move action so just pull out his axe, since I realized he didn't have it out. Otherwise he'll just bide his time.
"Ahh, it bit me! I is gonna die!"
I swear if I die first thing out I am going to have a sad sad cry in the dark.
Frightened by the hairy creatures that quickly descend on the group, Gniffles retreats from the area beneath them as their shadows grow larger above him. From a safer distance, the goblin digs his feet into the mud beneath, digging his staff into the soil as well and wheels about to face the arachnids. His wooden mask twists and creaks as one eyebrow seems to slowly raise in a menacing scowls. A chill breeze rushes through the swamp, bending reeds and causing the grounded spider's hairs to stand on end.
"Crush the Many-legs on the ground!" He shouts, "His flesh is ripe!"
Having shaken off the fear effect, Spug steps up next to Zurk and bestows the Hungry Lady's blessing upon him.