Hegh shifts Sees to a more comfortable position, and gets a better grip on her legs.
Pork, curious at the bright noises and flashing lights, flutters over to the windowsil where the rukus is coming from and looks inside
The sparrow flies over the oasis in the deepening sunset, the sky catching fire in the west and sending sunbeams through his feathers. Soot from Moontower Mountain dirties the air and disturbs the local wildlife here. The voices of the wild are already suppressed by the flophouses themselves, but even beyond that, it's like there's a tense quiet among all the animals nearby. As you listen, you get the feeling like they're waiting for something to happen. The air is pregnant with anticipation.
In response to this...energy, this sensation that they do not understand, the two-legged races of the Flophouses are gathering together for a party. END OF THE WORLD is written in red ink on a big banner hung above the Flophouse door, with a simple 4 scrawled beneath it.
There are light-blocking curtains on most of the windows, but you find one that has a gap that you can peek through. Inside, a rave is fully underway. Flashing lights and bass-heavy house music, created by bardic magic techniques, mingle with a dance floor covered with dancing bodies. Nearly everyone at the Oasis is there, minus the few people at the main building. There are orcs, half-trolls, elves with brightly colored mohawks and facial pant, halflings, a Grippli, and dwarves all dancing together with drinks in hand.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Sees eyes roll back into her head and she begins to shake, slamming her mug on the table and splashing what remains of the drink on its surface. Suddenly, the raven-haired woman freezes, face solemn as a stone, eyes unfocused in a thousand yard stare. When her mouth opens, the words that issue forth are spoken in a strange languid rasp, common words in archaic forms.
The mountain cries in wracking sobs;
Her lover's corpse dissected.
An earthen bounty Krondor robs;
Tradition disrespected.
A balance lost, a balance paid,
Let Durin's Sons take heed:
A curs'ed rain upon this night,
The mountains heart doth bleed!
The effect rings true, the hollow reedy words evoke the flair of a Dwemer tongue. The effects of a few nights' drinking drain away to expose the rising dread deep in their hearts. The broken maid Sozona appears to collapse to the table and Sees unclips Gourlaug's horn from the belt. She hopes Fssst pulls through with the seed she planted, she could use an illuminator's touch. Under the table, Sees sets her lips to the tip and prepares to blow.
Grick slowly climbs to his feet and walks over to stand next to Fssst, "how about we hit that outbuilding with some fire and lightning and pay a little bit back to the long legs for what they've done?"
In preparation, Grick opens a dialogue with the spirit of Azder the wonderful channeler of the clan, who's handsome skull Grick is now holding in his hands. He's prepared to call forth the lightning when Fssst is ready.
Speaking in a low hush to Fssst and Grick...
"I am going to see if I can jam the door hinges and locks with some magnetic haywire antics. Keeping the occupants inside is our goal, right?"
-
Smoog tests out his theory on the doors of a close by building.
(not Flophouse 4 or the one Sees is in yet).
He applies a series of magnetic swirls around the door hardware attempting to seal them shut.
-
-
When he figures out the pattern, he will go around to the other buildings but leave the main door of the main hall until Sees and Hegh are back outside.
Grick lets out a slow hiss so gain the attention of the warriors (a old trick that even kobolds from other clans would know means come here).
Once Thunk comes over, Grick explains "I can call on the spirit of Padler the clan trickster and camouflage you so the long legs or the stupid dwarfs won't notice you."
At Sees' words, Hegh sees things clearly for a terrifying moment.
He recalls the endless torment the kobolds suffered at the hands of Gorlaug. How they died by the hundreds to feed Gorlaug's greed, killing and slaughtering innocents. As the fog lifts, Hegh realizes ...
Free! We are finally free! Kondor and the others, they are the heroes of this tale!
Mercifully, the lucidity passes, and Hegh once again hears the Lord's voice.
Kill them, my bortaS. Kill them all and take the one who rides as your prize!
Hegh smiles wickedly beneath the robes.
Soon.
Thunk grins
So want Thunk go thump!. Thunk grins and once the spell is cast he starts creeping forward
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
As Fssst bundles the last of the dry brush up against the number three flop house, he drizzles a trail of oil from it the middle of the encampment. There lay a stinking puddle where other such trails from the other flop houses converge. "Burn, fools. You deserve nothing more."
A sliver of crackling flame appears in his hand, and he drives it down into the oil, igniting an inferno...
The magic of Sees-Death's grim chanting permeates the whole bar. Expressions lose their joy and become ashen as the reality of the situation sets in. The earth beneath them rumbles and the flophouse itself begins to shake on its foundations.
The dwarves nearby are grumbling to each other about Sozona's words when one of them glances out the window and sees a growing flame shooting toward the center of the oasis, and then to each flophouse.
"Hey, what? FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!" he shouts, his newfound sobriety giving edge to his panic. The effect on the crowd inside the bar is electric, and immediate. A shiver of fear runs through the crowd as they take a second to process the screaming dwarf's words, then they look outside and confirm the flames spreading to their buildings one by one. The screaming begins then in earnest, chairs are knocked over and tables cast aside by the patrons in their mad rush to escape. Pouring out of the main offices, followed by a furious Felix, the crowd stands in awe as the enormous inferno spreads to the whole oasis.
The setting sun sets the sky on fire even as Fsst's flames, carried with him from the molten heart of Moontower Mountain, greedily devour all the fuel they can. This includes the Immolator himself - Fsst, take 1d6 damage that ignores armor from the flames as they ignite, burning even you in their fiery exuberance.
The crowd inside the main bar/offices where Sees-Death and Hegh were in were the only ones to escape. Inside the other flophouses, Smoog's magnetic machine seals the doors shut. There's pounding and screaming that comes from all corners of the oasis as panic prevails. The crowd disperses, some of them trying to secure their mounts from Felix's flaming main stable house attached to the offices, some running to the other bungalows, some just fleeing off into the desert.
The fires are prophetic. As the flames in the oasis rise higher and the sun sets lower, Moontower Mountain finally erupts for real.
Everyone outside is knocked flat by the concussive force of the volcano, miles away. A cloud of smoke, ash, and soot - larger than any dragon - rises from the corpse of your Mountain home. Lava is cast miles into the sky in a fountain of fire. The swamplands surrounding the mountain are covered nearly instantly by the wave of ash spreading across the lands - if you are looking in that direction, you can see it rushing toward the oasis. In mere moments, just after you've climbed back to your feet, the entire oasis is covered with a sandstorm of soot. You can't see more than 15 feet in front of you. Through the black haze you can see the buildings continuing to burn.
All is chaos, fire, and screaming; you don't know where any of your friendly kobolds are unless you were less than 15 feet from them when the eruption happened. You're in danger of being separated as the shockwave sandstorm rages over the oasis. What do you do?
Where we go Fling?
Thunk shouts to Flung who was next to him as they moved toward the town.
Feeling the ground shake and the crowd tense in panic, Sees-Death's heart swells. When she looks up to see the fires outside the window, and the patrons rushing for the door in white-faced panic, she exalts in the wash of success. She wishes she had some way to capture this moment and share it with loved ones, friends, and rivals. Her eyes fall on the unmarred horn on the mounting block, yet to be carved. In her mind's eye she pictures the pair, the woe and wrath of Gorlaug, respectively. A horn of that make would serve as a powerful weapon.
When the ash hits the emptying pub, and the windows are blotted out by the rushing sediment, it occurs to Sees that her companions may need a beacon in the dark. "Hegh, get me over to that mounted horn. I'll signal the others."
Once the humanoid swine have left the building, Sees blows a sonorous call to arms on Gorlaug's Woe. The set of two repeated tones was the herald of Gorlaug's few visits to Bastion, and should keep the apes at bay while calling those Kobolds who can hear. She hopes she can cut through the ash, but knows that if she can't that there is not much more to be done.
"Mighty Gorlaug is having his vengeance!" Flung exclaims "and I say we join in!".
"Follow me and thump the bad men!" he says to Thunk with malevolent glee and walks towards the main bar with his spear in one hand and shield in the other, looking for dwarves and humans and others of their ilk to help them to their doom.
Shieldbearer to my side!
Hegh/Sees make their way to the horn. Hegh kneels to let Sees dismount, if she wishes. He then pulls down the horn reverently and hands it over.
The Immolator writhes in ecstatic flames, a chorus of shrieks pouring out of the inferno.
The detonation throws Fssst free of the conflagration, but not even the avalanche of soot and ash that slams into the Oasis can quench the fires entirely. Fssst scrambles for the door of the main flophouse, keeping an eye out for Sees-Death or the face she wears, as he hunkers down low to avoid the notice of the fleeing revelers.
Sees dismounts and accepts the horn, bundling it in the tent cloth and stuffing it in her pack. She also reverts the bowler. "The ash should shield us from the surrounding flames, but if we are not careful it will also serve as our tomb. We need to get somewhere we can seal off from ash. Those windows are a liability. This flophouse was serving alcohol, it should have a cellar..."
Filled with a nervous energy, Sees continues to rattle on between bursts of the horn.
Pork is blasted off his tree by the shockwave of the volcanic blast. Recovering quickly, he takes wing to search for his fellow kobolds in the midst of the sandstorm...
Pork, you're tossed around by the high winds and it's nearly impossible to see, but you can fly a little higher and look down at the oasis and you can see the tops of the bungalow buildings to orient yourself. Flying back down into the storm will mean giving up your visibility - and you know well what happens to little birds that fly around in big storms...
Flung, any oasis-dweller that you stumble across in the maelstrom is too distracted by the whipping winds and the soot of the volcano's eruption to offer any resistance, or even show awareness of your smaller form. You lead Thunk through the oasis, being buffeted by the storm and stabbing hither and yon at nearly every body that you see. A halfling, a dwarf, and a dark elf fall to your stabbing spear before your murderous joyride comes to a screeching halt.
Out of the swirling blackness emerges a huge, hulking form - Felix, the owner of these flophouses. In years past, he's always had a friendly or jolly expression on his face, welcoming all travelers that had coin to his oasis - now his soot-stained face is contorted in rage.
He grabs you by the throat, Flung, moving with terrifying speed for someone so large. His iron grip lifts you to his face and spittle flies out over your face as he screams "KOBOOOOLD! YOU DID THIS!"
As Flung mightily squirms and kicks in the grasp of the half-ogre, Felix stomps toward his main offices in rage, carrying his victim with him. Your weapon is knocked away when he grabs you, Flung - it lands at Thunk's feet as Thunk struggles to see where Felix went. The massive ogre's body is concealed by the swirling soot in your eyes, making chasing him down very difficult!
Fsst, Thunk, Smoog, Pork, and all the kobolds outside the main offices hear the wild blowing of Gorlaug's horn coming from within the main offices. Grick is close enough to see Felix throw open the main door of the Flophouse's Offices, and slam the door shut behind him. The door-bar slams into place, locking it shut from the inside...
"MORE KOBOLDS?! DAMN YOU SCALY FREAKS, YOU BURNED EVERYTHING!!"
Just as they find the cellar door, Sees-Death and Hegh and Shieldbearer all turn when the main entrance to the bar slams open, letting in the roaring storm from outside. Windows begin to shatter all around from the shockwave's fury. Felix stands there, clutching a struggling Flung by the neck in one meaty hand. He roars in rage when he sees the other kobolds rooting around his bar, and gives Flung an even tighter squeeze around the neck, cutting off the fighter's windpipe. Take 1d8 damage, Flung.
Fssst scrambles in through a shattered window as he calls upon the flames currently racing up the sides of the main building to quiet. It would not do to destroy our sanctuary after forcing all the fools out into the storm.
Ash and panic swirl through the air as Smoog recovers from the mountain's blast. Thankfully his goggles shield his eyes from all the ash and the panic was reserved for the Oasis patrons fleeing.
-
When the horn blasts out its call, Smoog looks quickly around for Grick and Fssst who were nearby just moments ago. Then he spots Flung being throttled and carried into the main building by a huge half-orc.
-
"Flung! Get Flung!" he yells hoping to be hear over the din.
-
Smoog races after Flung and the half-orc.
Pork decides to take the higher vantage point, flying up in hopes that he can better see what is going on beneath him, and hopefully spot his Kobold kin..
Felix Half-Ogren, son of ... a spotted cow! Gorlaug wills your death. You are mine! Hegh screams at the top of his lungs, throwing the robes to the side and rushing Felix, ancient sword drawn.
As the front door of the Inn is slammed in his face, Smoog sees Fssst climb thru a nearby window and motion for him to follow.
Smoog pushes Fssst up and thru the window and scampers up himself.
-
Once inside Smoog attempts to reopen the front door to let the others in.
-
Thunk scoops up the spear and as he follows he puts it through his belt
When he sees the door slam he unleashes his full barbarian
con
He charges at the door and leaps curling into a small cannon ball and shatters the wooden door. He lands on the ground and rolls a bit and pops up to his feet.
IT THUMP TIME!
Caught off-guard, holding Gorlaug's Woe in one hand and Grick's ornate cane in the other, Sees does the first thing that comes to mind.
With the cane's rope wrapped around Felix's arm, Sees is able to put the porcine purveyor of port off balance in time for Hegh's attack. However, she is now holding on to a cane that's attached to a man with far greater strength than her own.
Fsst, the flames answer your call and recede from your touch as you stroke your claws along the building's exterior. Pork, from your vantage point high above, you can see the flames receding from one of the buildings - though you can't see him from above, Fsst must be right below you.
Flicking the tips of his claws to shake loose the remaining embers, Fsst makes for the nearest shattered window. Choose one:
Take it slow, delaying your next action to avoid the shattered glass OR
Scramble through hastily, roll defy danger: Dex to avoid cutting yourself.
Pork, you glance to the east and see the city of Bastion, with the shockwave of soot and ash racing along the wastes from the pressure. You see that the storm is unable to touch the city; the soot and ash passes through the city walls and buildings unabated.
Smoog, you tug at the main entrance futilely for a brief second before your eyes fall upon another nearby shattered window. Take 1d6 damage, but you're able to hastily climb through and get to the main door. However, you're too short to lift the door bar! What do you do?
As you consider the problem you hear a wild battlecry from behind you as Hegh engages the half-ogre.
The ancient sword Hegh wields is light in his claws as his battlecry gives a boost of strength to his muscles. The sexual tension that had been building up as he camped out between Sees' thighs is vented in a flurry of slashes at the Half-Ogre. However, Felix is using Flung's body as a human shield! Er, kobold shield. You still manage to get a solid slash in at his knees, but you succeed only in lacerating him, not killing him as you intended. As you trade blows with him, a meaty left hook to your temple sends you staggering to the side, knocking aside a large dinner table and some chairs. Your head is ringing - take 1d8+2 damage. He stands over you, Flung preparing his gambit to escape his right hand's grip. The half-ogre seems to grow a little in size, the color of his face purpling as blood rushes to it in his fury. He raises his left hand high overhead to smash down at you in a crushing slam, Hegh, what do you do?
Fssst not being overly spry by anyone's imagination, picks his way carefully over the shattered glass to avoid slicing himself to ribbons.
As Smoog is considering the door bar, he hears/feels a smashing on the far side of the door. The barbarian has arrived and is thumping as hard as he can. Smashing his body against the door, Thunk is able to shatter the outer frame, but the door bar itself holds the door largely together. You can get through if you squeeze, Thunk, but it would require a Defy Danger to avoid getting injured by the wooden shards of destroyed door.
Meanwhile, Sees fires her grappling hook from the tip of Grick's walking stick, thunking Felix right in his ogre dome. "BAAGH!" he shouts, releasing Flung from his grasp - and grabbing the grappling hook rope! He tugs it fiercely, either yanking it out of your hands or pulling you into melee with him, depending on whether you hold on to the cane, Sees!
Sees does not tend to make the same mistake twice. She relinquishes the borrowed cane.
using con again
Thunk glances at the splinters and shards of wood and angles his body so only his meatiest part takes the scrapes as he eschews the idea of trying to get in without getting cut at all
-
Smoog's leather mining uniform absorbs a bit of the scraping from the glass as he squeezes thru the broken window.
-
Fruitlessly jumping and reaching for the mechanism barring the door, Smoog realizes the melee behind him has turned dire. Flung is about to get squeezed and pummeled to death if he can't escape that grasp soon.
-
Bracing himself against a nearby wall, Smoog activates his magnetic contraption in hopes of unbalancing Felix from behind.
-
Pork flies straight down to the ground, shifting back into his human form and calling out
Sees! Fsst! Damn this sandstorm, where are you!
Surveying those present, Sees-Death spots a few who will need to be hardened to the oncoming onslaught. "Oh my brother, it seems it's your place in this tribe to take the errant beating or two. Likeways you should take a hardened shoulder to the pain, accept it like a babe accepts premastication. Flung does not go weak and wobbly in the face of his wounds. Rise and join in this display of ultraviolence!"
Sees maintains her position near the back of the party, near the cellar door. Not seeing everyone inside just yet, she lets the horn sound once more.
Fssst still crawling carefully through the window, hears the druid cry out.
"Here, Pork! Come here!"
Hegh shakes his head to clear the blow, considering, perhaps for the first time, whether fighting naked is always the best idea. Seeing the Ogre's fist come down too fast for him to dodge out of the way, Hegh attempts to absorb the blow and deflect the momentum to the side.
The Ogre's fist comes smashing through Hegh's meager defenses. Striking him to the ground.
Flung rolls out from under the enraged ogre's legs and pops up, while pulling one of his javelins from the brace across his back.
"Suck on this, you oaf!" Flung manages to croak out with his bruised windpipes which are not feeling quite so painful thanks to Sees-Death's song. Flung then hurls the javelin at the ogre's head with all of his strength.
Though Sees does not see it herself, the javelin bursts with hot bolts of arcane energy as soon as it leaves Flung's claw.
Pork grunts as he lumbers over to Fsst
What's going on? Where is everyone? I cant see a thing in all this!
With Pork's help, Fsst is able to wriggle inside the broken window without any injuries, and then proceeds to help the Druid through as well. As you climb through, you can hear clearly the winds howling outside and the wooden frame of the Flophouse groaning under the strain...with cracking and creaking sounds coming from the floors above.
Your observations are interrupted when Shieldbearer comes flying through the air at you. The tiny demi-kobold had leaped to his master Hegh's defense when Hegh failed to defend himself in time, and was backhanded through the air by Felix's enraged fist. Shieldbearer's small body slams headfirst against the windowframe you just came through, Fsst, making a sickening crunch sound before the hireling tumbles to the ground facefirst, senseless.
Felix's rage continues unabated after knocking Shieldbearer aside. He looms over Hegh, his shadow darkening the smaller fighter, when suddenly - a javelin lodges itself in the ogre's shoulder. Immediately afterward, Sees feels a thrill of magic through her clawtips - and the enchanted javelin explodes with arcane force. With a shout, Felix is knocked tumbling off his feet, and careens into a support beam, smashing it in half. He keeps going, landing in a pile of tables and chairs that got shuffled around in the battle. The building trembles all around you as Felix becomes buried by falling chairs that were formerly stacked on the wall above where he fell...
During all this, Smoog's magnetic machine continues to charge up. Unfortunately, it's taking too long! In his impatience the kobold smacks the machine, but only succeeds in losing a Charge. Clacking his teeth together in rage, the tinker-kobold struggles with his machine, thinking work, work, to himself.
The machine eventually does switch on - when you had it angled to the floor to check the backside of it. The muzzle, pointed at the floor, releases an enormous magnetic push that launches the blue-scaled kobold into the air!
SMASH! take 1d6 damage, Smoog, in addition to your lost Charge. Furthermore, your upper body is stuck in the upper level of the flophouse, while your legs and tail are trapped on the first level - you're stuck in the ceiling! What do you do?
Pork squeals in surprise as Shieldbearer slams into the wall near him. He quickly readies his spear and points it at the mound of Ogre buried under the fallen chairs...
"Bah! This building will finish us all if we cannot find the cellar!"
The still-smoking kobold scrambles behind the bar, assuming any basement entrance would be accessible to the staff, and begin heaving debris out of the way, searching for some kind of lever or door...
You find a trapdoor within seconds, Fsst. Inside, there's a ladder leading down a level. There is also a staircase leading to the basement near where Sees-Death is standing.
With a and a the still unfamiliar device Smoog struggles to understand misfires unexpectedly, sending the small miner skyward and lodging him in the rafters of the great room.
-
-
Pinned at the waist, Smoog wriggles to get free and tries to continue up through the hole.
-
-
Attempting to use moves a miner would to fit through tight spaces Smoog lengthens and slims his body in a contortionist-like twisting and squirming.
-
Stumbling to his feet, Hegh grabs Shieldbearer and drags him to the trapdoor.
*POP!* with effortless ease, Smoog heaves himself out of his captivity in the ceiling/floor, tumbling into a somersault and standing on his feet.
You find yourself in a foods storeroom, Smoog, with sacks of grain and piles of produce stacked up all around. There's one thing strange about this room, however - you find an end table at the far side of the room with a small jewelry box atop it. Even as you notice the treasure, the roof begins to crack and shake! It's seconds away from being torn off the flophouse by the incredible force of the volcano's detonation, and the rumbling earthquakes aren't helping the building's structural integrity any. The end table is on the opposite side of the room from where the doorway leading to the stairs downstairs was, Smoog, what do you do?