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Grick fear death not for he knows that his spirit will live on and that he can actually become something even more than he was before, but he does fear undeath, he fears his spirit being trapped neither alive nor dead. Mostly though he fears being unable to take his vengeance on the god slayers that destroyed his tribe. So, instead on surrendering into the embrace of death, Grick fights death with all of his strength. You hear him shout, "MIGHTY DEATH, you may not have me yet as my vengeance is incomplete. I've slayed the necromancer but there are many others that I must still slay...I offer their deaths up to you, O Mighty Death in exchange for my life until my vengeance is complete!"
As the others make their preparations for camp, Sees can't imagine getting to sleep. She lets the others know she will be taking first watch and moves her things in order to have a closer view of the entryway, either behind a pillar or in an alcove. Once settled, she busies her hands with some knitting. She makes a point of setting herself up at a distance from the males.
NottonightNotinaplaceofworshipNottonightNothereIcanwaitforanothermoonNotton ightIhaveenoughtoworryaboutwithoutaclutchofeggstotendtoNottonightThinkofsom ethingelseforonceinyourmiserablelifeNottonight
"Pork, I would like to recover the Necromancer's body from this rubble. Partly to know for sure that he is dead and partly to find any clues about the other Adventurers. If he did in fact travel with the Dwarf Lord Krondor, perhaps he has information on him that will lead us to him. Can your thralls help move some of the rubble?"
Hegh taps Thunk on the shoulder. There is work for us Thumpbrother.
Hegh moves to the pile of rubble and begins moving rocks, occasionally casting furtive glances at Sees to see if she is watching.
Not really the initial plan. I do like how you ran with it.
As Fsst the Immolator works his dark ritual of flames, the rest of the Moontower Mountain Kobolds and Thunk look on in consternation for their friend.
Grick's soul is fiercely violent, even in the afterlife. As the fire burns down his throat and into his body through Fsst's dragon-magic, the corruption of the zombie contagion is burned away. Your soul is sent to the Afterlife to be judged in its purest form, stripped of all artifice. Naked, you stand upon a black field. There are things all around you, but you cannot make out what they are. You stand in darkness but you feel the eyes of Death's Specter upon you. Shapeless, formless, but no less imposing for its bodilessness, you feel its gaze piercing your very soul.
As a shaman, you are more prepared to face the afterlife than many others. After all, the afterlife is a big part of what you do for a living every day. As such, you feel bolstered by the sense of community that you feel with the spirits. You know that every living thing must one day face this dark field, and its judging eyes. The knowledge gives you the temerity to stare up into Death's very eyes, and scream in defiance.
Suddenly there is a change in the field. The...things in the darkness all around you bend in a sudden gale breeze. Rhythmic flapping emerges from the blackness above. Unseen, you nonetheless feel the legs of the dragon's spirit impacting the landscape on either side of you, protectively.
GORLAUG'S SPIRIT speaks, booming from his mighty jaws that are over your head, addressing the specter.
You cannot defeat Death, the words rise, unbidden, in your own mind, yet you somehow know they are the words of Death, not your own thoughts.
You are scooped up by the dragon and carried next to Gorlaug's chest as he bears you to the gates of Death's realm. On the way, you pass out...
And wake up on the ritual table, with Fsst staring down at you, a hungry expression of ambition on his face. Your body is fresh and new; you're at full HP, and feel no pain. Other than an ugly scar on your foot, nothing remains of your zombie infection. To the others, it looked as if Fsst had set your body on fire, and you burned without screaming. Your body was burned to ashen grey, but you were left unharmed. All of your clothes and armor have been burned away, (sorry). When you stand, the ash falls away. You're just a naked red kobold now.
Smoog, totally fine with that alignment tweak, good reasoning.
Hegh, I'd consider your mad charge to confront the Eye at the Temple Entrance to count. Sure. More XP is good. Cool Counterspell move too.
Smoog and Sees were right to do their End of Session moves. Everyone should do that.
Well alright then.
So I'm clear, most of you are camping up on the ground level, near the entrance and Smoog's traps, while Smoog, Hegh and Pork make to clear away the rubble around the necromancer?
Grick spends his rest time, well, resting and also finding an interesting object to use as a new totem which he wants to prepare to house a wandering spirit. Finding a small animal skull he makes sure that it is cleaned and puffed as Grick takes pride in providing the spirits a suitable place to reside. That done, he taps slowly on his little drum and projects his thoughts into the spirit world inviting one of the local spirits to take up residence in a new home.
In her private room, Sees gets the time to tend to a few personal task which she was uncomfortable tending to in oppressively mixed company.
First, she performs the naming ritual for the egg, adding j'nah, a draconic word for fierce. The dragontongued spends the ritual begging forgiveness of the little one for her negligence, while at the same time making sure the whelp knows to blame it all on Krispen for pawning the egg off on her. She spends a few long moments whispering in the dark and keeping a spare eye on the hallway beyond her Stonefall Blind Tarp before nestling the egg in the crook of a lava pipe for warmth. She knows a very cold or very hot hatch would make for a male Kobold, but still doesn't know how to hatch a dragon's egg. As much faith as they had in Krispen's four-telling, no one had thought it would actually be up to the poopsmith to hatch the thing.
She spends the next hour or so with her Vial of Scents and Vanity Box, affecting those small nigh-imperceptible perfections that no natural female possesses, and wondering what the others are doing. Her thoughts don't have much time outside her little bubble of ego, as she's quickly wondering if the boys are doing anything to try and impress her. Before long she has to tamp down images of Hegh lifting large boulders and tearing out the necks of the weak and move on.
With all due ceremony, Sees-Death cracks the last sealed pot of ceremonial bitter meats. These were the 'rations' she 'borrowed' from Moontower Mountain, and she has a hard time savoring them knowing that her meals tomorrow will be dried dog meat. She supposes she'll have to send Thunk, or even Pork out to get some more food. Anything to keep Pork busy and out of sight.
In the last spare minutes of the first watch, she fusses over her clothes, which are now more patches and stitching than actual silk. She laments that she failed to bring a good skein of angora yarn, or at least a few fine-worked leathers, keenly dyed. The dirge promises herself she'll make sure to gather some good cloth the next time they meet something civil.
During his downtime, (after finding all there is to find of the Necromancer’s body), Smoog begins rebuilding his Steamer
but this time he will concentrate on making it more compact and modular.
He plans on integrating this into a larger contraption that will let him fly and he will use steam to make small adjustments in his trajectory.
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He determines that the sound capabilities will still come in handy so he integrates that into the new Steamer as well.
The rebuilt device fits into his backpack snugly and has a flexible tube protruding out and down the right side so he can grab it and aim it when needed.
The end is formed into a nice handgrip launcher that will accommodate another gizmo he plans on designing; glass globe grenades.
-
He can’t quite understand a few of the components gathered from the Time Temple but uses them anyway and finds out it causes...
Once Hegh finishes clearing the rubble, he and Shieldbearer settle down for a nap.
Grick: The Wandering Spirit you capture in one of your Totems was a former priest of Enoreth that helped to oversee this temple when it was still active. He's drawn to the gentle beating of your drum, and he approaches you cautiously as you commune with the spirits of this place.
As the spirit joins with your totem, he tells you of his last moments. He had been hiding in the mausoleum when the temple came under attack, centuries ago, and fell to the invaders. Sneaking from rectory to rectory, the vengeful priest stabbed the invaders in the darkness for his vengeance, until he was found and killed like the rest. When you talk to this spirit, he allows you to roll damage twice and take the better result, when you strike from stealth.
Could you please list all of your spirits in your profile, Grick, so I know which ones you actually have? I had to go through your post history and edit what the spirit did because apparently you already have a trickster spirit that helps with stealth.
Hegh: I'm ruling that you did fulfill your drive.
Smoog is too weak to be of much help moving the heavy stones that fell from the inner sanctum's ceiling, but he helps oversee Hegh, Pork, Pork's zombies and Thunk as they work together to uncover their hated foe. It takes several hours of laboring to move the heavy stones, and you do make enough progress to uncover the composite abomination's corpse, but your endurance slowly begins to flag. You've been traveling and fighting all day, after all, and your strength has its limits.
On the necromancer's body you find his robe in tatters, his body crushed by rubble and steamed to the point of being cooked in his own skin. His body can be salvaged for 3 rations' worth of meat, if you don't mind eating an intelligent creature's body...kobolds don't often object culturally to dining on their foes. Waste not. Even cannabalism is practiced in some tribes, though never at Moontower Mountain.
The one clue you're able to find on him is a small pocketwatch. The pocketwatch is made from an unusual whitish material that you don't immediately recognize. Engraved on the inside is a K in ornate script. The watch itself doesn't move its hands, has a cracked face, and permanently shows the time as 5:01. Other than that, the necromancer's possessions are damaged beyond repair or use.
After settling down to camp, during which time everyone marks off 1 ration and heals half of your max HP, Smoog begins tinkering with his equipment, seeking to rebuild what he can using technology salvaged within the inner sanctum.
The Priests of Enoreth - with the blessing of their god - experimented with forced time travel. Integrating the parts from this inner sanctum seems to have had a temporal effect on your weapon - a 6- or a 7-9 roll could have unexpected impacts on your local timeline, or the timeline of your steamer's target.
When Sees-Death notices everybody else settling down for the evening, she climbs the ropeladder to the top level of the temple and sets up a hiding place not far from Smoog's well-laid traps. She sends Pork off exploring to find more local wildlife to use as rations, suppressing a shiver when he stares at her a moment too long before acquiescing.
The death druid is gone for most of the night. It's nearly morning when you're surprised by a bat with pig-tusks that flies into your hiding space and transforms back into kobold form. "We've got company," he growls, joining you in your hiding place, making your nose wrinkle in faint disgust. He presses some mushrooms into your palm, Sees, add 2 rations to your inventory. Then he grunts a quiet warning to you.
"Dwarven adventuring party. Bug-riders by the look, up from the southern lands. They left their Aqir mounts up top, thankfully, but they were already inside the temple's entrance by the time I could sneak past them and get down here. They'll be making their way to us shortly."
There's no sound coming from higher up in the temple yet, but that'll change before long. Smoog's corpse-traps would trip them up and hurt them when they approach the rope-ladder trapdoor, a few feet past your hidden position. What do you do?
You kobolds down below are sleeping unless you note otherwise. Local time is about 4-5 AM, though it's difficult to tell that from inside the temple away from the sun.
Thunk snores, but once he is warned...may the gods have mercy on them.
Fssst is curled up and sleeping in a bed of ash taken from the burned bodies. Having rolled over a few times, he's now a consistent gray tone across the whole of his body.
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Thunk stirs in his sleep. He dreams
Thunk is there, the last moment before the Dwarf struck the killing blow. He feels that last moment, then time races backward. The glory days, coming home with loot from raids as the majestic Tanulth. time rewinds again. Now he is a young dragon, before he has made his home, he is beset on all sides, men. With harpoons with chains attached to them, his sides are pierced, and he is pulled down. He rages, pulls his way free, only to feel the pain again as he is brought down yet again. Then a flash and his dream self is unconscious. When he awakes he finds himself in a cage, unable to move and surrounded by men. These have strange tools, they advance on him and slowly begin prying off his scales. Slowly, painfully, they drop the scales in small bottles filled with liquids and he watches as they dissolve or change color or flash in light. Eventually they begin to cut into his flesh, they begin pouring liquids on it, and observing the results. The feeling were different but the result was always pain.
Time moves forward now, months, years the same, they thought he was broken, but over that time he slowly began to loosen his bonds, constant flexing and relaxing began to loosen the manacles until he was confident he could free himself. he just had to wait for the right time.
Eventually it would come. They men were going to submerge him in a huge vat of liquid, which was supposed to tame him. Make him theirs to command. The winch removed the cage and then he burst his bonds, he flipped the vat which covered those experimenting on him, what became of them he did not know, he took to the air and was gone.
It was int he years following that he became known as the Eater of All or the All-Eater. Whenever he encountered humans that were not bowing to him, and even then it was a 50-50 prospect at best, he devoured them. Man flesh, man blood would be what sustained him.
The bone club flashes in a dark blue light for a moment then goes out, Thunk stirs
Smoog fell asleep mid-tinkering in a pile of salvaged parts and gears.
A few black greasy spots smear his face and hands.
Steamer 2.0 sits close by, softly whirring and puffing out a very small blanket of steam that keeps Smoog warm and comfortable.
-
The previous day's events had worn him out so much he did not even finish his tinkering chores so his daily charge is only...
"Rouse the others with your thralls, if you haven't already."
Sees-Death unclips Gorlaug's Wrath from her belt, draws the heavy dagger, and approaches the edge of the blind, shading her eyes from emitting any telltale glare. She lines up with the rope ladder, hoping to single out one of the dwarves and drive them down the pit with her. The rest of the dwarven party is likely to stay off-balance with an ally fallen into a pit. On the other hand, diving into a cluster of panicked dwarves could end... quickly.
Not willing to risk any more verbal communication, the dirge relays the plan to Pork with a fist pounded into an open claw and a dropping motion. She may not be able to overpower a dwarf, but a pair of Kobolds can execute a variety of simple maneuvers to trip any humanoid, certainly one who is caught off guard.
Pork nods and slips off down below to rouse all the sleepers, grunting them all awake from their sleep!
Growling as he is awoken by Pork, Hegh quickly assesses the situation. He goes to stand next to Thunk, while calling upon Gorlaug's power.
Hegh stands to Thunk's right side, sword raised and ready. Shieldbearer stands on Thunk's left side.
Thunk hops up and loosens up
Grick slips into a corner of the temple room and calls on the spirit of Padler the trickster to make him look like part of the fallen ceiling to any dwarfs that come into the room.
Wiping sleep from his eyes, Smoog further smudges grease around his face and eyes looking more comical than usual.
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"What's the score? Why all the hubbub?"
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Seeing the others readying for battle, Smoog grabs his Magno-Beam and loads a few rounds into the chute.
He looks around for a good vantage point to cover the rope ladder from and concludes the large door directly across the room will be perfect.
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On his way to set up he notices Grick trying to hide in the corner.
Smoog suggests Grick move to a darker shadowy area to his left that has more texture and broken stonework.
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Fssst rises, ash billowing off him in a chalky cloud. He scoops up two fists full of the cremated remains and walks to the entryway of the room, where he carefully pours one handful across the threshold. Having done so, he takes a torch from a nearby sconce and stands in full view of any who might approach.
He turns to the others, "Hide yourselves as you will. A flame does not disguise it's presence, so nor can I. If they wish us harm, I will draw them into the trap by fleeing through the trap-door." He memorizes the location of Smoog's deadly little gifts before inscribing words of warning in the ash upon the threshold with a claw.
Fssst then bellows in the common tongue as best as he is able, "The Necromancer is Slain! His Thralls, Destroyed! Commune peacefully where the torchlight falls, in this hall of civilization, or be made into dry blood and cold flesh!"
Wiping sleep from his eyes, Smoog further smudges grease around his face and eyes looking more comical than usual.
-
"What's the score? Why all the hubbub?"
-
Seeing the others readying for battle, Smoog grabs his Magno-Beam and loads a few rounds into the chute.
He looks around for a good vantage point to cover the rope ladder from and concludes the large door directly across the room will be perfect.
-
On his way to set up he notices Grick trying to hide in the corner.
Smoog suggests Grick move to a darker shadowy area to his left that has more texture and broken stonework.
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[dice=Aid Grick in hiding]2d6 + 1
With Smoog's aid, Grick finds a better hiding place deeper in shadows. However, he can tell Padler is insulted and he will be complaining to the other spirits about the insult.
Before the hiding commences
Grick. You new Kob'd? You same? Thunk not get. Help Thunk get?
Once folks are hidden he moves next to Hegh
This power of All-Eat. You learn!
Then he roars his challenge Come face Thunk and get thump!
There is no response to Fsst and Thunk's shouted words up the stairwell to the ground floor of the temple. Then, suddenly, a dwarf head peeks out from where he had been hiding in one of the mausoleum alcoves. He's wearing a tight leather armor outfit, with adjustable tinker's goggles - some kind of scout for the adventuring party, no doubt.
He's holding a light crossbow, and it's loaded, but not aimed at any of you. The dwarf rogue steps forward until he's just barely out of the firelight, in the darkness beyond. He fingers the stock of his weapon a moment, and speaks.
"Hello there." the dwarf calls out, his voice tinged with a Scottish burr. "I don't know what your friend's saying, but get him to calm down and we can parlay. We've never run into kobolds so brassy that would speak in Common...so that alone's worth investigatin'. And if the necromancer's truly dead, we ken leave this place. But if this is one of yeh'r kind's bloody traps, my friends upstairs will make sure you never leave this place alive."
He's within charging range now.
"Be still, Thunk. We need knowledge right now, more than we need more bloodshed."
Fssst turns back to the Dwarf. "He is truly dead. We came down here to deal with him, as his...animations were corrupting the swamps above. I would ask that you do nothing to cross this line of ash. We have lain traps, as is our way. Beyond this line you would not be safe."
The kobold peers curiously at the rogue, "Where do you and yours hail from? We did not deal directly with many dwarfs back home."
Grick spends the time quietly arguing with the spirits trying to explain that no insult was intended as Fssst talks with the stupid stout legs.
Hegh and Shieldbearer stand down at Fssst's words. They remain wary, never trustful of the stout legs.
The dwarf flashes a quick smile when Fsst warns him of the traps beyond the ash line. He steps slightly closer, into the firelight, but doesn't go beyond it.
"We came from many places, but the most consistent answer you'll get from us on that question is around Erdogan way, down south of here. We're here because we heard that the Necromancer that killed Gorlaug the Black had taken up residence in this old ruin. We were...interested in discussing what he had found during the raid on the old wyrm's mountain." You sense that he isn't being completely honest - or at least, there's definitely more to the story that he isn't sharing.
"Your turn to answer questions. What brings a bunch of kobolds here? There's not a new dragon that wants to commandeer this place, is there?"
What here is not what is appears to be?
What should I be on the lookout for?
What here is useful or valuable to me?
He's wearing tight leather armor that doesn't make noise as he moves, tinker's goggles, and equipped with a light crossbow. What specific details are you looking for? His beard is black, and reaches just to the bottom of his neck. He's about typical dwarf height, which puts him at about eye-level with most of you.
Grick steps into the view of the dwarf, "Listen up stout legs, I am Grick the Undying, I have faced death itself and returned...my path ahead is red and its name is vengeance. I shall destroy all of the foul God slayers as I destroyed this pitiful fool of a necromancer...I have no time for chitchat, what is it that you seek? I thought you stout legs are supposed to be a straightforward and honorable folk. Are the stories naught but lies?" Grick turns and looks towards Sees-Death, "my bard will parley with you," he tells the stout legs before bellowing "Sees-Death, parley with this dwarf, he wants something we may have and we want information he may know."
With his speech completed, Grick slips into the shadows to once more argue with the upset spirits.