Nicely done, Thunk. You get to keep your exotic weapon for another day's battle.
By this time, after the kobolds' failed attempts to stop him, Axel has swum far enough downstream to be out of effective range. It seems the dwarf adventuring company's leader will live to tell the tale, unless you chased him down the river. Combat is effectively over, though of course you can choose to take steps to try and start it up again.
Great place for an End of Session move.
When you reach the end of a session, choose one of your bonds that you feel is resolved (completely explored, no longer relevant, or otherwise). Ask the player of the character you have the bond with if they agree. If they do, mark XP and write a new bond with whomever you wish.
Once bonds have been updated look at your alignment. If you fulfilled that alignment at least once this session, mark XP. Then answer these three questions as a group:
-Did we learn something new and important about the world?
-Did we overcome a notable monster or enemy?
-Did we loot a memorable treasure?For each “yes” answer everyone marks XP.
Did we overcome? Yes, stupid stump legs
Did we loot? Yes, the horn thing
Grick mutters to the spirits as he limps around looking for interesting loot. Completely absorbed in his discussion with the spirit world he doesn't take notice of either the dragon or the scuffle.
Grick rolled a 9, he gets: a lanterned helmet with a candle inside.
Smoog rolled an 11, he gets: a koboldian metal prosthesis that fits over your tail, with hollow tubes running along the sides.
Sees rolled a 10, she gets: what looks like a simple vest that conceals inlaid chainmail made out of a whitish metal.
Hegh will get his loot when he finishes his pursuit of Axel, one way or the other.
Thunk rolled a 9 with an extra complication, he finds: A corked vial filled with a strange greenish gas - however, as he picks it up, a crab claw emerges from the sand and grabs it! The crab shuffles itself loose from the rock it was hiding under on the rocky beach, and makes for the river!
You no steal Thunk shines! Ask nice, and Thunk share shines.
Thunk takes off after the crab, as he closes the distance he attempts to leap on top of the crab for some good old wrasslin'
STR
Hegh lands on solid ice near the bubbles. He begins to freeze the surrounding surface in the direction that the bubbles would have to swim, hoping to drown the dwarf captain, or at least substantially weaken him.
Hegh yells at the ice, Better hope yer a fish-dwarf! He begins to cackle, I will kill you!
"That's where that got to!" The dirge gasps as she shrugs into the vest. She's managed to salvage a relatively clean dresing shirt that fit like a dressing gown on her small frame. The vest, finely worked in stylish brocade, was an item with which Sees was very familiar. A few years ago, a small party of Dwarvish adventurers had attempted to gain entry to Moontower Mountain through it's cesspool. Scoops and a few of the other attendants scared them off, but not before they had gone through and looted the laundry. The Kobolds didn't mind much because occasional hero incursions were a good solution to vermin problems, and these Dwarves had taken care of a family of chamberpot slugs as well as two dire-bedbugs. When they returned to their gross swine settlement, they were lauded as heroes. This was Viceroy Sciven's ceremonial vest, lost to dwarven panty thieves. It bore certain properties...
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Thunk, as you wrestle with the crab, you lose your center of gravity and the crab Judo-flips you over its shell. You land on your back in the river, with the water flowing over your face and mouth. Coughing and spluttering, you burst forth from the water's surface again, still clutching the vial. You've managed to stop the crab's escape to the river, but you're still wrestling with it for your loot! What do you do?
Hegh, this won't happen right away, but when you get back to the island, Shieldbearer will have found you a small pouch, taken from a dwarf's pockets. Inside the pouch will be a firm container made of unidentifiable bone, and inside the bone container is what looks like a collection of about 15 purple pills.
You freeze a greater and greater section of the river with your enthusiastic exhalation of frost-wyrm magic, leaving only the spot immediately below your feet as relatively thin and vulnerable. You see faint movement under the ice, a dark shape moving here and there, before coming back to the spot at your feet. There's a sudden upheaval and the dwarf captain Axel bursts out of the ice, gasping and shuddering! What do you do?
Sees, the vest of Viceroy Sciven is weight 0, and provides 1 Armor as long as you aren't wearing any armor covering it that would overlap. When you are reduced to at or below 1/3rd of your max HP, in your case that would be at or below 6 HP, time slows down. You're able to make 30 seconds' worth of actions in the space of an instant. Your next roll is considered a partial success at 6 or below, and a full success at 7 or above. This effect is reset when you are fully healed while wearing the vest.
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cha
You. Pinch crab. You thump good. You come with Thunk. You think with Thunk.. He says extending a metaphorical olive branch
As soon as Hegh sees Axel break the surface, Hegh attempts to grapple the dwarf into a headlock, choking him. The cold is my friend, dwarf. You die here today. Once Hegh gets a grip, he takes a deep breath and attempts to pull the dwarf back down into the depths below with him.
After sliding his new tail armor in place to test the fit, Smoog inspects the entry arch of the Time Temple.
-
I wonder if that dwarvie-thief fellow met his end inside?
Agatha and Sees surely did concoct a cacophonous catastrophe.
Too bad we won't know what other interesting things were hidden down deep in this place.
But that floor map indicated others like this exist.
Maybe we will run across another someday.
After finding sufficient, albeit temporary clothing, Sees-Death returns to butchering the Aquir for Tanard's first meal. She wouldn't shy away from butchering the Dwarves, but she considers pork bad for the blood. Better to start with the invertebrate and see if the whelp is still hungry.
If time permits, she begins to gather clothing and scraps of leather to restock her mending kit, setting aside any fine or colorful cloth for a future project. In salvaging these materials, she may even be cutting clothes off of struggling Dwarves. At the moment, she wears the inverted bowler hat, a long dressing shirt, the vest, leggings and a pair of ill-fitting soft-sole boots. It's not quite as nice as her handmaiden vestments once were, but it's much more travel-ready.
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Grick dons his new helmet after lighting the candle and finds a quiet spot to commune with the ever so angry spirit world. You can all hear bits and pieces of Grick's side of the conversation, "I did not, you did...I never...he started it...did too...sorry, sorry...okay, okay...yes she is weird...a baby dragon? Not likely...fine then, I'll apologize, sorry...alright then."
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A special moment passes between the crab and Thunk. The barbarian grunts at it in his typical monosyllabic vocabulary, but with true respect for the crab's Judo shining through. Cautiously, the red-scaled kobold releases the vial of greenish gas. The crab's stalk eyes turn to look at it, then back to Thunk.
The crab scuttles off into the river with the vial, disappearing under the water's surface almost instantly. Thunk slumps a little in disappointment, but before too long the crab is back! It's dragging something out of the water...it appears to be the clamshell of a large, freshwater clam that the crab had brutally murdered earlier. The crab drags the clam to shore and leaves it lying on a rock in front of the barbarian, then, its claws waving, it returns to the flowing river from whence it came. Inside the clamshell is the vial of greenish gas that you were fighting over, along with three large freshwater clam's pearls worth 40 coins each, 0 weight. There's no clam meat inside, it must have been eaten by the Judo crab when the crab killed it.
Meanwhile, downriver, at the natural ice-dam that Hegh created with his magic, the draco-mage is wrestling with the dwarf adventurer's leader in the river. The dwarf managed to get a gasp of air in before Hegh dove into the frigid waters and dragged him down again, and the dwarf is stubborn and hardy even in this hostile environment. He puts up a mighty fight against the draco-mage, but the kobold is in his element in the cold and feels no pain from the temperature of the water in the heat of combat. Sees' magic empowers his muscles and he wrestles the dwarf into a vicious headlock underwater. The dwarf struggles for a long time, but eventually, as the two of them are pressed up against the ice dam underwater by the river's current, you feel his neck snap against your arm. The dwarf stares lifelessly ahead in the water.
You're beginning to feel the burning need for oxygen in your lungs from the prolonged combat with the dwarf. You see the hole in the ice up above you, but as you make toward it, something sharp penetrates your ankle! Looking down, you see that a freshwater eel the size of your leg has attacked your foot, and your foot is already partially inside its gullet! Take 1d4 damage from the bite and you're running out of air! What do you do?
Sees, as this is going on, is calmly picking her way among the slain bodies of the Aqir and Dwarves, her mind on Tanard's first meal. The hunger of the newborn dragon presses in urgently on the minds of all kobolds present - it's in a dragon's blood to dominate, and it's in the blood of kobolds to serve dragons. All kobolds nearby, not just Sees, feel an intense protectiveness over the young dragon. Whether you try to resist those inborn emotions or embrace them as Sees has done is up to your individual characters. Sees, you're able to replenish your Adventuring Gear, but Aqir aren't the easiest animals to butcher in the world. Their carapaces provide good protection of the creature's meat, even in death. You have to look for places where Thunk already injured them and pull the bloody wounds open further to get at the good meat inside. However, Tanard does appreciate it. The young wyrmling devours the bug-meat hungrily when you feed her.
Pinch crab good friend!
He calls as he gathers his pearls and the clam shell. He takes the vial to sees
What this?
As the eel bites down on Hegh's foot, it can't help but be surprised by the frozen spurt of blood that covers the inside of its mouth. It is so cold that it burns.
Hegh reaches down and grabs its upper jaw in one hand, and its lower jaw in the other hand. He attempts to rip the jaws apart.
Hegh will desperately swim for the surface at the first opportunity.
Grick comes out of his revere long enough to see Thunk have a conversation with a crab. Maybe he's not smarter than he acts after all.
After confirming that Agatha is bound and confined, Smoog sits down in front of her and begins assembling a few parts and components, attempting to jury-rig a lie-detecting device.
-
-
He then asks her a set of test questions...
Is your name Agatha?
Are you a Dwarf?
Do you love me?
-
O.K. then, let us begin.
Who sent you?
What was your mission?
How long until your people miss you?
How many will they send to look for you?
Do you know Lord Krondor?
-
Smoog then looks around to see if anyone else has any questions for the witch?
Sees passes by Smoog, peering over his shoulder as she hauls mostly-emptied carapace to the growing bonfire-in-the-making. She pauses long enough to understand the Gearmaturge's intent, turning her head as if looking at it sideways will cause it to make sense. "I don't see the point of this. Why would someone lie in response to such direct questioning?" Stumped, her tone shifts to sarcasm as she resumes her labor. "Oh great and powerful Smoog, what will you invent next? A torch powered by the sun?"
Slightly puzzled, Smoog turns his head to answer...
"That...
is...
His eyes widen...
a GREAT IDEA!
Powered by the sun, of course!
-
But as for the lying thing,
I have seen enough treachery from creatures like this.
I am not taking any chances she may mislead us or whatever."
-
When he realizes she has moved on and is no longer paying him any attention, Smoog resumes his line of questioning...
-
"Agatha, where is Lord Krondor right now?'
The freezing blood comes as a complete surprise to the river eel when it bites down on Hegh's ankle, and the dracomage is able to quickly turn the surprise into an immediate combat advantage. He pries the beast's jaws apart until the lower half breaks off violently, filling the cold water with blood.
His foes both slain, Hegh turns to swim upward toward the surface, but the lack of oxygen is causing his vision to blur and brown out around the edges. Take 1/4 of your max HP in damage, ignores armor. Weakly, you pound on the ice on the river of your own making, trying to find the hole from below with your weakening vision.
You're close to losing consciousness. Give me another Defy Danger: Con to endure long enough to climb out of the hole in the ice to safety.
Back at the island, Hegh's servant, Shieldbearer, blissfully unaware of his master's plight, holds Agatha still so that she may be interrogated. Smoog removes her gag and applies his lie-detector machine. The primitive device reads the dwarf's heart rate and relays sudden elevations via beeping.
She nods, nods, and shakes her head in response to your questions. She looks terrified and willing to answer your questions.
"Krondor is...still celebrating the death of the Great Wyrm and the achievement of his quest...he's in Erdogan! Erdogan! No one knows how long he'll stay, but folk say the Wildcat Queen will want to keep him at home for awhile after his time away."
"Wildcat Queen's his wife," she volunteers, upon seeing the question in Smoog's face.
Not far from where the island is, the magic Sees draws upon disturbs a ley-line, and a certain being that is sensitive to such things near to that ley line becomes aware of it...
Hegh struggles valiantly against the pull of gravity, towards what he desperately hopes is the hole in the ice above.
You manage to pull yourself, sopping wet and cold, from the hole in the ice. All of your draconic aspects are washed away, leaving you a shivering white-scaled kobold, but you live to fight another day. Take -1 forward to your next Form of the Dragon roll after your brief brush with death.
Hegh hurries back to the group on foot. When he arrives, he fully embraces the familiar feeling of protectiveness towards the young dragon.
Master.
Servant. Rest quickly, there is still danger.
Hegh approaches the group, visibly much the worse for wear. He glares at the stump-witch and then speaks in draconic. The dwarf leader is dead. I do not feel well. We must seek shelter and regroup. He slumps to the ground near Shieldbearer, who hands him a pouch of blue and yellow purple pills.
He stares at the pills with disinterest and waits for the group to prepare to move.
Agatha shows no reaction to the words spoken in Draconic around her, though her eyes flicker from one kobold to the other, watchful for sudden violence.
On her way back, Sees comments in loud, exasperated undercommon: "She has nothing useful to tell us, just throw her on the bonfire and be done with her. She probably wouldn't even lead us to shelter if her life depended on it. Unless Grick wants to bind her immortal soul to her rotting, severed skull. He likes to do unsavory things like that."
At the sight of Hegh's wounds and spurred by his words, Smoog also becomes concerned with the group's need for safety and recuperation.
-
"Hag, how soon can we expect a search party to come looking for you and how many will they send?"
-
In Draconic to the Kobolds, "We might want to move away from this location and find a suitable cave to hold up in for a while.
Those Akir will surely return in larger numbers to see what became of their dwarf allies.
Also, a few of us, Hegh especially, need time to mend and our new charge will need copious amounts of food to fuel her growth.
If we are destined to head towards Erdogan, there are other temples such as this along the way.
Perhaps their walls could shelter us for a while."
-
Smoog then looks toward Fssst for an indication as to what will be done with the captives.
-
The other dwarves are not important but this Hag has power that might be useful to one of Fssst's rituals or Grick's skull totems, hmmm, did she have any of that Sleep Dust left?
Hegh continues to stare at the pills. Why would the dwarves carry these ...
Hegh looks up once Smoog begins to take control of the situation. Stumped, he tosses the pouch of pills over to the blue kobold. In common he says, Feed one of these to the stump-witch. Maybe we can find out what they are for.
Resolving: "Smoog has much to learn about the world." Adding: "Smoog knows far more than I knew. We would be wise to heed his counsel."
1XP
Knowledge (Dwarves mate with Aqir, but seriously I think we learned much about the politics of the area) - 1XP
Notable Monsters (Dwarves - Dwarf Leader) - 1XP
Loot (nothing compares to these blue and yellow purple pills) - 1 XP
I think that Moosh said we can resolve more than one bond at a time. Sees, do you think that "Sees cannot comprehend my chaotic whims" is ripe for resolution?
4XP total, bringing me to 4.14. Spending 12 to level to 5.
Raising Con to 17.
spout lore on the vial
Smoog takes the pills and using any info Agatha can truthfully provide, elaborates on the nature of the pills...
-
At your words, Smoog, the hag's complexion grows more pale. "We uh...we'll be missed right away!" she stammers, gazing at Sees in fear. "The horde of mighty dwarven Aqir-riders of Erdogan will ride out and slay you all if you harm me!" Your lie-detector goes nuts. She licks her lips nervously.
Satisfied with your questioning for now, you turn your attention to the white-scaled kobold's question. To properly determine the pill's chemical composition requires you to destroy one of the pills, breaking the purple casing and spilling out the white powder inside, leaving Hegh with only 14 remaining. However, from your studies you are able to deduce that whomever was the owner of this container was carrying around pure methylpropanamine, MDMA. The recreational drug is widely popular and more effective than gold as a currency in some circles. Each purple pill contains enough of the drug to keep a Medium-sized humanoid dosed for nearly a full cycle. Possession, use, or distribution of MDMA is illegal in nearly all countries.
Thunk, you're no scientist, but you find a happy-face sticker on the bottom of the vial that you didn't notice before. Your cunning barbarian brain deduces that this gas must have something to do with happiness.
Confirmed that you can resolve multiple bonds at once, Hegh.
As Hegh finally gets around to inspecting his wound, he is somewhat surprised to find that his scales have changed dramatically in response to his brush with death, growing thicker and longer. He also notices that, although he recently swam in ice cold water, and despite a chill breeze, he feels perfectly warm. The cold was once his friend. It is now an ally.
"Ugh, gross! The apes are drug abuser as well? No wonder they don't have a spare copper between them." Sees-Death's tongue works in her mouth as if she had tasted something unwholesome.
Seeing Hegh, wet and exhausted, she stops to examine the seeping wound on his ankle. "This will take more than a night's rest to heal. See that you don't lose your foot. I'll not tolerate a bloodguard with a limp."
Not wanting to loose any advantage that his quirky machine might still have left in it, Smoog goes back to questioning Agatha...
-
"Do you know anything about any of Lord Krondor's associates,
Immanuel Dragonsword, Twinkletoes, or their companions
a gnome druid or an elven arch-mage?"
-
Thoughts Smoog brings up with the others as they are available thru the rest of the day...
-
"We have been travelling hard and fast after our mutual foes these last few weeks.
And we have a long way to go still; maybe months? It might take years?
But we are all now very aware that a major shift in our priorities has just been revealed.
is now our number one priority.
It is a Kobold's duty, ... no, a Kobold's Honor..., to serve a Dragon.
We now have a Dragon to serve.
I have calculated that at her expected rate of growth we will need to secure quite a sizable food supply to satisfy her.
We probably should find her a home, if only temporary, where we may raise and defend her until she is able to do so for herself."
Thunk find smile gas!
Grick holds the skulls of the spirits in his arms and rocks them back and forth singing them a soft lullaby as he continues to try to calm their anger.
Hegh growls at Sees' perceived insult and stands, making a show of walking without difficulty, although it is clearly a show.
He takes the pills from Smoog packs them away. Then he addresses the group in draconic. Sees, take the stump-witch's clothing and armor. It will be easier for you use that hat to pass as a dwarf than to repeat our previous charade. He turns to Fssst. I understand that the rest of her is yours.
Let's move towards concealed shelter. We risk too much in the open.
Finally he turns to Grick. I can probably find the stump-leader's head if it is worth the detour.
Hegh stands tall, refusing Shieldbearer's offer of support.
As all of you discuss, you notice that Tanard is following your conversation very closely. Her bright, intelligent eyes swivel from speaker to speaker, and she cocks her head a little as the Draconic words touch her ears. Though she cannot speak yet, her expression implies a sharp intellect, and a slightly imperious manner. There's a strong instinct to lower your gaze in deference whenever you make eye contact with the infant dragon - an instinct that you can only overcome with conscious effort, if you so choose to.
Grick, the time you spend communing with the spirits is troubling. You sense whispers of malevolence all around you. Despite these disturbing intuitions, your connection to the world of the unseen all around you feels restored.
Smoog, at your mention of Immanuel Dragonsword, the hag's eyes go faintly misty. She stares off into space, and sings like a bird.
"Immanuel," she whispers, reverently. "He's said to be the greatest paladin the world has ever seen, greater in strength than even Krondor, and that strength is how the dragonborn earned the alliance of the Barbarian Lord and the rest of us dwarves, his subjects. As for the rest...it's said that the magic of Twinkletoes kept the city of Bastion safe from the Mountain's eruption, but I don't believe that any single spellcaster could do that. Maybe she was in charge, but take it from a spellcaster, kobold..." she taps a wart on the side of her nose. "Twinkletoes wasn't alone in that. The druid's a halfling, not a gnome. He has no home; he was a wanderer, it is said. Goes from place to place in a big house that walks on massive legs made of vines. That's the rumor, anyway. As for the arch-mage, that's easy. Everyone knows about Arch-Wizard Orien. They're the wealthiest noble family in all elf-kind, house Greenwood, and practically every kid that comes out of that household does something heroic. Orren being arch-mage of the city of Crystalline came as no surprise to anyone that knew the family. I always said, if there was a family of elves that came equal to a dwarven level of richness, it was the Greenwoods. They throw the grandest parties...so I've heard, no dwarf has ever attended, but the stories..." It appears Agatha has completely forgotten about the fact that she's a prisoner being interrogated, she's so wrapped up in her gossip.
Sees, you heal the wound in Hegh's foot, at the cost of over-applying your magic to do so. Hegh's foot injuries heal, but his foot feels like it's on pins and needles from being numb. Hegh, in the fiction you're a little slower on foot until your foot recovers.
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“Holy Wyvern Dung! Those are some heavy movers and shakers.
It seems that we are destined to go up against the mightiest this world has to offer;
kings and warlords; noble heads and self-made conquerors.
Tell me if my assessment is on track, ,”
-
“In order of perceived power, from lowest to highest...
there are and the .
Adventurers of stature; powerful but possibly not unreachable.”
-
“It is a toss up between the and .
Both are noble heads of powerful kingdom-states and will likely be insulated and surrounded by many loyal beings.”
-
“And then greatest of all;
He commands thousands of troops, is apparently loved by all;
has alliances with the dwarven and elven kingdoms
and is renowned in prowess and the art of war.”
-
Then out of earshot of Agatha, Smoog asks the others…
-
”We not only need to get much stronger ourselves,
we need to form alliances of our own.
-
How about we start with the Naga or the Kappa?
They are surely no friend to the smoothskins and at least
the Naga are deep dwellers like us, accustomed to the tunnels of the earth.
Does anyone have any ideas how we could contact the people of ?”
Agatha looks slightly taken aback by the kobold's words, then nods at his assessment, looking afraid. She glances over at Grick nervously.
Grick, satisfied that his spirits are placated, joins the others around the captive. "Yes Hegh, I would like her skull once Smoog is done with her. Her powers would be a valuable addition to us, unless she can convince us that's she worth more alive than dead," Grick says in common.
Switching to kobold he adds, "the spirit world is full of evil intent in this place, we should think about moving on before something else is drawn here."