I can hear the druid from outside his nest, so he can hear me. I just need to hit the right spot, and Gorlaug's Wrath will fill his supposed sanctuary.
Sees scans the bramble for an opening that will serve.
Greas just grins as Sees's magic takes hold again. That would cripple the golem. But still, it didn't BLEED like his real target did. He scrambles atop the golem and attempts to jump for the chandeliers. One way or another, he would get up there, and all the roots in the world would not stop him from reaching the kin-slayer.
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Krish urges the deathclaw to carry him near to the wild-chandelier-ball, readying his spirit senses as they move. Once they get close he tries to catch the eyes of the others to let them know to get ready, then he reaches out with those powers that connect him to the spirit world and the spirit energy that is protecting the druid from the righteous wrath of the kobolds (and their allies, of course).
With the power of his will, bolstered by the insight given him through watching the demise of the golem, Krish rips the spirit protecting the druid free from its manifestation and, though the thought of his action makes Krish feel sick to his stomach, presents it to the deathclaw, urging it to consume the spirit energy.
Nauseated at the act he just committed, Krish nearly falls from the Spirit-Eater's back. He dangles by his one good hand far above the floor...
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Seeing everyone target the Druid, Oadir decides he needs to get the target out of the way one way or another, he can't cover everyone and Smoog is not currently in a bad spot. It's time Oadir does what Oadir does best....
Screw up!
Oadir rushes out, ready to burst his way to the Druid
Following this, he aims to grab hold of the Druid and Teleport to the Deathclaw
Edit: I'll take the damage options on my semifailed Techniques and death on the snake eyes <.<
The lone remaining guard near to Smoog leads the blue-scaled kobold off in the direction of the main gates to the Time Temple. They stand open, and as you make your way there a large number of wedding guests are fleeing out through them. They don't acknowledge you as a threat; the "good races" of Estr are accustomed to seeing kobolds as harmless slaves, and they assume you're being escorted by the guard in your thrall.
Back in the wedding hall, the bride and groom have been grabbed by the undead abomination under Retzack’s control. Its strength easily overpowers theirs, although the groom is fighting madly to break free. He actually manages to get one arm loose and reaches down to grab at Retzack, but the goblin leans backward without stepping away and dodges the swipe with ease. The goblin cocks an eyebrow and the abomination, tuned to his micro-expressions by virtue of his magic, squeezes the bride painfully tightly to its horrible, meaty chest. Her screams of pain are enough to get the groom to stop fighting. ”Let her GO!” he shouts at you in Common.
At this point, Sees is aiming her warhorn at the chandelier and blowing it eagerly. Once again, the roar of Gorlaug’s voice fills the vaulted hall, shaking the very foundations of the temple. Her blast, instead of striking the druid directly, impacts on the tree root-covered chandelier he was taking shelter inside, and knocks it loose from its mooring.
This happens just as Greas leaps onto it, and Krish’s deathclaw joins it a moment later. As they all fall to earth, Krish feeds the animating spirit of the golem to the Deathclaw, who devours it messily. Because of his distraction, the shaman can’t hold on and drops…only to be caught in the palm of the Deathclaw’s hand. The shaman looks up at the creature as it feeds upon the life-energy of the forest spirit that has been fed to it. Satisfaction is written plainly on its feral features.
”Okay, so it’s like this…” the goblin continues speaking, as carnage and death are taking place just behind the abomination. The violence causes the bride to squeeze her crying eyes shut in terror and pain, and concern for her safety overrides the groom’s sense of self-preservation. ”Fine! If it’ll keep her safe…give me the damn paper!” he growls. With trembling fingers, he signs his name on the document…Retzack, you feel a warmth coming from the Sumerian artifact as he does so. The bride tearfully follows the groom’s lead shortly after.
Greas bolts inside the damaged chandelier, trying to strike at the druid. He just barely manages to dive to the side when a rampaging owlbear, the druid in morph form, bursts forth! The druid has grabbed Oadir in its claws and has him firmly grappled to its enormous chest with both of its powerful arms as it runs on its hind legs! Oadir, your teleportation spell was interrupted by the grapple and you take 1d8+2 damage from the druid’s shapeshifted claws, what do you do next? The black-scaled kobold grabs hold of the owlbear’s fur and swings up, landing on the druid’s shoulders and in perfect striking position as the rampaging druid makes for the entrance where Smoog is headed! The druid is trying to escape!
|
Retzack grins as the abomination squeezes Iris and gains Bart's compliance. 'As it should be....'
His head bobs up and down as they sign. "Good good."
Then, for some reason, he starts an extemporaneous monologue.
"I suppose some, even, say, those of my warband, would find deep irony, or even satisfaction, at the symbolism in having two humans suddenly in thrall to a demihuman. I'm sure they'd prefer I was a kobold, but they have kinship with goblinkind, so it's really just semantics.
But I'm not a philosopher. I believe in the material. The tangible. It really doesn't matter who you are, it really just matters that you were the nearest two people who would do, literally, anything for each other.
Yes, yes, Bart, I'm certainly going to let her, and you, go. I never said I wasn't..."
But then he gets a look. The air seems to chill. The light darkens. A wind that tastes like envy and smells like greed blows gently through the hall.
He walks close to Bart, his eyes gleaming with unnatural intelligence, his face grown dark with a shadow of ominous foreboding.
"...but I never said anything about 'safe'.
The first favor is to die. The second is to serve me forever."
Iron-hard arms of the crocodile-zombie, thick as tree trunks and powered by unliving energy, begin to crush the pair. Driving life a hydraulic vice, the horror squeezes the life out of the pair
Retzack stands over the still-warm corpses and insects pour from his body onto them. An aura of gold and black steams from his pocket wherein the artifact rests and bades the unmoving pair to rise.
Retzack, drunk with power, begins to cackle maniacally.
hahahahahaha
HahhahahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
At this point, Greas has broken into unending maniacal, bloodthirsty laughter. They're here. He's exactly where he wants to be. And now...it can begin! THE KIN-SLAYER SHALL FALL!
"AAAAAAHAHAHAHA! DIE, DIE, DIE! BLEED FOR ME YOU BIRD-BRAINED PIGLET!" His voice echoes throughout the room as he continues to laugh, hacking and stabbing in a frenzy as his mania demands of him. He would see the druid's blood, whether he was an owlbear, a bird, a halfling or something else entirely. And if his knife wouldn't penetrate his hide, he would stab somewhere more vulnerable...and stab harder.
"KILLLL THE DRUID! MAKE HIM BLEED! HACK OFF HIS LEGS AND DON'T LET HIM LEAVE! AAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
[dice=-"BLEEEED FOR MEEEEEE!"]2d6+2[/dice]
[dice=-"BLEEEEEEED!"]1d8[/dice]
"Guard, shoo them away and close the doors!
The party is just getting started and we don't want to be rudely interrupted."
-
He closes one side while the guard swings the other and when the doors are closed, Smoog begins welding them shut from the inside with his laser-eye.
-
"Guard, do not let anyone interrupt me while I seal these up.
If any try to interfere, kill them."
-
Sees grabs Thunk by the shoulders and turns him toward the owlbear-druid. "Thunk, Thump."
As the barbarian heads into the fray, the dirge continues on her way to the back door, watching the druid.
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Once more to the thump dear friend! Thump more!
Or thump the walls with you head!
When thump nothing do more for Thunk
Than thump and thump ,but when
Time for THUMP come round...
Thunk be Thunk and set teeth and nose wide!
On good 'Bolds who blood is thick with war proof!
The game is foot, follow you ghost and shout
Thunk for thump! Thump more and thump most!
Thunk charges the owl bear taking a flying leap over some fleeing people in the way
Defy danger Dex to leap over folks
As he comes down he swings his club in a might swing at the beasts shoulder, trying to shatter it
for
Thunk grins as the extra magic granted by Sees explodes into the Owl Bear
Oadir squeeks like a rubber ducky, having the air pushed out of his lungs.
Krish smiles weakly at the Spirit-Eater, gratitude warring with the queasy stomach. He forces himself to ignore the queasy feeling and urges the deathclaw to attack the owlbear. As it rushes to the attack, he climbs back up to its back and presents a totem in the owlbear's direction, hissing the name of the spirit in the totem, Hassai! A bolt of lightning streaks out at the druid once more.
Sees shoulders Thunk up over the crowd.
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The horror that Retzack has animated into the world multiplies itself. With a sickening crunch of bones, the abomination crushes the ribcages of the human bride and groom in its clutches, ending their lives with brutal efficiency. Their heads have barely the time to flop forward, lifelessly, before Retzack's foul magic lifts their heads up again into a normal position. Though they stare straight ahead, the life is gone from their eyes. They serve the bearer of the artifact eternally, and do not count against your zombie total.
The goblin necromancer, satisfied with his work, glances about him at the pandemonium of the wedding reception hall. All of the guests that can still move have cleared out, along with most of the guards. Thunk killed the humans that put up the most fight of the wedding guests. The owlbear...the druid is about to escape, but is being stopped!
Greas, sitting on the beast's shoulders, brings his knife down over and over, stabbing maniacally as he cackles in ecstatic joy. The blade comes away dripping and red before being thrust back inside the owlbear's neck (but you don't get the backstab bonus this time). Roaring and hooting in pain, the owlbear stumbles a few steps further forward, toward where Smoog is working. The massive creature is careening directly toward the front door, and Smoog is only barely able to finish his spot weld and dive to the side before the pain-maddened druid slams into it! The door holds! The material of the barrier bends outward from the impact, but the druid is unable to escape!
Oadir, you were being carried by the creature's claws when it barreled into the door and bounced off it, thwarted. You were dropped at that moment, and you land right next to the guard that had been guarding Smoog. The guard has been clobbered by the owlbear's charge and is just starting to groggily shake the control of Smoog's mind control device as he comes to, not far from where you lie.
A few feet away, the Owlbear - standing tall but stumbling around drunkenly after his impact on the door - lurches backward with Greas still on his shoulders! The shapeshifted druid is trying to crush Greas between a rock and a furry-feathery place...
Thunk charges in at that moment! As the red-scaled kobold charges forth, the magic of Sees-Death infuses his club - and creates an unexpected, tertiary effect!
Due to the nature of the club Thunk wields, which was fashioned from a dragon's bone, magic can sometimes be attracted to it. This is especially the case when this magic has the same goalpoint as the club's swing.
Due to Sees-Death's magic creating a magical conduit, the spiritual lightning of Krish's totem sparks and connects to it! The whirling, green-glowing dragon bone that the red kobold swings at the owlbear is infused with spiritual and arcane energy of the shared Moontower Mountain kobold clan, carried forward by a kobold that has joined their clan after the mountain was destroyed.
With the thief's stabbing knife buried deep in the owlbear's throat, the druid is too distracted with trying to crush him to react to Thunk's charging strike.
The dragonbone club smashes into the owlbear's stomach. There's a green explosion of color, followed by the boom of a thunderbolt that nearly deafens all of you when Hassai's lightning strikes.
Greas hops off the druid's shoulders and lands nimbly on the ground before him. The druid doesn't notice it, or the knife wounds in his neck. He's staring down at his stomach.
There's a hole where Thunk's club buried itself in his stomach. The hole is blackened around the edges from the lightning strike, and even the druid's internal organs, which are now visible, are blackened as if with intense fire.
The owlbear falls forward, reverting to his halfling form in midair, so that a much smaller, humbler body is what lies crumpled on the floor before you. There's very little blood - Krish's lightning bolt appears to have instantly cauterized the hole.
Each of you instantly gains 3 XP from the druid's death.
Thunk thump! Thunk says to See's Thunk good at do what told!
Greas watches as the druid falls to the ground, grinning malevolently. As the body lays there on the floor, he kicks it in the head and laughs to himself just a little more. "I'm sure that door felt very threatened, cattle." In one swift motion, he grabs the druid's head, and widens the neck wounds so as to make all the blood left in the body run out onto the ground.
He just stares at the blood leaking out until Thunk speaks, and his senses start to return somewhat. He looks over in his direction to see him standing by Scoops. If you were to look under the hood in that moment, his eyes would appear to have glazed over. He still wasn't sated yet. "Thunk? Why don't we clean up the rest? Here. I'll start."
Greas briefly glances across the remaining survivors, and lunges for the one carrying the item of greatest value, a scaly and murderous shadow. So many valuables had already been taken from the scene, and he was hardly about to let any more escape his grasp.
Sees nods. "I see Krish is still alive too. Quite an obedient one you are, Thunk. More than I could say for some males I could name." She bores into the back of Smoog's head. There's absolutely no example of disobedience she has in mind, but if he'd turn about and act clueless it would make her feel quite satisfied.
As the blood pools, the Dirge grabs a silver serving platter and writes a sign in some of the few common words she knows. She doesn't know the term for temple or cathedral, so she has to improvise. When she hangs the improvised sign on the bent gate, it reads Kobolds Best In Cave.
With that critical task completed, she intends to join the others in taking stock of their new stronghold while gutting anything left alive in the temple. Sees follows the group heading upward, hoping to give Tanard a good view of her spreading lands of influence.
"There will be more.
Where humans are concerned there are always more.
We need to secure this place completely.
I can go about sealing off the main doors that have either weldable metal or locks that can be reset.
Someone should go about gathering up the recently freed slaves and staff that might want to hear our terms of employment."
-
With that said, Smoog adds a few more weld lines down the center of the main doors and hits the hinges for good measure.
-
I remember a few kobolds fleeing the kitchen when we attacked.
Maybe I can find one who knows the Temple layout and can guide me to the other entrances.
Also a snack would be nice..."
Thunk looks into the hole in the stomach
Thunk thump! he calls into the hole listening for an echo
Krish, seeing the druid's spirit begin to break free from its body, seizes his now-empty spirit-catching totem. Extending the end of it into the mass of the separating spirit energy, Come, spirit. You, too, shall serve me.
The draw of phat lootz is stronger than that of killing fleeing humans, he picks up the body and shakes it trying to shake treasure loose
+whatever
As the druid expires on the floor, Krish the shaman immediately moves over to the corpse and stands over it. He holds both arms aloft with his spiritual totem clutched in his right hand. As he murmurs under his breath, his eyes roll back in his head, and the spirit is caught. However, this spirit is powerful, unpredictable. It may act out when you summon or speak with it (add that note to your totem so you can remind me when the time comes for you to use it, Krish.)
Once the shaman has completed his task, Thunk and Greas immediately move in to secure the items on his body. Greas quickly loses interest in the druid's simple clothes and glances around the reception hall. There are no living survivors - between the terror of the Deathclaw and the rampaging, undead abomination of Retzack, all the guests have either fled or been killed. Thunk, you find a snack pouch full of goodberries on the halfling's body. Goodberries are a druidic customary meal, simple local bushberries enchanted with natural magics as part of a ritual. They will heal you for 1d8 damage when eaten, and can be used in place of a Ration. There are 1d6+8 goodberries in the pouch. You also find a pan flute on his person, there's a symbol of a key etched into the side. You recall hearing about this Druid moving about in a mobile house...this might be the key that opens it. There's also a necklace of amber.
Sees, you look about you and see the kobolds primarily exploring the reception hall still, with the possible exception of Smoog considering the kitchen area. To explore upward, you'll have to lead.
berries
what is the flute?
what is the necklace?
Shine! Now Thunk look good! He puts it on
Any want fruit ball? He offers a berry to anyone who wants it
While she's waiting in the main hall for someone to decide to help check the upper floors, Sees-Death sifts through the wedding gifts, tearing through packages, and shoveling coin into her pack.
The lack of available victim leaves Greas dissatisfied. He wants so badly just to inflict pain on something living, and the inability to do so leaves him quite visibly agitated. He goes about looting and mangling the corpses, but it's not enough. He wants blood, fresh, warm, and accompanied by the agony of its source. It's all he can do not to go find Retzack to fulfil his needs.
All he can do is loot and mutilate. He saw valuables all about when he first entered this place, worn and carried by the assortment of now dead and defiled guests. There had to be some still here.
Krish tucks the totem away, patting the it as he does so. This would be a might spirit if he could just make it do as he wished.
Once it is secure, he will join the others in gathering what valuables there are to be had.
Oadir slowly gets up as his eye catches something. His newly reattached eye spots something else, throwing off the focus.
Oadir points one out to Greas
Then Oadir investigates the other.
He finds a lady with a slender figure, almost serpentine, she's wearing something lovely, though whether it's useful?
Thunk, you tap your claw against the scratched-in etching of a key on the side of the pan flute, and a key's body pops out of the side of the flute. It appears as if you could hold this flute up to a locked door and slip the key body inside and use the entire flute to open up a lock. Which lock is the question.
All loot rolls are at a +3 modifier
Thunk - full success
Sees-Death - partial success
Krish - full success
Oadir - partial success
Retzack - fail
Krish finds: A crystal phial filled with a clear liquid and 1d20+30 gold
Sees-Death finds: a pocket-sized book wrapped three times over in copper wire. The wire has a tag on it with bold writing in a language and alphabet you don't recognize, with a skull symbol below the writing. Also 1d20+15 gold
Oadir finds: a leather vest, ornate trim, with the symbol of a snarling beast's head on the back. Also 1d20+15 gold
Retzack finds: 1 XP and 1d20 gold
Thunk takes his flute to Sees-Death
Thunk find key thing. You take. he holds it out to her
"A fine thing, Thunk, thank you." The dirge would like to peck Thunk on his crown, but she's far too short to do so. She sets the book on the floor and steps up onto it to plant a dispassionate kiss on the barbarian's cheek.
"Tallest-Silver, Thunk, let us check the upper levels of our new stronghold."
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Thunk frowns.
Thunk good to thump.
Greas - full success
Greas finds: A strange necklace. There's a diamond-shaped outline forming the pendant, with a gyroscope inside that doesn't move when you shake the necklace. However, when you hold the pendant in your hand, it stands up perfectly straight on your palm without support, and the gyroscope wavers a little. When you approach one of the other kobolds holding it in your palm like this, the gyroscope begins spinning. It ceases spinning when you back away from any of your friends to a distance of about 15 feet. Also 1d20+30 gold.
Smoog hurriedly makes his way to and thru the kitchen, grabbing a tasty leg of roasted meat and calling out along the way in Kobold...
-
"You are free now.
Come out Scaly-kin, you are safe.
We are Kobolds from Moontower hunting the Dragon Killers.
We just defeated one here.
Now we need you.
We need your help.
Help us lock up this place so no humans can get inside."
-
Smoog's builder-sense kicks in as he scritinizes the surrounding architecture.
He then heads for the most likely places to find more external doors.
He intends on shoring up the points of ingress to prevent intrusion from hostiles.
-
-
He repeats his invitation several more time as he scampers thru the hallways.
It was difficult to concentrate through the urge, but this was an interesting necklace. It was obviously meant to spin in reaction to something, but to what was unclear at first examination. Taking a little time for thought and experimentation, Greas works on determining precisely how the necklace was supposed to operate.
Done with examination, he put on the necklace and turned his hungry eye to everything else going on. Scoops appeared to be setting up to explore further into the building, and Smoog sounded like he was trying to gather support from the slaves that would undoubtedly be here. The only other thing of note was the goblin, and it was proving increasingly difficult not to attack that blasphemous wretch. He had to get out of here.
Greas approaches Scoops, still tightly gripping his knife. Even his finger stumps are tense. His agitation was not going down. "I'll join you. Tell Hegh to finish up with whatever foolish pursuit he set himself to this time so he can get something useful done. Just what he deemed more important than recent events I don't know."
The necklace responds in the presence of magic - in the form of traps, active spells, or enchanted items, such as the type many of your comrades wear. Wearing the necklace or being the last one to touch the chain prevents the necklace from reacting to magical items you yourself are wearing.
Krish holds the bottle up close to his face, "I wonder if this is ..."
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"" Thick, burning drops of something like napalm gather at the corners of Scoops' mouth as she lunges at Greas with the iron dagger clutched in both hands.
Tanard opens her wings and lifts off of the dirge's back, settling on Thunk's broad shoulder.
At the same time, Tallest Silver lunges forward to intervene on Greas' behalf.
The black veil of death closes in and the sensible part of Sees-Death is left in an impossible void of despair and impotent rage.
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Where he be? Thunk asks of Hegh, since he has no idea he is dead
Why Dead not like Sneak?
He looks at Tanard Red 'Nard! You like how Thunk thump!? Thunk thump hard for Red 'Nard
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So great is the amount of coinage strewn about that even the absent-minded necromancer accidentally steps on a forgotten coin purse, and finds a handsome sum of gp in it.
Retzack takes pause.
The effect of the Dead Movers can not always be predicted, even moreso with the foreign magic of the amulet mixed in. He watched in silence and fascination as the two competing forces worked in concert to bring about the perfect servants.
The flesh of the groom, Bart, flows and shifts, merging with his ceremonial leather armor, until none can say where one stops and the other begins. The hair ages turning unnaturally white, and the flesh of the face caves in, pronouncing the skull beneath. The eyes retain a false visage of life and seem to burn still with ambition.
The whole of the effect is neither beautiful nor diabolic. It will serve.
Iris, the bride, seems to embrace the forces now living within her mortal shell. The skin loses all pigment, becoming a glorious alabaster. The eyes fill with blood until their color is red, red as floor greased with the lives of her guests. The hair darkens 'til it is black as murder, black as greed, black as the assassin's heart as the fist closes around the few gold coins that buy another death.
The white of the gown remains, mocking the life that it once held.
Eats-Bugs is nothing less than enraptured with the final result. His claw-hand reaches out to it half-way, as if lost in an emotion he did not know existed.
*****
At last Retzack's attention is drawn away as Greas makes mention of Hegh. That draws a half-smile. 'Does he not know? Oh my that would be interesting if he were to learn that his friend's corpse now resides in my bottle, dreaming of a rich red glory to come.'
His eyes widen with interest as the death-speaker turns and plunges a dagger at...one of the kobolds. There's a lot of shouting going on, it's hard to tell...
...it's hard to tell who started what. Who knows what could happen???
The goblin stalks forward, spitting venom at Greas, backing up Sees-Death's assault. "Oh. What. The. Frag? How have you insulted Sees-Death now? I don't know what game is played here but her word is enough to point to your guilt! Now confess to your weakness, drop to your knees, and beg forgiveness!"
As Tallest-Silver lunges in front of the plunging dagger, the necromancer shakes his head. "Tsk tsk. That will not do."
With a thought the eight-legged croc-zombie sprints forward with undying speed, trying to knock the Tallest-Silver out of the way, to keep her from interfering in the righteous justice being meted out.
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Oadir wakes as Sees lunges at Greas. He sees Tallest interfere, but he knows she won't be enough. Then Retzack attacks TS?!
It is at this point that Oadir has had As he rushes to tackle the monstrosity before it gets TS.