Mydravos calls out, “The time to repent is nigh, come beg for forgiveness and you shall see it.” as he walks down the hallway.
Mydravos calls out, “The time to repent is nigh, come beg for forgiveness and you shall see it.” as he walks down the hallway.
[dice=diplomacy] 1d20+7
The kobolds are certainly tending to acquiesce to Mydravos...
Out of the darkness step a trio of green scaled kobolds, clutching small spears in their claws...
They tremble and bow before you...
Yes, Yes come closer. Please drop your weapons we mean you know harm.
”Aye, whatever he said. Any o’ ye speak common?”
I speaks the Commons! squeals one of the kobolds.
I be Smirkfester, at your services!
“What else is down here? If you help us you will be rewarded.”
“What else is down here? If you help us you will be rewarded.”
Serpents and serpentfolk dwell in deeper levels of Ziggurat...
”Anyone in charge of the entire thing? Such as a wyrm or whatnot?”
”Anyone in charge of the entire thing? Such as a wyrm or whatnot?”
Aye, the Black Suzerain is our mistress! She is cruel and deadly! Her venom is potent, and so be her magicks!
Another of the kobolds hisses and kicks the first who spoke of the Black Suzerain...
Hsnokka jo no blanga Black Suzerain!
Mydravos looks to Essel eyebrow raised expectantly after the Kobolds begin to speak their Scaly tongue. He then turns to the Kobolds and looks at them for a moment before speaking. “We have decided to raise one of you as gods along with us, you shall be leader of this ziggurat and all you can see from atop it. But to decide between the three of you, we require that you fight.... to the death.”
"We aren't to speak of the Black Suzerain, dummy!" Essel translates, "That's word-for-word what he said. Well, more or less. 'Dummy' could probably be translated as 'Fool,' even though the literal translation is 'Took,' with the connotations of a thief that steals from a hoard." she shakes her head before she can get too far off track, "Anyway. Fight to the death? Why not? This should be entertaining." she leans back against the wall, resuming her observation of the interaction.
”What?” Sven blurred out in confusion. ”That’s just pointless...why...?” He looked at the two of them, it dawning on him how evil his comrades truly were. He wasn’t the kind of person to shy away from violence, or to be too concerned with right and wrong. But pointless cruelty was enough to shock his conscience.
"What? Oh, the fight-to-the-death? Eh, it's not that different from us just coming in and doing it all ourselves. And this way, there's a survivor. If they're willing, I see no need to stop it." Essel clarifies, "Besides, it's basically what the gods did to us. The only difference is that we have to actually tell them ourselves, instead of watching from afar." she counters.
”Still doesn’t seem right.” He replied, stubbornly. She made a really good point, but it felt wrong and he wasn’t willing to back down. ”specially as yer equating us to the gods. They sent us here, but we don’t know what their plan is or how this fits into it. Making ‘em kill each other is pointless. It doesn’t help us get done what we need to get done. It just makes more enemies.”
Mydravos turns to Sven his tail swinging violently behind him. “There was to be conflict no matter what, this merely makes it so that our blood is not shed. I’m trying to help you, from having to risk your life. Is that evil?”
”It is if we don’t have to fight. If they’re willing to stand down, then making them kill each other is evil. If they want to fight, them I’ll bash their bloody heads in. And that’s fookin’ honor!” He shot back, with furrowed brow.
“Come now, they’re Kobolds they’ll surely try to kill us later.” he gives the dwarf a look of contempt. “Honor doesn’t win battles, trickery does”
”As opposed to tieflings?” Sven said, crossly.
“Only because the gods decree it.” he says with a devlish grin.
Meanwhile, the two kobolds square off against each other, and begin to poke each other with their small spears, snarling and yapping like feral dogs... feral little dogs...
Mydravos waits patiently as they fight looking down on them with as much contempt as humanly/Tielfingy possible.
”Bloody counter productive, useless...waste of damn resources.” Sven grumbled, clearly unhappy with this, looking at his companions in disgust.
"What resources, exactly?" Essel asks with a raised eyebrow, "They haven't wasted so much as a single drop of blood yet" she notes, bemusedly.
”We’re supposed to pacify these areas and install an overlord in each. Making the locals fight to the death is a sure fire way to lead to rebellion. They’ll hate us. Moreso, they clearly don’t like their current cruel lord. And rather than lead them to a better life, thus getting their help, ye’re proving yourselves to be just as bloody bad. Much easier to kill a wyrm when ye can enlist the aid of servants who know it well. So aye, wasting bloody resources because both of ye are needlessly cruel. Ye especially, tiefling. Ye take pleasure in the pain of others and it’s fookin sickening.” Sven responded, brashly.
A third set of googly reptilian eyes emerge from the gloom to watch the two kobolds batter each other into submission for a few seconds. When both combatants are staggering and about to fall out, the third opportunist kobold leaps out of the darkness and, cleanving both heads off with a battleaxe that seems oversized for the wielder, declares himself the Victor!
Me VICTOR!! ME BECOME KOBOLD GOD!!
Sven stopped mid rant, and put his palm to his face.
Sven stopped mid rant, and put his palm to his face.
“Ah it seems the fight has produced results.” Mydravos says with a smile, clapping his hands together. “Now that you have one I will bestow upon you the power you deserve, but you must remember. We gave you this power so you must remain loyal to us to keep it. Now Little Kobold god lead the way to claim your mighty kingdom in this place.” he places his hand on the shoulders of the kobold and then draws symbols on the little creatures forehead as he talks, then clapping him on the back after he finishes talking.
Essel falls behind Mydravos after a minute, muttering to him in Infernal, "Just to be clear, we aren't actually making him the Urban Ruler, right? I don't know if there's any actual power in the station, but I know I definitely don't want another competitor in this game." she clarifies, "As a proxy, sure. But not the actual ruler."
“Of course, he will not rule anything once we are done here. He is merely our pawn to help us find our way through this monstrosity of a structure. He knows the traps, the riches, and where the other vermin are. Once he is no longer useful I plan on slitting his throat in an offering to Hades. He is to dumb to even be a proxy ruler for us, besides no man wants to serve a kobold.”
Essel nods, a sly grin on her face, glancing over at Sven, figuring the dwarf probably didn't speak the language of devils considering his morality.
”Ye’d best nay be planning to kill me, darklings.” The dwarven oread growled at the two.
"Oh, we're a long way away from that, Sven. We'll need to all work together at least until all the kingdoms are controlled. Don't you worry yet." she assures him with a only slightly-devious smile.
”Good. Yer evil, nay stupid. So long as the two of ye aren’t both.” He didn’t return the smile.
Mydravos smiles at the dwarf “I do enjoy your company to much to kill you, we merely conversed in the tongue of devils to compare methods of execution.”
Essel switches over to Dwarven,
Victor seems eager to assume godhood. He beckons to the big folk who've promised this reward, and flaps off down the stair deeper into the Ziggurat, humming a growly, primitive kobold chant about bashing in gnome skulls with big hammers as he goes.
Victor take big bosses to common chamber, where all kobolds feast, dance and sing! RUM NUM DE DUMMMM... CHUM GRUM DE DUMMMM!!! BASH THE GNOME IN STOOPID SKULL WITH HAMMER OF THE GODS!! RUM DUM DE GRUMMM!! RUM BUMB DE GUMMM!!
Mydravos follows along, with his hands on his mace, almost as if this is a casual stroll.
"Victor the kobolds god" leads the party down the stairs, pointing out a secret door on the left-hand wall before flapping on down the stairs toward the flickering reddish glow of firelight coming from below...
Oh! There secret way... Come! We go to Common Chamber, tell other Greenscales Victor now their new GOD!!
Mydravos stops and looks at the door, “Where does this secret way lead to Victor? Surely it is worth showing.”
Mydravos stops and looks at the door, “Where does this secret way lead to Victor? Surely it is worth showing.”
"Victor" pauses... Huh? Oh, secret door leads to secret way with spyholes, to spy on silly intruders on stairs... Me show you! Come!
"Victor" returns to the secret door, which appears as little more than a few discolored stones in the wall on the left-hand side of the stairwell, and presses a combination of the discolored stones. The secret door, a five-foot-square portal cunningly disguised as stone wall, slides aside, revealing a dark tunnel only five-feet-wide-by-five-feet-high; a kobolds tunnel, to be sure...
Tiny beams of torchlight can be seen pouring into the tunnel from spyholes where the tunnel runs upward and adjacent to the stairwell the party has been descending. The secret tunnel runs adjacent to the stairs all the way up to another secret door in the top tier of the Ziggurat, previously unnoticed by the adventurers. So, this is how the kobolds spied on the explorers as they made their way down the gauntlet of traps...
See? says "Victor", Now! We go tell other Greenscales that ME, VICTOR, AM NEW GOD OF KOBOLDS! HEHEHEE!!
The Common Chamber is spacious by kobold standards, being some 30 feet square with a 10-foot-high ceiling. Lit by a central fire pit, over which some animals are being roasted on a spit turned by a pair of kobolds, the chamber reeks of foul odors mingled with the smell of cooking meat. Some twenty-five kobolds are currently crowded around the fire pit, drooling over their meal.
When "Victor" enters the chamber with an air of arrogance and importance, leading a band of "giants", there is a unanimous gasp of shock and awe, followed by a cacophony of confused yaps and barks...
SILENCE!! ATTENTION, GREENSCALES!! roars "Victor" over the din of chaos... ALL GREENSCALES LISTEN NOW!! ... I AM NOW GOD OF KOBOLDS!! THESE ARE MY FRIENDS, WHO GIVE ME GOD-POWER!! ALL MUST NOW BOW DOWN BEFORE GREAT AND TERRIBLE KOBOLD GOD VICTOR!!
There is a moment of silence, followed by another cacophony of laughter, booing, hisses, shrieks, etc!
One of the kobolds yaps at Victor: HAHAHAHAAA!! SHNABBA GOOCHIE PREEGOR!! SNIZZERRSSLASSSHHHK!!!
The other kobolds burst into laughter, and all seem ready to pick up their spears and clubs and attack...
INITIATIVES
ESSEL
SVEN
EASEALF
KOBOLDS
Mydravos
SKIRMISH IN THE ZIGGURAT!! ROUND ONE!! FIGHT!!
ESSEL!
KOBOLDS!
SVEN!
EASEALF!
MYDRAVOS!
OOH OOH AH AH!!!
Everyone is still on the last 10 or 20 feet of the stairway leading into the Common Chamber. The 25 kobolds are in a large circle around a 10-ft-diameter fire pit at the center of the 30-foot-sqare chamber... The nearest of the kobolds is about 10 feet from the front line of the party.