Cindy looks around at the rest of the group.
"Do you all want to head inside right now, or can we rest? My brain is all tired after the walk and the ice guys and the hairy guys. I don't think I could do anything but be all stabby if we get in another fight."
Tina agrees "Yes, Cindy. I think it's good to let us recuperate, and maybe recall our favorite memories of Gorthug."
She flits back to the scene of the battle, "For example, I remember how good he was at carrying things. He had bigger arms than anyone here, and he didn't dissolve anything." She looks at the pile of swords on the ground, each of which is longer than anyone but Bob.
After a moment, she begins chanting over each of the swords, and they, in turn, each shrink in size. Once they are smaller, she drags them over, and tries to shove them into Bob.
"I liked Gorthug too. He was good at standing in between me and people who wanted to hurt me. He also never used any big words that hurt my head. He never really used words much at all."
"Gorthug made a good perch." Snowball comments sadly, with the best sentence she has ever formed to date.
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Sendi looked unimpressed. It sounded like this Gorthug was...another bear? Did they have two before? She supposed that losing a pet was kind of sad. But not *that* sad. Still, they were friends now, so she forced herself to observe a moment of silence.
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Tina looks at Snowball, wondering if the tiny dragon is referring to Gorthug's broad shoulders, or a previously unknown capacity for carpentry, but impressed by the coherence of the sentence either way.
"I hope the goblins haven't screwed everything up back at Last Hill. if we get back there and I have to destroy all them too, I'll be annoyed."
"Hey!" Sendi said, unable to pretend to be sad anymore. "This is like, our house now. Why don't we sleep here! It'll be fun. You can tell me all about your adventures, and why you are here and who we are going to kill. And we can eat whatever the last people had here and sleep in GIANT beds. Let's do it!"
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Okay, Sendi. This isn't our house. We live, or unlive, for some of us, though I guess that's just me now, or does Cindy count? I'm not sure. Anyway, we live-ish in a cave called Last Hill. And we're on our way to kill my brother, again. Well, again for me. He's put together a Dragon and a Princess, which is part of one of my plans that obviously he's stolen from me. We have to defeat him before he can enact the rest of the plan.
She thinks for a moment, Or we enact the plan on our side first, but we wouldn't have time to train the jaguars. And where would we find enough pasta on such short. notice. No, the most sensible thing to do is find and kill my brother. Coward that he is, he'll probably run away as soon as he knows we're coming though. He's never been good at reunions. Usually because I win. So, if he's already run off, we should kill his dragon and his princess, and steal everything they have. That should set his plans back a few weeks."
Tina glances over at snowball. "Oh, by the way, I should introduce you to Claudette soon. She's that princess I summoned the other day. She doesn't know it yet, but you two will be getting married some time next year. The rest of you should be sure to pick up some formalwear before then. We'll be sure to get Bob a new hat, and Cindy a new dress. I suppose Snuggles will have to get a tie or something. Bet my brother wouldn't think of that. This is why I'm the planner, and he's the stealer of plans."
"Snowball merry princess?" Snowball asks curiously, tilting her head.
Sendi listener intently, or at least she looked intent. She nodded along at all the right points. ”Hmm yes, getting pasta would be hard.” She would mutter. Or ”It *can* be tricky to kill a princess or seduce a dragon.” She have the impression that she completely followed the logic of the conversation. But mostly she was just happy that she would be able to kill something *and* go to a wedding. Truly, she was blessed to find such friends.
Goldslip's eyes widen as Tina continues talking, and she bursts out laughing at the news that Snowball will be marrying a princess.
"But, Tina, they don't even know each other yet, how can you be sure they'll marry next year?"
Tina blinks her unblinking eyes. "They'll get married next year because that's the plan. I can be sure of it because it's my plan. And I'm going to let them get to know each other. That's certainly more than I got for some of my weddings. Honestly, they could both do a lot worse. I mean just imagine what kinds of defects the dragon up the hill here has to have in order for my brother to have been able to coerce it. Likely insane, and has scale-worms. Possibly it's just a drake. And this supposed princess probably isn't even a baroness, and he holdings are all swamps." Tina looks rather pleased with herself, No, I've worked to make sure that each component that goes into my plans is a genuine article. Maybe not yet at their full potential, but definitely capable of doing what I need. And what I need from Snowball is a half-dragon royal heir."
Sendi would have clapped excitedly...if she still had both of her hands. Instead she played a merry jig with her legs. ”A murder, a wedding, and a BABY! Oooh I love this plan! Snowball! I’m so happy for you!” She grinned, fluttering over the dragon.
"Baby? Yay! Snowball will be mommy!" the wyrmling says excitedly.
"I'll let you decide between yourselves who is the, ah, mommy. That's just a matter of biology, which is rather easily fixed."
Cindy find herself completely confused with all this talk of princesses and weddings and babies. There is a spark deep inside her as she thinks these are concepts she should be excited about but her brain is just too tired.
She retires to a corner of the longhouse where Mr. Snuggles has found a mattress to curl up on and sits with him, cuddling into his fur as she goes through the new trinkets she collected from the hairy men.
You decide to hunker down in the longhouse and go to sleep, at least if you sleep that is. Since some of you only pretend to sleep, there is always someone on watch. In the middle of the night however, with your fire burning low, a light mist fills the area. It begins to mess with your brains! You see the one causing it, the princess stands on the other side of the longhouse to the northeast, casting a spell on you!
Tina turns invisible and zooms over towards the supposed princess. In as intimidating a voice as she can manage, she shouts "Usurper! Cease your charade, and you may yet live."
As the woman appears, Cindy floats up from where she was snuggling with the sleeping bear and glares at the figure. "You should listen to my friend Tina. Stop with the misty foggy stuff or I'll introduce you to my good friend Mr. Snuggles..."
Upon hearing his name, Mr. Snuggles stands and readies himself, looking up at his floating friend a bit confusedly.
Being immune to mind effecting trickery, Sendi grabbed her sword and fluttered into the air. Hearing Tina’s proclamation, Sendi began playing her battle music. Something she enjoyed doing so that everyone would know that it was time to fight!
Snowball, having a broken mind that's sensitive to certain magics, begins babbling completely incoherently (instead of her usual semi-coherent self):
"mama stuff wants to hey mama the pretty yeah snowball show is likes snowball glowy pretty soon so should snowball see snowball oh..."
The princess looks at Tina and Cindy but shakes her head and sticks out a pouty lip. "This is my home you've invaded. You killed many of my friends. Well... servants... But it still makes me so annoyed!" She then casts a spell over Goldslip, Cindy, the bear, and Snowball. Things get very... confusing for them.
The princess smiles like a spoiled brat and calls "Fellow! Come in!" A lanky form slinks across the ground toward Tina and lashes out at her while the other doors burst open and a large forest drake moves into the longhouse, snapping and clawing.
The small, long-armed creature reaches up with incredibly stretchy arms and snatches Tina out of the air! Its webbed, slimy hands squeeze her hard (9 bludgeoning damage and strangle so no speaking or using spells with verbal components).
”Hey! They have a dragon too!” Sendi beamed. ”This is going to be so much fun!” She flew over to attack...she tried to feint, but then giggled when she remembered that her arm was missing. So instead she just stabbed with her blade.
Cindy tries to make sense of the fact that this is Tina's house but its the Princess's house but it's still only one house...shaking her head, she fights through the confusion and concentrates on the woman in the doorway.
Mr. Snuggles shakes his head and growls at the mist filling the room and then starts swiping at random shapes in the fog.
He snaps at nothing, but manages to catch Cindy with both of his swipes
Goldslip waves at the fog, annoyed but unaffected, but then the second spell hits, and she begins to wonder what's going on...but no! The enemy is here!
Mr. Snuggles shakes the fog from his head and places himself between the reptilian threat and his Cindy.
Snowball continues to babbling from under the window farthest from the fireplace.
"i look her a princess marry oh be long guy hey oh snowball queen i and dragon will marry princess aunty armed snowball that tina do do a"
Goldslip casts bless to empower her companions!
Alloura had awoken chilled to her scales, and from more than just the cold, clammy walls of the pitiful dungeon the Princess deigned keep her.
Her bondage had been a source of indignity and disrespect since the first day, the mere presence of her magnificence in a place so disgusting almost made her want to gag every morning.
But the chill she felt was a million year old instinct, passed down through her kind - danger. Or was it an opportunity? No one had dared attack the Princess' realm in many a year and so maybe now was the time.... she had to take the chance. The thought of looking at the Princess' ugly face another day and not being able to chew it off was unbearable.
She unfurls her wings and streaks out into the moonlight. As she passes over a pool of water she stops for a few moments to regard how stunning she looks in this light - glittering scales, pale light bouncing off her perfect form in rays. She sighs as she admires her own beauteous countenance.
But then her reveries is broken by the cries and sounds of battle.
She bows her wedge-shaped (gorgeous) head and bursts through the door of the longhouse.
"Princess! Urchhh!..... Is that really how you wanted these invaders to see you, in the dress that makes you look so fat?"
She rears back and breathes a cone of swirling mist over her enemies.
The very dragon you were looking for bursts through the door, aiding your attempts to liberate her!