GM Badblood's The Dragon's Demand

Game Master Lance K

Suizal and Ilvaria's cantrips miss their target, but Andwise gets a lucky hit in. Tanssi chomps on one of the snappers but it's still alive and takes a nip out of the Eidolon. Tanssi moves to finish off one of the slingers but it fends them off.

Sir Falcon steps forward and cuts the polearm wielding kobold down.

Round 2
Irlana -1
Nighttail and Hak
Pink Turtle -3
Black Turtle
Green -2
Blue -2
White Turtle -6
Suizal
Andwise
Ilvaria
Tanssi -1
Sir Falcon

Irlana looks around but only sees one remaining kobold. Since it is already in melee with Tanssi, she just calls out the words to her cantrip trying to stun it. She hadn't had any success, but....

Casting Daze on the Green kobold. Will Save DC12 to ignore.

Will: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (20) - 1 = 19

Once again her spell fails to distract a kobold. Nighttail rides into the turtles and begins waving her spear around and shouting in Draconic.

Handle Animal: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18

The turtles all withdraw, sliding back to the relative safety of being under the water.

The remaining kobolds flee from the scene.

You can chase after them, but then we have to also factor in lighting and spell ranges.

Ilvaria looks at the fleeing kobolds and shakes her head.

“Let us not run after them please! This can be a trap! And we really are not in the best shape and also not fully prepared! Does it make sense to rest somehow?“ the Drow asks.

Suizal nods at Ilvaria. "Yes, I agree with you. Definitely think it's a trap.". She eyes the water to make sure no more turtles - or anything else for that matter - comes up from the deeps

Nighttail rides forward and says, "the snappers should leave us alone now, as long as we keep our of the water."

"Hmm. Yes, no swimming for us." She still eyes the water cautiously, not wanting to be lunch for some monstrous turtle down in the deeps. Suizal turns to Sir Falcon, the de facto leader, "Where to, sir?"

Andwise siddles up next to the cat light, shadowy creature.

"I saw that alternate reality, friend. You really should be more careful. But still, you appear unwounded. Are you ok to press on?"

Irlana glances at Nighttail and asks, "Where to now?"

Falcon shakes his head and looks around Let's stay off the water but continue on our way - we need to make our way to the destination already

Nighttail nods in agreement with Sir Falcon. "Sir Falcon, I think that's a good idea. By the way, the armory is just right over there," she says, pointing to a gate blocking the eastern most passageway. "I bet Chief Roaghuz has the key, but you look like the kind of people who know how to open a door up without one."

The gate is made of wood and has a primitive lock. The party can also hear a faint noise coming from the room directly south of the snapper pool. There is also a narrow passageway in the western part of this chamber.

Suizal shrugs. "Not much of a lock pick myself. Maybe you can smash it down, samurai?"

The gate is wood and it does look like a few good whacks could hack it apart.

"I can take a look at that..."

Andwise walks over and inspects the door before attempting to open the lock. As he looks over the door and lock, he whispers to himself "Be with me, starlight..."

Perception, guidance: 1d20 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 2 + 1 = 5
DD, guidance: 1d20 + 8 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 8 + 1 = 28

Andwise doesn't find any traps but is able to easily open the gate. It's a pretty shoddy lock and Andwise has been practicing his lockpicking.

Most of the weaponry in the armory is kobold sized. There are 12 Small spears, 4 Small slings and 120 sling bullets, 2 light crossbows and 60 small crossbow bolts, 3 Small sized suits of leather armor, and 3 Small sized wooden shields. There are also two Medium sized items that have been set to the side as they are too large for the creatures to use; one is a masterwork wooden shield and the other is a masterwork cold iron longsword.

"Not likely, but could someone check for magic? Figures any good equipment for little people is probably with them...."

Ilvaria is confused.

“You can’t detect magic? Strange!“ she says while doing so herself.

"Oh. I just didn't prepare the spell. I didn't study magic so the spell would only let me know a yes or no on if there is magic there." No Spellcraft!

Sometimes there's just not enough skill points to get everything you want.

Irlana detects magic over the cache of weapons but doesn't pick up any auras. The sword and shield are just very well made but not enchanted.

Andwise looks at the clutter of things in the room, and then back to the unused crossbow on his back.

"Help yourself, I suppose. Not much here that I can use anyways. Come on Tanssi, lets step back from the door and let the others in. We'll be ready to go when they are"

Suizal picks up the sword and hefts it with two hands, like a mighty hero before swinging it. "Who am I?" she says almost mockingly. But then hands the sword to Sir Falcon. "You may want this, Sir."

Falcon hefts the sword in his hand and nods Yes I could try this out, I suppose He gives a hearty laugh at Suizal's demonstration.

When everyone is ready, Falcon will approach the SOuth to see what that sound is.

The weapon is well made, despite lacking the elegance of his gently curved blade. Sir Falcon recognizes that it is made of cold iron, mined deep within the earth and forged by dwarves. He has also heard stories of monsters whose flesh is impervious against steel but who are vulnerable to weapons made from this kind of iron.

A single small palet heaped with furs sits against the south wall of this cave. A tiny, quivering shape lies underneath the furs.

"I think that's Jakkol. I wonder why they would just leave him lying all alone there like that," whispers Nighttail.

Psst. Who is Jakkol...

"Is he friend or foe?"

Irlana watches the quivering shape suspiciously. Her crossbow is held ready. (not aimed) "More to the point.... What is Jakkol?"

Nighttail responds with a whisper, "Jakkol is the oldest member of the Bloodvow tribe. He's also the wisest person here, but he's pretty frail. I don't know why they would leave him here by himself."

"Maybe you could ask him?"

Hearing Irlana's suggestion, Andwise nods in agreement- stepping out of the way so that Nightail can easily approach the creature.

"Okay, if that's what you want." Nightail approaches the quivering form underneath the blankets and whispers something to them. An emaciated green arm reaches out and brushes Nighttail's arm. She leans over and the old kobold whispers something to hear.

"Ummm...he wants to tell you something."

Suizal nods and approaches the form, making sure she has some water handy. "Yes, my friend. What is it? Suizal is here to calm you."

Suizal leans over the huddled form and a pair of milky white orbs stare back at her. In a raspy whisper the venerable kobold tells her:

" I can tell by your scent that you are strangers here. If my nose tells the truth, you bring the destruction I foretold. Good... good. I had hoped to see our ruin before journeying to the afterworld, but I will settle for listening to it. Beware the great scaly beast, strangers. He seems to speak reason, but his words are poison. And his bats, the ones he called from the darkness... they are harbingers of lunacy and chaos... Dread Lord Aeteperax will surely be your doom as he has been ours.”

As if these words were too much effort for the kobold to speak, Jakkol lets out a faint sigh then quietly dies. Nighttail lets out a sob as she realizes that the elder has passed away into the River of Souls.

Suizal looks down and can see that the kobold seems to have a small object clutched in one of his hands.

"Lunacy and chaos, huh? I don't suppose this great scaly beast can be a kobold though... so I guess we should be keeping our eyes open for this Aeteperax creature... person.... thing... "

"Great. Find and kill the chief, and their dread lord.... and his bats that he calls from the darkness? Sounds like lunacy to me!"

She glances over to their kobold 'friend'. "What do you know of this Ayterprax or whatever he called it? Or the dark bats? Is your chief inviting some crazy death into your tribe?"

Suizal turns to Nighttail. The normally sarcastic sylph is tense and quiet. "I'm sorry for your loss. What are kobold burial customs? Do we bury him..." she trails off, lost in thought.

But she notices the small object and grabs it, holding it up to a light. "I think he wanted us to have this."

"You don't need to worry about Aeteperax right now, he's definitely not here." Nighttail says.

Sensing that she won't get away with being evasive, Nighttail lets out a long sigh. "Aeteperax is a dragon. And whenever he says jump, Chief Roaghuz asks how high. And yeah, I guess he has some bats that work for him. You have to understand, I have never actually seen Aeteperax myself but enough of the tribe has that I don't think it's something that Roaghuz is just making him up."

"Right now, I think we should concentrate on taking out Chief Roaghuz. It's not like we could do anything about a dragon anyways. And don't worry about Jakkol. I'll make sure he is honored once I get control of this tribe."

The object in the dead kobold's is a small leather box with a buckled strap long enough to fasten it around a humanoid's head. Inside the box is tiny book filled with Infernal writing.

Falcon picks it up and nods and straps the little box to his head I have seen other holy knights wear these. Maybe it will rub off on me and Apsu will keep me on the right path, eh?

Falcon nods his head This Aeteparax, is he a noble silver dragon, like my ancestors?

spellcraft: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19

Ilvaria is clearly astounded.

"Guys!! The object is a Phylactery of Faithfulness, a headband which lets the wearer know whenever they are at risk of violating their religious or moral beliefs. This is really powerful!"

Suizal nods as Sir Falcon wears the Phylactery of Faithfulness. "It looks good on you, Sir. Apsu will be pleased, I'm sure."

They're kind of a cool item from a role-playing perspective, even if they don't offer much of a benefit. If Sir Falcon does want to keep it, then it might make sense for swap out the text inside it for some of Apsu's holy verses after finishing this mission.

Sir Falcon puts the phylactery on his forehead and feels comforted in knowing that now nothing will let him stray from his moral path.

Nighttail chuckles and says "Yeah, I think Chief Roaghuz said that Aeteparax was definitely a silver dragon."

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (1) + 0 = 1

Suizal nods. "A silver dragon? How interesting! I've always wanted to meet a dragon. Are those some of the good ones?". She raises an eyebrow at Sir Falcon, resident dragon expert.

Dragon's fall under Kn:Arcana. With her +9 bonus, Suizal would probably know that metallic dragons are usually good aligned and chromatic ones are usually evil.

sense motive : 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 1 = 18

Ilvaria feels agitated. She turns to her companions.

”Nighttail is definitely lying about Aeteparax being a silver dragon. It is pretty unlikely that a good dragon would be encouraging the Bloodvow tribe to engage in mischief!!“

She looks at Nighttail with anger in her eyes.

”How dare you lie to us? Don’t you know in what situation you are? I seriously believe that you should be punished for your dishonesty!“

intimidate : 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (13) + 10 = 23

Nightail bristles and snaps back, "It's not my problem you people know so little about ANYTHING that you'd believe that a bloody silver dragon would be behind leading a kobold tribe into fighting with a human settlement! Maybe crack a book sometime!" Then realizing she might have gone too far, the kobold cowers with her ears down on her head and says, "Sorry. Sometimes I can't help myself when it comes to spinning a tale. I didn't mean any offense. I don't know what kind of dragon he is, honest. I'd tell you if I knew."

She did get a -10 to her Bluff check due to her lie being "far-fetched"

Irlana turns to face Nighttail directly with her crossbow ready. (not aimed) She glances over to Ilvaria and considers speaking common, but decides first to see if Ilvaria speaks Elven.... "Were we trusting Nighttail? He's proven himself to be unworthy of trust by mutiny against his tribal leaders. I thought we were waiting for him to turn on us before we killed him?"

If Ilvaria doesn't respond she repeats what she said in common.

Nightail does happen to be female.

Sense Motive: 1d20 ⇒ 11

Nightail gives Irlana a nasty stare when she speaks in Elven. "Fine, talk among yourselves. Just treat me like I'm not here."

Suizal looks at Nighttail and shrugs. "Two can play that game.". The sylph starts speaking to Nighttail in Draconic, hoping to earn her trust.

Oops! Sadly I knew that but wasn't thinking when I posted.

Nighttail responds back to Suizal, in Draconic.