Kvit stares back at Lough, hand raised against the bright light from Cherry. "No. I do not. Not much call for that sort of thing. I'll look into it next time we're in town."
Sneakers climbs on top of the broken bow of one of the boats. He calls out to the others in the boats. "Remember! No diplomacy this time! Oh, and watch for the acid!"
Kvit elbows Sam on the shore. "You realize we'll probably have to follow after them. I'm really not that fond of being on the water. I hope you know how to row better than I can."
He looks over to sneakers. "See if one of these other boats looks reasonably gross-swamp-water-worthy."
Kvit takes up position near Sam. Waiting for the battle ahead.
"I'll join Kka for now." Cherry says after a moments thought.
"We should probably spread out the light anyway."
Kka notices Lough push off further into the water. "Good idea, Lough. It'll give them room to launch another boat." Holding her shortsword in one hand, she looks back at her passenger. "Use that oar to push us out into the waater a little, Cherry. Yes, good. Just like thaat."
Lough and Kka paddle out a bit onto the water, and soon you see a streak of green zipping through the water, eventually breaching the surface and snapping at you in a wild thrash of limbs.
In a language that sounds both incredibly elegant as well as terrifying, the drake says, "Imbéciles! Vous osez défier Freznelkesh sur son propre terrain? C'est ici que vous mourrez, mortels!"
Cherry Berry
Kka
Giyozara
Sam
River Drake
Lough
Kvit
Cherry Berry, Kka, Giyozara, and Sam may act!
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"I dunno what he's saying, but it doesn't sound like bargining. Lemmie see if I can help things out."
<>Cast Shield.
<><>Cast Gravitational pull. Drake needs to make a Fortitude save (DC 18) or be pulled into the square I marked on the map. On a crit fail, also knocked prone
Kka is going to be so mad!
With all the splashing, cavern echoes and screaming going on, Kka can barely hear herself think. But when she sees the drake rear up and scream at her in some strange language, her fight or flight response kicks in and... fight wins out. Before the drake can react to her presence, Kka urges Cherry forward. "Come on, Cherry. Push! Just a little further." Kka raises her shortsword as the boat slides silently forward and stabs out twice when she gets within reach.
Kka pushes her boat forward, and uses the momentum of the boat to stab her shortsword into the drake with extra force. Gouts of blood spew forth from the wounds.
Cherry Berry
Kka
Giyozara - Possibly redoing actions
Sam
River Drake - 40 damage, heavily wounded
Lough
Kvit
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Sam drops into a fighting stance and sends two arrows at the drake.
She does yell at the drake.
"We have come to kill you, it is true! But we are willing to bargain!"
I was trying to pull the drake close so the rogue could stab it with flanking, but I guess not.
I’ll 3-action cast Horizon Thunder Sphere, 1/2 damage on a miss.
Sam's volley of arrows all miss, as does Giyozara's spell, but the ball of thunder still grazes the creature, wounding it enough that it splashes back into the water in a lifeless heap.
Kka was both elated and a little disappointed at the same time. The shot of adrenaline she'd received when the drake first reared up was dissipating; her hands were beginning to feel a little shaky and her legs a little weak; she thought she might throw up. She plops down onto the seat of the rowboat to avoid toppling into the water.
Her sword was covered in drake blood. The combination of the boat's speed and her bracing herself on the rail to thrust at the creature had resulted in her sword sliding into it almost to the hilt, twice! Kka had been expecting a little more resistance, but she must have gotten lucky with her targeting. She looks out at the floating corpse. Now that she wasn't waiting for it to tear her to pieces, she could appreciate how magnificent a creature it was. Too bad it had to be put down; at least it was quickly done.
She looks over at the other boat. "Yo! Lough! If you waant the drake's head for the morlock king, we better get on it. It's not going to float like thaat forever." She takes some rope and secures the drake's tail to the boat and paddles the corpse back to the shore with Cherry's help. Once there, she let's Lough do the butchering as she recovers from the fight.
Kvit preparing to start slinging spells lowers his hands as the others return so quickly. A little surprised he starts "Ah, well, that wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it was going to be. Perhaps it was on the small side?
Sneakers speaks up "Or we just got really lucky"
Kvit sees Kka's bloody sword. "yeah... Lucky"
As the others make it back, Sneakers pipes up again. "Well, that was certainly much faster than diplomacy!"
Cherry nods at Kvit's words. "I wouldn't complain about luck though."
”I know it wasn’t a dragon in the technical sense, but do drakes not also have a propensity for hordes? Let’s check and see. I mean, seeing as it didn’t give us much of a chance for diplomacy anyway, so I don’t really feel bad about looking for a horde.”
When Giyozara mentions dragon hoards, Kka snaps out of her funk and jumps to her hooves. Her beady red eyes glitter with avarice. "You're right Giyozara. Even a dragon waannabe would haave a hoard. I wonder where it is?" She gives a quick look about. "I don't think it's here, or we would've found it by now. It's probaably out in the waater somewhere. Let's go see if we caan find it."
Kka hops into her now drake-free rowboat. "Come along Cherry. With your light we should be able to see all the waay down to the bottom. Giyozara, you and Sam take the other boat. We'll find this hoard in no time."
Kka makes a tour of the underground cavern, but doesn't spot anything. Even the larger body of water outside the bay doesn't look promising. However, upon your return, your eye falls on the landing to the northeast. A lot of roots overgrow this area, but among them, you spot patches of brown mold.
Kka is in a foul mood after scouring the water for the hoard and finding nothing. She mumbles invectives to herself under her breath as she heads angrily to the northeast landing; it was her last hope. She's about to jump out of the rowboat to search it when something odd catches her eye. She freezes and slowly leans over for a better look. When she realizes what it is, she jerks back into the boat as if stung by a wasp and pushes off. "There's a paatch of Brown Mold on the laanding over there. That stuff is super naasty. I don't think the drake would haave put its hoard anywhere near it. We should avoid it if at all possible." She rows the boat back to the southern landing, defeated. "We found bupkis. I hope you guys haave better luck, or we're out a draake hoard."
|
Diving into the water, Lough uses his claws to cut off the Drake's Head, surfacing shortly.
"I think we should be on time to continue our negotiations"
Assuming there is no complaint, he hurries to catch up "It has nothing to do with luck, Kvit" disagreeing "I think... I think we are in a prophecy!"
The very though turns his eyes wild once again, a surge of paranoia cresting over his whole nervous system...
Diving into the water, Lough uses his claws to cut off the Drake's Head, surfacing shortly.
"I think we should be on time to continue our negotiations"
Assuming there is no complaint, he hurries to catch up "It has nothing to do with luck, Kvit" disagreeing "I think... I think we are in a prophecy!"
The very though turns his eyes wild once again, a surge of paranoia cresting over his whole nervous system...
"I'm still like, 90% sure that he's going to try and betray us. Be on your guard."
Cherry smiles at Lough. "We should prepare anyway, just in case. Is anyone hurt or need healing?
Still irritated by her inability to find the drake hoard, Kka takes out her frustrations on Lough. She rolls her eyes. "Ah, yes. our negotiations." Her disdainful emphasis on the word requiring no air quotes on her part. Then, her words dripping with sarcasm, she adds, "I caan't wait to see how this turns out."
She follows Lough back to the morlocks. Though she's almost certain that they'll end up in mortal combat with the despicable creatures, that small possibility that Lough might somehow be able to avoid that eventuality worries her. If he could pull that off, she'd never live it down.
When Cherry asks if anyone's hurt, Kka's attention snaps onto the leshy. She's about to make some cutting remark, but the cleric's look of concern takes the wind out of her sails. "Uh. No Cherry. I think we're all okaay. Thanks for asking though."
Kvit thinks for a moment, "There is probably a way to remove or bypass that brown mold. Assuming that it is what was protecting the hoard. Otherwise we might have to do some exploratory diving in the muck. I have ready a lot about Drakes, but don't recall their hoarding habits."
He gets ready to follow with the others back. "Remember we use this opportunity to get more info about this place and possibly the lower levels. If they don't cooperate or don't have any useful info, diplomacy goes out the window. I'm with Kka on this, these guys are a menace and just waiting for the time to stab us in the back."
Sneakers chimes in "Probably literally!"
Brown mold typically has hit points, so you could attack it to deal damage and kill it through brute force. But you know that brown mold absorbs heat much like most creatures on this plane breathe air. If you deprive it of heat, you basically suffocate it. Any cold damage greatly damages the stuff and will kill the mold in seconds.
Alternatively, a successful Survival check will remove the mold without getting harmed, by it by scraping it away from the surface it's attached to.
Brown mold typically has hit points, so you could attack it to deal damage and kill it through brute force. But you know that brown mold absorbs heat much like most creatures on this plane breathe air. If you deprive it of heat, you basically suffocate it. Any cold damage greatly damages the stuff and will kill the mold in seconds.
Alternatively, a successful Survival check will remove the mold without getting harmed, by it by scraping it away from the surface it's attached to.
An impressed Kka watches as Giyozara shoots bolt after bolt of cold at the brown mold across the water until it is a big pile of dead brown mold. "Wow, Giyozara. That is so cooool! <Ark ark>." She laughs at her own joke.
"Hold up a second, Lough. I'll go back to see if the dragon left its hoard over there. Anyone want to come along?" Kka pushes the boat back into the water and paddles over with whomever wishes to come along. Once there, she scours the landing for signs of the hoard, but does not go up the stairs.
Kka follows Lough in her boat and brings it up beside his. "That's the spot. Now let's see if the drake hid anything around here."
Amid the tangle of roots south of the landing, one of you finds a sea chest. Once you haul it up and open it, you find 36 gp, an axe with a creepy-looking skull carved into the blade, a wand, and a magical compass.
When someone else finds the hoard, Kka's head snaps up from where she was searching the landing. "Whaat the ffffrick is going on!? I looked over there earlier!" She scrambles over for a closer look. Under her breath you can hear, "How is it that I keep missing this stuff? If Yas ever figures out how bad I am at finding things, she'll throw me out of the club for sure."
Her self-deprecation evaporates quickly as she sees what they've found. "I loove the creepy-looking skull; too baad I don't know how to use an axe. How about you, Lough? Got any use for a skull axe?" Her eyes glaze over when she sees the wand, but perk up again when she spots the compass. "Oooo. Pretty. I wonder if this does more thaan just point north." She turns to the smart ones. "You guys are pretty good at figuring out this maagic stuff. Got any clues?"
When someone else finds the hoard, Kka's head snaps up from where she was searching the landing. "Whaat the ffffrick is going on!? I looked over there earlier!"
Kvit waits for the others to come back to shore, preferring not to fall into the gross swamp water. "I heard the commotion. Great job Giyozara on the frost bolts. What do we have?"
He reaches out for them to let him look at the stuff.
His eyes brighten up at the wand. "Excellent, a wand of magic missiles, that will be invaluable later on."
The axe is less interesting to him for him to use but it was still an interesting magic weapon. "that's a retribution axe, helps you to hit harder against those that've hit you. Although I prefer not to get hit in the first place, it might be useful for Lough"
He looks at the compass and it's a well known enough device. "And that's a wayfinder, usually pathfinders carry them as a sort of badge, they're handy in the dark and they do in fact work as a regular compass"
Kka listens on as Kvit identifies the items. "A Retribution Axe? I really like the name. The Savored Sting would would definitely approve. Now I'm really bummed I can't use it."
"Huh," Cherry says as Kvit identifies the items. "I'd be surprised if I could even lift the axe, and I don't think I can use the wand. The compass would be nice, just because its a compass, but someone else might want to be able to make light too."
"I could use that wand too. That axe looks like it would be great for Lough."
Kka looks at Lough eyeing the stairs. "Yo, Lough! I thought you were all gung-ho to show the draake head to the morlocks. You waant to check out the stairs instead? I guess the morlocks caan wait, but we'll need to take caare of them eventually... if you know what I mean. <Ark ark>"
Kka paddles after Lough and hops out of the boat on the other landing. "Come on guys; let's not keep his maajesty waiting." She quickly follows on the heels of the big man as he heads down the narrow passageway. "Wait up! We're coming."
... "Come on guys; let's not keep his maajesty waiting." ...
Sneakers pipes up as Kvit falls in line. "Which one?"
"That's right, there sure have been a lot of kings down here."
"Let's get back to the mushroom king. Remember, we still need him to vamoose so that the MITFLIT king can get back to living here and not attack Otari."
Giyozara will cast light on a pebble and hide it in his pocket (with his hand on it) so that if things go south he can pull it out of his pocket and shine it on everyone as a single action.