Haughlin politely, but loudly, clears his throat as he approaches slowly.
"My apologies for the intrusion, but we've been sent by the town of Phandalin, seeking assistance. They've been attacked by a dragon that's been terrorising the lands nearby and ask for any aid you can provide" he continues, bowing his head slightly.
The two gnomes stop there argument and turn towards Haughlin as he clears his throat.
"You lot! Help this dolt see sense!" The female Gnome shouts pointing towards the party "He thinks we need to make some sort of sanity ray and shoot some sense back into King Korboz" She says with a mocking tone towards the male Gnome "Clearly the appropriate solution would be what I call a straitjacket, secure the King until the madness passes."
Seemingly ignoring the mentions of a dragon completely and seeing your look of confusion the male pipes up "You do know about the Kings madness? maybe you have a better solution!"
After a period of trying excavate frozen townspeople from the icewall in town and removing the dead from the streets to whatever holding unit the town has prepared, Agmar begins to wonder where his friends have gotten off too. Torn between aiding the midwife further with emergency triage, and finding his comrades, he wanders the town looking for where he is needed most.
While assisting the towns folk trying to break free those that were frozen in the ice you spot Qhuarrk heading into the triage tents, but appear to be unable to tie him down to talk.
Looking for more ways to aid the townsfolk you are directed to Harbin Wester, the town master. Knocking on his door you are met by a sharp shriek and a meek voice behind the door “Oh dear, not again! If you’re a dragon, know that I’m far too thin and bony to make a good meal!"
((Welcome back, you should be lvl2 now on your sheet but if you want to check there are no choices to be made, I’d say by this point Haughlin is just arriving at Umbrage hill again, so if you want I can fast track to you just arriving at Gnomengarde a bit behind Haughlin))
"Wester, get yer arse out here and show your face! This town is on its knees and needs its leader. Trust me, if you don't put the work in now, you'll have more than dragons to worry about when the townsfolk come to there senses. We've brought back the midwife like you asked. But you need to be out here directing things!" Agmar shouts through the door to his agoraphobic acquaintance.
"Oh! You might want to get some ballistas in case that thing comes back!" He adds, before hefting his axe across his back and setting off after houghlin, following his recent tracks.
As you turn to leave the townmasters house, you hear a small whimper at the other side of the door "Please everything to help the town is on the board."
You are some time behind Haughlin and his party, however you know exactly where he is going from the patrons and innkeeper of Stonehill Inn, Gnomengarde. You quickly secure a horse for the travels and head off looking to catch up. After a hard couple of hours on the horse you finally arrive at your location and spot the horses of Haughlins group tied up close to a stream at the mountains, however you see no sign of them. Securing your exhausted horse with the others you take in your surroundings and see a roaring waterfall which creates a cloud of mist as it plunges into a shallow pool of water, within which rise two small islands covered with two-foot-tall red, green, and purple mushrooms.
Several cave openings overlook the pool from rocky ledges twenty to thirty feet above. The mountain blocks any sunlight from reaching this place.
There are 5 openings in total all bar one are steep cliff faces.
Haughlin looks befuddled at both of the Gnomes bickering in front of him. “Again, my sincerest apologies, but I know not of King Korboz, nor if his madness I’m afraid.”
He scratches his chin, “Whilst I’m sure it’s a pressing matter, and I’d gladly offer whatever help I can, there is a dragon destroying towns mere miles to the north of here. The people need the ingenuity and generosity of the Gnomes to help protect the lands and drive away this creature. Please, I implore you, is there anything you can do to help?”
"Dragons you say? Not heard one of them about this region for a long long long time." The male Gnome begins scratching at his chin in thought for a moment "It's dangerous times indeed, we have some things that might be of use to ya but we can't just be handing them out willynilly now. We've got our own troubles here!" He begins pacing round the room pushing pieces of parchment and other trinkets around the desks as though he's looking for something.
The female Gnome takes over "Forgive our rudeness, I'm Dabbledob and he's Fibblestib, we are the chief inventors for the Kings." She begins to pace around the room as well "You see the King, only one of them thankfully, has gone mad if you can aid us in bring him back to his senses again we can provide you with the items." Dabbledob sits down on her stoll with a heavy sigh "We've tried talking sense to him but he's locked himself and King Gnerkli in their bed chambers and keeps raving on about how the rug in the throne room attacked him."
"It's a pleasure to meet you both, my name is Haughlin Gaale," Haughlin bows slightly in introduction, "These are my associates - Donnabella, Ruby and Pete."
"You have no need for forgivemenss, we arrived unannouced and clearly at a bad time. I'm sorry to hear about your king and his current ailment. Whilst we're in a hurry to get back to Phandalin with anything you can lend in aid, it seems only fair that we do what we can to assist you. I have trusted friends back in town keeping an eye on the place for now."
"You say King Korboz claims a rug attacked him? That is a strange claim indeed. Maybe if you take me to speak to him, we can tell him I'm here to investigate the strange occurrence and help him?" He paces back and forth a few steps as he thinks, rubbing his chin with one hand. "The other king, Gnerkli, you said? What does he make of all this?"
"We've not heard from King Gnerkli! King Korboz has him tied up in their bed chamber." Dabbledob says looking more worried about the whole situation " I don't know what good it'll do but we can take you to their chambers, if you can talk some sense into him we can get back to normal life". Dabbledob hops off of her stool and walks you towards a set of stairs leading up on the Western side of the room.
As you reach the top of the stairs it breaks into a cross road, Dabbledob points straight ahead "That's the throne room down there where the King says the attack happened, the strange thing though, there wasn't even a rug in the throne room when we went to investigate afterwards." The Gnome turns right at the cross road leading you past a door on your right and along a winding path towards the bed chamber as you get closer the corridor begins to fill with various items of furniture and bed chamber furnishings that have been thrown out of the Kings chambers.
"How strange," Haughlin ponders when Dabbledob mantiones the lack of rug in the Throne room.
When they reach the bedchamber door, Haughlin knocks curtly. "King Korboz, your Highness, apologies for the instrusion. My name is Haughlin Gaale, I'm here at the behest of your Chief Inventors to investigate the strange attack that happned to you. I beg of you and audience, to allow me to ask some questions."
(Yes, you are still glowing fairly brightly although not enough to cause any disturbance to those around you. I'd say the glow has been on you for about 30 minutes now)
"NO!" You hear the King shout through the door extremely loud, even considering the noise you can still hear from the waterfall, although his voice does also sound very strained. "I'll not allow another thing in here, I've got to keep us safe there's no telling what that thing will turn into next! They think I'm mad, all of them! I'm not mad I know what I saw it changed right in front of me and tried to eat me!" His voice gets quieter, you can tell he is right at the door now. "You have to be careful, there's a shapechanger in Gnomengarde, the others just heard me say the rug attacked and called me mad" He pauses for a moment "I think I can trust you, I don't think the thing can talk so you can't be it, you need to kill it. Kill it and I'll give you anything you need"
Haughlin moves closer to the door, "This shapechanger, what did it look like? Once it stopped being a rug and attempted to eat you, that is?" He asks, seriously.
"The others with me can all speak, so they can't be it either. King Gnerkli is in there with you, yes? Can we hear him speak to rule him out too? Once we know you're safe in there, we can go search for the shapechanger."
He turns to Dabbledob and speaks quietly, "Maybe your king isn't mad after all. You saw no rug in the throne room, maybe because it was no longer there. Can you think of anything else out of place or new here?"
"Once it stopped being a rug? It didn't stop being a rug, it just grew arms, legs and a mouth then ran off after I got a couple of hits in ... It's a shapechanger though, it could be anything!" At this moment you suddenly realise you are surrounded by all manner of items of varying sizes (Perception check!)
"That's good you have others it will make hunting this thing down easier for you. Gnerkil is fine, I know my husband well ... and if he is the shapechanger, I've got him stuck to a chair, he won't be going anywhere until this monster is dealt with!".
"Something new? we make 10 new things a day, how are we to keep on top of every new appearance." Dabbledob stops and thinks while walking back towards her station "now that you mention it, Orryn and Warryn haven't been around for sometime ... you don't think it got them do you?"
Haughlin looks around at the items piled up in the hallway suspiciously: Perception - 1
"Oh, thank you for your time your highness, we'd best be off to search." He turns to the others.
"That's not good to hear, if we're looking for a shapechanger." Haughlin looks thoughtful, "I imagine it may need to change into something around about the same size. If we look around for something that would be about the same size as a rug, we might find it."
"This Orryn and Warryn, when and were were they last seen?"
You swear you saw something move in the pile of tables to your left, a crease in the cloth covering suddenly looks suspiciously like a mouth. "Is that a stain, or is that a puddle of drool?" suddenly runs through your mind. You take a step back away from the door and what you saw suddenly is no longer there.
Haughlin eyes the pile of household objects suspiciously as he steps back - a little more panicked than he would like to have been - before shaking himself back to his senses.
"If the King is mad, I hope it's not catching. Let's go on, before I start seeing enemies in every footstool." He says to his companions and Dabbledob.
"We should go back to your workshop, Dabbledob, see if Fibblestib can't help us make sense of this. Or the Throne room, to see if there's any evidence to back up what the king says. And I'd still like to know more about Orryn and Warryn."
"Of course, we can go to the throne room now if you like". Dabbledob heads back they way you came taking a right at the cross road and onto the throne room.
As you all enter into the throne room the doors close behind you and for the first time it what seems like an age you hear quiet, suddenly the sound of the rushing waterfall is cut out and you struggle not to shout at each other. The throne room is a fairly sparse room with very little in the way of finery and follows the same architecture as the rest of the caves. At the Northern end of the room sits two equally Gnome sized squat thrones made of scrap metal pieces atop a stone dias.
"Let me help you have a look around here see if we can spot anything." Pete pipes up from behind. (Roll advantage on any checks)
"Thanks Pete," Haughlin smiles at him as they follow Dabbledob into the throne room, "I figured we could look sround for any signs of a scuffle, or anything that looks out of place or missing."
Haughlin takes some time looking around the room, inspecting the thrones, the floor and the walls for anything that might corroborate the King's claims;
Pete and you begin to search the room and other than the thrones there is not much to look at, it looks as though the throne room is more function over form with the Gnomes preferring to be in their workshops rather than sitting at the throne.
In themiddle of the room you do spot signs of a scuffle, with scuffs on the floor where it looks like someone had been dragged. As you are examining the scuffs you spot small blood stains on the floor, it looks like whoever was in this fight at least one of them was hurt. "There's more blood over here" Pete shouts over from his position by the throne "it looks like it could be a trail."
Following the trail of blood you find it comes to an abrupt stop but has pooled more so at a wall behind the thrones examining the wall closer you can see the faintest hint of a difference between one section and the rest of the wall. Pushing on the wall where the blood has pooled opens up the wall up to a secret passage way heading out of the room.
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Haughlin politely, but loudly, clears his throat as he approaches slowly.
"My apologies for the intrusion, but we've been sent by the town of Phandalin, seeking assistance. They've been attacked by a dragon that's been terrorising the lands nearby and ask for any aid you can provide" he continues, bowing his head slightly.
The two gnomes stop there argument and turn towards Haughlin as he clears his throat.
"You lot! Help this dolt see sense!" The female Gnome shouts pointing towards the party "He thinks we need to make some sort of sanity ray and shoot some sense back into King Korboz" She says with a mocking tone towards the male Gnome "Clearly the appropriate solution would be what I call a straitjacket, secure the King until the madness passes."
Seemingly ignoring the mentions of a dragon completely and seeing your look of confusion the male pipes up "You do know about the Kings madness? maybe you have a better solution!"
After a period of trying excavate frozen townspeople from the icewall in town and removing the dead from the streets to whatever holding unit the town has prepared, Agmar begins to wonder where his friends have gotten off too. Torn between aiding the midwife further with emergency triage, and finding his comrades, he wanders the town looking for where he is needed most.
While assisting the towns folk trying to break free those that were frozen in the ice you spot Qhuarrk heading into the triage tents, but appear to be unable to tie him down to talk.
Looking for more ways to aid the townsfolk you are directed to Harbin Wester, the town master. Knocking on his door you are met by a sharp shriek and a meek voice behind the door “Oh dear, not again! If you’re a dragon, know that I’m far too thin and bony to make a good meal!"
((Welcome back, you should be lvl2 now on your sheet but if you want to check there are no choices to be made, I’d say by this point Haughlin is just arriving at Umbrage hill again, so if you want I can fast track to you just arriving at Gnomengarde a bit behind Haughlin))
"Wester, get yer arse out here and show your face! This town is on its knees and needs its leader. Trust me, if you don't put the work in now, you'll have more than dragons to worry about when the townsfolk come to there senses. We've brought back the midwife like you asked. But you need to be out here directing things!" Agmar shouts through the door to his agoraphobic acquaintance.
"Oh! You might want to get some ballistas in case that thing comes back!" He adds, before hefting his axe across his back and setting off after houghlin, following his recent tracks.
As you turn to leave the townmasters house, you hear a small whimper at the other side of the door "Please everything to help the town is on the board."
You are some time behind Haughlin and his party, however you know exactly where he is going from the patrons and innkeeper of Stonehill Inn, Gnomengarde. You quickly secure a horse for the travels and head off looking to catch up. After a hard couple of hours on the horse you finally arrive at your location and spot the horses of Haughlins group tied up close to a stream at the mountains, however you see no sign of them. Securing your exhausted horse with the others you take in your surroundings and see a roaring waterfall which creates a cloud of mist as it plunges into a shallow pool of water, within which rise two small islands covered with two-foot-tall red, green, and purple mushrooms.
Several cave openings overlook the pool from rocky ledges twenty to thirty feet above. The mountain blocks any sunlight from reaching this place.
There are 5 openings in total all bar one are steep cliff faces.
Haughlin looks befuddled at both of the Gnomes bickering in front of him. “Again, my sincerest apologies, but I know not of King Korboz, nor if his madness I’m afraid.”
He scratches his chin, “Whilst I’m sure it’s a pressing matter, and I’d gladly offer whatever help I can, there is a dragon destroying towns mere miles to the north of here. The people need the ingenuity and generosity of the Gnomes to help protect the lands and drive away this creature. Please, I implore you, is there anything you can do to help?”
"Dragons you say? Not heard one of them about this region for a long long long time." The male Gnome begins scratching at his chin in thought for a moment "It's dangerous times indeed, we have some things that might be of use to ya but we can't just be handing them out willynilly now. We've got our own troubles here!" He begins pacing round the room pushing pieces of parchment and other trinkets around the desks as though he's looking for something.
The female Gnome takes over "Forgive our rudeness, I'm Dabbledob and he's Fibblestib, we are the chief inventors for the Kings." She begins to pace around the room as well "You see the King, only one of them thankfully, has gone mad if you can aid us in bring him back to his senses again we can provide you with the items." Dabbledob sits down on her stoll with a heavy sigh "We've tried talking sense to him but he's locked himself and King Gnerkli in their bed chambers and keeps raving on about how the rug in the throne room attacked him."
"It's a pleasure to meet you both, my name is Haughlin Gaale," Haughlin bows slightly in introduction, "These are my associates - Donnabella, Ruby and Pete."
"You have no need for forgivemenss, we arrived unannouced and clearly at a bad time. I'm sorry to hear about your king and his current ailment. Whilst we're in a hurry to get back to Phandalin with anything you can lend in aid, it seems only fair that we do what we can to assist you. I have trusted friends back in town keeping an eye on the place for now."
"You say King Korboz claims a rug attacked him? That is a strange claim indeed. Maybe if you take me to speak to him, we can tell him I'm here to investigate the strange occurrence and help him?" He paces back and forth a few steps as he thinks, rubbing his chin with one hand. "The other king, Gnerkli, you said? What does he make of all this?"
"We've not heard from King Gnerkli! King Korboz has him tied up in their bed chamber." Dabbledob says looking more worried about the whole situation " I don't know what good it'll do but we can take you to their chambers, if you can talk some sense into him we can get back to normal life". Dabbledob hops off of her stool and walks you towards a set of stairs leading up on the Western side of the room.
As you reach the top of the stairs it breaks into a cross road, Dabbledob points straight ahead "That's the throne room down there where the King says the attack happened, the strange thing though, there wasn't even a rug in the throne room when we went to investigate afterwards." The Gnome turns right at the cross road leading you past a door on your right and along a winding path towards the bed chamber as you get closer the corridor begins to fill with various items of furniture and bed chamber furnishings that have been thrown out of the Kings chambers.
"How strange," Haughlin ponders when Dabbledob mantiones the lack of rug in the Throne room.
When they reach the bedchamber door, Haughlin knocks curtly. "King Korboz, your Highness, apologies for the instrusion. My name is Haughlin Gaale, I'm here at the behest of your Chief Inventors to investigate the strange attack that happned to you. I beg of you and audience, to allow me to ask some questions."
[ooc] Is Haughlin still glowing?
(Yes, you are still glowing fairly brightly although not enough to cause any disturbance to those around you. I'd say the glow has been on you for about 30 minutes now)
"NO!" You hear the King shout through the door extremely loud, even considering the noise you can still hear from the waterfall, although his voice does also sound very strained. "I'll not allow another thing in here, I've got to keep us safe there's no telling what that thing will turn into next! They think I'm mad, all of them! I'm not mad I know what I saw it changed right in front of me and tried to eat me!" His voice gets quieter, you can tell he is right at the door now. "You have to be careful, there's a shapechanger in Gnomengarde, the others just heard me say the rug attacked and called me mad" He pauses for a moment "I think I can trust you, I don't think the thing can talk so you can't be it, you need to kill it. Kill it and I'll give you anything you need"
Haughlin moves closer to the door, "This shapechanger, what did it look like? Once it stopped being a rug and attempted to eat you, that is?" He asks, seriously.
"The others with me can all speak, so they can't be it either. King Gnerkli is in there with you, yes? Can we hear him speak to rule him out too? Once we know you're safe in there, we can go search for the shapechanger."
He turns to Dabbledob and speaks quietly, "Maybe your king isn't mad after all. You saw no rug in the throne room, maybe because it was no longer there. Can you think of anything else out of place or new here?"
"Once it stopped being a rug? It didn't stop being a rug, it just grew arms, legs and a mouth then ran off after I got a couple of hits in ... It's a shapechanger though, it could be anything!" At this moment you suddenly realise you are surrounded by all manner of items of varying sizes (Perception check!)
"That's good you have others it will make hunting this thing down easier for you. Gnerkil is fine, I know my husband well ... and if he is the shapechanger, I've got him stuck to a chair, he won't be going anywhere until this monster is dealt with!".
"Something new? we make 10 new things a day, how are we to keep on top of every new appearance." Dabbledob stops and thinks while walking back towards her station "now that you mention it, Orryn and Warryn haven't been around for sometime ... you don't think it got them do you?"
Haughlin looks around at the items piled up in the hallway suspiciously: Perception - 1
"Oh, thank you for your time your highness, we'd best be off to search." He turns to the others.
"That's not good to hear, if we're looking for a shapechanger." Haughlin looks thoughtful, "I imagine it may need to change into something around about the same size. If we look around for something that would be about the same size as a rug, we might find it."
"This Orryn and Warryn, when and were were they last seen?"
You swear you saw something move in the pile of tables to your left, a crease in the cloth covering suddenly looks suspiciously like a mouth. "Is that a stain, or is that a puddle of drool?" suddenly runs through your mind. You take a step back away from the door and what you saw suddenly is no longer there.
Haughlin eyes the pile of household objects suspiciously as he steps back - a little more panicked than he would like to have been - before shaking himself back to his senses.
"If the King is mad, I hope it's not catching. Let's go on, before I start seeing enemies in every footstool." He says to his companions and Dabbledob.
"We should go back to your workshop, Dabbledob, see if Fibblestib can't help us make sense of this. Or the Throne room, to see if there's any evidence to back up what the king says. And I'd still like to know more about Orryn and Warryn."
"Of course, we can go to the throne room now if you like". Dabbledob heads back they way you came taking a right at the cross road and onto the throne room.
As you all enter into the throne room the doors close behind you and for the first time it what seems like an age you hear quiet, suddenly the sound of the rushing waterfall is cut out and you struggle not to shout at each other. The throne room is a fairly sparse room with very little in the way of finery and follows the same architecture as the rest of the caves. At the Northern end of the room sits two equally Gnome sized squat thrones made of scrap metal pieces atop a stone dias.
"Let me help you have a look around here see if we can spot anything." Pete pipes up from behind. (Roll advantage on any checks)
"Thanks Pete," Haughlin smiles at him as they follow Dabbledob into the throne room, "I figured we could look sround for any signs of a scuffle, or anything that looks out of place or missing."
Haughlin takes some time looking around the room, inspecting the thrones, the floor and the walls for anything that might corroborate the King's claims;
Investigation:
14
8
Pete and you begin to search the room and other than the thrones there is not much to look at, it looks as though the throne room is more function over form with the Gnomes preferring to be in their workshops rather than sitting at the throne.
In themiddle of the room you do spot signs of a scuffle, with scuffs on the floor where it looks like someone had been dragged. As you are examining the scuffs you spot small blood stains on the floor, it looks like whoever was in this fight at least one of them was hurt. "There's more blood over here" Pete shouts over from his position by the throne "it looks like it could be a trail."
Following the trail of blood you find it comes to an abrupt stop but has pooled more so at a wall behind the thrones examining the wall closer you can see the faintest hint of a difference between one section and the rest of the wall. Pushing on the wall where the blood has pooled opens up the wall up to a secret passage way heading out of the room.