Ulmwin is a NATURAL at flying. It's like these wings were made for him. Forget doing a few flips, he's starting up an air circus. :U

Randy assists Coljin with testing his new armor, noting with interest that it can be retracted to conceal itself.

At dawn, he reaches in the bag and takes out a fuzzy and tosses it.

Which critter?:5

 He and his new panther buddy (who he has taken to calling Sooba) watch Ulmwin's antics.

Randy, you rack your brain, but can recall no published history about great dragonborn civilizations. In your personal experience, when found in numbers, they tend to keep to small communities within the cities that have dragonborn.

((Similar to how in the US cities might have a 'Chinatown' or 'Little Italy'.))

You're left wondering how to reconcile the elders' tale with what you know of history, and aren't sure if their recollection has been changed over the generations and embellished, whether all records were lost, whether they came from somewhere else you you've not read accounts from, or if it happened even longer ago than you assumed. 

As you ponder the futility of shortsighted civilizations, you are struck by the realization that your frustration about may be the sort of thing that the All Mother experienced on a cosmic scale. Perhaps you can't quite picture yourself smiting a populace and walking away from that frustration... but your senses and perspective are just of one human.

You notice one day some of the dragonborn bug hunters who had traveled with you returning from a hunt, and notice a curious length of leather cord with two leather wrapped balls at the ends twisted around the legs of the wild lizard they bring back. One of them deftly untwists them and tucks them into their waistband.

((I don't remember what Dornikal had planned for them either. I'm also going to say you've have advantage on those rolls, so here's some second rolls. 10,  22,  26))

You take your time with it, and given that you're not doing the work in a fully outfitted jeweler's shop, you manage a pretty solid job on the two figurines and three rings.

Ulmwin starts off doing a few flips, then barrel rolls, loops, and as he gains confidence with not running into the ground, strafing runs over the sand and water of the oasis. He even spots a few fish swimming among underwater plants down there. The dragonborn are delighted, especially the young ones, running after him shouting and laughing, and jumping up and trying to touch him as he flits and flies just out of their reach.

The panther prowls up to Randy, licks his hand and flops down next to him to watch the gnome flitting bat-like above, tail twitching slightly at the tip. It looks to Randy.

"murr."

((So, mediocre,  mediocre and professional cuts!))

You warm to the task, the cuts he requires are not typical in jewelry making, but once you've got a better handle on what it is he wants, you're able to adjust your technique.

Randy looks with interest at the leather cords with weights, and not having seen anything like it before, asks the dragon born about them. He idly scratches Sooba behind the ears while talking with them. 

They explain that the weighted cord can be thrown to tangle the legs of prey, slowing them down and making it easier for the other hunters to catch up and dispatch their quarry before it runs off. One of them tosses you a set to try out if you'd like.

Randy has the dragon born demonstrate for him how to use the weapon a few times before he gives it a try himself, aiming at a poor defenseless tree for a target.

((If I understand what you're trying, it looks like Randy's standard modifiers apply.))Attack: 13 Damage: 7

He grunts."It'd take some practice, but this has some interesting potential."  He politely asks who manufactures these for the dragon born so he can obtain a few to practice with and see how they're constructed.

(( This thing is definitely twitchy about editing.))

((Yeah, you can also roll from your sheet and it'll pop up in the campaign game log and you can just report the outcome here if you'd rather. That seems to be less finicky, but requires extra steps to do.))

Randy is directed to one of the the folks who makes them for the hunters, and can spend some down time assisting in return for learning how they are produced, and given opportunity to practice with them.

((Randy doesn't have tool proficiencies relevant to crafting them, but he'd be able to put in time with the dragonborn that do, and be able to get practice and at least a couple of them to take with him.))

((Yeah the way it works is the code just sets a result on rolling, but then it can't actually block you from changing the roll result if you edit the post, so it puts a big fat warning on it. Imo just double post or report what the roll was, whatever Spider prefers-))

By the time Ulmwin decides to call it quits, which is the point that he starts realizing if he keeps flying much longer he might just start plummeting down as the spell ends, he's laughing up a storm, victorious. He makes sure to pass over by the kids too, giving them a good thumbs up, saying that next time they'll catch him for sure! Of course, he knows that they can't understand him... But it's a happy occasion none the less. And as long as things are peaceful as they are, he has no issue to keep recasting comprehend language as to see what they're actually saying in response.

((I personally just post a second, third, fourth time, so that it doesn't mess with my previous rolls.))

The kids run up to Ulmwin, and their happy laughter is a welcome change after the stress of the last few... months?

While the magic faithfully translates the meaning of everything, it's pushing his limits of comprehension, as they're all talking over one another. Most of it is about what one might expect, that he's amazing, and they want to be able to fly too, and next time maybe he can give them a ride?

Randy goes and hangs out with the crafters and helps them with their work in exchange for a few of the bola. He takes the time to target practice and experiment with the devices. For example, he experiments with tying a light line to the bola and casting the bola with the line trailing. 

((I think I'll go with Spider's solution. Seems to be the easiest to do.))

((I think the light line might affect range, but make it returnable if you miss or they wriggle free. Probably wouldn't be able to be strong enough to haul them back to you?))

 ((Silk rope weighs half as much as regular. Too heavy still? Or possibly increase the size of the weights to give it more mass? Just sounding out some ideas.))

((It would still add five pounds, taking it from a 2 pound projectile to a 7 pound. If you make the weights bigger to compensate, you're getting close to 10 lbs fast. Not sure that gets you where you're wanting to go?))

((Probably not.  I'll keep it in mind if we come upon some kind of magical line that might fit the bill. Not sure what that would be.  Unless we get some kind of giant spider anchor line.  Don't take that as a suggestion. ))

: innocent whistling:

Coljin, with translation help, will explain that Mielikki is a goddess of nature, and many of her followers are druids and rangers and other peoples who feel close to the land they live in.  She is most often revered by those who live in forests.  Then he looks at the oasis he is in and states that he is certain she would adore this landscape also and all the work the people are doing to bring plant life and to make this a prosperous a good fruitful and safe place.  

He does his best to explain her neutral nature, and her love of wildlife.  He will explain that Mielikki is a great healer and very much dislikes death and pain.  When she sees small animals in pain she does her best to heal them and make them safe.  "It is why much of my focus in my life has been on trying to be  a good healer." he states quietly.

If they have any follow up questions he does his best to answer. 

He is also SO intrigued with the armor.  He practices having it cover his hands and then moving up to his wrists to see how fast he can make the transition.

He then works on having it come up and cover the back of his neck and then cover his hair and ears, but staying clear of his face.   

He will try sleeping in it and see if it affects how well he sleeps or if he should remove it at night to get needed rest.

The young dragonborn listens with rapt attention as you explain about your goddess, innocently asking if she can come visit to see the oasis and maybe stay here with them for a while. They boastfully tell you that their Aunt is a healer, and took care of them when the fell and hurt their arm. You get shown a puckered scar on their forearm, and from the slight lump to the bone beneath, surmise it was a nasty fracture that pushed through the flesh. It seems to have been set well, and they seem to have full movement and strength. For non-magical healing, it seems competently done to repair the break without losing the child to the sort of illness that can set in after such injuries.

They are confused about what you mean by a forest until you explain, using the trees growing up around the oasis as a starting point, but they still seem dubious that there could ever be more than a few dozen trees in one place. They want to know if Mielikki doesn't like it when they eat animals. They want to know why everyone doesn't follow Mielikki, because she sounds amazing. Is there anything they need to do if they want to let her know that they think she's neat?

Further experiments with the armor show that it responds rapidly to your conscious and subconscious thought, though its movement is not instantaneous, it does take a few seconds for it to flow back from your fingertips to your wrist, but not significantly longer than it would take to remove a glove. There is a bit of an odd sensation as the mass of the armor redistributes itself across the rest of your body.

You find that if you keep a certain shape or pattern in mind, the armor will match it, but it tends to smooth back if your mind wanders. You can make your musculature chiseled and well defined, or make it look like you're covered in fine sliver scales, etc. It is able to approximate more normal plate-like armor, though any sort of close inspection would reveal that it is continuous, rather than separate pieces.

You're easily able to have it cover all but your face and hands. Initially when it covers your ears, there's a tickly cool feeling as the metal flows into your ear canals and your hearing goes faint, but you've no sooner noticed it than the armor adjusts and retracts to allow normal hearing. Somewhat similarly, as you move through the sunny day around the oasis, you no sooner notice that you're starting to get a bit warm than you notice a faint sheen of moisture on your arm where sweat is being wicked up through. 

 That night, you climb into your bunk in Kreldoran's tower, intending to try sleeping in the armor, and its weight presses down on you, making it take a bit longer to get to sleep, but when you wake in the night, you find that it has pooled beneath you, providing support and cradling you as you sleep. The side effect being that you're left nude, but that's easily accounted for. As you sit up, it begins flowing up to cover your body, but subsides when you lay back down and fall asleep again.

((Other necessary daily bodily functions are also unhindered by the armor.))

@Randy - There's certainly possibly other solutions, thought it'd help to  know what it is you're trying to get out of it. So I'm not saying "No forever", but more of a "let's see how the base item works and if we think there's more design space to explore, we'll find a way to do that later".

Dornikal, when you come down from Kreldoran's workspace to get a bite to eat and bring some food back up to him, Tren approaches you, looking around and relaxing when she sees Galt reading a book on the other side of the room. He looks up and goes to wave with a non-existent arm, blushes and goes back to his reading.

"I'd like your advice, Preacher. Well... opinion, I guess. I can't see doing whatever comes next without that great one armed lunk, but I'm not gonna leave it in his hand to ask... so I'm figuring on asking if he'll marry me. Trusting he doesn't run screaming into the desert, I think you'd be both of our first choice for doing the ceremony... but is that something you can do? I mean, would we have to convert first? I've nothing against your god, and you know we both love you, but neither of us is real big on religion, and I don't want to make it weird. I kinda feel like it'd hurt you more if we converted and were spoons at it than if we just didn't? Like I respect you and your faith too much to do a bad job at it myself? Does that make any sort of sense? We can ask Coljin if he'd do the actual ceremony part, if you'd rather, but I'd like you to do the officiating... or maybe the desertborn can wed us? I don't know... I think Szartha may have some sort of certification to do some notary work, maybe that'd be enough? Though I think that's only in certain cities, so we'd have to be there.... Oh gosh, I'm rambling aren't I?"

She takes a deep breath and shuts up.

Dornikal gives Galt a nod of acknowledgement and pretends not to notice the failed wave before focusing a smile on Tren, one that gets wider as she goes on.

"If he decides to, aye'll help ye catch him!"

He chuckles,

"Aye can do a wedding and no ye don't need to convert. Aye will admit aye haven't done it for someone that wasn't a follower of Dumathoin, but that is mostly because no one has asked."

He clears his throat,

"Trennifer, aye'm honored ye asked me. If Galt is as smart as aye think he, it will me my pleasure to see ye two coupled in the eyes of the gods and whoever else cares!"

He starts patting his pockets until he finds what he is looking for and extends the rings he made for Galt and Tren in his palm.

"Aye'm not sure of the timing of when rings and that should be given for humans or half-humans, if ye do the ring thing at all where yer from."

He looks a bit embarrassed,

"But if it is now aye don't want ye going to him empty handed. Aye had to guess on the size of yer finger but aye'm pretty sure Galt's will fit him."

When she takes them he will continue,

"If it doesn't fit let me know, aye can resize them quick here and..."

He looks to Galt and then back to Tren and wipe some tears from his eyes,

"Ye'll be great together."