The Undying Dragons - Campaign Thread

Avaria surprises herself by actually sleeping through the night, knowing the others were watching.  She feels her head is clearer and hopes that her tracking skills are ready for her today.  She isn't going to sleep again until her friends are found.

She's about to head into the other room to gather her rope and put things back when Sol opens the door and greets well... the house.  She moves faster than intended as she wants her things back, then joins him in the hallway.

     Vonth sighs with silent exasperation and hurriedly grabs his gear and all the best he can before following Solomona out the door.

Jan will rise, looking to gain any further altitude that will reveal a city or village to be able to get some bearings from. 

Perception: 20

HIGHER UP IN THE COLD MOUNTAIN AIR:

Jan finds the cold temperature as she climbs in altitude to bite as much as the icy winds in the north.

There’s nothing she recognizes. The mountains are high and she would need to climb even higher to see beyond them. But in the valley she sees small glows of light, dark trails of smoke bloating out stars and light; chimneys would be her guess. Almost at the bottom of the valley there are enough to suggest a village. But higher up there are a few more twinkling lights, and three more very close together and distinct trails of what is probably smoke blurring the moon and stars, which suggests they’re closer together and perhaps all on one homestead, farm, or maybe the lodge.

If she had to guess, that’s where she should head. But it’s going to take time. K’ probably flew for 6 hours or so to get to where Jan finds herself now. She doesn’t fly any faster than her dusty angel so she better get going. She can probably get back, assuming she doesn’t run into any trouble, an hour or two after full sunrise.

((Perception check from Jan, and a d6 to see what she might find or what might find her on the way back - Jan’s timeline is a little out of sync with the others for the moment, but it’ll match up soon enough)).

IN THE FOREST:

The first glimpses of dawn start to show as Marrin waves at his new ‘friends.’

The two bird-women hop down to lower branches closer to Marrin. When they do, she can smell the breath of meat-eaters; and she can get a better look at them. They’re sharp, jagged teeth, and long, curved and pointed talon-like claws would all hurt if she let them.

They think for a moment when Marrin asks if they know the lodge. One looks at the other, seemingly unsure, but the second, who Marrin would guess looks a little older than the other, nods.

The elder one grabs hold of Marrin and lifts her up into the air, pauses, dips, flaps her wings harder and gets a bit higher up off the branch.

The younger one comes in and grabs hold of one of Marrin’s legs. The elder one shifts her grip and holds onto Marrin’s wrist. Spread between the two, Marrin is lifted up into the air, getting up above the treetops.

Between the two, they can manage to carry Marrin, slightly faster than the pace she was able to keep up through the trees.

But, if she has to guess, her charm spell is going to run its course before she gets back to the lodge.

IN THE LODGE:

Vonth does note that a wavering ripple of magical aura clings to Avaria’s cloak.

When Avaria runs back into the other room to collect her rope, while Solomona announces to the whole house that they’re awake, she notices one of the tapestries hanging in shreds, the inlaid gemstones now all missing.

She has to work fast, which means she can’t work quietly or gently. She gets her rope back and stows it, but only the deaf would not have heard all the banging going on as she did.

In the hallway outside the room, where Solomona has just opened the door and bellowed a greeting to the lodge, stands the major domo kobold. He stands still, one eye slightly wider than the other as he sizes up the monk.

“Youse could wakes the deads, I thinks,” Major Domo Kobold (MDK) says. 

He turns, gesturing for the group to follow, and heads down the stairs that are just to the left right of the doorway.

The two demonic statues don’t radiate any magic that Vonth can see, but their heads do turn and watch the group come down the stairs.

Two suits of armour that weren’t noticed earlier when the group came in, flanking the sides of the doorway do give off faint dark magical lines.

There’s no other sign of magic in the main hall.

MDK leads the group outside.

Talis stands in the clearing at the bottom of the front stairs, looking up into the sky.

Vonth can see an aura of magic around the spear she carries. 

With Talis are three humans. Two of the humans, whom Talis introduces as Maelgot and Sorvic, are both clad in splintmail armour, carry long and short swords each, and have heavy crossbows hanging at their waists. The third, whom Talis calls Kusphia, dressed all in black, carries a scimitar and is clad in black leather armour.

A handful of kobolds scurry about stuffing little wrapped packets into backpacks, while the party can see at least a dozen other kobolds peaking out from windows in the lodge.

Across the clearing stands the four armed troll, Trepsin, and six ambush drakes.

“Ah, I hope you slept well,” Talis says to the group. She waves at one of the kobolds who darts off and returns quickly with fresh bread and coffee.

“Now, how about we find your friends before anything bad happens to them?”

Marrin considers the two as they go and asks,

"So, you two speak common as well as sing it?"

She starts singing her tried and true songs a bit under her breath to keep time.

((How much short of the lodge is she going to come within the hour? Will she be back on the cliff for the falls or some point before that?

What is Marrin's timeline compared to the rest? Is she a bit behind?))

IN THE AIR OVER THE FOREST:

((Marrin is a little out of time with the others - likely to get back to the lodge just after when the group is now - depending on what they do - search party may have just left once she gets back - assuming she does make it back - she'd guess she'd be across the river when her charm losses it's effectiveness))

"Yes, we speak your language," the elder one says in a friendly voice.

Solomona's nose twitches at the smell of the coffee, and he asks: Aren't we going to eat first?

     “Moving statues not magic. Real?” Vonth murmurs to Avaria as they trail behind the ever-enthusiastic Solomona. “Armor’s not decoration. That’s magic.”

     His eyes sweep the space.  Too many kobolds.  Numbers matter.  Even small things become dangerous when they swarm.  The four-armed troll and its drakes only make matters worse.

     Three against this?  Not good odds.

     “Talis has a magic spear,” he adds under his breath. “No sign of Soren…”

     A brief pause as he measures distance, exits, threats.

     Then, quietly: “We got a plan?”

To Solomona's question about food, the kobold waves one of the loaves of fresh bread in his face.

"Stick in mouth and chew." the kobold suggests.

     “Kobold for breakfast.” Vonth notes.  “Volunteering at that…”

"Oh, that is nice to hear! I'm Marrin, a pleasure to meet both of you."

She waits for them to introduce themselves, but not too long,

"So, do you two live around here? I am new to the area, could you give me an idea of the landmarks? Where are the people? Places to visit? Places to avoid?"

She will continue her quiet timekeeping singing after the questions.

((Marrin definitely doesn't want to get dropped right in the path she used to escape the day before, does this valley narrow on the lodge side? I thought the river bisected the valley east-west but it bisects it north-south? I.e. so you need to cross the river to get to the village from the lodge?))

Solomona takes the loaf being waved in his face, puts it in his mouth and begins to chew. But his expression is one of disappointment.

Oh. I thought those were for the picnic lunch.

OUTSIDE THE LODGE:

The kobold that just handed Solomona some bread, looks at Vonth with some wariness but no real fear. 

MDK reaches over and swats the one kobold on his shoulder and rattles something off in the yips and barks of the kobold draconic language.

Talis laughs and then turns serious.

"Soren has let me know a little about your friends and how resourceful they can be," Talis says. "Hopefully they are together, but that doesn't seem likely. Trepsin tracked one of them to the river and along it before turning back. The drakes however lost the scent of the other immediately. That one I suspect can fly, yes?"

She looks around the clearing, then up to the top of the lodge where the group can now hear some loud crunching. 

"We could send the peryton's after the flying one, but they don't always understand what it means to bring someone back alive," Talis says. "Perhaps we should split into two groups then?"

IN THE AIR OVER THE FOREST:

Marrin can't trace all of the river route, nor tell if there is more than one, but it does look like anyone going to or coming from the village would need to cross the river to get to the lodge. She went off any path in our rapid exit the day before but their may be a trail that leads to a bridge somewhere down stream.

The harpies, as Marrin is pretty sure the pair are, aren't very chatty and don't necessarily know what she really wants to know but they do try to answer in a relatively friendly manner.

"There's a village of humans that way," the elder one says, gesturing with her head in one direction, her hands busy trying to hold onto Marrin.

"And there's the lodge you want to go to," the younger one says, using her head to point in the direction they're going.

Marrin doesn't find the ride very comfortable and she's not sure how her shoulders and arms are going to hold up through it, or how much strength the pair have. 

They don't seem to have anything to add as far as where Marrin should visit or avoid.

HIGH UP IN THE COLD AIR:

Still need a perception check from Jan, and a d6 to see what she might find or what might find her on the way back.

Feeling forlorn, Avaria follows the group outside and notices all the strangers versus their group as well.  Though she is happy that Soren is absent.  She nods at Talis's assertation, her eyes consistently tracking back towards Trepsin.  These were the people they are going to align themselves with?  Even for a little bit?  

"Give me a moment." Ava takes some of the bread and starts breaking it up in little pieces as she heads towards the woods.  Once there, she starts dropping some and whistling a bit as she does it.  Looking for birds.  She sits down cross-legged once she is surrounded by trees and goes through her ritual Speak with Animals.  Once done, she waits for birds to join her.  

She will ask these birds to look for Jan, describing her dear friend and Jan's dust fellow, sending them in all different directions.  She pulls out some fur and asks them to show Jan her fur and lead her back to the lodge.

     Vonth watches Avaria with a faint furrow in his brow as she suddenly turns her attention to feeding the birds.

     Vonth is confused.

     Amused.

     Wary.

     He still knows little of her, or any of them really,  and has no clear sense of what she’s trying to accomplish.  His gaze shifts to Solomona.  “And your big plan would be…?” he asks, tone flat, edged with bemusement.

A flock of about a dozen small mountain bluebirds quickly come down from the trees when Avaria starts scattering bread. The hop around her, chattering and chirping.

"More. More. Give me more. No me. No me. Here. Here. Me too." the hungry and pushy birds chirp to Avaria as she tunes into their language. 

Once Avaria describes Jan, several of the birds hop about, some fly part way to the lodge and then back "Over there. Over there. Friend there. All there. More. More. Bread. More bread."

Avaria suspects that all non-birds might look the same to the average bird.

Once she gets them to understand that Jan can fly, they pause in the incessant chatter and look at each other before they all start chirping again. "Flying not bird. Flying not bird. Flying not bird go high, high. No more. Flying not bird gone. Gone. All gone. More bread. More. More." 

One does take her fur and flies up into a tree where Avaria sees it put the fur in a nest.

"Flying not bird not here. Climbing not bird not here too. Go forest. Climb. Climb. Where bread?"

The birds do fly off, but they don't get far before they come back looking for more bread.

The request might be too much for them.

At that moment, three kobolds come into the woods and start to shoo the birds away. 

"Dirty flying rats," one of the kobolds says.