The Undying Dragons - Campaign Thread

Talis sighs then brings the end of her spear down hard on the ground. At first the party doesn't notice anything, but then small hail pellets fall down upon them. Before they can react, the hail changes to balls of rock hard ice. Avaria, Vonth, Solomona, and Marrin all find themselves in the middle of a sudden ice storm.

(DC 15 Dex Save: On a fail you take 4 bludgeoning and 9 cold (4 cold for Vonth), on a successful save half as much (2 bludgeoning and 4 cold, except 2 cold for Vonth).

The stairs and the next ten feet of ground are covered in ice (difficult terrain - movement halved).

Barely a beat later, a floating spectral spear appears in the air a few feet above Avaria. It stabs downward, but Avaria sees it in time and is able to lean out of the way.

Maelgot and Sorvic step in front of Talis, giving her partial cover, while at the same time they raise the crossbows that have hung at their waists.

One bolt races forwards, striking Marrin in the shoulder (19 to hit for 7 piercing). The other bolt strikes straight at Vonth but his armour deflects the projectile harmlessly to the ground.

The party hears a cacophony of yips, barks and draconic curses from the collection of kobolds who have been watching. Heads disappear behind walls. MDK darts back into the lodge with plans of his own. "Keeps her busy."

((Party is up - Dex saves per above))

Dex save: 11

Marrin's expression turns definitively angry as she is hit with hail then a bolt.

Quote from Thoradin_Orcbender >>

INSIDE

MDK moves quickly, getting in front of Marrin before he steps into the hallway.

"These are not friendly to you," he says, pointing out the statues and suits of armor. He then leads the way through the main hall to the entry way, but then steps to the side so Talis cannot seem him yet. 

 
((Umm, MDK didn't lead us outside just into the front foyer...))

Quote from Rodgeir >>

Marrin follows MDK and smiles a bit as she comes up along side Ava, giving her a friendly nudge and a smile.

 
((Sounds like Marrin continued on outside to "come up along side Ava" though...))

Quote from Kaemgen >>

 But when MDK moves and then leads Marring through the main hall, Vonth follows.  

     "We don't want to join the party outside?" Vonth asks.  MDK, Marrin, it doesn't matter.  Vonth doesn't move to hide but neither does he move to a place to make his presence known to those outside.  He's just biding his time and waiting to see how it all plays out.

 
((But Vonth was sticking close to MDK and not looking to stick his neck out yet again... So wouldn't MDK and Vonth both still be inside the manor?  Vonth wasn't hiding from view but he wasn't exactly in the doorway waving hello either.  Or is it hailing inside as well?))

Vonth Dex save:  13 - so 4 cold damage taken

     Vonth deflects an arrow, sighs and rolls his eyes.  He raises his shield up over his head to try to deflect the hail but takes no other actions.

     "Leave me out of this, lady, I'm done with this lot and so have no beef with you.  They've abandoned, betrayed and backstabbed me every chance they got so if you don't mind I'll just be leaving and hope to never see any of you again..." he calls out loud enough to be heard by Talis.

     "And oh, your Major Damn Kobold is betraying you.  Even know he's scuttling away to enact some alliance he made with that one there," Vonth adds, nodding in Marrin's general direction.

DEX save: 10

Ava growls as the hail hits her, but when she hears Vonth, she turns in surprise.  "How did we do those things?  We are just trying to figure out what the hell is going on!" And when she hears Vonth betray Marrin, she finds herself at a complete loss.

(I'll have her do her turn, just surprised at this change)

The rotund monk still has his arm outstretched to Talis with the offering of food, when the white-clad cultist calls down hail from the sky. Solomona is caught completely off-guard, and cops the brunt of the ice-rain in full. The cheese and olives spill to the ground as Solomona slumps to the ground, battered and frozen...

Solomona: DEX save: nat1 (fail). Sol takes 13 damage, and is reduced to zero HP.

Solomona's turn: Death save: 14 (pass)

Marrin looks up from the bolt in her shoulder to look over her shoulder at Vonth before giving a little shrug, about par for the course. She does give Talis a wave on being mentioned though to make it clear who Vonth is talking about.

She does see the pleasant seeming monk drop and is conflicted...

She mutters,

"Just working with what I got. Going to split up a bit Ava."

She'll call over to Sol,

"Hey, Sol don't waste the food!"

Healing word to Sol: 8

She will then move so she isn't standing right beside anyone and take a dodge action.

Ava finally closes her mouth as Vonth disappears and Marrin confirms the suspicion with a little wave.  What was going on there?

But her heart that was in the fight really falters when her new friend Sol falls.  She sighs, remembering the crazy big birds and now Vonth and Sol out of the fight, there is no way.  She looks back up at Talis.  "I think we'll just leave now.  This fight that I provoked.. might have been wrong.  I am..." sorry isn't the right word as she isn't sorry for starting the fight with Talis, but she is sorry on how her friends seem to be falling apart. What has happened? "... going to help my friend." and she walks over to Sol to try and help him up after Marrin heals him.  

She also takes the dodge action.

((Appears that Vonth, Ava, and Marrin are all dodging, after a heal on Sol - that does mean Sol still has an action this turn, before the rest of the NPCs - and what he does may affect what goes next if the group aren't fighting))

"...food!" 

That word is sufficient to revive Solomona, and he shakes his head groggily. Slapping himself in the face a few times seems to help restore some more of his awareness (Action: Healing Hands for 4hp) and he glances around. His body is still cold and bruised from the hail-from-nowhere, but Avaria is standing there with arm outstretched, and he allows her to help him to his feet. 

Gee, he says to Avaria, the weather around here sure turns quickly...

But it isn't really the weather he's talking about. Life has certainly been interesting since he left his cell at the prison.

Hammerdasher and Ula, bringing up the rear behind Vonth, and Geffroi behind them, try to see past the Goliath to get a look at what's going on. They note no one is attacking so they pause where they are - a mix of anger and confusion on Hammerdasher's hairy face.

Talis raises here spear up, about to lower it to the ground again, but seeing a lack of returned aggression, she lowers it gently back to the ground and raises a hand to stop her henchmen from firing more crossbow bolts. She also raises a hand to the sky, which, Marrin, who has had to come down the stairs to distance herself from everyone else, can see has a calming affect on the two perytons looking over the side.

Talis then nods.

"That's better. We can do this without anyone else needing to get hurt or killed," she says. 

At that moment, MDK comes around the side of the house, leading a troop of 15 armed kobolds. They march forward, training swords and bows on Marrin, Avaria, Sol, and Vonth.

"They returned from the woods and this one came back too," MDK says to Talis, gesturing at the party then Marrin. "But they ran outside before we could disarm them."

Marrin is the only one who can see MDK's face through this exchange and she would swear she sees the slightest eyebrow raise and shrug. But beyond that, she can't guess what the kobold is really up to.

Talis stares at the back of MDKs head for a quiet moment, possibly thinking the same thing Marrin is. But then she visibly shrugs and nods again.

"If you would be kind enough to leave your weapons in the front hall," Talis says. "We can sit down and have a proper meal and discuss how we get your other friend to return with that chest."

     "Disarm? You offered up snack food!" Vonth growls and almost steps towards MDK but stops himself and merely sighs and shakes his head instead.

     Talis deciding not to attack is a relief, he supposed.  "Glad you're all making nice now.  Good luck with that.  I'll just be departing..."  And with that, if there is no verbal or physical objection, Vonth turns around to where he can best figure North to be and begins wandering away.

MDK hisses at Vonth.

"Youse gonna wanna stops big man," MDK says. "Talis the White has asked you to stay. No permission was given to leave."

Vonth can see that Tali's henchmen are aiming their crossbows at him, as are the kobolds who are carrying bows (looks like 5 of them). 

"Come. Stay. You are part of this now," Talis says to Vonth. "The sooner you get the one with the chest back here, the sooner you can leave. And right now, it is not safe for you to leave these grounds."

On cue, what sounds like the shrieks of two humans in pain echoes down to Vonth from above. The two perytons loom over the edge of the roof, looking ready to dive.  

Marrin relaxes at the calm down and is absently probing at the bolt in her shoulder when MDK refers to her wandering in from the woods, she again gives a small wave and even smaller tight lipped smile.

She does look over at Vonth and his attempted departure with some interest as she works her way over to Ava and Sol again.

She gives Ava a look and whispers,

"So, we going in or...?"

     Vonth looks at MDK through narrowed eyes.  When Talis speaks he slowly looks over in her direction.  His eyes stay on her even through the shrieking from above.  He considers and, eventually, lets out a bit of a sigh.

     "If you are going to kill me then let's just get on with it," he states calmly.  "If you want me to... what?  Work for you?  Well then make your offer.  Either way, no reason not to do it here and now."  He adjusts his stance a bit to get more comfortable, signaling he is ready to stand there all day if need be.  He still has his shield equipped from fending off the hail and his free hand rests near, but not on, his sword.  

JAN AND VOICES IN THE SKY:

 IN FRONT OF THE LODGE:

Talis smiles at Vonth.

"You really are like dealing with a mountain, aren't you?" Talis says. "Okay then."

Talis sits down on the grass, crossing her legs as she does. Some of the kobolds begin to sit down too, but MDK barks at them and they stand back up.

"It's a lovely day anyway. We can picnic out here," Talis says then looks over at MDK. The kobold barks a few orders and the group can hear yips and shouts of enthusiasm from inside the lodge.

In seconds, blankets, cushions, table cloths, cutlery, and dishes are brought outside. Followed soon by bottles of wine, jugs of water, a mix of dried fruit, cheeses, breads, some sort of soup with what looks like rutabagas, and several haunches of some kind of roast beast.

Talis takes several of each kind of food and eats while she talks.

"It's fairly simple now." Talis says. "Bring me the chest, intact, contents inside. I will help get you to Lord Hammerdasher's stronghold, with whatever trinkets we can spare from our store here. Once you retrieve the Djed, I will get you to Unthalass so you can use the key to retrieve what's hidden wherever it's hidden."

She chews on what looks like a handful of dried apricots and takes a sip of the wine.

"These weapons will ensure those Cult of Osiris idiots are wiped out before they get started. And then you, well, you will be rewarded with wealth beyond imagination and power over whatever land you decide you want to live out your days in."

Sol's face and demeanor brighten at the mention of 'picnic', and he pumps his fist with enthusiasm, along with an audible "At last!". He even helps the kobolds carry provisions from the kitchen and lay them out, and is the first to sit down, besides Talis. If fact, he probably actually sits beside Talis.

Solomona doesn't speak much after this, having his speaking-hole mostly filled with roast meat and soup. But he nods in agreement at Talis's offer, even pointing at himself once or twice to reinforce the point that he was in favour of this plan all along: Accept the loss, forsake the chest, take the help, focus on the larger goal.