The Undying Dragons - Campaign Thread

Ethel has to turn away at the sight of the successful ruse.  She feigns disgust, but it is a mixture of surprise and near-laughter that forces her to turn her back.

With the food rescued and the people in their room guaranteed at least a fair share of the reduced rations, she leaves the others and returns to her little nook, shaking her head and allowing herself a chuckle.  She had been nervous about their progress with the Orcs coming to naught and exploding into a fist fight over old root vegetables, but the other women proved themselves quick thinkers and saved the day.  And Geffroi might have a future on the stage, if we ever get out of here.  She lets another laugh escape.

Gods… when was the last time I laughed?

Jan shares a grin with Marrin after the orcs leave, extending a hand down to Geffroi to help him up. 

"Nice job following the lead, you looked properly terrified and disgusted. Fine acting!"

"I wouldn't put it past them to slip something in our food though, Ula, you said you could do something to make it safer? Might be a good idea."

Ava lets her breath out in a whoosh once the orcs have left.  "That was brilliant!  Jan, how did you do that?  and Geoff, you can make yourself get sick at will?  Man, the looks on the orcs faces!"  Avaria is grinning broadly now, thoroughly enjoying the entire thing.  She catches the turnip in the air and smiles at Marrin.

"Thanks, its fine now.  But let's wait till we're all done eating before heading over to Haguur... I don't want to interrupt his meal."

She looks over at Ethel, quietly giggling and decides to go and join her.  "Mind if I sit?"

Ethel looks up at Avaria.  
Then she gestures to either side of her.  “Of course.  You have your pick of the furniture.  The bergère is nice, but after such a long morning I invite you to recline on the chaise lounge.”

”What’s on your mind?”

Geffroi bows and gives everyone a quick smile.

"It helps when you're terrified."

Xanthe frowns a little when she discovers she was trying to comfort and help someone who wasn't really sick but finally she looks at the rest of you and nods.

"Thank you," she says. "We have so little. Any that they take will only make the weak ones even weaker."

"Ah, a method actor. I respect that.", Jan gives Geffroi a light punch to the shoulder.

"I don't think we can count on that working again. What are the odds that they fed us early because some of the guards will be making use of the drink special?"

"I don't think should count on the guards getting drunk as the cornerstone of any escape Jan!"

She chuckles at the thought though.

"Not saying it's a cornerstone, but if shifts are lighter today, and the populace is smashed, it could be an opportunity."

Ula grins at the creative solution. But she had also backed away to the stalagmites and was gripping the top of one (still anchored into the ground) like a club. She’s let go of it now, and moves back to the food that’s being cleaned and put back in the bins. She nods and continues her ritual to make the food safe to eat and then tucks in with everyone…

Mid mouthful she’ll ask, quietly, “So what’s first on the list? Speak with Haguur? Explore the waters again?… And I’m keen to get this place cleaned up so I can start tending to the weak and wounded. Thought I might offer medical assistance to the other tribes too, once WE’RE all looking okay… …Might curry a bit of favour in the long run. And I think we might need some of them fighting fit, at some point too!…”.

Still quietly,

"Ula, I think we are best splitting up on this. You need to keep checking the swimming angle. It doesn't seem to be in the goblin pool, they were checking it. Is this pool clear? If not we need to consider the orc pool and to do that we need to get Haguur with us. Avaria, Jan and I speak with him?"

Avaria chuckles at the descriptions of the 'furniture' then sits down next to Ethel.  "Not a whole lot, just.. good to hear you laugh."  She looks down, averting her eyes a bit as she adds, "Also, I hope I didn't offend you when I tried to take your place yesterday.  I think that was yesterday?  Not even sure anymore.  I can clearly see you can take care of yourself.  I have a gnome friend back home, and well, she could do a few little magic tricks, but nothing like you and well the others can do.  I'm just blown away."

She takes another bite and looks up, "What brings you here anyways?  Me.. I just needed to get away, the person who brought me up had died, so I had no reason to stick around."  She looks around the cave and sighs, "Didn't expect to end up here though."  The smile returns to her face as she looks back to Ethel, "I've really enjoyed making new friends though" and she looks to the others as well.

As Ula and Marrin start discussing the next steps, she asks, "So the goblin pool.. was it connected to ours or any others?  Do we need to check out each?  If that's the case, you should come with us and just dive in the orc pool while were talking with Haguur.  What are they going to do?"  She stands up, reaches out a hand to Ula to help her up, "But yes, let's get going.  Sir Haguur would like an audience." 

"I'm not willing to eat raw chicken just yet, anyone have a way to cook them? We could take them as a peace offering if none of us have a good way... If she's alright with it, could mention that Ula is able to cleanse tainted food."

Ethel smiles at the young shifter.  "Magic isn't so special," she says, casually invoking the light cantrip to make a single feather glow brightly.  "You just need to understand the forces that bind and shape the world around us... and possess the will to bend those forces to accomplish what you need done.  In a way... it can be a little boring.  There is a lot of math and study involved."  

At Avaria's question about why she was here... she paused in thought.  An old song crossed her mind, where the singer ponders what details of his long and sordid life to include or omit from his memoirs.

At last she answers.  "There was nothing more my tutor could show me.  I have only begun my study of magic, and I am already near to middle age.  I don't have time to slowly reinvent the wheel each day as I plod through individual study.  I need to find new teachers... new books of hoary lore and arcane secrets.  I have so much to learn... so much to do."

"So I took to the road, and then to the sea.  Obviously, this little detour was unplanned.  Though it hasn't been a total waste of time, I think.  Perhaps there is a greater purpose that has drawn us here."  She smiles again at the barbarian, though her mind drifts to something else in that moment... to Godrick Hargrove and his spellbook.

***

Based on experience, Ethel is nervous about another trip to the arena before the day is done.  While the others do their thing, she would like to attempt a short rest to perform Arcane Recovery and collect back one of her spells.

Ethel settles back into the shadows, doing little more than trying to marshal what energy she has left and get some rest. Geffroi starts to approach her at one point, but before he opens his mouth to speak he seems to sense Ethel’s need for quiet and backs away.

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Ula finishes cleaning up the food and making sure it’s edible and everyone has clean water. The prisoners in the cavern do come and thank her.

Hammerdasher smiles when he sees what happens to the food under Ula’s care.

“That’s a fine trick, lass,” Hammerdasher says. “But I don’t know whether it’s a curse or a blessing.”

He nods over at Xanthe and the others that were here before your group arrived.

“Healthy food and drink so we can stay here longer and turn into them?” Hammerdasher says. “Unless there’s a way out of here maybe it’s best if we all just starve.”

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Avaria, Jan and Marrin make their way to the southern part of the cavern and the entrance to the orc cave.

Looking in, you see a cavern very similar to the one you call home. The walls rise steeply, craggy and rough near the bottom, but as they climb to the 140’ ceiling above, they become smoother. Several small grates in the ceiling let in daylight, casting long shadows in the corners of this cavern.

There’s another large pool of water in the center of the cave.

To the west, there’s another tunnel entrance, presumably leading to the hobgoblin chamber.

Surprisingly, there’s also another tunnel on the eastern wall leading to maybe another cavern.

Near the pools edge you see the orcs. Orcs 2 – 5, plus one you haven’t seen before eat the food from the bin.

Haguur sits a few feet removed from them, closer to the water’s edge, chewing on something before suddenly spitting it out and looking down at whatever food was in his hand. He examines what he has for a moment and then takes another bite.

The orcs all look up when you step into the cavern. The other six then look to Haguur. He just looks at you while he chews his next bite, waiting for you to make the first move, his cold steady eyes just staring at you from beneath his dark hair.

(So a total of 7 orcs, including Haguur).

"Fork the Hargroves. Fork them, fork their games, and fork their whole island. I'll see every one of them dead if I can, but it's not something I can do alone. It's not something that WE can do alone," Jan says vehemently, gesturing at Marrin and Ava. "Folks too weak or broken to fight aren't gonna be of much help in putting the whole forking family under the dirt, but I'm thinking that together, we might make some progress. I'm hoping you share my opinion of the Hargroves enough for us work together to get out of here but if your only goal in life is to be able to lovingly polish Godrick's bald head like some of Festan's boys seem to want to, well then we'll leave you to your daydreaming."

Haguur eyes Jan steadily as she speaks. His face betrays no emotions one way or another. At one point he does open his mouth slightly then closes it again as he continues to chew.

His gaze moves across Marrin and Avaria as well before coming back to Jan, nodding at her to continue speaking.

Haguur isn't the friendliest person you've met down in the caverns and you have a hard time getting a read on what he's thinking but he seems relaxed and is listening.

(Jan can give a persuasion check with advantage - what she, or the others, says before the roll to add to what has already been said can push the DC one way or the other).

Jan will give the others a chance to speak before chiming in further.

"I'd very much like to burn this entire island down around all those laughing fools as well, but Hargroves first. "

Marrin adds simply, staying on point.

When Marrin mentions burning the entire island down, Haguur locks his gaze on her for several moments. Marrin thinks she detects the slightest of nods but isn't quite sure.

(Jan or Marrin can roll persuasion with advantage)

Jan Persuasion: 13