The Guild - Game Thread

(You do realize that the resistance is partly stackable, right? For example, if you had an item or ability that gave you resistance to a damage type, say a gold dragonborn's fire resistance and you wore a set of Red Dragon Mail for extra fire resistance, you'd still just have fire resistance. It would be like wearing plate mail. However, if you were to wear Gold Dragon Mail for lightning resistance, you would have both fire and lightning resistance thanks to being a gold dragonborn.)

A passerby says, "The Drynia branch of Rurik Archeology Council sits at the Drynia Great Hall" He points you to the direction of what appears to be a small castle (small by castle standards that is).

“Shall we go check in at the castle and let them know we are reporting for the job they posted at the guild?

"Yeah!" Elsara nods. "It's taken FOREVER to get here." She happily clicks the reins to get the horses to follow along the path and head towards the castle.

Runt gives a grunt of agreement. 

At the Great Hall, you find your way to the Archeology Council office after asking around a bit. The guys at the office tell you to go further north and you'll find a cave in the body of Mt.Tow. The guys are waiting for backup over there. They tell you to talk to a Halfling named Barry Hasslehoff who is leading the research at the site.

“We are happy to lend our swords to the cause.” This is true, but the whole truth is that Gendan really doesn’t care what her sword is getting used for, just happy that it’s getting used and she’s getting paid. She wants to get her hands on some dragon plate!

"Ask for Mr. Hasselhoff, got it!" Elsara nods, ready to go get this job done with the others. Taking those extra days due to her and the horses being sick have her feeling a little guilty about their tardiness so she is eager to make up for lost time.

Valwarin seems happy to have some porpouse again and he willingly follow the others.. 

Runt is ready to move on if everyone else is. She has her mission, time to do her job.

The party travels further North as reaches the cave that is said  to hold the entrance to the Ancient Dragon's Lair. Two guards in half plate are standing outside and stops you.

"Halt! This area is restricted to the public. The Rurik Archeology Council has temporarily occupied this area for research. Non-authorized personnel may not enter."

After you tell them about your mission (which I assume you'll do because why not), they let you pass. You enter the cave and realize that it is man-made. There's a deep hole in the cave with a rope ladder attached. You descend the rope and enter a place that isn't part of any cave. You find yourself in some kind of ancient water-way. The stone used by this structure is older than anything you've seen so far. Most Dragon Lairs that have been discovered before this are also similarly old. This architecture is of Draconic origin. There is still some water here but it's stagnant. The whole place smells. Two your west is a room that has some very old and very rusted machinery. They were probably used to construct gates and control the water flow. There are tunnels leading to other areas in the North and two more to the East. Both of this passages are blocked off by recently constructed wooden barriers and gates. Obviously put there by the RAC to secure the area while they research. There are various torches here to keep the place lit. There are also about 6 guards in plate mail here, no doubt for added protection. Finally there are 2 other researchers doing there work. When you descend, you notice a halfling coming to greet you followed by a blue dragonborn in Green Dragon Plate.

The Halfling says, "Ah! You must be from the Guild. Come come! We have been waiting for you. You see, there's a turf war going between the various tribes of Kobold and Yuan-Ti and other intelligent creatures that have set up residence here. We have been able to negotiate with them to allow up passage. However, there are also less intelligent animals here that can't be negotiated with. We need the extra muscle to help pass through such places so that we can explore more of this castle. Hurry! We time's-a-wasting." The halfling wears a brown jacket and a brown hat. He seems to be in his 60s. He seems very bubbly and easily excited. He talks quite fast. As he walks away, He turns back and says, "Ah, where are my manners! I'm Barry Hasslehoff and this (pointing to the dragonborn) is Dragon Knight, Briggs Stormsurge."

In a rare show of excitement, Gendan exclaims, “Show us the way Barry!”  She is basically giddy with enthusiasm to slay some monsters. 

Elsara looks around in wonderment as they head through the cave, making mental notes for later as they move along towards their destination. After becoming acquainted, Elsara will give a curtsy to the pair. "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Hasselhoff, Mr. Stormsurge." Elsara says politely. "My name's Elsara Deepmoon, it is..." She then stops. "Oh right, hurry. Yes, we can help!" She follows alongside the rest of the party.

At the though of crushing some skulls, Runt flashes a small smile, you can almost see her small lower tusks peek through.

Val feels amazed of how quick his companions rushes towards danger and killing. 

“Well, if we may ask... mister... Hasseltoff?” He says trying to repeat the name and to keep the pace “ What kind of monsters are attacking you? Perhaps a few minutes to be ready would save us time and pain later...” he says more to his friends than to him. 

As Hasslehoff and Briggs moves into position, he answers Val, "No, monsters aren't attacking us. We are going to be going in to the places where they hunt so we need people to protect us in case they attack. We are not quite sure of what to expect down there. The Kobolds and Yuan-ti have been mostly vague. We know we have large spiders and wooden puppets... whatever that means." He then looks around and says, "Okay gentlemen, lead the way to discovery!"

DM: Alright, which way is the party going to go? You have two halls going to the East and one going to the North.

“You mean to say you don’t even know which way you want to go? Doesn’t matter much to me, so long as my blade gets used before we’re done.”

"Well personally..." Barry responds to Gendan's concerns, "Personally, I believe we should try to go lower since Dragons usually retreat to the lower levels of their lair when they feel in danger. We figured this out because all the other dragon fossils that have been discovered around the world have mostly been in the lower levels of the ruins with a few exceptions where the Dragon remains have been found in the upper towers.  However, Mr. Briggs feels that it might be better to have Guild Members lead the way since adventurers usually have a better idea of where powerful monsters might be in a dungeon. Thus, we can avoid needless monster attacks."

At this point Briggs speaks up. "We Dragon Knights are skilled warriors but we aren't dungeon delvers. It is better we try to avoid monsters as much as possible. Especially since we have no idea what is down here with us."  He then fishes something out of his pocket and shows it to you. "We encountered an odd type of water elemental and this is what's left of it. Unlike your traditional elemental it seemed that this... thing was using magic or something to manipulate the nearby water to wrap around itself and create a runny, gelatinous body for itself. It was still very much stagnant water but it acted like some unseen force was holding it and moving it around the... 'body' of the elemental."

It (the thing Brigg's pulled out from his pocket) is an odd structure that is about an inch thick and five tall. It's an odd geometric shape (think of it as a rectangular box with pyramids stuck to the two ends). The strangest thing about it is that it seems to be made of a hard, non-flexible substance that seems to be somewhere between non-metal and metal. The thing had been cut in two by the Dragon Knight's blade. Upon looking at the cross-section, you see what appears to be millions and millions of super tiny "veins" that has a hard but rubbery covering and metallic pointy insides. There are also a bunch of other small bits made of metal, a variant of the weird hard stuff the outside is made of and powdery green glass. Overall the object Briggs refers to as "the elemental's body" is very foreign to all of you.

Briggs then finishes by saying, "Like I said, we have no idea what we will find down here so I'd rather not get attacked by something that looks like it came from the deepest reaches of the Unmarked Hells"

"If you give me a few minutes," Elsara chimes in. "I can cast a spell to see magical energies, just in case there are spell-like traps ahead."

If the party will allow, she will ritually cast Detect Magic.

Briggs and Barry don't object. It's up to the other PCs really whether they want Elsara to cast Detect Magic or not.

Gendan is willing to wait on Elsara’s spell if it means getting an upper hand on the curious foe.