Quote from Mister_Whisker >>

Zolgu's social roll: 12

DC 12 Insight check:

Jodie steps forward,  "Great Wyrm Zolgu, this cult does not worship true dragons.  Their god would unmake this world and consume it.   They use the name 'Dragon' because they know dragons are creatures to be feared and respected.  But real dragons could not split their soul, such necromancy is a desecration of the soul."

Jodie draws out her moon-touched rapier.  "I would offer you this blade, if you fancy it... or some magic arrows.  We are heading into the tomb of the dead drow.  I expect we may find something of value for you there.  Or we may be of service to your tribe, to show you what true friends we are to dragon kind."  Jodie smiles pleasantly. (14)

Jodie's assertions give the Great Wyrm pause. He leans back in his chair, his tail swishing back and forth as he considers what he has just been told.

"A creature that is called a dragon but is not, whose soul has been broken with necromancy...?" he says slowly. "Such things are mentioned in our most ancient legends..."

His little nostrils flare as he pauses to think.

"I must consult the Ancestors," he says at last rising to his full height (2 ft, 6 inches) and pounding his staff on the floor. "The spirits shall tell me what must be done and whether your quest is worthy of our aid. You shall remain as our guests until I return... with luck I will be back from the sacred cave of the Ancestors by this evening."

It seems that the meeting is over at this point. Ruby escorts you to a hut somewhere near the edge of the kobold city, while the Great Wyrm presumably makes preparations to consult the spirits of the ancestors.

You have at least a few hours until he returns. How do you use that time?

Tamphalic let his companions do the talking when the tongue went to common, knowing they knew more about their mission than he. Although he was very surprised with how forthcoming Hildegard was. When they are alone in the hut he asks

"Why would you tell so much of our mission, why would you tell to dragon worshippers that we are working against other dragon worshippers, or at least say the name that suggests that is happening."

Hildegard had spent the whole meeting in the town hall being unable to read the kobolds at all, and she had not understood the silence of her companions, but from Zolgu's words at the end, she is reassured that their quest will be given due consideration by the Great Wyrm. I will spend the next few hours praying that the Ancestors reveal the importance of the mission of the Seven Heroes to him.

She leads, rather than rides, the nightmare along with the group to the edge of the kobold city, leaving her posted outside as they all retired into the little hut. Hildegard sits inside where she can see the flickering of flames outside the door to let her know that her watchful companion is still. She answers Tamphalic, "I felt confident that they were not in league with the Cult of the Dragon. I have never heard the name of Cynurrath, not in any reference I know of to the Cult's activities. Ruby was very hospitable to us, and I believed that they would see the horror of Sserah's trepidations for what they are, as Jodie described, an affront to the nobility of dragonkind."

Hildegard looks around at all of her companions. "We did not discuss beforehand how we would present our mission to those we encounter, and so I assumed... I have been frank about mine to those I meet, and usually, by how they respond, I can judge if they will help or hinder me. I believe in the truth and right of our mission, and I hope to rally others to our cause by our confident sacrifice in the cause against evil."

She frowns a little, looking worried. "But, I do not know dragons, nor kobolds, well, and I could not gauge their response. Perhaps I was mistaken in being so forthright with them. If I spoke too freely and put us in danger, I am sorry. It seems that their Great Wyrm will be giving our quest serious thought, but he could be deceiving us. Do you think they mean to sabotage us? Should we prepare to defend ourselves?"

"I had been hoping to get information about our location and the history of this place, and any relation to the ancient city where we will find the undead Drow and the blade of which we are searching," Korba says. Frowning he adds, "Though it seems that my voice does not carry down here. The kobolds seem to ignore a drow as if they do not know what we are capable of. Thought it does seem that perhaps that forthcoming may not have served us Hildegard. Being in opposition to a dragon of any kind may feel like an affront of even these would be dragons. Is there any way that we can find out to what they are up to out there?"

Jodie listens to Hildegard and Korba in turn.

"I agree Hildegard we did not discuss how much our quest we would reveal to the kobolds.  Honestly, I thought we might have had more time exploring the circle's destination.  We stumbled a bit into our situation, so there's no fault in the choices made.  Sometimes, you simply have to improvise."

"Korba, I too feel a little uneasy with how things were left with the Great Wyrm.  For all we know, he may be contacting the dragon or cult.  Part of me wants to make a take flight while he's away.  Ruby could be enchanted to lead us away, though if it goes wrong we risk the ire of the entire tribe.  I can be invisible for a time, but I won't understand their language."

Jodie turns to the gnome cleric, "Would you risk using the crystal ball to observe and influence the kobolds?"

Nickeline, already suspicious of the kobolds, does not find much comfort in Zoglu's surprising eloquence (Insight: 18). She worries about how they are going to escape this place as she follows the group into the hut at the edge of town.

"I don't think we should tell them anything we don't have to," she says, "especially nothing about our destination."

Quote from Faux_Beau >>

Jodie turns to the gnome cleric, "Would you risk using the crystal ball to observe and influence the kobolds?"

Nickeline nods. "I absolutely would," she says. "Messing with kobolds is actually one of the three originally intended uses of the crystal ball. I'll see if I can have this 'Great Wyrm' give us a guide. Um, if any of you has a better idea, just shout it out." With that, she takes out the crystal ball and tries to scry on Zoglu (curse roll: 3). She would use the crystal ball's Suggestion feature after observing for a bit and reporting what she sees and hears.

OOC: Zoglu will have to make a DC 17 wisdom saving throw. If he fails, he would have to make another DC 17 wisdom saving throw against Nickeline's Suggestion that he order Ruby to guide those well-behaved guests safely through their territory.
If Nickeline can't scry on Zoglu, she'll try to scry on Ruby (DC 17 wisdom saving throw) and if that doesn't work, she'll scry on the town hall, hoping that Zoglu is still there.

Wis saves

Scrying: 18

Suggestion: 6

Quote from Mister_Whisker >>

Wis saves

Scrying: 16

Suggestion: 4

Zolgu fails both saves... or at least... he should.

He burns a legendary resistance against the suggestion (yes, it turns out the little guy is a legendary monster... in-universe it just seems like his will is too strong for your influence)

The impression that Nickeline gets is that Zolgu is thinking something unpleasant, but hasn't actually decided for sure what he'll do yet.

Looking into the crystal ball, you can see the Great Wyrm talking to several other kobolds. He is speaking to them in the harsh Draconic tongue, and he seems to be giving the other kobolds orders.

He is notably not in some 'cave of spirits' meditating. He seems quite a bit more interested in the here and now. You recognize Ruby as one of the kobolds he is in the process of bossing around. He goes so far as to grab her and pull her close to him, whispering something in her ear. It is not hard to tell that Ruby is, to be frank, terrified of the Great Wyrm at this moment. Then he shoves her away, sending Ruby scurrying to do his bidding.

Jodie hears Nickeline's account of the Great Wrym's orders and is no longer comfortable sitting and waiting for what the great wyrm decides.  "Quick, which way does the orb point towards the tomb...  At this point, I'd rather charm a few kobolds than fight them.  The lesser of evils...  I think we should make our retreat while some create a diversion.

Jodie quickly looks outside their hut to see if the nearby kobolds have been alerted to new orders.   "If we need to leave by the docks, I'd like to get there as soon as possible."

Jodie waits for a moment to slip into the shadows. (10)  She holds the firestorm lute closely, awaiting the moment to charm Ruby or kobolds.

Hewelathan remains quiet as the party finishes negotiations with Zolgu.  He can't read their Great Wyrm's expression at all, and he couldn't tell how the conversation was really going.  "Better to leave it to a practiced charmer, like Jodie," he thinks.  

Once they get to the hut, Hewelathan looks around and says, "I've got a bad feeling about this." 

Once Nickeline starts scrying to spy on Zolgu, Hewelathan takes a moment to try to reassure Hildegard and maybe provide another holy person some friendly guidance.  Speaking quietly, mostly just to her, he says, "I admire your honesty and commitment to the Quest and your Order.  Just remember that the world is not divided between Firion's cult and those who oppose the cult and want to help us.  These kobolds may see no reason to oppose us in our Quest, but they may also see no reason to support us either.  Zolgu runs this entire community: the Great Wyrm could simply have other priorities to best benefit the kobolds.  Even if Zolgu won't betray us to Firion's cult, he could still hinder us or put us in additional danger if he thinks it serves the kobolds' interest.  I don't ask you to lie, but think of information like a sword or a spell.  Just as you would not show an enemy all of your weapons and abilities before you strike the first blow, it is unwise to share too much information at the start of a negotiation."

Hewelathan asks Nickeline, "Any luck?  What do you see?"

Quote from Faux_Beau >>

Jodie hears Nickeline's account of the Great Wrym's orders and is no longer comfortable sitting and waiting for what the great wyrm decides.  "Quick, which way does the orb point towards the tomb...  At this point, I'd rather charm a few kobolds than fight them.  The lesser of evils...  I think we should make our retreat while some create a diversion. 

Hewelathan nods but says, "It doesn't sound good, but do we want to abandon the kobolds so fast?  Even if we avoid them now, if we're successful, it sounds like we will have to come back through their tunnels again in a few days to get to the teleportation circle.  If Nickeline can continue to watch the Great Wyrm or Ruby, perhaps she'll gain enough information for us to figure out what they're doing.  Maybe we could pretend to follow along while really turning the situation to our own advantage?"  He doesn't sound confident about their prospects in either case.

"I don't like the look of it either," says Nickeline, still staring into her crystal ball. "Zoglu's not in the 'Cave of the Ancestors' meditating or whatever he said he was going to do; he's still in town and he's barking orders at Ruby and about a million other kobolds. He sent Ruby on some ominous, secret mission. I'm also kind of worried that he heard and ignored my Suggestion spell. I personally think we should just skedaddle while we still can and worry about the return trip when we get to it."

Before Jodie sneaks off, Nickeline says, "Be careful, Jodie. I'm going to keep watching and listening to Zoglu for now, but I will keep you in the loop telepathically."

Temphalic listens to Nickeline's description and asks

"Does it seem the kobolds are completely willing to fullfill whatever orders are given? Or do they hesitate and look afraid when they agree to them?"

Hewelathan gets a sense of the way the plan is going.  Before Jodie leaves, he says, "Jodie, I think that the orb just points us directly to the tomb, but that might not be very helpful if it's pointing at a solid wall.  We could spend days trying to find our way through these winding tunnels.  Until we're close to the old drow city itself, we need someone who can show us the way or some sort of map.  And the first thing we need to know is whether we have to cross the lake again before we even get started."

Hewelathan reminds the others that, assuming that there are few enough kobolds that there's even a chance at sneaking away unnoticed, he can help the group avoid detection once they're ready to go.

((does it seem we can leave this hut as we please? Or are there Kobolds outside the door?))

((There aren't guards stationed at the door... but there do seem to be a lot more warriors out and about patrolling the streets than there were when you first arrived...))

Hildegard nods in agreement with Hewelathan. "I was indiscreet... I apologize. I will try to be more circumspect in the future. And, in this case, I think there is a good chance that you are right," she says, after hearing Nickeline's description of Zolgu's activities. "It does not sound as though the Great Wyrm is doing what he told us he would be doing, and that makes me think he intends something else for us. It may be prudent to leave now, and not to wait for his designs, but... I feel as though I would like to talk to Ruby first, if we're able. I believe she genuinely wanted to help us, and she may still be able to, but we should not risk her, or ourselves, needlessly, if Zolgu intends hostility. There are other ways that we can figure out which direction to go. A guide would make it faster and easier, but we do have the orb, and that is a great boon, though our trek may take longer if there are winding passageways."

She looks to Nickeline, "Did you see where he sent Ruby? Perhaps we could intercept her and find out what's going on."