Dragon of Icespire Peak ***CLOSED***

Hearing the crash, He rushes as close as he can to the stairs. "Friend Minsys, are you okay?"

Tabesha'l sighs resignedly as she witnesses Minsys rushing in and falling into the pit. She swings about, brushes a few locks of her jet-black hair aside and addresses Tink with a quizzical and somewhat mischievous expression:

" Praytell, thou seemeth to be one on the side of a somewhat careful approach, Friend Tink. Shall we attempt to further our experiments on the subject of anti-gravity and generic weightlessness, perhaps ? It would seem yon orcish foes are quite prepared for a frontal assault on our part... It doeth, after all, make perfect sense. I shall give them this much credit, unlike some of our... shall we say, brasher companions..."

Massive thuds are heard south of Connak's position, seeimgly from the other side of the courtyard...simultaneously, the thunderous heard of footsteps from above cease. The wood elf notices three doors on the south wall of the courtyard: the eastern one has been smashed open, muchlike the others seen throughout the house. The middle and western doors appear firmly shut (from his vantage point) through the doorknob to the middle door has started to twist back and forth as if someone it trying to open it from the other side.

As he looks over the side of the collapsed stair that swallowed Minsys, Vaxis sees the lifeless, bleeding body of the barbarian impaled upon several sharpened wooden poles about 10 feet below the top of the stair case. He is face-down, head hanging limply from shoulders and not talking...not even apparently breathing...which would indicate to the Bahamutian priest that his  companion must be in serious trouble. Minsys' maul lay flat on the floor about 5 feet below him...out of reach.

Finally, the doors on the south courtyard will burst open, through which about 10 orcs started streaming with battleaxes at the ready...

Connak shouts, "What will it be?  Talk, or fight?"

An orc near the front of the brute squad (and clearly the leader thereof) holds out a rearward-facing palm and barks a command in orcish that halts the others in their tracks. "Talk..." the chieftain responds, in a tone communicative of a command itself, rather than the selection of an option presented by the rogue, "...then fight..." he follows with a grim smile revealing several broken teeth.

Minsys falls upon the spikes and all he sees is white hot searing pain.  Then the light begins to fade, his vision beginning to go dark.  His heart rate starts to slow and he draws a breath.  Then he's eyes snap open and he roars.  Then he groans, "Hey, get me off these things!."

Minsys will use his relentless endurance to go to 1 hp.

Connak hears Vaxis and Minsys and guesses things are not good.  He tries to buy some time, and if the heaven's align, avoid a fight.

"I've spent my whole life training and fighting to keep elven lands free of invaders the likes of you, and I still live to fight today.  So fighting us will be costly for your clan, even if you win.  As much as I was taught to hate orcs, I don't believe you don't have a place in Faerun.  I know a young white dragon has pushed you out of your territory, and I know you're allying yourselves with these fanatics hoping their boar god will get rid of your dragon problem.  But I'm telling you, these fanatics are using you.  Best case scenario, their boar god gets summoned, and does kill the dragon, then you'll have replaced a white dragon with a mad god and you're no closer to your home or your old ways.  Worse case scenario, you unleash this god and you have a white dragon and a mad god problem at the same time.

All of the other races have the same problem you do.  The white dragon is roaming all of the sword coast, preying on everyone.  Everyone wants this dragon gone.  If you work with them, when this is over and the white dragon is dead, all they're going to want is for you to go back where you came from and leave them alone.  Until then, to get rid of this dragon, we're going to need the might of orcs.  What say you?"

Persuasion: 15

The war chiefs scowls at Connak in what appears to be disapproval but then the brute begins to scratch his chin and Connak understands that the orc is simply trying to understand all that he'd just said...which was more words than the rogue usually spoke in the course of an entire day.

"What then....want me not kill you? Let you go? What then? What I get?!"  the orc challenged. Connak remembers that most orcs are not skilled negotiators and typically don't understand the concept of "don't kill me now and I won't kill you later." He remembers from his military training that when trying to parley with orcs, it is always best to have something tangible to offer.

Connak tries simple.

"You want fight for fun?  Kill boar fanatics."

"You leave people on sword coast alone, we kill white dragon."

"You want to be Great Dragon Slayer Orc Chieftain?   You kill white dragon with us."

Reducing hostilities through negotiation was not something Connak was especially skilled at, but his simple, pragmatic approach seemed to at least give pause to the lead orc. The brute starred off into space for a few moments as he thought about what his life would be like as the "Great Dragon Slayer Orc Chieftain..." Then he snapped back to reality.

"Dragon slay most of clan, dragon slay chief! You think YOU slay dragon?! What YOU gonna slay dragon with, huh puny elf? Little tiny arrow? Ha!" Almost on cue, the rest of the brute squad begins to laugh at their apparent leader's mockery of Connak (though none had yet made any advances towards the elf...)

Connak understood enough about orc culture to know that the orc's chiding was actually more of a question as to how he planned to kill the dragon, rather than the insult it appeared to be at face value. The orc was looking for some reassurances...which meant he hadn't entirely dismissed Connak's proposal...

Connak continues to stall for time, "WE challenge orc tribe.  WE go fight dragon.  Great Could Be Dragon Slayer Orc Chieftain go fight dragon.  See who kill dragon first?  I wager cask of ale, WE kill dragon with puny arrows and weak magics!"

While Connak stalls for time, Tabesha'l considers her options. She waves away Arvi's proposal right off the bat: " Yes, creature I know this was a foolish move on our friend's part to rush headlong towards danger in such a manner, and I appreciate thy comparison between his particular predicament and that of a boar on a bed of spikes, but it still doeth not entail we must set poor Minsys to burn on said-spikes. I thank thee for thy input, however I may have a different solution in mind..."

As she says this, she waves the head of her staff in a tight circular motion while saying the arcane words required to activate her Levitation magic.

" Careful now... we wouldn't want to drop him on yon spikes again, that would be..." she smiles, " somewhat hilarious. Yet also, thoroughly counterproductive in the situation at hand. So, let's see here..."

The orc band once again erupts with mocking laughter. "Prove yourself, puny one - me against you. Then maybe the Bloodthrashers follow you into a dragon's den..." The orc pulls a massive axe off his back and takes a few steps back into the courtyard and beckons Connak forward to join him in singular combat.

Tink leans closer to Connak and whispers, "Would you like a little help? I could make sure your wounds regenerate for a minute or so."

(OOC: Tink can cast Heroism on Connak.)

Connak knows how that would go...   "Fight Great Orc Chief here in courtyard, Orc Chief wins.  Great Orc Chief fight puny Elf outside in woods, puny Elf wins.  Great Orc Chief and Puny Elf fight,  Dragon wins.  If you insist, then fight in woods or puny Elf not fight alone."

Minsys feels himself lighten and he guides himself carefully off the spike.  He feels the blood start gushing from his wound.  "This ain't good..."

"Dragon live in mountain fortress...OUR mountain fortress! That not woods...we just eat you instead, tasty elf..." And with that, the orc pulls a small axe from a bandolier at his waist and heaves it in Connak's direction!

ROLLING INITIATIVE:
14 - CONNAK
22 - TINK + W.H.I.S.K.E.R.
22 - TABESHA'L
10 - ARVI
6 - MINSYS
12 - VAXIS
17 - ORC WAR CHIEF
16 - ORC 2
15 - ORC 3
13 - ORC 4
19 - ORC 5
14 - ORC 6
7 - ORC 7
5 - ORC 8
11 - ORC 9
13 - ORC 10

" High Moons of Ynilvathanir ! But why-oh-why did I not prepare the Hold Person spell this morne ?" Tabesha'l regrets as she spots the massive figure of the orc chieftain moving across the yard towards their part of the building. " Never mind that, then. I shall have to improvize, as my old preceptor Onarethril Elleruvyn taught me. Let us see if his lessons were put to good use..."

She throws a quick look up the stairs to make sure that their half-orc comrade has recovered his footing, then turns her attention once more towards the yard. With a lightning-fast flourish of her left hand accompanied with a peremptory gesture of her cobalt staff, she unleashes two bolts of fire towards the chief as a long, thin blade manifests from the shadows next to her...

Tabesha'l's motes of fire come within a hair's breadth of Connak's ears as they zoom past him and through the doorway before colliding with the orc squad leader's face and erupt into a shower of burning embers.

" Oh my Stars, I am so... so sorry ! Do not mind me, Thuniviel dearest !' the wizardess quips as she retreats back past the doors, " Art thy eartips quite alright, praytell ? Thou just goeth and doth what thou shallt do...  Yes, do proceed, by all means ! I shall be right behind thee !"