The burnt door opens up to a large room. There are desks for people to sit, a table that's been tipped over and a set of stairs going up. In the center of the room is a strange dragon. It looks like a Wyrmling yet instead of being any known dragon species, it has 5 heads: One red, one white, one black, one blue and one green. The dragon bares an uncanny resemblance to Tiamat. It looks almost like a younger version of the goddess. She speaks, "Do not be afraid. Enter quickly and close the door behind you."
Varn enters, though carefully. He wonders what will happen if he brings one if those heads home, but at the same time, should one with draconic blood kill an actual dragon? That felt wrong in every way.
Once the door was closed and both Varn and Komos were inside the guard tower, the dragon looked at each of them with her heads. Taking a moment, the dragon spoke, "Either by the will of the gods and archfiends or by sheer coincidence, you have found yourself tangled in this place. I am sure you have many questions. I shall tell you what I know. I am Tiamat, the Dragon Queen. If only I could manifest my avatar at full power, I could fight against this corruption that threatens to consume the Material Plane... and then, all the other planes. However, with Neverwinter already being consumed and assimilated, I could only take on this weak form and must rely on the two of you to save us all." The supposed Dragon Queen took a moment to calm herself before she continued with her explanation.
"A few years ago, I sensed a presence coming from deep within the Abyss. It came from deeper than I thought possible. It was a faint presence from a distance that should not have been possible; a distance that seemed to be further than even the nothingness of the far realm. Faint though it might be, it terrified me. I began doing everything in my power to seal whatever gateway that damnable and maddening presence was seeping forth from. I called on my followers on the material plane to release me from my prison in Hell. Even though my followers of the material plane had failed to do so, I was able to close the gate deep within the Abyss and I thought I had succeeded in stopping the entity. Oh how wrong I was."
As the Dragon Queen explained she started to look anxious and frightened. Her explanation turned to frantic as she continued, "It was an evil, ancient and unknowable. In the brief time the gate had been opened, it had already sowed the seeds of ruin in the Material Plane. A human wrote a play, "Court of the Golden Emperor" and then he disappeared, wailing and laughing in his madness. I tried to do destroy every copy of that accursed book but it was already too late. People had began reading it and had come under the influence of the Golden Emperor. I swallowed my pride as the Goddess of Chromatic Dragons, sister of Bahamut, and plead to the gods to do something before it was too late. I screamed at the archdevils and archdemons to put aside their feud and their scheming to stop the Golden Emperor. I was ignored and brushed aside. Even my own brother thought my pleas were some evil scheme to take over back the multiverse from the gods. I failed to manifest my avatar in the material plane before the corruption began. At most I could crate a weaker, Dragonborn Avatar to be in Neverwinter when the corruption started but I would have been alone against the overwhelming presence of the Golden Emperor and I would not be able to stop it. Truly I had lost all hope and was ready to embrace oblivion in an attempt to escape the fate that was about to befall everyone but then..."
The Dragon Queen looks at Varn and Komos and smiles with a look of desperation on her five heads, "By some miracle you entered Neverwinter at the perfect time to be inside city as it began being assimilated into the realm of the Golden Emperor while also keeping your body and your soul intact. Now you are my only hope. Will you fight back the corruption and save the multiverse from becoming subjects of the Golden Emperor?"
Komos steps forward to the dragon god and says, "I will do what I can my Lady... though.. there is much here that is baffling to us. How are we to fight what we cannot find? We saw a bloody halfling earlier who disappeared when we attacked it. Who or what was that? Why do the creatures disappear to leave these glowing coins behind?"
Tiamat calms down and then answers, "My powers are very much limited here. I can only rely on my draconic senses and my eyes to analyze what is happening here. So I have not seen the halfling you are talking about. I will still tell you what I know and what I think. The Emperor is, among other things, a god of madness. If you had seen a blood halfling disappear, it is possible what you witnessed was a memory; an image of something that had happened in the past and not a solid, tangible creature in the present. I can not say who that halfling was without knowing what he looked like but I assume he must have been a resident of Neverwinter who had read the cursed play and became a herald of the Emperor.
"The disappearing creatures, I believe it is because that Neverwinter is currently in the process of being severed from the material plane as we know it and being connected to the world of the Emperor. I assume that has something to do with it. Sadly I do not know exactly how the Emperor assimilates doomed worlds into his own so I cannot give you a clearer explanation. I strongly suspect the assimilation process of Neverwinter into the Emperor's world is why the bodies are disappearing.
"The coins... they contain fragments of souls. The Golden Emperor severs worlds and locales from their home planes and fuses it with his own Eternal City. The creatures you fought were once either residents of Neverwinter or the residents of the various worlds that were consumed into the Eternal City. They became warped into the creatures you saw. Some like the Mantis creatures were created from the fragments of many different souls. Other creatures may have once been a person that had their faults amplified to consume them fully and then their body warped to fit that new identity. The coins they leave behind are fragments of their souls."
The Dragon Queen then licks her lips and says, "I can use the souls inside these coins to regain more of my power. If you give them to me, I can use it to help you to save the material plane. To fight back the corruption, we need to stop Neverwinter from becoming a part of the Eternal City. Somewhere, deep in the heart of the corruption, the Emperor is trying to manifest an Avatar in the Material Plane. You must venture there and stop the formation of the Golden Emperor's avatar and sever the connection to the Eternal City. Should you do that, the Material Plane should be saved."
Tiamat then turns to Varn and says, "What about you, Varn Dragonblood? Will you take on the duty to save us all from the Golden Emperor?"
Varn bows before Tiamat. He's a noble, perhaps, but because of that, he knows how to show respect, and who wouldn't show respect in front of a god? Moreover, this wasn't just any god, but the god of dragons! "Of course! I am honoured to serve you."He reaches back and takes his backpack off. Rummaging through his stuff, he finds the coins he had there. Sixteen of them, he had. He reaches forward and offers them to the goddess. "These are what I could find. I hope this is significant enough to help you, even if just a little."
Tiamat looks at the coins and says, "This is not much but I will accept it and give you things in return. Again, my power here is limited so I cannot do much right now. How much I can do will depend on the coins that give me some extra power."
Here's what Tiamat can do for coins:
1 Coin - All benefits of Long Rest + Recharge all magic items that recharge at Dawn. 1 Coin - Gives you 10 days worth of Rations each.
2 Coins - Gives you 3 Healing Potions (Common) 2 Coins - Gives you 1 Common Potion of your choice 3 Coins - Gives you 3 Healing Potions (Greater) 3 Coins - Gives you 1 Uncommon Potion of your choice 4 Coins - Gives you 3 Healing Potions (Superior)
4 Coins - Gives you a Common Magic Item of your choice. 6 Coins - Gives you an Uncommon Magic Item of your choice
3 Coins - Gives you a 1st Level spell Scroll 4 Coins - Gives you a 2nd Level spell Scroll 6 Coins - Gives you a 3rd Level Spell Scroll
10 Coins - Permanently increases your HP to what is the maximum possible at your level. (10 Coins because you'll be getting this for 5 levels basically. The price will drop after the first time you take this.) 12 Coins - Grants you Damage Reduction of -2 to all types of damage.
20 Coins - Increase Tiamat's Power (Effects above options as well as other things.)
"We would be selfish to do anything but save the power to return to you."Komos says. "Once you are strong enough you will be able to fight back against this Emperor."He then thinks and says, "It seems we should find more enemies to return their souls to you."
Tiamat explains, "Do not worry about that now. I have entrusted you to help fight against this corruption. Mystic swords, wands with magic, enhanced protection... anything to prolong the life of my champions and their ability to fight. If you die, then all will be lost. So if you feel something would be helpful, don't hesitate to ask for it in exchange for the coins."
"What do you think, Komos? Do we need anything? If not, perhaps we can get twenty coins for her. Didn't you also have a few?" He asks. There was only one thing that sounded appealing among the options, but really, he wondered what the goddess will look like if she could harness more strength.
Varn takes the ten coins from Komos and adds them to ten of his, then presents them to Tiamat. "These are for you, to increase your powers." The rest won't suffice for another twenty, but maybe they will find something else they can do with them. First, however, he wants to see how these affect the goddess.
"If that is what you believe will be for the best..." Tiamat takes the coins with her blue dragon head and chomps them down. She begins glowing brightly until blinding light covers her. The light subsides and she appears much bigger than before. She also looked to have gotten quite older from her Wyrmling from, now looking like a 5-headed Young Dragon. She asks, her voice a bit more deeper and more imposing than it was before, "Now then... that feels much better. Is there anything else you would like to trade for coins?"
Updated List:
1 Coin - All benefits of Long Rest + Recharge all magic items that recharge at Dawn. 1 Coin - Gives you 10 days worth of Rations each. 1 Coin - Repair all equipment
2 Coins - Gives you 3 Healing Potions (Common) 2 Coins - Gives you 1 Common Potion of your choice 3 Coins - Gives you 3 Healing Potions (Greater) 3 Coins - Gives you 1 Uncommon Potion of your choice 4 Coins - Gives you 3 Healing Potions (Superior) 4 Coins - Gives you 1 Rare Potion of your choice
4 Coins - Gives you a Common Magic Item of your choice. 6 Coins - Gives you an Uncommon Magic Item of your choice 10 Coins - Gives you a Rare Magic Item of your choice
3 Coins - Gives you a 1st Level spell Scroll 4 Coins - Gives you a 2nd Level spell Scroll 6 Coins - Gives you a 3rd Level Spell Scroll 7 Coins - Gives you a 4th Level Spell Scroll 9 Coins - Gives you a 5th Level Spell Scroll
10 Coins - Permanently increases your HP to what is the maximum possible at your level. (10 Coins because you'll be getting this for 5 levels basically. The price will drop after the first time you take this.) 12 Coins - Grants you Damage Reduction of -2 to all types of damage. 18 Coins - You gain the Eldritch Adept feat.
50 Coins - Increase Tiamat's Power (Effects above options as well as other things.)
"That is a good start. We will restore more of your power when we can."Komos says, adding, "So... where should we look for the minions of this Emperor?"
Tiamat advises, "I believe you will encounter them as you move on with your journey. If you plan to get me to full power so I may fight the Golden Emperor myself... I don't know if we will have much time for that. If he succeeds in absorbing this part of the material plane in to his realm, I am not sure if even I would be able to stop him at full power. For now..."
Tiamat stops and looks towards the door with all five of her heads. "Is someone there behind that door?"
"It is only me, Zorn." A heavily muscled kobold says as he pushes the door open. He wears studded leather, with a cloak over it, and has a longbow slung over his back, the tip barely above the ground. A rapier and a dagger also nearly brush the ground as he steps forward. He has the cloak thrown back to either side though, an ornate belt shown proudly. he lays a hand on the belt, adjusting it and, purposefully, drawing attention to it. Seeing the five-headed dragon he quickly kneels and prostrates himself on the ground, but, somehow, always making sure to display the belt prominantly. "Zorn comes to serve..." He says, peeking around and seeing his friends there.
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“Let’s check out the open door first” Komos says heading for the burned lock door to begin.
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
The burnt door opens up to a large room. There are desks for people to sit, a table that's been tipped over and a set of stairs going up. In the center of the room is a strange dragon. It looks like a Wyrmling yet instead of being any known dragon species, it has 5 heads: One red, one white, one black, one blue and one green. The dragon bares an uncanny resemblance to Tiamat. It looks almost like a younger version of the goddess. She speaks, "Do not be afraid. Enter quickly and close the door behind you."
Komos does exactly that, looking wide eyed at the dragon in front of him.
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
((Is Varn entering))
Varn enters, though carefully. He wonders what will happen if he brings one if those heads home, but at the same time, should one with draconic blood kill an actual dragon? That felt wrong in every way.
Varielky
Once the door was closed and both Varn and Komos were inside the guard tower, the dragon looked at each of them with her heads. Taking a moment, the dragon spoke, "Either by the will of the gods and archfiends or by sheer coincidence, you have found yourself tangled in this place. I am sure you have many questions. I shall tell you what I know. I am Tiamat, the Dragon Queen. If only I could manifest my avatar at full power, I could fight against this corruption that threatens to consume the Material Plane... and then, all the other planes. However, with Neverwinter already being consumed and assimilated, I could only take on this weak form and must rely on the two of you to save us all." The supposed Dragon Queen took a moment to calm herself before she continued with her explanation.
"A few years ago, I sensed a presence coming from deep within the Abyss. It came from deeper than I thought possible. It was a faint presence from a distance that should not have been possible; a distance that seemed to be further than even the nothingness of the far realm. Faint though it might be, it terrified me. I began doing everything in my power to seal whatever gateway that damnable and maddening presence was seeping forth from. I called on my followers on the material plane to release me from my prison in Hell. Even though my followers of the material plane had failed to do so, I was able to close the gate deep within the Abyss and I thought I had succeeded in stopping the entity. Oh how wrong I was."
As the Dragon Queen explained she started to look anxious and frightened. Her explanation turned to frantic as she continued, "It was an evil, ancient and unknowable. In the brief time the gate had been opened, it had already sowed the seeds of ruin in the Material Plane. A human wrote a play, "Court of the Golden Emperor" and then he disappeared, wailing and laughing in his madness. I tried to do destroy every copy of that accursed book but it was already too late. People had began reading it and had come under the influence of the Golden Emperor. I swallowed my pride as the Goddess of Chromatic Dragons, sister of Bahamut, and plead to the gods to do something before it was too late. I screamed at the archdevils and archdemons to put aside their feud and their scheming to stop the Golden Emperor. I was ignored and brushed aside. Even my own brother thought my pleas were some evil scheme to take over back the multiverse from the gods. I failed to manifest my avatar in the material plane before the corruption began. At most I could crate a weaker, Dragonborn Avatar to be in Neverwinter when the corruption started but I would have been alone against the overwhelming presence of the Golden Emperor and I would not be able to stop it. Truly I had lost all hope and was ready to embrace oblivion in an attempt to escape the fate that was about to befall everyone but then..."
The Dragon Queen looks at Varn and Komos and smiles with a look of desperation on her five heads, "By some miracle you entered Neverwinter at the perfect time to be inside city as it began being assimilated into the realm of the Golden Emperor while also keeping your body and your soul intact. Now you are my only hope. Will you fight back the corruption and save the multiverse from becoming subjects of the Golden Emperor?"
Bump
Komos steps forward to the dragon god and says, "I will do what I can my Lady... though.. there is much here that is baffling to us. How are we to fight what we cannot find? We saw a bloody halfling earlier who disappeared when we attacked it. Who or what was that? Why do the creatures disappear to leave these glowing coins behind?"
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
Tiamat calms down and then answers, "My powers are very much limited here. I can only rely on my draconic senses and my eyes to analyze what is happening here. So I have not seen the halfling you are talking about. I will still tell you what I know and what I think. The Emperor is, among other things, a god of madness. If you had seen a blood halfling disappear, it is possible what you witnessed was a memory; an image of something that had happened in the past and not a solid, tangible creature in the present. I can not say who that halfling was without knowing what he looked like but I assume he must have been a resident of Neverwinter who had read the cursed play and became a herald of the Emperor.
"The disappearing creatures, I believe it is because that Neverwinter is currently in the process of being severed from the material plane as we know it and being connected to the world of the Emperor. I assume that has something to do with it. Sadly I do not know exactly how the Emperor assimilates doomed worlds into his own so I cannot give you a clearer explanation. I strongly suspect the assimilation process of Neverwinter into the Emperor's world is why the bodies are disappearing.
"The coins... they contain fragments of souls. The Golden Emperor severs worlds and locales from their home planes and fuses it with his own Eternal City. The creatures you fought were once either residents of Neverwinter or the residents of the various worlds that were consumed into the Eternal City. They became warped into the creatures you saw. Some like the Mantis creatures were created from the fragments of many different souls. Other creatures may have once been a person that had their faults amplified to consume them fully and then their body warped to fit that new identity. The coins they leave behind are fragments of their souls."
The Dragon Queen then licks her lips and says, "I can use the souls inside these coins to regain more of my power. If you give them to me, I can use it to help you to save the material plane. To fight back the corruption, we need to stop Neverwinter from becoming a part of the Eternal City. Somewhere, deep in the heart of the corruption, the Emperor is trying to manifest an Avatar in the Material Plane. You must venture there and stop the formation of the Golden Emperor's avatar and sever the connection to the Eternal City. Should you do that, the Material Plane should be saved."
Tiamat then turns to Varn and says, "What about you, Varn Dragonblood? Will you take on the duty to save us all from the Golden Emperor?"
Varn bows before Tiamat. He's a noble, perhaps, but because of that, he knows how to show respect, and who wouldn't show respect in front of a god? Moreover, this wasn't just any god, but the god of dragons! "Of course! I am honoured to serve you." He reaches back and takes his backpack off. Rummaging through his stuff, he finds the coins he had there. Sixteen of them, he had. He reaches forward and offers them to the goddess. "These are what I could find. I hope this is significant enough to help you, even if just a little."
Varielky
Tiamat looks at the coins and says, "This is not much but I will accept it and give you things in return. Again, my power here is limited so I cannot do much right now. How much I can do will depend on the coins that give me some extra power."
Here's what Tiamat can do for coins:
1 Coin - All benefits of Long Rest + Recharge all magic items that recharge at Dawn.
1 Coin - Gives you 10 days worth of Rations each.
2 Coins - Gives you 3 Healing Potions (Common)
2 Coins - Gives you 1 Common Potion of your choice
3 Coins - Gives you 3 Healing Potions (Greater)
3 Coins - Gives you 1 Uncommon Potion of your choice
4 Coins - Gives you 3 Healing Potions (Superior)
4 Coins - Gives you a Common Magic Item of your choice.
6 Coins - Gives you an Uncommon Magic Item of your choice
3 Coins - Gives you a 1st Level spell Scroll
4 Coins - Gives you a 2nd Level spell Scroll
6 Coins - Gives you a 3rd Level Spell Scroll
10 Coins - Permanently increases your HP to what is the maximum possible at your level. (10 Coins because you'll be getting this for 5 levels basically. The price will drop after the first time you take this.)
12 Coins - Grants you Damage Reduction of -2 to all types of damage.
20 Coins - Increase Tiamat's Power (Effects above options as well as other things.)
"We would be selfish to do anything but save the power to return to you." Komos says. "Once you are strong enough you will be able to fight back against this Emperor." He then thinks and says, "It seems we should find more enemies to return their souls to you."
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
Tiamat explains, "Do not worry about that now. I have entrusted you to help fight against this corruption. Mystic swords, wands with magic, enhanced protection... anything to prolong the life of my champions and their ability to fight. If you die, then all will be lost. So if you feel something would be helpful, don't hesitate to ask for it in exchange for the coins."
"What do you think, Komos? Do we need anything? If not, perhaps we can get twenty coins for her. Didn't you also have a few?" He asks. There was only one thing that sounded appealing among the options, but really, he wondered what the goddess will look like if she could harness more strength.
Varielky
"Ah yes!" Komos says reaching into his pocket pulling out 10. "With my 10 and yours, we can give her back some of her power right now!"
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
Varn takes the ten coins from Komos and adds them to ten of his, then presents them to Tiamat. "These are for you, to increase your powers." The rest won't suffice for another twenty, but maybe they will find something else they can do with them. First, however, he wants to see how these affect the goddess.
Varielky
"If that is what you believe will be for the best..." Tiamat takes the coins with her blue dragon head and chomps them down. She begins glowing brightly until blinding light covers her. The light subsides and she appears much bigger than before. She also looked to have gotten quite older from her Wyrmling from, now looking like a 5-headed Young Dragon. She asks, her voice a bit more deeper and more imposing than it was before, "Now then... that feels much better. Is there anything else you would like to trade for coins?"
Updated List:
1 Coin - All benefits of Long Rest + Recharge all magic items that recharge at Dawn.
1 Coin - Gives you 10 days worth of Rations each.
1 Coin - Repair all equipment
2 Coins - Gives you 3 Healing Potions (Common)
2 Coins - Gives you 1 Common Potion of your choice
3 Coins - Gives you 3 Healing Potions (Greater)
3 Coins - Gives you 1 Uncommon Potion of your choice
4 Coins - Gives you 3 Healing Potions (Superior)
4 Coins - Gives you 1 Rare Potion of your choice
4 Coins - Gives you a Common Magic Item of your choice.
6 Coins - Gives you an Uncommon Magic Item of your choice
10 Coins - Gives you a Rare Magic Item of your choice
3 Coins - Gives you a 1st Level spell Scroll
4 Coins - Gives you a 2nd Level spell Scroll
6 Coins - Gives you a 3rd Level Spell Scroll
7 Coins - Gives you a 4th Level Spell Scroll
9 Coins - Gives you a 5th Level Spell Scroll
10 Coins - Permanently increases your HP to what is the maximum possible at your level. (10 Coins because you'll be getting this for 5 levels basically. The price will drop after the first time you take this.)
12 Coins - Grants you Damage Reduction of -2 to all types of damage.
18 Coins - You gain the Eldritch Adept feat.
50 Coins - Increase Tiamat's Power (Effects above options as well as other things.)
"That is a good start. We will restore more of your power when we can." Komos says, adding, "So... where should we look for the minions of this Emperor?"
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
Tiamat advises, "I believe you will encounter them as you move on with your journey. If you plan to get me to full power so I may fight the Golden Emperor myself... I don't know if we will have much time for that. If he succeeds in absorbing this part of the material plane in to his realm, I am not sure if even I would be able to stop him at full power. For now..."
Tiamat stops and looks towards the door with all five of her heads. "Is someone there behind that door?"
"It is only me, Zorn." A heavily muscled kobold says as he pushes the door open. He wears studded leather, with a cloak over it, and has a longbow slung over his back, the tip barely above the ground. A rapier and a dagger also nearly brush the ground as he steps forward. He has the cloak thrown back to either side though, an ornate belt shown proudly. he lays a hand on the belt, adjusting it and, purposefully, drawing attention to it. Seeing the five-headed dragon he quickly kneels and prostrates himself on the ground, but, somehow, always making sure to display the belt prominantly. "Zorn comes to serve..." He says, peeking around and seeing his friends there.