Quell the Kobold Incursions

Cathance watched from halfway across the tavern as the human woman, Nix, laid out a dragonchess problem on the table before her and studied it.  She was doing it all wrong.  Cathance had half risen to go correct the woman's strategy when she was tapped on the shoulder from behind.  She looked up in surprise to see Arnari.

"Come up to my office, I want to talk to you.  Bring Quelenna and Hikawera," the Freelancers' leader instructed her quietly.  Arnari wandered to another table, and started talking to Tai.  Cathance spoke to Quelenna, who was intrigued, and Hikawera, who was a study of deliberate indifference, but the three of them went upstairs to Arnari's office.

Once in the door, Hikawera hesitated, but his face quickly returned to a professionally jaded expression as he chose which chair in which to sit.  Cathance watched carefully, waiting for when Dryali's voice rang out with "Good morning, sunshine!"  Then she snapped her fingers a little less subtly than she'd meant, but still the prestidigitation made the seat under Hikawera's ass… warm, now.

Quelenna, seeing this occur, decided to stand against the wall.  Ana ignored it all and sat in the relatively plushy chair.  Tai sat in a chair designed for a person of his bulk.  Cathance, feeling satisfied, sat in a smaller chair in the middle of the room and stretched her 17" legs out in front of her, like a tall person.

Arnari took off her blue & gold duster coat and laid it over the back of an empty chair.  She leaned on her desk and picked out one of the papers, then looked at them all.

"Cathance and others," she started, "found an entrance to the kobold stronghold roughly 3 days' north of the Orderly Stones monastery.  They will pay 500gp for you to figure out and hopefully stop whatever is making them attack the monastery."

Arnari put the paper down.  "The kobolds have always been a thorn, but the current organization of apex predators is pretty worrying.  Also, the finding of the shrines to the Snake is worrying."

Cathance spoke up.  "What if we find out why, but cannot stop them?"

"Probably can convince them to pay half, but depends on what you find," Arnari replied. "If it's too big for you, don't run in and get murdered."

Cathance, offended at the "too big" comment, crossed her arms and scowled at the half-elf.  Unphased by the halfling, Arnari continued, "Mission is partly investigation.  If you find out, maybe just remove their cause.  But just come back, if it's above your pay grade."

There was a silence in which Cathance realized nobody else had seen the kobold cavern entrance.  Cathance closed her eyes, thought back to it, and started describing it, without opening her eyes.

The opening was 50'-60' up the 150' cliff, and was 20' wide and 10' tall.  There are kobold-spaced handholds which go 60' up the cliff and lead up to an entrance, which has guards hidden by brush.  Any assault on the stronghold would need flying mounts, and the opening would accommodate them, but it was unclear if the tunnels inside would be big enough for them.

Cathance opened her eyes, and said, "It would be good to discover an alternate entrance."  Ana immediately objected to the idea of traipsing about in Nature looking for an unknown and possibly nonexistent entrance, and everyone started debating about the cave mouth, and alternate entrances.

Arnari went behind her desk, and unlocked a drawer, pulling out 3 small pouches of dust.  This quieted the arguing Freelancers, and she then explained these were dust of reincarnation, and handed one each to Quelenna, Tai, and Hikawera, in a blatant show of distrust to the shorter casters in the group.

Cathance snapped her fingers, and Arnari got a prestidigitated hot foot.  Arnari cast a look of aspersion at her, then said to the others, "If you don't use them, I want them back.  They are expensive!"

Quelenna asked, "Do we have to pay for it if you use it?"  Arnari told her, "No, use it if you need it!"

On that note, the group left her office, and gathered their gear.  Cathance was unsure how long it would take, and bought 16 rations for 8gp from the quartermaster just in case.

The weather was not ideal for flying:  brisk and damp.  But the Freelancers packed carefully so Pelorus and Jigsaw had gear, and Quelenna could double-up on Spencer Thundersparks or Allegro.  They headed to Orderly Stones monastery and got there just as the Daystar was sinking behind the skylith, not that they could see that through all the clouds.

The monks took all the mounts and led them to the stables, and Taleisin informed them, "You are just in time for dinner!  Are you here to take care of the rest of our problem?"

Hikawera said confidently, "That's right!"  Fuifui smiled with joy, and exclaimed, "That's greaaaat!  We won't have to worry about weird creatures attacking our goat herds!"

The way he said this gave Cathance pause.  "Have you had any other troubles?" she asked.  Taleisin replied, "Thus far, Freelancers seem to have done good.  We're happy that you'll bring order to this part of the Northridge mountains."  He started leading them to the dining hall for dinner.

The next morning was Chaostag, and over a breakfast of porridge and goats' milk, Cathance mentioned, "I remember a place where it appeared they were going to set up, but we did our best not to be detected."

Taleisin became concerned.  "I can send…" he hesitated.  "I can go…" he paused again, torn.  Cathance reassured him, "We can check it on the way," and Taleisin was visibly relieved.

The other Freelancers were not so keen on this idea though.  "Out of our way!" they admonished Cathance, who told them serenely, "No, it's on our way."

They mounted up to leave, sadly; the weather was spitting, like it does when the clouds fail to make way for Duquesne.  Quelenna was seated behind Tai, Spencer Thundersparks looking at them both reproachfully.  Then they flew off into the fog, looking for the cave Cathance had remembered.

Despite the fog, they found it, about mid morning, and circled about the area, carefully looking if it had become occupied.  But they saw no sign of it, even when Ana sent Hawkie to look.  Cathance pointed out the Douglas fir to the others, and they landed, carefully looking for tracks.  Once down, she pointed out the little winged snake carved into the bark.

Once everyone understood the signs they were to follow, they took off again.  It was an hour before Daystar zenith.

Now that they knew what to look for, the Freelancers had no problem following the path of the marked Douglas firs northwest into the mountains.  Except, that is, for Cathance, who had first seen it all in the bright daylight and got turned around within the overcast, spitting weather.  The others quickly corrected her.

Maybe they were halfway to their destination when the light was starting to fade, so they found a safe place to camp for the evening and set a watch order.  Everyone but Cathance had darkvision, so Cathance got time off the watches.

Hikawera took the first watch, and heard rustlings in the grass, as one does when camping in the wild.  He heard owls in the distance.

Tai took the second watch, and heard rustlings in the bushes, and the pegasi stamping in their sleep.  Jigsaw was quiet, tethered away from the other mounts.  Towards the end of his watch, the hooting stopped, and Tai heard something else.  He looked up to see an owl, then realized it was much larger, and swooping at the pegasi.

Tai ran over to them and shouted with rage, waking up everyone.  There was an owl gryphon 20' up!  He grabbed his sling and sent two bullets at it.  One missed but the other beaned the creature in the chest.

• Quelenna, blinking, sat up, then stood up, getting her bearings.
• The owl gryphon, distracted from its anticipated meal, turned to hover over Tai.  It failed to beak him, but did slice him with its front claws.
  • Tai's rage reacted on its own, and struck the owl gryphon with force, and the owl gryphon let out a surprised, angry squawk.
• Everyone else was thoroughly awake now, and stood up.

Tai had his great axe out by now, and swung it expertly at the owl gryphon, wounding it twice.  It was bleeding profusely and slowed down.

• Quelenna ran over to them and hit it with a fan, then started on a flurry of blows.  The owl gryphon was overcome, and fell to the ground.
• Another owl gryphon swooped onto Quelenna, so she just redirected her flurry of blows at it.  Bludgeoned and surprised, this new owl gryphon utterly failed to hit the Wild elf monk.
• Hikawera said, "Early bird catches the worm, you fucking bling disadvantaged chicken nugget!"  His vicious mockery triggered a headache for the owl gryphon.
• Ana shot a firebolt at this new entrant, the fire sizzling in the owl gryphon's flank.
• Cathance followed up with a ray of frost, slowing the creature down with cold; she then moved next to Ana, not wishing to be eaten herself.

Tai swung his great axe again and missed; but connected with the return swing, slashing the owl gryphon and slowing it further.  He hadn't missed Cathance's move, and put himself between the owl gryphon and the small casters.

• Tai needn't have bothered, though, because Quelenna's fans sliced the owl gryphon's windpipe and neck veins, and it collapsed, bleeding out in short order.

Quelenna looked at herself, covered in owl gryphon blood.  "I'm a mess," she said.  Cathance started cleaning that up with prestidigitation.

"That's cheating," Hikawera said, as Quelenna was clearly appreciative.  Cathance ignored him, and looked closely at the owl gryphons.  "Were these a mated pair?" she mused, but really hadn't the first clue.

Tai also checked, and concluded, "Not really; too young."  He explained they were basically "teenagers" and they might have become a mated pair, if only.

Cathance:  so, no eggs.
Hikawera:  we already have breakfast, right here! <gestured at corpses>
Ana:  I am not eating that.
Hikawera:  you could give it a try!
Tai:  you'd have the satisfaction, it tried to kill us!
Ana:  I already have this satisfaction.  I don't need to eat it.

At this Ana crawled into her bedroll and managed to quite dramatically go back to sleep.  The others looked at each other, and so did Hikawera and Cathance.  That left Tai and Quelenna.  "I'm awake now, I might as well take over," the Wild elf said, and the big Silver dragonborn gratefully took to his bedroll.  Rage takes a lot of energy!

Quelenna's watch was uneventful, it didn't even have owl calls.  Ana had the last watch, and she took over from Quelenna, grumpy and unhappy.  Quelenna caught the last hour of her elven trance, as Ana sat there, resentful and unhappy at all the noises of small creatures stirring in the woods.

She waited as long as she could through her watch, but Ana really had to pee.  She withdrew to a reasonable distance for privacy and peace, and embarked upon answering her own call of nature.

Just then, she felt some small creature crawl into her pants, interrupting this important, peaceful process.  Ana reacted to this event in the manner of any reasonable person: she screamed, waking everyone up.

Tai sat up, his hand on his greataxe.  "Oh no, not again!" he stood up to see a light, and it was Ana, embarrassed and unhappy, who had cast light in order to inspect her underware closely.

Hikawera snarked, "Does a noble shit in the woods?  Apparently fucking not!"  He rolled over into his bedroll, as did everyone else.

Ana, seething, cast mage hand to make it feel like Hikawera had bugs crawling up his leg.  Hikawera was not fooled, and sat up like lightning.  "Go sit on an anthill!" he snapped, casting suggestion.

Ana shrugged it off, her gaze guileless.  "Hmph, at least you're good for something," Hikawera groused, and went back to sleep.

The morning of Vrontag dawned brightly, as the clouds had passed and the Daystar lit up the sky.  But the only two Freelancers awake for it were Cathance and Quelenna, as the others slept off the trauma of the evening before.

Cathance gazed at the corpses of the owl gryphons in the morning light, and thought those feathers would be worth quite a bit.  She started plucking them for later use.  Also, Ana might not want to eat any of that meat, but Jigsaw was happy to.  Far better than rations.

At any rate, they arose, and ate, and packed, and were off to find the entrance to the kobold stronghold.

But first they had to find the next Douglas fir, and that proved to be a challenge.  Maybe it was the angle of the daylight?  Maybe Ana was distracted by her pants being way too itchy in that imaginary way.  Anyhow, despite being what Cathance had estimated a half-day's travel away from the entrance, it instead took all day, and the Daystar was westering before they finally found the entrance.

Unwilling to attempt an evening soiree into the stronghold, they cast about for a well-hidden campsite, and camped there for the evening.

* * session break * *

This time, Ana took the first watch, and Cathance agreed to take dawn watch.  Nothing untoward happened to Ana this time.

During his watch, Tai heard a kobold patrol; one of them tripped and started cursing.  He warned Hikawera, who did nothing about it during his watch, other than pass it on to Quelenna.  Quelenna did not hear any kobolds, but heard more owl calls.

By the time Cathance was up, it was light enough to see.  Cathance was hungry and watching was boring, so she busied herself trying to turn the rations they had into breakfast, and pretty much succeeded by the time the others awoke.

Cathance:  hey guys!  I made breakfast!
Ana:  hey, I have that spice pouch!
Hikawera:  it's still fucking rations.
Cathance:  I hear you are a good cook!
Hikawera:  enh, not worth the effort.
Cathance:  …okay....
Hikawera:  I hate mornings.
Cathance <eyes wide>:  "good morning sunshine!"  now we know, why the chair!!!

Hikawera scowled, and did not help to make breakfast.  He still ate it though.

Once breakfast was finished, the Freelancers were ready to be about their business of getting into the kobold's stronghold.  Most of them were talking about what to do with the mounts.

"We should have Hawkie check first, so there's not 2 dozen kobolds right there," Cathance declared.  "Good idea," Ana agreed, "let's get closer."

They moved forward quietly, keeping an eye out for patrols, until they were near enough the edge of the trees that they could see, then Ana sent Hawkie circling upwards.  She relayed what the familiar was seeing to the others:  the ledge and "easy" climbing path for kobold-sized humanoids, confirming Cathance's description; at least 4 kobolds on the ledge, somewhat hidden; and the cave was actually pretty big.

With this intelligence, a strategy was formulated:  instead of Ana just chucking a fireball and going straight in, Cathance would trigger hypnotic pattern, then go up while the kobolds were all still caught in it.

They prepared, and then Cathance cast it.  Four kobolds were caught in the pattern, but a fifth one was not!

Quelenna used her winged boots to move from Spencer Thunderspark's back to the ledge, then struck the uncharmed kobold twice with her fans.

• The kobold roared angrily, and did some sorcerous thing and cast a spell at Tai.  To no avail; Ana counterspelled whatever it was.  The kobold screeched at her, then turned to the bespelled compatriot to his left and kicked him awake from the hypnotic pattern.
• The awakened kobold looked around, saw enemies and his bespelled friends, then scooped up a rock and threw it at the winged kobold to his left.  Then he stabbed Quelenna, the only Freelancer on the ledge, with his spear.
• The winged kobold cast spiritual weapon in the form of… a whip or a snake? ...at Hikawera, which hit the fat Fire sagani with force.  Then he struck Quelenna with a daggar.
• Quelenna, bleeding and unhappy, noticed a kobold sprinting down the hall away from the entrance.
• Ana, still in the air on Pelorus, cast flaming sphere on the ledge, then rammed it into the kobold she'd counterspelled.
• Hikawera flew to the ledge on Allegro, then dismounted with panache and a flip to land behind the kobolds.  Then he cast thunderwave, catching the three that were awake, one of the hypnotized kobolds, and Quelenna in it.  The boom echoed across the valley, and presumably down into the caverns below.  The winged kobold was punted off the ledge, but the other two awake kobolds were slain.  A guard with a sword woke out of the pattern.
  • Quelenna gave Hikawera a look, and the latter called saucily, "Sorry about that, I'll heal you shortly!" and gave her bardic inspiration.
  • Cathance said caustically to Hikawera, "Felt like ringing the doorbell?" Quelenna added, "We met the welcome party, but we're about to get everybody!"
• Cathance spared a look at that spiritual weapon.  It was a snake, she decided, and brought Jigsaw around the other Freelancers so she could see the cleric clearly.  Invoking tides of chaos, she sent a chromatic orb at flying kobold, which settled on thunder before it struck with a boom much smaller than the prior thunderwave.  The cleric wasn't looking so great, but was still aloft.
  • The chaos lingered with the air, and then tried to transform Cathance into a sheep!  She quickly avoided it with sorcerous metamagic.
• Hawkie flew into the cave entrance next to Hikawera.

Spencer flew up next to the injured kobold cleric, who Tai dispatched with his greataxe.  Then they flew to the ledge and Tai jumped off, slashing at the kobold guard.

• Quelenna attacked him with her fans, and crit! And then did it again!
• The kobold guard had had enough; he disengaged and ran down the hall, screeching.
• Ana landed on the ledge with Pelorus, then slammed the flaming sphere into the screeching kobold, who died in a fire.  She looked at the remaining kobold, still charmed, and held her firebolt to see if it was needed.
• Hikawera drew his magical daggar, and stabbed the charmed kobold, who slumped to the floor, dead.

With no more kobolds in evidence, Hikawera cast invisibility on Tai, who lumbered down the hallway to see what there was to see.  Hikawera then cast cure wounds on Quelenna, who was about to sing "Don't you forget about me," from an entirely different universe.

Cathance had not yet landed on the ledge.  She tried to angle Jigsaw to see down the hallway from afar, and was frustrated.  She started casting about for any patrols.

TIme passed, in which Tai kept going down the hallway, invisible and quiet, and also seeing no sign of kobolds.  After about 10 minutes, he arrived at a large chasm, which had a rickety rope bridge extending maybe 40 feet.  He peered at it across the gloom, but didn't trust the bridge and started heading back.

Cathance saw no patrols, and finally landed on the ledge.  She'd just dismounted from Jigsaw when Tai's voice sounded, from almost above Hikawera's head, "Hawkie should've come with."

Hikawera jumped out of his skin.  "Holy fucking hell!  I know I did this, but come on!" He calmed down some, and curiosity took over.  "What did you see?"

Tai said merely, "Ten minutes later, there is a rickety rope bridge."

Ana got down to business. "Vote for Tai in front and Quelenna in back.  Hikawera second, us casters in the middle," magnanimously including Cathance.

They looked at Ana, the wide cave, and the mounts.  Then they all went down the tunnel, mounts on leads.  The Freelancers were relatively quiet, but the mounts' hooves sounded loud in the cave, clippy-cloppy, clippy-cloppy.

It was pretty dark by the time they got to the chasm, and Cathance couldn't see a thing.  Nor could Quelenna, with the two large pegasi in front.  Tai, Hikawera, and Ana saw lots of tracks leading to the bridge – mulitple creatures' worth of tracks – and they also could tell that the bridge would not bear anyone's weight.

Tai suggested, "Fly across?" Cathance replied, "Not into flying blind."

Ana said, "I can cast light…" and Cathance's eyes widened.  "Wait.  I can cast dancing lights."

Everyone but Quelenna mounted, then Cathance cast dancing lights, and made them look like a humanoid (kind of Hikawera-shaped) crossing the bridge, as they all watched.

Nothing happened.

The dancing lights revealed a large staging area on the other side of the bridge, with a tunnel opening out directly across, and one a bit towards the right.  Hawkie flew over there and started circling.  Ana asked, "Can you split them for the two doors?"  Cathance said, "Sure," and did so.

Ana relayed what Hawkie was observing.  "Not as many footprints, on the right door," she said, "Or on the platform.  More towards the direct entrance."

The ceiling over there was pretty high; and the openings 15' wide and 10' tall, so maybe the fewer footprints meant there were flyers.   The Freelancers wondered if the footprints meant more kobolds were using the entrance directly across, or, if the winged kobolds preferred the right hand one.

* * session break * *

Ana said quietly, "I still think the cavern is booby-trapped."

Cathance looked at the Maker gnome up and down.  "Want me to run lights up & down?" she asked, and Ana shook her head.  "Won't trigger a trap."

Cathance squinted in the dim light.  "Might expose lying-in-wait," she offered.  That made sense to the others, so she strung the dancing lights 20' apart in a line, and sent them up the chasm, by about 100'.

The lights really didn't help Cathance much, so she paid more attention to what caught Jigsaw's eye.  Ana couldn't really see past all the big mounts, and Tai's disembodied voice was grim.  "There are traps everywhere," he said, appalled. <narrator voice: David rolled a 1 on perception>

Quelenna, Hikawera, and Ana all shrugged.  While Ana couldn't see, Hawkie could.  "It's a chasm," she said, "Run the lights more slowly."  Cathance did so, and Hawkie followed them, then shot ahead to scout.

The chasm to their left curved away, the curve more pronounced as it went upwards, giving the chasm a twisted feeling.  Hawkie saw no kobolds, but did see a bunch of little ledges, not dissimilar to the stronghold entrance.  Maybe there was a cave entrance to the north, in the same wall they were on.  Hard to tell with the lights.

"Should I make a dancing light…" Cathance hesitated.  "Make a ring for Hawkie?"

Ana:  I can do one better, and make Hawkie light.
Hikawera:  why not let Hawkie carry a copper, with light?
Ana:  why are you so practical?
<Hawkie returned, and Ana made a stick with light.>
Ana:  what first [ledge or cave]?
Tai:  inclined to do one up top.
Ana: let's clear that first.
Cathance <somewhat unhappily>:  what is our purpose?  Find out their motivation, or just wipe them out?
Hikawera:  we're trying to give ourselves some room.
Tai:  if we catch a couple isolated, we can try to interrogate, but right now - just right now - that's not it.

There were four ledges for Hawkie to investigate, and they took off with the light stick.  The dancing lights had winked out, and Cathance asked, "you want the dancing lights still?"  Tai said, "sure."

Hawkie flew to the lowest ledge to the right, on the near chasm wall.  They saw signs of kobolds, a copper armband, and a sling or two, with bullets handy.  Ana instructed Hawkie to knock the sling bullets off the ledge, and steal the armband.

Cathance moved the dancing lights low to watch the sling bullets go down.  The chasm had an 80' drop!  Some of the sling bullets hit the wall with a clatter; some hit the ground, and some splashed.  Looking more closely, the Freelancers saw a little stream.  The water appeared to be flowing south.

Eyes narrowing, the group all looked at each other.  Could this water be tainted by the pollution from Gwidion's tower?  Given where they were, near the north edge of the skylith, that would be a no if it was actually flowing south.

These contemplations were interrupted by a clatter as Hawkie dropped the armband in front of Ana, who absently picked it up.  Then they took off for the near ledge on the group's left.  Hawkie found more sling bullets, but no armband, and scattered those too with a clatter, as Cathance moved the dancing lights to watch.  The water was flowing south for sure; the bottom of the gorge there was flat-ish.

Hawkie flew across the chasm to the next ledge.  It too was empty but for a pile of sling bullets and a battered copper armband, which they brought back.  Ana bade Hawkie stay, and the Freelancers used the light stick to examine the armbands.

The hammered copper appeared to be an intentionally primitive design of a snake.  But Ana and Cathance frowned.  The snake on these armbands had a frill on its head.  Looking more closely, the frill was decidedly not snake-like, and the image had teeth, not fangs.

Cathance:  guys, look!  It has a weird frill, and teeth, not fangs!  It's not the Snake at all!
Hikawera:  so, someone failed biology.
Tai <darkly>:  better for the Snake to pretend not to be!
Hikawera:  don't get all metaphysical!

They all thought back to the other shrines they'd seen from the kobolds near the apex predators.  Nobody could remember for sure whether the snake depictions they'd seen were the Snake, or this frilled thing.

Hikawera and Cathance thought back to the kobold den with the Snake mosaic that Hikawera had smashed.  That had definitely been the Snake.

Ana gave the light stick back to Hawkie, who then flew up to the far ledge up on the right.  Hawkie found more sling bullets, and scattered them as well.  Because the ledge was so much higher up, the sound was louder as the bullets reached the bottom, or bounced off the chasm walls.

Hawkie flew north and up, to discover there really was a cave ledge.  The Freelancers followed the path of the little light.  Hawkie saw footprints there… lots of footprints; it was clearly heavily traffic'd.  The ledge opened up into a 40' wide cavern, with many stalactites and stalagmites.  Now, however, the cavern was empty… of kobolds, anyhow.

While Hawkie was doing that and Ana relaying their discoveries, Tai cast detect magic on the armbands, but they did not light up with any magic.

The Freelancers agreed that the large, heavily-traffic'd cavern was the most interesting, and they all flew up to the ledge to join Hawkie.  Quelenna rode pillion with Hikawera on Allegro.  No traps triggered as they flew through the chasm, although they all suspected one might, and Tai was sure of it.

They peered into the cavern.  The floor had many stalagmites, the roof was 15' up with some stalactites.  Remembering her trip through the prior kobold den, Cathance sent the dancing lights around the cavern roof, looking for carrion crawlers, but found none.  The ledge they were on was perhaps 60 yards above the stream murmuring below.

The Freelancers advanced cautiously, keeping the mounts 5' in the air, clear of the stalagmites and below the stalactites.  They all saw the kobold tracks winding through the obstacles on the ground.

Just as they realized the kobold tracks were taking distinct paths through the cavern, a stalagmite sprouted tentacles, one of which tried to grab Quelenna, but failed to hold on as she twisted away.

Quelenna:  oh euw!  Why does weird sticky tentacle stuff try to grab me?!
Hikawera:  why did you elbow me?!
Quelenna:  gross
Hikawera <looking>:  oh fuck, that is disgusting
Quelenna:  no touching!

Tai, understanding what happened, vaulted off Spencer Thundersparks, and swung his greataxe at the stalagmite, dealing a mighty slash.  Weird, grey blood oozed from where his greataxe struck.  Quelenna had not stopped complaining about the goo.

• The roper – for such was this "stalagmite" – opened its lone eye, then shot out 4 tentacles which easily reached the nearest Freelancers:
  • Tai avoided getting grabbed, so the roper bit him instead, ouch.
  • Hikawera was grabbed, and failed to clear his saddle properly as the tentacle yanked him 25' closer to the roper, hurting his legs.
  • Quelenna avoided the tentacle again, nothing but her sense of dignity damaged, and perhaps Allegro's eardrums with the volume of her complaints.
  • Cathance was grabbed, but cleared her saddle and was not injured as she was yanked closer.
• Cathance used misty step to return to Jigsaw.  She flew back towards the cavern entrance, casting ray of frost at the roper, but missing.
• Hawkie circled above with the light stick.
• Hikawera cried "Bad touch!" as he cast vicious mockery at the roper, which would have been afflicted with a headache if it had a head.
  • "Tell me you can fucking fillet this thing," he said to Tai, granting bardic inspiration.
• Quelenna was still opining "...this Thing has Failed to Understand how Much I hate Slimy things Grabbing…" as she did a triple flip over Hikawera to land right in front of the roper, fans out, just to have her strike be rebuffed by its stony skin.
  • Following up with flurry of blows, she landed one that got past its skin.
• Ana, in the back on Pelorus, had been murmuring "Nope nope nope nope nope" since the first tentacle manifested, and flew right back out of the cavern past the ledge, the "Nope" getting louder and slightly lower in tone as she left.
  • "So just ditch us, then.  FINE" the tentacled Hikawera snapped.
  • Ana's final "NOPE" was accompanied by a chromatic orb, which floated in, settled on lightning, and was deflected by the roper's rocky skin.

Tai flew into a rage, and a bolt of light shot out from his chest onto the roper, blinding it.  At the same time, he swung his greataxe, again slashing the roper and causing it to bleed that weird blood.  He swung again, but the light or the weird blood threw him off, and the axe missed the roper, but sliced through the light.  <narrator voice:  David rolled a 1>

Another beam of light shot out of Tai's chest at the roper, but since its eye had not yet opened back up, the light had no effect.  Tai swung his greataxe at it twice, but was rebuffed by its stony skin.

Ana, seeing the roper's demise, flew Pelorus closer, ready to cast ray of frost if the mephit attacked.

• A small creature, with pointed nose and ears, coalesced out of the dust on the cavern floor behind Tai.  It chittered in Primordial, "What, was I brought here, what do I do!  Maybe I'll bite!  Maybe I'll claw!"  Its accent was weird.
  • "Bite the gross thing!" Hikawera tried to persuade it, in Primordial.
• The roper struck with another 4 tentacles.
  • One wrapped around Tai.
  • One struck out at Quelenna, but Hikawera used cutting words to cast aspersions on it, and it missed her.
  • One struck at a surprised and dismayed Cathance, who thought she was out of its reach, but missed.
  • The last one grabbed Allegro, and reeled the unhappy pegasus in towards the even more unhappy Tai, Quelenna, and Hikawera.  Quelenna dodged away, but the other two were held fast by tentacles.  Tai just got smacked; but Hikawera was trampled by Allegro, trying to keep his balance, and got a pegasus hoof on his instep.  <narrator voice:  Lore rolled a 1>
• Cathance did not want this roper to heal itself, and cast chill touch.  She watched in horror as the skeletal hand scrabbled to get a purchase on the stony skin and then faded out, unsuccessful.  She did not call out, "Hey guys!  Even chill touch can't get to this weird stone creature!"  Instead she exlcaimed, "Fuck this shit!" and flew Jigsaw out to join Pelorus.
• Hawkie still had the coin with light, and moved to perch on a nearby stalagmite on the other side of Tai.
• Hikawera, held in place by a tentacle and an unhappy pegasus, uncharacteristically let out his inside voice, "uhhh, not the type of situation I'm terribly good at," and hesitated.  Then he scowled and said to the roper, "When I called this situation horse shit this is not what I meant!" again casting vicious mockery at it.
  • Unhappy Allegro struck the creature with his hooves, but they clattered off the stony skin.
• Quelenna was taking in who was restrained by the tentacles.  Closest to her was Allegro… she leapt over the roper and struck the tentacle holding Tai with one of her fans.  The gelatinous tentacle gave way and reformed.
  • Following up with flurry of blows, Quelenna grimaced as she connected with the tentacle with an unarmed strike, but she crit and freed Tai.  The next blow hit the roper's body, to great effect.  Then she jumped back to where she started.
  • More weird goopy stone-grey blood leaked out of the roper.
• Ana, murmuring "SO. DONE." sent magic missile at the roper, striking it with force.
• The small creature, which was a dust mephit, continued to cackle.  As it rubbed its hands together it muttered in Primordial, "Help?  O yes!  Help!!" and inhaled, more deeply than one would think possible for its size.  Then it exhaled a giant cloud of dust.
  • The roper saw it coming and shut its eye.
  • Tai, Hikawera, and Quelenna quickly shut their eyes against the dust.
  • Allegro, in a situation way out of his league, was blinded by the dust.
  • Hikawera sighed and said, "That's on me, I should have been more specific when I asked for help."

Another beam of light shot out of Tai's chest at the roper, but since its eye had not yet opened back up, the light had no effect.  Tai swung his greataxe at it twice, but was rebuffed by its stony skin.

• The roper opened its eye, and extruded a new tentacle, and struck with its free tentacles, to epic effect.
  • One missed Spencer Thundersparks.
  • One wrapped around Tai, who was right there, so no reeling in.
  • One reached for Quelenna, who dodged out of the way, disgusted by it.  Recovering, the tentacle swung up to the ceiling, and briefly stuck to a stalactite.
    • The momentum caused the roper to overbalance and fall over.
    • Tai fell over on top of it.
    • Allegro got dragged on top of it as well, and stomped the roper to death.
    • <Narrator voice:  the GM rolled a 1, and Lore rolled a 2 for Allegro.>
• Cathance, from just beyond the ledge, spun the dancing lights around and realized another stalagmite just beyond Hawkie looked just like the roper.  She cast chill touch on it, and it crumbled a little from the necrosis.
  • She said to Ana, "The chill touch did something to it!"  Ana's eyes narrowed, and she replied, "that's important."  
• Hawkie just chilled out, perched on top of a different stalagmite.
• Hikawera did his best to soothe the trembling, still blind, Allegro.  In Primordial, he said to the mephit, "Not what I meant, but still worked!  Thank you!"
• Quelenna looked around, and held herself ready to attack anyone or thing which attacked the Freelancers or their mounts… including the mephit.
• Ana, seeing the roper's demise, flew Pelorus closer, ready to cast ray of frost if the mephit attacked.

The mephit looked around, obviously wanting to start something, but it noticed Quelenna and Ana watching it.  It answered Hikawera instead.

Mephit:  I helped you, what are you gonna do for me now, so I don't attack you!!
Hikawera:  what kind of things do you want?
Mephit:  magic!  Gems!  Coins!
Hikawera:  let me see what I got.
<Hikawera made a great show of producing 20 gp and giving it to the mephit, which subsequently looked not dissimilar to a human with a pile of laundry.>
Mephit <ecstatic>:  give me more!  More!  More!  I never seen gold!
Hikawera <laughing>:  how are you going to carry it!
Mephit:  that's my problem?  More!!!

Quelenna did not understand Primordial, but she had no problem reading the body language between Hikawera and the small greedy creature.  She pulled a moonstone out of her belt pouch and held it up questioningly.  The mephit exclaimed in Primordial, "Put on pile!!!" which Hikawera translated.  Quelenna made a great show of balancing it on the pile.

Smiling, Ana produced the armbands the Freelancers had been examining earlier, and placed them on top of the pile.  The mephit looked like it couldn't believe its luck, and cried in it's high-pitched cackle, "Oh!  Copper!  That's great!  Copper!"

Then it collapsed in a pile of dust, leaving the small pile of wealth behind.  Hikawera looked at the others.  "I dunno if that was the best minute of its life, or what," and started picking up his gold.

Cathance, seeing no reason to stay out in the chasm with Jigsaw any longer, flew in and landed next to the others.

* * session break * *

The Freelancers debated about what to do next, quietly, in the cavern next to the dead roper.  Quelenna and Tai were in favour of pausing for a while to recover; Ana also favored doing so.  The real question was, should they try to get a full sleep, or just try to lay low for an hour.  They decided to lay low, between where the roper was and the entrance to the cavern; Hikawera pulled out his cittern and played it softly, his song of rest raising everyone's spirits and making them all feel better.  Ana renewed the light spell on the stick Hawkie still had, so they weren't entirely in the dark.

Hikawera was facing the others, with his back to the cavern, absorbed by his playing.  The others were watching him and starting to get ready to explore, when they noticed half a dozen kobolds approaching, trying to be stealthy.  Three of them were flying among the stalactites; all had wings.

"Hikawera," Cathance said in an urgent stage whisper, "look behind you!"  Hikawera glanced dismissively at the Mikumwes halfling and returned his attention to his cittern.

Peeved, Cathance popped dancing lights in a rotating square behind the kobold flyers, as she mounted Jigsaw.  They backed up 10' towards the entrance to the cavern.

• Ana mounted Pelorus, and shot a firebolt at the closest kobold, who was blue with blue wings, as she backed up the small pegasus like Cathance did.
  • That got Hikawera's attention.
• A smallish kobold approached, moving much faster than anyone would expect, and performed some kata that was clearly expected to impress.
  • Nobody was impressed, and the kobold was displeased.  Quelenna started to critique their form.
• The flying blue kobold pulled out a sling and shot Hikawera twice with the sling bullets.
• A flying green kobold did the same to Tai, but one of the bullets just whizzed past his head.
• On the right hand side of the cavern, a kobold hiding behind a stalagmite bigger than themself screeched angrily and also shot Hikawera with a sling bullet.
  • The screeches were too incoherent for even Tai to understand.
• Between and behind the other two flying kobolds, almost above the dancing lights,  was a brown kobold in robes, copper armband flashing.  "Go away!" the kobold burst out in frustration, in Draconic.  They sent a 5" sphere at Tai, and the chromatic orb flashed with the different elements before it settled on lightning, and crit the surprised Silver dragonborn, almost killing him.  "We have enough problem with the Snake as it is!" they finished, almost to themselves.
  • Tai was the only Freelancer who understood what they said.
• On the ground, a green kobold in robes cast something at Hikawera, to no effect.  Hikawera noticed it as an attempt at hold person.
• Hawkie flew past the kobold who had done the kata with the light stick, so the Freelancers could see these new attackers better.
• Hikawera turned to face these kobolds as Cathance stage whispered at him, "Did you notice them yet?"  Hikawera snapped, "yes," and his eyes narrowed as he regarded the kobolds with displeasure, trying to assess if they understood language…
  • Hikawera stepped forward, and cast bane on the flying blue kobold, the kobold who'd done katas, and the one who had screeched.  He laughed slowly and obviously, "A ha Ha ha ha!"
  • Then he turned to Tai, who still had electricity playing around his silver scales.  "We need you here, buddy!" he called out, granting bardic inspiration.
• Tai nodded and quaffed a healing potion, then said to the other Freelancers, "Hey, they are having problems with the Snake; that's what they said!"  He put up the potion bottle, then called out in Draconic, "Hey!  We've been seeing shrines of the Snake around the skylith, with kobolds.  What's going on?  Let's talk, before we fight and you kill me!"
  • Tai can be very persuasive when he wants, and the kobolds were not expecting to be addressed thus.  They were all obviously taken aback, and looked at each other, hesitating.
• Quelenna's own monk training was to interpret that as an opening, and she attacked the kobold who knew katas with her fans, surprising them with a slice; she followed up with flurry of blows.  The kobold stepped out of the Wild elf's first punch contemptuously, only to walk into her second punch.

Cathance hadn't missed how fast that kobold had moved.  She cast ray of frost at them, but was also having Jigsaw fly up a few feet, so it went harmlessly past all kobolds.  Unsure if she would get physically attacked, she drew her magical warhammer.

• Ana, not trusting what would happen next and very alarmed at what had happened to Tai, readied her own chromatic orb.
• The flying blue and green kobolds, and the one which had screeched, had rocks in their slings, whirling.
• The two kobolds in robes whisper-shouted at each other in Draconic, as if Tai couldn't hear them.
  Robed brown kobold:  do we trust them?
  Robed green kobold:  make them surrender!!
  Robed brown kobold <to Tai>:  Lay down your weapons and sit down and then we can talk!  We don't trust you, you've killed people already!
  Robed green kobold <in broken Trade>:  Surrender!  We won't kill you and we can talk!
• Hawkie landed on a rock behind the kata kobold.
• Hikawera looked at Tai, and said, "What are we doing, here?"  Tai said, "Suggest a compromise?  Otherwise, give it a shot?"  Hikawera looked at the kobolds, then drew his rapier and dramatically put it on the ground.  Then he took two steps back from it, and with his middle finger, cast blade ward on himself.
• Tai hadn't drawn his greataxe.  He held his hands away, relying on his persuasion, and said in Draconic, "How about we start, with you over there, and me over here, and talk at a distance?"  The kobolds, regarding the big dragonborn with the big axe, were dubious.
  • To Quelenna, he said, "Hold off for a bit, please."
• Quelenna already had a fist cocked back… and held it, at Tai's words.  She gave the kobold in front of her a warning look, but they did not look particularly worried.

Cathance was gaming out scenarios in her head, like she learned at the Institute of Strategic Studies.  She called out, "Are you really willing to talk?"  The kobolds all nodded cautiously, and Jigsaw landed again.

Cathance called out, "There have been a LOT of big animals."  She thought for a moment, then tried for inclusivity, "Bigger than all of us! … not him," gestured at Tai.

The monk kobold muttered, "Had to get loot somehow."  Hikawera glanced at them, then Cathance.  "Tribute, perhaps?"  Cathance replied, just as quietly, "Sounds like it."

Cathance put her magical warhammer on Jigsaw's saddle and dismounted, keeping her hands clear.  She brought the dancing lights closer, in a line across the cavern.  Ana also dismounted, keeping her hands clear, but she was ready to cast firebolt if anything went wrong.  She addressed the kobold monk, "Why did you need the loot?"

The three kobolds with slings were still whirling them, looking sharp, but the green kobold in the robes flew up next to the kobold who'd cast chromatic orb on Tai.  They were conversing in low tones in Draconic, and Tai heard them muttering "we have to not offend the Snake, but the 'avatar of the snake' is too greedy."

Tai looked around at the other Freelancers.  The casters were relaxed but ready.  Quelenna and the kobold monk were eyeing each other.  He looked at the kobolds.  They all had the copper armbands they'd found earlier.  The one that flew up had a bigger armband, and was probably a cleric of the Snake.

The cleric said in Draconic, "We might need help, with the avatar of the Snake; we think avatar is fake."  Tai nodded, and the cleric raised their voice in broken Trade: "The avatar of the Snake is coming to eat your face!"

The screechy kobold stopped spinning their sling, and screeched at the cleric in Draconic, "Not 'eat the FACE'!" and then in Trade, "Avatar is FAKE avatar!"

In the sudden silence, the other slingers stopped spinning the sling, and the monk relaxed.

Cathance asked, "Why fake?  How long?"  The kobolds' conversation was too fast for even Tai to follow.  Then one said "More than 2 years before, the Fake Snake came.  Almost 3 years!"

All rubbed their armbands, and flying green kobold looked at the cleric and said, "It's not right!"  Hikawera noted, "We saw that!" At the same time Cathance said, "We noticed!" The kobold team didn't seem to have a clear leader, but they all sort of looked to the cleric.

Cathance ventured, "If we help you, can we all go back to not attacks on each other?"  The kobolds looked puzzled, so Tai relayed that in Draconic.  The cleric said, "If we don't have to get all this tribute for this avatar of the Snake, no attack."

Cathance:  the Snake is not about tribute!
Hikawera:  that is true.
Quelenna:  do you want to be free of the fake snake?
Kobolds:  yes we do!
<Tai looked at them carefully.  The kobolds seemed serious; their clothes were ragged and they wore no jewelry.>
Tai <in Draconic>:  sounds like we have the basis for an agreement.  If the fake Snake were to be removed from the picture, who would take their place, and would they have a similar view as you?

The cleric tilted his head.  The flying blue kobold said a name, and the other nodded.  The screechy kobold exclaimed, "They don't like the Fake Snake either!"  Clearly, this Fake Snake was not beloved, and perhaps was the reason for attacking Orderly Stones monastery.

Cathance:  is the Fake Snake another kobold?
Screechy Kobold:  is not a kobold?
Robed Brown Kobold:  sometimes kobold?
Monk Kobold:  some times a snake, a very big snake!
Tai:  what sort of abilities… <pause> How does the fake snake fight?
Monk Kobold:  they usually make others fight for it!
Flying Green Kobold:  ...horible fingers, claws!
Cleric Kobold:  breath weapon, especially when big!
Cathance:  so, if others fight for it, if we were to fight it… would you help keep the others away?

The kobolds grew very agitated, and conferred.  The two still on the ground flew up, and Tai could not follow the conversation.  Finally the cleric said, "We will not fight it, we can … keep others away?  If you pretend to be our captives, we will take you there."

Cathance's eyes narrowed in speculation and the Freelancers glanced at each other as Tai replied slowly, "It would be best, if we could rest first, is there a place…?"

* * session break * *

Both groups – Freelancers and kobolds – conferred among themselves.  Cathance was most unhappy about this "pretend to be captives" business.

Cathance:  not a good plan.
Ana:  they don't have to shackle us.
Hikawera:  we'll get in the general area.
Ana:  they could be lying, but it's still better than the situation now, where we do not know where to go.
Tai:  really want to rest.
Ana:  let's say we were resting.  How do we do explain it?

The kobolds were stealing glances at the Freelancers as they conferred, then they started talking at the Freelancers.  It seemed more like announcing decisions than conversational, and it was spoken in a pidgin of Draconic, Primordial, and Trade, which was pretty hard for the Freelancers to follow.

Cleric Kobold:  you are not particularly close to the place of Egg Safety!  We don't want to take you there.
Screechy Kobold:  place of Fake Snake is not there!
Flying Green Kobold:  can take you to it by circuitous route.
Monk Kobold:  that's probably going to have safe place, to rest.

Tai passed along what he could, but Hikawera knew Primordial so they pieced it together.  Cathance said, "Best not to encounter Fake Snake at place of Egg Safety, because things can go wrong." Tai translated that to Draconic, and all the kobolds nodded.

Ana asked how long a walk it was.  The kobolds explained the place of the Fake Snake was two hours' by a direct route, but because they had to go around the place of Egg Safety, 3-4 hours at least.  Also the route needed to be longer, to allow the mounts, which would not fit in kobold-sized passages.

Cathance, Tai, and Hikawera tried to assess the kobolds' demeanor, but Cathance and Hikawera found their draconic expressions too hard to read, and Tai just could not tell if they were totally lying or totally sincere.

The kobolds then asked for everyone's weapons, "in case someone sees."  They promised to return the weapons after the first couple hours, once they reached a good place to rest.

Ana's eyes narrowed in speculation, this time.  "So it's dangerous, and you want our weapons," she said, unconvinced.  "Part of the disguise," Tai said, somewhat philosophically, "There are ways to make this safer."  He went into marching order and who would carry what.

The kobolds were adamant.

• Quelenna played off that her fans were decorative, and convinced them.
• Hikawera handed over his rapier, and hid his magical daggar.  He ignored the other knives he had on his person.
• Cathance held up her hand.  "The question is still valid: if we are going to a place of danger, what if we're attacked?"
• Tai handed over his greataxe.
• Ana, almost surprised to remember she had them, handed over her rapier and daggar.

Answering Cathance's question, Screechy said in Trade, "The first couple hours is safe from monsters!  But you might need to be wiggly to avoid some traps!"

Hikawera made a face; while he was adroit enough, his bulk meant he might not have the room to avoid everything.  Cathance laughed, and took off the bandolier of darts she rarely used, and handed them to Screechy.  She pulled the magical warhammer off Jigsaw, and weighed it, then handed it to the cleric.  "Will want this back," she declared.

The cleric had also seen Hikawera's face, and said, "Just need to avoid."  Cathance asked, "Will mounts be okay?"

The kobolds said, "Just no noise.  Want to rest now?"  Tai said, "Maybe," as Cathance said, "No.  Too discoverable."  Hikawera said to Tai, "Please convey to them, I am casting a spell."  Tai did, then Hikawera cast cure wounds on Tai, and he was much happier.

And then they were on their way.

The marching order was a bit loose.  Hawkie still had the light stick, and the cleric kobold had a torch.  The Freelancers tried not to be in the well-lit part so they were not so obvious.  The kobolds and the Freelancers were initially pretty stealthy and quiet, but that made the clip-clop of the pegasus hooves more obvious.

The group wound through the tunnels, with the kobolds confidently taking this or that fork as they seemed to get deeper and deeper into the mountain.  They did not encounter any other patrols.  It felt like they were going north, but in short order, the Freelancers were well and truly lost.

Hikawera:  how will we get out?
Tai:  that's a later-us problem.
Cathance:  don't antagonize our guides.
Tai:  have to defeat the Fake Snake first.
Hikawera:  this kind of optimism is why I like you.

A short while later, the kobolds stopped, and all pulled out some jerky, indicating the Freelancers should do the same.  Then they advanced, throwing the jerky to the side, into the dark, and giving whatever it was a wide berth.  Snuffling sounds could be heard.

They went through another cavern, avoiding a roper; and later, avoiding a bunch of bats.  For most of it, the kobolds were flying, not on foot… well, not for the bats.  Hikawera, Tai, and Quelenna noticed at one point, the cavern wasn't very trodden at all.

After about an hour, the kobolds halted.  "You need to fly," they explained, and the Freelancers mounted.  Quelenna did not ride pillion, but used her winged boots.  "You'll need a little fancy flying; it's only safe to land in a few places."  The Freelancers realized it was another crevasse.  They took off.

With Hawkie's light stick and other light, the Freelancers mostly managed.  In places, the mounts had to fold their wings and let momentum take them through.  Ana and Pelorus misjudged, and Hikawera cast fly on Ana so she could recover and guide Pelorus.  Jigsaw shied at a narrow opening, and almost dumped Cathance, but Quelenna saw it, flew up to them and pushed him out of harm's way.  "No, no, nope, nope," she murmured at the little hippogryph.

Once they were through the crevasse, the kobolds started searching for a place that could be used for a long rest.  Once the Freelancers understood, they also helped.  They found a defensible space big enough for all plus the mounts, with a nearby underground stream, so they could water the mounts.

The Freelancers hesitated on getting a full rest.  Tai asked the kobolds, "Are you willing to wait?"  The kobolds glanced at each other, and started handing the weapons back to the Freelancers.

The cleric kobold said slowly, "If you don't mind, if we send Screechy and one other to the place of Egg Safety, we can stay with you, they will set up diversion."

Cathance nodded and said, "It's like setting up an Ambush for Fake Snake."

Screechy and the blue flying kobold nodded and left, disappearing into an opening a few feet down the tunnel.  The other four kobolds stayed, clearly amazed at the idea of an ambush.

With four kobolds left, they decided to have a full rest, with a paired watch order.  Cathance was the only person without darkvision, so she was left out.

Hikawera & the flying green slinger had an uneventful watch.  They could hear bats flying in the distance, and the stream.

Quelenna & the brown-robed sorcerer had an uneventful watch.  Quelenna was slightly more comfortable, hearing the sound of fish splashing in the stream, as they would in a forest.

Tai & the green-robed cleric heard the bats, and managed to see them.  The two of them held still to not attract attention.

Ana & the monk, were not so great at watching.  Ana was focussed on preparing spells for the next leg of their adventure, and became absorbed in her spellbook.  The monk stared at her oddly, as they realized the Maker gnome was oblivious to her surroundings.  They did a circuit, then walked up behind the wizard, trying to make sense of the book over her shoulder.  Ana still didn't notice, even though the monk tilted their head inquisitively.  After 15 minutes they gave up and watched for both, resigned.

<narrator voice:  o hey!>

• Quelenna → lvl5!

Waking up was difficult, because it was hard to tell day from night.

Cathance:  we should make a plan
Ana:  where is this Fake Snake?  How can we set up an ambush?
Tai:  how can we lure him?  We can't really coordinate with place of Egg Safety.

Of course, before making a plan, it was time to make breakfast.  Hikawera did not complain about rations, this time.  Then what followed was a rather slow conversation as translations had to happen back and forth.  Of course as it proceeded, everyone's language became more and more pidgin-like, mixing Trade, Primordial, and Draconic.

Flying Green Kobold:  the two who went to place of Egg Safety is to stop them from coming and help.
Quelenna:  will you be helping?
<all kobolds shuddered.>
Monk Kobold:  we don't want to be involved in fight.
Sorcerer Kobold:  Fake Snake is too scary and we don't want him to go back to place of Egg Safety.
Cathance:  does the Fake Snake ever go to place of Egg Safety?
Cleric Kobold:  sometimes the Fake Snake is a kobold, he does go there then.  Sometimes, a snake.  Sometimes, a really big snake.
Hikawera:  is the really big one a snake, or… extra limbs?
All Kobolds:  extra limbs!
Hikawera:  oh no, young dragon maybe!
Tai:  what colour is it, when it's big?
<the kobolds all talked excitedly over each other.>
Kobolds:  we know where it lives but we don't go there!
- there's a place of dropping off tribute.
- not sure of colour
- when it first arrived … the kobolds who saw it, they are all dead.
<silence>
Sorcerer Kobold:  some tried to poison it, and it didn't work.
<Ana thought about this, and Cathance invoked the guidance of the Tortoise.>
Ana:  100% sure it's a green dragon.
Hikawera:  perhaps young, because lack of wider effects.
Ana:  dragons are very perceptive; we need to take that into account.
Tai:  where you planning to lure it?
Flying Green Kobold:  not gonna!
Cathance:  tell us about the place of tribute.
Cleric Kobold:  basically, there's a group of caves.  A little ways in front there's an irregular shaped cave in front that's the place of tribute.  2-3 tunnels lead into place of tributes, and one large tunnel to where Fake Snake is.
Monk Kobold:  maybe these mounts would not fit.
Ana:  what I'm worried about is if it flies off and then melee folks are standing there waving 'bye'
Quelenna:  I can fly.
Hikawera:  I can cast fly on Tai

Somewhere in there, they remembered breakfast.  They threw some ideas around as they ate breakfast.

Cathance:  I propose, we lure to place of tribute, and ambush from opening
Quelenna:  with what?
Hikawera:  when there's tribute, is there a way to summon?  Are there kobolds?  We do not want to give trouble.
Cleric Kobold <wearily>:  when there's tribute, we do kind of a Snake worship service, 'here is your tribute O mighty Snake'
Cathance:  could collapse the tunnel behind so cannot retreat to lair.
Hikawera:  shatter is my favourite spell
Quelenna:  but, if it changes shape, we have to block entire tunnel.
Cathance:  I forgot about that.
Ana:  I can use a toy to make noises and be distracting.
Everyone:  yeah, but
Hikawera:  I'm slightly inclined to fight in the larger space.
Cathance:  want to be in the surrounding tunnels, so we don't all get breathed.

By this point, they'd finished breakfast, and, still discussing, they started heading towards the place of the Fake Snake, which Ana was sure was a green dragon of undetermined age.

The Freelancers and 4 kobolds again tried to be fairly stealthy, which was of varying success given the discussion and the clip-clop of Pelorus and Spencer Thundersparks' hooves.

They managed to trip some traps involving rocks and stalactites, which only Cathance and Ana managed to dodge, perhaps by hiding under a mount.  Everyone else was pummeled by falling debris.

As they got closer, the kobold started pointing out the different paths leading to the place of tribute.

* * session break * *

Ana:  being in a wider area might be wise, because of breath.
Cathance:  but, the tunnel
Ana:  getting in & out, that's a problem.
Tai:  can try to get in before opening of hostilities
Hikawera:  might be able to lure it out, but if it goes back in, then it's prepared
Ana:  so, the idea is to sneak in before hostilities?
Cathance:  Hikawera's argument is compelling.
Kobolds:  we don't know this area's passages too well; the people who did, now are dead
Cathance:  do we know what kind of breath weapon?
Ana:  cone of unpleasantness

At this point, they stopped, and the kobolds started explaining the passages they did know, and how to get to the place of tribute, which was a couple thousand feet beyond.  They again emphasized there were other passages, which were unknown to them.  Then, they withdrew, leaving the Freelancers and their mounts, to figure out where to go.  They did not want to get any closer.

Unknown passages meant perhaps there were alternative routes into the dragon's lair.  Ana made sure Hawkie had the light refreshed on the stick, and sent them exploring.  After an hour, she reported that Hawkie had found what looked like another entrance, leading to the north.

Cathaance asked, "What if we lure the dragon into the tribute area, and then go in the lair?"  Ana's eyes unfocussed, then snapped back after a couple minutes.  "Doesn't seem to be a direct path from one to the other."

They all looked at each other in the dim light, stumped.

Cathance said dubiously, "Stealthier people go in first, and we don't go at once.  Then some people are in place."

Hikawera:  let's do it
Tai:  it's a plan!
Ana:  sold

The mounts would not fit in the tunnel Hawkie found, so as they made their way to it, they found a reasonable cave to stash them, with some light and food.  Then they proceeded towards the lair, doing their best to be quiet.

As they got closer, Ana had Hawkie hide the light stick, and Cathance trailed behind Tai, hanging on to the hem of the big Silver dragonborn's cloak.  They reached the end of the tunnel, to find a drop off.  Everyone but Cathance could see various stalagmites, a high ceiling, the cave wall curving forward from their left, and stretching out towards their right in the darkness.

• Quelenna used her winged boots to fly, silently, to a nearby stalagmite, and hid behind it.
• Ana rolled off the ledge, and moved south along the wall curving forward.
• Hikawera cast fly on himself, and flew to a stalagmite well past Quelenna.
• Tai jumped down gracefully and moved past Ana along the wall.
• That left Cathance and Hawkie, who hid in the doorway, because they couldn't see a thing.

Hikawera peered out around the hourglass-shaped stalagmite, which did not particularly hide his bulk.  Across from him, at the edge of his vision, was a 15-10' step up to a plateau.  Crates, barrels, sacks, were all piled up in front of it, and standing among them was a green kobold.

The kobold was watching Hikawera calmly.

As soon as Hikawera realized the kobold was watching him, the kobold's demeanor changed, and they cried, in a broken mix of Trade and Draconic, "Get me out of here!  Please get me out of here, before the dragon comes back!"

• Tai thought they were sincere.
• Hikawera's eyes narrowed, something was a little off.
• Ana thought, it said dragon.
• Cathance heard it, and thought, it's a kobold.

Hikawera replied with a suggestion, "Take a nap."  The kobold yawned, then shook its head, and growled in a much deeper voice than any kobold had, in perfect Trade, "You dare to cast spells at Carpalor?" <narrator voice:  oh! oh! jail for Hikawera! jail for Hikawera for One Thousand Years!!!!>

Hikawera, unimpressed as usual, replied, "Toddlers get so cranky when they don't take their naps!"

Carpalor stepped forward, and stretched… and kept on stretching.  Tai, Quelenna, Ana, and Hikawera watched as his body grew, and grew, his face distorting, teeth growing.  Wings burst out of his shoulders, a frill grew on either side of his head.  And before them stood a "small" dragon, by which I mean, considerably larger than Spencer Thundersparks.

Cathance couldn't see a damned thing.

Quelenna had zero reason to think the dragon hadn't seen her, so she ran right up to his right side, and struck him twice with her fans.  The fans just skidded off the dragon scales.  She followed up with a solid punch, which did about as much damage as she'd normally expect, which surprised her, because she expected it to do less damage than she'd normally expect, and so she didn't really know what to think, other than I punched a dragon.

• Tai moved to the northeast of Quelenna, bellowing in rage.  Nobody but Carpalor understood him.  The air around Tai shimmered, and he was surrounded by faint colours of the aurora borealis.  Then the Silver dragonborn exhaled on Carpalor, the cold breath of his kin.
  • Finally Cathance could see something.  But it was mostly Tai surrounded by pretty colours.
• Hawkie took off towards Tai, un-hiding the light stick.  Ready to dodge anything, they circled around Tai, Quelenna, and Carpalor, revealing Carpalor was indeed a green dragon.
• Carpalor lashed Quelenna with his tail, like a living mace.
• Cathance could see now!  She jumped down and ran to the nearest rock, putting it between herself and Carpalor.  Then she cast chill touch at the green dragon.  The skeletal hand grabbed the end of his snout, necrosis spreading from the fingers.
• Hikawera stepped out from behind his stalagmite, moving forward towards the green dragon.  Then he cast shatter, positioning it to miss the other Freelancers and also whatever was in that pile of goods.  The dragon seemed to wilt a little from the sonic blast.
  • Hikawera called out to Tai, "Give this one a spanking!" granting bardic inspiration.
• Shaking his head, Carpalor shifted left around Quelenna, then reared back and exhaled poison breath in a cone of unpleasantness.  Tai and Quelenna held their breath, avoiding the full effect of it, but Hawkie was also caught in the cone, and was overwhelmed.
  • Hawkie blinked out in a cloud of multicoloured glitter, and the light stick dropped to the ground, resulting in weird shadows on the western wall of the cavern.
• Ana was Very Displeased about Hawkie.  She cast an uplevel'd flaming sphere off Carpalor's left flank.  Then she rammed it right up the dragon's ass.
  • Carpalor roared in surprise at this indignity.  "How dare you!  So undignified!"
  • Hikawera started singing, "Great Balls of Fire"
  • "Get over yourself," Tai admonished him in Draconic.

Quelenna, reeling from the poison, struck the green dragon twice with her fans, in quick succession.  She tried to augment them with stunning strike, but despite being sure of herself landing the blows correctly, Carpalor shrugged them off.  Then she punched him again.

• Tai stepped up to the dragon, unlimbering his greataxe.  His first blow skidded sideways off Carpalor's green scales, but the second blow slashed him, slowing the dragon down.
• Cathance did not want to be breathed.  She stayed where she was, again casting chill touch on the nearest wing.   Necrosis spread from the skeletal hand, interfering with any healing.
• Hikawera stopped singing long enough to cast vicious mockery on Carpalor, exclaiming "I've had curries that burned worse than that!  Stop whining."  The dragon started to look like he had a headache, too.
  • Hikawera grinned at Quelenna, and resumed singing "Great Balls of Fire," granting her bardic inspiration.
• Carpalor leapt up, angry about his burned butthole, and flew to the entrance the Freelancers had used.
  • Tai slashed the dragon's undercarriage with his greataxe.
  • Quelenna missed.
  • Carpalor breathed poison on Ana, who also held her breath to avoid much of it.  Then he roared, and backed down the hallway.
    • He might be small for a dragon, but that was scary and in Ana's face, and she became frightened of him.
• Ana could no longer see Carpalor, and while that was just as well, she didn't like that he was so close.  She backed up, a bit towards Tai, until she could see where he was down the hallway.  Then she uplevel'd magic missile to hit him with force.

Quelenna weighed her options for a split second, then moved.  She flew up on her winged boots, burning her ki to get to the dragon.  Then she struck twice with her fans.  The first one missed, but the second one hit, and this time the stunning strike stunned Carpalor.

• Tai ran up after Quelenna, his leap to the top of the ledge looking amazing.  But that used up all his energy, and the aurora-like shimmer blinked out.
• Cathance used misty step to get to the top of the ledge behind Tai and Quelenna.  She saw the stunned dragon and cast chromatic orb at him.  The orb shot between the other two Freelancers and then settled on fire before striking the stunned dragon between his eyes, for as much damage as it could do.

The poison gas in Carpalor's head ignited, and his whole head caved in, in fire, as the dragon suffered an ignominious demise, burned in the asshole, stunned, and with his brain collapsed.

Hikawera:  should I collapse the tunnel?
Quelenna and Tai:  NO
Hikawera:  oh? Why not?
Tai:  Cathance fried it!
Hikawera:  good job!

Tai and Quelenna jumped down back into the lair as Cathance looked at the cooling corpse of the dragon and started on "This is what YOU get for attacking MY friends and breathing POISON on us," but really, the dragon was dead, so her spiel was half-hearted, and she too jumped back down into the lair.

They argued about what to do, next.  How do we get out?  Where are the kobolds?  What about all this stuff?

Well, first things first.  Cathance popped dancing lights, then Tai and she dragged the dragon's corpse back into the lair.  It fell in an undignified heap at the foot of the 10' drop.

Then they turned their attention to the lair, and what it might hold.  Cathance's dancing lights were actually dancing.

Tai:  Cathance is riding high from killing a dragon!
Cathance:  I just had good timing.
Ana:  good job!

Ana checked out the crates, barrels, and sacks where Carpalor had been standing initially.  They were mostly full of mundane supplies, some low quality gems, no coins.  She found a couple crates full of the armbands, and looking at them, she realized the figure on them was him.

Cathance, since she was right there, checked out if the green dragon had anything on him.  The answer was "not a lot", although there was some nice jewelry on his wing claws.

Quelenna used her winged boots to fly around the cavern.  She noticed there were additional exits from the plateau, which was oddly comfortable; this was where Carpalor had been actually living.

Hikawera and Tai clambered up to the plateau to check it more closely.  They found, near the western edge, a large pile of assorted coin, and a very nice-looking chest.  Hikawera gently poked at the chest with his rapier, to ascertain whether it was the dragon's pet mimic or something (it was not).  Tai frowned at the coins, and moved some aside to reveal they were sitting on top of a greataxe.

Quelenna flew over and landed next to them as Hikawera checked the chest for traps, and Cathance and Ana emplaced some crates so they also could climb up and see.  Quelenna pulled out a set of thieves' tools, and said, "I haven't learned to use these very well."  Hikawera said, "You can do it!" granting bardic inspiration, and Cathance invoked the guidance of the Tortoise.  Quelenna tried, and the lock popped open.

The immediate and obvious thing inside was 10 sparkly red potions, but there were other items in there.  They started pulling out the items, and Hikawera said, "What's magic?"

Cathance looked at the potions, then over at the dragon.  They looked like healing potions.  "These are poison!" she exclaimed.  "Don't trust these!"  She rummaged and pulled out two similar potions from her gear.  They had green ribbons tied around the neck of the flask.  "These are also poison!"  she showed them to the others, and then put them away again, carefully.

By then the rest of the items were laid out, and Tai pulsed his insta-detect magic to see what was magic.  Besides the potions, there were

• 22 50gp gemstones:
  • 2 Bloodstone (opaque dark gray with red flecks)
  • 1 Chrysoprase (translucent green)
  • 2 Citrine (transparent pale yellow-brown)
  • 2 Jasper (opaque blue, black, or brown)
  • 1 Moonstone (translucent white with pale blue glow)
  • 4 Onyx (opaque bands of black and white, or pure black or white)
  • 4 Quartz (transparent white, smoky gray, or yellow)
  • 1 Sardonyx (opaque bands of red and white)
  • 3 Star rose quartz (translucent rosy stone with white star-shaped center)
  • 2 Zircon (transparent pale blue-green)
• Jug (magical)
• Backpack (magical)
• Pendant (magical)
• Book (magical)
• Bracelet (magical)

Also, the greataxe under the pile of coins was magical.  Hikawera said, "The magic things will be identified once we're in a safer spot."

* * session break * *

Contemplating the entirety of the items and supplies they'd found, the Freelancers decided they would take the magical items, the bulk of the gold and gems, but leave the supplies and some of the wealth for the kobolds, with a note.  Tai started spelling out the note in Draconic while Ana went back to get the mounts.

It occurred to Hikawera that the magical backpack might have magical carrying capacity, so while they were waiting for Ana to return, he cast identify as a ritual, revealing the backpack to be a Handy Haversack.  Considering the giant pile of coins, that was handy indeed.

Hikawera proposed:  4 gems each, 700 gp each, right as Ana returned with the mounts.  They contemplated the items again, taking a closer look.

• The greataxe looked pretty standard-issue.
• The jug had 2 handles, one on each side.
• The bracelet was a wide band of scuffed leather, with 6 charms on it.  4 were kind of shapeless, but 1 was a tiny sack, and one was a tiny daggar.
• The pendant was on a leather cord; it was a bean-shaped black&white onyx.
• The book was a thick, leather-bound book.  Its cover was tooled with vague swirly lines, which were neither Nature nor geometric.

Ana felt a kinship with the book.  She ran her hand over it, trying to figure out what it was.

Hikawera:  don't fucking open it until I identify it!  Even if I identify it, it might have been fucking cursed!  Ask me how I know!
Ana:  how do you know?
Hikawera:  an armband of The Snake took away my spells!  I ended up selling it to the monks who removed the curse!
Tai <having finished the note>:  how do we get out?
Cathance:  why don't we send Hawk– oh, never mind.

Ana's eyes teared up.  The others fell into a discussion, and they decided the most practical first move would be to head back to where the kobolds had parted ways from the Freelancers, if for no other reason than they could at least remember how to navigate to that point.

Now that their thoughts had turned to the kobolds, the Freelancers had second thoughts about looting all the gold and gems; after all, their mission was not to take a dragon's hoard, but to stop the kobold incursions.  Each of them decided to leave a portion of what Hikawera's proposed split granted them.

• 200gp from Quelenna
• 2 gems from Hikawera
• 100gp and 2 gems from Tai
• 100gp from Ana
• 200gp from Cathance, mostly smaller coins

Hikawera started throwing everything in the Handy Haversack.  But the bracelet started vibrating, and Ana said simultaneously, "No no no no no!"  It turned out that the bracelet was a bracelet of holding, with all the hazards of trying to emplace one within the other.  Hikawera stowed the bracelet elsewhere.

Tai, meanwhile, used his own greataxe to take the dragon's head.  It was as big as Ana.  Cathance, disturbed, wanted to put it in the Handy Haversack.  To everyone's surprise, Hikawera threw a fit, exclaiming "No!  You'll ruin it!" and held the bag too high for Cathance to reach.  (Of course it was not too high for her to reach, Hikawera being dwarf sized and Cathance wearing boots of striding and springing.)  Cathance, bemused, said, "But, prestidigitation!"

Hikawera's reply was an emphatic, "NO," and Tai said, resigned, "I'll carry it."  Cathance did use prestidigitation, to keep it from dripping dragon blood and maybe poison and brains everywhere.

That settled, they were finally ready to head back to the place of partings.

They found the flying green kobold, alone, waiting for them at the junction.  They sighed in relief as the Freelancers appeared, then saw the head Tai was carrying, and freaked out.

Eyes fixed on the head, they asked in careful Trade, "What will you do now?"

Hikawera answered slowly, "Leave, I suppose.  We've taken care of Fake Snake; you have no more reason to keep attacking people; our work here is done."

The flying green kobold shifted uncomfortably; the Freelancers heard shifting in the tunnels around them.  The kobold made a hand signal behind their back which was perhaps supposed to be subtle but wasn't really at all.  Then they said, trying not to focus on the dragon head, "I will lead you out of here, if you promise not to hurt any of us!"

Quelenna said, a bit louder than usual, "No interest in hurting more kobolds.  They are hurting enough."

A small silence, then Ana elbowed Tai in the thigh.  "Tai, remind them!" she hissed.  Tai blinked, then said in Draconic, "There is much stuff of yours - for you - in the lair."

The flying green kobold nodded, then started off, indicating they should follow.  Tai peered at them; he thought that was what they wanted.  As he peered at them, he noticed they were no longer wearing the copper armband.

The route they took was easier than the prior route, since they were no longer trying to avoid kobold patrols.  The Freelancers occasionally saw one or two other kobolds, but never more than that, and never the same ones.  None had the armband.

While the route was easier, they were still going through traps.  They still had to stop and toss jerky, probably to appease a roper or some other hostile; they still had to mount and fly part of the way.

They got to a cavern with a lot of stalactites, inspiring Cathance to cry out, "Guys, watch out!"  But it was too late, and Ana bonked her head on a stalactite.  Tai turned to look and Spencer Thundersparks stumbled, causing Tai to slam his shoulder into another one.

A bit later, Allegro got a rock splinter above his hoof, and the group had to stop, so Hikawera could cure wounds on the pegasus.

After about three hours, they were back at the cavern where they'd killed the roper.  Here is where their escort stopped, since they obviously knew how to get from there.  The Freelancers took their leave and headed towards the exit.

Cathance had been trying, since the stalactite cave, to figure out if the kobolds were mad, but with the draconian faces and the low light, she was really unsure.  But then they were out, in the light of the westering Daystar.

The Freelancers, uninterested in doing any exploring, returned to the campsite they had used prior to entering the kobold stronghold.  It was good before, it was good again.

While the others set up camp, Hikawera started with casting the ritual identify on the items.  It was actually pleasant, having a camp with a bard playing the cittern.

The first item was the pendant, which turned out to be a pendant of inner strength.  Hikawera handed it to a surprised Quelenna and declared, "This is yours," then explained that it helped a monk to recover their ki faster, and how.

The next item was the book, which was a +1 Arcane Grimoire.  When Hikawera announced that, Ana asked "Can I have that grimoire?" as if she was expecting someone to stand up and reveal themselves as a secret wizard this whole time.  Instead, everyone said "Sure!" all at once.

The last item was the jug, which was an Alchemy Jug, as most of the Freelancers suspected.

But by then it really was time to rest, so they set watches and had an otherwise uneventful evening.

In the morning, Hikawera resumed, the next item being the greataxe, which was +1.  "Does Tai want the axe?" he asked, but Tai found himself tongue-tied.

The axe was really big, and Cathance gave Tai a sly look.  "Will it shrink to size, I wonder," she said.  That jarred Tai and he exclaimed, "This isn't a great axe, it's a fantastic axe!"  Hikawera handed Tai the axe, which after all was bigger than Cathance.

Hikawera was thrilled with the Alchemy Jug, and Cathance was interested in the bracelet; that left the Handy Haversack, which the group decided would be put to best use by Ana, who now had two large tomes and whatever other excessive crap she carried about, as a gnome wizard.

Cathance pulled the daggar off the bracelet of holding, but after another identify it seemed to be just a normal daggar.

By then they had broken camp and packed up; Tai and Quelenna led them confidently back to Orderly Stones.  At various stops to water the mounts and camp time on the way there, Hikawera methodically identified all the potions:  7 healing potions, 2 greater healing potions, 1 superior healing potion.

"Hey Cathance," Hikawera announced when he was done, "your suspicion was unfounded!  These are all teh good shit."  Cathance was pleased to be wrong in this instance, and replied, "Great!!  Thanks for checking!"

The second evening after leaving the kobold stronghold, the Freelancers were greeted at the gate of Orderly Stones by Fuifui and Taleisin.

Taleisin:  you're back, safely, how did it go?
Fuifui:  man, let them come inside, get the mounts settled, then they could tell it over dinner.
<Hikawera pointed at Tai, still carrying the green dragon head.>
Taleisin <discombobulated>:  that, Is a Dragon Head.  what – oh – hey – Come inside.  Fuifui had a good idea for once.
Fuifui:  I told you, man

The Freelancers entered the monastery, and the monks scurried to get the mounts stabled and everyone ready for dinner.  The dining hall was unusually crowded as all the monks were interested to hear what happened.

All the monks were not a deterrence to Ana, who used her Handy Spice Pouch to try to liven up the bland monastery food.  Fortunately all attention was on Hikawera as the bard relayed the tale of their adventure in the stronghold.  The monks were both impressed and distressed there was a dragon, but wanted to know if it had been specifically targeting them?

Hikawera replied, "No, it was dominating the kobolds, and forcing them to pay it tribute," and the monks looked at each other, murmuring.  Hikawera's eyes widened.  "Oops, we did not get the animal training story."

Ana chimed in, "They did promise, would not be a problem anymore."

"I'm disappointed at not finding out about the animal training," Taleisin declared, "But happy we will no longer have our herds & goats harassed!"

By then it was late, especially for a monastery, and everyone retired for the night.

The next morning, Taleisin pulled the Freelancers' fee from the coffers:  500gp each, in assorted gold and platinum coins.  He was less happy at the state of their funds, but Ana immediately helped a little, by paying 10gp for herbs, incense, and charcoal, which she used to resummon Hawkie.

After that the Freelancers bade farewell and returned to Cliffshadow.

It was the afternoon of Rochtag, 3rd prime post-Planting, when the five Freelancers returned to their Tavern in Cliffshadow.  They entered the tavern from the stables, Tai still carrying the green dragon head, which was beginning to smell.  That drew stares from the other Freelancers present; notably, Osric, Ondar, Mia, and Glesni were absent.

Arnari was in her office, writing down notes and assembling papers for a mission request; her desk looked possibly more precarious than it does in the mornings.

Cathance glanced at Tai, and pulled a couple of the sturdier chairs together, facing each other, in front of her desk; this caused Arnari to glance up, right as Tai placed the green dragon head thereon.

Papers forgotten, Arnari stared at it in surprise, then quickly checked if everyone was alright:  not maimed, not reincarnated.  Hikawera parsed this look correctly, and pulled out the dust of reincarnation she'd initially issued him, and put it on the papers as a paperweight.

Arnari:  was this what was causing the kobolds…?
Tai:  yes.  Was pretending to be an Avatar of The Snake.
Arnari:  hm.
Tai:  was demanding excessive amounts of loots.
Hikawera:  was clear, they'd given it already, everything they had.
Quelenna:  we did not take all of the dragon's stores because, in the spirit of the mission, we did not want them to feel the need to raid more travellers in order to replenish their tribal wealth.
Arnari:  probably wise.

Arnari's voice made it plain such wisdom was the last thing she expected from this group, and perhaps wasn't all that wise.  But anyhow, she got up and inspected the head closely.  As she did so, Tai and Quelenna also put their dust of reincarnation on her desk.

Arnari:  I hope you got some good stuff anyway, and didn't leave it all to kobolds.
Everyone:  we did.
Arnari <hesitated>:  I can tell you this is… a very small dragon.
Tai:  yes, I know.
Hikawera:  there's a reason they are terrifying in stories.
Quelenna:  did we know there were dragons on Duquesne?
Hikawera:  they said he only moved in three years ago, and was being careful.
Arnari <to Quelenna>:  not that I know of, but, they can shape shift.
Tai <nodded>: we saw this one shape shift.
Arnari <surprised again>:  usually they can't shape shift, this young.
Cathance:  maybe he was small for his age!
Arnari:  uh
Quelenna:  is that what they say about you, Cathance?
<Cathance snapped her fingers, using prestidigitation to give Quelenna a hotfoot.>

Ana, Tai, Hikawera, and Arnari considered what they knew of dragon lore, which was quite a bit, but they best they could come up with what maybe the young green dragon had been taught.

"The dragon's name was Carpalor," Hikawera informed Arnari, "make sure it's in the records."  Arnari nodded absently, still considering the head.  Finally she asked, "Do you mind if I have the head taxidermied and put it up?"  She smiled more like her normal self.  "I'll solicit opinions as to placement."

Everyone was delighted by this idea.

• Cathance → lvl6!

The next morning found the five of them in Arnari's office again.  Her desk was considerably tidier, and she was sitting back, harp in her lap.

"The five of you are welcome to stay here if you want," she explained, "but I can set up transport to Ripa Daneo on Commerce.  You'll find," she hesitated, "find more opportunities to grow there, as I did."

Hikawera's eyes lit up, he very much wanted to go.  So did Tai and Ana, and the three of them left to pack, or plan or something.  Cathance hesitated.  She had rarely been off Duquesne, this was her home.  She sat in an appropriate-sized chair and talked to Arnari for a while about what was best.  After all, Arnari also hailed from Duquesne.

Quelenna didn't stay too long for that conversation, and took off.

Over the next few days, the group prepared for travel.  They talked to the stablemasters about their mounts; they packed their gear and said good-byes.  Tai went to the missing person poster of his son in the front of the tavern, and added contact information.  Quelenna got a lead badge case.

Ana prepared a letter to her family in Stormhaven.

I've got lots of money.
I'm better than you, now!
I can be reached at Freelancers Tavern in Ripa Daneo.
Love you, Ana

Travel direct to Commerce from Duquesne was not cheap, and never direct.  With 5 mounts and persons to transport, it took some time, but Arnari finally secured the travel on the Audouze, an air elemental ship. The captain was Lausus Emeraldviper, a half-elf and his half-elven crew.  The ship would take the inward route, and make two stops:  first at Namorik, the great coral city on thalassa Olyokoma, and the second at Waypoint Chance.  They would depart on Vrontag.