Kobold exodus – part 2

We’re continuing the D&D Essentials adventure. You should read part 1 to catch up. Now, I have a leaky memory. Couple that with me being a storyteller and not a story reporter, some of the scenes might be misrepresented. The more dramatic a particular event, the better I remember it. Thing is, sometimes I don’t slot them in the correct chronological order. *smile* But it might be more fun that way.

So we’re at an inn. The knight then described his appearance. He had a dragonfly on his helm, to signify his special skill “QING TING DIAN SHUI!”. My friend had decided that regardless of which campaign, which universe, which storyline, he will play a character with a propensity for barmaids and a special skill called “Qing Ting Dian Shui”. Doesn’t matter if it’s Lone Wolf or D&D.

The dwarf that hired us (I’ll just call him Boltac) was talking with another dwarf. They looked serious. None of us thought to try and eavesdrop. That’s because the knight asked if the barmaid serving him will provide… “special” services. Well, that barmaid refused, but she did say her colleague might be amenable to his suggestion. So suddenly a second barmaid appeared, who went with the knight into another part of the inn. The knight wanted to do, uh, her, right there in the middle of the inn. But Modeus said there were town guards around. The knight’s urge wasn’t that strong to fight half a dozen town guards just to release tension.

By the time the knight was, uh, done, Boltac and his companion were done talking too. Boltac said there appeared to be kobolds running around. I didn’t quite catch the reason, but basically the kobolds were disrupting trade, and Boltac wanted us to find out the root cause.

The kobolds came from the general vicinity of the marshes. I saw there were some interesting lands above the marshes. “Let’s go there!” I said. “Uh, lightning strikes and you cannot proceed!” said Modeus.

Well, we talked to the locals, but no one would lead us to the exact location where the kobolds were coming from. We did find out there were 3 cave entrances. The stormpriest went to get a map of the local region. Smart. We asked which of the 3 caves seemed to have more traffic, and went to investigate that one.

At that cave, before we could enter, a swarm of kobolds rushed out and started attacking us. But they were unskilled. Their bearing spoke of commoner folk. Well, I was slow of initiative, so I saw that my companions chopping down these kobolds didn’t seem to work well. They were like hydras. You chop one down, and another two appear. I backed up from my kobold (everyone had a personal kobold to fight. Modeus made sure of that), hid my staff, and held out my hands in a non-threatening manner (I don’t speak Draconic). Success on my Diplomacy roll! And 1 success marked down by Modeus.

We realised mowing down kobold grass wasn’t the answer, so the others started more peaceful gestures (except the knight, who’s as violent as ever). The others also entered the cave itself. The stormpriest started to bludgeon the supporting structure of the cave entrance. It weakened. Then he collapsed the entrance. Trake managed to sneak in with the others before the collapse. I believe the stormpriest was actually stunned that the DM allowed him to collapse the entrance. Now he’s separated from the party.

We went deeper into the cave, and there were dwarven runes everywhere. “At least they still have their mushrooms.” said the dwarven sunpriest. Wait, that sounds familiar…

Meanwhile, the stormpriest went to another one of those caves which was nearer. The one we were at was made by humans, and so was destructible. The stormpriest stood before a cave entrance built by dwarves. Collapsing the cave entrance? Ain’t hordly likely. He went down that cave.

Switching back to the main party, we found 2 animated human corpses. And a giant globule of rotting kobold flesh slapped onto each other, which now turned its attention to meat higher up on the food chain. Us. Well, we now know why the kobolds were fleeing. The stormpriest appeared in the same room too (via the second cave), but he bade his time while the rest of us fought the rotting trio.

I tried my Hypnosis spell on the giant corpse. “You like eating rotten human flesh…” I did a hand-wavy thing, and rolled… It worked! I got the giant to smash at the more seriously injured human corpse. It did huge amounts of damage. Awesome.

The stormpriest saw his chance and leapt into the fray. He did critical damage. The giant corpse was also susceptible to critical damage, and would die immediately when it happened. Thus was destroyed the more dangerous opponent. The human corpses needed one more post-mortem attack before they’re truly “dead”. With that done, and the party reunited, we descended further…

In the middle of a small chamber, there was a white dragon. Modeus started telling the sunpriest some story background that I can’t understand (because I don’t read D&D lore). The sunpriest’s Aspect got activated (he’s descended from celestial origins). My friend playing the sunpriest also started spouting virtuous sentences about how mighty we are and how we’ll crush the miserable excuse of a lizard that dragon was. Somewhere, he roleplayed that as the sunpriest spoke, there was a deeper voice joining him as he made his proclamations.

On a whim, I used my deepest voice and joined him. Whatever he said, I said too, though a split second late. It was as close to a simultaneous speech as I could do. Another friend asked me how I knew what the sunpriest would say. I didn’t. I just read his lips, and used my ad lib skills and knowledge of the English language. I don’t think anyone else noticed the simultaneous sonorous speech other than that friend, the sunpriest and Modeus. It sucks, but I get the feeling that whenever someone in our group makes an in-game roleplaying action or speech, the others seem to tune out. Maybe the rolling dice and calculating damage macho-ifies the inherently geeky nature of the game. (But it’s a roleplaying game!)

I dazed the dragon. But in the second combat round, Trake fell. The dragon’s lethal breath would have taken out my wizard even if Trake’s at full health. Yay, I got to roll death saves! Trake clung on to the living world in the third round. The sunpriest went down too, but was resurrected by one of his powers and his Aspect (I think). Trake didn’t have to battle Death again (the dragon died by then). I assumed Trake was automatically revived.

The entire game took 2.5 hours, including half an hour to fill up our character sheets. Modeus was pleased with his decision to take out the battle map, which sped up the gameplay a lot. In the next session, Modeus will try a modified movement system and see how that works out. I’ll tell you how it goes.