Chapter 4: Gluttons for punishment

[drpete]

I may have written that in an awkward way, so he was indicating that the kobolds live to the south, through the double doors, and the orcs were to the west. He didn't indicate which way the stairs down were.

The kobold ponders Torgyr's question, looking from one face to the next. Then he nods, answering in the affirmative.

[Zorroroaster]

Torgyr flips the way his arms are pointing when he realizes he was turned around.

"My kobold dialect is a little rusty. Sorry 'bout that."

[sulldawga]

Zim says, Ask him where all the undead went, that his brethren can move in.

[Stirling]

Quinn Coburg

Quinn will bang on the now barred door to let the kobolds know that an angry and aggressive for is just waiting to hunt them down. If it seems well secure he will return to the group and gather up the javelins thrown at us and also investigate the jelly.

"I've seen oozes and slimes at a distance. This is the first close up."Quinn will poke it will a kobold javelin and take a particular interest in the skeleton arm and sword.

[Zorroroaster]

In Dwarven:

"So. Tell me where the other entrance is. And apart from the skeletons we've dispatched on our previous visits, where have the undead gone for you to have laid claim to this area?"

[barkman]

Randolpho, moving his tattered clothing around, "Anyone know what to do with wounds besides ignore them? That's what I've done in the past and it didn't work out too well. "

[sulldawga]

Randolpho, moving his tattered clothing around, "Anyone know what to do with wounds besides ignore them? That's what I've done in the past and it didn't work out too well. "

Zim replies, If you have any Comfrey, I could treat your wounds. Alas, I have no healing herbs of my own.

[drpete]

Assuming you're ok just saying Torgyr translates for the kobold...

On the Dwarven Door:
"That path to the surface is pretty far from here. It's.... hrmmm, through there", he says, indicating the eastern door, "then you have to turn south for a ways. It wouldn't be a safe trip for you, ok? There are bad things that way... spiders. I'd take you, but that's on your heads."

On the Undead:
"Where do they come from? Where do they go? I dunno! Somebody killed a lot of them. Maybe the rest went to join their friends downstairs. They still come up sometimes, but not so much any more."

Outside the conversation with the kobold, the others give their wounds rudimentary bandages, and search the fallen. Quinn finds that the fallen kobolds are slowly turning to stone. Most of their javelins are of pretty bad quality, cracked or badly weighted. He can have a lot of them (up to 20?) if he wants, but there would be either damage or accuracy penalties for most, and they would be hard to carry. The fallen kobolds also have some copper pieces.

In the goo of the cube, Quinn is able to fish out the sword and the arm. The sword seems to be of extremely fine make, and of an unfamiliar, silvery steel (value unknown). He finds that the skeletal arm has a silver bracelet (approx 400 gp value), but is otherwise unadorned. Scattered throughout the goo in other little pockets, he finds a number of additional treasures: 3 copper armbands (120 gp each) and a few gems (2 moonstones, 50 gp each, and 1 emerald, worth approx 750 gp)

[Zorroroaster]

Torgyr watches as Quinn fishes out loot from various places.

"Nice haul. You've got a nose for finding stuff."

He turns and gestures towards the kobold.

"So the cousin here can take us directly somewhere if we want a guide. Do we want to make for the stairs? See what's below? Or explore somewhere else? Might be wise to avoid the orcs for now."

[sulldawga]

Zim opines that he'd like to stay on this level, not wanting to return from a lower level and run into orcs while low on spells and hit points.

[thirdkingdom]

Zim opines that he'd like to stay on this level, not wanting to return from a lower level and run into orcs while low on spells and hit points.

Plud the Panivorous

Plud agrees.

[Stirling]

Quinn Coburg

"well this is a nice little haul. I was expecting my fingers to sizzle a bit but these shinies seem to have survived being ingested well."Quinn will pocket the moonstones and emerald and put on a copper armband, offering the other two out to anyone to take (sword mistresses Emm and Audi?).

Taking the arm by the point of a javelin (he won't take any, perhaps snap them in two like twigs) and offer out the sword and bracelet to Solaine.

"fancy a new blade to dance with? Hope you can move a bit swifter than its' last owner though," he jokes.


Quinn lays no claim to any personal trove considering it all party treasure.

[kalstone]

Solaine declines. "Plud could probably use it more, being in the front line. Also, I hate to be the wet blanket but Randolpho is on the verge of death and I'm not much better. It may be more prudent to use our windfall to stock up on healing supplies and return at full strength."

[thirdkingdom]

Plud the Panivorous


"Thank you for the offer, but I'm not using any items of unknown provence before they are tested for curses or malevolent dweomers."

[Stirling]

Quinn Coburg

"Suit yourself, I'll add the bracelet to the trove but the sword seems best used to me".Quinn will give the sword a thorough check, looking for runes, inscriptions, heraldry; anything that would cause him to believe the sword has a dweomer or enhancement.

"hope its' not a sword of jelly summoning, with all these locked doors I wonder how our sublime friend slithered in?"

[drpete]

Quinn looks over the sword, looking for signs that it is magical. At the very least, it is obvious that it is made of extremely fine craftsmanship. The steel blade seems extremely sharp and stiff. Torgyr, given his dwarven background, can identify it as "Adamantine Steel", an incredibly hard alloy of iron and "adamant", a rare metal with the hardness of diamond found only in the very deepest of mines. The sword has "grooves" in it, which are inlayed with copper. The grip is made of polished wood, that you identify as black thorn, a wood often associated with various fairy tales. Its pommel has an 8 pointed "starburst" carved into it. You don't see any runes or anything.

[barkman]

Randolpho, looking a little pale, tries to staunch the bleeding, "I guess e should have checked we had healing supplies. I guess we were spoiled by brother Galen's work, perhaps we should reserve some of the cash we have recovered for joint expenses like the herbs and oil for the lanterns. We should probably get a second lantern as well, or hire an armoured torchbearer
, I don't like being a pincushion/target"

[Stirling]

Nice description of the sword. The copper lined grooves and star design provoke an image of electric, shooting stars...Quinn will give it a swish or two in the air and pointing it well away from the group, speak a few words that come to his mind in common and low Thulian. Things like, "El Zippo, Flash, AC/DC..."

Quinn would like to dig into his knowledge to see if he can remember some link about the fairy stories and the black thorn wood. Maybe a poem, nursery rhyme, legend. Maybe the tree is often struck by lightening, ?

[drpete]

Thinking about thorn wood trees, you know that they are more like giant bushes. They produce a berry that is very bitter and can give you the runs or make you puke. They have big thorns, and scratches from them can turn septic.

They are associated with warfare, wounding and death. Witches may or may not really use the thorns to prick dolls to cause their victims pain. There's a legend of a Princess cursed to sleep for eternity in a tower surrounded by black thorn bushes. Some folk tales tell of heroes being aided by this plant, as well... tossing a thorn and a thorn bush growing up to protect them... that kind of thing. In short, it seems to have some magical properties, but the association is somewhat darker than ash or yew, or trees like that. Plud trained with a thorn wood quarterstaff when he was a boy.

Adamant, on the other hand, is generally associated with things like swords that can slice through other swords, unbreakable magic locks and things like that. Torgyr knows that it is found only in the very deepest mines.

Copper, on the other hand, is a cheap metal. It does give the sword a cool look, but it's not the stuff of woodsman legends. You generally know that it's associated with love charms, and Zim knows it's associated with a minor love goddess known as Kytheria. Climent can add that it's a good conductor of different kinds of energy. Randolpho knows it's good luck... "Find a penny, pick it up" and all that jazz.

[sulldawga]

Zim says, I am fine with retreating for now and returning at full strength. But that still leaves the question of what to do with the kobold. I am in favor of killing any enemy who tried to kill me, especially in such a cowardly manner while I was engaged with another enemy. This assumes someone hasn't promised to let him go free in exchange for whatever he's told us so far.