This was written both ways - mega end fight or long conversation. Group tried hard to keep it conversation and they succeeded. I had a tally sheet that I was tick marking on attack or not as the LARPing was going on based upon their comments, points, counterpoints, and attitude.
The fight would have been...brutal. And when explained afterwards how it was laid out, the group was like, "Yeah, glad to have dodged that!!"
Write up follows:
Untar and Skita and the small guard group of kobolds led us through the night shrouded streets and byways of the K’Morat Warren until we arrived at the former orcish keep. The walls were tall and thick, the doors repaired and supported, and upon entering, we spotted many many MANY kobolds in the area, all watching us with a mix of curiosity and fury.
Eventually we were led to the central room of the keep were part of the ceiling had been lifted away and two very large oak trees grew here, reaching through the roof and towering an additional 50’ into the night sky. There were kobolds about, many on guard at the multiple entrances and exits from the chamber, and a 4 count of tabard wearing ones near the center of the room. Dangling from the lowest branches of the trees were our missing companions, bound up and hanging upside down, wrapped in layers and layers of filthy off-white webbing. One of them was propped up on a table, and another one had her webs removed from her face, head, and neck – revealing Barb hanging there.
There was some conversation back and forth with the Untar and the other 4 main shaman. Untar wore purple and was responsible for the temple and grounds, Fanix wore blue and was the shaman in charge of the agriculture of the Warren. Indyt had on orange and his purview was the Lumber and harvesting part of the camp. Junga was wearing Green and was the Shaman in charge of the raids and hunting. And finally Kadge was wearing Red, and was identified as the High Shaman.
There were 2 others who were not here at this time, but the consensus was that Untar, Fanix, and Indyt were AGAINST the presence of the House Illytch Base Camp and wanted them all gone now even if it took an assault by kobold forces, and the other three Shaman had the opposite thoughts of giving the dwarves the chance to get the hell out on their own and NOT engage in combat. Kadge, the High Shaman was the tie breaking vote and for now, was siding with the peaceable group – but something had to change as the Warren was approaching a flash point as tempers were growing hot.
To the kobold’s way of it – we (us and dwarves) were murderers. That’s it. Through it all over 500 K’Morat had been killed in the last 2 months while only one…ONE of House Illytch people had met the same fate. True! Not one harvester, not one guard, and only the one Randari Ranger who had been slain by the 2nd Warren and eaten was the only member of House Illytch’s staff that was killed. This was … surprising to the group as we had assumed that before we arrived, that others had been killed. Assaulted, terrorized, chased – but no one had ever been killed before. Kadge wanted ot know if we thought her K’Morat were such fuck ups that that couldn’t kill a single mushroom picker?!?!
We all took our turns trying to convince the K’Morat that we were going to leave and leave soon, when the snows fall for sure. And if things were right, we wouldn’t have to come back again. But there was no guarantee we could make. The kobolds were 6 generations out of the dwarven/orcish war but their oral history had preserved much of what happened and they made sure that all K’Morat knew the truth – the dwarves came once and murdered EVERYONE once before and left. And there was no reason to believe that if they felt the need to, they wouldn’t come and do it again.
We bantered back and forth for over an hour, trying ideas and discarding them just as fast. Kadge seemed to WANT to find a solution that would appease all sides while Indyt (the most outspoken) was angling hard for killing everyone here and punishing the base camp with spear and blood. However, it took some wheeling and time but cooler heads did prevail and we struck and uneasy deal and balance: they would teach a few of us how to cultivate Firvin’s Cap mushrooms on our own to then teach House Illytch, if we would teach the K’Morat how to relearn the ability to read orcish (a skill that had been lost over the last 6 generations).
An accord was struck and Junga was then given to perform a scrying to Donna Duncarian at Base Camp, where the Reeve was astounded to hear from us and given to understand that we would be here for 6 weeks and then come back to Base Camp just before we all had to leave. We would have another communication in 3 more weeks time and then see them all in 6.
We were then treated fairly well. Escorted around the places in the Warren they wanted us to see and no other, the other companions were released from their bonds and nursed back to health. Dizzy had taken the most abuse during his time, bound up as falling from the tree, his body took the longest to get back to normal. Shim, Avulstein, and Thalin were the primary personages responsible for teaching the kobolds to read and they actually pulled a switch, teaching the kobolds to read COMMON instead or Orcish, and saying ORcish was the other language. The reason? So that the K’Morat wouldn’t activate or repair any of the wards or glyphs the Randari orcs had around the city many years ago.
Shim in addition to teaching did some horsetrading with the kobolds from quills and managed to learn that the orcish clan that had been here were the Four Shields and the Spears of Death – most likely now long wiped out and defunct.
Avulstein also swapped paper and quills with the kobolds when his opportunity came, but more importantly to the wizard, he was asked to impregnate the wolverine’s the kobolds already had – and the animorph form wizard took to that task with glee, doing his duty often when given the chance.
Thalin did the same (not the wolverine sex!!) an in addition had many hours of magical theory conversation with the Shamans about the nature of their ties to the arcane and divine and where their mana actually flows from.
Barb had the opportunity to enhance her time and attachment to the Ravenstone, using it every chance she got and often to push the 4-5 minute barrier limit on conversation slowly further and further back until she could get over 20 minutes at a pop before the stone started resisting her attempts.
Sybil worked with the mining and agricultural sectors, the gregarious and friendly Halfling learning some of the K’Morat skill with poisons and getting a ball of dried cat cut and a 70 count of crude blue quartz crystals as trade for her efforts. The remainder of the time was spent drilling very slowly a hole in the middle of each stone so it could be strung and/or worn.
Darius worked with Sybil on her quartz, but kept to himself, looking on the kobolds as vermin even after all that had happened and growing more angry with the cavalier Hjalgrim as the dwarven knight took it upon himself to spend weeks practicing spear drills with the kobolds, learning from them and them learning from him! Connal joined in on many of these drills but merely as Hjalgrim’s second and not directly in teaching the kobolds anything important.
Gryg and Dizzy stayed quiet and by themselves, watching the situation but not getting directly involved, merely biding their time until we could leave the K’Morat Warren and head home.
Finally after all had been taught and the process for growing Firvin’s Cap in a controlled environment had been exchanges, a 70 count of kobolds lead us away from the Warren and the 2 day journey back through the mountains, across the lake, and eventually at the very reduced Base Camp where the Bailiff and the remaining 23 inhabitants watched us come with wary eyes and we were returned to our employers unharmed. The High Shaman and the others who came bid us farewell and we watched them turn and fade back south and away into the wilds of the Morata mountains.
No comments:
Post a Comment