Dragons of Autumn-DragonLance II

[wxdruid]

((The down pot is the one Lagri, Bryce and Hector were in and is about 40 feet down from the upper floor. The up pot with the 6 dragon men is about 250 feet lower than the upper floor and is below Lagri.))

[Annalia]

Hector

Hector is a bit startled to find the kender suddenly wrapping her arms around his waist - startled and wary, in fact. "You know, I really don't think we should let them escape," he tells the other.

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We were climbing to get back to the upper platform, with the others.
SpotCheck - (1d20-1)[7]

[GrassyGnoll]

Lagri

The barbarian looks between his departing pot-mates and the recently vacated platform of dragonmen.

"For vat?" he wonders aloud. Accustomed to mainlanders acting oddly, he shrugs.

"Trow me halberd, da!? Un my fishink net!" he calls after Hector and Bryce.

[Toliudar]

Pearl

Hector's comment brings a grimace to Pearl's lips.

"It's not that I disagree, but I can't event see them, let alone stop them. Any ideas?"

Pearl stops herself from sending another arrow after the two ineffective ones she's already loosed. She calls down to Lagri (and, perhaps, Bryce).

"Without a counterweight, we're not going to be able to start up the pots again. We can lower a rope to secure you as you climb the chain, if you want. Wouldn't your halberd just get the way of climbing?"

[GrassyGnoll]

Lagri

Not to be imposed upon by his position, Lagri hollers back up the well quizzically.

"Vat significance zis vord 'koonter-veits'? Eef ve are followink zese dragonmen, brink me bag past corner. Is vit thrall Wleric in hall. Many rope insides!"

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It just occurred to me that Vleric may begin Va-leric as well as Vh-leric.

And that in either case, Lagri would pronounce it Wleric.

[codexgigas]

Bryce

Bryce continues climbing up the chain.

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Climb: (1d20-4)[11]

[Toliudar]

Pearl

What Lagri has in mind becomes a tiny bit clearer in Pearl's mind. She calls down to him.

"If you think that I'm shimmying down hundreds of feet of chain, towards a bunch of dragon men who know that we're coming, and also dealing with your thrall up here, you've got another thing coming."

There is steel in her voice that belies her youth.

"Now start climbing."

[Annalia]

Hector

Hector glanced at Pearl. He had been willing to climb down that chain. "So... we'll need another way down."

[GrassyGnoll]

Lagri

Lagri bites his lip as he looks up. He squats ready to jump and bellows up.

"HA, is children playink, this!"

Lagri leaps onto the chain, swinging arm over arm in a mad grapple upward. He doesn't bother to secure his legs, holding on by his tethered hands.

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Climb:(1d20+4)[19]

[wxdruid]

Hector doesn’t spot anything, but, Tygerlilly is down towards the long hallway, busy counting something… The gully dwarves are getting more curious by the moment and the group hasn’t whipped them or beat them, so they creep closer to congregate around the group. One, pushed by the others, daringly pulls on Pearl’s sleeve, What you want? Why you stop pots? She or he is happier to have the dragon men stuck down below away from them, but, the others want to know.

Bryce makes it up and then Lagri makes it up to the top of the swinging chain. They come out of the hole and everyone is back together.

---------- Round 10 ----------

Kalrin 22
Lagri 22 (nonlethal dam: 4, regular dam: 7 – from jumping)
Gneiss 14
Hector 14 (nonlethal dam: 1 – from jumping)
Bryce 4 (nonlethal dam: 4, regular dam: 2 – from falling)
Pearl
Tygerlilly
Dragon men - 6 more at the bottom somewhere
Ogre (dead)

((jumping down requires a jump check and a balance check. The ‘down’ pot – gully dwarves. The ‘up’ pot – nothing))

[SilentNight]

Kalrin squats down to look the gully dwarf face to face. "A big rock to drop on the scaly men. Think you can help me?"

[GrassyGnoll]

Lagri

Lagru pulls himself over the well's edge, stooping to pick up his halberd and run back down the hallway. He picks up his satchel and drags back Vleric's body.

"Make hurry," he chides over his shoulder as he props Vleric against the wall just right of the well, "Zis metal vizardry is wery angerink mina."

[Toliudar]

Pearl

Pearl crouches alongside Kalrin to speak with the bold gully dwarf.

"Friend, we have a very important meeting with the Highbulb. Highbulp. And we don't want the dragon-men getting in the way of that.

"Now, if the dragon-men are using you as counterweights..."

She watches the gully dwarf's eyes glaze over, and hastily rephrases.

"Use dwarvesto make one pot go down when they want to go up. But that means that there must be some other way for you to come back up here, to be ready to go down again. Can you tell us about that? And show us where it is?"

[wxdruid]

The gully dwarf looks at Kalrin, You want rock? Big rock? She looks expectantly at him.

Lagri climbs the rest of the way up and collects his reluctant thrall from the far end of the corridor.

She looks confusedly between Pearl and Kalrin, Which you want? Rock? or down?

--------------------

Kalrin
Lagri (nonlethal dam: 4, regular dam: 7 – from jumping)
Gneiss
Hector (nonlethal dam: 1 – from jumping)
Bryce (nonlethal dam: 4, regular dam: 2 – from falling)
Pearl
Tygerlilly
Dragon men - 6 more at the bottom somewhere

((jumping down requires a jump check and a balance check. The ‘down’ pot – gully dwarves. The ‘up’ pot – nothing))

[Philistine]

Gneiss

"They'll be long gone by now, Kalrin," Gneiss interjects, putting the crossbow away again. His stubby fingers caress the hilts of his blades as he watches Lagri dragging Vleric up to the chamber with the rest of the group: he trusts the dragon-man not at all, "thrall" or no.

[codexgigas]

Bryce

The knight clears his throat before interjecting into the discussion. "We need to move quickly. Those dragon-men who got away will sound the alert, and this place is going to be crawling with dragon-men searching for us soon. We need to get..." Bryce trails off. He was about to say "the Disks," but somehow it didn't seem wise to talk to freely around the gully dwarves. They weren't malicious, just greedy and stubborn, and their helpfulness might soon dry up if they knew the value of what the party was looking for. "...what we came here to find as soon as possible," he finished, a little lamely.

[Toliudar]

Pearl

Pearl lifts her hands in front of her face to try to control the gully dwarf's attention. She strives to keep her voice level and calm as others start to interject.

"We want down. Not with the pots. Can you help us? How else can we get down?"

[wxdruid]

She scratches her head, You not want rocks? You want down there? Why? She tilts her head to one side and scratches the hair on her chin. Other gully dwarves start crowding around. Dragon down there, she not nice. You nice.

Tygerlilly pops back over and she gets on her belly and stares down the hole in floor. That chain is calling to her with a loud voice. She continues to stare down and asks, Why can't we climb down? I think it would be great fun. I'm sure I could make it all the way. She reaches out with one hand toward the huge chain, but she can't quite reach it and she starts scooting towards it, trying to not fall into the hole. After all, it is a long way down.

--------------------

Spoiler

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Kalrin
Lagri (nonlethal dam: 4, regular dam: 7 – from jumping)
Gneiss
Hector (nonlethal dam: 1 – from jumping)
Bryce (nonlethal dam: 4, regular dam: 2 – from falling)
Pearl
Tygerlilly
Dragon men - 6 more at the bottom somewhere

((jumping down requires a jump check and a balance check. The ‘down’ pot – gully dwarves. The ‘up’ pot – nothing))

[Toliudar]

Pearl

Pearl calls upon the patience that comes from hours and hours of doing exactly the same movements over and over again. She turns to Tygerlily.

"There are dragon-men at the bottom of that chain, and they'll be waiting for us. If they have bows, it might be very easy for them to get us as we climb down."

She turns back to the gully dwarf.

"Thank you for the warning about the dragon. I - I don't think we're all that eager to meet her either. But just in case...how do you get back up from down there?"

[Philistine]

Gneiss

As Pearl continues her exchange with the gully dwarf, something about the interaction tugs at Gneiss's memory. With a start, he remembers the Aghar who had led them here from the floor above. "Where's Tunka, and the rest of her crew?" he blurts. "Tygerlilly, did you see where they went when the fight started?"

[wxdruid]

Oh… Yeah, you’re right, I don’t think I want to be a pin cushion quite yet. Tygerlilly looks one last time down the hole before she backs up. She gets up and brushes off her bright clothing. The gully dwarves? She pulls on her top knot, Well, they kinda all look the same. I think? they ended up in one of those side areas in the hall?

The gully dwarf in front of Pearl looks at her in earnest, You want down. There are pots? She peers over at them, But, they no work. She’s working through the logic, We no go up through other way, we slide down! She raises her arms and grins at Pearl.

Tygerlilly watches this with interest, Really? Sliding down? That sounds like great fun!

The other gully dwarves repeat the name Tunka and there’s a lot of shuffling and moving around as the name gets passed around.

[GrassyGnoll]

Lagri

"SLIDE DOWN!?," Lagri hollers incredulously. The barbarian strides toward the talkative gully dwarf, engulfing her in a ironclad bear hug.

"I LOFE LEETLE HALF-MAN-VOMAN! Each time I say like thing is alvays, 'Lagri, zat is su-ey-side' or 'LAGRI, hyu'll get us all keeled!'"

[Toliudar]

Pearl

She'd rather hoped for a spiral staircase. Perhaps a ladder. But...a slide. Well, it couldn't be SO steep a slide, right? Since the dwarves have to climb back up it.

Could it?

Pearl waits for the Lagri cyclone to subside, and speaks softly.

"Um. Lagri. I share your happiness, but we should probably not yell anything about where we're going, in case the sound carries."

She gestures to the open hole, and frowns apologetically.

"And...now perhaps we can put the nice lady down so she can show us where the slide is?"

Pearl picks her bow up off of the ground, and does a quick head count to make sure that no one had wandered off.

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LotD, do you have any idea how much grapefruit juice hurts when you expel it through your nose? I hate you.

[Philistine]

Gneiss

Lagri's outburst draws the dwarf's attention: anything that makes that maniac so happy just has to be bad news. It takes him a moment to figure out what the others are talking about, as he hadn't been following the conversation; when he catches up, he can hardly believe what he's hearing. "Slide down?" he asks dubiously. "Did you see how far down that is? But I guess if these gullies can do it, we can too," he sighs.

[SilentNight]

Kalrin chuckles to himself at Lagri's reaction. Nevertheless, he's interested too. "Do you think you could take us to the slide little one?We need to see the Highbulp."

[wxdruid]

Tygerlilly bounds over, leaving the two holes and pots behind. The poor gully dwarf that Lagri is hugging is squirming in his grasp. She isn’t sure what’s going on, but she wants down! She tries to bite Lagri to let her go. The other gully dwarves nod, We go!

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Half of the gully dwarves head south, half of the gully dwarves go east.

[codexgigas]

Bryce

"Lagri, why don't you put your new friend down so she can tell us which direction we need to go to get to this slide?" Bryce suggests.

He leans over to Hector. "A steel piece says that we're going to regret taking directions from gully dwarves," he whispers.

[GrassyGnoll]

Lagri

Lagri releases his hold on the gully dwarf without ceremony, simply dropping her. With a look of contentment, he drags his pack and hostage after the dwarf.

[Toliudar]

Pearl

Simply relieved that no one is shouting at or punching each other, Pearl gathers up any leftover belongings - including the lantern that she'd dropped back in the hallway - and hurries after the Aghar.

As the gully dwarves start to split, Pearl turns to her companions.

"Might just be multiple paths to the same destination. Gneiss, could you take Lagri, Hector and Kalrin and follow the group turning right? Bryce, Tygerlily and I will stick with this lot going straight."

Barring further discussion, Pearl lifts her lantern high, and proceeds east.

[Philistine]

Gneiss

Gneiss looks askance at Pearl. "Sure, saddle me with the crazy ones," he says in mock-complaint. "Fine, fine. Let's get on with it, then." He waves Hector, Kalrin, and Lagri over and sets out behind the Aghar taking the southern hallway.