Little Green II

[Monodominant]

The girl departs the house and heads towards the store where you have recently been buying your potions.

[planswalker]

LG will take a nap under her bed invisibly while she is out. Staying up all night to get things done is getting exhausting.

[Monodominant]

Jana returns with a very stylish and well crafted bandoleer strapped across her chest. Different sets of pouches and potion vials are on it in chromatic order.

"Cool no?" she tells you.

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Her research on the White's Treasure that I owed you.

"According to the information I found the White Dragon Querela had plagued the area her lair was located for 400 years. During that time she is said to had ammassed a significant amount of gold, silver and platinum coins to use as her bedding. There was no estimate on the worth though.

It was also unclear if the Silver that slew her actually took her treasure or not. The reason for the attack was the fact that Querela has slain 2 of his own offspring and hence in his fury and anger Lycaeron might not have stayed to loot her hoard...

As for relics... well as Querela was created by Tiamat directly and was not a naturally born dragon, the legend says the means of her transformation, a certain draconic orb, would still be there. Apart from that a series of magical items from her naturals father house most likely would have been taken by her."

[planswalker]

LG grins. The girl was learning how to be prepared, and learning well.

"Very cool indeed. We all set for tomorrow?"

[Monodominant]

"All set and ready to go!" she says in a sing song voice and then giggles.

[planswalker]

"Then what should we do between now and when we should sleep that we may rise up early in the morning?"

[Monodominant]

She taps her lips with her finger...

"Well... has been some time since you told me a story!"

[planswalker]

LG grins. "So it has. What kind of story do you want to hear?"

[Monodominant]

"I would say more about the Princess and her dragon but I am afraid we will eventually run out of them! Can you tell me a story about you?"

[planswalker]

LG blinks for a moment. "Well, yes I can. What would you want to know?"

[Monodominant]

"How did you become the hero you are today? What legends will be told about you before your coming to this city?" the girl asks eagerly.

[planswalker]

"There will be no great stories of my deeds before arriving in this city, and very little to tell of what I have done since arriving here. Before coming to this city, I was an ignoble little nobody who was never given a second glance. If you would like, I will tell you the story of how I grew up. Bewarned, though: it is not a heroic tale of adventure."

[Monodominant]

The girl psss's you.

"I dont believe that! Even when we first met you were powerful and dragons were talking to you Little Green! But if you insist, sure your growing up is also fine!"

[planswalker]

"I think you are somewhat mistaken. The only dragon to ever speak to me directly was my great-grandmother, and she did not consider me worthy of much.

Anyways, I owe you a story, yes? Well, it begins like this...

I grew up to the north and west of Aldhaven far, far away from here. It was a city called Karanda. My mother was a homeless woman who claimed to not know who my father was. I have since then learned that he is indeed a green draconic halfling and the one from whom I get my draconic heritage. Anyways, that is getting ahead of the story. Karanda... it is the city where I grew up, where I learned to survive as a poor, small street child who was different than the others. I learned quickly that truth is a powerful, rare commodity best used discerningly, for a truth unspoken is a secret, and secrets are power.

However, all the secrets in the world cannot protect you from those who do not value knowledge. I was born with green scaling on my face and hands which has grown ever-larger as I have gotten older. There was an older boy on the streets, a half-orc named Kurtz, who had dreams of "ruling" the other street children. I, being stubborn as I was, refused to give in to him. That defiance combined with my scales earned me the title "ugly little green fish" and he soon had all the other kids calling me that. In time, most of them even forgot my real name, they called me "green fish" so often. However, one who never forgot my name was Kurtz. He made sure to remind me of the name my mother had given me every time he caught me and beat me for daring to defy him.

In a way, though, I must thank Kurtz for those beatings. I have never been very physically strong at all, but that bully taught me how to evade a blow, and how to take one should it land. If I'd had the physical power to actually fight back, I likely could have beaten that orc. However, that is the nature of bullies: they never pick on those they fear could fight back. They also cannot stand defiance and must stamp it out at its first appearance if they can. This of course is why I became his "ugly little green fish".

Unfortunately for him, his "fish" was the descendant of dragons. One day, after being particularly stubborn in defying him, he fell into a rage of fury where he lost all notion of thought and began beating me to try to kill me. I avoided his clumsy blows for as long as I could, but he eventually caught me and pinned me to the ground. There I was, pinned to the ground, a hundred and fifty pounds of filthy half-orc bully pinning me down, about to begin beating me to death, when I felt a fire inside me ignite. My defiant, stubborn will at last finding an outlet to fire back, I drew in a breath between blows and exhaled my first stream of flame, burning Kurtz's hand. Not quite realizing at first what was happening, he drew back to deliver another blow when I let loose with another cone of flame, searing his face.

The bully recoiled from me in terror and tried to flee. However, a lifetime of beatings, mockery, and abuse gave fire to my vengeance and I torched him down before he could even leave the room. As he lay on the floor scorched and dying, I asked him in a calm, cool voice, 'How does Kurtz my big ugly red steak wish to be cooked?' I took his moans of pain to mean 'well done' and proceeded to char the single largest terror of my life at that time to ash. Once he was nothing but grit and dust, I realized the power I had just unleashed, and knew that it had come from dragons. Realizing that I would likely be executed for murder if Kurtz cronies didn't lynch me in fear first, I found my mother and forced her to tell me what she knew of my father. She said that he was a charming, mysterious green-scaled halfing she had met as a young girl and had a passionate romance with before he left her suddenly. Seven months later, as is typical with halflings, she gave birth to me. All she knew about him for sure was that he had said his family lived far to the south of Karanda.

With nothing more than this information in my head and a fire in my heart, I fled Karanda and began to head south in search of my father."

[Monodominant]

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This works as a pretty neat hook for me as well!

The girl listens to you her mouth dropping open at times of tension in the story.

When you are done she blinks twice.

"Oh wow! That means your father could be in the city? We must FIND HIM!" she says excited.

[planswalker]

LG blinks for a moment. "Well, yes, I guess that is possible, though I have since given up the search for my father. Once I met my grandmother and my great-grandfather, the man who abandoned me and left me to grow up on the streets doesn't seem to important."

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um, okay, wow, I wasn't even thinking plot hook there, but yeah, it totally is, isn't it?

[Monodominant]

"You met 2 dragons?" she asks realising what you just said!

"Is that another story!!!??"

[planswalker]

"Well, one and a half. Grandmother is only half-dragon. And yes, that is indeed another story for another night."

[Monodominant]

She nods happily.

"Sure! That sounds like a plan? And what now? Sleep?"

[planswalker]

"Yes, let us sleep now and be away come morning."

[Monodominant]

The girl sleeps and has beautiful adventuring dreams thanks to your storytelling.

[planswalker]

LG's own dreams feature a terrifying recreation of being a tiny little boy with green scales as a titanic half-orc teenager grabs him by the throat, screaming death. When the tiny boy begins spitting flame out of his mouth in absolute terror and the bully drops him, LG wakes with a start at dawn just before he hit the ground.

Let her remember my childhood the heroic way. One of us should. The truth is too painful. he thinks while the replay of his past is still fresh in his mind.

[Monodominant]

Jana also wakes up quickly as excitement fires up her adrenaline.

She rushes to the kitchen and prepares a hearty breakfast which she brings back to the room. It consists of bread and winter fruit jam, eggs and cheese along with 2 cups of fresh milk.

She eats her portion feriociously and waits for you to finish yours so that you may set out.

[planswalker]

LG wolfs his portion down with gusto, glad for the generous portions and hearty meal, yet at the same time missing the tinge of excitement that comes from knowing your meal was forbidden fruit. Overall though, a full belly consistently is worth more.

That accomplished, LG will morph to the form of a young elven woman and lead Jana to Professor Ahriman's study.

"I figure it's best if you're seen heading to the university with someone respectable." LG's now-melodic voice says.

[Monodominant]

Jana giggles.

"You're a girl now!" she says between giggles.

When the 'attack of laughter' passes she joins you and you walk to the university. Before long you are in the familiar chambers of Ahriman who is leaning over a complicated chart of the city.

"Good day ladies. How may I help you?" he asks as you enter, moving to obscure your view of the map.

[planswalker]

"Well, we're here." LG says with a smirk. "What, Ahriman, you don't remember me?"

[Monodominant]

The wizard raises an eyebrow.

"Interesting choice to turn to. I will assume its not to raise suspicion as could be the case for walking around with a little girl and not some gender confusion..." he says with a hint of humor.

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I cant recall if he met Jana in person... if he hasnt he introduces himself to her and asks her name.

[planswalker]

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he has. LG took him along on his last visit.

LG winks and shifts back to his true form. "Mostly? It was to show off. But it also was a good idea for a little girl entering the university to be seen with someone more respectable-looking than some halfling dragonboy."

[Monodominant]

"A halfling dragonboy working for me can actually be seen as fairly prestigious... More prestigious than the riff-raff the University allows in these days for sure. Do you know that we even have a goblin from the Slums attending? He apparently got some kind of scholarship..." he replies.

"Anyway. Are the two of you ready for this? Knowing Little Green I am sure you have done some research on it and have your own preparations but I want to make sure you are prepared for it. As I told Little Green whoever gave me this tip has their own agenda most likely and though I doubt they would want to see me dead, assuming they thought I was going myself, they would certainly not mind if we cleaned out the place for them to barge in and steal everything..."

[planswalker]

A crackle of flame escapes LG's mouth. "I'd love to see them try."