Shards of Animus Hunt: Dragonier pt 2
"We could just try to teleport to the other side of it," suggests the gnome, "but the dragons are very protective of their horde and I am unsure what would await us on the other side if we were to try it."
He looks up at the door, warily. It is quite large. Large enough for a dragon. So... very large.
Iskandar purses his lips. He can't read the runes, but that certainly doesn't prevent him from running his gaze over them. Finally he shrugs. "I agree with the others. Rather than try to bypass the door's demands, we can just go get the eye we have." He turns in the direction the undead dragon was last seen. Along the way he puts away his bow and pulls out a short, heavy blade - little more than a glorified dagger, but suitable for digging an gigantic eye out of an equally large socket.
"Probably large amounts of elemental traps that would instantly evaporate us like dandelion fluff caught by a breeze," Iuitl points out, with a plainly serious tone. She approaches the door, and floats up to it using her Flight hex, and seeks out a mechanism that might make sense for this purpose, and sticks her face close to the door. Will a sith-makar eye work? Ostensibly, they're drawn from draconic blood, and hers is... thicker than some, she would say, complete with developed acid breath. "Or it's lined with, or enchanted with, something to block teleportation."
Rhar and Gurr are already headed back that way. Not that they might beat others back. Their plan (Ok, Rhar's) is to just bring the whole dragon. Saves trips if the next door needs another eye, or tongue, or toes! Gurr is strong! Rhar is strong!
Whether they are -that- strong remains to be seen...
Halani remainds silent, gazing up at the floating Iuitl and her examination of the door. She puts her hand up against the door then, palm against it, obviously considering... then she lets it drop and turns about, following Ishkandar, Rhar and Gurr.
It's an open question as to whether or not a Sith Eye would work, at least until the gnome clears his throat.
"I imagine it can tell the difference between a very small lizard eye and a very BIG lizard eye. It *might* be able to be fooled, but I would not want to waste your eye on a *guess8>"
"...not that I like the idea of antagonizing a dragon, undead or no, a whole lot better!"
He tugs on the sleeves of his robes.
Still, even if you're able to talk quietly, there's still a whole city of undead nearby one doesn't want to alert.
Halani slows her trailing of the lucht and male Sith, looking over her shoulder to see Iuitle still working with the gate. She glances back up at the two, grimaces slightly, then turns about and returns to Iuitl's side. Well, somewhere underneath her side.
There's no immediate response. There's a grinding clank.
"SERVANT CASTE IDENTIFIED. UNKNOWN INDIVIDUAL, SUBMIT FOR BRANDING."
"b-b-branding??" replies the gnome quietly. <draconic>
There's a moment of alarm on Iuitl's features, and then a grimace. "Ah... this is from that era..." She grimaces more. "Yes, we'll need a proper dragon eye for this. I'm not sure how intact the ... undead subject's eye will be, it might interfere with the magic." She floats back down, and straightens out her robes, turning to follow the others and not think about what she just heard.
"rainbow click hiss roar sizzle"
The voice echoes from the doorway. it's apparently still waiting. <unknown>
Rhar and Gurr return before they've gone all that far. Mostly due to Gurr, if Rhar's handwaving, pointing back at the dragon, and frantic whispers are any indication. He brings them both back to the group and firmly plants his haunches on the ground with a snort.
-He- knows the difference between a temporarily inert predator that could devour him whole and one that is actually dead. "Gurr say no drag, no give eye easy!" Rhar stagewhispers.
Iskandar nods in understanding. He hefts his dagger and with a faint whooooosh the blade is coated in fire. "The hard way it is then," he says reasonably. "But once we announce ourselves we'll have to move fast. Get in, find the shard and get back." He glances at their transporter, to make sure he's ready.
Halani's lips curl downwards slightly, then she closes her eyes. Her nostrils flare for a moment.. then she nods to herself, taking a few slow breaths. "If we must slay the dragon, then we must, yeah?" she asks, finally vocalizing since encountering that horrid smell. "Maybe we can crack its skull open before it wakes up."
Iuitl makes a rude gesture toward the vault door as it intones another phrase, but seems to be on board with retrieving that undead dragon's eye, if it's... still intact.
Gurr snorts again and rises up to his full height. If they must, they must; he simply was not about to let Rhar run off and try that with just him. Pack rules. "Pack ready?" Rhar checks as they turn around to head back. "Rhar know fight dragon. Hit with stick! Important part."
You return, walking the winding ramps over open chasms, crossing the walkways between them. This wqas designed for dragons and dragons come in many shapes and sizes, but the human presence was not an afterthought. It was simply draconic use *first*, then humans layered atop it. It's sensible, but a bizarre aesthetic. The partnership of Dragon and Man assurredly took a lot of experimentation to work given all the differences.
Eventually, you find yourselves back over the 'throne room', if one can call it that, again. The great dragon's body lays strewn across its platform. There are courtiers, of course, human servants who tried to shelter near it and were stuck down.
You have yet to actually *find* the way directly to the throne room, but given the open passages on either side of it you can see from above. Still, you can fairly easily descend from above if you were so inclined as well.
Rhar leans over Gurrs shoulder to peer down at the dragon room below. "Jump? Fly?" She looks to the others to see what they want to do.
Iskandar casts a glance around at the party. "Spelunking! This is becoming a true quest!" He then examines the walkway they are on. "If we were to secure a rope we could climb down, get an eye - perhaps two if we need a spare - and then climb back up to right here where we started."
Iuitl looks dubious about the idea of the dragon's corpse not, well, getting up and attacking them with all the undead they've become aware of on the way here. So she kneels and picks up a piece of stonework that's chipped away over time, and throws it at the carcass, to see if it will move once disturbed.
GAME: Iuitl rolls Knowledge/Religion: (17)+8: 25
"Okay.. so.. we should sneak and..." Halani's voice trails off as the first stone is cast. Her mouth hangs open for a moment longer, and then she shrugs. She puts her hand on the railing.. whether prepared to vault over, or just get a better look isn't clear. "Rope?" she asks.
The stonework bounces off its thick hide. No obvious reaction.
"It's dormant. If it senses food, it will likely get up and attack," Iuitl explains to the others.
Iuitl adds, "Food being... life energy."
Rhar watches intently. Analyzes. Cross-references with her vast tactical knowledge. She makes her assessment and leans over towards Iuitl. "Use bigger rock."
"I see..." Iskandar nods to Iuitl. "...it may attack. And we - as the food - will attack back?" He raises the dagger meaningfully. "Or...perhaps just to keep it occupied for long enough for someone to get the eye?" He peers down at some of the side tunnels, and other decoration. He looks back at the dragon's form and then tries to estimate it's size. "If there are any places to go that the dragon couldn't follow, while the rest of us can keep it occupied." He shakes his head at his own idea. "Only...it's hard enough to fight such a creature. And to take it's eye. But then to do so while keeping it one piece." He pauses and then looks down again. "Or...maybe we -want- it to follow us. All the way back to the doors. To trick it into opening them for us?"
Farland grimaces.
"Once you do things, my magic won't be able to protect us from the undead anymore. We'll have to hurry to get into the vault."
Halani hesitates a moment longer, then she unshoulders her pack and rummages through for a rope which she then secures to the railing. She tests it once, then takes hold and vaults over to start shimmying down.
"Rhar ready, Gurr ready," Rhar lets the others know after she pulls out her sharp stick.
Everyone is able to descend. It doesn't pay to split the party, after all. Guild rules say so.
The magic protecting you allows you to approqach the undead dragon with relative ease.
GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+12: (6)+12: 18
GAME: Iuitl rolls 1d20+10: (10)+10: 20
GAME: Iuitl casts Baleful Polymorph. Caster Level: 10 DC: 21
Iuitl readies herself. She taps into her arcane power, her hands lifting to tug at the strings of magic, forming some strange dark shapes in the air. And then the Hex falls upon the undead dragon, waking it up. She begins to break into giggles that sound like she's having an anxiety attack even as the dragon slowly peels itself off its resting place and fixates its gaze on her... she responds by attempting to cast a spell on the dragon, which... simply soaks into its mouldering scales like water into a sponge, negating the attempt, and her giggling continues as she hovers there, thirty feet away from potential imminent death.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ATTENTION -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Whirlpool has dropped a TIMESTOP!
Please +init, then cease all roleplay and actions immediately and wait for Whirlpool to instruct you further. You may earn RPP by logging a scene for a GM.
For in-combat commands, type: +thelp.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
The weight of ages is thrown off. The dragon inhalesa a scene throuh dead nostrils and raises it's long neck to stare at Iuitl. Stare.
One doesn't need to understand its language to know what it is saying when it speaks.
"/Norsel/."
Sure, the word is draconic, but the language of hunger is universal.
Onm the ground, the fallen citizens of dragonier begin to stir...
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round One - Init 24.
It is now Iskandar's turn! Wight Dragon is next!
GAME: Iskandar rolls 18: (16)+18: 34
GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d6: (5): 5
GAME: Iskandar rolls 4d6+12: (16)+12: 28
Iskandar blinks as the dragon looks at Iuitl. That's not part of the plan. He crows a battle cry in Jotun that translates roughly as 'TO BATTLE' and then leaps at the dragon. He should have looked first, as his hair and cape smolder from the heat. But he's already swinging, a haymaker that slams into the side of the dragon's snout.
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round One - Init 22.
It is now Wight Dragon's turn! Iuitl is next!
GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+27: (5)+27: 32
GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+27: (8)+27: 35
GAME: Whirlpool rolls 2d8+16: (15)+16: 31
Slow.
It's ... so ... slow.
Still, it's like avoiding an enormoius, falling boulder. While the air crackles to life with heat around it, giving it a shimmer like you're staring off over the desewrt, it opens a maw fullf teeth yellowed with time and lengthed by dessication.
It slowly lashes out at Kravar, coming narrowly close to actually biting him. A wrenching throw of his body is all that saves him from being bitten in half and even its proximity seems to leech life and wamrth from his very being.
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round One - Init 20.
It is now Iuitl's turn! Halani is next!
GAME: Iuitl casts Black Tentacles. Caster Level: 10 DC: 20
GAME: Iuitl rolls 1d20+15: (16)+15: 31
Iuitl is still giggling, sounding kind of demented. "Kyeehehe..." The dark effects wafting around the Wight Dragon seem to be bolstered by the sound of her voice, though. While she does this, she waves her hands in the air some, making arcane gestures and speaking in Draconic between her giggles to cast a spell that fills a sizable area with black tentacles.
GAME: Iuitl rolls 1d6+4: (2)+4: 6
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round One - Init 16.
It is now Halani's turn! Rhar is next!
GAME: Halani rolls 1d20+14+7+2-1: (19)+14+7+2+-1: 41
GAME: Halani rolls 1d20+14+7+2-1: (14)+14+7+2+-1: 36
GAME: Halani rolls 1d20+14+7+2-1: (2)+14+7+2+-1: 24
GAME: Halani rolls 1d20+14+7+2-1-5: (18)+14+7+2+-1+-5: 35
GAME: Halani rolls 1d20+14+7+2-1-10: (14)+14+7+2+-1+-10: 26
GAME: Halani rolls 2d6+4: (6)+4: 10
GAME: Halani rolls 2d6+4: (11)+4: 15
GAME: Halani rolls 2d6+4: (2)+4: 6
GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d6: (3): 3
"Aaahh..." Halani's eyes dart between the waking dragon and the waking horde, her fists clenching while she weighs options. Then she's running. Sprinting past wights before they've fully realized what is among them. Then she uses one as a spring board, hopping up to plant a foot on its back as she launches herself right towards the dragon even as it bears down on Iskandar. Her heel smashes into it and as she descends from the leap she spins, crunching bone with an elbow and then a fist before she bounces back, balanced upon the balls of her feet with one hand foward and another out to the side.
GAME: Whirlpool advances the initiative order.
Round One - Init 16.
It is now Rhar's turn! Mikilos is next!
It's awake, and their awake! Awakening undead dragons and hoards are the designated signal! Wait, is this what is meant by a dragon's hoard? Rhar always thought it was a bunch of shiny stuff...
"Pack, go! Pack, together!" Gurr darts in to stand at the dragon with Iutil and Halani (and Kravar?). Rhar points her sharp pointy stick at it. "Rhar!" because it is proper to introduce one's self to one's foes. "Here for eye! Give eye, no hurt!" She points her stick at the eye for emphasis.