Special Sometimes
Season of Rushing Waters
Let it not be said that you did not do your best to argue against that reeking hide sack. "It stinks, it is going to give you away to anyone with a nose"
"Cob knows how to hide smell, Cob already smells stronger than morlocks and xuls and a lot more than dwarfs unless they have been pickling in dwarf beer. "Perhaps unsurprisingly the goblin tongue uses the same scale for smells as it does for lifting rocks or hearing cave ins down far tunnels, strength, the armor of course is very strong.
Stealth Opposed roll: 23 vs 33 (Cob wins)
So you decide to take another tack. "It is heavy and still, it will make it harder for you to move in a fight and kill things." Alas his answer to
that is a backflip off the cave well behind him which only brings the offending chest-piece all the closed to nose height
Cob Back-flip DC 16: 1d20 +10 = 19 (Success)
"You could..." you cough violently, echoes chasing each other into the long humid tunnel ahead. "Put it away when stealth and mobility is needed. Only take it out when we have to rush someone." Which given the skill-set the four of you have been developing, of trickery, stealth and sudden violence that should not be very often. Hopefully at least.
Akorian fortitude: 1d20 +3 = 14 (Success)
That is after all while you are going this way, to avoid the orcs for whom you do not have a head, not even a skull of their old foe. Even if it does mean that Warty now finds himself having to literally chew though dozen of nettle-pads and thorn-stems. Good thing slurks are some of the few creatures willing to stomach them and indeed they seem to take special relish in eating plants that are doing their damnedest to kill them. Or maybe not so good. If Warty had thought less of Cob's choice of armor it might have been easier to part him from it.
The goblin taken a long moment to consider the suggestion, running long fingers, now dappled grey and grown over the hide. "You're not saying that just because of smell?"
"Not
just."
Shallow breaths, that's the key, you tell yourself as you edge away, not too far though. There is no telling what could be hiding behind the walls of poisonous white and leprous yellow.
"You don't like the armor." The words are not surprising, though the tone is. Instead of an accusation you hear surprise. What is there to be surprised about? Both you and Mina had made your feelings on the matter cleat as stone-water. He must have noticed your expression and He must have noticed your expression as he explains "In old tribe they would have said not to wear armor so that they could take armor... Well chief and spark head goblin would have said that. Others maybe try to beat me up for it."
"Cob..." you are not sure how to say this without sounding awkward and choked up so you just settle for simple honesty. "We would never steal from you."
"Didn't say you would," he looks at his leather-shod feet, ears twitching a little. "Just said old tribe would've."
Old scars, old wounds, you think and do not press though after another little while of walking just as you duck under the leading strand for a cave spider, one of the little ones, hunting bugs not travelers thankfully, Cob nods as much to himself as to you. "Alright, I'll only put on armor
sometimes."
'Contemplative' is not a state that Cob is minded to maintain for long and soon enough he is showing off the rest of the stuff he had taken from the ancient Xulgath's hoard. Apart from the armor and the staff Mina now uses you are carrying fourteen ingots of black duergar steel, sixteen bolts of shimmering silk, yellow green and fiery pink, all of drow weaving from the quality... and a single skull of what Cob had taken for a big lizard but you recognize as a
flame drake, or petty dragon as they are called out of their hearing. Personally you would not be inclined to call anything beside 'run' in the presence of something like that. The skull alone is three and a half feet long.
Gained
- 14 Ingots of fine dwarf steel
- 16 Bolts of silk
- Drake Skull
What do you do on the journey?
[] Talk do Gorok, ask about his plans of returning to his tribe
[] Mina seems to be doing... something with spider webs collected from among the thorns
[] Try to get closer to Warty. So far the slurk only tolerates you, maybe you can change that
[] Write in
Stone-Water - Water that is clear, good to drink as opposed to much water, water which must be filtered as well as boiled before it can be safely drunk