A very interesting update, I like your handling of the fae!
[X] Do something else (write in).
- [X] Thank the fae and the Elm King for the offer, but beg off the invitation by noting you are currently obliged in a task from which you cannot waver lest you violate your word and the Elm King would not wish for Oath Breakers in his midst, would he?
[X] Do something else (write in).
- [X] Thank the fae and the Elm King for the offer, but beg off the invitation by noting you are currently obliged in a task from which you cannot waver lest you violate your word and the Elm King would not wish for Oath Breakers in his midst, would he?
[X] Do something else (write in).
- [X] Thank the fae and the Elm King for the offer, but beg off the invitation by noting you are currently obliged in a task from which you cannot waver lest you violate your word and the Elm King would not wish for Oath Breakers in his midst, would he?
[X] Do something else (write in).
- [X] Thank the fae and the Elm King for the offer, but beg off the invitation by noting you are currently obliged in a task from which you cannot waver lest you violate your word and the Elm King would not wish for Oath Breakers in his midst, would he?
[x] Do something else (write in).
-[x] Thank the fae and the Elm King for the offer, but beg off the invitation by noting you are currently obliged in a task from which you cannot waver lest you violate your word and the Elm King would not wish for Oath Breakers in his midst, would he?
You know what, I'll jump on the bandwagon. I had something but this is both sensible and fairly to-the-point.
With the possible exception of Aea: she gave her time elves wings and hands made from cold iron, so it would be exceedingly odd if it was a weakness of theirs.'
Phil blinks. 'There are time elves? What do they do? Sit in a workshop all day making clocks?'
'They mend damage to the time stream and erase anyone who tries to alter the flow of history,' Green Flame informs him. 'Which is one of the reasons why time magic is not taught at the Academy: they are exceedingly dangerous and cannot be reasoned with. The only way to be safe from them is to avoid incurring their wrath.'
A feral gleam comes into Friddle's beady eyes – and many of his compatriots look similarly bloodthirsty – but he manages to restrain himself, instead giving you the message which he was told to convey to you: 'My lord and master is pleased with your offering. He invites you to join him for a celebration. Bring your… passengers with you. Such fun!'
For a moment, you are bemused, unsure what he means by the word "passengers". But then, you realise that he must be referring to the kobolds whom you rescued from Garanhedd's tomb. They haven't materialized since you picked up their heart stones, but presumably they are still following along.
'And if we refuse?' asks Green Flame.
'I am afraid I must insist,' says Friddle with a rotten-toothed grin. 'You would not want to be impolite to my lord and master, would you?'
'I thank you – and the Elm King – for this generous offer,' you say. 'But we are currently engaged in a task from which we cannot waver. We took an oath, you understand – I am sure you would not want to invite oathbreakers into your midst, would you?'
Friddle Micawder gives you an overly wide smile which reveals far too many decaying teeth. 'I quite understand,' he says in a silky voice. 'And I am sure we are all relieved that our would-be guests are all such morally upstanding people.' He casts his gaze around at his fellow fairies. 'Isn't that right?'
There is a chorus of agreement, some of which is sullen and some is sarcastic.
'And now, we must be on our way,' says Friddle Micawder, shifting back into the form of a fairy horse with multicoloured sparks streaming from its mane. 'Don't let us detain you.'
The other fairies follow his example, re-forming the herd of wild horses which you saw before. Then, without delay, they hurry away, speeding across the blasted heath, into the woods, and out of sight.
'Well done, Dorian,' Green Flame congratulates you. 'That was better than I could have done.'
'He seemed to relent much too easily, don't you think?' asks Venta, who looks very uneasy. 'I expected that he would argue, or come up with some other ploy, but he didn't. Instead, he let us go.'
'Yeah, he seemed very smug about it.' Phil nods. 'Almost as if he knows something we don't.'
'What would you have us do?' asks Green Flame. 'Abandon this quest, just in case? I suppose I couldn't blame you if that was your decision.'
'We've come this far. We might as well go on,' says Isolia, trying to be brave. 'We'll just have to be careful. But we knew that already.'
Everyone else acquiesces.
Because of his convincing rhetoric, Dorian has gained 2xp towards Social Skills, with the possibility of gaining the 'Persuasion' specialty.
For hours, you walk on, until you reach the tallest hill for miles around. As you begin your ascent, you take out the heart stones and call upon the kobolds, asking them for directions to their cave.
They waddle around for a bit, enjoying the warm afternoon sunlight, the dry earth and stones underfoot, the stunted trees and the mounds of short grass with their scattering of rabbit droppings. Well, this is their home; even if it doesn't look like much to you, it means a lot to them.
After a short, whispered conversation between themselves, the kobolds decide on the route you should take. It is a winding path, but not particularly steep or difficult to climb. Before long, you reach the cave entrance: a dark hole in a rocky cliff face, which appears to have been deepened and widened by scrabbling claws. Inside, you see a strange glimmering light reflecting off the walls.
The kobolds advance eagerly into their old home, wanting to greet old friends and relatives, and to proclaim that they have returned at last. A few trilling cries issue from their jagged mouths. Then, as though they were suddenly silenced, they stop, freezing in place.
Up ahead, the glimmering light shines down on a throne made of stone carved to look like wood – or, quite possibly, fossilized wood. Sitting upon it, you see a tall and lanky figure with a crown of forked branches on his head. His skin is a pale greyish-brown, deeply ridged and wrinkled, except that one side of his body is horribly charred and blackened as if by fire. A single emerald green eye glowers at you from one side of his skull-like face – the other one appears to have been gouged out.
Flanking him, on either side, like a guard of honour, you see some of the fairies you met before. Friddle Micawder is one of them. He grins triumphantly at you.
And, lower than them, huddled around the walls of the cave, you see several dozen kobolds; surly and downtrodden, they barely acknowledge your presence at all.
'Well – well – welcome to this latest addition to my realm,' says the Elm King. 'I – I – I should thank you for returning some of my wayward subjects to me. You – you – you should be properly rewarded.' He glances around at his minions. 'One – two – three cheers for the humans! Hip-hip-hip-hurray!'
His fairy minions are quick to join in with his loud acclamation. The massed kobolds join in later and in a rather desultory fashion, to which he pays no heed.
'Now, now, how can we reward these brave heroes?' asks the Elm King, turning the sickly green light of his gaze on you and each of your companions in turn. 'W-w-what would you like me to give you in exchange for this service?'
What will you do? (Choose one)
[] Allow the Elm King to take the three kobolds you rescued as his rightful subjects. In exchange, receive a magical boon (which will double the amount of xp you gain for both the Magic stat and the Ritual Magic skill, for a while).
[] Allow the Elm King to take the three kobolds you rescued as his rightful subjects. Refuse to accept any kind of reward. Hope that this inability to reward you properly drives him mad (or madder than before, at least).
[] Hey, there are a lot of kobolds here. And they're all pretty good at earth magic, right?
-[] Encourage the kobolds to rise up and overthrow the Elm King.
[] Stall for time.
-[] Ask the Elm King some more questions about himself and his history.
--[] Write in: what do you want to ask?
[] Say nothing. Let one of your friends make the decision for you.
Wellp...
I guess the Elm King is now head honcho of their territory.
[] Allow the Elm King to take the three kobolds you rescued as his rightful subjects. In exchange, receive a magical boon (which will double the amount of xp you gain for both the Magic stat and the Ritual Magic skill, for a while).
Frankly, these guys are used to having Giant-God guy as their boss to keep out dudes like this Elm King. And with him having been beaten...
Well.
It's like if we start actively policing/controlling the area we're going to need to be MUCH bigger players and more importantly, NOT BE BUMBLING ABOUT LIKE BLINDED MICE!
Poor Kobolds might have perferred the tomb...
[X] Allow the Elm King to take the three kobolds you rescued as his rightful subjects. In exchange, receive a magical boon (which will double the amount of xp you gain for both the Magic stat and the Ritual Magic skill, for a while).
I would have encouraged the kobold to fight, but the Elm king will probably kill us when we try to convince them
[X] Do something else (write in).
-[X] The kobold rocks are leaving with us. We didn't promise them to leave them here, and we're keeping them to learn earth magic from them.
I like this goal, but I also think it needs refinement. Any thoughts?
[X] Do something else (write in).
-[X] The kobold rocks are leaving with us. We didn't promise them to leave them here, and we're keeping them to learn earth magic from them.
I like this goal, but I also think it needs refinement. Any thoughts?
[x] Allow the Elm King to take the three kobolds you rescued as his rightful subjects. Receive a boon in exchange.
-[x] Ask for the right of passage through his territory, for us or people associated with us.
Well, mission accomplished. It's not like we can confront him here.
In the future, should we wish to weaken or destroy him, we could probably burn down Blasted Elm... or shatter it, more like, since it turned to stone. I don't have much hope for bringing him back to sanity. Should we have something to do the deed, plus enough cold iron to flee the forest afterwards, coming in as guests may come in handy.
Maybe a special acorn for each of the people here? Whoever has the acorns may pass.
Plus we can pull a Simony and collect money from people who want safe travel. If we think the Elm King isn't likely to forget about the deal the next morning.
[x] Allow the Elm King to take the three kobolds you rescued as his rightful subjects. Receive a boon in exchange.
-[x] Ask for the right of passage through his territory, for us or people associated with us.
I like this as we can deem the Kobolds associated with us if we ever need to try and rule lawyer our way into evacuating them.
"Right of passage"probably won't be given, or given with so many caveats as to be useless.
One time only.
Must visit Elm King everytime and tell him what we're doing.
No guests.
Those sort of restrictions are what I'd expect, and also make a right of passage markedly less useful to me.
"Right of passage"probably won't be given, or given with so many caveats as to be useless.
One time only.
Must visit Elm King everytime and tell him what we're doing.
No guests.
Those sort of restrictions are what I'd expect, and also make a right of passage markedly less useful to me.
The Kobolds are the mountain... or the mountain pebbles. Why do you care to take three particular pebbles away if the entire mountain got overtaken by fae?
I doubt they would even want to be "released" to live elsewhere.
If we acknowledge that these kobolds came from this mountain, the Elm King will claim rule over them.
I doubt there's a way to walk away with the kobolds, excepting skipping over that they originally lived here. Asking them if they want to stay is making a clear statement that we don't 'own' them, and the Elm King will claim that he does and then probably make a fight of it.
[X] Allow the Elm King to take the three kobolds you rescued as his rightful subjects. In exchange, receive a magical boon (which will double the amount of xp you gain for both the Magic stat and the Ritual Magic skill, for a while).
I don't think the vote is bad, but you might consider "paralyzed by indecision" to be a viable outcome. I suppose it depends on the realism you want to go for in terms of stalling or whatever.
[X] Allow the Elm King to take the three kobolds you rescued as his rightful subjects. Refuse to accept any kind of reward. Hope that this inability to reward you properly drives him mad (or madder than before, at least).
I don't really want Dorian to have the experience of profiting from returning the kobolds to... what this is.
[X] Allow the Elm King to take the three kobolds you rescued as his rightful subjects. Refuse to accept any kind of reward. Hope that this inability to reward you properly drives him mad (or madder than before, at least).
'Well – well – welcome to this latest addition to my realm,' says the Elm King. 'I – I – I should thank you for returning some of my wayward subjects to me. You – you – you should be properly rewarded.' He glances around at his minions. 'One – two – three cheers for the humans! Hip-hip-hip-hurray!'
His fairy minions are quick to join in with his loud acclamation. The massed kobolds join in later and in a rather desultory fashion, to which he pays no heed.
'Now, now, how can we reward these brave heroes?' asks the Elm King, turning the sickly green light of his gaze on you and each of your companions in turn. 'W-w-what would you like me to give you in exchange for this service?'
You consider various possible answers to that question. First of all, you are tempted to shout to the kobolds to rise up against their oppressive new ruler – with Green Flame's support, you think that they would have a pretty good chance of driving him out of their home. However, you're not sure that you or your friends would survive the uprising: you're barely more than children, with no useful combat skills.
On the other hand, you could give the kobolds' heart stones to the Elm King and receive a valuable gift in exchange. You have heard stories about witches who gained incredible magical powers by making deals with various spirits, so is it possible that you could do something similar? However, if you did that, you'd feel as if you'd betrayed the three kobolds who trusted you to take them home.
You could try to leave with the heart stones, but you assume that the Elm King and his minions would chase after you. Green Flame might be able to fly away with you and your teammates in her arms, but that seems like it would be tremendously risky for a number of reasons. Besides, you're not sure that the kobolds you rescued would want to leave their home and families under the bootheel of an insane fairy dictator. They might prefer to be reunited with their fellows, even under these circumstances.
Or you could drop off the heart stones and leave without accepting a reward. In some ways, that seems like the best option, even if you won't profit from it. At the very least, it won't leave you feeling like you've betrayed the kobolds who trusted you. It'll mean you won't get embroiled in a dodgy deal with capricious fairies who would much rather cut your throat. And it would mean that the Elm King and his Wild Hunt wouldn't have an excuse to chase you down. Hopefully, the kobolds would understand you leaving them in the lurch. It's not as though you'd be benefiting from it, even though you could.
However, by the time you come to a decision, it is already too late. You have spent too long frozen in fearful indecision. Someone else has to take on the burden of leadership instead. Surprisingly, it is Venta who steps forth.
She seems to have come to a similar conclusion as you have. After she takes the heart stones from your unresisting hands, Venta places them on the ground before the Elm King's throne and says, in a tone of distaste which belies her words, 'No reward is necessary. As far as we're concerned, a good deed is its own reward.'
The Elm King looks very confused at that. He immediately demands an explanation from one of his closest subordinates. Others join in, attempting to placate him. While this is going on, Green Flame ushers you and your teammates away and out of the cave, leaving the kobolds to their fate. You hurry away, back the way you came, walking briskly so as not to stumble or make it obvious that you're fleeing. You don't stop until you're outside of the Elm King's territory; it takes more than an hour to get that far, during which time you are a grim and silent group.
Even after you leave the area, you know that it will take another two or three hours to get back to the city, especially if you go out of your way to avoid the local fairies, which you probably should. Because today's adventure has already had such an undesirable outcome, you know that you'll be very tired and dispirited by the time it's over. But what else can you do?
'Those poor kobolds,' Isolia says at last, tears in her eyes. 'I wish we could have done something to help them.'
'I bet we could have,' says Phil. There is a harsh, mutinous edge to his voice. 'There were a lot of kobolds back there, all of them powerful earth magic users. If we'd got them riled up, they could have overthrown the Elm King, Friddle Micawder, and all the rest, no problem.' He glances at Green Flame, looking thoughtful. 'Especially not if you'd helped them.'
'My highest priority would have been to protect the four of you,' says your elven mentor. 'I could not do that and fight alongside the kobolds at the same time.'
For a moment, in his facial expression and the light in his eyes, you see Philander's temper flare. You worry that he is about to say something bitter and insulting, which he will later regret. However, he manages to restrain himself. Instead, he gives a derisive snort, turns and stomps away.
'It seems unfair,' you say. 'We went to a great deal of trouble to return the kobolds to their home, but by the time we got there, their home had already been conquered by the cruel tyrant they'd been fighting against. I was hoping that their story would have a happy ending, but…'
'The world is cruel and filled with injustice,' says Green Flame, very matter-of-factly. 'What are you going to do about it?'
'I'm not sure there is anything we can do,' says Venta, miserably. 'We're first-year students. It's not like we can change the world.'
What do you say to that?
[] Write in.
After you've given your answer to what's just been said, I'm going to bring the current story arc to an end.
So… what do you want to do next? Please discuss it with me.
