So while dragonspeaker Duucxejial readies the ox cart, torchbearer Rarg is looking for clues. The snailtrail leads away into the wildernis and after some hundred steps it is too dark to see anything. Whereever the tutorisnail went, right now its impossible to follow her.
And considering the unknown creature you find absolutely nothing. No steps, marks or anything. It is as if either that creature hid its tracks really good, or maybe it was floating above the ground and didnt leave any tracks.
Meanwhile Eldric is kinda busy looting the homes of the villagers while the village healer tries to remind him, that he should show some respect for the dead and their belongings. "But i'ma showing respect. I'm taking good care of the valuable things and make sure they dont break or rot away," Eldric replies.
The village healer sighs and shakes his head, but lets Eldric continue.
After a while you're all finished with whatever you decided to do and ready to leave the village. Eldric even found some lamps to attach to the ox cart to scare away the night monsters, though youre not sure if they will help at all should such a monster appear.
As you want to leave, the healer approaches you. "I'm staying here. This is my village and even now that the other villagers are gone, maybe in time new ones will make their way here. And im sure they could use a healer then. My tower is safe and will protect me during the night, so dont worry about me. Should you find people who are looking for a new home, send them here. Living in this village aint that bad after all."
And so you say farewell to the healer and travel slowly on the road back to the city of Luxeria.
After a while of travelling through the gloomy darkness you see a light appear on the horizon. That must be Luxeria. Only some more hours until you can finally deliver the wood and get your reward and have a well deserved rest.
And while you think about all the things you will do then, suddenly a voice echoes through the dark.
"Hoooooold! Now what do we have here? Looks like some unlucky lumberjacks are about to lose their precious wood. Let us take care of that wood and bring it back for you, and in exchange you will live some more days. If not, im afraid to tell you, that your lives are in real danger now, hahahaha!"
Your ox cart is surrounded by six of them. Now what do you do?
- A. "Ok, fine you can have the wood, just let us live."
- B. "You want our wood? Then fight for it!"
- C. "We didnt come so far to get robbed now by some wannabe Bandits! We killed the mighty archdruid of the gloomwood forest and his monstrous animals, destroyed a zombie abomination that was as strong as 20 men, who wiped out a whole village and even beat a giant snail monster and now you think you can beat us?!?"
- D. "If it was only for us, you could have that wood. But if we give it to you, the people of Luxeria are in danger of being attacked by nightmonsters one day. Which could lead to the destruction of the whole city."
"I swear to Rekka if we encounter another set of–" Duucxejial growled. Sparks scattering between clenched teeth, he strode to the front of the cart.
"You know not who stands before you," he began, one hand beating an ominous tempo on his drum. "This humble party was commissioned by the city of Luxeria to obtain that which you seek to steal, and the journey was not simple."
"We began six strong, with young Eldric becoming the seventh after we did battle with a slimy beast on the outskirts of a village near the edge of the wood. With our talents combined, none thought anything could possibly thwart our mission."
"But all was not well within the gloomy wood, for territorial druids and dryads barred our path. They called monstrous beasts upon us, fangs and claws flashing in what little light made it through the dense canopy." Claws swept along his blade, the sounds of battle a sharp counterpoint to the hastening drum. Lives were exchanged for this boreal bounty, yet our quest was far from over."
"When we came upon the village again, all was silent as the veil of night fell upon us. We could hardly touch the gates when a crush of undead burst forth, dozens of grasping limbs and mouths eager for flesh. We hacked and burned our way through the endless horde, searching for shelter with none to be found. And then it appeared. A true abomination of the night, an amalgamation of dozens of what was once the village's best, now a looming undead monstrosity that towered over even the tallest buildings. It took hours to cleanse the village of its corrupting filth, leaving us little time to rest before the dawn."
Duucxejial's drum fell silent. "And thus the timber's tale terminates in this moment. Should you desire an encore…" A gemstone appeared in one hand as the other shifted the ring blade. The crystal glided across the metal, arcane tones shaping a rough fugue. Warbling dragonsong rose in reply, wingbeats approaching swiftly. "…my cousins are eager to perform."
And… what if we give you money? We don’t have it here, but we know where it is. In the forest, a dark treefolk had it. But we have killed him and now the treasure is on a cave nearby. You could try to find it. (Rolling a d20 for persuasion)
I used random.org to roll a d20 and got a 9. So the bandits are not really impressed by what Rarg has to say.
But, on the other side, after that speech of the Dragonspeaker Bard there is whispering among the bandits and you can hear such as "umm, should we really ...", "Theyre armed...", "What if they are heroic...". Unfortunatley, as Eldric sees this, he tries to impress the bandits too "Yeah, thats right, we are brave heroes! I'm Squire Eldric the Zombieslayer and youre just some coward bandits. You better run home and cry before we beat you up really bad! I bet you are way too stupid to fight!"
As the bandits hear this the largest, but obviously not the brightest one shouts "Thats it! We'll show you who's a coward, boy! And we not to stupid to fight you!"
The Bandit throws his smoke bomb towards eldric, and then it goes off with a "pooooof" and a "Whooooohooo" afterwards which seems to confuse everyone.
Looking around you see the real source of the "Whooohoooo". While you were busy with the Bandits, a group of Nightwargs snuck upon you. And as you see them, 6 of them attack the bandits and 4 attack you!
Wargs turn! Defend yourself!
10x
Two Wargs attack the Dragonspeaker and two Wargs attack the Torchbearer.
Three Wargs attack a Bandit and Three Wargs another Bandit.
You may use one action before the Wargs deal their damage.
Duucxejial's fugue intensifies, modulating as he spins. A Sundering Sonata lashes the wargs attacking him, dealing 1 damage to each before they run into his whirling ring blade.
As the torchbearer shows his torch for protection, some clouds start to appear in the twilight sky. A thunder attacks one (basically 2 damage because of storm strike), that Warg is also dealt damage by the torch, giving me 1 mana and making the first one to fall.
With hunger and madness in their eyes the wargs jump at your throats, but the dragonspeakers unleashed magical music and the ringblade make short work of the two wargs that attack him, killing them before they can do anything.
Same is true for Rarg who hits one warg with blazing fire from his torch and then blasts him away with a magical lightning. The other warg takes a brutal hit with the burning torch before he can even think about biting anything.
The bandits however are not so lucky. They throw their bombs at the wargs, reducing them to 2/3 but then the wargs are at them tearing into the bandits flesh. The two attacked bandits kill two of the wargs, but the rest of the wargs almost tears the two bandits apart.
Situation now is:
4x Bandits
4x Wargs
And You.
And now its your turn. What will you do?
- A. The Wargs that attacked us are dead. Lets watch the Bandits vs Wargs fight and do nothing. Anyone wanna take a bet on one side? And then we kill whatever is left alive.
- B. We must help the bandits. Even if theyre criminals, they dont deserve to be eaten alive by wargs.
- C. Lets help the Wargs. I dont know why and the wargs will probably attack us afterwards, but hey, lets just do it.
Duucxejial finishes the fugue with a fiery cadenza. The gem flies with the final chord as three small dragons swoop down, one catching the gem in its claws while the others land on his shoulders, chattering excitedly.
"Hello cousins~" Duucxejial says warmly, a hint of a smile appearing on his snout for the first time during this journey. "Could you help this old storyteller with those bandits? I'll tell you a story once things settle down."
The pair rejoin the third in flight, eager to hear new stories.
(Formalizing what I started earlier, Duucxejial activates his Perform ability, sacrifices the Treasure to Call the Whelps, and holds his third action. He intends to assist the Wargs.)
@kaoz42 under the assumption that you'd be gone for longer than you were, it would allow Raulus to function as a NPC of the appropriate level. (See the comments immediately after you notified us of your impending absence.)
"After the whelp got us into this mess?! Certainly not," Duucxejial snaps back. "This is a battlefield. Much as it would be preferable, we need not agree on our objective so long as the ending remains unchanged."
"Alright." growls Raulus, "Let me have a word with that weakling." Raulus pushes past Duucxejial and stomps toward Eldric, yelling in his face "You insolent fool, make yourself useful for once, and shut up while we do the dirty work." Then he casts Bladestorm, dealing 1 damage to each of the Wargs and each of the bandits, leaving him at 7 mana. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- @LvB, we are waiting for your response.
Eldric seems like he's a bit frightened, but then anger overwhelms him and he shouts back:
"You ugly toads and lizards always telling me what or not to do, and when i dont, you says its wrong, too! Now here's what you should do, is shut up and go help the bandits. Thats what every human would do, but monsters such as you dont care about us humans! I'll show you how its done!"
Then Eldric grabs his pickaxe, buffs himself up with its +2/+2 skill and charges towards a warg. The warg, faster than expected, bites Eldric in his leg, but in return Eldric bashes the wargs head in with his pickaxe.
Raulus ignores Eldric and rushes to aid the wargs, casting exploding blade, targeting one bandit for 3 dmg, killing him, and targeting another bandit for 1 dmg. Mana left: 6.
3 Bandits (3/3) each attack a warg, while the last bandit (3/2) throws a bomb at a warg.
2 Bandits and 2 wargs kill each other, while the 3rd bandit fights a warg that is reduced to 1/2 by the bomb.
The Wargs are all dead now and of the bandits only two are left alive, but they are hurt and both down to 3/2.
Hesitant they look towards the adventurers group, then one starts speaking:
"Ahem, alright. Look, it was a mistake that we wanted to rob you and we apologize. We got thrown out of the city and didnt know what else we could do to survive out here. If you let as go, we promise, we will not trouble you or anyone else ever again."
Eldric is a whelp who knows nothing, but Rarg might be a problem. Still… "I have no intention of sparing turncoats that just as easily bared their fangs at us mere moments ago. I also promised the little ones storytime."
Duucxejial begins telling another chapter from Rekka's tale, Shrouding Dragonflame enveloping the four dragons. Two of the quartet attack each bandit, slaying them with the various triggers. (Duucxejial will also use his third action to cast Sundering Sonata at instant speed if the bandits use smoke bombs to protect themselves, thus protecting the little ones from harm.)
The small dragons attack swift, fast and without mercy out of the darkness. The Bandits have no chance and soon everything is over.
"Why you ask what we should do if you kill them anyways" grumbles Eldric. "They were bandits, but they didnt want to fight anymore. But ... maybe they deserved it. Who knows how many they have robbed. But what now?"
-A. Whatever else we do, we should loot the corpses first.
-B. Show mercy and let the dead have their dignity. Bury them properly.
-C. Pile up the bandits and wargs corpses and set them on fire.
-D. Throw the bandits and wargs corpses in the ditch. Animals will "bury" them then.
-E. Lets place the bandits heads on spikes beside a sign that says they were bandits. Let them be a warning for other bandits.
Duucxejial continues to spin his tale for the little dragons, letting the enchantment on them fade (but maintaining it on himself to better roleplay Rekka) as the trio starts tearing into one of the fallen bandits. The whelp will likely object momentarily, silly as he is. It seems he no longer remembers what I told him in the forest.
~~~
Duucxejial prefers option D, but sees no value in voicing that. Instead, he will watch the others and react accordingly while he continues the chapter he's retelling.
Your dragons had no mercy! You should have made them to stop! But well, if they are dead, we can’t do anything. At least we should burn them. When he sees that Duucxejial seems that he doesn’t like that, he adds: Just for not seeing them another time as zombies because of the unknown threat.
Rarg votes for option B and starts burning the dead corpses.
Duucxejial isn't opposed to the other options, he just doesn't value human lives/corpses more than most other animal lives/corpses. He's ignoring Eldric's and Rarg's protests because he's tired of trying to explain this when it often doesn't work; so long as you don't try to hurt a dragon, it's easier to just watch and react accordingly.
Raulus gives Rarg a glare. "We should have left the corpses for the animals. They deserve some human meat after all the cruelties humans have done to them." (Voting for option D, due to Raulus's connection with nature.) Then Raulus turns to Eldric "You're still a weakling, that's why you foolishly try to fight nature's way. Actually it is you humans that deserve to be killed, not animals. Hunters have already inflicted enough cruelties upon the animal world. You're nothing but a weakling pretending to be a hero."
After that matter is settled you move onward back to the city of Luxeria. And after a while you can see a glow on the horizon. That must be the cities fires that protect it during the night. But something is not right. The city itself is shrouded in clouds and only the fire's light seems to be able to dissolve the clouds when they come to close. And inside the clouds something is moving. You dont know what it is, but then, as youre maybe a mile away from the city, for the glimpse of a moment, a cloud moves aside and you see whats hiding in the cloudy darkness above the city.
Then, a moment later, its gone, back into the dark clouds. But youre sure that this thing is still there, only waiting for the cities lights to go out, and then ... you cant even imagine what will happen then.
The good thing is, it doesnt seem to have noticed you yet, but the bad thing is, youre still outside of the city in the dark night. As fast, but as quiet as you can you hurry towards the city and after an hour or so you arrive at is gate, where already City Guardians are waiting. Strangely they are only Elves and Dwarfes, and they even have two Golems with them. Something must have happened in the city while you were away.
"Hold. State your business. What are you doing outside the city at night?"
But before you can say anything one of the Golems begins to speak:
"Alert. Strong magical items detected. Alert. Must confiscate. Alert."
Then the Golem activates a magical detection device or something like that and your weapons begin to glow in a light blue.
"Aha, magical weapons it is. By the authority of the Elfen and Dwarfen council that rules this city now, they are confiscated and will be stripped of their magic. The magic will then be used to fuel light crystals which we will place on the great tree that we planted in the center of the city and on all city roofs."
- A. Ahem, ... (reply however you want. But be warned, fighting is not an option. The guards are more, stronger, they have golems and a whole city full of guards as backup.)
Raulus grabs some ropes made of thick roots and ties up Eldric with them, then gags him by stuffing roots into his mouth. He turns to the guards and speaks "If you let us go or at least me go, you can have this weakling as your slave and suck his life force and out and use it as fuel for your crystals. If you don't let the rest of us go, we'll destroy your crystals and let the night monsters come upon us all."
Duucxejial's head tilts, the small dragons on his shoulders chittering with confused alarm. "What nonsense are you spouting? Even if your weapon is magical, is it truly so irreplaceable?"
The dragonspeaker turns to the guards. "Your golem appears to be misguided, as the majority of our weapons, if you can call them weapons at all, are of a most ordinary nature. Feel free to confirm this yourself." He shifts the ring blade across his torso in preparation to offer it to the nearest guard, but does not move from his position by the cart in case something goes down.
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"You know not who stands before you," he began, one hand beating an ominous tempo on his drum. "This humble party was commissioned by the city of Luxeria to obtain that which you seek to steal, and the journey was not simple."
"We began six strong, with young Eldric becoming the seventh after we did battle with a slimy beast on the outskirts of a village near the edge of the wood. With our talents combined, none thought anything could possibly thwart our mission."
"But all was not well within the gloomy wood, for territorial druids and dryads barred our path. They called monstrous beasts upon us, fangs and claws flashing in what little light made it through the dense canopy." Claws swept along his blade, the sounds of battle a sharp counterpoint to the hastening drum. Lives were exchanged for this boreal bounty, yet our quest was far from over."
"When we came upon the village again, all was silent as the veil of night fell upon us. We could hardly touch the gates when a crush of undead burst forth, dozens of grasping limbs and mouths eager for flesh. We hacked and burned our way through the endless horde, searching for shelter with none to be found. And then it appeared. A true abomination of the night, an amalgamation of dozens of what was once the village's best, now a looming undead monstrosity that towered over even the tallest buildings. It took hours to cleanse the village of its corrupting filth, leaving us little time to rest before the dawn."
Duucxejial's drum fell silent. "And thus the timber's tale terminates in this moment. Should you desire an encore…" A gemstone appeared in one hand as the other shifted the ring blade. The crystal glided across the metal, arcane tones shaping a rough fugue. Warbling dragonsong rose in reply, wingbeats approaching swiftly. "…my cousins are eager to perform."
"Hello cousins~" Duucxejial says warmly, a hint of a smile appearing on his snout for the first time during this journey. "Could you help this old storyteller with those bandits? I'll tell you a story once things settle down."
The pair rejoin the third in flight, eager to hear new stories.
(Formalizing what I started earlier, Duucxejial activates his Perform ability, sacrifices the Treasure to Call the Whelps, and holds his third action. He intends to assist the Wargs.)
Here are my level 4 cards and a reworked Shroud of Blades (Please do let me use the spell at least sometime.):
In character, Raulus votes for option A, having no interest in either party.
@cadstar369
Your filler cards are cool, but why did you make them?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@LvB, we are waiting for your response.
Duucxejial begins telling another chapter from Rekka's tale, Shrouding Dragonflame enveloping the four dragons. Two of the quartet attack each bandit, slaying them with the various triggers. (Duucxejial will also use his third action to cast Sundering Sonata at instant speed if the bandits use smoke bombs to protect themselves, thus protecting the little ones from harm.)
~~~
Duucxejial prefers option D, but sees no value in voicing that. Instead, he will watch the others and react accordingly while he continues the chapter he's retelling.
Rarg votes for option B and starts burning the dead corpses.
The dragonspeaker turns to the guards. "Your golem appears to be misguided, as the majority of our weapons, if you can call them weapons at all, are of a most ordinary nature. Feel free to confirm this yourself." He shifts the ring blade across his torso in preparation to offer it to the nearest guard, but does not move from his position by the cart in case something goes down.