Wrecksburg

[Kislath]

Welcome to the middle of nowhere. Good luck!
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Here's the Recruit Thread:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?485306-Here-s-a-wacky-idea
Here's the OOC Thread:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?486564-Wrecksburg&p=20725615#post20725615
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It was a dark and stormy night....

Actually, that was a few weeks ago. There have been plenty of nights since then, most of them a bit unpleasant. Afraid and on the run from maruaders, your caravan went deeper and deeper into the boonies until you were hopelessly lost. They finally gave up and left you alone several days ago, but by then you were low on supplies, low on muscle, low on morale, and low on luck. As if things couldn't get any worse, they of course did, and your caravan was sacked by a horde of nasty little creatures who left you stranded here, wherever "here" is, with no chance of rescue and little chance of survival.

Some of you were a little stronger, a little smarter, a little braver than most of the people in the caravan, and everyone looked to you for guidance. It's a shame that you had no idea what to tell them. You were just like them, really, nothing special, just a bunch of people heading toward New Neverwinter in the hope of finding your fortunes, or at least making an adequate living with your skills.

Now you are just a ragtag bunch of commoner rabble, stuck out here, with nowhere to go and no way to get there, with dwindling supplies and dwindling hope.

Ah...but your luck was about to change.

Someone spotted a stone outcropping that didn't look natural. The only sign of anything resembling a sign of civilization that you'd seen in almost two weeks, you went to investigate.

You found the impossibly ancient old ruins of what appeared to be a temple to some old long forgotten god. It wasn't much, but at least it offered some shelter from the icy rain, and everyone could fit inside, although it was certainly crowded.

After a bit of looking around, someone found a room with a strange artifact in it. Upon touching the artifact, he was zapped silly by it with a surge of wild mystical energies which at first seemed to onlookers to have killed him on the spot.
However...
A few moments later he awoke, looked around, and started laughing. He hadn't felt this good in years, he said. He saw..."everything," he said. He wanted more. Grasping the object again, he was disappointed when nothing happened.

Since the object was now deemed safe by the others since it no longer zapped anyone, someone else touched it...and got zapped.
"Hmmm... apparently, the artifact has a selective ability to.." to be honest, hardly anyone understood a single word she said after that, unable to comprehend the highly technical aspects of the nature of magic. Everyone did stop and stare at her, though, since moments before, she was as ignorant and dumb as they were.

What IS this strange thing? Suddenly, everyone wanted to have a go at it, and each to each, several of you did indeed grab the object, a large grey oval-shaped stone with an odd glowing rune on it, and you were forever changed by it. Eventually, though, the stone stopped zapping people, it's power apparently depleted, at least for the time being.

So... here you are, a band of suddenly 1st level adventurers in charge of a caravan's worth of commoners, about 50 people, who are hurt, hungry, and afraid.
Can you save them?

[Ramsus]

Kythise seemed to flow, rather than walk, across the rooms until she found the best vantage point she could that didn't involve getting drenched in the ice cold rain and examined their surroundings, making note of what resources were clearly available to them and what they might have a good chance of finding nearby.

Basically she's looking to see what kind of wood, minerals, flora, and fauna are around.

[Skald]

(ooc: This is my first lawful character... my first non magic too, actually, so this will be interesting for me.)
Lex takes a few moments to asses the situation.
~We're safe for now,~ he thinks to himself, ~but we'll be found eventually. We need to make sure we're ready when that time comes.~
He cracks his knuckles, still readjusting to his revitalized body, then begins roaming the area to size up the remaining members of the caravan, looking for anyone in fighting condition.
~There won't be many, and I can't force them to fight, but I can encourage and inspire them.~
He wanders through the vicinity, lending his aid to anyone who needs it and discussing his plans to form a militia to defend everyone against whatever threats may be lurking in the surrounding wilds.
"If you, or anyone you know is interested in protecting yourselves or your loved one's, meet me at the area near that strange artifact at noon tomorrow." He tells them.

[ImSAMazing]

Sand. Sand everywhere. lots of sandstorms too, until it stopped. And in the sand a book layed. A book full of spells. Vliarkev started to read it, and it infused his mind. He learned a thing or two about the universe, and when he wake up after the zap, he was more confident than ever to help these commoners!


Vliarkev looks at the commoners, speaking:
I don't know what has happened here, and why the damn we are here, but let Corlander bless us, I believe we will need it. All of us will.
After thinking for a moment, he says:
I believe I got an idea for now. Give me a few minutes, and I believe I can build us a small fortress so we atleast have some protection from those that wander in the night. And I will be there, with my swords to protect these citizens!


Vliarkev walks outside of the temple, and starts to cast the Cantrip Mold Earth. Using this cantrip he makes walls of around 10' high, in a 100' by 100' square, what should take some time since he can only move 5' by 5' cube of sand at a time, and it is you know: sand! And we all know how sand takes a lot of sand to be made into a wall.

So those that look/go outside of the temple see a quite long elf with two shortswords that keeps waving his arms and whispering words, building what looks like a massive sandcastle.

EDIT: Since it has rained, some of the sand has changed into mud right? That helps making a sandcastle.

[Shimeran]

Though hesitant at first, curiosity had gotten the better of Galeff, as it usually did. At first, touching the artifact hadn't seemed to do much. It had felt a bit warmer than he expected, but that had seems like it. It wasn't until a bit later that strange designs started occurring to him. Complicated yet very compelling patterns of twisted lines and curves. While other were busy, he'd tried tracing one out only to lose track of time entirely. He was just putting the finishing details on it when if felt like something pushed back through the circle. He might have imagined it, but he couldn't shake the feeling that whatever it was hadn't quite left.

He was shaken out of such thought when other started speaking of defense. Glancing around at the faces of forms of those nearby, he soon spoke up "Sure we need to keep the beasties at bay, but we need to fill our bellies too. Best bet might be to see what we can forage up. Might just be berries and roots, but that's something. Fish would be welcome if we can find em and anyone's got the gear to drag em out. Any chance we got someone who's done some foraging afore that could help us sods out?"

[Kislath]

The surrounding terrain is harsh and uninviting. You seem to be in some steppes between a desert and a forest. The area is rocky and sandy, with only scruffy vegetation all about.

There is a river, though. Which one, you have no idea, but if you had to guess, based on where you started and the general direction you went, you'd probably guess that you're at the headwaters of the Dessarin River, or some tributary to it. In theory, you could follow it hundreds of miles back to civilization, assuming you could survive that long, and assuming that it truly was the Dessarin.
Those are a couple of mighty big assumptions.

The good news, at least, is that the water looks clear and clean, and you can see fish swimming in it. It's too shallow for a boat, but easy enough to walk across. Along the banks are a concentration of plants. Some of them might be edible.

There is also a good amount of mud. Mud might be useful somehow. The rocks around here are a sandy, reddish brown color. They don't look in any way interesting.

The forest was a few miles back. There are a few sparse trees here, but it's about 4 miles to any good supply of trees big enough for lumber.

One of the commoners, a kid who seems to go by the nickname of "Figgy," gazes into the river and then runs to the wreckage of the caravan. His mother died in the attacks, so he is alone. His mother was some sort of seamstress, as you recall.

[Ramsus]

Kythise hops down from her vantage point and follows after the kid, not with any intent of stopping him but just to make sure he doesn't get into any danger.

[ImSAMazing]

While moving the sand and building the sandcastle, Vliarkev has a bit of a fight between himself(Represented by this and this. This fight is all in his mind, so nobody can hear him talking, except when he yells a loud NO in the end of the discussion with himself. )
'Good opinion':Those commoners should all be saved. Water enough, eventhough we should probably check it with a spell or something. Something a priest could do.
'Evil opinion': Are you nuts? These commoners are only death weight... They eat our food and drink our water. We might be able to make it to people if we follow this river. Logic dictates that civilization is always build next to a flow of water, so if we follow it long enough we might find traders in the desert. Atleast we will have more chance to survive.
'Good opinion':No you are nuts! We can't kill these guys! We traveled with them for weeks, and we all knew the risks when we signed up to be part of this caravan. So did you Vliarkev.
'Evil opinion': I indeed know about the risks. And that is why I planned a strategy: let them search for all the food we have, then we kill them. We grab all the salt we have and put it over them so they decay slower. We split the bodies up in pieces and bring them with us in case of emergency.
'Good opinion':That's just awful! How could you do that? And what if we find traders that could help us, what will they think when they see you eating humanoid-meat?
if they have a problem with me, then we will talk about that later.
'Good opinion':NO! We will not, since we wont be killing them! Now shut up and let's continue to save those civilians. It's our duty.
'Evil opinion': I have never signed up for this. And sooner or later, you will realise this is the best option.

[Shimeran]

A few ideas shift through Galeff's head as he takes in the terrain. It would be rough, but there might be a few thing they could do if they manage to survive these first few weeks. His thoughts are interrupted by Figgy's motion. The action wracks his brain for moment before he mutters "needles, maybe some thread.." and sets off following the kind at a bit of a distance.

On seeing Kythise heading the same way, he says "Kid got a decent idea if he's looking for needles. Could make a hook with a little work." Gesturing toward the river he continues "We'll still need to root through there most likely. If we find anything safe we might be able to start growing it, maybe we can draw off or trap some of that water to grow a bit more. If nothing else we might be able to fire some of that mud with some reeds to get some bricks going. Forest is still likely better odds at food, but it's a hike and who knows what's living there."

[Kislath]

As you catch up to Figgy, he is unfurling a bolt of cloth. When he is done, he has a piece about 30 feet long and 4 feet wide.
He has been crying for a week, and hasn't said a word in days. Hmmm.. make that weeks. Come to think of it, you don't recall ever hearing him speak.
Now though, he's actually smiling.
He hands Galeff two corners of one end of the cloth, and hurriedly runs to grab the corners on the other end.

[Shimeran]

Galeff bemusedly grasp the bits of cloth handed to him, "Don't suppose you'll be telling me your plan lad. I'm sure ya got one, just not sure on the details yet." Usually he'd hold it like this to fold it, but it was just unfurled. If he was planning on using it as a net, they'd probably need some holes to allow better flow through. Still he'd see what the boy intended. Whatever it was had obviously lit a fire in him.

[Kislath]

The cloth is thin, and water would pass through it without too much trouble.
Figgy gestures to the river and starts walking toward it. It's plain now that he intends to use the cloth as a seine to catch fish, with Galeff's help, along with Kythise.

[Artemis97]

Alan Glitterleaf was one of the few to have been zapped by the mysterious artifact found in the temple. While briefly unconscious, he had heard music, beautiful music. Music that could move people to tears or inspire them to greatness. Upon waking he tried to remember it, but could only recall the feelings it had given him: hope and determination.

Seeing a defensive wall being built, he decided that the people needed to be organized. He started to move among their number, encouraging people to relocate and settle within the area of the wall, and to gather water from the river and bring it inside.

[Shimeran]

Galeff glance over his shoulder as he moves to keep up with the boy, looking toward Kythise "Begging pardon, but if you could nab a bit of cordage that might help. The plan seems to be fishing with this. It should work, but we might want to weight down the bottom to keep it firm. It look like we've enough rocks, so we'd just want a way to tie them to the cloth."

[Ramsus]

Kythise nods and goes back to the cart to see if she can find any rope or something else. Or maybe just any vines, though she doubts she'd find much in that vein anywhere close given the environment.

[Skald]

While helping around the area, Alex notices the rising sand walls and goes to investigate.
"That's a pretty good idea." He says. "But it won't hold long as is, it'll need some sort of fortification."
Alex looks toward the forest, gauging the distance.

(How far is it?)

[Kislath]

It's about 4 miles to the thick of the forest, but a good mile and a half closer there are enough trees to make basic frameworks for things.

Kythise finds plenty of rope bits in the caravan of varying length and thickness, many of them just perfect.

Some commoners have found a few buckets and pots and pitchers, and they are heading toward the river to gather water. They won't be able to gather and store very much water with what they have, but it should be about half-enough to almost satisfy everyone once. It looks like they'll have to be making plenty of trips.

[Ramsus]

Kythise comes back with all the rope she can carry, even though they probably don't need that much right now, and just hands the spare to someone else to put somewhere dry since leaving things at the broken down caravan is silly and while she wasn't going to go ask other people to go out in the cold rain to get all that stuff right now, it did need to be brought eventually. Having handed off the spare rope she goes to get in position to help with the fishing.

[Artemis97]

Alan smiled to himself, pleased that the people under his charge wouldn't go thirsty today. He scanned the area. Some folks were already working on gathering fish, while others were working on fortifying the wall. That's food and security taken care of for now. Next they would need shelter. The bard set himself to look over the wagons, to see if any could be pulled in behind the defensive wall, and used as a basis for building.

[Kislath]

The wagons are of course made of wooden planks, nails, iron bands, and large sheets of heavy cloth. In short, there is a good amount of salvageable material available.

Figgy sets to work on weighting down one edge of the makeshift net and trying some limbs on the ends for handles. He indicates that Kythise should go upstream a bit, and when the net is at the ready, to start kicking and stomping in the river while walking toward the net. That should scare the fish right into the trap.

Alex seems to gave attracted a few followers. They aren't much to look at, but maybe they can be useful.

[Ramsus]

Somewhat puzzled, Kythise does her best to do as instructed. She's never gone fishing before and this wasn't at all how it sounded in books.

[Shimeran]

Galeff mimics Figgy's technique, tieing a rope around a fist sized rock and tie the other end of said rope around the bottom corner of the cloth, hopefully providing a make shift anchor without damaging the material. He'll also try to leave an end free to make it easier to grab onto. Once that's repeated on the other end (and maybe once or twice on a pinched section in the middle) it's down to dragging it through the stream and seeing if they manage to catch anything.

[Skald]

Alex takes stock of the individuals who have gathered to him. Training would wait until tomorrow, but for the moment he could gauge their strength, stamina, and motivation.

He begins making trips to the treeline, using his hand axe (yay utility weapons) to gather wood and branches suitable for fortifying the sand walls.

He makes the first trip alone to make certain that the area is safe, then brings along any who are willing to lend assistance.

[Kislath]

In no time at all, Alex has a merry little band of helpers gathering wood and hauling it back to camp.

A few other people have taken to going back & forth to the caravan wagons to collect stuff from them and bring it back to the temple.

Also, a few tasty-looking fish have run into the cloth, and Figgy runs around to close the ends together, trapping them.

All in all, things seem to be going fairly well!

Well... except perhaps for those kobolds which just appeared in the distance...

[ImSAMazing]

Still working on the giant sandcastle, Vliarkev still doesn't notice the Kobolds. He just took a small break, and is working hard, or hardly working since the magic is doing most of the work.

[Shimeran]

Galeff helps Figgy tie up the catch and get it back to camp. Once that's squared, he say "Be back in a bit, looks like we might have visitors." before going toward where the kobolds are coming in. On the way, he grabs a loose rock and begins idly tracing patterns along it's surface.

[Ramsus]

Kythise follows along, because she has no idea what Galeff has in mind. She does know that kobolds are good craftsmen for non-humanoids so if they're not hostile they're probably the best kind the group could have encountered.

[Artemis97]

Alan decides to follow along to visit with the kobolds, in case a translator was needed, and to perhaps smoothe things over diplomatically, if need be.

[Kislath]

It was tricky to see them in the night, but now that you have a good look at them, it's plain to see that kobolds were the creatures who attacked your caravan.

There are 8 of them. They don't seem particularly hostile as they casually stroll toward your camp.
They soon make it to the perimeter of your camp, stop, and look quizzically at you and at each other. From a few of their mutterings, you can tell that they didn't expect to find you here.

One of them is festooned with paint and feathers and beads. He looks to be a bit younger than the others.

[Skald]

Lex joins of with the others who are meeting with these kobolds.

[Artemis97]

Alan Glitterleaf steps out to meet the kobolds. "Hail, to what do we owe the honor of this visit?"

[Kislath]

"Uhm.... you nots supposed to be heres, but that okay, we guesses.
We is heres for growing-up ceremony. Is Urko's Day.

You nots bothers us, and we nots bothers you, hokay? We just goes inside for ceremony."

[Ramsus]

"May we watch?" Kythise asks and perhaps those around notice this is the first time they've heard her voice since after she touched the stone. And perhaps they'll note that it sounds similar to how it used to, but sounds smoother and has a prettier quality to it.

[Kislath]

"Uhm.. hokay!"

Unless there are any objections, the kobold party starts to make it's way to the artifact chamber.

[ImSAMazing]

Vliarkev hears the Kobolds now, he looks around and sees them. Not hearing what has gone on before he saw the Kobolds(therefore not knowing about the ceremony), he acts as following: Using his Elven eyes he recognizes them, and immediately runs forward, sheathing is shortswords and shouting in Common first: Grab your weapons! It's them! We need to stop them!
Then he shouts: Kobolds, you stop right there now! Either go away peacefully or die to my blades.


Walks 30' feet(probably enough to reach them? If not then takes the dash action and disregard the rest)
Takes the Dodge action.

[Ramsus]

Kythise walks over to Vliarkev and attempts to put a hand on his face and says, "No. They asked permission to come peacefully. They aren't threatening us. We don't need a fight now."

((Yes, she's trying to facepalm another person. It's weird. Up to ImSAMazing if it succeeds or not since she's not trying too hard.))

[ImSAMazing]

((It succeeds))
Vliarlev says in Elvish: 'Great idea. Let's ambush them!'

Ooc: Vliarkev wants to punish those who almost got all these people killed.

[Ramsus]

Kythise sighs and replies in elvish, still with her hand on Vliarlev's face as if she forgot she was holding it there, < They aren't here to attack us, they just want to do some kind of ceremony and said we were welcome to watch. This means either that they are reasonable and perhaps willing to trade or have a lot more we aren't aware of and aren't worried about us attacking them. Wanting vengeance is understandable, it's just really.... dumb right now. We need information and supplies and not getting killed. We're not going to get any of those things fighting these kobolds. Also in the future, keep in mind it is unwise to charge into a situation without knowing what's going on. Nor is making threats on behalf of the rest of us. If we're not expecting it, we are as much at a disadvantage as our foes are. Huh. I didn't think I'd be this calm in this kind of situation. >

((I use < > to indicate when not speaking common since it's noticeable and it's easier than you'd think to miss that kind of detail just reading the text and then you have weirdness with people replying to things they shouldn't have understood.

The pause was her considering being more polite and then just deciding not to.))

[Kislath]

It's difficult to read their inhuman little kobold faces, but they seem both irritated and surprised that they are running into so much resistance on what was supposed to be a fun day. Aside from that, they mainly just look really confused.

They aren't even armed. Well, they have some weapons, but judging by their appearance, they can't be anything more than ceremonial. Too flimsy, and too fancy.

Poor little Urko looks very disappointed. You're ruining his birthday party!

[Shimeran]

Galeff studies the group carefully, trying to pick out any emblem or tribal marks that might be familiar from the raid. "Could have been a different group, I suppose.", he mutters, speaking up a bit as he approaches the argument. "They do seem surprised to see us, so it might have been another group. Hard to say really, unless there's a trick here or they expected us to move off already, hard to say. Maybe we can ask about other groups. We're sorely short on knowing about the area."

[Artemis97]

Alan was glad to see the situation diffused rather quickly. He turns to the kobolds. "Do you mind if we ask you some questions? The reason we're here, you see, we were attacked. By creatures very similar to you, actually." The bard says carefully. "Do you know of other, hostile groups around here?"

[Kislath]

"Oh, sure. The Blue-toes. They be mean and nasty. They lives nots too far from here, but nots far enough! We fights with them sometimes, but they nots bother us at our cave because our master would eats them!
Hahahahaahahaha!!!
They stupid, but nots THAT stupid! HAhahahahahah!"

[Ramsus]

Kythise blanches at "master" knowing this probably means dragon and Vliarlev almost picking a fight with them. After taking a moment (where she STILL has her hand on Vliarlev's face) to calm her nerves, she walks back over and suggests to everyone in general making sure the kobolds can hear too, "Why don't we let the others know to let them do what they're here for and save the questions for later? We probably have many and it wouldn't be polite to make them wait so long."

[ImSAMazing]

Vliarkev now removes the hand from his face, and says: Allright. Back to the sandcastle then.



How many hours would it take to finish the sandcastle?

[Kislath]

Vliarkev gets back to work on the sandcastle wall, figuring it will take another 7-8 hours to finish.

The kobold party makes it's way through the temple, where the sight of them frightens many people. Eventually they reach the artifact chamber.

"Hey...it nots be glowing!" says one kobold. They all look at each other in a panic for a few seconds until one of them figures out what must have happened.

"Oh, I gets it. The man-things must have used it all up!"

"It okay. We can fix," says another. "This happened before, once."

"You thinks that smart? Bad things can happen."

"So can good things. We gots new Chief that way once!."

After a pause, the one who seems to be the leader asks Urko if he's willing to take the risk. Urko agrees.

"Hokay, then, we goes for it!"

Two of the kobolds stand on opposite sides of the power stone, and start flinging spells at each other!
However, neither of them comes to any harm, for the stone absorbs the spell energy. With every spell cast, the stone glows a bit brighter until it's positively pulsing with energy, not only glowing brightly but making a low humming sound.

That's not how you guys found it.

"Hokay, Urko, now is up to you. Good luck!"

Urko steps up, takes a deep breath, grabs the stone with both hands, and hangs on for dear life. He convulses and makes pained guttural noises. He writhes. He kicks. He screams.
The beads on his necklace start glowing like crazy in several different colors as magical energies swirl and surge through them. Urko himself starts glowing, too!

"Uh, ohs"

Finally Urko is knocked back several feet and lands in a crumpled heap, still twitching like crazy for over a minute.
Eventually the agony is over and the transformation is complete.

"Ow" says Urko. His voice has changed. It has a peculiar reverberating quality to it. Deeper, more resonant.

"Me is... I am...fine now."

The other kobolds reel back in fear. Urko has changed a lot more than expected. His scales have taken on a new sheen, the usual dull bronze now shiny with bright golden accents. His eyes are glowing a bit with a pale yellow light. He has tiny little wings!!

"Whoa. What a rush," he says.

[Artemis97]

"Amazing." Alan says, seeing the transformation, and glad the little kobold wasn't hurt. "It must have awakened something in you. Gold dragon blood, perhaps?" Urko seemed cleverer than before, on top of his physical transformation.

[Skald]

Alex approaches one of the older looking kobolds. "This is an interesting ritual." He says. "If you could spare the time, I'd like to know more about it- and your people. Perhaps we could forge a peaceful alliance?"

[Kislath]

"Uhm... Okay!" says the elder. "You just saws most of it. We be coming here for hundreds of years. Every kobold in tribe comes here to gets his fate and place in our society decided by the stone. Sometimes it not works out so great, but sometimes this kind of thing happens. This not happen in a very long time, though. It must haves been the beads our Master gived him."

The others are still staring at Urko.

"You is like Boss now!"
"Chief not gonna like this..."
"Can you flys?"

The elder again addresses Alex.
"Alliance? You mean you is staying here? Why you peoples here anyway? Nearest man-city is many days from here. Funny name...Yar...something."

[Artemis97]

"Who is your master?" Alan asks one of the kobolds.

[Kislath]

"Master? He is Omadon. He good boss. Not like most dragons."

[Artemis97]

A dragon, wow. That was somewhat unexpected. Still, if Urko was like "Boss" now, then there's a gold dragon sitting out there. Maybe it'd be willing to help them.

"Would Omadon be willing to meet with some of us, do you think?" Alan asks next.

[Kislath]

"Uhm...me nots think so. He nots likes people. There nots be any people around here, which is why he likes it here."

Urko speaks.
"Hmm... let me think... yes... we here are roughly right between the northern forests of the elves and the man-city of Yartar. It's about...100, 120? of your miles to either one. Omadon chose this spot to live precisely because it would put him far away from any such troublesome persons. He's not a big admirer of your kind. Oh, don't worry; he should probably not be in any way hostile to you, but don't expect him to be especially helpful, either."

"Whoa! Urko, you sounds like Boss, too!"

[Shimeran]

Shaking off his amazement, Galeff spits out "Gnat's teeth! Didn't expect that. Not sure if I'm more amazed or unnerved that you folk can turn into dragons."

He follows up with "We're not really here by choice. That other tribe we talked about wrecked our wagons and made off with our horses. So now we've got a lot of folks and a lot of unknown territory. Hiking it to the city might be possible, but nobody's looking to stake their lives on the run. So until we get a surer feel for the odds, we're hunkering down where there's at least shelter."

"As for your master, I understand wanting the peace and quite. I'll tell you right now we're looking more to make it out of this in one piece that cause any commotion. Still trade some mighty appealing. We're still getting a bearing on what's around here, but once we do we may be able to set something up."

[ImSAMazing]

Vliarkev speaks after nodding for a while: "We are indeed setting an encampment up. The Sandcastle is already making much of progress. We do need a name for out camp though.".

[Ramsus]

Kythise cuts in here, "I believe our new friends may not wish us to establish a permanent residence here at the.... temple? When we start constructing permanent structures we should find somewhere a bit away to do so. We will need to know in which direction to move of course and this means we need to talk a bit more."

She pauses before speaking directly to the kobolds, "A lot of what we'll have to do is based upon if you are willing to trade with us and how close of neighbors you're ok with us being."

[Kislath]

"I can understand your confusion," says Urko.
"I assure you that I am not becoming a dragon. I seem to have joined the ranks of the Dragon Disciples. I am still a Kobold, and shall remain one, but yes, I have evolved into something more... and something less as well.
I suspect that Omadon's gift of the beaded necklace was intended as more than a mere token of affection. The magical surge from the stone reacted with the latent magic of the beads, linking me to both this world and to Omadon. To put it a bit simply, I am now his familiar, as it were, and not just his servant.
I do have a measure of power now, but I have increased my Master's power as well. For a short moment I understood it all, but the memory is fading.
About two of your miles north of here, maybe three, the ground becomes smoother and less rocky. It might make a more suitable location for your constructions and farming. You will likely encounter a few goblins, however. My Master will probably be willing to tolerate your presence in that area.
Our own cave is South of here, by about the same distance.
The occasional gift, a cow, perhaps, should help gain his favor, but he'd probably be happy to just be left alone. What IS it with you people, anyway? You seem to live for the opportunity to hunt dragons and poor little kobolds. Go hunt goblins instead. They need killing. Feh. I hate those guys.

I will ask him about the possibility of trading with you, but don't expect much. I'm sure there is little that you or he would want from each other, but one never knows.

Hmmm... for the time being, I have learned some healing magic. Perhaps I can assist with those among you who are the most badly wounded before we leave.

[ImSAMazing]

Vliarkev listens carefully, thinks for a moment and speaks: If we go Goblin hunting on that rocky surface you told us about, could we get supplies from your tribe in reward? It doesn't have to be big. We already have water, we just need to have a steady supply of food. Maybe a cow or 2 if you have those? Chickens are fine too. Or just give us your leftover eggs. We could use any food if we want to survive for a while and kill some goblins. Which I am fine with by the way.

Also, maybe people hate Kobolds in general because what happend to us: like always, one group ruïns it for the rest of the race. I met a nice bugbear once, who was a fair and square sailor. But because some bugbears raid people, people hate all the bugbears.

[Skald]

"Sounds like a reasonable compromise" Lex says, "No need to make enemies out of potential friends- or at least neutral acquaintances."

[Ramsus]

"We would be quite grateful for any healing, thank you. I think what we need most are metal tools and I've heard that kobolds are crafters of traps, which means you should have tools of some sort. It would be very difficult for us to build anything without tools and we are unlikely to be able to focus on both dealing with goblins and the process of finding and mining iron and processing that into tools at the same time. As tools are not made from precious metals, I doubt your lord will miss them much and I imagine even if he doesn't see the value in a friendly group of neighbors replacing a hostile group, you kobolds might and I hope that is enough incentive for you to grant us a few tools." Kythise chimes in wondering why people were asking for food when they'd just established they can fish and that they were going to have farmland.

[Kislath]

"Tools? Tools we gots. A little food, maybe, but lots of tools. You gives us some of goblins' stuffs, and we'll give you tools."

You already have some tools on the wagons, but those are mostly of the carpentry & craftsmen types. You don't have much in the way of anything that you can use to dig or mine, and almost no good weapons, or even nails, so it would seem that getting the things you need to set up a smithy would be a good idea.

In the ensuing dealing, the kobolds offer to bring you some picks and shovels, hammers, molds, and an old anvil, along with several iron and a few steel ingots. They even suggest to arrange for their own blacksmith to help you build a forge. Finally, they tell you where a rich seam of ore can be found.

"We can't goes there anymore. Too many enemies. Maybe you can haves better luck!"
They also mention a lesser ore deposit that's less infested with monsters, but its farther away.

Off in the distance, a screaming, squealing noise is heard.

"Ah.. speaking of traps, that's lunch!"

[ImSAMazing]

Vliarkev looks to the sound,

Just to make sure:
[roll0]

and speaks: Allies of you? Or should I prepare to fight and proof our honour?

[Kislath]

"What? OH! No, that just some critter in trap. Maybe a rabbit."

[ImSAMazing]

"There are rabbits around here?"

[Kislath]

"Oh, sures. Lots of rabbits. And other things. Tasty, tasty!

Hmmm... fish be tasty, too. You catches lots of fish. Maybe we trades some meats for some fish?"

Sure enough, your net is full of wriggling wet morsels. If the fishing stays this good, you could feed yourselves just fine. It would get pretty tedious, though, eating the same thing all the time.

Figgy is furiously flinging fishes onto the shore.

[Ramsus]

Kythise looks over at the fish she helped catch and thinks about the prospect of eating at least one meal of not fish before possibly up to a season or two meals of mainly fish and says, "We would happily accept such a trade. Is equal weight of rabbit for fish acceptable?"

[Kislath]

"For most things, sures. Some meats be special, though."

[Artemis97]

"What other things can be found to eat around here?" Alan asks.

[Shimeran]

As the topic of other edibles pops up, Galeff glances toward the kobold's fanged maws. "I dunno if you folks go for 'em, but we're also taking a look at some of the plants around here to round things out. We're still sorting out what's edible, but we'll likely make use of the reeds here. At the very least, we should be able to get some bricks built and we might be able to pull off some woven goods or possibly even cloth. A furnace would be great if we can manage it, though I'm not sure we've enough fuel around here. What do you folks usually burn?"

[Kislath]

"There is trees around, and a whole forest not too far. We used to burns the stinky rocks, but...

You could tries them, maybes. Over..there.. about 2 miles is big pit, full of stinky black rocks. They burns like crazy, but fire is very hard to puts back out again. Closer than forest, though.

We'll send our blacksmith over to help you builds a forge, if master says it okay. If you fights goblins, he should say yes.

Lots of foods around heres, but some is poison. Don't eat the yellow berries! They kills you dead. The red ones is okay, and the blue ones. The green and purple ones won't hurt you, but they tastes bad. See that plant theres? ( points to a plant ) It has big, tasty root. We farms those, grows fast.
Hmm... ( looks at your little woodpile ) That tree? ( points at log ) "Bark good for potion. Heals you good if sick."

[Artemis97]

"Sounds like coal." Alan summises. "Maybe we should get a group looking for the edible plants. Maybe send some folks for coal. Fire and food, to get us established. Coal would help with smithing, too. Once we get the basic supplies down, then maybe we can think of hunting goblins, but we need to think in the short term first. Food. Shelter. Safety." He lists, ticking the three off on his fingers.

[ImSAMazing]

"Sounds like coal." Alan summises. "Maybe we should get a group looking for the edible plants. Maybe send some folks for coal. Fire and food, to get us established. Coal would help with smithing, too. Once we get the basic supplies down, then maybe we can think of hunting goblins, but we need to think in the short term first. Food. Shelter. Safety." He lists, ticking the three off on his fingers.

Vliarkev overhears his last sentence and says: Shelter is almost done! Should be finished in around 10 minutes or something. Just let me finish all the walls.

[Ramsus]

After the food trading negotiation is complete Kythise asks a few of the non-empowered people to continue with the fishing and handling the actual trade and suggests, "Perhaps a few of us should examine the area we'll be moving to so we can better plan our next steps while we await the arrival of the tools?"

[Shimeran]

Galeff nods to the kobold, "Thanks for that. It's good to know we've got something to work from. I don't know much about fighting, but maybe we can rally some folks against the goblins. The more military types might know better." Turning slightly, he continues "If you'll excuse me though, I'd best see to those fish if we don't want them stinking up. I do look forward to getting some trade going in the future though."

So saying, he'll ask around for volunteers to gather fuel while he tries to set up basic fire pit, using his knowledge of kilns to try constructing something that will trap the heat as best they can. A covered structure would be best, but they'd likely need bricks for that. That being said, he may attempt an inward curving structure supported by stones and clay. If they can scrounge up digging tools, strips of turf might be used to edge the top and close things up a bit more. If our friendly neighborhood sand shaper get free that might speed creation of the base.

[Kislath]

There are plenty of people around who can help, and some of them have already piled up some bits of small logs and branches. The caravan had a very few small tools for getting wagons un-stuck from mud, so maybe one of those would suffice.

Urko uses his spiffy new healing spells to tend to the wounds of the most badly injured. The Kobolds then depart.

[Shimeran]

After the fire pit is constructed, it strikes Galeff that he's short on coals to start the fire and isn't sure if any flint were ready. He was about to ask when one of those strange patterns that had been drifting through his mind sprang up, demand his attention. Almost absent-mindedly, he traced that pattern on one of the rocks at the end of the pit. This so absorbed his attention that he only snapped out of it when the pattern started glowing dulling, falling back as flames surges out of it to ignite the gathered timbers.

[Kislath]

"Whoa.. how did you do that?" asks a nearby refugeee in a rapid-fire barrage of questions. "Was that magic? That was magic, wasn't it? You can do magic? How do you do magic? Does it hurt to do magic? Can you do other magic?"

[ImSAMazing]

Vliarkev, having finished the Sandcastle, calls everyone who touched the stone in the temple together. He speaks: "Friends, with the support of our new Kobold allies and the newly build Sandcastle, I think it is time to take action. Real action. We should go hunt some Goblins, so our Kobold friends can go to their leader and tell him we are up to do good and help him. Maybe those Goblins have tools or other stuff we could use for our people, at least they will have weapons. Who is with me?"

[Ramsus]

Kythise steps forward and says, "I will go. Before we attack them, we should make sure we cannot befriend them as we did the kobolds if we see a chance to do so without putting ourselves at risk."

[Kislath]

One big burly refugee looks up and says "You want to make friends out of goblins? Are you crazy? Goblins ain't good for one dang thing. I hate 'em. They hate us, too, I'm sure. They used to attack our farm sometimes. They kilt my little sister. There ain't no way I'm making friends with no goblins. I'll help you kill 'em all day long, though. I was pretty good at it once."

[Shimeran]

Still a bit dazed, Galeff responds as best he can "I dunno. I does look like magic. I wasn't really thinking about doing magic. I've just got these patterns stuck in my head and figured I'd try one out. There's a few others. Not sure what they do exactly." So saying, he idly begins tracing out one of the smaller patterns, drawing a traces of flickering light from the marks.

I'm thinking of the flickers would be from the Dancing Lights cantrip.

Overhearing the goblin debate, he calls out "Either way, learning their what they want could help, if only so we know what to protect. If they are an enemy, then knowing how they think wouldn't hurt. Maybe we can find a loner or smaller group and ask some questions. If they turn on us, at least those odd would be in our favor."

[Ramsus]

"Duly noted." Kythise replies to the man. Mentally she snickers at the somewhat gruesome and implausible image of making friends out of goblins.

[Kislath]

A few glowing balls of light suddenly appear out of thin air, and float before Galeff in a fascinating and somehow menacing sort of way, much to the wonder and amusement of those nearby.

"Yeah! Those should be good for killing goblins somehow!"

[Artemis97]

"Let's make sure we can defend ourselves if they counterattack. Maybe put some people to work making pikes or spikes for the walls?" Alan suggests. "Maybe give them a day or two to prepare?"