scotland ♔ yet how the wind revives us here

[untethered]

♬ Presentiment - Manami Kiyota

WHO || Belle, Gold, Emma, Hook, Lila [closed]
WHAT || Several Knights take a secret journey to try to help Amara...
WHERE || Oakhurst, Scotland
WHEN || January 15th, 2014 [forward dated]
HOW || Actionspam

It's probably a very good thing that Gold sweet-talked them a car in the nearby tiny Scottish village of Oakhurst, because it is freezing cold out and snow blankets almost everything around. Walking the seven miles up the Old Road to the ruins would be a bitch and a half.

Instead, they comfortably drove past rocky downs, near stands of old-growth oak covered in snow, and past two farms that looked abandoned. No other travelers were visible on the lonely road, which finally curves, passing east of a narrow ravine. Belle signals for them to pull over here, where, at the road's closest approach to the cleft, several broken pillars jut from the earth where the ravine widens and opens into something akin to more of a deep, but narrow, cavern. Two of the pillars stand straight, but most of them lean against the sloped earth. Others are broken and several have apparently fallen into the darkness-shrouded depths. A few similar pillars are visible on the opposite side of the ravine.

Comments

[bittersweeter]

Can you guys just stop! Backing an animal into a corner is kind of the last thing you want to do. [ bossypants mode activate: diplomacy 36. somewhere in the back of her mind, eric's words bounce around. she's good at talking. she steps forward delicately. (balance 23) ] Meepo kept it in a cage, how 'bout we give him some friggin' space for once.

[uncurse]

Yeah, and you know what transports back to a cage better? Unconscious! [ emma is 100% princess pissed on account of being ice blasted twice now. she has emotional turmoil associated with this dragon now. also will save 21 so she accepts that lila has a point about it being a bad idea but emma is also ... a charming. and bad ideas are a thing. she takes another swing at the thing instead :) (atk 16, if it hits: subdual dmg 4). ] We're not here to cuddle it.

[undealt]

[well gold begrudgingly sides with lila (will save 10), but only because knocking it out is only making it upset so once Emma gets her hit in. He tries to approach it from the side.]

Easy now, my dear. This is a fine way to get someone killed and I, personally, have no interest in slaying dragons. [nat 20 diplomacy. jesus christ he is the lizard whisperer.]

[untethered]

[ it's a nice plan and all guys but belle has a very good point to make with her nat 20 arcane lore check over here ]

... It's only a baby. I don't think it's going to be intelligent enough to reason with yet, even if it could understand what you're saying. But I doubt it speaks the language. [ she tries saying something to it in draconic, and it seems to catch its attention more than most of you do. diplomacy is, unfortunately, a language-dependent skill. even with belle's command of the language, however, a rushed diplomacy check on which a character spends less than 10 rounds takes a -10, making belle's attempt a... 10.

a very angry calcryx has been rolling amazing recharge times on his breath weapon too so HERE IT GOES AGAIN, this time catching hook and lila in its cone. reflex dc 12 again, dmg 2 cold or 1 with a successful save. ]

[unhand]

[Hook's will save of 8 means he's pretty damn convinced by Lila's logic.]

If you have a better idea...

[Except then that little bastard catches him with his cold cone (reflex 10) and suddenly he's with Emma on team knock it unconscious. He swings his hook at it again, though since he's still trying to be subdual about it, he misses wildly (atk 6).]

[sternshield]

[ erky lowers his morningstar and glances around, huffily ] Well, if you don't want to hurt it, we need something to tie its damn mouth shut with. [ unfortunately he doesn't notice anything, but he does do a full retreat backwards away from the dragon so that he can start looking without getting attack of opportunity-ed by the thing. ]

[bittersweeter]

[lila makes the save easily (reflex 27, so damage 1), but it's annoying because she is trying to help, scaly little brat. but her affinity for things in cages is still enough that she doesn't want to harm him, especially if he's a baby. and she is just going to back right the fuck up, on your own bitches. (balance 19) ] Rope! The goblin's not going anywhere.

[uncurse]

[ things you don't do: attack her family. emma takes another swing at the dragon for that ice blast (atk 19, subdual dmg 8). she almost seems to make the attack as a point in response to lila and erky's chatter - she certainly doesn't mind hurting it, particularly not now. she shouts over her shoulder. ] I've got more rope in my bag. If we can slow it down, or knock it out, we can tie it up and ship it back with the kobold then. [ her voice drops. ] Assuming our scaly friend wakes up.

[untethered]

[ that blow actually knocks the dragon to the ground, where it lays, mewling pathetically but still conscious at 0 hp. /init ]

[undealt]

[Luckily Gold still has rope... And duct tape, if anyone particularly wants to duct tape a dragon. He tosses Lila the rope.]

Well, that was certainly a headache.

[Says the guy who managed to get out of this without a scratch on him.]

[uncurse]

Could have gone a lot worse. [ she shoots a glare at gold for things HE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND because someone had to fucking make her go fight a dragon to get magic jesus christ. ] Believe me. [ she shrugs off her backpack and tosses it to lila. ]

[bittersweeter]

Do we have to give it back? [ she's just... casually wondering this outloud as she catches the rope (reflex? 17) and moves back toward the little dragon (balance 15). when emma tosses her backpack, lila trades it for the rope and pulls her thin silk scarf off. to protect the poor dragon's snout from the rope. ] I mean, we said we'd return him. We never said they could keep him.

[uncurse]

And do what? Bring him back via pirate ship and shove him in a kennel at the castle? [ she is fairly incredulous. ] Besides. Putting him back in kobold hands, that's what return means. We're not here to liberate test animals. We're here to save Amara.

[bittersweeter]

Or, gasp, set him free? Animals don't belong in cages.

[undealt]

Let's worry about the dragon after we've gotten what we came for. [He is not getting in the middle of this BUT MOOOOOOM debate, okay.] Do you think your goblin friend can tell us the location of the grove?

[bittersweeter]

[ she holds out the scarf firmly to emma, bc yes she cares more about the baby dragon than the goblin. fuck him. she has to think about gold's question for a second before she answers, turning slowly to face the rest of the group. ] Verbally, no, or I've never tried. As long as he's been there before then it's in his head and he can probably lead us there. If not, he can probably take us to someone who does know. I might need to actually poke around in his head though if it comes to that.

[untethered]

[ belle looks ready to make a comment about the dragon, but seems to decide to hold her tongue when the subject changes, and instead draws out a healing potion, kneeling besides the unconscious meepo and administering it to him. He sputters awake, looking around wildly. ]

"Calcryx?"

[uncurse]

You can relax. It's alive. [ and emma will take the scarf and start tying up the dragon's snout. ]

[bittersweeter]

[ lila is going to take the dragon wrangling lull to dive into the goblin's sleeping mind to see if she can figure out if he knows where they should go or not. (concentrate nat 20, 20 total) her eyes close and a little line of effort wrinkles her forehead, but emma's comment about saving amara slapped lila's priorities back into place. (she still thinks they can save the dragon though. both!) ]

[sternshield]

Don't know why anyone would want to see a white dragon alive and well. You're all a very strange lot, I'll give you that. [ he casts a distasteful look at belle's revival of the little kobold ] And you keep strange company.

[ the goblin itself seems to have never been to the grove in question - but it knows that it's below, down below, which can be accessed via the hall of the goblin chief, very close by.

of course that's also where the chief keeps court, along with many guards. ]

[bittersweeter]

[ lila's eyes open after a bit and she frowns, wrinkling her nose. ] Well, Sparky's never been to Eden, but he knows how to access it. Sort of. But we have to go through the goblin boss' great hall or some shit and surprise, surprise, it's full of... [ a pause for dramatic effect. ] More goblins.

[uncurse]

Does he know how many? [ three was easy. twenty ... may not be. ]

[bittersweeter]

[ she shrugs, rubbing the heel of her hand against her forehead. ] A bunch? He didn't give me a number. Um, guards, their leader, random goblin bystanders; so maybe fifteen to thirty? That's as best I can narrow it down.

[unhand]

I've faced worse odds. [Their little band's grown, too. It can't be too bad.]

[uncurse]

Than thirty on seven? We need a plan. Some way to slip past them. Was there a way around the great hall?