Before the Rise of Tiamat

[JustinCase]

Connecting something he saw earlier to the return of the dragon, Grimnir spins on his feet and rushes over to the prone cultist in the gold frayed robes and snatches the mysterious instrument from him.

"Gotta be how he called that monster," the dwarf mutters to himself as he then starts running after Mornok and Lyle, zigzagging a bit to avoid being an easy target for whatever ranged attacks might be coming his way.

 

[Envisioner]

The dragon swoops down from the sky, but never gets closer than about 50 feet up; it lets off a blast of its lightning-breath in the general direction of the fleeing crowd, destroying several haystacks but not getting close enough to stand anyone's hair on end, and then it zooms on past the group. As it does so, it is briefly silhouetted against the fires blazing around the keep's distant watchtower, and you realize that there is a humanoid form mounted on its back. It comes back around for another pass, neglecting to breathe this time, and again buzzes the crowd without attacking, even though it easily could slaughter the twenty-odd remaining members of the procession. Finally, it heads back toward the keep; several of the refugees hesitate to advance in the same direction as the reptilian horror, but once it's far enough away from them they get moving again, uncertain that they'll be safe behind the castle's walls, but sure enough that they won't be out here.

 

[gargoyleking]

Mornok ducked instinctively as the dragon flew overhead. He'd initially considered firing off a girebolt of his own to distract the beast, but thought better of it. Instead, he took to directing people by shouted instructions and warnings as the dragon swung around for it's second pass. His primary goal though was to keep people moving to the keep, telling them where to find the sally port they'd exited from.

 

[JustinCase]

”Could’ve killed us,” Grimnir says to Mornok and Lyle as he tries to catch up. ”Why didn’t it?”

He decides to ponder about that later, now focussing instead on getting to the keep with as many villagers as possible.

 

[gnarlygninja]

Lyle shrugs. "Who knows? If I were a giant fire breathing lizard I wouldn't waste time with the likes of us either. Then again I also wouldn't be attacking somewhere like Greenest when I could sleep on piles of gold and eat whatever I wanted."

 

[gargoyleking]

"They're tryin' tae split us up, easier tae' take stragglers, prolly lookin' fer slaves"

Mornok kept running, trying to keep the villagers from spreading out too much or trying to run anywhere but the keep.

 

[Envisioner]

Lyle shrugs. "Who knows? If I were a giant fire breathing lizard I wouldn't waste time with the likes of us either. Then again I also wouldn't be attacking somewhere like Greenest when I could sleep on piles of gold and eat whatever I wanted."

OOC: I'd like you to repeat this observation around an NPC later on, so that I can have someone respond in-character. I was sorely tempted to have a DMPC step out of midair and comment as if he had been part of the party all along, but I'm trying not to go quite that far in railroading you guys, so the occasional Subtle Hint will hopefully suffice.

 

[gnarlygninja]

OOC: And that's how Lyle got a catchphrase

 

[Envisioner]

OOC: And that's how Lyle got a catchphrase I just hope you don't delete your account, like the last player whose character had a catch phrase.

 

[Envisioner]

Mornok succeeds in rounding up all the stragglers, and soon the three heroes are safely inside the keep along with all two dozen hostages.

OOC: And scene. I plan to continue shortly, but in case I get interrupted for any reason I wanted to make sure that you guys at least had closure.

 

[gargoyleking]

Once safely inside the keep Mornok turns to Grimnir, a troubled expression on his gruff countenance. "We pulled through that by th' skin o' our teeth. They seem t' be some sort o' cult, methinks. 'ave ye' heard o' somethin' called th' wearers o' purple? It came t' me watchin' that mage earlier, but I couldnae place it."

While he speaks, he gives Lyle a hearty pat on the back, and smiles at the halfling. "Ye' did well lad, not bad fer' all that."

 

[JustinCase]

OOC: Does Grimnir know about the cult? Do I have some sort of roll to make for that?

Grimnir nods, catching his breath.

”Too close,” he agrees, finally taking the time to magically mend his armor where he was gravely injured before.

”I hope the sheriff has found some useful information from his prisoner by now.”

Turning to Lyle, he adds, ”Everyone here?”

 

[gnarlygninja]

Lyle smiles in return. "And you two did a fine job sneaking, for people with two left feet. That's everyone from the church but not everyone from my list." He looks somber for a moment before shrugging. "I guess we can't really do much for anyone else while that army is still there though. And the dragon, although I still don't know why he's bothering with a place like this instead of counting his treasure and eating all the sheep he wants."

 

[Envisioner]

OOC: There isn't really a skill in 5E which corresponds to the old "Knowledge: Local", which you'd roll to be aware of important people in a given area or things of that nature. Given backstory, I think I'll say that Mornok knows no more than the vague hint he picked up, but Grimnir can roll because of his wanderings as a sailor, and Lyle can roll with advantage because of his direct involvement with the seedy side of Waterdeep society. I'll put the DC at 13; it's not common knowledge but neither is it super-obscure. So Grimnir has about a third of a chance to know, and Lyle has two thirds.

 

[gnarlygninja]

OOC: _: 1D20 = [6] = 6 1D20 = [17] = 17

 

[JustinCase]

OOC: Apparently Grimnir knows his cults... What does Grimnir know: 1D20 = [20] = 20