Before the Rise of Tiamat

[JustinCase]

”Dragon,” Grimnir mutters in disbelief. ”An army, and a dragon. This place is doomed.”

The gold dwarf shakes his head, ridding his head from the fatalistic thoughts that keep him from acting. He is a priest of Umberlee, by the gods, and has She not shown him more apparently hopeless dangers where he was sure to die? Yet here he is, a familiar storm above him, the elements lashing out around him, and if not for the lack of sea Grimnir would feel almost at home!

”To the fort!” he shouts, finding his voice and his run towards what to his dwarven eyes must be the only defensive place in town, urging the villagers to take refuge there.

 

[gargoyleking]

Mornok watched the village slowly evolve into insanity before eventually hearing the call from the keep and pouring towards the relative safety of the fortification. The dwarf looked at the structure with his soldier's eye, assessing it's likelihood of withstanding the assault of an army, let alone one accompanied by a dragon.

Still, he'd rather have some sort of structure and allies at his back than to be caught alone in the wilderness by some scouting party.

"Well, nothin' for it but t' join th' defense. Mayhaps they'll want tae pass us by if they got somewhere better t'be."

With that, the dwarf summoned up the magical armor that he'd been taught as an emergency measure should he be caught without his standard issue halberk. It drained his magical reserves more than he liked, but until he could acqure a proper suit of mail it would have to do.

Then he turned to the keep and joined the press heading towards the entrance. He did hang back a bit, helping anyone he could who was having trouble making it to safety.

Spoiler: OOC

Casting Mage Armor

Mornok Stormhammer
AC:
HP: 8 / 8
Spells ( used / slots ):
1st: ( 1 / 2 )

 

[gnarlygninja]

"Of course after I decide to come home and hide a dragon decides to attack the town" Lyle cursed under his breath. "And humans think halflings are lucky..."
Lyle decided he should make sure Galena (and his donkey) made it to safety, heading in the direction of home but keeping an eye out for more surprises. "Arvoreen, if I make it out of this I'll never complain about being bored again."

 

[Envisioner]

While Lyle can scuttle between the legs of tall folk, there's still a limit to how well he can penetrate a throng of this density; he finds that getting to Galena's house, and then getting back to the keep before they seal the gates, is going to take more time than he's entirely certain he has.

OOC: Donkey?

Mornok notes that the keep is very solidly built, although he can clearly see that it has never been subjected to any serious assault before. There's no evidence that it's been repaired, just cleaned and polished in the way of a symbol of civic pride, rather than a fortification against which enemies regularly batter themselves. Still, it looks at least basically defensible, with no clearly obvious vulnerabilities.

Grimnir catches the eye of a woman who's herding several children out of a solidly-built cottage. "Sir, you look like a soldier or traveler of some experience. Would you consider doing me a charitable favor? I have to get my children to safety, so I haven't the time, but I'm worried about my friend Walther. He lives out on the edge of town, and he's very hard of hearing, so he may not have noticed them sounding the alarm. If you could go make sure he's on his way to safety, I'd be very grateful." Before the gold dwarf can even give an answer, the woman's children commandeer her attention, and she is soon swept back into the fleeing crowd.

 

[gnarlygninja]

OOC: Lyle has a donkey he's mildly worried about

Lyle rechecked his mental arithmetic and decided Galena was probably capable of making it to the keep herself, and decided that no donkey was worth dealing with a dragon over. He followed the crowd to the keep.

 

[JustinCase]

Grimnir hesitates. His nature tells him to help the woman, that leaving the poor man Walther to his fate is a cruel and heartless thing to do. But on the other hand the dwarf knows that those who cannot help themselves are weak and will only hold back the strong.

He exchanges a look with the other dwarf.

”He’s not going to make it,” he refers to the old man, and Grimnir spins around and sprints towards Walther’s house, cursing himself the whole time there.

 

[gargoyleking]

Mornok returns the look and curses once, explosively. Then he runs to join his new friend in his endeavour. What one dwarf can do, 2 can do better, as they say.

 

[Envisioner]

Walther is easily found; he was reading a book in a back room whose walls finished muffling whatever sounds would have made it through the decades of wax in his ears (figuratively speaking), and had no idea of the disaster taking place outside his safe and comfortable home. He's not particularly grateful in the short term for having been rousted out of his favorite chair, but you figure he'll eventually figure out that he owes you his life, even if he's quite possibly too proud to admit it. Truly, a good deed is its own reward; little wonder mercenary work attracts so many of your adventuring ilk.

Thanks to their detour, the two dwarves are among the last ten people to reach the keep. As the heavy iron gates are fastened behind them, the approaching army finally comes into view at the outer edge of town, lit by the torches that they begin throwing at people's thatch roofs. Oddly, the dragon is not in view, despite the fact that it could easily have reached the town long before the riders and footmen. The sun is long since down, but it's only now beginning to become truly dark, and this lasts only until the flames begin to catch in haystacks and such; within a few minutes, the defenders who look out through the arrow slits of the barbican can get a good look at the still-distant attackers. Mostly human with a generous handful of dragonborn, several elves, and at least one dwarf (if they have halfings or gnomes, these are probably still too far away to make out amid the throng, the intruding force are primarily clad in black armor, and several seem to be wearing some sort of elaborate masks.

Then a number of small bodies begin emerging from behind and between the walkers and horsemen; running with fearsome speed in spite of their diminutive stature, these creatures are quickly identified by their glinting red eyes. Though they like to refer to themselves as "the youngest children of the dragon-goddess", or Zzh'hh-hk'-kk'let'chek in their buzzing, hissing version of Draconic, these diminutive barbarians are well-known to the folk of the Realms under a much simpler name: "kobolds".

 

[gargoyleking]

"You there, who's in charge 'round 'ere? I need tae' offer me' services an' such!"

Mornok snags the nearest soldier up to ask the question and then heads off to find the person in charge. He doesn't need to see the kobolds to recognize their yips and yaps. And curses once more the moment he does. "Bluidy dragon rats!"

 

[gnarlygninja]

Lyle looks around for anyone he knows in the courtyard, asking the first person he finds "Did your family make it? Is anyone missing?" He hopes the list of missing halflings doesn't grow too long to remember.