Pimp my plot: Ritual sacrifice to Tiamat

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't know if anyone remembers my Midwood campaign -- one day, I'll restart the Story Hour, honest! -- but currently, the heroic half of the campaign are witnessing a group of kobold champions of Tiamat (led by the group's nemesis, a kobold priestess of Tiamat who actually killed one of the characters early on in the campaign) who are currently making ritual sacrifices to Tiamat while on a pilgrimage to an ancient temple to the dragon goddess. There they plan to copy down a ritual that will mean doom for the heroes' barony.

[sblock=Boring other details]In a fit of metagaming, they're at the Oasis of the White Palm (in the desert of Uraq, the southern Arabian nation in the world of Monte Cook's Ptolus), which is ruled by the blue dragon Ra'ad, the self-proclaimed Master of the Desert Nomads. I'm the only one in the campaign who's been playing long enough to catch these references, but they make me giggle.

Both the kobolds and the heroes want to get the blue dragon to give them a scale for their various rituals -- the heroes will be trying to foil the kobolds with a counter-ritual of their own. Ra'ad likes to think of himself as a temporal ruler, instead of just a bullying thug who ruins the other oases in the desert, so the player characters are trying to convince him to give them a scale for diplomatic reasons. Ra'ad nominally follows the god of the desert nomads -- Rajek the Wanderer, for the Ptolusphiles -- but the kobolds' request certainly speaks to him as an evil dragon ...[/sblock]

I love kobolds, but I want to find a middle ground between cute kobolds and super-scary Tucker's Kobolds here.

My thought is that the kobolds are going to ritually feed animals that represent the humans, dwarves and gnomes of the barony to five snakes that have been bound together by their tails.

What sort of animals should the player characters watch be sacrificed so that they will realize that they're seeing a symbolic sacrifice of the Barony of Midwood to Tiamat?

Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[Stormtalon]

Hmm, just as a quick idea, I'd say plunder the Redwall books for appropriate animals. Make it obvious by having the various sacrifices dressed in miniature clothing that resembles the corresponding residents of the Barony, and if you feel the need to telegraph it even MORE, have it all take place in an area encircled by, well, a Red Wall.

 

[coyote6]

A fairly common (amongst humans) breed of dog for humans, a prairie dog or other burrowing mammal for gnomes, and some kind of mountain or underground-dwelling animal for dwarves (I'm drawing a blank at the moment). Definitely dressed in representative miniature costumes, probably emblazoned with the symbols of various major settlements of the Barony.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I like the dog idea for humans. The (dwarf) barbarian/druid character has a hound dog animal companion, so seeing a hound dog being killed will definitely get the group's collective hackles up.

A rabbit for gnomes would work (especially since that's my primary gnomish metaphor anyway) and maybe some sort of dwarf mountain goat for the dwarves.

Thanks, guys.

Any other ideas for icky Tiamat ritual details?

 

[coyote6]

Rabbits and mountain goats are perfect.

Hmm. Maybe five receptacles placed evenly around the perimeter of the ritual space -- one flaming brazier, one cauldron of bubbling acid, one freezing orb, one pillar crackling with electricity, and one glass sphere full of corrosive gas.

The sacrificial knives (used to open a ritual cut on the animals, of course) are made from the teeth of dragons (either the teeth of chromatics, gathered respectfully; or the teeth of metallics, taken from murdered good [or unaligned, whichever ] dragons).

The five snakes are color-coded, of course.

Maybe the sacrificial animals are force-fed some sort of concotion before they're sacrificed -- something to keep them calm, brewed from the blood and venom of snakes and/or dragons. Or the animals are fed a bit of the blood of the race each the animal represents -- dwarf, gnome, human. Or both.

 

[Asmor]

The first thing I thought of was being cut into 5 parts (head and each limb, with the torso divided evenly among each section).

Alternatively, have the animals killed by a venomous animal or poison, then burn the bodies, freeze them, electrocute them, and finally dissolve them in acid.

 

[Inyssius]

(I'm drawing a blank at the moment)

Badger? Naked mole rat?

 

[Quartz]

What sort of animals should the player characters watch be sacrificed so that they will realize that they're seeing a symbolic sacrifice of the Barony of Midwood to Tiamat?

Does Redwood have a coat of arms? Do any animals appear on it? If so, use them. The sacrifice of children dressed in tabards bearing the Redwood coat of arms would be another good one.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Does Redwood have a coat of arms? Do any animals appear on it? If so, use them. The sacrifice of children dressed in tabards bearing the Redwood coat of arms would be another good one.

They're doing this on neutral ground, and there's a limit to what their hosts will tolerate. Kids being killed definitely wouldn't work, and the kobolds would know it. (Their leader is a savvy one.) I might save that for the actual ritual later on, though.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Anyway, thank you for the suggestions. As some might remember, the Midwood campaign is a pbp, so here's the reaction to the ritual so far. (Emus is a dwarf, FYI, and Bufer is a missing gnomish member of the group.)

Still picking the chicken from between their teeth, the group stumbles out into the cold Uraqi night. The heat of the day has vanished almost in an instant, and the northerners shiver as the imam and his family go through a very long process of farewells, involving a great deal of hugging and kissing and the manly pounding of backs.

There are fires lit in the various camps around the oasis, the biggest of which appears to be in the kobolds' camp.

"Are we going to sleep for the night, sirs? From the sound of things, it may be advisable."

"Anybody else want to go take a peek at what these kobolds' 'rituals' are? You show us how to wrap ourselves up like everyone else here, and we probably won't even stand out from the crowd."

"That sounds like a good idea."

"Ayup, we oughta see what they're up to."

It only takes Rajek Ali -- who used to haggle for his late master on a daily basis -- half an hour to come back with a set of robes and headdresses for th group, including an enveloping one for Hazel, and even one that fits Emus just fine.

"When we get over there, spread out a little bit in the crowd - if we can recognize a clutch of kobolds when they're in disguise, it makes sense they might be able to spot us if we're all standing together, too."

Emus nods, and the group heads toward the kobold camp, spreading out about forty feet before they arrive and positioning themselves in different places in the crowd.

There seems to be a great deal of activity in the kobold camp. The bonfire in the middle of their camp has been stoked even higher during the time the group was dining, and now the five kobolds, each wearing a helmet shaped like the head of a different breed of dragon, stalk around the fire, yipping and singing, waving burlap bags.

Hazel attempts to silently blend in with the crowd as she listens attentively to the singing.

[[Is it Draconic? Can she understand the words?]]

The singing is Draconic, but a lot of it seems fairly ecstatic, drifting into incoherent barking and yipping in the kobolds' bloodthirsty passions for the death and dismemberment of their enemies.

As she listens, Hazel notices that there are things in the bags that appear to be squirming.

If she can do so without attracting notice, Hazel moves closer to the front of the crowd to get a better look at the bags' contents.

The kobold wearing what appears to be a white dragon's head-shaped helmet reaches into his sack and pulls out a small furry creature. It struggles in the firelight, and Hazel can only see it by firelight, and it takes a moment to see that it's a malnourished mountain goat kid.

He holds it over his head and all the kobolds roar in unison, in Draconic, "DWARVES!"

Hazel bites her lip, grateful for the oceans of fabric covering her from head to toe, but wishing she could see Emus. She casually glances around her, trying to gauge the crowd's reaction to the ritual, and braces herself for whatever the kobolds might sacrifice in the place of gnomes and humans.

Hazel isn't sure where Emus is at first, but she's able to quickly determine his position in the crowd from where everyone turns to stare when Emus starts laughing.

"HAW HAW HAW!

"They... they couldn't....

"HAW HAW!

"They couldn't find a real dwarf, so they used a dumb beast, and then they had to use a BABY one! They's afraid of GOATS! Oh, gods! That's funny! My sides hurt!

"HAW!"

The kobolds turn at the sound of Emus' guffaws.

Another kobold yanks a sacrifice out of his sack.

"Gnome!" he roars, gripping a hedgehog around its neck, shaking it at the dwarf.

"Holy crap! I'mma 'bout to mess myself! HAW HAW! Hedgiee-hogs got prickly fur! They's actually more dangerous than gnomes! That's how afraid of gnomes kobolds are!"

Emus bends over to mark the height of an (admittedly short) gnome, but ends up doubling over in laughter instead.

Hazel lips twitch. Bufer, you'll be damn sorry to be missin' this.

While the kobolds are otherwise engaged, Tucker tries to determine which tent is theirs, whether there's anyone watching it, and if it wold be possible to sneak in the back.

Finding the tent isn't difficult: It's lower and more light-tight than the humans' tents. This is confirmed by the knob that's been tied to the sash that binds the tent flaps shut. The knob is shaped like a writhing mass of five dragon heads: Tiamat, the five-headed queen of dragons.

Back around the fire, one of the kobolds, clearly enraged at Emus' reaction, reaches into the final wriggling bag, holding his sacrifice high.

"MEN!"

In his hand struggles a sickly hound dog puppy.

". A puppy?"

Trying not to see a baby Skeeter struggling in the kobold's grip, Emus tries to keep his voice light and casual.

"Heh. Kobolds're so stupid! They couldn't find nothing better for humans than a sick puppy. That's what they think of every man and woman here, ya'll, but they think none of you is gonna recognize it. And they're gonna kill 'a man' in a camp while surrounded by real men.

"Apparently Tiamat ain't picky about her sacrifices. Just pathetic."

Another kobold, silhouetted by the firelight, but identifiable by her helmet shaped like the head of a green dragon -- of Gax, specifically, based on the lovingly replicated chipped spine atop the dragon's head -- reaches into her bag and draws out a long ceremonial blade. Its shape is hard to discern until Pick angles it slightly in the firelight, and it becomes clear that it's shaped like five dragon heads and their joint necks.

She points at the first kobold.

"Dwarves," she says, in Common, making sure the Midwood audience can understand her.

The kobold brings over the struggling baby goat and holds it down on the sand for her.

She raises the blade and, with a practiced hand, brings it down four times, chopping the screaming kid into five pieces, its cries not stopping until the final cut.

"We feed the dwarves of Glangirn to the five maws of Tiamat!" She and the kobold throw the bloody meat into the bonfire, and the other kobolds roar their approval.