The Biggie Smalls Chronicles, Part 6
Posted By: WotC_Huscarl, 1/28/2008 5:26:40 PM
The common thread tying together all of the preceding skullduggery and doppel-dealing was the local high priest of Moradin, c.f. "assassination of." As nearly as we could piece it together (or as much as Biggie was paying attention), the high priest of Bahamut, or "Grand Poobah-hamut," had the notion that if running one temple was good, running two would be double-good, even if you needed to stage a coup to do it (and become the "Grand Coup-bah").
Someone (Baredd, no doubt) opined that if the high priest of Moradin was on the menu for Moradin-din, we ought to mosey by and warn him.
The temple of Moradin was a rather grand affair, meaning it has money, meaning it can afford to reward those who do it favors. Biggie was aboard.
Inside the temple, we saw lots of guards, which was good. They were all dead, however, which was bad. Being astute adventurers, we followed the claw marks gouged in the floor and the minor river of blood that was flowing down the stairs to the gloomy lower level beneath the temple proper. Emerging all in a clump from the narrow entryway, we formed a perfect target for the creature that awaited us in ambush -- and when I say "creature," I mean "dragon."
It was not a terrifically old or enormous dragon, admittedly, but when you're 2nd level, the number of dragons you hope to fight is "none of the above." This one was accompanied by two trash-talking pseudodragons named Bindle and Spindle plus a human spell-tosser who proved to be slippery but delightfully fragile once cornered.
The dragon's breath stunned everyone but Elias and Kathra. We recovered quickly, however, and proceeded to give Old Mr. Scales the What For from every point of the compass. At one exchange, the sickly Garrett heroically stood his ground adjacent to the monster because moving away would have "screwed Biggie's flank" ... and this was no time for recreation. Biggie used his once-per-encounter power to great effect, landing twin attacks on the dragon and therefore getting to add his Wisdom bonus to the damage. Sadly, Biggie ain't that wise, so the bonus was zero, but it was a proud moment nonetheless. A round later, he scored a critical hit AND rolled max damage anyway. Now that's showmanship.
With their allies leaking fluids copiously, Spindle and Bindle tossed off some last-second taunts that ran along the lines of "ha ha, we didn't need to stop you, just slow you down while the real assassins do their dirty work -- LOSERS!" and then made a break for the far exit. Elias raced after them and tacked Spindle to the wall with his poniard, but Bindle turned invisible and escaped. We'd 'see' him again.
About this time, some of us wanted to take a breather, heal some wounds, and recover our once-per-encounter powers, but others perceived a need for haste. Misplaced urgency, frankly, because none of us even worship Moradin. (Well, maybe Kathra does. "The Hammer" is wound a little too tightly for Biggie's taste. The afterlife and worlds beyond are all well and good, but Biggie's more interested in corporeality, if you follow where that's going.)
Never let it be said that Biggie leaves his friends in the lurch. Not for much more than a surprise round, anyway. Up we charged, back to a different level of the temple ...
... Where we came face-to-face with a gnoll. In the past, gnolls were like mistreated junkyard dogs. Now, gnolls are like mistreated junkyard devil-dogs. Catch the difference?
Everyone who'd demonstrated his or her commitment to this fight by rolling a high initiative number streamed past the gnoll before it could do much to stop them. They were headed down the passage toward the sound of hammering, a sound that was eerily suggestive of a dragonborn assassin trying to batter its way through the door of a high priest's final refuge. Biggie, not liking dogs much to begin with, was having second thoughts about the whole escapade. By the time he fought his way past the first gnoll and its late-arriving litter-mate (with some timely magical help from Kathra and Jarett), the fight was inside the archbishop's (or whatever's) bedchamber. It was nearly all over except for the begging-for-mercy and the coup de grace. Pathetically, the only one begging for mercy was the cringing high priest, who performed rather shamefully throughout. I mean, the guy's a high priest. He ought to know a bless spell or something.
Biggie's chief contribution to the final act was jumping in the way so that Elias couldn't step into the assassin's blind spot and jab a stiletto in its reptilian kidney. That wasn't Biggie's intent, of course -- he mainly wanted to hog the kill for himself -- but it was pretty funny. It turned to hilarious when, with the dragonborn reduced to just 6 hit points, Elias hit it without his sneak attack advantage and caused just 4 points of damage. I mean, c'mon. Biggie can barely force his damage output down to 4 points on a bad day. That's just sad. I suspect that Elias's anger was mostly to cover his embarrassment.
Steve
