Pyrus gives an impressed nod to Sora.

"Let's do that.  I'm certain the dragon will send his minions to their doom.  If they somehow lack the guts to face us, that will work in our favor."

  Rhagar used sling on Slinger, it's super effective!  Rhagar will never quite understand how type bonuses work at this rate.

After the group steps back a bit, Sora opens the door with her telekinesis.

For a moment, there is nothing. Then suddenly a slinger rushes into view and gets a rock in the lung "AAAAAAHAHAHHOOOWWWW!!!!" but hurls a glue pot and hits Sora in the FACE! "MMPF!" is all that can be heard from poor Sora just before the glue not only glues her mouth shut, but glues her feet to the floor.

And immediate retaliation! Ideal tosses a javelin that finishes off the slinger.

A hissing can be heard saying in draconic, "I know you can underssstand me, blasphemers! We are not foolish enough to fight on your termsss! I am going to kill the dwarf prisonerrsss for every minute you ssstand out there!"

Sora mmmmmmpfs! unable to talk then rips from the glue. "Darn you! You throw glue at me and expect me to run in there?!"

A dwarven voice can be heard struggling and resisting.

Pyrus bursts out laughing!  He answers in draconic.

"Well done for figuring out we're here because of the dwarves, Myxnthrix!  But see, we get their money whether they live or die!  And by threatening to kill them you've told us you have nowhere to run!  So if it is a siege you want, then so be it!  We can wait for you to eat your retinue one by one!  And by then the friends of these dwarves will have joined us to overwhelm you!  Now that's a fight on our terms!"

(( OOC: bluff to hide that Sora's not keen on letting the dwarves die. ))

He puts a hand on Sora's shoulder to indicate, "Don't charge them." and readies a blast for when an enemy appears.

  "The Dragonling may last quite some time in a siege.  Plenty of kobolds to eat when it gets hungry.  I suspect they would feed themselves to it willingly"

The dragon responds, "Ha! Three dwarves could feed us for weeks to come! I know for a fact you did not come with provisions to last you that long! And not only that, YOU are the backup! That sorry town could only spare militia men and now you because they were lucky some adventurers came by?! HA! I'm calling your bluff! And I doubt they will pay as much for dead bodies as they will for live ones, so even from a greed point of view (which I can appreciate), you SO don't have me fooled!"

Sora growls low and quiet, but is expecting Pyrus to have this handled.

Ideal seems on edge, though, crouching as if ready to charge in.

"First dead dwarf in 10...9...8..."

---

Not that your bluff on "don't care about dwarves" didn't work, he is just extremely on guard now due to your bluff earlier and knows how tactically disastrous it would be to go into the hall due to the slinger reporting how you slaughtered the others en-mass.

Pyrus hmms.

"You are right that live dwarves are more valuable than dead ones.  So if you slay them, you'll be hurting our purses.  But once dead, they are of no more value to you as bargaining chips.  We do have food enough to wait you out in the form of your slain minions if it comes to that.  Kobolds don't make for fine dining, but they'll do in a pinch.  So let's not waste both our time and strike a bargain.  Live dwarves in exchange for your release.  We were hired to recover survivors, not face a dragon in combat.  And to prove that we will make good on our end of the bargain, we will withdraw to the exit.  You can send an expendable retainer to verify."

He mutters to his allies, "I trust this arrangement is acceptable to you as well?"

  "There are more dead Kobolds outside that room than there are live ones inside, we have less mouths to feed, time is not a problem.  Do you think a dwarf is worth two kobolds?  They are bigger, after all, though not that much bigger."

Ideal looks even more nervous.

"You have killed too many of my kobolds to leave here with any kind of deal! I loathe you! In fact, I think I shall kill this dwarf purely out of spite! May your purse run DRY!"

Sora can wait no longer and charges in! As soon as she appears, she gets assaulted! Despite being hurt, she doesn't get deterred and becomes a blur as she phases right through the enemies! "NO YOU DON'T!" She screams as she stabs the dragon squarely in the rear! Then lets out a draconic roar as she spews ice shards, downing 5 kobolds, injuring one, and hurting the dragon even more!

Ideal says, "Oh fudge." and rushes into the room, ignoring the kobold she passes swinging at her. "Sora!! Don't scare us like that!" and then seeing the carnage, she adds, "And leave a FEW for the rest of us, for goodness sake!"

Sora feels inspiration in Ideal's words and ignores her wounds!

"HAH!" Pyrus laughs.

He steps forward and lets out a massive blast of energy that hits the dragon hard and injures a kobold in it's wake.

"Thank you for giving us the excuse we needed to crush you!"
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:56, Thu 07 May 2015.

A slyblade hops around and gets behind Ideal, slashing at her backside only for fire to shoot at the kobold from Ideal's wound, hurting the kobold twice as much as he hurt the tiefling!

  Rhagar hurries forwards, wishing things were going more smoothly but knowing how often any debate but with a blade is wasted.

  He silently glides around the corner and comes to a stop behind the dragonling, impaling it through the back of the neck with one hand and grabbing the back of it's head with his free one.  The Draconian twists his target's head around so it's violent death throes spray freezing cold upon the remaining minion.

 "That was incredibly foolish, Sora.  Even if I prefer the end result." There she goes, being what he can't be.

---

Move: duh.
ACTION POINT: theme shift=speed.
Standard: Daily, hits dragon, EXACTLY enough to kill it.
Minor: Breath hits Minion.
Boss: Dead.
Minion: dead.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:00, Thu 07 May 2015.

The remaining kobolds seem crazed as one stabs Ideal and another stabs at her but misses.

Ideal stabs the minion near her in the neck, then rips the sword out the neck sideways in order to slash the slyblade that was behind her. Then moves up to the other slyblade in preparation for Rhagar to get a nice sneak attack in...

Sora then charges the one that was behind Ideal, challenging the kobold! "The fools are the ones lying dead on the ground before us, Rhagar!"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:21, Thu 07 May 2015.

Pyrus burns a kobold near to death.

"Indeed.  Good job, all."

The slyblade, still alive after Pyrus' assault, pulls a spite move and stabs Ideal in the back! She squeals from the pain and Sora's eyes glow, the kobolds blade appearing to protrude from his belly as if he had just stabbed himself in the back! He falls dead.

  Rhagar has different views on what the biggest amount of enemies you should charge is than Sora, being a single target DPS class.

  With Ideal bloodied, he steps up and backhands the remaining kobold with the handguard of his rapier hard enough to send teeth flying, and the kobold himself stumbling across the room next to Pyrus.  "There is your survival, clean death, and painful death.  Must I explain which will grant which?"

  Seeing events unfold as this is typed reveals that the Kobold has selected, painful death.  Of course.

The slyblade risks Pyrus' wrath and moves away, not quit getting hit, before deftly stepping past Sora to stab at Ideal! But he misses.

Ideal turns around, her wounds closing as a mysterious flame licks across where the wounds used to be. She stabs at the kobold, misses, and hops aside to give room for Sora and Rhagar to flank.

Sora moves into position and misses her attack also.

Pyrus casually flicks an acid orb at the last kobold.

"Who's surprised?  Not I."

  Rhagar draws his rarely used hand crossbow (bolts cost money, rocks don't) and through the magic of fatality flavor text, carves open the Slyblades stomach, and sweeps his crossbow through their open wound. He fires his crossbow into the ceiling, reeling out intestine with it.

  He ignores the screaming kobold in favor of Asking ideal "Your wounds seem better, though will you be allright?"

Ideal says, "I healed myself, but thank you for your concern."

She then looks at Sora. "And what about you, Sora? You were hurting badly earlier. Feeling better?"

Sora says, "I still don't understand what it is about you, but your words seem to make my wounds disappear."

The dwarf is staring wide-eyed. "Well that was the craziest, most amazing display of combat prowess I've seen in m' life!"

"Indeed.  And if you couldn't guess from Sora's risking her life for yours, I was lying to the dragon about the group not caring about your lives beyond coin.  Apparently he cared less about his own life than his spite."

He examines the ceiling decoration.

"You're an artist that specializes in red, Rhagar.  I admire your work."

  "Really Pyrus? It seemed rather unprofessional in hindsight." Kobold status, asking why he isn't dead yet.

  He looks to the Dwarves, and ask "Do you know of any other surviving mine staff?"

All of the dwarves' expressions turn grim. "....just us."

Ideal says, "Nothing can be done for your brethren. But you live. And now we can take you home, soon to restore the hold."

Sora says, "There is only one kobold in all this place that surrendered. If any of you recognize him as one of the ones who killed your brethren, then I shall turn him over to you for your own justice. If not? Then I ask you leave the kobold to my team."

The dwarf says, "Your kindness and heroism is appreciated. But our justice will not bring back our dead. You already killed the ones we hated most. By all means, do with your prisoner as you wish."

Pyrus chuckles at Rhagar's comment.

"One must allow themselves an indulgence from time to time.  But speaking of professionalism..."

He addresses the dwarves.

"When I told the dragon that we were hired to recover captives, that also was a lie.  We were hired only to discover what happened here.  When Sora brought up the possibility of rescuing captives, we were told our reward would have to come from the mine itself.  So we'll be taking the dragon's hoard as part of our fee."

  "At least we were able to save you three in the process.  A preferable outcome is not always possible."

  Rhagar wonders just how much of a hoard there even is yet, with so little time passed and such a small dragonling.