"Nice to belong to a team that sees the merit in all options," Mits says with a smile.

"Yay for not killing!" Cherub cheers.

"Better make what you have to say sound useful, kobold," Imp threatens with an impish grin, "You're looking mighty toasty..."

Flarewing sighs and rolls her eyes, "Fine, if you say so."  Personally she isn't as concerned about reputation as the others.  If you're good at killing the badguys while keeping the good people safe and sound, then that's all the rep you need, right?

Still she walks over to the kobold in question, her expression that of uncaring indifference.  She leans down nice and close to whisper into the kobold's ear, "You see that?  If it were up to me, you'd be reduced to ash and scattered to the winds right now.  But THEY want to spare you, to show you mercy.  You had better cherish their generosity and kindness.  And if you so much as try to backstab them, try to lie or harm them in any way, I will see to it personally that you are burned, slowly until there is nothing left but bone and dust, making sure that through your firey torment you beg and plead for a swift demise that will never come.  Understand?"

The firebird stands up and smiles, sweetly, at the kobold before joining the others, confident that her message was sent to the kobold's head.

(Intimidation roll: 1d20+10 = 28)

Emerald is glad to have a generally agreeable team.

The kobold has white scales, sure. But if he didn't have them, he would have turned white. He is scared stiff of Flarewing and keeps his eyes away from her.

Emerald asks, "What can we expect in the rooms ahead?"

The kobold begins sputtering gibberish at first, but Emerald says, "Shhhh... You spoke common when you surrendered. Can you speak common when you answer me, please?"

The kobold gulps and says, "Yesyes! Common for the nice, merciful common-speakers! OK: What to expect! That pit leads down to..." he proceeds to describe the room ahead. And then the room after that. The kobold gives details such as the statue having been made unstable on purpose so it can be pushed onto invaders. He informs the group that last he checked, there were still 3 living dwarf prisoners. He can't think of an exact number of kobolds, but estimates there are as many below the pit as there were up here above the pit. "But wyrmpriest is dangerous! He casts magic like you! He guarding the very next room. Dragon most dangerous; she can breath ice to such a distance and width that you no escape unless you hide around corner from it! And when you see kobold with two short swords, one in each hand, beware! Do not let them surround you with anyone else or they will hurt you more!"

Emerald raises an eyebrow. "...that is a lot of information. And all absolutely truthful. If he's lying, he's the best liar I've ever met."

(Emmy insight roll: 26)

  "He already has a roasting to worry about.  If we threatened him with a face eating as well he may not be coherent enough to speak the truth anymore."

 Hmm, well maybe after the roasting?

Cherub smiles. "The nice, merciful common-speakers have given you a chance at a new life of being nice and merciful yourself!  You've done well!"

"Sure hope this doesn't turn into a hostage situation," Imp grumbles.

"I'll shoot the dwarves if it does," Mits says, "I'm pretty good at making a knockout look like a kill."

Flarewing stretches, "Okay so dual-wilding sword users, a mage type, a dragon, and others.  Wonder if they'll allow for some diplomacy or if we'll have to burn them too."  She hmms softly, "Will have to save the dwarves though, so I guess I'll have to tone down my fire-setting."

Emerald... loves her team. "Alrighty. But the dwarves are in the room after the one we're coming up on. So no need to hold back in this next room, Flarewing."

Emerald feeds the kobolds some rations. "Eat this. We shouldn't take long, but in case we do, I don't want you going hungry."

The kobold obeys. Emerald then goes to descend into the pit.

  Chekin is more annoyed at wasting food on the kobold than anything.

  "Were you intending on scouting ahead to see how truthful our captive was?" Chekin is the party tank after all.

  Who's player could have given them LOL high stealth fighter instead of LOL High acrobatics fighter.  But jumping over hazzards in a battle comes up more often than sneaking in the middle of a battle for fighters.

"I want to try and reason with them," Cherub says, "Maybe they'll listen knowing that we're powerful enough to get this far yet merciful enough to spare the one who surrendered."

Imp headshakes.  "They'll just try and kill you."

"Mits can just re-summon me if that happens.  And so long as they're wasting their time attacking me, they're not attacking the rest of you."

Mits headshakes.  "Nah I'd rather you not.  Hurts me like hell every time you're destroyed.  Reason with them while we're proving that we can kick their butts.  Much more proof in the pudding that way.  As for scouting, I can do that."

<< Hypothetical >>

Sneak sneak sneak!

"Yup.  Exactly like our prisoner described.  One priest, a spear type, and two shield types."

OOC: Ignore after hypothetical if anyone objects to scouting.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:13, Thu 21 May 2015.

Flarewing grins and nods, "I like that thinking." THe firebird agreeing with Mits, "Let the closest burn and the rest will hopefully be smart enough to give up."  Once scouting is done, she follows Emerald down into the pit.

Mittens scouts and finds what the kobold said to be true. So far. But it is too risky to scout further than the first underground room.

The firebird flappity-flaps into action!  "Hey kobolds!  Your mothers are total chocolate-covered goobers and you smell like old pig rags!"  WIth her words shouted out, she promptly throsws a fireball in an arc, majestically missing any possible target, except for that moth on the wall over there.  It's all part of her secret master plan to get their attention so the rest of the group can totally sneaky-murder them.  Yep, that's what it is.

It worked! Two kobolds come charging out at Flarewing! One circles around to give a flanking opportunity to another! ...but they both miss the dodgy bird.

Emerald unsheathes her scimitar and comes running up behind the dragonshield who turns and deflects Emerald's blade JUST in time! "Flank her and get flanked!" Emerald says in a challenging, confident tone.

Imp hurries over to help Flarewing with the skirmisher while Cherub rushes in to harass the dragonshield in the back.

"Ok, so, we beat the ones up top, but we spared the one who surrendered!  So don't make us hurt you!"

Mits shoots 4 arrows at the dragonshield, two of which hurt it bad.

"Oh dear!  I feel so forced to hurt these kobolds!  The reluctance I feel as I arrow villains cannot be put into words!  SARCASM!"
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:17, Thu 21 May 2015.

  Chekin makes it to his desired position thanks to being a bugman instead of a normal man (Well okay the light armor also helped), finishing what Mittens started by spearing the dragonshield through the skull.

  He follows up with bashing the skirmisher upside the head with the haft as he draws the weapon free.

The wyrmpriest yells in draconic, "Don't fight that thing, it's pointless! Instead, push the statue onto it!"

The dragonshield obeys and runs, only to get slashed in the back by the cherub! But he presses on and like a superhero among kobolds, pushes the statue and CRUSHES Cherub! "AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! More like WE hurt YOU, Stupid baby!"

Even as the statue falls, the wyrmpriest can be seen running towards the group and leaps over the debris only to spew ice breath at Checkin and Emmy, harming both of them! "Your momma was eaten by my pet cat, bird-brain!" the wyrmpriest yells in defiance! "And your allies will make fine meals for my dragon!"

He bursts with energy and the two remaining kobolds beef up, their muscles getting bigger as they suddenly each hop to the wyrmpriest's sides!
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:25, Thu 21 May 2015.

Flarewing was going to mess with the skirmisher, but that wrympriest just had to open his mouth.  "It IT ON!"   She flappityflaps right up into the Wyrmpriest's face and activates Well of Fire (Well of Light) mode followed by unleashing a stream of fire at both the Wyrmpriest and his Cherub-Smashing buddy.  Not waiting to see the aftermath of that she turns to the Skirmisher and slashes at the kobold with its fiery blade.   "Say that again, Say it one more time.  I DARE you!"

The skirmisher flanks Flarewing and... whiffs. The wyrmpriest says, "YOUR MOMMA WA-" and all he can say is gurgling sounds as Emerald's sword comes up out the guy's mouth and he drops dead. In a sudden whirl of her blade, almost in a dance, Emmy decapitates the skirmisher that snuck behind Flarewing. "...oops. Sorry, Flarewing. Didn't mean to steal your kills there, but you're my friend. I wasn't going to suffer him saying it again."

POP!  Cherub reappears.  "Hi everyone!"

Imp kicks the body of the priest.  "Jerk!"

Mits gets to looting and resting.  "Yup.  Still hurts like the dickens when you're smushed.  Please don't make a habit of it."

"Sorry..."

  "I doubt she crushed herself to a-" delicious? "fine paste intentionally."

   He looks to the remains of the kobolds, and adds "These ones might as well have killed themselves, however.  They would have lived longer then."

Flarewing blinked a bit as the foxyfox took care of the kobolds unlucky enough to survive the phoenix's blitz.  Too bad, for them.  She shrugs a bit and gives a grin at emerald, "It's fine.  Either by your hand or at theirs, or at mine, the kobolds would've been reduced to beltskins either way."

Emerald quietly wonders if anyone would be able to tell the difference between kobold skin or other lizard skins. Then wonders if people would be able to tell the difference between her own skin and a normal fox's skin. And so on, she wonders about the entire team that way, really. "This fight was genuinely harder; Checkin, Mittens and I all got hurt. Let's rest and prepare for a tougher fight."

"That does seem to be the pattern, yes."

"What, we win?"

"Well that.  And it gets harder till you get to the end of a dungeon."

"It's a copper mine.  And it wasn't on purpose!  I just zigged when I shoulda zagged."

"Yesyes."

  Rhagar does suppose 'slightly harder' is still harder.

  "While the priest's own attack was not much to consider, I expect an actual dragon no matter how small will have a more dangerous variety...  Though Flarewing seems to have us covered on that end."

Flarewing totally gives Checkin a thumbs-up at that comment.  "Heh if any of you want well done dreagon steaks later, just let me know and I'll cook them up for you!'  she grins widely and stretches, "BUt yeah, makes sense.  Nothing wrong with a bit of a rest.  The dwarves probally around going anywhere..."  She says as she looks around, half expecting said dwarves to emerge victorious over their captors, just to see the heroes resting and assume the heroes were lazy good-for-nothings.