[
Knowledge: arcana check ]
A tribe of kobolds named after 'Green Mother's Scales' who have an 'it' demanding treasure? It does not take a genius to realize that those signs scream green dragon. Hopefully the signs are wrong.
I do not think we should leave these wretches alive in our wake, and we cannot take them with us. Mardak? Jonath? If you please..."
With that she turns and goes back to Beast, gathering up the lead rope and preparing to travel.
Jonath shakes his head. "I will not knowingly kill unarmed, helpless opponents, even ones who have attacked me. If you choose to do so, Mardak, I will not stand in your way, but the act will not please me. Let us leave them here to flee if they manage to before nature takes its course with them, whether by beast or thirst."
He leaves the campsite then, heading back to the road to resume their travels, never looking back to see what becomes of the creatures.
"I do not wish to see any more harm come to these creatures, no matter how wretched they may be," Selena adds. "If you are worried about them escaping and causing more problems then maybe they should be returned to Cantus for justice. If this is a problem with the others then I can return them myself."
Merrick was not particularly interested in murdering bound, defenseless, creatures but they were attacked by them and death was a natural consequence of failure. The creatures would have done no less to them. But when Selena says she would take them back to Cantus, Merrick replies, "M'lady you cannot go alone. If you insist on taking them back then I offer to go with you."
[Remember, none of you know they are Kobolds yet because none of you have the skill, Knowledge: Local. And knowledge skills are trained only. But my house rule allows you to use trained only skills that you have no ranks in at a -5 penalty. I do this mainly because I think it's silly that you can't have some basic knowledge that you picked up here and there. For example, I doubt I would have any skill in Geography but I know where to find locations on a map; what latitude and longitude are; etc.
Or better yet, you could just ask them.
]
He looks at the bound Kobolds long and hard as if in wanting to make a decision but he sheaths his sword and says.
"I reckon it's a long trek back. Good Journey and be careful, Merrick and Selena."
Mardak heads back towards Nacesh, Jonath and Betimi.
"Are we to continue then?"
Betimi on impulse walks up to Selina and gives her a warm hug of farewell, then holds out her hand to shake Merrick's.
"If this is your wish then you and Merrick should not go away empty handed, one-third of this treasure is yours, and you should take it with you on your mule. If Jonath, Nacesh, and Mardak have no argument?"
She looks to the others.
"Their risk was no less than hours, and should they return to our Company once their trip to the city to see these creatures face hum.. uh, I mean proper .. justice is done, then I for one will welcome them back."
Mardak was taken aback slightly but he smiles as he watches Betimi go and see them off, which makes him wonder about this woman that so vexxed him earlier.
"Alright. Anyone else wanna say their peace?"
The Hexblade waits by the mules. As he does he offers a small prayer under his breath for his daughter playing in the sky.
"Agreed completely," Jonath replies, then turns to Selena. "Lady Selena, I vow to you I will do whatever I can to help that girl's family. I look forward to crossing your path again someday," he says with a bow. He then helps split the treasure and load the donkey so that the rest of them may continue on their way.
(OOC - Kobolds being "local" to Cantus? That's news to me. AFAIK monster lore is knowledge (dungeons) or wherever the creatures belong to (e.g. dragons are arcane) and some say you may recognise at least common ones with a DC 10 roll even untrained. But maybe I mix Pathfinder in here. Anyway, I've always supposed Nacesh has a knack for anything scaly and everything loosely tied to dragons, given his double-scaly inheritance, his familiar of choice, his academic background (if not skills) etc. See also below; maybe you would say that Nacesh can't come up with such arguments.)
The sorcerer listened to the others without a word as far as he could and didn't comment on the creatures' fate. However, Mardak's mention of green dragons brought him forward.
"No. They said it. A dragon would definitely be a he or she to them." With a pause he adds, "And to me."
"Similarly I would rule out other nasty creatures; like hags as they always pose as female. A green slime could be gender neutral but wouldn't demand more or threaten with punishment. Maybe a crocodile? Gender's not so trivial in their case and a clever leader would use a creature of animal intelligence as an excuse for her own purposes."
"That said, the tribe's name definitely refers to a female but I don't think it would be a local nasty; more like their matron deity or something. Or simply the scale color of the leader."
Nacesh looks around to remind himself where the leader's body lay to have a second look (or remember, for that matter)
(OOC - can Nacesh check or remember (pls roll Int for me) the shade of the leader's scales? was it green, rusty brown, etc? by nature or by dye?)
Turning to the kobolds, he asks, "Did you catch others off-guard since last full moon?"
Giving sufficient time for them to respond, he continues,
"Have you ever seen it? How big was it? Do you know what it was? Does the tribe fear it? Would like to see it dead?"
[All of the kobolds are various shades of Green.
Also, unless I read the skill wrong, knowledge: local, is required for humanoids. Though I've never liked using that skill for monstrous humanoids.]
Sent from my SM-G925W8 using Tapatalk
[Oops, I mean I never liked using "Local" for humanoids. Monstrous humanoids are a different catagory. But maybe goblinoids should use a different Knowledge skill ]
Sent from my SM-G925W8 using Tapatalk