[IC] Chapter 2-4: You Hear Them Whispering in the Crowns of the Trees

[Portho Nihilbuck]

"Me do have a spell to Resist different types of Energy but you must pick ONE type of energy.  And me only have ONE spell, until tomorrow when Toot can memorize more."  Toot's voice trails off as he adds, "So spell will only effect one person..."  Toot didn't think he needed to say that the one person the spell would protect would likely be him.   

"Me have no problem trying to befriend more animals for Portho to talk to," Toot continues.  "I of course could talk to them too but we can't allow Toot to hog all the glory.  We must give Portho something to do other than sing uplifting little ditties."

"Me can also summon creatures to scout and me can turn into inconspicuous bird to scout too."  Toot then turns his head to look at Portho expectantly, waiting for him to finally offer to do anything.

..."I of course could talk to them too but we can't allow Toot to hog all the glory.  We must give Portho something to do other than sing uplifting little ditties."...

Portho mimics Toot.

"That would waste one of your spells, which you could use to summon a creature instead, like you said. It's not hogging teh spotlight, it's saving resources..!! And my poetry is not 'little ditties' ..."


as he says the last his bottom lip is quivering...

[OoC lol Wis9 is fun]

[Shanna Rendin]

"Me do have a spell to Resist different types of Energy but you must pick ONE type of energy.  And me only have ONE spell, until tomorrow when Toot can memorize more."  Toot's voice trails off as he adds, "So spell will only effect one person..."  Toot didn't think he needed to say that the one person the spell would protect would likely be him.   

"Me have no problem trying to befriend more animals for Portho to talk to," Toot continues.  "I of course could talk to them too but we can't allow Toot to hog all the glory.  We must give Portho something to do other than sing uplifting little ditties."

"Me can also summon creatures to scout and me can turn into inconspicuous bird to scout too."  Toot then turns his head to look at Portho expectantly, waiting for him to finally offer to do anything.

Shanna nods "I also have such a spell, but sadly I have not prepared it.  It would take several hours for me to gather the components and have the knowledge in-mind.  Or, I can prepare it as a scroll for a number of you to cast on yourselves."

Firghtened of something else.. -  he repeats - Hm, I have heard somewhere,.., dragons are afraid of mice... Or wasn't it a dragon? - he is thinking about it strongly :

But why has he changed? What can change a dragon?

Shanna closes her eyes and sighs.  Honestly.  Does no one know of dragons at all?  "Dragons are afraid of nothing save other dragons in certain rare, specific cases.  I believe you are thinking of elephants.  And a dragon can change itself, presuming it is old enough to know magic.  Based on the size of the damage here, we may be looking at such a dragon."

[Shanna Rendin]

"Me do have a spell to Resist different types of Energy but you must pick ONE type of energy.  And me only have ONE spell, until tomorrow when Toot can memorize more."  Toot's voice trails off as he adds, "So spell will only effect one person..."  Toot didn't think he needed to say that the one person the spell would protect would likely be him.   

"Me have no problem trying to befriend more animals for Portho to talk to," Toot continues.  "I of course could talk to them too but we can't allow Toot to hog all the glory.  We must give Portho something to do other than sing uplifting little ditties."

"Me can also summon creatures to scout and me can turn into inconspicuous bird to scout too."  Toot then turns his head to look at Portho expectantly, waiting for him to finally offer to do anything.

Shanna nods "I also have such a spell, but sadly I have not prepared it.  It would take several hours for me to gather the components and have the knowledge in-mind.  Or, I can prepare it as a scroll for a number of you to cast on yourselves."

"Silent Giant, can you tell how old these tracks are?  The dragon could be nearby still."  He says as he looks up into the twilight sky.

"Suggestions? I think we should ask the animals where the dragon lives, and where the dragon is right now.  Maybe we can send a scout. I know I don't want to go stomping right into the dragon's mouth by accident.  Can we defend against it's acid?  I agree that we should avoid this fight if at all possible... Maybe the dragon is frightened of something else, I wonder?  The old grape did say things have changed with their neighbor."

SG examines some tracks again (take10,take20?) and answers to Lugar.
He tries to find the oldest track too

OOC - I think he is coming here regularly. 


Firghtened of something else.. -  he repeats - Hm, I have heard somewhere,.., dragons are afraid of mice... Or wasn't it a dragon? - he is thinking about it strongly 

But why has he changed? What can change a dragon?

OOC - We have problems with powerful neighbour who's been respectful until lately
OOC - Maybe somebody disturbed his lair and stealt something. If this is the situation then "the key" is "the something" and "the sea" is "his lair"

Shanna closes her eyes and sighs.  Honestly.  Does no one know of dragons at all?  "Dragons are afraid of nothing save other dragons in certain rare, specific cases.  I believe you are thinking of elephants.  In addition, dragons can instill a powerful fright in all other creatures once they have reached a certain age.  And a dragon can change itself, presuming it is old enough to know magic.  Based on the size of the damage here, we may be looking at such a dragon."

 "How large are Tracks," Toot asks.  "Rat-Friend said the lizard was huge like trees!"  Looking at Shanna, Toot asks, "Shananana, how old would green dragon have to be to be Huge?"

When she tells him, Toot shakes his head and says, "Me do have a Scry spell but such a big and powerful dragon would certainly be able to resist.  If we could find a bit of scale or claw it would be much easier."  Toot thinks for a second and then adds, "I wonder if the creature's acid would count.  There must be residue around here."

[OoC: The scry spell mentions parts of creatures like a body part, lock of hair, bit of nail, etc.  Would that include some of the creatures acid?]

Shanna shrugs and thinks for a moment "It could be as young as an Adult dragon to be considered huge, but 'huge' may also be a relative concept, especially for your rat friends.  It could be a Juvenile dragon, which tend to be more than twice as tall as the average human, or it could be an Ancient dragon.  In summary, there is a significant range of heights and ages we must prepare for, but a dragon of any age should be respected as immensely dangerous.  Especially a Green."

[Lugar]

Lugar listens intently to Shanna and the others as he gets schooled on the lore of dragons.  "Bah, I knew all that already!  Doesn't change anything.  We still have to find the beast and the best way I know how is to track it to it's lair"  ~Someplace that holds lots of treasure I hope.~ "And then we can go from there.  Until then I say we let these nature lovers talk to the flowers and rats so we can learn all we can.  If we can get on the good side of the natives here, then we may befriend then as allies if things turn sour with the dragon.  So we have at least two places to check, those trees yonder and the waterfall."  ~Glad we  didn't walk into a dragon's den earlier when I suggested.~

[Merrinna Starsong]

Merri directs her familiar to the copse of trees to get a good look. "Toot, Portho, see what you can learn from some of the local animals. My familiar is going into those trees to try and get a good picture of the area. Let us get some hard facts before we lose too much time discussing if/then scenarios. The longer we take to decide, the more likley the decision is to be taken from us."

[Toot]

Merri directs her familiar to the copse of trees to get a good look.  "Toot, Portho, see what you can learn from some of the local animals.  My familiar is going into those trees to try and get a good picture of the area.  Let us get some hard facts before we lose too much time discussing if/then scenarios.  The longer we take to decide, the more likley the decision is to be taken from us."

"And please be stealthy," Toot says to the little elemental in its own language (Auran).  "Use the trees for cover!"  He then looks at Merri and repeats, "Tell air elemental to use trees for cover!"

If for some reason Merri ignores Toot or doesn't react quick enough, Toot snaps, "Tell him! Goddammit!"    

[Merrinna Starsong]

Merri gives Toot a sharp look. She didn't even have to speak. The look told the whole story.


:p

[Shanna Rendin]

Shanna knows practically all the written lore (OOC - everything written in the MM) about true dragons in general, chromatic dragons as a subgroup, and green dragons in particular. Based on the descriptions the others gave she can also tell that a green dragon of this size is centuries old (OOC - Huge size, meaning at least Adult)

She also knows that dragons like to protect their lairs with deadly wards and while many sorcerers claim to have draconic blood in their veins, some dragons are said to alter their breath weapons mimicking how wizards and sorcerers alter their spells (OOC - metabreath feats), explaining how the burn marks could be mistaken for black dragon breath earlier.

She even recalls a famous quote from some archaic parchment, written by Aloysius Egon Greegier, an armchair dragon scholar,

Dragons are scaly, they lay eggs, and they are utterly lacking in any mammalian  characteristics.  The  notion  that  they  are  warm-blooded is silly.

Rumour has it that his quote was commented by a golden dragon, Kacdaninymila,

Just like a humanoid to quote three facts, get one of them wrong, and then draw an unrelated conclusion from the lot.

Briefly put, "Never say never."

OOC - sorry but the dice said our resident loremaster has surpassed our resident bard in storytelling this time

((Wow...I totally and completely missed this post.  I'm assuming Shanna relays all of this to the group as it is pretty critical in nature.))

[DM Surranó]

Merri directs her air elemental towards the copse and it reports back fairly soon. There are animals grazing on the far side of the trees, and apparently they don't seem to be too concerned about the creature made of, well, wind.

[Toot]

Merri gives Toot a sharp look.  She didn't even have to speak.  The look told the whole story.  


:p

"Sheesh, me only had elemental's welfare in mind," Toot replies.  "Shananana said Dragons have extraordinary senses and we... or at least, I, don't want elemental creature to be hurt." 

Merri directs her air elemental towards the copse and it reports back fairly soon. There are animals grazing on the far side of the trees, and apparently they don't seem to be too concerned about the creature made of, well, wind.

When Merri tells everyone what the Elemental discovered, Toot says, "Me think stealthy people sneak over to the copse of trees to talk to animals."  Toot will then use his hat's magic to finish shrinking a full foot from his regular height so now he's a mere nine inches tall.

[OoC: Toot's hat makes Toot look like he's 9" tall (Diminutive) which gives him a +12 hide modifier for a total Hide of +15. ]

He then waves at everyone...