Session 6 - Big Trouble in Little Kobold Town

General Summary

The group wake up at the tavern and begin to congregate for breakfast, with Bryn taking a moment to stop at Wren’s room to invite her down – there was no answer to begin with but he could hear her praying inside the room. After waiting politely for her to finish Bryn knocked again to make his invitation. It was accepted, but when he left he heard the prayers begin again, this time in a different language. Bryn noticed that it sounded very, very similar to the Infernal that Marty spoke last night, though the previous prayers had been in common.  

  Peiskos had been up since dawn, hunting in the forests around the tavern and brought in breakfast for the group, parlaying an even trade with the tavern keeper for him to cook it for the party. Over breakfast Del went over the group’s options, where it was agreed (for the time being at least) to continue to follow clues regarding the Temple of Chauntea’s water problems, though a number of the group also agreed that the next item they should look at it would probably be Feymoor and Fen’s developing problem as it seems the most urgent. The group packed up into their cart and headed back to Junction and from there through the portal that leads to Kekra’s Refuge, to pursue the lead of the architect. Wren, it was decided, was to stay with the group for the time being so that they could question her brother as to his reasons to be at the temple when next he body-switches in.   Emerging from the portal, the group was greeted with a dark tunnel and a line of visitors, most of whom were diverted to a large enclosure full of exotic-looking lizards with suspended carriagess on poles. The reason for this was clear as the group watched a number of people enter a carriage, and the lizard carrying it to take off down the tunnel. No matter where on the tunnel the lizard moved, scaling the walls or even running on the ceiling, the carriage remained more or less in the centre of the passageway, rotating on the poles’ swivels to remain oriented correctly.   Bryn paid for the majority of the party to enter a carriage, while Tris and Peiskos turned into a giant lizard and a spider respectively to avoid the expense. Del and Marty stayed on Cliff, with Del paying a gold for a kobold to enchant Cliff’s horseshoes with Spider Climb, and provided them with a stone to localize gravity relative to the horse’s orientation. The ride was a speedy affair, with the group zooming up and down the walls to avoid the natural hazards that led to Kekra’s refuge. As the group came into the transit port at the Refuge they got a view of the kobold’s home city; a metropolis roughly two and a half times larger in area than Alt Dresediel but built vertically, with great stalagtites and stalagmites hollowed out and used as living and working space. Bryn idly questioned a kobold offering advice on the city’s many attractions where they might find their target, Pascal Bin, and the kobold was happy to give up some answers as to where the architect worked, but Tris noted a kobold begin to sprint away at mention of his name. Tris, still in lizard form, curtailed his escape and the group questioned him. Despite his surly demeanour, a quick use of Suggestion from Marty had him volunteering the answers to any question the group asked, explaining that he’d been paid to keep watch for anyone asking about Pascal. The group charged the nameless kobold (PEZ) with taking them to Pascal, where the group split up – Tatil hid outside the back entrance on a rooftop, keeping an eye on the alternate exit, while the majority of the group went into the architect’s office. There, Tatil noticed a group entering the building.   Inside, Bryn and Del attempted to charm the receptionist kobold into an appointment with Pascal, but it was only when Bryn blasted the kobold with a dose of faerie glamour (and a little fate-twisting from Marty) that they admitted they were stalling to allow Pascal to leave. With that, Bryn took the initiative and began to walk through the building. Outside, Tatil watched a group of four armed kobolds and one more well-dressed kobold leave the offices, and began to tail them from above. Bryn, Del, Maxima and Marty moved through the office building while Tris, Peiskos and Wren moved back out front. Wren split off, taking Cliff and riding back towards the transit station while the rest gave chase.   Bryn let Gwyl take to the skies to keep better tabs on their quarry, while the others began to move through the back alleys, with Peiskos charging ahead as a dire wolf, and Tatil using her throwing kunai to create a blockage to the fugitive kobolds’ path. Two of the four kobolds were left behind to delay the team while the others moved ahead. They were quickly dealt with in non-lethal fashion, left behind while Peiskos managed to Entangle another of the guards and Pascal himself. Pascal passed something off to the free guard who kept running, while he would only answer questions with a smirk and “Tick tock” as a reply. Peiskos knocked the architect out and the group began the chase anew. Fortunately, Tatil and Gwyl were still keeping tabs on the running kobold and whatever that package had been as they approached the transit station.   Meeting up with a group of other kobolds, they boarded a number of lizards as the group ran in to reunite, to give chase into the tunnels…