Dragon's Hoard Quest Cygnus 2015/01/18(Sun)14:04 No. 620957 ID: c0c685
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You stalk the group, sneaking a little closer to get a better view but still careful to maintain a safe distance. Upon closer inspection you notice that five of the adventurers are covered in scars and their gear seems well maintained but still worn. The sixth one looks significantly younger than the rest and he constantly fidgets with his gear in an attempt to find some comfortable way to carry it all. The miner carries a backpack of various mining tools and the one dressed in fancy clothing carries a satchel full of scrolls and papers that he keeps checking and double checking as they climb.

Thankfully the group heads towards one of the abandoned mines. They pause outside, taking a moment to prepare for combat before they head inside. The five older adventurers head in first, the sixth younger one nervously following after them, then the miner and the man in fancy clothing. You hear some sounds of combat coming out of the mine but it fades as they venture further inside.

You try to figure out what they could be doing on your mountain. Adventurers being hired to act as body guards was not an uncommon practice. What the two men who presumably hired these adventurers for was hard to say though... you assume the town either wants to reopen the mines to use them again or they want to retrieve something from the mines. You will have to see what they do when they exit the mines. IF they exit the mines.

You decide to wait a bit and see what happens. Several hours go by with nothing happening. Either the mines are much bigger than you thought or they all got themselves killed off. Right before you decide to fly off to find something else to do, a sudden commotion from the mine catches your attention. You can hear shouting and banging sounds as they quickly get louder. It isn't long before the miner comes running out of the mine, followed by the man in the fancy clothes. Both of them have left their belongings behind and are pale and out of breath, only able to make it a yard or two before toppling over. A second later the young adventurer comes out, his right arm a bloody mess. He makes it a few feet out of the mine before he collapses. Behind him a couple of giant spiders exit.

Curiosity gets the better of you and you decide to intervene on the humans behalf for the sake of finding out what exactly it was they had been planning on doing. You rush out of your hiding place, the man in fancy clothes shrieking in terror as you land over the young adventurer and let out a fierce roar. The spiders scuttle over themselves to get back into the safety of their mine.

You glare at the mine entrance where you can see the spiders watching you, waiting for an opportunity to steal their prey back from you. The miner has passed out, either from exhaustion or fear, the man in fancy clothes has curled up into a ball and is blubbering and sobbing on the ground, and the adventurer is just clutching his arm and moaning in pain. You won't be able to get any useful information at the moment so you collect the three up and fly back to your lair. You set them down along the back wall and lay down on top of your TINY HOARD.

>You already plan on questioning them about what they were doing on your mountain, but is there anything else you would want to ask them? And what are you going to do with them afterwards?

Hrm. Well.
A few questions come to mind:
Why did you enter the mine?
There are towns with Red flags and towns with Blue flags-what is the difference?
As for what to do...Assuming they don't do something silly like attack us, I think flying them back down the mountain seems like a possible idea.

First concern: do you speak a tongue shared by the humans? They have so many little languages.

>questions
Ask them what they're doing on the mountain- what they were interested in the caves. (And what happened to their companions- they perished?).

Ask where they're from. Determine which settlement / group of humans you're dealing with.

Ask what state the injured one is in. You're no expert on human biology, after all, and if this conversation has a short time limit, you'd prefer to know.

Your authority here is that they were on your mountain, and that at this moment, it is only due to your intervention that they are still alive (and not being used to incubate spider larva). Make sure they are aware of this. (Might be useful with the warrior, if he follows any kind of honor code).

>what do with them
Depends on their answers. We might be able to make some kind of deal to our benefit (their service, or something in exchange for their lives and transport down the mountain) or we might end up killing them rather than letting them spread word of our location. We need more information before deciding.

>>620957
Ask them about the nearby villages and what the political climate is, exactly. Are red and blue at war? What are the names of the civilizations around here? What happened to the other adventurers?

Oh, definitely take the satchel of paperwork and read through it.

As for what to do with them afterwards... well, if they're cooperative, kill them cleanly and then give them back to the spiders. If they're NOT cooperative, give them back to the spiders alive. Just make sure the spiders are still in there and not dead. If one of them gives you lip, freeze a limb or perpetuate some other nonlethal horror against them.

If they are after the mine, perhaps we could help them. In exchange for some of the profits of course, but let's not mention that until after we are done with the questions.

>>621064
I don't see how we could. Can't fit in the mine!

>>621065
No, but the spiders could be aggro'd to the fore of the mine and then frozen/slowed by our breath for easy kills. Make clearing out the mine a bit safer.

>>620967
This.

>>620973
Don't torture or kill them. We want these tiny creatures to sing our praises and shower us with gifts, remember?

Ask them what they were doing. Threaten to freeze them solid and drop them from a very high distance.

If any of them die, do your best artwork on their faces, impale them on sticks, and freeze them on the mountain.

>questions
Who are they, where are they from, and what interest do they have in this mine in our territory?
If they are uncooperative and we need to threaten them, our threat should be to give them back to the spiders (both because if we kill them we should actually do that to get rid of the bodies, and because it references how they would be dead without our help).

>What do
Depends on what they say. While there is a risk to letting them live, if they are cooperative we might be able to arrange for the mine to be re-opened with a portion of the proceeds payed to us as rent.

On security risks in general, I think our position between two kingdoms gives us some amount of protection from military forces, but a small group of skilled adventurers sneaking in while we are asleep is a worry. Perhaps we should come up with some way of using ice-shaping to make it harder for people on foot to get into our lair without making a lot of noise.

Dragon's Quest Hoard Cygnus 2015/01/23(Fri)18:34 No. 621853 ID: c0c685
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>First concern: do you speak a tongue shared by the humans? They have so many little languages

True. It would be a shame if they spoke some dialect that you didn't yet. You do speak Draconic and the common human language of the land, so they should be able to understand you.

It takes a bit for the miner to wake up and the fancy man to stop blubbering long enough that you can talk to them. The young adventurer stops moaning too, which is nice. He doesn't look very good though and is just shivering and sweating pretty badly.

Who are you and what are you doing on MY mountain

The fancy man yelps and cowers behind the miner. The Miner bows low and begs you not to kill them. You roll your eyes and huff. Always with the begging. Why do they do that? If you wanted them dead they already would be.

Enough begging, answer my question!

The miner manages to sputter out an answer this time. "W-w-we were c-clearing the mine to re... reopen it. We didn't kn-know you l-l-lived here!"

So you hired a band of adventurers to clear the mine out? The rest of them perished then?

Based on the surprised look the two men give the young adventurer, it seems they had completely forgotten about them. "Y-y-yes! Th-there were more sp-spiders than we had thought." For the first time the fancy man speaks up, peaking around the miner. "And bigger!" He squeals. "And and and m-monsters!" The miner points to the boy. "He got bit! He... he'll die unless we get him help! And soon! Please you must let us leave!"

You rest your head on one hand and impatiently tap your claws on the floor with the other. You know enough about the giant spiders to know that while there poison IS lethal, it takes a little time for it to actually kill something. The spiders prefer their meals alive.

I save you from the spiders and bring you here, to my home, to SAFETY! ... and you make excuses so you don't have to answer a few simple questions?"

You glare at the two men. The fancy man squeals again and smacks the miner. "H-he didn't m-mean to offend! P-please forgive us!"

What town are you from?

"B-brundel. The town t-t-to the west of here."

The village to the North is... ?

"Th-they used to b-be a fairly large mining colony until the wars. They refused to side with any kingdom so they were simply ignored. Y-you can't survive long when you get no help w-with monsters and bandits. The mines shut down and it is mostly abandoned now except for the families who can't afford to leave and don't want to get involved with either of the nearby kingdoms."

And what of the towns to the north and south of you? With the blue and red banners.

"O-oh... The blue villages belong to the Roana Kingdoms under the Grand Queen Roana while the red villages belong to the Dreinuss Kingdoms under King Randruff."

Are they currently at war?

The miner scoffs and shakes his head. "Not since the peace treaties they were forced to sign." The fancy man seems to have calmed a bit, though he's still clearly terrified of you, he is no longer hiding behind the Miner.

"It.... it is not that simple. They are not just killing each other out in the fields or razing towns but they are actively trying to destroy the other... it is just... complicated."

The young adventurer is exceptionally pale by this point. Any more stalling and he will certainly die from the poison in his system. If you let them free it is almost guaranteed that word will spread about your home which could lead to some very unwanted attention. You could just kill them, the villagers will assume that the spiders did it but that could also lead to more activity on your mountain. Tough decisions...

>What do you do with the humans?

>Draconic
The language of dragons. Kobolds are generally the only other race to speak this language though it is not entirely unheard of for elves and humans to learn it as well.

Attempt to save the one that was bitten

Demand that the well-dressed one reward you for saving their lives. That jeweled necklace catches your eye.

If he does, let them all go with a warning that your price will not be so petty next time.

If he doesn't, kill him and take his jewels, then let the miner and adventurer go. Inform them that the sniveling one was eaten by spiders, and if anyone says otherwise they will have you to answer to.

Either way tell them to ask permission next time they want to open a mine in your territory.

>>621866
Wonder if we could give them some ice to keep him cool. Cold would slow the venom, right?

I like the young adventurer so make sure to try to save him.

>unaffiliated mining town
Possibly useful. Humans mining shineys for you in return for protection, or working land you control?

>what do
Eh, we can spare them, I think. If we're claiming territory, we need to let word of mouth spread. If we're the ruler of this mountain, it's our place to deal with trespassers as we see fit.

...and debts, while not as immediately fulfilling as treasure, are good to have. (Say this bit aloud).

Help them. You can increase your standing with one of the kingdoms if you bring the lad to a doctor. If you freeze the lad to subzero temperatures fast enough, you can preserve his body without killing him.

As for your mountain, I don't think anyone is going to risk stealing from a gigantic horde of monsters plus one giant frost dragon without serious backup. You'll need to decide if you're going to join one of the two factions, or claim this land as your own.

You may as well ask which side the noble is on.

Tell them that if they wish to establish a mine on your mountain, you will permit it if they pay taxes for operating on your territory. If they negotiate beforehand you might even help with any spiders they can lure out of the tunnels.
Fly them back somewhere near their town but out of sight of it.

>>621868
Don't take the necklace from him; this guy will hopefully be a long-term investment, so starting the negotiations with a grudge on his part is not worth one item.

Can we help the adventurer? If we can then let us do so. If not, send them on their way to get him help, but not after promising to return. We expect to talk more about this mine, and how they can repay you for saving their lives.

>>621853
This location is no longer secure anyway. Given the lack of ability to keep it secret (or rather the apparent need to make the location public at every opportunity) I think it would be best to keep this place as our public domicile, where you can rest and eat things, talk with people and keep your ice statues, while searching for another cave. And then try to keep that cave secret.

As for those guys? Carry them to a place a little bit away from a settlement of their choice. Tell them that you would be willing to kill spiders and allow them to use your mine for a part of the profit as a tribute, but you don’t fit into the tunnels. If there’s a larger mine infested by monsters a similar agreement could be hashed out at a later time.

You will return after one day to whichever settlement you bring them to and would like to talk to someone about this or other potential agreements.

>>621868
Voting against that for now. I want the dragon to appear as someone they may want to negotiate / trade with in the future, not as a short-sighted vulture.

>>622116
Ooh, that is a good idea about the public vs home caves. Perhaps we should tell them some signal for contacting us now (like to go to the entrance of this cave and setting up a fire).

>>621853
We can't afford to attract a lot of attention. However, maybe you can use them as continued contacts with the outside world. Take all their valuables as payment for letting them live (assuming the rich guy can still pay for the trainee's injury from funds he has elsewhere), and tell them if they want to try to clear out the mines again they'll have to pay a toll. If anyone tries to steal from you or kill you, then the toll will go up. This makes it in their best interest to keep people from bothering us.

I think it's fine if people know about us, and that we're not actively hostile, and we can make some money this way.

>>622116
If we have two caves, and we use this one for sleeping but not our hoard, then the majority of the time we will not be guarding our hoard. Also, having a publicly known meeting area means that someone can set up a meeting then send a thief to steal from us while we're at the meeting. We cannot afford to leave our hoard unwatched for long periods of time and we cannot afford to allow people to know when it's unattended.

>>622162
Oh, no. I meant that as in, we can use this public cave every now and then when we are in the area, or as a first stop after a hunt (eg taking loot there and sorting through it, or eating there while nearby). Our security already works only by obscurity, anyone who finds the cave can just hide until the dragon leaves and take whatever they want then. Therefore, we have absolutely security in this old cave. It is a lost cause.

We should keep our hoard at a secret location, where we will also usually sleep. This location should only be used for our hoard and dragon, no one else is supposed to know about it. I would even go so far as to hide and seal it with ice or rocks if we can whenever we leave, while this seems to be difficult for the current cave.

>>622291
Okay, good point. If we don't keep a regular schedule for checking the public meeting area nobody can predict when the hoard is unattended or for how long.

The miner and the adventurer is useless for conversation purposes. Take them to help, to build up future goodwill.
We can keep Rich Guy around, though, to negotiate a deal and ask a few more questions (unless he is required to get treatment for the adventurer fast enough, in which case nevermind).

Draon's Hoard Quest Cygnus 2015/02/03(Tue)21:52 No. 623461 ID: c0c685
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"And which kingdom do you side with?" You say, looking down on the fancy man.

"N-neither. Brundel doesn't agree with either kingdom. We do trade with them but we refuse to negotiate with them. The town to the north tried to sell itself to the highest bidder and was destroyed. Not physically, b-but you can see what h-happened."

>Wonder if we could give them some ice to keep him cool. Cold would slow the venom, right?

You don't know enough about humans or the poison to really know. It could slow the poison. You could also accidentally give him frost bite.

"Hmm... I have decided to let you all free. You trespassed on my mountain but you did not do so knowingly, so I will forgive you. Should you still wish to reopen that mine however, I would be more than happy to set up negotiations with your town."

The fancy man bows his head. "Y-yes! Of course! We apologize and promise not to trespass again, I will personally spread word through our town."

"I will take you back down the mountain and drop you off a short walk from the town. You will return and let them know that I do not want people on my mountain uninvited... and ensure that boy gets medical attention. Pay for it if you have to."

You aren't sure why, but you like the young adventurer. You hope he recovers.

It's a short trip to carry the three of them back down to the foot of the mountain. The miner is strong enough to carry the young adventurer over his shoulder and they set off to town almost the second you set them down. You fly back up the mountain a bit and pause to watch them, ensuring they make it back safely.

You fly back into your lair when you see that they've reached the gates.

The town will surely respond to you in some way now that they're completely aware of your existence. Since you saved some people, hopefully you will be seen as a good dragon. Or at least one that can be reasoned with. Still, dragons of any stature attract the attention of brave adventurers and treasure stealing thieves. The idea of creating a second cave to act as your true home strikes you and you decide that you should probably set some time aside in the future to look for other available homes.

>WIS UP

But before you can do that you have more pressing matters to worry about. Negotiations may begin soon and you haven't even decided on a proper name that the other races may know you by! Your mother gave you a name in Draconic but that would make it difficult for anyone else to pronounce and it isn't really fitting.

Deciding on a name is a pretty serious issue though! Your name will carry a lot of weight and will say a lot about you. This will probably be the first thing the other kingdoms will learn about you, so it needs to leave a good first impression. You could go with something fearsome that would keep all but the bravest and most daring of adventurers from approaching your home ...but then it would make peaceful negotiations a little harder to manage. Hmmm...

>What will your name be?

>>623461
Aw c'mon, the jewelry could've been payment for saving their lives! At least we'll have a chance to bring that up at negotiations...

Name: Ishtak. Sounds similar to the noise that cracking ice makes.

THE IMPALER.

>>623463
I like Ishtak.

And yes, some payment for saving their lives would be something to bring up when they send someone to speak with you.

>Ishtak
Sounds good to me. (Titles come after we have sufficiently impressive deeds to reference, and are preferably given by others rather than invented ourself).

>Aw c'mon, the jewelry could've been payment for saving their lives! At least we'll have a chance to bring that up at negotiations...
First impressions are important (especially first non-secret contact with a local civ). Next time we negotiate with those guys though, I agree we should totally bring up how he owes us.

>>623461
>Icey McDragon

Illothris the Friendly
Isthak Evilbane

Something with a title that tells everyone we are an ok dragon to have around. Usually we would be supposed to wait for someone else to give us a title, but who will know…

Ishtak, just Ishtak though, no evilbane or anything pretentious like that, I think.

How about Balthasar der Weise?
Granted, the title is german, but that should give him an otherwordly aspect.
That aside, "der Weise" can be translated in two ways. "The white one" and "the wise one". And considering our color and our recent wis up, both kinda fit.

>>623492
"the white" would be "der Weiße", not "der Weise"

>>623508
Meh, phonetically there´s nearly no diffrence

Stealing the jewelery would have made a bad impression. Leaving them with the impression that they owe a dragon is going to be more valuable (especially if we kind of allude to it later. Magical creatures of alien moral codes and debt is scary bad). That's a debt they're going to be eager to get off from over their heads, and that will give us a nice edge in future negotiations for mining rights. (With a nice percentage tax on what they dig up, of course).

Plus, hey, if the warrior follows the right kind of honor code, he might owe us service. A human avatar / champion might be useful in the right situation.

tl;dr- the debt unpaid gives us a lot more leverage, and potential for long term gain, than the short term gain of a little jewelery.

>name
Isthak sounds good. It's suitably dragon-y sounding.

I'd agree no title-ing ourselves. Titles are things people give you, or that you earn.

Now that we are picking a name I realise there is one piece of information that hasn't come up yet. What gender are we?

Okay, how about "Ishtak der Weiße Impālāre"?

>>623538
Nein.

>>623534
Not sure if that even came up now. As far as these tiny scale-less sacks are concerned, gender is "dragon"

Ishtak der Weiße, no impaling unless we get there.

Dragon's Hoard Quest Cygnus 2015/02/06(Fri)17:38 No. 623796 ID: c0c685
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Ishtak... Yes... Yes! You like the sound of that. You consider for a moment adding a title to your name, something cool like 'Der Weise' as a fun play on words but ultimately you decide that giving yourself a title is like giving yourself a nickname... just sort of sad.

>WIS UP

Now that you have a proper name, negotiations can begin... if the town ever works up the courage to negotiate with you. Only time will tell though.

With the humans gone and a name chosen, you find yourself with a little bit of free time.

>What will you do?

((Fun mod notes! >>623534 I only bring up options that will affect the world and the dragon. The dragon's gender holds no weight on how other beings will interact with you nor does it affect any of your stats. So you can pretty much imagine the dragon as whatever gender you want it to be! Or you can just say it's gender is "Dragon" like >>623646))

>>623796
Let's go over the mountains to the SE, and maybe ambush a caravan or rob a mine that's down there.

Look for a secondary cave. Preferably something out of the way where it won't be easily found.

>>623801
Please don't raid before negotiations. Makes you look less genuine in your peace talks.

Scout the nearby kingdoms so that you have some preparation before discussing politics. Hunt some animals store the food for your guests to eat.

>>623821
The people we're negotiating with are not in that direction.

I'm with not raiding just yet, either. If we have a negotiation looming, looking like the monster makes us look more like a threat than a potential partner.

And I don't want to raid haphazardly- it would be nice to try and maintain a balance of power between the disorganized humans by striking at the right places.

Which really means, if we want to manipulate them, we need a source of intelligence. Where do we go about finding that, though? Spy networks aren't exactly up for sale.

We should find a second cave, and also maybe experience with ice sculpting some to see if we cane make defenses (like spikes, barriers, or sheets of thin ice over pits) for areas/caves we don't want humans getting into.

Let's spend the time making our cave look more impressive using our frost breath and ice scuplting, should be good practice.