mickume/alt_dnd · Datasets at Hugging Face

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Angelos, apparently more drunk than I had realized, piped up and said, "Blind man has needs! Manly needs!" He was pushing away from the bar. As my arm was still entwined in his, I was swept along a step or two with him.
Seth looked from Angelos, to Blen, and back to Angelos. He signed deeply and pinched the bridge of his nose in resigned frustration.
"Tori, I need to go talk to those fine ladies to find out where their friend took Kepesh. Will you take care of Angelos please, see that he gets back to the bunkhouse as well?"
"Yes boss, of course." Whatever got me to the next tavern. This one was now a dead end.
Seth fished a gold coin from his belt pouch and placed it in my hand. "Buy whatever you want, just be on time." This time I accepted the coin, as he had entrusted me with a task.
Seth left to go talk with the two locals. I watched them for a long moment, and it looked like they were giving him a hard time. Perhaps they wanted a little of what their friend had gotten. Despite the exchange taking awhile, Seth didn’t lose his temper. In fact, he motioned to the barkeep to send over a round of drinks for the ladies. That seemed to loosen their lips, as Seth was soon out the door to retrieve Kepesh.
Angelos and I exited only a moment or two after Seth, but when I glanced around, he was nowhere to be seen. If I were sober, I might have reflected on the absurdity of letting a blind man – a drunken blind man – lead me anywhere. He had said he was looking for a tumble, and I had already planned on doing the very same thing myself, so it seemed like a wise course of action. Besides, early morning departure meant time was short and running out. Furthermore, Seth had said to take care of him.
As Angelos started to head off up the cobblestone street, I yanked on his arm and dragged him into the narrow alleyway between the tavern and it’s neighbour.
He didn’t pull away, but did give me a puzzled look.
I explained, before he could protest. "It’ll be quicker this way." In my state, the double meaning was lost on me.
"Ah! A shortcut, excellent idea." He changed course with me and headed down the alleyway as well.
We had made it half way down the narrow alleyway before I tripped over some piece of trash or perhaps even my own feet. I stumbled a few steps. Had I not still been holding onto Angelos’ arm, I probably would have fallen flat on my horns. Instead, he moved to caught me, and due to momentum, I spun around in his path. With me suddenly underfoot, he tripped over my tail, stepping on it roughly. As he faltered, I grabbed onto him and we both slammed into the hard stone outer wall of the Wench.
Had I a plan, it might have looked just like this, apart from the tail stomping. That hurt like the hells.
He cursed and tried to extricate himself from me, as I was still holding onto him, and I was pinned to the wall.
Sloppy as it was, I seized the opportunity and rolled with it. When he pulled away, I stayed close. Leaning in, I pressed my slight form against his much taller, far more muscular frame. "You know, Seth did say to take care of you." I said in a low, whisper, looking up at him. "And, you made it pretty clear what you needed taking care of. There isn’t really any reason to go to another tavern..." I let go of my grip on his arm.
The scrap of cloth that covered his eyes raised slightly as his brows shot halfway up his forehead in surprise.
Angelos cleared his throat, his voice seeming to have failed him. "I don’t think that's what he had in mind." He said after a long, silent moment.
"No, probably not." I’m sure my ridiculous grin had grown in proportion with his surprise. "But, it makes fine sense. After all, it’s on both our minds." Behind me, my tail flicked back and forth, twitching like a cat’s. "Needs, that is." I clarified. My hands moved to the front of his leather britches.
"I...I did say that...out loud, didn’t I?" He seemed to sober a little, as the situation shifted.
I nodded in response, forgetting for a moment that he couldn’t see it. "Yes, yes you did." I purred as I fumbled with his belt. "And I am more than willing to help you out in that matter." After all these years, I had learned a trick or two when it came to getting my way into armor, so his leathers were not a problem. I kept my gaze upturned, on his face.
Angelos opened his mouth to reply, but all that he managed to utter was a soft gasp in surprise as my roaming hands found their prize.
"Perhaps, that is, if your vows don’t prohibit sharing a bed with the likes of me, we should take this back to the compound. I am a lot of things, but a back-alley whore is not one of them." I said, continuing to coax him both verbally and physically. I caught the subtle change in his breathing and grinned wickedly.
He shifted, leaning back against the opposite wall for support, his legs bent slightly. It was my turn to pin him. "Well, we can’t have anyone thinking that, can we?" He whispered, his look of surprise rapidly turning to amusement. He reached up to run a finger along one of my horns curiously. "We should probably head back to the bunkhouse then." He added, his tongue wetting his lips subconsciously.
"We probably, definitely should." I whispered back before withdrawing my hand from inside his britches, reluctantly. Were I prone to such thoughts, I would say the gods were smiling on me tonight.
He uttered the smallest of sighs and swallowed hard, as if trying to regain some composure. When he started back down the alley in the direction we came from, it was with long, quick strides that I had to hurry to keep up with. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one feeling...blessed.
As we stepped back out onto the public eye, Angelos raised his voice far above normal conversation level. "Thank you, Lass. I don’t know what I would have done with out your aid in finding my lost coin purse. So kind of you to assist this helpless blind man."
I murmured a weak sound of confusion as I fell into step beside him, having no clue what that was about. Upon hearing it, he gave me a slight nudge, and whispered conspiratorially, "On the chance someone saw us exit the alleyway together." He turned his head slightly, to grin down at me, "To protect your honor, of course."
"Oh!" I whispered in kind, unable to suppress a giggle, I snorted. "My honor..."
As we passed the other alleyway, on the opposite side of the Wench, I could have sworn I heard Seth’s voice coming from within. And was that Draconic?
I didn’t recall anything else from the rest of the evening, other than a vague memory of stopping Angelos on the way home, to do up the front of his leather breeches...only to yank them off him as soon as we arrived.
I’m fairly certain we both enjoyed the night. I knew I did, at least. I woke up early the next morning feeling like I had just gotten out of the saddle, rather than ready to get into one.
I was dog tired the next morning, but when Wendelin came to rouse the other escorts, I was already awake and getting cleaned up. All around me there were tired groans. A few beds down, I could see the red scaled lump that was Kepesh, still under the covers and, still snoring loudly. No surprise, it sounded like a dragon’s roar. As I passed Angelos’ bed, I leaned in and placed a light kiss on his forehead. He must have been close to waking, because his hands started to move about, patting down the bed as if searching for something. Me? I smiled at the notion, but didn’t stick around to see if I was right.
I hurried down the bunkhouse stairs, to where Cookie had prepared a light breakfast that would travel well. Amemnon and Seth were already there, grabbing something to eat. I nodded to them both, and Seth gave me the strangest little smirk.  I started to head out of the chow hall, but then stopped, going back to where the Elf stood. It took me a moment, as I was juggling food and drink in my hands, but I managed to fish a gold coin out of my pocket. I flipped it towards Seth.
"From last night. Didn’t need it." I said, clicking my tongue.
He caught it, and shook his head. "Tori, Tori, Tori. Get going. Don’t want Grondar to have any reason to yell at you."
I bee-lined for the door, and once outside, straight to my horse. The food was tucked away for later. I might not have had a splitting headache from the night before, but my stomach was urging me to wait a bit longer before putting food into it.
When the other Greenies arrived, we were instructed to take up a spot in the middle section of the wagon train. Before long, we were on the road.
By the time we had reached the rolling plains between Scornubel and the river, I had fallen into a monotonous rhythm.  Ahead of me, I could see Seth and Kepesh joking about the night before. Behind me as Amemnon, who looked like he was concentrating to the full of his ability, to keep on the horse. I caught sight of Angelos a couple of times, as he road up and down on the other side of the column of wagons.
After he was done joking with Kepesh, Seth brought his horse along side of mine. After a few exchanged pleasantries, he asked, "So, Tori, what were you doing before Grondar hired you?" his tone suggested genuine curiosity.
"Monster hunting." I said blandly, not really wishing to elaborate. I lost sight of Angelos, between the wagons. To my surprise, he appeared on Seth’s right. I did my best to suppress a smile, not wanting to appear like a foolish little girl. Or worse, desperate like Kepesh’s lady friend from the night before.
"Monster hunting?" Seth repeated, thoughtfully. "Tell me more. What was the most difficult creature you’ve brought down?"
"Hard to say, really." I replied with a shrug. "I mean, it was a co-ordinated effort. I was with an adventuring company. I didn’t do any of it alone." And they left me, which is why I don’t do it anymore, I said to myself.
Angelos stayed a long moment, listening silently. As quietly as he appeared, he urged his horse on, riding up towards the front of the column.
Seth stayed at my side, trying to pull more about my past out of me. Thankfully, I was rescued by a rider from the front of the caravan.
"Mr. Seth, the lead wagon is stuck on a rock." The young rider said, "Mr. Grondar wants you to bring up your greenhorns to fix it." As I looked on ahead, I noticed the wagons were coming to a halt, one by one.
"Come on, Greenies." Seth called out, standing up in his stirrups as he looked around for the rest of his charges. "To the front. Work to do."
I pushed my horse into a trot, catching up with Kepesh and then Angelos. Seth was behind us, with Amemnon, no doubt making sure he didn’t fall off his horse. As we moved away from the wagon’s we were entrusted with, a few of the other, more seasoned escorts, fell in to fill the gaps. I also saw Grondar and Jhonas riding back as well.
When we arrived at the lead wagon, it was indeed stuck on a rock.  I don’t know how the others had missed it, but I noticed right away. There were drag marks from the side of the trail, to the rock.
On the opposite side of the road there was a clearing, and a set of ancient standing stones.
"We need to find something to use as a lever." Amemnon said, glancing around. I could tell by the change in his expression, that he too had noticed the drag marks.
"Seth...this doesn’t look like it was an accident." I called back, over my shoulder as a I peered down at the ground. The brawn of the group was discussing how to free the wagon and I left them to it, moving around to the other side of the wagon, for values of a culprit. Makhen and Wyndellion were there, keeping an eye out.
A flash of color caught my eye. Something had moved behind one of the large stones.
The rest happened so quickly. A stone came whizzing through the air, narrowly missing me and from the sounds of it, hitting Amemnon. "What the??" I heard him cry out.
As I looked back towards the direction it came from, I saw Makhen, Wendelin and Seth sprint off towards the clearing. Still not sure of what they had seen, I started running in the same direction, none the less. As I cleared the ring of stones, I saw that same flash of brown. Scales? One, two, three more steps and I was finally able to tell what they were.
Kobolds. Filthy vermin, barely even worthy of being called a "monster’.
I wound up, casting quickly, and lobbed a handful of molten fire at the little lizard. It hit the creature square in the chest, bursting into flames and dying instantly.
Still running, I glanced left and right, looking for more. Where there was one kobold, you could always be sure of more.
To my right, I saw Angelos race behind the tall stones and lob a javelin at, I presumed, another kobold. Wendelin was by Angelos’ side, but didn’t stop to hurl a weapon, instead sprinting to get to melee range.
To my left, Seth, in a great burst of speed, reached another kobold by some bushes. The little lizard seemed prepared for him though and stabbed him with his spear. I couldn’t see the extent of the damage from my angle, but whatever the amount, it didn’t drop the elf. Makhen was moving in to assist Seth, but was nowhere near as fast as the elf.
Looking back, to see what was keeping the others, I saw Kepesh and Amemnon standing on the road, finally realizing that something was afoot.
I threw another bolt of fire at the kobold fighting Seth, injuring it enough so that Makhen could finish it off.
Seth, seeing something I could not, dashed off towards a copse of trees, leaving Makhen to stand the reptile once for good measure.
Another Kobold joined the one Angelos and Wendelin were fighting, keeping them occupied. I was going to alter course to assist them, when I saw a blast of arcane energy streak through the air and decimate Angelos" opponent.
I knew it had only been mere seconds but the entire scene was pure chaos.
Kepesh had started off towards where Seth was, so I turned my attention to the north as well. I caught a glimpse of something in the tree. Something with wings. As I started to jog in that direction I threw spell at the thing in the tree.
Somewhere behind me, Angelos, Wendelin and Amemnon had killed one and captured another. Ahead of me, from om the treed area came a loud ruckus of barking and yipping. There were more close by! I hurried to join Seth and Makhen.
As I skidded to a halt beside the tree I saw Seth in conversation with a dirty little kobold. It was on it’s belly in the dirt. Makhen had his sword out, pointing it at the vermin. At Makhen’s feet was what looked like the winged kobold I had hit. It had been eviscerated.
I caught the tail end of Seth telling Makhen they weren’t going to kill it. To the hells with that. I started casting another fire bolt.
The groveling beast looked from Seth to Makhen, terror in its beady eyes. It clearly understood what was being said.
"Common, oh! Rhaas speak common." It said, holding up its little hands imploringly.
My spell went off, but I missed, no doubt due to the shock of the situation. Since when did we parlay with such beasts.
I heard movement behind me and turned to see Angelos arrive. Good. Surely he would back me up, that the little evil thing needed to die.
He cocked his head in the direction of the pathetic yipping. "A Kobold?" Angelos said incredulously, "What are kobolds doing here?"
Still squirming around on its belly, the thing responded to Angelos’ question. It’s mix of common and yippy draconic was giving me a headache.
"No, no, no, Kobolds are..." he dissolved into barks and yips., that part of his story was lost on me. "...Rhaas is, what you can, brood. Brothers. Sisters? That thing..." he motioned to the dead winged kobold at Makhen’s feet. "That thing kidnap us. Cultists, bah!" He spits on the ground. "They came, they came, they hunt us. Kill everybody, everybody. They came, and took us away."
I shifted from one foot to another, annoyed that we were wasting time with this creature. It needed to be ended, so we could get back to work.
Angelos seemed to have latched onto something it had said though, his whole-body tensing. I heard the creak leather as his grip tightened on the pummel of his sword. "Are you saying those beasts were cultists?" The inflection on his last word was firm.
As the others in the group showed interest in its appeal, the tiny thing moved form its belly, to its knees, still begging. "Ya! Ya!" Tall ones, like you, humans with masks. They come. They say: You join us. Join Tiamat."
I had heard of the Cult of Tiamat before. Davros had us search for weeks for signs of them, in Hlondeth. Despite this, I was still not swayed by the little beast.
"Gaaaah. Tiamat, suck goddess." He spat on the ground. "She no real goddess, we no do Tiamat. We no like. We say: We no do! And then, they kill us."
Angelos pinched the bridge of his nose, no doubt getting a headache as well from the yipping and yapping of broken Draconic and Kobold. "Does anyone speak this creature's language?"
"The Dragonborn." I said with a slight hint of sarcasm before glancing about for sign of Kepesh. He was lumbering over from beside the standing stones.
"So, to be clear..." Angelos continued, head dipped down as he focused on the Kobold. "...these Kobolds belonged to a cult?"
The little beast shook his head violently, "No, no, no, kobolds, my people, slaves of that asshole." It pointed to winged one's corpse.
Kepesh pushed past the branches of the tree we were all standing by, war hammer in one hand, shield in the other. The Kobold's face light up. "Dat's good dragon." He pointed, either at Kepesh himself, or the crest of Bahamut on his shield. "My people follow Kurtulmak the Lost. No Tiamat." Once again, he spat on the ground violently. "I am Rhaas, my tribe from grounds under what you call Reaching Woods. We live deep down. Deep, far away from the Gnolls." His little dragonish head spun as he looked form Seth, to Kepesh to Angelos. Just then, Amemnon walked up to join the crowd that now had it surrounded completely.
Rhaas swallowed hard, nervously, and continued his story. "One day, masked softskins, humans, come with hobgoblins. Mean, mean people. beat us all. Say Tiamat sent them. they force us into egg cave. They take some, call us special. Top-worlders mean though, break necks, necks of all sons. As they stomp body of our elder into dust."
Kobolds and cultists? Should some of us split off to ferret out these cultists? I had heard rumors, my first night in Scornubel, that the Kobolds were acting odd. This had to be why. But, what would these cultists want with such vermin?
I turned my attention back to our prisoner, he was still yapping. "They tell us, we now follow Tiamat. they took strongest hunters. they pick runners. they tell us of wood of sharp fang...no...teeth...teeth, yes?" He pointed a tiny clawed digit at his teeth. "We supposed to meet other special chosen there. We gather up our belongings. we go. Lucky for me, I have good stuff, good stuff from trades. I hide stuff under cloak. See."
He opened his little overcoat, showing off the bulging pockets that held all his possessions. "I good at hide stuff. I good at hide. As we leave, we smell smoke. All the tunnels behind us on fire. Everyone not picked dead. They say, the human say heretics den has been purged by Tiamat's will." On cue, he spat again.
"So they go to find more tribes. And then we go to find other tribes. So, we go." Still kneeling, the kobold's back straightened up as his tone took a firmer, more assured and confident tone.
"But. I have dream, a good dream, from Kurtulmak. I will make these followers of Tiamat pay. I make them pay...ppppay. I make them hurt, like they make my family hurt. This is the making of my heart, this is my bestest deepest treasure." His story done, he bowed his head a little, waiting for us to decide his fate.
Kepesh, who had been listening, raptly, "I believe him." He said in a very matter of fact tone.
"Believe? Who cares if it is true or not, he's a Kobold. He'll stab us in the back soon as he gets a chance. They are evil. "
"I haven't seen anything evil from him yet." Seth countered with.
I scoffed at their foolishness, their naivety.
"What if I gave you a gold, to not set the little lizard on fire." Kepesh offered, and I had no clue if he was mocking me or not.
"Not even for one hundred." I replied blandly.
"Two hundred?"
Amemnon interrupted, "So, is your brother willing to join us too? How come you turned against the cultists, but the others didn't?"
Rhaas sighed, shaking his scaly little head. "My brother is good, but not brave. He would probably run away if you brought him. I have the dream, in my heart. Kurtulmak talk to me. Tell me to hurt and kill Tiamat followers. I hate them." And there it was, though a little delayed. Rhaas spit on the ground.

Angelos, apparently more drunk than I had realized, piped up and said, "Blind man has needs! Manly needs!" He was pushing away from the bar. As my arm was still entwined in his, I was swept along a step or two with him.

Seth looked from Angelos, to Blen, and back to Angelos. He signed deeply and pinched the bridge of his nose in resigned frustration.

"Tori, I need to go talk to those fine ladies to find out where their friend took Kepesh. Will you take care of Angelos please, see that he gets back to the bunkhouse as well?"

"Yes boss, of course." Whatever got me to the next tavern. This one was now a dead end.

Seth fished a gold coin from his belt pouch and placed it in my hand. "Buy whatever you want, just be on time." This time I accepted the coin, as he had entrusted me with a task.

Seth left to go talk with the two locals. I watched them for a long moment, and it looked like they were giving him a hard time. Perhaps they wanted a little of what their friend had gotten. Despite the exchange taking awhile, Seth didn’t lose his temper. In fact, he motioned to the barkeep to send over a round of drinks for the ladies. That seemed to loosen their lips, as Seth was soon out the door to retrieve Kepesh.

Angelos and I exited only a moment or two after Seth, but when I glanced around, he was nowhere to be seen. If I were sober, I might have reflected on the absurdity of letting a blind man – a drunken blind man – lead me anywhere. He had said he was looking for a tumble, and I had already planned on doing the very same thing myself, so it seemed like a wise course of action. Besides, early morning departure meant time was short and running out. Furthermore, Seth had said to take care of him.

As Angelos started to head off up the cobblestone street, I yanked on his arm and dragged him into the narrow alleyway between the tavern and it’s neighbour.

He didn’t pull away, but did give me a puzzled look.

I explained, before he could protest. "It’ll be quicker this way." In my state, the double meaning was lost on me.

"Ah! A shortcut, excellent idea." He changed course with me and headed down the alleyway as well.

We had made it half way down the narrow alleyway before I tripped over some piece of trash or perhaps even my own feet. I stumbled a few steps. Had I not still been holding onto Angelos’ arm, I probably would have fallen flat on my horns. Instead, he moved to caught me, and due to momentum, I spun around in his path. With me suddenly underfoot, he tripped over my tail, stepping on it roughly. As he faltered, I grabbed onto him and we both slammed into the hard stone outer wall of the Wench.

Had I a plan, it might have looked just like this, apart from the tail stomping. That hurt like the hells.

He cursed and tried to extricate himself from me, as I was still holding onto him, and I was pinned to the wall.

Sloppy as it was, I seized the opportunity and rolled with it. When he pulled away, I stayed close. Leaning in, I pressed my slight form against his much taller, far more muscular frame. "You know, Seth did say to take care of you." I said in a low, whisper, looking up at him. "And, you made it pretty clear what you needed taking care of. There isn’t really any reason to go to another tavern..." I let go of my grip on his arm.

The scrap of cloth that covered his eyes raised slightly as his brows shot halfway up his forehead in surprise.

Angelos cleared his throat, his voice seeming to have failed him. "I don’t think that's what he had in mind." He said after a long, silent moment.

"No, probably not." I’m sure my ridiculous grin had grown in proportion with his surprise. "But, it makes fine sense. After all, it’s on both our minds." Behind me, my tail flicked back and forth, twitching like a cat’s. "Needs, that is." I clarified. My hands moved to the front of his leather britches.

"I...I did say that...out loud, didn’t I?" He seemed to sober a little, as the situation shifted.

I nodded in response, forgetting for a moment that he couldn’t see it. "Yes, yes you did." I purred as I fumbled with his belt. "And I am more than willing to help you out in that matter." After all these years, I had learned a trick or two when it came to getting my way into armor, so his leathers were not a problem. I kept my gaze upturned, on his face.

Angelos opened his mouth to reply, but all that he managed to utter was a soft gasp in surprise as my roaming hands found their prize.

"Perhaps, that is, if your vows don’t prohibit sharing a bed with the likes of me, we should take this back to the compound. I am a lot of things, but a back-alley whore is not one of them." I said, continuing to coax him both verbally and physically. I caught the subtle change in his breathing and grinned wickedly.

He shifted, leaning back against the opposite wall for support, his legs bent slightly. It was my turn to pin him. "Well, we can’t have anyone thinking that, can we?" He whispered, his look of surprise rapidly turning to amusement. He reached up to run a finger along one of my horns curiously. "We should probably head back to the bunkhouse then." He added, his tongue wetting his lips subconsciously.

"We probably, definitely should." I whispered back before withdrawing my hand from inside his britches, reluctantly. Were I prone to such thoughts, I would say the gods were smiling on me tonight.

He uttered the smallest of sighs and swallowed hard, as if trying to regain some composure. When he started back down the alley in the direction we came from, it was with long, quick strides that I had to hurry to keep up with. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one feeling...blessed.

As we stepped back out onto the public eye, Angelos raised his voice far above normal conversation level. "Thank you, Lass. I don’t know what I would have done with out your aid in finding my lost coin purse. So kind of you to assist this helpless blind man."

I murmured a weak sound of confusion as I fell into step beside him, having no clue what that was about. Upon hearing it, he gave me a slight nudge, and whispered conspiratorially, "On the chance someone saw us exit the alleyway together." He turned his head slightly, to grin down at me, "To protect your honor, of course."

"Oh!" I whispered in kind, unable to suppress a giggle, I snorted. "My honor..."

As we passed the other alleyway, on the opposite side of the Wench, I could have sworn I heard Seth’s voice coming from within. And was that Draconic?

I didn’t recall anything else from the rest of the evening, other than a vague memory of stopping Angelos on the way home, to do up the front of his leather breeches...only to yank them off him as soon as we arrived.

I’m fairly certain we both enjoyed the night. I knew I did, at least. I woke up early the next morning feeling like I had just gotten out of the saddle, rather than ready to get into one.

I was dog tired the next morning, but when Wendelin came to rouse the other escorts, I was already awake and getting cleaned up. All around me there were tired groans. A few beds down, I could see the red scaled lump that was Kepesh, still under the covers and, still snoring loudly. No surprise, it sounded like a dragon’s roar. As I passed Angelos’ bed, I leaned in and placed a light kiss on his forehead. He must have been close to waking, because his hands started to move about, patting down the bed as if searching for something. Me? I smiled at the notion, but didn’t stick around to see if I was right.

I hurried down the bunkhouse stairs, to where Cookie had prepared a light breakfast that would travel well. Amemnon and Seth were already there, grabbing something to eat. I nodded to them both, and Seth gave me the strangest little smirk.  I started to head out of the chow hall, but then stopped, going back to where the Elf stood. It took me a moment, as I was juggling food and drink in my hands, but I managed to fish a gold coin out of my pocket. I flipped it towards Seth.

"From last night. Didn’t need it." I said, clicking my tongue.

He caught it, and shook his head. "Tori, Tori, Tori. Get going. Don’t want Grondar to have any reason to yell at you."

I bee-lined for the door, and once outside, straight to my horse. The food was tucked away for later. I might not have had a splitting headache from the night before, but my stomach was urging me to wait a bit longer before putting food into it.

When the other Greenies arrived, we were instructed to take up a spot in the middle section of the wagon train. Before long, we were on the road.

By the time we had reached the rolling plains between Scornubel and the river, I had fallen into a monotonous rhythm.  Ahead of me, I could see Seth and Kepesh joking about the night before. Behind me as Amemnon, who looked like he was concentrating to the full of his ability, to keep on the horse. I caught sight of Angelos a couple of times, as he road up and down on the other side of the column of wagons.

After he was done joking with Kepesh, Seth brought his horse along side of mine. After a few exchanged pleasantries, he asked, "So, Tori, what were you doing before Grondar hired you?" his tone suggested genuine curiosity.

"Monster hunting." I said blandly, not really wishing to elaborate. I lost sight of Angelos, between the wagons. To my surprise, he appeared on Seth’s right. I did my best to suppress a smile, not wanting to appear like a foolish little girl. Or worse, desperate like Kepesh’s lady friend from the night before.

"Monster hunting?" Seth repeated, thoughtfully. "Tell me more. What was the most difficult creature you’ve brought down?"

"Hard to say, really." I replied with a shrug. "I mean, it was a co-ordinated effort. I was with an adventuring company. I didn’t do any of it alone." And they left me, which is why I don’t do it anymore, I said to myself.

Angelos stayed a long moment, listening silently. As quietly as he appeared, he urged his horse on, riding up towards the front of the column.

Seth stayed at my side, trying to pull more about my past out of me. Thankfully, I was rescued by a rider from the front of the caravan.

"Mr. Seth, the lead wagon is stuck on a rock." The young rider said, "Mr. Grondar wants you to bring up your greenhorns to fix it." As I looked on ahead, I noticed the wagons were coming to a halt, one by one.

"Come on, Greenies." Seth called out, standing up in his stirrups as he looked around for the rest of his charges. "To the front. Work to do."

I pushed my horse into a trot, catching up with Kepesh and then Angelos. Seth was behind us, with Amemnon, no doubt making sure he didn’t fall off his horse. As we moved away from the wagon’s we were entrusted with, a few of the other, more seasoned escorts, fell in to fill the gaps. I also saw Grondar and Jhonas riding back as well.

When we arrived at the lead wagon, it was indeed stuck on a rock.  I don’t know how the others had missed it, but I noticed right away. There were drag marks from the side of the trail, to the rock.

On the opposite side of the road there was a clearing, and a set of ancient standing stones.

"We need to find something to use as a lever." Amemnon said, glancing around. I could tell by the change in his expression, that he too had noticed the drag marks.

"Seth...this doesn’t look like it was an accident." I called back, over my shoulder as a I peered down at the ground. The brawn of the group was discussing how to free the wagon and I left them to it, moving around to the other side of the wagon, for values of a culprit. Makhen and Wyndellion were there, keeping an eye out.

A flash of color caught my eye. Something had moved behind one of the large stones.

The rest happened so quickly. A stone came whizzing through the air, narrowly missing me and from the sounds of it, hitting Amemnon. "What the??" I heard him cry out.

As I looked back towards the direction it came from, I saw Makhen, Wendelin and Seth sprint off towards the clearing. Still not sure of what they had seen, I started running in the same direction, none the less. As I cleared the ring of stones, I saw that same flash of brown. Scales? One, two, three more steps and I was finally able to tell what they were.

Kobolds. Filthy vermin, barely even worthy of being called a "monster’.

I wound up, casting quickly, and lobbed a handful of molten fire at the little lizard. It hit the creature square in the chest, bursting into flames and dying instantly.

Still running, I glanced left and right, looking for more. Where there was one kobold, you could always be sure of more.

To my right, I saw Angelos race behind the tall stones and lob a javelin at, I presumed, another kobold. Wendelin was by Angelos’ side, but didn’t stop to hurl a weapon, instead sprinting to get to melee range.

To my left, Seth, in a great burst of speed, reached another kobold by some bushes. The little lizard seemed prepared for him though and stabbed him with his spear. I couldn’t see the extent of the damage from my angle, but whatever the amount, it didn’t drop the elf. Makhen was moving in to assist Seth, but was nowhere near as fast as the elf.

Looking back, to see what was keeping the others, I saw Kepesh and Amemnon standing on the road, finally realizing that something was afoot.

I threw another bolt of fire at the kobold fighting Seth, injuring it enough so that Makhen could finish it off.

Seth, seeing something I could not, dashed off towards a copse of trees, leaving Makhen to stand the reptile once for good measure.

Another Kobold joined the one Angelos and Wendelin were fighting, keeping them occupied. I was going to alter course to assist them, when I saw a blast of arcane energy streak through the air and decimate Angelos" opponent.

I knew it had only been mere seconds but the entire scene was pure chaos.

Kepesh had started off towards where Seth was, so I turned my attention to the north as well. I caught a glimpse of something in the tree. Something with wings. As I started to jog in that direction I threw spell at the thing in the tree.

Somewhere behind me, Angelos, Wendelin and Amemnon had killed one and captured another. Ahead of me, from om the treed area came a loud ruckus of barking and yipping. There were more close by! I hurried to join Seth and Makhen.

As I skidded to a halt beside the tree I saw Seth in conversation with a dirty little kobold. It was on it’s belly in the dirt. Makhen had his sword out, pointing it at the vermin. At Makhen’s feet was what looked like the winged kobold I had hit. It had been eviscerated.

I caught the tail end of Seth telling Makhen they weren’t going to kill it. To the hells with that. I started casting another fire bolt.

The groveling beast looked from Seth to Makhen, terror in its beady eyes. It clearly understood what was being said.

"Common, oh! Rhaas speak common." It said, holding up its little hands imploringly.

My spell went off, but I missed, no doubt due to the shock of the situation. Since when did we parlay with such beasts.

I heard movement behind me and turned to see Angelos arrive. Good. Surely he would back me up, that the little evil thing needed to die.

He cocked his head in the direction of the pathetic yipping. "A Kobold?" Angelos said incredulously, "What are kobolds doing here?"

Still squirming around on its belly, the thing responded to Angelos’ question. It’s mix of common and yippy draconic was giving me a headache.

"No, no, no, Kobolds are..." he dissolved into barks and yips., that part of his story was lost on me. "...Rhaas is, what you can, brood. Brothers. Sisters? That thing..." he motioned to the dead winged kobold at Makhen’s feet. "That thing kidnap us. Cultists, bah!" He spits on the ground. "They came, they came, they hunt us. Kill everybody, everybody. They came, and took us away."

I shifted from one foot to another, annoyed that we were wasting time with this creature. It needed to be ended, so we could get back to work.

Angelos seemed to have latched onto something it had said though, his whole-body tensing. I heard the creak leather as his grip tightened on the pummel of his sword. "Are you saying those beasts were cultists?" The inflection on his last word was firm.

As the others in the group showed interest in its appeal, the tiny thing moved form its belly, to its knees, still begging. "Ya! Ya!" Tall ones, like you, humans with masks. They come. They say: You join us. Join Tiamat."

I had heard of the Cult of Tiamat before. Davros had us search for weeks for signs of them, in Hlondeth. Despite this, I was still not swayed by the little beast.

"Gaaaah. Tiamat, suck goddess." He spat on the ground. "She no real goddess, we no do Tiamat. We no like. We say: We no do! And then, they kill us."

Angelos pinched the bridge of his nose, no doubt getting a headache as well from the yipping and yapping of broken Draconic and Kobold. "Does anyone speak this creature's language?"

"The Dragonborn." I said with a slight hint of sarcasm before glancing about for sign of Kepesh. He was lumbering over from beside the standing stones.

"So, to be clear..." Angelos continued, head dipped down as he focused on the Kobold. "...these Kobolds belonged to a cult?"

The little beast shook his head violently, "No, no, no, kobolds, my people, slaves of that asshole." It pointed to winged one's corpse.

Kepesh pushed past the branches of the tree we were all standing by, war hammer in one hand, shield in the other. The Kobold's face light up. "Dat's good dragon." He pointed, either at Kepesh himself, or the crest of Bahamut on his shield. "My people follow Kurtulmak the Lost. No Tiamat." Once again, he spat on the ground violently. "I am Rhaas, my tribe from grounds under what you call Reaching Woods. We live deep down. Deep, far away from the Gnolls." His little dragonish head spun as he looked form Seth, to Kepesh to Angelos. Just then, Amemnon walked up to join the crowd that now had it surrounded completely.

Rhaas swallowed hard, nervously, and continued his story. "One day, masked softskins, humans, come with hobgoblins. Mean, mean people. beat us all. Say Tiamat sent them. they force us into egg cave. They take some, call us special. Top-worlders mean though, break necks, necks of all sons. As they stomp body of our elder into dust."

Kobolds and cultists? Should some of us split off to ferret out these cultists? I had heard rumors, my first night in Scornubel, that the Kobolds were acting odd. This had to be why. But, what would these cultists want with such vermin?

I turned my attention back to our prisoner, he was still yapping. "They tell us, we now follow Tiamat. they took strongest hunters. they pick runners. they tell us of wood of sharp fang...no...teeth...teeth, yes?" He pointed a tiny clawed digit at his teeth. "We supposed to meet other special chosen there. We gather up our belongings. we go. Lucky for me, I have good stuff, good stuff from trades. I hide stuff under cloak. See."

He opened his little overcoat, showing off the bulging pockets that held all his possessions. "I good at hide stuff. I good at hide. As we leave, we smell smoke. All the tunnels behind us on fire. Everyone not picked dead. They say, the human say heretics den has been purged by Tiamat's will." On cue, he spat again.

"So they go to find more tribes. And then we go to find other tribes. So, we go." Still kneeling, the kobold's back straightened up as his tone took a firmer, more assured and confident tone.

"But. I have dream, a good dream, from Kurtulmak. I will make these followers of Tiamat pay. I make them pay...ppppay. I make them hurt, like they make my family hurt. This is the making of my heart, this is my bestest deepest treasure." His story done, he bowed his head a little, waiting for us to decide his fate.

Kepesh, who had been listening, raptly, "I believe him." He said in a very matter of fact tone.

"Believe? Who cares if it is true or not, he's a Kobold. He'll stab us in the back soon as he gets a chance. They are evil. "

"I haven't seen anything evil from him yet." Seth countered with.

I scoffed at their foolishness, their naivety.

"What if I gave you a gold, to not set the little lizard on fire." Kepesh offered, and I had no clue if he was mocking me or not.

"Not even for one hundred." I replied blandly.

"Two hundred?"

Amemnon interrupted, "So, is your brother willing to join us too? How come you turned against the cultists, but the others didn't?"

Rhaas sighed, shaking his scaly little head. "My brother is good, but not brave. He would probably run away if you brought him. I have the dream, in my heart. Kurtulmak talk to me. Tell me to hurt and kill Tiamat followers. I hate them." And there it was, though a little delayed. Rhaas spit on the ground.