Expedition: Baxtaw - Seeking Scatha's Lair - 23 July 2021

[Rusty Tincanne]

While smoothing out his mustache, Lord Commander Bremen thanks Father Clauson for his prayers and compliments Stantz on more displays of his fine archery. He looks at the piles of dragon hide and wonders how they can move it all now. He looks around for any old carts or hand trucks in the re-lit forges. If he cannot find any easily, he will guess at what would be needed for himself and stuff it in a sack.

If he finds several wheelbarrows, he'll suggest the group take them all for hauling loot.

He'll guesstimate by taking twice the weight of a suit of leather armor.l, taking only the softest hide from beneath the shoulder joints/armpits, and around the wings. If he can find an old wheelbarrow, he'll load as much as he can into it and head to the horde.

[Marullus]

He does find plenty of ore carts, as suspected. They would work to roll goods up the hallway to the front entrance of the mine, but will not work up the eight stories of stairs to get up to where Bremen's dozen soldiers wait on the backside of the mountain.

Am I understanding that Bremen is loading dragon parts/hide into carts to go down to the golden doors now? Or are you going to the melted golden doors and leaving this all behind?

[Dram]

I would say if we can load it into the carts. Take it with us. But how many rounds would it take to gather it all is the question. I would say take what we can quickly find the horde. Or we could go to Bremen soldiers move back to the horde with force hopefully take it all.

[Rusty Tincanne]

Bremen wants to take teeth and a good portion of the hide, at least, going directly to the golden doors where we suspect the treasure is. He is against the idea of going up to his men beforehand, suspecting much of the treasure will disappear into the deeper recesses of the mountain. We can always haul all this to the base of the stairs and just send portions of it up at a time, protecting it at the bottom.
Stupid dragon... Why couldn't it have just waited for us in the treasure room? We would have been nappy to kill it anywhere.

[Marullus]

Stupid dragon... Why couldn't it have just waited for us in the treasure room? We would have been nappy to kill it anywhere.

To be fair to the dragon, you spent almost five hours lighting bonfires and having loud battles in the hallway outside his bedroom, including wafting the odor of his favorite meal...

[Zhym]

Yeah! Scatha's the victim here!

...rather literally. Muahahaha.

[Rusty Tincanne]

Don't try and sell me that "Scatha is the Victim here" nonsense. That jerk-wyrm jumped his chapter of the story. My copy of the script clearly says "The party enters Scatha's Lair, stage right. Finding the dragon asleep, they descend on him with wild abandon and without mercy." What kind of crappy stage manager did you hire to run this play? You're just lucky the audience didn't get torched with that nonsense or you'd have a major-freaking-lawsuit on your hands, Mister GM...

Ummm... How loud are the carts? How far to the double doors? How many carts would it take to load up the teeth, claws and the hide? (Or... how much hide can fit in each cart? Is there anything better around to use? Perhaps a rikshaw-like cart that can hold more and will be quieter?

[Jernau35]

How about we wait for the next bunch of goblins to show up, take them prisoner and use them to pull the carts

[Dram]

Don't try and sell me that "Scatha is the Victim here" nonsense. That jerk-wyrm jumped his chapter of the story. My copy of the script clearly says "The party enters Scatha's Lair, stage right. Finding the dragon asleep, they descend on him with wild abandon and without mercy." What kind of crappy stage manager did you hire to run this play? You're just lucky the audience didn't get torched with that nonsense or you'd have a major-freaking-lawsuit on your hands, Mister GM...

Ummm... How loud are the carts? How far to the double doors? How many carts would it take to load up the teeth, claws and the hide? (Or... how much hide can fit in each cart? Is there anything better around to use? Perhaps a rikshaw-like cart that can hold more and will be quieter?

I think either way were going to be fighting goblins. Lets do it up there in Scathas lair.

[Marullus]

Read the Encumb. Rules. PCs can carry 160lbs or drag 230lbs on a makeshift conveyance (which includes wheelbarrows from the dwarven smithy). The wheeled ore carts will be able to move 400lbs at half-speed with someone pushing them in the hallway, but (like all carts) they can't be used outside the smoothed-hallways and cart-tracks of the dwarfhome.

Bremen, Clauson, and Stantz load up the hide and then large sections of dragon-carcass in the ore carts which are easily accessible around the now-flaming and glowing refineries. The trio rolls along the rattle-clap carts down the grand hallway, unable to keep up with the rest of the party, who leads the way ahead of them.

Baxtaw, Lug, Piers, Rowine, Crowgar, and Osuna reach the place where the flows of molten gold mar the smooth Grand Hallway floor, indicating the room you seek. Double doors on the left hang ajar, the dusty, cobwebbed dwarven library desolate within. Turning to the right, the melted golden double-doors leave a wide opening into a breathtaking chamber. About as large as the work-floor above except with airy ceilings twice as high, your torch can't possibly illuminate it -- it stretches into the darkness to your left and right. Ahead, you see another pair of golden double doors hanging open on its hinges on the far wall. Within the room itself, you see a massive dining room table lying tipped on its side to your right, masterfully-wrought wooden chairs scattered around it. Stone statues of dwarves, standing proudly in armor and bearing axes, stand at regular intervals around the room. The walls and floors are smoothed, polished, and engraved stone - the entire floor is taken up by whorls of dwarven knotwork art, the walls covered in column after column of blocky dwarven writing.

Date: 5:40pm, 26 July 2021
Light: Bremen' torch (until 5:30pm) Rowine and Crowgar's torches (until 6:30pm)
Effects: Resist Fire (Bremen);
Injuries: Dorbeck (Dead), Baxtaw (severely wounded), Bremen (moderately wounded), Lug (moderately wounded), Stantz (minor wound), Clouson (minor wound)

[Zhym]

Lug also grabbed as much dragon hide as he could, for the record.

Lug drops his dragon bits and marvels at the room. Very briefly. "Cool. So, where's the hoard?"

[Marullus]

Lug also grabbed as much dragon hide as he could, for the record.

The hide fills a single ore-cart, currently. If you hack it up inexpertly before transport, it will make less suits of armor when you get back to town.

[Zhym]

Okay, then. Lug will hope he can go back for dragon parts before we leave.

At some point, we'll have to figure out how we lug (as it were) 400 lb chunks of dragon up and out of here.

[Marullus]

Read the Encumb. Rules. PCs can carry 160lbs or drag 230lbs on a makeshift conveyance (which includes wheelbarrows from the dwarven smithy). The wheeled ore carts will be able to move 400lbs at half-speed with someone pushing them in the hallway, but (like all carts) they can't be used outside the smoothed-hallways and cart-tracks of the dwarfhome.

Bremen, Clauson, and Stantz load up the hide and then large sections of dragon-carcass in the ore carts which are easily accessible around the now-flaming and glowing refineries. The trio rolls along the rattle-clap carts down the grand hallway, unable to keep up with the rest of the party, who leads the way ahead of them.

They're dragging along 1,200 lbs in dragon parts right now. I'm assuming you don't have to go back, though you will need to decide how you get them outside.

[Rusty Tincanne]

1. Marullus: where is everyone at for HP? Specifically Lug, Stantz and Baxtaw - our main fighters. Bremen will give someone his healing potion before we split.
2. Would the rest of the group have taken an ore cart or two for hauling loot? (We could have divvied up treasure into the carts to stay together at 3/4 speed, perhaps.
3. The dragon parts are all group treasure, of course. Bremen will do his best to keep it all safe.
4. Let me know when Bremen, et Ale catch up.

[Marullus]

4. Let me know when Bremen, et Ale catch up.

You're not that far behind. Just catch up in your post.

[Dram]

Baxtaw- Seeing the other set of large double doors. I would what we seek is beyond the other set of doors.




I will be leaving Wednesday afternoon and not returning till Sunday. Please NPC my character if needed.

[Rusty Tincanne]

When he gets there, Bremen stands in awe and envy of the grandiose craftsmanship. He tries to calculate how long he could fund the White Tower with just the four Golden doors. Seems a shame to hand all this over with us only getting what we can carry or drag.

Noticing the columns, he speaks out loud. Damned goblins. Dorbeck should've been here for this. We could've used a translator. Can anyone else reliably read dwarf? Continuing to push the carts towards the second set of busted doors, Bremen stares at the columns, trying to understand the runes.

[Zhym]

"Prob'ly just says 'Hooray for gold; here are the names of all our ancestors,'" quips Lug. "C'mon, let's get into the next room."

"Hey, it'd be a shame to fall into a pit or get killed by a secret gate this close to the treasure. Anyone got a magic trap-finding spell left?"

[Jernau35]

Piers gives Lug a brief sidelong look, then calls upon the power of Baudh to search for traps and trickery. "Sunfather! We seek the dragon's horde of gold to bring you glory! Guide our steps to save us from harm!"