So, 1 is to just throw the barrel at it and hope it lands in its mouth and breaks open? On the other hand, 2 is to use ourselves as bait, get in close, and *wham* down the hatch.
Maybe the Goddess, when installing this roper, instilled unto it the knowledge of a skilled lover, and we'll enjoy the experience. Maybe, instead of an egg, it'll insert the key.
We don't have THAT silver a tongue.
We don't let Hadrian fight alone - and I don't want to see if the roper might mistake his anus for a suitably "squishy" place.
We're weak enough that this would probably end up as #2 anyways.
We trust Grat's honesty, just not his capabilities. A pack of ghouls would chase him off, no matter how much he wanted to help us.
"Oh hey! Look at this! Remember? This is our old Dungeon Crawl campaign!"
"Oh yeah, I remember that."
"Me too, it was fun. Shame we stopped it."
"I still have my notes, we could get it going again? You guys up for it?"
"Sure, maybe I guess. Can you remind us what was happening."
"No problem! Here's the basics:"
You are Ariel the Bard, you are one of the special few who can channel musical talent into shaping raw, arcane magics, albeit at a very basic level. Bards are renowned for the great tales of adventure, and make their living entertaining civilization by actually going on journeys with great adventurers and living to report the tale. There are other reasons for being a Bard, but we needn't get into that just yet. Also, more than any other class of adventurer, bards can branch off into different abilities, such as fighting, thievery, divine powers or magic.
Ariel is an expert on tales of creatures, and her favorite creatures by far are dragons. She's somewhat obsessive about the giant lizards. She journeys with two steadfast companions - Hadrian, Paladin of Jorn (Imperator of Law) and Elise, Priestess of Zerica (Goddess of Secrets). Hadrian is an exemplar knight and a seasoned veteran adventurer. Elise is a novice priestess within her guild, but she has begun an adventuring career to comply with the precepts of her faith - to seek hidden knowledge.
The three of you were hired by the Baron of Barrowbridge to explore the Southern Zerican Temple and bring back the book of Røse, which would save the town from some vaguely defined curse.
Promptly after you entered the temple, you all tumbled into a trap that sent you down to the level of trials, where you were meant to prove yourselves worthy to enter the inner sanctum, where the book presumably is. You bypassed some traps, discovered a kobold named Grat (who worships dragons!), and then had a very bloody fight with some ghouls, who nearly killed you.
Most recently, you discovered that the final key to getting out of the level of trials is within a creature known as a roper - rock like body with a nasty maw and a bunch of tentacle arms. You're all a bit beat up, and Grat says that if you splash some grog onto the roper's maw, it'll get drunk quickly and be susceptible to attack/give up the key.
As we rejoin the action, you've decided that you will use yourself as bait, allowing yourself to get grabbed by the roper, so that you can get close and pour in some grog.
...
As you hang upside down, suspended by your ankles in the air by two tentacles as a third and fourth effectively rip away the remains of your tattered leather armor and leggings, you think that perhaps not all kobold plans are that great.
The small barrel of alcoholic liquid had nearly slipped from your grasp in the first moment that the tentacles slipped around you, but you managed to hold tight. Now though, your armor is most definitely gone. You hope that you'll be able to replace it should you ever get back to town. In the meantime, you'll just have to hope that Harian won't spaz out too much in seeing your bare flesh.
Actually, that's a very secondary thing on your mind at the moment, because as the tendrils draw you closer, you see the big, stinking maw of the roper open up beneath your and a smaller, thicker tendril from within it snakes out and slips around one of your thighs. It's extra slimy and the tip reminds you most of a distorted phallus, making you pretty sure that this is the part of the roper's body that will produce the 'squishy rock' as Grat called it, placing it within your body if you're not quick about this.
You wait for the optimum angle, but it's slow in getting there. You feel your panties being shifted aside by the slimy tentacle, and from nearby you can hear Elise steadying Hadrian, who no doubt is intending to rush in at any moment to defend your honor. The paladin had been against this plan thoroughly, as his chivalrous code probably did not include letting the injured young woman become tentacle bait.
But you were determined to do this, for reasons somewhat questionable even to yourself. Still, you have no intention of housing a squishy roper baby inside of you, so at the last moment that you think you have, you give the grog barrel a light toss, and it hits the lip of the roper's maw before bouncing inside.
Instinctively, the roper chews, and the barrel splinters with a wet crack. The waft of old beer fills your nostrils, and the surprised roper pauses in its vile advances on you. Then, perhaps two or three seconds onward, it drops you to the floor, where you land with a thud, though nothing serious enough to aggravate the cuts and bite marks that you already have.
"It's working!" Elise exclaims.
With only a grunt, Hadrian comes forward, wraps his arms around you, and scoops you up with ease, bringing you out of the reach of the roper.
"I can still walk," you say irritably as you readjust your undergarments.
Wordlessly, and without really keeping his eyes on you at all, you see him unclasp his white cape that hangs from his mail armored shoulders and hands the cloth to you. You presume that he wants you to cover up, and you oblige him, as you don't like being exposed like this.
"The key," Elise reminded them. "I'll get it."
And before Hadrian could voice a complaint about yet another woman going off and exposing herself to danger on his watch, the priestess stepped over to the roper, whose whole body had gone sluggish. With an easy bravery, she peered into the maw of the beast, and with her weapon raised should anything go awry, she reached her hand inside.
"I can see it," she says over her shoulder, before plunging her hand deeper inside. The roper doesn't react, and soon enough the priestess withdraws her hand triumphantly with the key.
"Yes yes!" Grat hops up and down, shaking with joy.
"Let's get back to the other chamber. We haven't much time!" Hadrian says.
"Right," you say, having wrapped the cape around you like a bath towel.
---
The three of you, plus the kobold, go back to the other room, and are faced once again with a keyhole guarded by a swinging pendulum with an incredibly sharp edge.
Elise, who is not the most dextrous among your party holds up the key and looks expectantly at one of either you or Hadrian. Before either of you can react, Grat hops up, deftly yoinks the key out of Elise's hands, and darts forward to where the keyhole is.
"Nnnnhh... Grat!" the kobold says, using his name as an emphasis to encourage himself. Quick as a flash, the kobold's arm goes in, twists, and retreats backward.
"Yeeeeouch!" Grat hops around, waving his hand wildly. You can see that there is some blood, but it's only from the very tip of his middle finger. The little dog-man was quite nimble, certainly. Any of you three might have been in trouble if you'd tried to put the key in.
With a slow, lurching grind, the gears of the great clock above you grind to a halt. Then, somewhere within the structure, a counterweight gives way, and a part of the stonework in the wall next to the keyhole swings backward, revealing a rising stairwell, lit by glowing glyphs in the walls.
"We have passed the trials," Elise says. "Beyond lies the inner sanctum, where the priesthood houses its secrets within great vaults. We must still be wary. There is no sign that the priesthood still exists within this temple. Whatever caused their disappearance might still dwell within the sanctum.
"Perhaps we should rest on the stairs, dress our wounds, and gather our strength?" Hadrian says.
"No!" Grat says, tilting his head to one side as his ears prick up. "Grat hears dragon call! Dragon master... in pain! Much pain! No time time! Grat go! Master in need!"
This development does not seem to bother Hadrian, who steps to the side to let the kobold pass.
"Wait!" You say, not wanting to simply watch the kobold run off into a potentially dangerous situation.
You think about the decision that presents itself. If Grat's dragon is really up there, and in pain, you have to wonder about the mood of such a beast, and what could possibly be giving it pain. Your party - especially yourself - is not in the best of fighting conditions. You could certainly use some time to rest before exploring whatever is beyond in the inner sanctum.
However, Grat certainly seems like he's eager to leave, and if the dragon is in pain and needs help, then waiting and resting here will probably not be a good thing for it. You doubt Hadrian cares much about coming to the rescue of a dangerous race that has been known to treat humans as snacks, but this could be a chance to meet a real, live dragon. And potentially even help it! Or y'know, slay it, if it turns out to be an evil bloodthirsty monster.
What to do?
Option #1: You're on your last legs, with no armor, and your companions are tired and not overly enthusiastic - aside from Grat, assuming he could even be considered a companion. If you rest now, you might be fortified to face whatever else this dungeon can throw at you.
Option #2: Grat says that there's an urgent need, and it's from a dragon. Though you're on your last legs, you still want to see a real dragon, and maybe even help it out. At the very least, you don't want to just let Grat go up on his own. Your companions will surely come with if you agree to follow Grat.
Could you ever forgive yourself if you didn't heed the call to see a real dragon? You might adventure for a lifetime and never catch sight of such a magnificent beast, so you must take this opportunity, no matter what condition your body is in!
What sort of dragon might it be, you wonder with eager anticipation as you run up the steps to hurry after Grat. A Nazakan Night Terror? An Astram Blood Wing? Or perhaps something really big and mighty, whose age defied categorization?
"Ariel! Ariel, you're hurt!" Hadrian called out. You hear him sigh in exasperation behind you, and the shifting of his scale armor as he runs up the steps behind you. Elise, you presume, follows behind.
---
You arrive on a floor with narrow corridors and low ceilings, bathed only in the soft light of the glow glyphs within the walls. Many intersections and branches in the architecture litter the surroundings, turning this place into a maze. Occasionally, you see doors in the walls, made of metal with ornate handles.
Grat is scurrying forward, looking down one hallway and then the other, sniffing in the air and tilting his ears up, then darting in a direction he deems fit. You decide to follow him and ignore the rest of your surroundings, though after a while, you wonder if you'll be able to get out of this place without becoming hopelessly lost.
After a minute or so of twisting and turning through the inner sanctum, you arrive at a long hallway, littered with the bodies of dead kobolds. They look as if they have been hacked apart. The carnage and the smell is gruesome. A lone metal door stands closed at the end of the passage.
"Ariel," Elise says, rushing up beside Hadrian to keep up with you. "The book of Røse will not be here. This is a dangerous part of the vault. There are things here which were not meant to be tampered with."
"How could a dragon have come here?" Hadrian asked. "These corridors are too small for a properly grown one."
"Master is young yet. Still seeking lair." Came Grat's quick response. Your heart sinks a little, knowing then that it mustn't be one of the great dragons. But still, even a young dragon would be nice to see.
Then you hear the roar. All of you do. A mighty bellow, dampened as if by distance or some impediment. It seems to be in the direction of the door.
"That was quite loud for a little dragon," Elise remarked.
"Too loud," you say, thinking about the written accounts that you've read. Long have been the attempts to describe the voice of dragon-kind. You could only imagine such a magnificent - if angered - roar emanating from a massive beast.
"Not my master," Grat says, now a little perturbed.
"Well, we'll not stop now," you say, and move past the furtive kobold, stepping over the bodies of the dead, and reach for the handle of the door. You grip your rapier tightly as you pull the door back to reveal an amazing sight.
Firstly, you notice that the space within this vault does not make sense. Beyond the threshold is a magnificent grand balcony overlooking a cavernous underworld that could not possibly have fit within the temple as you saw it from the outside.
Secondly, you see the bodies of the dead strewn before you. More kobold bodies lay strewn across the stonework, which is inlaid with an intricate yet chaotic fractal pattern of glowing ore veins. Among these bodies, here and there, are older, larger, more skeletal human forms, dressed in the tattered robes of the Zerican priesthood. And to one side, curled in a heap with one wing horribly torn to bloodied shred, lays the body of a dead young dragon, grey-blue in color, with bony brass plates upon its forehead and dorsal column. A few seconds later, when Grat peeps his head through, you will hear the anguished cry of a servant that has lost its master.
Thirdly, and most terrifying of all, you see what lies at the precipice of the balcony, and the great conflagration that looms above it. A green crystal surrounded in an aura of power lies embedded in the stone floor of the balcony. This aura extends upwards, forming a sphere above it many times its size, perhaps 50 feet in radius. The sphere ripples with this green energy, which you could only think must be balefire - the flames of hell itself. Your presumption is supported by the demonic figure that is seen floating within the sphere, with goat's horns on its head, a muscular humanoid body, grand leathery bat-like wings, and vicious claws.
The devil is not alone, and you perceive now where the great roar must have come from, and the reason that Grat, with his keenly attuned ears, must have mistaken it for his own draconic master. For dragon it was, and mighty was it in appearance, even as it suffered in the infernal grip of its diabolical circumstance.
The demon had sundered its body, ripped well the scales of its flesh away to expose ruined muscle and draconic vitals. The dragon, a gleaming silver and crimson beast, roared with agony as its tormentor ran its nails down the tortured flesh. The demon's eyes however did rise up to look squarely at you and your party entering the balcony, and its smile of unholy delight was chilling.
"By Jorn!" Hadrian said, stepping to the fore, his longsword at the ready and his shield hefted before him.
"This vault has been opened before us!" Elise said. "There would have been many wards! Impossible to break open by force and deadly to magical tampering. This is a secret that was meant to stay hidden, we should not have been able to reach here!"
The devil said something in a dark tongue that no mortal should ever hear. You feel your body and spirit weaken just at the sound of it and are forced to drop to one knee. Elise as well begins to sink downward, but she clutches at her holy symbol and mutters a chant for a divine ward. You see the holy symbol glow, and with a struggle, the priestess rises back to her feet. Hadrian, though he grimaces in obvious pain, refuses to be cowed by the voice and steps forward, towards the dark sphere.
"What is this thing?!" You shout over the echoes of the devil's spoken spell.
"It is a gateway," Elise says, with an impressive touch of serenity in her voice. It would appear her goddess had answered her prayer for warding. "It's use and its creation is a secret that must not be shared, but it is ancient and we are in severe danger."
You hear the dragon bellow and struggle, which halts the devil's spell. You see the wounded drake snap its jaws at the devil and almost connect with the infernal creature before it stops focusing on your party and returns to keeping the dragon immobilized by its incantations of pain. With the barest of waves, the demon causes the green crystal beneath it to glow intensely and then belch forth a cloud of energy that coalesces into a humanoid shape.
You see before you a minor devil, armored in thick leathery hides and armed with two serrated bone spurs that emerge from its forearms and act as swords.
"My master bids thee welcome, mortals! More souls to feed our armies!"
"Silence devil! And to hell with you!" Comes Hadrian's reply as he charges forward.
"Rrrraaaghh!" The devil bellows its battle cry and launches itself on a collision course with the paladin.
You realize that this scenario could end up very poorly for all of you. You came expecting dragons, not demons. Certainly, Elise's words have bothered you, and you believe that you have discovered what caused the doom and silence at the Southern Zerican Temple, but you are having doubts about whether or not you will live to tell this tale!
In the precious half second you have, you think about your situation. The devil looks like a match for Hadrian, and you know the paladin is slightly wounded. Elise was showing signs of fatigue, but if she can maintain her goddess' favor, she might be able to support Hadrian well enough. How should you intervene?
Choose one:
1. Try moving into a flanking position on the minor devil and stick him with your rapier. It will probably see Hadrian as the biggest threat, you hope.
2. Stay back and play your flute to weave a magical song that will make Hadrian's strikes more powerful. (Danger that your magic will go out of control.)
3. Stay back and play a song of healing on Hadrian, hoping to counteract any damage that might come to him. (Danger that your magic will go out of control.)
4. Stay back and play a song of healing on the dragon within the gateway. (Danger that your magic will go out of control and you might draw unwanted attention.)
5. Suggest an interesting course of action. (Describe it.)
It took me a few hours to read the whole story from start to finish, but it was worth it - the story is a lot of fun!
Anyway, I vote 4. Hopefully it will be enough to help the dragon lend a hit on the boss demon. And if said boss happens to focus on Ariel - well, that means he won't be as focused on the dragon, leaving him vulnerable...
It took me a few hours to read the whole story from start to finish, but it was worth it - the story is a lot of fun!
Anyway, I vote 4. Hopefully it will be enough to help the dragon lend a hit on the boss demon. And if said boss happens to focus on Ariel - well, that means he won't be as focused on the dragon, leaving him vulnerable...
