Gameplay - The Dragon That Opposed an Empress

"Now now, lets not be hasty. What exactly...stands out?"

He says, "Most hobs speak the Common tongue, and also the language of Goblins. I can't help you there. Try not to attract too much attention and maybe no one will ask you who you were in Goblin."

To Ruby, he says, "There is the dark race of gnomes, the Snirfneblin, and the gray dwarves, though they're bigger than you Ratfolk. Probably others, but I haven't studied them all."

To Ruby all those choices seem rather unique. But only one had horns, which Ruby always thought were nifty in their own way. "I would like to be...a kobold, seems the smartest, definitely."

Rocking her new look, Mavis primps her bob.

When the conversation turns to language she offers:
Eeeee ah'll be reet. Ent no bugger understands owt from this cek oyle anyow.
Reckon ma common'll be 'ard nuff for them cloth eared wazzocks.

The wizard takes your requests, asks you details about size and coloring, and so forth, then casts a spell. You are instantly transformed into your chosen "evil" humanoid races.

Describe yourselves, please.

Garth shimmers and changes into a hobgoblin. Six feet tall and about 185 pounds of muscle. His skin is a dark reddish orange. He is wearing a breast plate and has a crossbow. The silver brand on his palm is no longer visible, but he can feel it, that must be another reassuring sign from his God.

Nice job.

His voice is a guttural growl.

Short for a Hobgoblin, Mavis would stand at 5’ 6" if she wore heels. Her soft brown eyes replaced by piercing ice blue in light yellow sclera. Her bob remains, now covering the suggestion of horns, coupled with deep red skin and a natural sneer suggest a heritage of the hobgoblin iron shadow - their secret police. Her sly graceful movement remains, but instead of a crouching padding lope Mavis now darts on her tiptoes.

Ruby goes into far too much detail as she imagines her scaly alter-ego. She asks for 'average' height, gray-ish reptilian skin, amber eyes, those 'spike-scale things; adorn her body, and she has lean muscle not unlike her own. One detail she forgot about was the lack of hair, so that'll have to go; luckily her new tail and black horns make up for it, and she constantly pokes at them. Her apparel is similar to her own, but she does request a harem skirt, citing how comfortable and flexible they looked.

"Guesss I'm a dragon now too, hehe." She jokes, her snakelike tongue emphasizing all uses of the letter 's'

Hesh speaks so quickly he almost cuts Ruby off. "No! No you are not. " He then takes a look at his hands. They are uncommonly slender were before they were thick and they are a sickly green color. His scales are slick and green. Muscle in strange places power his movement as he examines himself. Involuntarily he tastes the air with his tongue and swishes his tail. He cocks his head to eyeball the party with a yellow eye. The head cock is mandatory: his eyes are on either side of his head now. "Thisss will take ssome getting ussed to."

The days flight across the desert is exhausting, the sun blasting your with unbearable heat. You maintain a close formation with Hehsh, who is the focus of a spell from the wizard Kolrya Honalmire which protects those nearby from succumbing to the heat. When you stray too far, the hotblooded hippogriffs immediately begin to flag, losing strength and altitude.

After the long day, you arrive at the Sharkfin Mountains, huge slabs of slate pushed into the sky by some ancient cataclysm. You climb out of the lowland desert high into the mountainous air, and the temperature drops remarkably. When you camp that evening, your mounts shivering from exhaustion and the cold, you make a fire in a shallow chasm, but the flames seem to provide little heat.

When Mordenth arrives from scouting, he uses his flame breath to heat a rock face, and things seem brighter after. You cook a small meal over your meager fire, and Mordenth lays the rest out for you.

"From here you walk. Hippogriffs are a delicacy and would be slaughtered for meat. Let us not subject the loyal beasts to such a fate. You will descend into the empire by a path, it will be obvious to find. This will take you to a mining outpost, and then to the highway south. You may need to fight to prove yourselves.

We are close to the army. To the northern capital, Ashenfall, a once abandoned orcish citadel that now is a city of the Vermillion Reavers and the Empire. You will need to infiltrate Ashenfall, avoid becoming slaves, find Veringvox, and if you can free him. If you need my help, call for it, but if I show up, every spear in the empire will turn toward us and it will be a close thing. I will be watching little ones. Fare well."

The following morning, you make your way down. It is a rough path, but soon you come upon a road of sorts, a switchback down to the mountain plateau below. You find yourself in the afternoon at the mining town, built along a set of stepped caves with only a few stone free-standing buildings. Rough characters, bugbears and orcs and goblins mostly, move sledges of rock and other goods from the surrounding mines into town. You find a tavern, carved into naked dark gray rock, but a rowdy crew of bugbears hang outside. When they see your band, they grow silent. Watching, predatory, uncertain.

Ruby is at this point no stranger to people attempting to 'size her up'. She does not falter in her approach (Although she will let Garth go first), deciding to try and discern just what these toughies are planning. "They were so loud just a minute ago. You think they're gonna try to haze us?" She whispers. They wouldn't try to start a fight would they?

Fear is weakness here. he whispers.

Garth doesn't slow down or give the bugbears a second look as he leads the group into the bar.

Ruby follows after, realizing it is their group who are the big-shots. "Hey Mavis, stare down one of them on the way in." She whispers, feeling rather deviant. Bad to the bone, that's me.

Mavis slows, then stops, staring into the eyes of the closest bugbear with her ice blue irises.
What's tha chunterin' on, tha saft ha'p'orth? Hmm? Nowt?

She allows her form's natural sneer to become a smile. It's weird how a hobgoblin smile is even colder than their sneer.

She awaits a response.

The bugbear snarls in response, but move away from the door a bit giving you more space to get to the tavern. His buddies do the same.

Mavis swaggers in, giving the bugbear an imperious sideways glance.

She does so whilst wondering whether listening to Ruby’s peer pressure is a wise long term strategy.

Hehsh will give a very reptilian snarl at the bugbear. There is much hissing. the snake tongue flicks. Hehsh is very willing to fuck up ANYONE who tries to eat his best pal Beaky.

Inside, you find a few orcs sitting on benches along one wall, horned boots propped up on chairs. They're drinking from large lead steins, and telling jokes in low tones. They glare at you suspiciously when you enter.

A half-man tends bar, some devil in his lineage giving him light scales across his body and eyes that burn as flames. He looks over and places both hands I the edge of his bar counter. "Names Fisky. This is the Severed Spine. You hear for drinks, or food, or both?"