iotas

Legendary

And after about ten or so minutes, Garas comes out of the office of the Garrison Commander with a wide smile on his face.

"We have 50 wyvern knights with us, plus wyverns for each of us, if you thought riding a horse was hard, riding a wyvern is even harder!" He says to Colmaz. "They're gonna wait for us outside while we go talk with Sssalivan, if things go sour they'll burst in to save us and distract Sssalivan while we get Soulstealer, sound good, mate?"

@Claw2k11

"Sounds great, thanks! I'm not too accustomed to horseback riding, so this will definitely be a new experience for me. I just hope I don't fall off and make a fool out of myself. I think I'll spend some time working on my poison idea, and then we'll take off. Now all I need are some plants and a bathtub full of ammonia. That second part is going to be hard, though. I should probably just use water." Colmaz was sucked back into his notebook again, before looks up at Garas.

"I'll go rent us a room at whatever inn I find first. We should rest up before charging into Sssvalian's lair and starting the peace talks."

Colmaz set off, only paying half attention to the road, too lost in his thoughts. He switched between looking for an inn, and keeping his eyes firmly in his book.

Legendary

"They're miniature version of a dragon, so yes, they are strong." Garas said as they entered a small building inside the city. "Wait outside, I'll have a talk with, ok?"

@Claw2k11

"Sounds great. Thank you," said Colmaz. He was worried about talking to the guard, so he was relieved Garas was talking care of it. He passed the time by flipping through his notebook, looking over the poisons again and deciding what to do about the potions.

Legendary

She studied the picture for a moment before several water elementals spawned near the wagon and immediately started searching the forests for the plants.

The wagons went through the city gates and as soon as they did, the people glared at the gnoll as if he had done harm to them. Garas jumps out of the wagon and signals for Colmaz and Maria to do the same.

"Come on, we'll have to go to the captain of the garrison and get the men and the wyverns we need to get Sssvalian."

@Claw2k11

"Sounds good. I hope those wyverns are as strong as everyone says they are. We'll need all the help we can get."

Legendary

"Don't get ahead of yourself, my friend, he is very powerful, plus, we must always try the diplomatic route first so that we see if it is possible to avoid any needless bloodshed." Garas says. "That sounds weird coming from a gnoll warrior, right?" He asks with a chuckle.

"Can you describe this plant you want to search for?" Maria asks. "That way, I can have a few water elementals looking for them while we talk to the people inside the city."

@Claw2k11

"I suppose that's true, but I have a bad feeling Sssvalian won't be up for peaceful conflict resolution. Still, we should try!"

Turning to Maria, Colmaz flipped through his notebook until he found the sketch he was looking for. "This is Swamp Rot. It grows in marshy areas around here, especially on rotting trees and logs. Look for the white spots- that's what distinguishes it from normal Marsh Rot. If you could keep an eye out for Nightshade and Friar's Cap-" he flipped to another page to show the illustrations- "that's be awesome. Thanks, Maria."

Legendary

"Well... I see no reason as to why it wouldn't be possible." Maria says looking curiously at him. "Though we'd first have to cause a open wound, I mean he is weak against water and ice, but his scales are really tough, but, yeah, I could do it!" She says, a small smile popping up on her face.

@Claw2k11

"Alright!" said Colmaz, clapping his hands together. He was surprised to see the display of emotion from Maria, but he was glad he saw it.

"I think I'll focus my attention on trying to make a whole lot of poison! It's going to be hard, especially without a lab, and I'll need a whole lot of Swamp Rot, but I think I'll be able to do it!"

He looked back to his book excitedly. "We're going to beat this dragon," he said.

Legendary

"Well, Elder Dragon or not, Sssalivan is a fire dragon, so he will be damaged by poisons and will be weak against fire magic, but then again, he's huge, so we'll have to be careful about his fire breath. Lucky me that I packed some ice runes!" Garas grinned.

"We could also try asking Hiraldor for help..." The water priestess said. "I mean he's one of the six dragons that have been protecting humanity from other dragons. Plus he's a ice dragon."

"I wouldn't count on that, plus even of he is nearby, we have no way of signaling him to get here to help us."

As they talked, Colmaz could see the large walls of Towar in the distance, it wouldn't be long before they would get to the city.

@Claw2k11

As he watched Towar come into view, Colmaz felt an idea forming.

"Maria, if against all odds I find a way to brew a ridiculous amount of poison, would you be able to somehow mix it into your magic? Sort of like those ice spears you used on the murlocs earlier, but I mix a magic poison into the water you use. I figure... If I could somehow combine frost lichen into a liquid nightshade base..."

Now, Colmaz was just mumbling to himself and frantically flipping through his notebook, completely lost in thought. He looked up after a while.

"Could you do it?"

Legendary

<Snipped quote by iotas>

"Well, Sssalivan is immensely powerful if he managed to defeat the Avatars of Death and Evil by himself, after all, he is one of the four Elder Dragons. Anyway, we should see if we can solve it peacefully, if not, I'm sure the garrison of Towar is willing to let us borrow some soldiers and wyverns to take Sssalivan down." Garas explains. "About the alchemists... the people of Towar are quite adverse to alchemy and magic, saying they're the work of evil, so I'm not sure about your potion problem."

@Claw2k11

"Oh, I wasn't aware of that," said Colmaz, a little annoyed. He was counting on that lab. "I guess we'll just have to hope my current stock is enough. I don't know much about this Sssvalian character, so we'll definitely be relying on the garrison a lot. I'm not sure how much help I'll be in the fight against him, either. I suppose it'd be too lucky for an Elder Dragon to have a convient weakness to Mugroot poisoning, wouldn't it?"

These realizations bothered Colmaz. Up until now, he was optimistic about his search, but reality was starting to weigh on him.

Legendary

"Well, it's the least we could do for saving us!" The man said. "Just get into one of the wagons and we'll be off!" He said with the same weary smile.

For a moment the priestess stared at Colmaz as if she could read his thoughts, but she soon stares towards the sky with a empty look.

The gnoll just puts his hand on Colmaz' shoulder and says:

"Don't beat yourself over her, only Lord Morias knows what's up with her." He says. "Though she does have rare moments when she shows emotions."

@Claw2k11

"Thanks for the advice, Garas. At least we can stop walking," said Colmaz, hoisting himself into a wagon and smiling at the traders. He motioned for the gnoll and the priestess to follow him.

"So, what's our plan once we get to the city? I'm thinking we spend a while getting information about Sssvalian. We can check around the inns and pubs. Maybe he has a weakness we can exploit. Anyway, a city like Towar is bound to have an alchemist's lab somewhere that I can use. I've got a few poisons and potions in mind for our fight. What do you think we should do?"

Legendary

"Well, sorry to say that we only have 300 gold coins to spare, as for where were headed, we're going towards the city of Towar close to the Dragonstone mountains, where Sssalivan the Terror resides. The road to the town has gotten dangerous thanks to the war and the fact that the occasional platoon from the non-human armies manages to sneak through the front and wreak havoc around the city!" He answered. "Though we should be close now, and the road towards the city should be somewhat safe from here as lord Morias deposited about 3000 soldiers and 500 mercenaries, hired with his own money to garrison the city and patrol around for any enemies."

"We should head there first, those 3500 soldiers will help us pry the universal weapon Soulstealer from Sssalivan's hands." The priestess said with no traces of emotion in her voice.

@Claw2k11

The priestess didn't seem to be a very passionate person, from what Colmaz could tell. Actually, she didn't seem to have any emotion at all. Still, her advice was sound, and he decided to follow it.

"Lord Morias seems to be a very generous sort of man," said Colmaz wryly. "Mind if we get a ride to Towar with your caravan?"

Legendary

The gnoll just grinned and charged right in the midst of the hobgoblins, taking them by surprise. The kobold geomancers attempted to lift stones and chuck them at the gnoll, but before they could, two of the five kobolds were impaled by ice spears, forcing the others on the defense.

Mixed with Colmaz' crossbow fire, the hobgoblins sounded the retreat leaving the kobolds alone. Realizing that their allies left them, the kobolds also beat a hasty retreat.

Moments later, a wounded man wearing leather armor and armed with a longsword comes towards the group, a weary smile on his face.

"My good friends, me and any people left alive in this caravan owe you our lives! This is the fourth ambush these buggers made, the roads aren't safe to travel anymore if you're a human.

The man shakes his head. "But nevermind that, how can we reward you?"

@Claw2k11

"Oh, whatever coin you could spare would do just fine! Barring that, might we be able to hitch a ride with your caravan, depending on where you're headed? Protection from bandits might not be so bad for your business. We're awfully tired of walking."

Colmaz felt kind of bad, shaking them down like this, but he was in a hurry to find one of the Weapons before someone else got their hands on it. He doubted that he could get it from a real mercenary. Time was of the essence.