Dominion: Session 7
General Summary
Diplomacy at Riverford
The forces of the dominion made for the human settlement of Riverford, a small town that had grown up around a convenient bridge across the Srydari River. Along the way, it became clear from pillaged Bracaran villages that the goblins had also passed through this way. At Riverford, the dominion finally set aside its stealthy approach, entering the village with full fanfare and dragon-kites openly flying. A guard met Nazgul at the front of the forces, and after a brief talk, led them all to the bridge, where a small man was standing, flanked by a man and a woman with weapons. He introduced himself as Acacius, the "patron of Riverford." While Mursili subtly positioned the forces to be better-defended in the case of an ambush, it quickly became clear that the man was no threat and was merely attempting to leverage the dominion's arrival to improve his standing. Damira, through Nazgul, struck a vague deal in which Riverford would facilitate future trade with Bracara, via their bridge, in exchange for unchallenged crossign now; it cost nothing in the moment, but left Acacius looked thrilled that he'd been the first Bracaran to strike a deal with the new dragon.The Ancient Leviathan
The kobolds of the Crashing Waves tribe met the arriving dominion in the streets, looking somber but very prepared to travel. The leaders of the tribe—Chief Brown-Eyed Dilnaza, Ruddy Karlygash the historian, and Tireless Dasha the shaman—hastily pulled the dominion leadership aside to brief them on the situation: all of the fish had vanished, and the tribe was nearly out of food. Such a thing had happened before, Ruddy Karlygash explained, during the dominion of Zhanat. Zhanat, in the prime of his life, had flown out to sea and done battle with some form of great sea monster, either killing it or wounding it badly enough to cause it to flee; with its defeat, the fish had returned. Dilnaza emphasized that every kobold in the tribe was willing to leave and follow Damira today, but without a source of food, even the nesting and hatching would have to come along, which would likely cause the dominion to run out of supplies before making it back to the Stone Cradle. After confering with Mursili, Nazgul, and Qazir, Damira resolved to slay the sea monster rather than evacuate the tribe. Provided with the Buoyant Step ritual by Tireless Dasha, they began to scout and strategize. Qazir sent Doddering Nergul and Deliberate Ulmeken with gliders to scout as far out to sea as they were able; Ulmeken fell short, but Nergul pushed the limits of safety and saw a blue hole in the ocean floor, as well as glimpses of a tentacled creature far below. Determining their advantage relied on keeping it out of the depths, the kobolds and caryatids armed themselves with harpoons, nets, and ropes. Carefully, they made their way out to sea, with kobolds in boats performing the ritual to allow other kobolds to stride across the waves, and the caryatids simply trudging along the seafloor. Once in position, Mursili launched a small boat full of skaya over the top of the blue hole, then pulled a rope to capsize it; the floundering skaya proved effective bait for the submerged kraken, which began to clamber up the walls of its lair toward the surface.Again, I'm going to paste Joe's summary of this excellent fight here, returning to it to flesh it out some other time.
- Qazir used his Ramshackle Inventions stunt to make a bunch of Hooked Nets that would bind up the kraken and hook it in. He and the Salted Earth tribe flew around on gliders casting harpoons and nets.
- Nazgul and the Crashing Waves tribe were out there on boats, doing similar things - firing arrows and binding tentacles.
- Mursili and the other golems stood by on the sea floor to grab ropes and haul them in; Mursili set up some large rocks to use as leverage and make sure none of the golems got dragged into the pit
- If that did happen, we would have basically no way of getting them back up
- Damira hovered directly above the creature as it emerged, used the Beguiling Gaze stunt to hypnotize and distract it as it came up.
- Various tentacles emerged, we bound some of them and the golems started hauling the creature up.
- As the kraken's head emerged, Damira dove down and gored it in the eye with a harpoon
- Qazir followed up with more of his hooked nets for another huge hit
- The kraken spat corrosive ink at Damira for severe harm; she fell back, and it came to Qazir to do the final blow. He crash-landed on the kraken's body, and tossed the ingredients for his in-progress napalm solution down the creature's throat; it reacted with the ink and burst into flame, killing the kraken.
- Everyone, including Michael, was completely out of fate points by the end of the fight
Quick Notes
Rewards Granted
- A "trade deal" with Acacius/Riverford.
- The Buoyant Step ritual.
- Obtained kraken remains, from which Qazir was able to harvest ink for his napalm.
Clocks
Projects
- [3/4] Training Petros and the caryatids to fight alongside kobolds.
- Mutual Respect for the Underfoot Kobolds (HC)
- Works Great in Theory (T)
- [4/6] Creating napalm.
- Sticky, Burning Substance (HC)
- Still Too Weak a Flame (T)
Other
- [7/8] Bracaran Awareness of Damira
- [4/6] Acathan Awareness of Damira
Missions/Quests Completed
- Recruited the Crashing Waves Tribe
- Slew the ancient kraken that Zhanat had wounded centuries ago.
Character(s) interacted with
Newly Introduced
- Acacius, patron of Riverford.
- Brown-Eyed Dilnaza, chieftain of the Crashing Waves tribe.
- Ruddy Karlygash, their historian.
- Tireless Dasha, their shaman.
- Deliberate Ulmeken, another of Qazir's apprentices.
Recurring
- Zhanat (mentioned—he's been dead a while).
- Doddering Nergul, who scouted the kraken on the glider.
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