>>5333328
>Not if you can't answer these questions
first off questions before we say anything like yes or no.
1.) Is this safe? Magic is kind of random without a system like how the arch-mages stuff, and what she plans on drinking is concentrated magic.
2.) I dont know how much medical knowledge Reynauld knows about the body, but if you like exercise a lot you build new cells and muscles, replace dead or weak cells or something. Does that mean if Reynauld carbs up and work out for hours, would he slowly become more draconic due to building up more dragon cells and replacing human cells?
3.) Anymore bottles she managed to grab? I recall we did in fact grab a bunch of the magical stuff Ogg left behind.
4.) Does she know if there will be any side effects?
5.) How awkward will the family reunion will be when she come visits her family? (Banter to lighten the mood)

On a side note for later, can Reynauld fuck around with a gold coin to see if he can do his own enchanting? Maybe melt 1 rosarian in his blue flame and coat a spare knife with it to see if something happens?
Can he train his magic I guess?

>>5333328
She should start very slowly. Like one sip, and wait a few days to see what happens. Magic isn't a race.
>>5333342
Good questions.

>>5333328
Backing >>5333342 and>>5333380. I mean, I'm the one that wrote that piece last thread so I'd be a hypocrite saying 'no' outright.

I mean I want them to dragon up anyway I'm just trying to get Reynauld a bit more comfortable with it so whatever.

>>5333342
Seems sensible. Supporting, though the fitness questions can wait for later.

>>5333328
>Not if you can't answer these questions
Will you be okay looking fundamentally different?
Will your family be okay with this and, if not, how will that make you feel?
Are you really okay with being, essentially, a wizard?
Are you sure there will be no side-effects you can't deal with, physically or mentally?

Also, doctor turned lover? Have these two even done more than kiss and cuddle a little?

>>5333402
>Will your family be okay with this and, if not, how will that make you feel?
Interesting question. She's a literal princess, but she also ran away from them.

>>5333328
Just because someone has to say it
>Absolutely not!
We're trying to stop these transformations, have been this entire time. Speeding it up is approximately the exact opposite of what we're trying to achieve. Not to mention that pouring what's basically liquid mana down your gullet has "Bad Plan" written all over it, resistance or no resistance.

>>5333460
Booooo

>>5333460
I mean, you're not wrong...

...but I wanna dragon. The longer this goes on the harder it is to even pretend like I DON'T wanna dragon.

>>5333328
>If you think it's best...

>>5333328
>>Absolutely not!

and

>>5333342
support

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Commissioned fanart incoming, btw. Give it a week.

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>>5333736
Mfw

Paracelsus this is a horrible idea

>>5333328
>Absolutely not!
This is beyond retarded

>>5333328
>Absolutely not!
Yeeeeaaaah this sounds like a terrible idea
What did Og do to that dragon curse spirit before she shoved it back into the doctor.....

>>5333965
>>5333916
>>5333564
>>5333460
It's a great idea we just have to make sure she takes it slow

>>5333982
Just to point it out because I've been in another quest recently that had this happen: Link to the prompt if you do support it otherwise it might not count.

>>5333985
Ok that's probably a good call anyway. I'm swapping through IDs a lot on the road but I'm trying not to cheat.
>>5333328
>>If you think it's best...
As a general principle
>>5333342
>>Not if you can't answer these questions
Same questons. Also only a small sip to start with.

>>5333328
>Tom-8-ooo's finally gets included
He is a very good boy.

Can we make our own enchanted weapons? This is gonna sound stupid, But I think Reynauld should stick one other human hand in a fire so it turns draconic, then try to coat his sword in gold for some sweet sweet enchantments.

>>5333328
>>If you think it's best... I assume you've thought this very throughly.

>>5333328
>>5333342
Support

>>5333736
Based and dragon pilled.

>>5333328
Is it possible to sell mimic spit?

>>5333328
>If you think it's best...

Purposefully turning into a fucking overgrown lizard-thing sounds like a *great* idea. Just wonderful. There's no way drinking FUCKING FALLOUT could *EVER*, *EVER* end badly, right?

But noo, gotta have my stupid scaly fantasies of turning into an animal.

>>5334465
Kobolds are closer to dragons, and therefore superior.

>>5334466
No, it is not. Being a kobold is okay. Drinking the magical equivalent of Radioactive Waste when it's a known fact that magic fucks you up is an beyond fucking retarded ide

>>5334467
Fair point. I read too much into "fucking overgrown lizard-thing" and assumed you were just passing by the thread to shit on kobolds.
I mean, I'm still in favor of letting her (she has done some research on the topic, and ought to know the dangers), but it's definitely a sentiment of "I won't stop you" rather than "it's a good idea."

>>5334473
>girlfriend is about to do something spectacularly retarded
>"i know it's not a good idea but i won't stop you"
"Research" says that it's perfectly safe to swim in an Nuclear Cooling Pool, but you don't see me going for a dip, do you?

>>5334475
That metaphor actually hurts your point - that's not just skepticism, it's outright paranoia.
>vast majority of people measuring it agree that the marked line is the correct place to cut a piece of wood
>"Ah, but have you considered that my gut says what if it's the wrong place to cut?"

You look her square in the eyes, and you make sure to all but rip off your helmet. She needs to see you, properly.
"Paracelsus. I'm going to ask you several questions. And if you can't answer even ONE of them, this is not continuing. Am I clear?" You say, not hiding the fact that you're perhaps a little angry about this.
Though, mostly worried.
Paracelsus unflinchingly nods, and says: "Shoot."
"Fine. First question. Obvious one, at that: Is this safe? You're about to drink uncontrolled magic fallout! This doesn't sound safe, now does it!?"
"The main issues that arise when coming into contact with his amounts of magic is the brain damage. As it stands, we stand immune to it, likely due to being able to expel or even absorb it in ways a human body cannot. I've done some basic tests with some of the flowers in Wulven territory. Made a cocktail, ingested it... and suffered no ill effects. By all accounts, this is safe. Not for anything else in the world, but for both of us? We're safe."
You... suppose that's an answer, and it's started from an earlier test. She's not just jumping into this from a medical perspective, at least. That said:
"Alright... Related to this, as an... alternative, perhaps. You work out a lot, and I've learned some of my basics. Building muscle is essentially tearing down your body and letting it rebuild, correct?"
"Indeed. I've already noticed that I've been packing on more muscle, recently. That's why you're asking, I'm assuming?"
You hadn't noticed that she's been getting stronger, but then again, she always wears those robes. As if reading your thoughts, however... She begins to remove several clasps and her belt... Before flipping off her robes and revealing her body to you.

...Yes. She is most certainly bigger. The way her (lacy and still expensive) underwear has been adjusted several times also seems to indicate that. Her panties, particularly, have suffered clear damage. No big surprise there, considering how much muscle is packed along there. In a sense, it actually pushed away the very lean quality she had. She's still lean, obviously, but there is something else there.
A certain thickness that you've never seen in another woman, that proves itself to be... very alluring.
Your leering must unfortunately direct itself back to business:

You can tell that she's progressed a little further than you did in the same amount of time. Her thighs have even developed some more of those golden scales, and when she twists herself around a moment, you see that there is a trail of scales all along her back, following her spine.
"There is progress, yes. But I'll likely not gain anything useful before we reach Mother Mountain. The fire breath, magical abilities, general resistance to damage, strength... there's much to be gained."
Her reasoning is something you already figured out, and you don't get into countering it. You know that SHE knows that she's very capable even without this dragon stuff.
"Is that the only bottle?"
"Yes. I didn't dare carry more. I didn't put it into Chester, either, because I fear it might cause trouble with the poor creature's digestive system. If it burst... I'm not sure it would survive."
"So you care for Chester's digestion. And your own? Any side effects you're accounting for?"
"No. Nothing beyond what is expected, at any rate. The bottle is sealed, so it did not turn stale, nor was it contaminated with anything I cannot deal with. The gold particles are not something to regularly eat, by any stretch of the imagination, but a glass? One can drink a glass."
You sniff, and give her another look, but she meets it fearlessly.
"Nothing will go wrong. The worst that may happen is that I may begin to replace my lungs. We have already learned how to handle that through painkillers and... keeping a bucket for the chunks. It will happen eventually, best to get it over with quickly."

You remember that particular part of the adventure... It's not something you'd wish on anybody.
If this makes it go faster, however... you get it. So, you keep asking questions.
"And say that something DOES go wrong-" You are interrupted:
"Nothing will go wrong." She says, but you keep asking:
"IF it goes wrong, just in case... Are you prepared for that? The mental and physical ramifications? Are you ready to potentially suffer over a mistake?"

Paracelsus looks away with that question.
"...I am. The physical effects, we are accounting for. Eventual mental effects...if they would happen, that is...I'll have you here to keep me grounded, as my body and thus my brain adapts."

So she's putting the responsibility on you, then?

"And if I'm not available? What if I make a mistake? Are you certain you want to hand me that much power?"
She smiles, and seats herself in a more comfortable position.
"There's nobody else I'd trust more. And, I must repeat... there will be no mental effects."

Okay.
Final few questions.
"You're fine with being a wizard?"
"Archmage. And... while I have my misgivings about using magic for everything, it is too powerful a tool to ignore." She says. Still confident.

Alright, then the final parts.
"Are you alright with looking different? Fundamentally different, at that?"
"Yes. I'll be joining you, won't I? And I saw you looking... Clearly this isn't entirely unappealing to you." She says, grinning... biting her lower lip as she leers right back.

Hell's bells.

"And... what about your family? How will that turn out when you return to them?"
She scoffs:
"HAH! All the more reason to do it! Do I seem like somebody that would want to be some political pawn!? I hope it angers them. Hell, I hope they seethe about it for the rest of their days while I make the world a better place!"

Well. That's that then. She answered every question.
"...Could I at least convince you to start small?" You ask, and Paracelsus arcs an eyebrow.
"Just a sip, you mean?" She asks, and you nod.
"...I could do that, yes. Not a problem. Likely safer."

>Allow her to proceed

>Stop her.

>>5334475
I would do exactly that if they were willing to let me into that part of the facility.

>>5334496
>>Allow her to proceed
Yeah let's do this.

>>5334496
>Allow her to proceed

>>5334496
>Stop her.
This is a bad idea, but it's not like anyone will hear me. You people would let Reynauld turn into Smaug, if you had the choice.

>>5334520
No, because Smaug is a lazy goober. I'd let him turn into Smaug with a meth addiction and a to-do list.

>>5334496
>Allow her to proceed

>>5334520
Do you imagine Sarah will take well to her new, trustworthy boyfriend being like "hey, answer all my questions or I'll stop you", then she answers them, and then he's like "fuck it, stopping you anyway, I don't trust you or your reasoning skills"?

>>5334533
It's a retarded idea no matter what you say

>>5334496
>>Allow her to proceed

>>5334551
Stay salty, I guess.

>>5334496
>Stop her.

>>5334496
>Allow her to proceed.

>>5334496
>Allow her to proceed.

>>5334520
>You people would let Reynauld turn into Smaug, if you had the choice.
They're not doing a very good job, though. Here, watch this.

>>5334496
>Propose an alternative course of action
If we absolutely have to speed up someone's transformation, it should be Reynauld's, not Paracelsus's. She has next to no combat training, even with the draconic upgrades she's bound to be not that useful in the coming confrintation with Ogg and her followers. In the long term, it would be better to maximize Reynauld's potential, as he stands to gain both offensive and defensive capabilities and aerial mobility. Plus, this way Paracelcus gets to further her research into the transformation beyond what she's already seen before she gets too far ahead.

In all honesty, I don't see Reynauld actually going through with this, more he'd bring this up as a "see, this is the choice you're forcing ME to make" argument to stop Paracelsus, but I'd still like to see how she'd react.

>>5334496
>>Stop her.

this vote is obviously going a certain way, but I will make my voice heard regardless. I see this as a mistake one we will live to regret, but democracy has spoken. The risks do not outweigh the rewards, and this is a slippery slope we are falling down.

>>5334853
I think there's more evidence pointing against your argument than for it.

>>5334903
The argument being "I want to turn into a dragon"

>>5334927
It's a pretty good argument. In any case, Celsie is an adult who can make her own decisions, especially when I happen to agree with them. Also, THICK DRAGON THIGHS.

>>5334930
>Celsie is an adult who can make her own decisions
As her boyfriend, we should be helping her *not* make retarded decisions
>Thick dragon thighs
She's not going to have thighs or abs once she turns into an lizard. In fact, she'll probably loose her tiddies too. Lizards don't have tiddies.

>>5334947
Thighs are pretty universal across like, every animal with legs.

>>5334950
Not the kind of thigh that people like - and before you say
>But she's just going to turn into a tall kobold!!!
She has strictly expressed desire to turn into a literal dragon, the giant four stories tall lizard that flies kind, and by letting her drink this there is no way to go back.

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>>5334957
>She has strictly expressed desire to turn into a literal dragon, the giant four stories tall lizard that flies kind, and by letting her drink this there is no way to go back.
There was already no way to go back. The only way out is through. In any case that's still a long term issue. The short term goal is bringing her up to Reynauld's current level, more or less, and she's agreed to take it slowly enough that we can still control for unwanted side effects.

>>5334974
>There was already no way to go back.
The only reason we're on a path to turning into an complete lizard is because of people actively cheering for it. Just like you are, right now.

>>5334957
Pretty sure she actually said:
>d Ogg's notes clearly show that it would plateau when we are more akin to... Well, a very large kobolt, or just a dragon-like humanoid, I suppose.
She never said she wants to be a gigantic quadruped.

>>5335014
She literally said it last thread that she wanted to go full dragon, fly over the sea, all the stuff.

>>5335015
Did she? I just did a scan through last thread and couldn't find anything regarding that. Where did she mention it?

>>5335021
Shortly before reynauld had a gamer moment and admitted he burned his family on the stake because of the curses.

>>5335027
I genuinely can't find either situation in the last thread. Was it one before last?

>>5335044
It's close to the end of the thread

>>5335045
Huh. No, I can't find it. Closest I've seen is her saying:

>"I... want to be stronger. More capable. And... The idea of being closer to how you are right now is... not unappealing."

And that's not exactly defining.

>>5335060
Not that, one. It's the one where she says they'll get to fly over the ocean. You sure you're on the right thread?

>>5335064
There we are, found it. Thread 4, not 5.

Okay, I see what you mean. Seems like yeah, they expect to be humanoid for a good while, and then further in the future, not humanoid.

So kinda both.

Gonna be honest. Personally? I kinda figured they'd end up full dragon anyway, considering the future fic I wrote. So I still wanna dragon. Though I get why you don't.

No, we don't want to go full dragon and it pisses people off every time you dragon fags push for full TF. You fucks are so fixated on it that you go against Raynolds character and desire to remain human to push your shit. It sucks that you fucks are winning on this because likely it means pro-human players will leave and give you fucks more power to run this quest into the ground.

>>5335243
Die mad.

>>5335243
Your points have been considered and taken into account.

>>5335243
Lol.
Lmao.
We're not going full dragon any time soon, we're just making sure that we can best fulfill our duties as a knight errant using the means we have at our disposal. We're actually never going to be full dragon as long as we live up to our oath.
It's better that Celsie can actively manage her Dragon Tuberculosis, as well.

Anyway,
>allow her to proceed

>>5334496

>Allow her to proceed

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lmfao guys what's going in in the discussions? I'm seeing salt and vitriol getting thrown every which where. Should I be worried or something?

>>5334496
I'm just gonna trust my gut on this for now.
>Allow her to proceed

>>5335390
It's an ongoing issue with one or two vocal players who throw a hairy canary every time there are voters who don't want to play their preferred, pure human route.

>>5335688
They're useful in the sense that they force us to explicitly and precisely articulate the more cold-blooded decisions we make, even if their priorities are very silly.

>>5335390
...I cannot remember which Primarch that is and it's bugging the SHIT out of me. That's not Ferrus, is it?

>>5335719
Rogal Dorn.

>>5335722
Ah, gotcha, thanks.

>>5335716
To that end, I think it's obvious why circumstances have changed: physical, mental, and social stakes have changed.Physically, our transformation has slowed; mentally, Dreygaun is gone (for good, I hope); socially, we have a growing found family and a girlfriend who things our dragon parts are kind of hot, and who is joining us in the journey. It makes perfect sense that Reynauld MIGHT be less averse to this change than he once was. He's not going to suffer ego-death and turn into a pariah, physically and morally abhorrent, with no friends (or only twisted mockeries like Crow-Celsie).

>>5336121
This individual makes a lot of salient points.

>>5336121
Yes. Its going to be a little rough going into towns but that was going to be a problem regardless. Now that we're past the point of passing for human we can worry about getting stronger.

Rolled 33 (1d100)

Your can feel yourself grinding your teeth together, and your tail is unfortunately stomping against the wagon. The fact that you're nervous is blatantly obvious, but...
Despite that. Despite your distaste towards you cursed form...
You trust her.

"Alright... Go ahead, but no more than a sip!"
Paracelsus nods, and takes out a syringe with an absurdly long needle. She opens up the bottle, which has a twist cap to keep it secured, and then sticks the glass needle inside. You swear you can see the water twinkle as it is disturbed and pulled upwards into the syringe. Paracelsus then removes the needle, after ensuring there is enough in the plunger itself, and wipes some magic absorbant dust over it using a cloth she had at the ready. Very carefully, she moves back to her robes, digging through the pouches as they lay in a heap.
She reveals a little clay cup, and then uses the syringe to fill it up with some water. No more than a sip.

"Bottom's up." She says to herself, and in one go, she gulps the foul infested water down. You can hear her swallow loudly, and then the cup is put down.
It took no time at all for her stomach to grumble loud enough that you could hear it. Clutching her belly, Paracelsus grimaces, her eyes wide, and then you see the effects of the water take place... Rapidly.
It started with Paracelsus falling forward, her chest against the ground and her butt in the air, and with her wearing little more than her underwear, it made it blatantly obvious what was happening.

Gorgeous golden scales begin to appear around her spine, and they rapidly began to push their way out, causing a golden trail from the back of her neck all the way to her tailbone... which was also in flux. It was an ugly thing, unfortunately. Like a gross, misshapen finger, you saw her proto-tail appear, still fleshy. Like a shaved animal...
Paracelsus, meanwhile, groaned and gasped for every part of her that changed, a low growl at first as her spine was coated as it was, and a louder one when her proto-tail emerged. She sounded in pain... but with her occasional giggles and hisses, you suspect she finds it too fascinating to be truly bothered.

Then... it had a lull. It seemed to stop. Only the beginning of a tail, and scales along her back.
(cont)

"That wasn't... that wasn't that scary now, was it?" Paracelsus says, smiling. She slowly sits up straight, her rather suggestive pose not being suitable for polite company....
Only to suddenly double over in pain! She yells at first, before trying to suppress it by biting down on a piece of wood she, likely not coincidentally, had closeby.
You move closer, to try to help her, but the second you get closer, you see the new result.
It came with a spurt of blood and tearing skin... What little remained of it. Along her spine, Paracelsus was growing long, thick spines, Starting out as the biggest between her shoulderblades, and repeating itself every few inches or so, each one bubbling and swelling up through the skin before it caused said skin to burst from the point at the end of the spike.The spikes themselves were a very dark and muddy red, giving a not displeasing contrast to the golden scales.
You don't care right now, though. You just hug her tight as more and more of those spines appear, until... she had a clear line all along her back.

"...I-it's... it's over. Ahh... Thank you." She says, clearly appreciating the hug as she spat out the piece of wood she was biting on.
Along with several teeth.
Then... she clutches you tighter.
"...Say... R-reynauld?"
You say nothing, instead just keeping the hug going.
"...I don't know if it's the water or the privacy... But... How would you like to slip out of that armor and... we see what happens from there? I'm already very naked, you know.

Just as you're about to say she's still wearing underwear, her bra gives up entirely from the spines, which Paracelsus appears to have some control over. Currently, she's making them lie flat. A safer position compared to when they were standing straight up.
She took off her panties herself.

...
Well.
You do not have an oath of chastity.
---------------------------------------------------

"William, don't try to peek inside." Pink said, grabbing William by the sleeve of his tunic and pulling him away from the wagon. The boy himself had been seeing a lot of changes in himself, recently... the most telling of which is the tail that he's been trying to keep hidden, but the scales are turning into a problem.
It's so hard.
Almost anytime he thinks of the great and benevolent dragon-
NO!
Reynauld. He's thinking of Reynauld.
Every time he thinks of him, he catches himself slipping a little more. He's already lost a solid head in his height, and his feet have been feeling horrendously itchy, recently.
He already knows that he won't be walking on his heels in just a few more days. It's... already easier to rest his weight on his digits.

All the same, he is still a young boy:
"I just... wanted to see how dragons rut."
"As you can tell... Violently."

The wagon is rhythmically rocking back and forth, even though both parties muffled themselves to keep quiet, it was not hard to guess what went on in there.
Pink smilled.
...She can't wait to begin her egg-guarding duties.

You lay together with Paracelsus in the wagon, a blanket pulled over the both of you.
She snuggled up very close, and has already fallen asleep.

...Goodness.
What the hell are you getting into?
You pull her closer to yourself, noting how incredibly pleasant her spines seem to feel as you touch them. Something about the texture... and the natural heat.
You think you understand why lizards like heat so much.

You hope the roads are safe from here to the next town over.
--------------------------------------------------------

The journey from here was slow. Paracelsus agreed to wait before she would try another sip of the water, just in case. The pain of those spines might also have been enough to make her reconsider, but you suspect that won't last very long. Her curiosity will quickly outpace her body's natural distaste for pain.
You saw the first signs of trouble on the first day.

You found a ruined caravan. The cart was destroyed entirely, with a gigantic hole in the side and most of the wood burnt to charcoal.There was no horse to be found.
The people running the caravan, about five, you DID find. They were huddled together, a short distance away. Their skin and clothes had been turnt black. Something had... burnt them alive.
You wheeze when you notice two of them were clutching eachother tightly.
One being far smaller than the other.

The Grey Knight looked upon it with a steely gaze, and wondered aloud:
"What evil caused this..." She asked, but...
You sigh deeply as you already know the answer.

"That amount of damage to the cart, along with the people and the cart being burnt to a crisp. Not a single bit of value remaining... This is the work of a dragon." You say.
If anybody would know, it'd be you.
"A fledgeling dragon, at least. Guessing from the hole, it might have only left its nest a year or two ago." You say, looking at the cart's remnants. "If it let those people run, it's a sadist, as well."
Snikt then calls something out:
"BLOOD TRAIL! Snikt is a great tracker, and I found a blood trail!"
You look over to her, and... sure enough. Large splatters of blood, with plenty of distance.
The horse. The dragon must have taken it with it to eat it in its lair.

>You don't have time. Hurry to the village up ahead.

>You cannot permit this beast to live. Follow the blood trail.

>>5336380
>You cannot permit this beast to live. Follow the blood trail.

We're specifically on our way to hunt down dragons, right? Doesn't make sense to not track down THIS dragon, also.

>>5336380
They lost their humanity, no mercy for them

>>5336380
>>You cannot permit this beast to live. Follow the blood trail.
Previous distractions are one thing. But this young dragon? It's better to kill it before it grows stronger and threatens more people.

>>5336380
>You cannot permit this beast to live. Follow the blood trail.

Yeah, no.

>>5336380
>You cannot permit this beast to live. Follow the blood trail.

>>5336380
>You don't have time. Hurry to the village up ahead.
we have to be smart, yes this beast is evil, yes it needs to be purged, however we have a greater evil that is more pressing and threatening, which with every delay grows stronger, if we don't stop Ogg quickly then by the time we reach her it may already be too late for us to stop her without losing people we care for or at all.

>>5336396
I'd love to clear this dragon out, but we're on a timetable. We can't stop for EVERYTHING right now.

>>5336420
We can come cleanse this dragon in fire after. Unless we're just going to use a smidgen of BLUE DRAGONFIRE to clean it we need to get Lady Ogg.
But if we can just give it a PHTHOOOOM and be done with it, sure I guess.

>>5336430
>>5336458
How hard can it be to NOT save the day for once?

>>5336489
>dragonfire
>agaisnt a dragon

Not sure that'll work out.

>>5336380
>You cannot permit this beast to live. Follow the blood trail.
While I would be in favor for ignoring most threats, as we're in a time crunch, I'll gladly make an exception for a dragon. It's kind of our thing, anyway, and facing one will serve as good practice for the coming confrontation with Ogg's forces.

Also damn, that was, what, a week between "let's not do it just yet" and testing the wagon's structural integrity? That's normal, right?

>>5336495
Honestly? Could be. Guys are like that.

>>5336493
That's a good point. I like burning things more than most people, but if it doesn't burn we might have a problem. Still, I'm breaking halfway.
>>5336380
>>You cannot permit this beast to live. Follow the blood trail.
If its only a bit out of our way we might want to kill it. If it turns into a while thing then we should keep moving. It's good practice, and unlike the felblight the locals clearly don't have a handle on it.

>>5336380
>You cannot permit this beast to live. Follow the blood trail.

>>5336380
>You cannot permit this beast to live. Follow the blood trail.

>>5336380
>>You cannot permit this beast to live. Follow the blood trail.

I dont know about you guys, but I kinda want to adopt this dragon, but only if it's a wild one. It's probably got no parents so it'd be relatively easy to raise it?

>>5337716
That sounds like a terrible idea. I'm not opposed to it, though.

"This is unacceptable." You say, staring in the direction of the blood trail. "I'm going to go kill this monster."
The Grey Knight, predicatably, is already directing her horse in the same direction, and William and Chad both follow you as well. Snikt is also taking the lead, but...
The others remain here, for now, and Paracelsus will remain in charge.
"We'll stay here for some time. The rest of us don't have anything that could reasonably help in regards to fighting a dragon, so it seems best to leave it to you people... That said, are you sure about Chad and William?"
You look at your two squires, and nod.
"If things go right, we won't have to fight the dragon directly. It's generally not advised to attack a dragon without at least crippling its wings. And, well, we might have to send word back. So, I'm inclined to take them along."
Paracelsus just nods, and off you go.

Snikt is very quick as she follows the trail, and the Grey Knight sticks close to her on her horse. You don't have that kind of rapid transport available, but fortunately, it's not very far from the road. The amount of burnt trees and grass also makes it quite easy to track, to be fair...
Then, you find it. It seems the dragon has nestled itself in an old fortress that was likely intended to be a forward post of a long-forgotten war. With it being so far from any useful resources, it was simply abandoned and left to go to ruin. From the looks of it, it simply has a barracks, a courtyard, and about two towers... One of which has crumbled entirely on one side, though there is one thing of note.
There's a dragon tail sticking out of it. Seems it elected to use the crumbling tower as its nest. You make an educated guess as to the creature's size, and figure it's likely around... 5 meters in length, 2.5 meters in height... about 1.5 in width, though that last one can vary. It really depends on the dragon, some are leaner than others.

It's very likely that its sleeping off its large meal of an entire horse.
The fortress itself is likely to be easily accessible, but ascending a crumbling tower where a dragon is waiting at the top is... not the best tactical decision, perhaps. The brickwork looks uneven enough to allow somebody to climb it, you suppose, but that also brings one back to the part where the whole place is crumbling.

...If you intend to slay this creature, you might want to get creative.

>Sneak into its tower, and hope to get a stab at it while it sleeps

>Find a way to collapse the tower he's in
Doing that without it waking up is a challenge.

>Call out to it, and demand it fight you fairly
This is particularly stupid, but it'll get it to come to you.

>>5337788
>>Find a way to collapse the tower he's in
Empire strike back log trap.
We fell a tree a bit far away, rope it high to 4/5 nearby tree, use it as a ram to collapse tower.

>>5337788
>>Sneak into its tower, and hope to get a stab at it while it sleeps
Would we be able to blind it or cripple its wings? We can also give the tower a once over and see how close to collapse it is.
They're resistant to dragonfire, but how about their faces? If we can blind and cripple it we can also just beat a hasty retreat and the thing will solve itself later.
Don't want to give it a chance to try and curse us, either way.

>>5337796
+1

>>5337788
How strong is Reynauld "now?"

>>5337788
>Find a way to collapse the tower he's in
Climbing the tower makes even just idle movement from the dragon dangerous. And if it wakes before we cripple its wings, we're stuck on an unstable tower with a creature that could probably just take flight and bury us in rubble.

>>5337788
>>Find a way to collapse the tower he's in

>>5337788
>Call out to it, and demand it fight you fairly
This is particularly stupid, but it'll get it to come to you.

>>5337788
>Find a way to collapse the tower he's in
Could we summon a magic grenade to lob at a structural weak point?

>>5337788
>Find a way to collapse the tower he's in

>>5337970
Couldn't a dragon smell magic? If it is so, then doing that would only wake it up.
>Sneak into its tower, and hope to get a stab at it while it sleeps

>>5337788
>>Find a way to collapse the tower he's in

>>5337796
+1

>>5337788
>Find a way to collapse the tower he's in
Once it's down we should rush in and cripple one of it's wings with the shotgun if it can still fly, we can try to blast it's wing bones or maybe shred the membrane. We're fucked if it gets airborne so let's make sure it doesn't. It's a shame we don't have any explosives we should see if we can't buy some at that dwarven city later, I'm sure those alcoholic manlets will have something that'll turn Ogg's face into a pile of bloody chunks.

God it took a while to catch up. Liking the quest so far.

I cant wait to loot its horde, but is anyone else wondering why the dragon didnt choose to kill and eat the human as well? Why only the horse? Did the humans run away to hide?

"We need to collapse the beast's tower... Maybe we could chop a tree, use it as a battering ram?" You say, but the Grey Knight quickly goes against the idea:
"No. Dragons seem like heavy sleepers to me, but I doubt it wouldn't notice us bashing a tree against its tower. The noise would be terrible, and I couldn't even guarantee any progress... The fortress is crumbling, yes, but bashing the tower at ground floor is perhaps a bit much."
Hmm.
Her arguments are sound, that's for sure. However, Chad is able to propose something:
"So we head inside. Human forts have a lot of wood, and we can look for loose bricks." He says, thinking very hard as he strokes his scaly little chin. William,not to be outdone, adds in:
"We could even burn some of the support beams! It'll give us time to leave before it collapses, right?" he says, looking at you expectantly. You suppose he's hoping for a compliment of sorts... Though he seems to realize something,and then shakes his head, looking away from you.
The curse is clearly affecting him, but at least he's fighting it, for now.

You nod, though.
"It's a good plan, people. That said, if things go wrong,we should be prepared. We can use the fortress against it. The stonework will defend us against the dragonfire... Or force it to crawl after us. It might just flee, however, so it's not ideal."
You think for a moment longer... and take out the shotgun. These two barrels should be able to stop this creature from running, at least...
"I noticed... It's not dissimilar to grapeshot when I fire this thing, no? I could likely tear at the creature's wings with it, even if the scales might prevent the shots from actually damaging the dragon."

Yes, alright. You've got a back-up plan. That's enough, you figure, so you head into the castle for a bit and go over to the ruined tower, where the dragon sleeps...
Unfortunately, it seems that this tower's central point is around the staircase, which is a circular shape around a central stone pillar. That stone pillar is what needs to fall, but you can't burn stone...
The rest of the castle, however, has a more classic wooden structure to keep it upright, meaning you could set it alight to collapse likely the entire castle.

Not ideal, but still better than nothing.

...You need some way to collapse the tower, and you're not entirely convinced on collapsing the castle outright.

>Collapse the castle, set the place alight;

>Find an alternative way to collapse the tower
You'll need to think of something... The brickwork does look loose, though, so it won't be that hard to break it. Breaking it without waking the dragon is the hard part.

>Head up the stairs and try to kill the creature from the tower...
Unlikely to be easy.

>>5341345
>Collapse the castle, set the place alight
No time to waste.

>>5341345
>>Collapse the castle, set the place alight;
Burn, baby. Burn.

>>5341345
>>Collapse the castle, set the place alight;

>>5341345
>Collapse the castle, set the place alight

>>5341345
>Head up the stairs and try to kill the creature from the tower...
Unlikely to be easy.

File: Untitled190_20220717200823.png (4.18 MB, 3000x3200)

4.18 MB PNG

>>5341345
Also, commission is done. Thanks for running, QM! It's a great quest.

>>5343324
This looks sick as heck. Nice piece my dude.

>>5343324
who did you comission this from?
it looks pretty great

>>5343324
Absolutely awesome. Thanks for commissioning that!
On that note, would you be willing to tell us who the artist is? It's good stuff.
---------------------------

"Alright... I'll take the easier option. I'm setting the castle on fire."
Everybody looks to eachother for some time... but they don't seem to have a better option available. The downside is that you won't have any cover to run back to, if things go wrong. You have some trees, of course, but that's concealment at best.
Not cover.
Important distinction, that.

You quickly get to work setting the old castle alight, though the dust and ancient wood makes it a trivial affair, especially in the face of your magically enhanced fire. You made sure to clear out before it became too much to handle, and you all take cover close to some of the trees. It doesn't take long before the fire is visible through the windows, and begins to show licks of flame through the holes in the roof. The heat is already warping the air around it, and before long...
The first collapse begins. With a noisy rumble, part of the main barracks collapses, sending out a torrent of fire as the air pushes the heat out alongside it.

The dragon's tail at the top of the tower moves. Only slightly, but it moves all the same. The dragon may have woken up, but it woke up a little bit too late, as the weakened tower falls next. With a sudden lurch, part of the tower collapses inwards, and smoothly falls into the castle inside, right on top of the inferno. Guessing from the angered squealing and roaring, the dragon did not appreciate that.
It stumbled out of the hole it had already made, trying to fly up into the sky with a few flaps of its mighty wings. The wingspan of a dragon is comparatively gigantic, a necessary adjustment to account for the dragon's size. From where you're standing, it'd take one hell of a shot to cripple it. Mercifully... the membrane is already damaged from brickwork, chunks of wood and the rooftop shingles.
It takes only one blast from the shotgun to ground the creature, and it stumbles to the ground, belching out torrents of yellow fire everywhere.

"WHO DARES! WHO DARES ASSAULT THE MEADOW KING!" It bellows, looking around after a rough landing, limping around. "I'LL BURN YOU ALIVE, AND REVIVE YOU AGAIN, I'LL MAKE YOU SUFFER A THOUSAND DEATHS!"
Your companions give you a look, while the dragon wanders around. It's clearly suffering from its sudden relocation, and the shotgun blast badly damaged its wings.
For all its bluster, it's a wounded animal, hoping to find whatever it is that caused it pain.

You reload your shotgun, to have two blasts available instead of only one.

It's a small distance away, making melee combat inadvisable. You'd have to make it come to you. But it's likely to try and roast you and your allies alive if you were to charge. The trees offer concealment, for now.

>Blast it again with the shotgun
You're likely to reveal your location by doing that.

>Charge!!!

>Leave.

>>5343654
>>Blast it again with the shotgun
>Reposition Reynault at least 15 degrees away from the Kobolds so they're not hit by flames or anything.
Are we immune to fire as a dragon?

>>5343657
You are very heat-resistant, but testing to see if you can take a direct blast from a dragon is likely a bad idea.
If nothing else, consider that your gear wouldn't be fireproof, even if you could theoretically be.

>>5343654
>>Blast it again with the shotgun
Wait for about ten minutes so it can start to think we ran away. Then blast it in the eyes (one eye, one blast) and run away. It's probably not something we can beat right now (unless someone has a better idea) since it didn't die in the collapse, but if we can blind and cripple it, it should be less of a threat to its neighbors.

>>5343654
>>5343657
I like this plan, but it needs some extra steps.
>Try to reposition away from the others while the dragon is turned away
>Open fire when detected or when in position
>Have the others stay hidden and prepare to ambush the dragon

>>5343570
>>5343654
@n0cturnalcm on Twitter

>>5343654
>Tell the others, except the Grey Knight, to leave or hide
>move in the opposite direction from the Grey Knight, and open fire
>create an opening for her to attack

>>5343674
support

>>5343654
>Charge!!!

>>5343654
Challenge the dragon with a breath of our own. Breath dragon fire into the air, then reposition for the ambush. Everyone is to keep their distance using slings and guns. They are to target the eyes, mouth, and open wounds.

>>5343930
Beam struggle sounds rad. My 'open fire' from >>5343721 should henceforth be interpreted as including actual dragonfire.

>>5343657
Something like this.

"I'm blasting it again. You people, head away from my position, it should come over here to try and get at me. Once you can flank it, attack."
You give a meaningful look to the Grey Knight, and then you turn to the other two, William and Chad.
"You two... Join in if you think you can get away safely. Let the Grey Knight do the heavy lifting, alright?"
William nods, and shakily says:
"Y-you don't have to tell me twice. I'll, uh... I'll do what I can."
He looks at his shortsword for a moment, uncertain. To be fair, you're not sure if he can actually get through the scales, but as long as they aim well... Right.

You kneel down, and tell them carefully on where to stab:
"You need to go for anything that you could reasonably assume is a joint. The back of the knees, the insides of the elbows... where the legs meet the torso is an excellent spot, many blood vessels are there. You can exsanguinate one of them with a well-placed stab, but it will take some time."
Both William and Chad look at you for a moment, confused, and you clarify:
"Exsanguinate meaning to make somebody bleed out, to be clear."
They nod, after looking at eachother for a short moment. Seems they're both not very excited about attacking a dragon, though they're not running away, either.
Good.
The Grey Knight betrays no emotions. Instead, she's already picked out the spot she'll perform her attacks from, and has even picked out a spot for the less experienced squires to try from.

You look over to the raging dragon, and estimate the best spot to make your displeasure with it clear. The dragon is simply demanding that you would come out and have a fair fight.
Fat chance.

You move through the woods, and prepare your shotgun. Carefully aiming... You decide to try and poke out an eye. With all the time you have available, and the creature's tendency to stop moving to look around, you think you can manage this shot with no difficulty.
Then, you fire. The blast of the shotgun was loud, and you're surprised the dragon didn't snap his head over towards you at the sound of the blast, but your pellets reached it first. Hitting it straight in the head, the dragon's entire head flinches back, it's long neck almost flopping around, and you see it's steaming, boiling blood leak out from the wound you've created.
It doesn't even roar, and instead it belches out fire all across the area, before it stampedes towards you. Now, the game is afoot. You holster the shotgun on your back, and prepare your sword. It's still breathing fire every which way, angrily lighting the forest on fire in the hopes of getting at you, but it's aiming too high. It hits the leaves, but not the bushes you'd actually be hiding in.

It makes it about half-way across when Chad and William both hop out of the bushes to get at its limbs, but the recent shotgun-induced concussion seems to be enough to keep it distracted from them.
Before they reach the dragon, though, the Grey Knight leaps out of a tree, landing the on the creature's shoulders. It's...

It's a strategy you used to employ, when you fought a smaller, weaker and all-together non-sapient cousin of dragons: a drake.
It sounds like a good idea, yes, as the dragon's body does not permit it to actually reach its back. Unfortunately, they're smart enough to just roll over.
You rush in yourself, intending to aim at the weakest spot of all. Just below the head, where the throat meets the jaw.
It's how you killed the dragon that got you into this mess.

Let's do this.

1D100+40
Best of 3
DC: 60-100-120

Rolled 86 + 40 (1d100 + 40)

>>5347200
WE are the dragon here, not you.

...I hope.

>>5347229
Ha! Apt number.

Rolled 95 + 40 (1d100 + 40)

>>5347200

>>5347292
>>5347229
Suck it Dragon welp!

Rolled 58 (1d100)

>>5347200

>>5347229
>>5347292
That's a very dead dragon

>>5347200
lmfao onions joy dragon

>>5347402
What?

>>5347403
I think he was trying to call him a s o i b o y.

As you had expected, you see the dragon quickly try to roll over, in the hopes of dealing with the weight of the Grey Knight. Mercifully, however, the Grey Knight was apparently counting on it, or she just knows how to roll with the punches.
Rather than remaining seated, she instead clambers along the sides of the dragon, managing to keep herself away from the ground... and offering a much easier access to the creature's vital areas for William and Chad!
You're proud when you see William and Chad both slam their shortsword into the dragon's joints, though you click your tongue in annoyance when you see that William lost the grip on his sword before he could pull it back out.
You can't blame the man, however. It's about a tonne of dragon going for a roll.

The Grey Knight, meanwhile, also slammed one of the wooden spears she was making into the creature, but you suspect that the material is simply inefficient to pierce deep. Instead, her distraction is the biggest value.
She leaps away, kicking herself off the dragon and rolling as she lands. The giant, nearly feral lizard breathes fire every which way it can, including its own body, desperate to try and kill what is hurting it... Though William and Chad are both out of the way, having decided to chase after the Grey Knight.

You flinched when you felt the fire wash over you. Last time, you had wax seals and some major adjustments to your armor from the alchemists to take such a hit. Today, you aren't.
And yet... You barely feel pain. You're almost certainly still a little singed, but the fire was not nearly focused or intense enough to truly harm you.
Not as you are now.
You reach the dragon, and grip your sword with both hands as you plunge it deep into the creature's already damaged eye.
If your shotgun blast didn't destroy it, this certainly did. The earlier damage allows your sword to gain purchase into the scaled beast, and you waste no time after that, kicking the creature in the snout to pull your blade free with a heave... pulling out more chunks of the creature's eye, and dousing you in boiling hot blood.

It struggles, now, not dissimilar to a turtle flipped on its back, and it's in too much of a panic to properly breathe fire for a short, crucial moment.
You leap into the air, and you feel your wings flap slightly as you do so, an embarrassing note on an otherwise well-done job.

Under the chin, you see your target, and slam your sword inside. The creature freezes up... Likely realizing that it's been killed.
You pull the sword free, swiping it through the air to remove the blood at least somewhat.
You'll use a cloth later.
The dragon leans back a bit... and begins to chant to itself, despite the ruined throat. It's a voiceless croak, at best...
But you won't let THIS happen twice.

You hop off, move towards it's ruined eye-socket, and take in a deep breath.

...It's not commonly known that dragons have this particular weakness. But if one were to start a fire in the right tissues, the entire "fuel supply", so to speak, will ignite. The fiery explosion has trouble escaping the powerful hide of the dragon, and it will make the creature almost comically swell up until it finds an "exit" so to speak.
Most commonly, this would be the belly.

One precision line of blue fire was all it took for the swelling to begin, and you made a run for it as soon as it began. More and more of the creature's greasy flesh tore itself apart, until finally, with a particularly wet pop, the creature exploded outright in a very gory fashion.
If it managed to focus enough during that time to curse you, honestly, it deserved it.

The dragon is dead... But if you want to get at its hoard, you'll have to wait for the fire to die down and hope there's anything in there that won't burn.
Perhaps it'd be more prudent to simply head back to the road. This is easily one of the fastest dragon kills you've ever had, though it's a fledgeling dragon, lest you forget.

...Still, William is excited about being a dragonslayer, while Chad is more... conflicted, it seems.
You suppose it's a bit against a kobolt's nature to be a dragonslayer. Still, he smiles when you approach him, though you request nobody touches you for the next... hour or so. Your armor is very, VERY hot right now.

>Head back to the road

>Harvest something from the dragon(?)
Wouldn't know what, honestly.

>Wait for the fire to die down, and see if there's anything worth taking from the castle.

>>5347945
>Head back to the road
This was an important delay, but it was still a delay. We shouldn't stand around just for greed.

>>5347945
>Harvest something from the dragon
We should be able to pick out a few pieces without having to wade through the chunky salsa or cut up the carcass too much. A list of things to look for:
>Bones
I assume ground up dragon bones might have some alchemical use. Just grab a couple, we can ask Paracelcus about that later.
>Scales
Genuine dragon scales may fetch a good price as a collector item, if we find the right person to peddle them to. Alternately, if we can find a decently sized chunk of dragonhide, we might be able to use it to craft something useful (gloves for handling dangerous materials, a pouch for storage of the same, a fireproof shield, etc.)
>Teeth
Another collector item. A dragontooth necklace might net some money, but we could just keep that as a trophy.

>>5347945
>Wait for the fire to die down, and see if there's anything worth taking from the castle.

>>5347945
>Head back to the road

Our job here is done, those poor souls can now rest in peace

>>5348083
Switching to
>>5347984

>>5347984
This seems reasonable.

Give William and Chad a tooth or a scale to commemorate their first dragon kill

>>5347945
>Give William and Chad a tooth or a scale to commemorate their first dragon kill
>Head back to the road

>>5347945
>Give William and Chad a tooth or a scale to commemorate their first dragon kill
>Head back to the road

>>5347967
Switching to >>5348787

>>5347945
>Harvest something from the dragon(?)
Like this fine person said >>5347984
>Wait for the fire to die down, and see if there's anything worth taking from the castle.
Harvesting while we wait. Then we cast power word : loot

>>5347945
>Harvest something from the dragon(?)
We know scales dont last long. If the other eye survived, take it. It's worth a lot to the Alchemist Guilds. Meat is nasty and blood is too hazardous. Take some teeth and claws. They could make for improvised weapons, or could be sold to people.

>Wait for the fire to die down, and see if there's anything worth taking from the castle.
There could be magic items they we could use to fight the dragon cultists, not to mention potential loot for the Grey Knight to replace what she has lost. She needs more gear than we do.

>>5347984
+1. Fair points on the scales, hide, and bones.

>>5348276
You know, gold isnt the only thing dragon hordes have. Remember the Alchemist table?

You elect to harvest some bits from the dragon, and considering your immunity to dragon blood, it's a quick but still filthy process.
The bones, you keep simple. With the creature having exploded from the inside out, it's easy to reach some of the ribs. The size of the creature makes them difficult to just pick up and take with you, of course, but chopping off bits is easy. You have a tidy collection of dragonbone to the side, steaming in the wind, and then you move on to gathering some scales and hide. While the scales are going to lose effectiveness in time as they dry out, the hide will still carry some use! It's generally considered too heavy and potentially magic-laced to make for good armor, but for bags, it will do. It's a half-way decent material, after all.
...It takes a lot of strength, as a matter of fact, to even get the stuff loose, as you have to push and grind through the fatty tissues to get at it. Even then, you'll have to wait for it to dry out, and get it treated before the sweet spot passes and it begins to spoil.
Yeah, dragonhide has its own set of issues.

Finally, you move to the dragon's gaping maw, and us the pommel of your sword to shatter its jaw, and loosen some of the teeth. Grabbing the biggest teeth at the corner of the mouth (canine-equivalents, you think), you go over to William and Chad, who... both take the tooth from you.
"You're dragonslayers now, squires... Figure it makes sense to have a memento."
Chad looks at the tooth for a while, and... after a moment, he tries to chew on it for a moment. He seems to realize something strange, guessing from his shocked expression, and then look at the tooth again.
"It's... I don't think a lot of people can say they bit a dragon's tooth." He says. "It's so... Wow. This is why you're the greatest dragon, Dragon!"

You snort... but decide against saying anything. You need to get back to the road, anyway. The ruins are still burning, and they will continue to do so for quite a while. You'd better get back on the road.
---------------

Once you arrive, you see palpable relief from Paracelsus.
"Good, you're here... Let's keep moving, alright?" She says, and you suppose the story of dragonslaying can go untold. You decide to strip your armor and weaponry to try and clean things up, making sure the dragon's blood won't destroy your arms and armor. You hand over the hides to Paracelsus, who has no issues getting to work and treating the hides so they don't spoil. Her own immunity to the dragonblood makes this an easy process, mercifully.
The rest of the day is spent regularly travelling. Tom-8-O's is having a good time as Snikt forages for snacks along the way, being quite aware of what is and isn't a good meal.

...

The town is visible in the distance, and your heart sinks. It's not a big town, only about two dozen housings.
The town is burning.
(cont)

"...We need to get there. NOW!" You shout, and the Grey Knight says nothing as she leaps on her undead horse and rides ahead of you all, while you gather up your fighters.

You leave Pink in charge of the cart, and protected by the twins. The others will join you as you rush ahead. You need to get there as soon as possible, to defeat whatever the hell is causing this, or to help as many people as you can. Mercifully, the path there is simple, so there are no delays. Thanks to your drills, and the many days of travel, nobody is even out of breath when you arrive at the inferno... and spot the reason for this carnage. Standing on top of a burning pyre, you see a man... or something akin to it.
His skin is infested with patches of red scales and giant lesions, and one of his feet has been grossly warped, forcing him to stand on his toes while the heel of his foot has stretched upwards... leaving behind the skin. You can see the tendons and raw muscle underneath...
This travesty of scales and skin breathes out a torrent of fire from his maw, the cheeks having been burnt away...

It stops laughing, and looks at your group for a moment.
"HAHAHAAAA! MORE LAMBS TO THE SLAUGHTER! FEAR THE POWER OF THE DRAGONBORN, MORTALS!"

As you feared...
The manic figure leaps off the pyre, what few scraps of the clothing sloughing off as the fire consumes it.
He intends to charge you down with nothing but his fists and his unstable fire-breath.

...

>Kill him on the spot, and rush through the town. You need to kill all threats

>Kill him on the spot, and rush through the town to save whatever survivors you can find

>Capture him and interrogate.

>>5349344
Cripple him before knocking him out. For all the flame a fury he's puffing, he is but a commoner in the grand scheme of things. We are a KNIGHT! A true paragon of VIRTUE! WE WILL PUT HIM IN HIS PLACE!
Collar and Tensy can bind the guy up with whatever they find and stay guard. They're free to knock out a few of his teeth if he tries anything.

After that we'll split up to divide and conquer. Para, Grey Knight, Chad, Snikt will go to help and slay at their own digression. We will take the others and do the same.

>>5349344
>Kill him on the spot, and rush through the town to save whatever survivors you can find
Priorities, info<saving peope

>>5349344
>Kill him on the spot, and rush through the town to save whatever survivors you can find
The whole place is on fire. Act first, ask questions later.

>>5349344
>Kill him on the spot, and rush through the town to save whatever survivors you can find

Kinda feel like one will feed into the other no matter how we go about it.

>>5349344
>Kill him on the spot, and rush through the town. You need to kill all threats
End the threat, and we'll save lives and enable better-suited rescuers to so their thing.

>>5349344
>Kill him on the spot, and rush through the town to save whatever survivors you can find

>>5349344
>>Kill him on the spot, and rush through the town. You need to kill all threats

You feel a hatred you haven't felt in a long, long time. Burning people alive, for nothing but the thrill of power? Sickening would be the word for it if you weren't so enraged.
Stepping forward, you feel your armor clanking in step as you charge with your sword, and the "dragonborn" soaks you in a gust of magical fire, which doesn't do more than say, a particularly strong wind. It seems to realize the mistake it made, just as you run your blade through the damnable fool, and you then punch him free. You do not kick it, despite it likely being the faster motion. Three punches were needed to make the figure slide off the blade... shock has already set in, and you have shattered his nose and jaw... and slightly deformed his skull on the final strike.
You turn to the others, and make the goal clear:
"We need to move, as fast as we can manage! find any civilians. If anybody's stuck in a burning building, call for me. If you see one of them, kill them if you can!"

Anna, especially, seems to be looking for a fight:
"Bastards! The lot of 'em! Chad, you and me, right!?"
Chad just nods, and then the team spreads out into groups that should be able to manage themselves. The two goblins you picked up from the Ogre, sans the little one you left at the cart, are with you, and from here, it's a mad scramble.
Mercifully, you find plenty of survivors. Most of the women and children remained indoors, and while the housings were set ablaze, and some of the doors locked, it's easy for you to open them up in time.
...But there are many injuries, and Paracelsus is soon working overtime to get everybody in working shape. There are even some of the men left, fighting with mining tools; there was one particularly large miner just in the midst of slamming a pickaxe into a dragonborn when you find him, though he carried horrible burns over his body. His ebony complexion turned a bright, angry pink by the burns, and he is likely scarred for life.
His resilience is commendable, especially when he quickly turns to you, and sounds remarkably calm, though obviously pained.
"Reinforcements!? They attacked in force just an hour ago... We tried to fight back, but..."

You cut the man off, as impolite as it is:
"Where are the others, then!?" You ask, looking around for more threats... but it seems the man just finished the last one of this group.
Three dragonborn... and four dead men.
"Most ran to their families, and only a few remained to fight! I'm the last..."
The man coughs, the smoke and fire having ravaged him... but he recovers.
"I don't know how many yet live, but there's a cavalrywoman going around, distracting the horde!"

The Grey Knight. Good.

"Do you know any others that need help?"
"I set up an escape route, to the east! These creatures caught on fast... they're smart, damn it! Their leader looks like a full dragon, wings and all! It was in charge of them, I think."
They have a leader, then. What madness brought them to this?

Rolled 61 (1d100)

You sniff.
"Right! I'll head east from here. Follow my kobolts, guide them to the other refugees as long as you're able... Then find the doctor. She's an alchemist, look for the beak!"
The man nods, and dutifully runs off.

>Find this dragonborn leader and kill him;
If you kill him, it might cause this invasion to end.

>Focus on the escape route, most likely you'll have to defend people;
The refugees are your absolute top priority, and that must be a hotspot

>Focus on going through the town to help others.
The escape route is likely long gone, and people will need you to deal with burning buildings.

(Roll is to see how many people were saved. No matter what, your large group size and focus on rescuing will ensure a sizeable number of survivors. Continued focus will still save more;)

>>5350774
>Focus on the escape route, most likely you'll have to defend people;

>>5350771
>The two goblins
Two kobolds, you mean?

>>5350774
>Find this dragonborn leader and kill him
End this now, before more villages suffer this fate.

>>5350774
>Focus on the escape route, most likely you'll have to defend people

>>5350774
>Find this dragonborn leader and kill him;

>>5350774
>>Find this dragonborn leader and kill him;

>>5350774
>Focus on the escape route, most likely you'll have to defend people;
>The refugees are your absolute top priority, and that must be a hotspot

>>5350774
>>Find this dragonborn leader and kill him;

>>5350774
>Focus on the escape route, most likely you'll have to defend people

>>5350774
>Focus on going through the town to help others.

Lets secure as many people as we can into one area so they're safe. After everyone is grouped up around paracelus we can think of what to do next.

>>5350774
>Find this dragonborn leader and kill him;

Normally I'm all for help saving people, but I feel it might be better to nip this problem in the bud.

>>5351488
Maybe, but killing their leader would hinder their banditry efforts me thinks. Better to solve the problem first, then to let it continue and much about longer than it should.

>>5350774
>>Find this dragonborn leader and kill him;

>>5350774
Can we loot the dead bodies of the dragonborns?

>>5352990
No time for loot, Doctor Jones.

>>5353040
There is always time for loot!

>>5353876
Dreygaun lives

File: This abomination must be (...).jpg (284 KB, 1223x1920)

284 KB JPG

You head straight towards the escape route, first, but you did not need to spend much time to actually find your goal. The braggart is yelling and screaming already, and contrary to the others, he seems to have a full coat of scales... Hell, he's pretty much finished on his transformation. Considering what you've learned recently... perhaps the magic is getting to his head, despite the supposed immunity. Or perhaps he was always a bastard, and now he's a bastard that's been given power. He's holding a large, two-handed sword, though it looks like something relatively low quality, possibly something that he has stolen.
You prepare your own sword as you approach the screaming creature, though you note that he is actually bellowing orders.
"TAKE THE CHILDREN! KILL THE MEN!"
...You look around, and note that there aren't even any other dragonborn here that could be listening to his orders. Or, well, none that you can see at any rate. Still, it's not that he didn't see you, guessing from the way he's staring you down.
"PROGENITOR! WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN YOU WOULD CHASE US DOWN!"

You don't respond.
You just stand in a battle-ready stance, your sword in front and your free hand balled into a fist. The creature stares at you, and begins to move around you, walking leisurely as it continues to speak. At least it isn't screaming anymore, though its voice is hoarse.
"You seek to find Lady Ogg, do you not!? HAH! A FOOL'S ERRAND! You'll never reach her now, every day her power grows and grows!"
He does a lot of sweeping hand gestures, and you decide to talk. You need information:
"So this is in her name, then? This carnage. This murder?"
"She did not order it... But I have realized my power much sooner than the others! And I see what you REFUSE to admit! You and I... we're better than any man! BETTER THAN ANY OTHER!"
He laughs, and you suppose it could be considered maniacal if it wasn't more akin to a bad actor's evil laugh. He's... enjoying this.
"SO I CAME HERE TO CLAIM MY RIGHT! OUR RIGHT AS THE STRONGEST! I TAKE WHAT I WISH, I ENJOY WHATEVER AND WHOEVER I WANT!"
You step closer, your fist shaking with a rage.
The dragon smiles at that:

"And the children... I'll send to the Lady. They will be REBORN! AND FROM THEIR ROTTEN, FILTHY CARCASSES, A DRAGON WILL RISE! WE WILL BLANKET THE SKY IN SCALES AND FIRE!"
Right then.

...He seems intent on waiting for you to make the first strike, despite his bluster. He may not be skilled, but those scales, that firebreath and the sheer power will make him a dangerous foe regardless.

>See if your own fire can hurt, or at least distract, this abomination

>No dragon tricks. You'll charge him down and kill him.

>Just shoot him with your pistol. If it doesn't kill him, shoot him again!

>Keep him talking, you need information
You need to specify what you need information about, though.

>Kill him with your bare god-damned hands.

>>5353997
>Try to trick him into tell us where Lady Ogg is be expresing interest in joining his crusade
>Shoot him whe we have our answer
>Charge in with our sword if he doesn't die immediately

>>5353997
>>No dragon tricks. You'll charge him down and kill him.
>the weight of our sins will propel us forward

>>5353997
>No dragon tricks. You'll charge him down and kill him.
An untrained idoit with a sword is most dangerous to himself against a trained opponent

>>5353997
>Kill him with your bare god-damned hands.

>>5353997
>Charge in with sword
His hesitance to fight is either that he's somehow set a trap in a burning village at this specific place, or he's not as sure on his victory as he wants us to think.
But he likes running his mouth, and isn't in control of his emotions. If we can taunt him - maybe about not being that important to Lady Ogg's plans - he might spill some details before we spill his guts.

>>5353997
>Kill him with your bare god-damned hands.

>>5353997

> "Considering she's clueless about you by your own admission, I have to imagine you're not all that important to her. A whelp looking for his mother's love, then?"

This is just to piss him off. When he starts ranting:

>Shoot him.

>>5353997
>>5354424
Support, with the caveat that we let him ramble on if he drops useful info.
Also, do we have the shotgun? Might be a good idea to spend a couple shells to see how these 'dragonborn' handle it. Remember, Reynauld himself survived a turret salvo.

>>5354424
I like this too

>>5353997
>See if your own fire can hurt, or at least distract, this abomination

"Considering she's clueless about you by your own admission, I have to imagine you're not all that important to her." You say, keeping your sword at the ready. The dragonborn's gait seems to change for a moment, uncertainty creeping into his body language, and then you follow it up.
You make sure the venom in your voice remains quite clear, even for a creature like this.
"A whelp looking for his mother's love, then?"
"You... know nothing. I fight for her because I wish to see her plans succeed! I DO THIS FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF ALL!"

You just give a glance around you. The devastation. The death. Then, back at the cause of it.
"You could NEVER understand! The Lady has her own plans! I am simply getting a head start! PEOPLE, ONE AND ALL, WILL SEE OUR MIGHT! OUR GLORY! THEY WILL BEG TO BE ONE OF US!"
He laughs, and you step closer.
"The men, they are incorrigible. The women, they make for good sport... But the children. The children can learn! The children will be the key to the great change!"
Right.

You heard enough.
You draw your pistol and shoot the creature in the chest, causing it to stumble backwards and clutch its chest... Before it begins to grin.
"hhh...hh.. A-all you had, Progenitor!?" He says, dropping his hand, and letting the lead ball tumble to the ground. So the scales are as tough as you feared, then? Very well. All the same, you do notice that he didn't take that hit lightly. For all his bluster, he's coughing and grimacing from the pain. The skin may have stopped penetration, but his ribs are likely hurting from the blow. Alright then, so you move in with your sword, instead, and the creature responds by charging forward and swinging his two-hander towards your head.
So you duck. His giant swing was unplanned, his stance was off, and he put far too much energy into the swing. He predictably loses control as he whiffs, trying to correct himself so he could adjust the swing, and he elects to spin on his heels, intending to keep the swing going;
A strategy fit for a child, as you close what little distance there was, and slam your blade into his back.

He wheezes, then gasps breathlessly as he sees your blade leave out his belly, before you put your boot to his back and push him off. He falls to the floor, gripping his wound as he goes down... and crawling away from you.
"W-wha-NO! NO! PLEASE!" He begins to plead, turning around as he keeps trying to scoot away from you, while you keep approaching him. The cinders of the burning buildings around you keep raining down, and you stare down at him past your helmet;
Your eyes glowing brightly amidst the ever-increasing smoke.
You don't hurry as you move towards him, and he tries to get up for a moment... But is quickly kicked in the chest before he can get far.
"You were an arrogant fool, given too much power. And this, is where I end you." You say, putting the blade to his throat:
"WAIT! NO! I-I HAVE TREASURE! MY HOARD! Y-YOU CAN HAVE MY HOARD!"

You push the blade forward, the tip being stopped only momentarily by the creature's thick hide, but your muscle drives it deeper, until your pierce his throat, and push deeper. Then, with a final burst of strength, you make the blade pop out the back. With some effort, you swing it to the side, and almost completely decapitate your foe, though you kick the head off the ruined stump.

You spend the rest of your time helping to save people, and by the end of it, you've managed to save many people, mercifully. The Grey Knight spent most of her time killing the lesser dragonborn, though she did express disappointment that you did not help more to save people.
...Snikt is quite upset at one woman she failed to save, especially considering the considerable burns she suffered on her hands because of it. You made sure to hug her for her efforts, all the same.
Paracelsus, meanwhile, is overwhelmed with the amount of victims, and she is ordering Dismas, Alice and Petrus around to keep things steady. Mercifully, the survivors that are well enough are bringing in water and whatever linen they can find.
You notice Paracelsus' spines are standing straight up, though the cloak is sturdy enough not to tear. Still, it makes for a strange sight.

Eventually, people come together.
A little under half the town was saved. If only you had gotten here sooner... Still, the people here are grateful for your help. The leader of the town, the heavily burned man that fought with the pickaxe, asks for you to come near. He is swaddled in bandages, and the damage he has taken clearly caught up to him.
Exhausted, the man speaks.
"Thank you, brother... You saved many of us, even if... Many others are lost. I'm... I'm ashamed to ask this of you, but could you help us reach Serkeskal? It's... it's a three days travel, and we have our own carts. But if anything were to try to stop us... it could."
The Grey Knight, who apparently decided to listen in, has this to say:
"I will ride ahead to the city, and demand aid be brought over. They may meet you along the road."
Alright, good.

You would likely have to visit the city on the way to Mother Mountain, but bringing the villagers will cost time.
This is... a bad situation.

>Escort the villagers
If you're not here to help, it's almost certain more of them will die. Paracelsus alone would be a huge help. At least it's on the way there...

>Sadly, you must refuse.
This is a time sensitive matter. The longer Ogg is allowed free reign, the worse this gets. The city will send help, at least.

>>5354977
>Escort the villagers
Ogg must have very low standards if those were the kinds of people she's been transforming into dragons. Killing that guy was a waste of time and lives.

>>5354977
>>Escort the villagers
>>take time to speak with Paracelcus this is why going full dragon is a problem, this is why we must remain human even if our forms are already altered.

>>5354977
>>Escort the villagers

Thinking about it? It makes sense? We're a trained knight, so it makes sense we're powerful as all get out.

Most people she's been recruiting are average workers and serfs who likely have never fought a day in their lives.

>>5354977
>Sadly, you must refuse.
Ask if they have guns and gunpowder. We have the coin, and they can use the money to rebuild their lives.

>>5355078
>>5355096
>>5355104
Wouldn't this further delay us, and increase the frequency of more dragonborns causing destruction? The city is guaranteed to come in a few days, so it would be best if we made haste before its too late. The greater good and all that.

>>5355113
It's possible, yeah. I'll be honest, I won't be too fussed no matter which wins. I just figure 'we're here, it's on the way, might as well make sure they all make it.'

>>5354977
>Sadly, you must refuse.

>>5354977
>Sadly, you must refuse.
Three days is far too long of a detour. As much as I'd love to be a bigger hero to these people now, the longer we delay, the more times and places this sort of tragedy can repeat.

>>5354977
>Escort the villagers
If you're not here to help, it's almost certain more of them will die. Paracelsus alone would be a huge help. At least it's on the way there...

>>5354977

>Escort the villagers

>>5354977

>Escort the villagers

I see the life of a free knight is hell.
Put down one fire, two will appear.

>>5354977
>Escort the villagers
Yes, it's a time sink, but we're bound to run into whatever may lie on the way to Headshoots whether we go with them or on our own. At least this way we're a larger convoy, so less of a target, and we can make sure the villagers get there safely.

You barely hesitate.
"Of course, everybody help get people loaded on the carts. Are there animals able to pull?"
Mercifully, there are some oxen here that are usually used to pull some of the minecarts around, which can be used to pull the carts. However, one of the cars will have to be pulled with nothing but manpower, though you have the kobolts needed for that line of work, and some of the less injured villagers as well.
Most people will have to walk, and there will be few breaks. Most claim to be able to make that distance, but you suspect things will get hard as the reality of the situation begins to set in. As agreed, however, the Grey Knight will ride ahead, to ensure there is help on the way.
Still a journey ahead of you.
Paracelsus will be working overtime trying to keep up with the suffering of the villagers, and every kobolt that isn't pulling a cart will be spending their time taking care of them. Mercifully, they're all willing and able to do so. William will be guarding the rear of the caravan, while you take the front with Snikt, to ensure nothing unexpected blocks your way....

Mercifully, nothing actually does. The roads are safe enough, for the most part, and you hadn't even finished the first day when four city guards from the upcoming city joined up with the caravan! They met the Grey Knight along the way, and elected to ride ahead to help out, which opens up Chad and Snikt to help out with Paracelsus. William decided against it, fearing that taking constant orders from Paracelsus may accelerate his condition.
The boy is turning incredibly fast, especially compared to your own transformation. He doesn't have a single human tooth left, and his eyes have gained a lizard-like appearance. Black slits with a faintly yellow line to the sides. to them which could be called pretty, were it not for the context. He also began walking strangely, recently, though...
By the end of the first day of travel, after camp was set up, he took you aside to reveal his feet are entirely incapable of walking as a man should. He can only practically walk around on his toes, essentially, while his feet have elongated to force him into a digitigrade stance.
They're more sturdy than they look, at least, but he gives up on wearing shoes, instead letting the swollen, hardened pads do the walking for him.

He didn't want to talk about it either, the poor lad. He just felt you should know.

The second day of travel is when trouble began. A lot more crying, for one, and several of the patients began to fade, the efforts of the rough cart ride making their grievous injuries more than they can bear. Mercifully, Paracelsus' quick and decisive treatments ensure they make it, but if you had elected to move on without them...
Almost a third of the injured would be dead.
You were also briefly attacked by some goblins, though they were scared off with two blasts from a flintlock pistol... and four sling-fired bullets.

It was on the dawn of the third day that Snikt detected people heading towards you, riding huge, mighty carts clearly propelled by something the alchemists must have cooked up! They looked as though they were made of stone, and the dwarf riding it was steering it around with a rather peculiar wheel.
The Serkeskal guard had sent aid as soon as they heard the stories, and Paracelsus breathes a sigh of relief when the huge stone cart opens up and reveals what must be over half the alchemist's guild!
The driver of the stone cart also bellows out, with a voice that you wouldn't expect from what looks like a ball of beard-hair.
"WE KIN' ONLY FIT ALL O' THE INJURED! REST O' YE, WE'LL HAVE TO ASK YE TO KEEP GOIN'!"

...You don't interrupt, and instead you just help move the people from the wooden carts unto the stone one. The place looks prepared to keep them steady and protected, and with the alchemists ready to help them, it should be fine.

You reach a city in less than a day's travel later. Thankful that nothing too serious threatened the caravan. The townspeople are ruined, but the city will provide for them. The town they lived in was important for Serkeskal, after all. Due to the sheer amount of paperwork required for this move, however, you are left stuck with the captain of the guard for quite some time. You are thanked profusely for your service, at least, and the city has already set aside some coin as a reward.
A whopping 1200 Rosarians!

However, the captain asks you to give an account of what happened...
How do you go about that?

>Tell him the whole truth, including the parts about Ogg and how it uses your curse as baseline

>Tell them it was a dragonborn bandit that has its origins from the wizard Ogg, but don't elaborate beyond that.

>Tell them it was targeted banditry from Ogg, but don't mention the dragon parts.

>Tell them it was a random act of violence.

>>5357880
>Tell them it was a dragonborn bandit that has its origins from the wizard Ogg, but don't elaborate beyond that.
Useful for the city to know to prepare for if/when Ogg turns her sights on them, but I can't see the backstory stuff being useful to either of us.

>>5357880
>Tell him the whole truth, including the parts about Ogg and how it uses your curse as baseline
Given Reynauld's visage, anybody with half a brain can put two and two together. It's better to just spill the beans than to let the captain assume anything more sinister on our part.

>>5357880
>Tell them it was a dragonborn bandit that has its origins from the wizard Ogg, but don't elaborate beyond that.

Easy enough to put our looks together, but we can't be like 'it's our fault'. Since it wasn't.

>>5357880
>Tell them it was a dragonborn bandit that has its origins from the wizard Ogg, but don't elaborate beyond that.

>>5357880
>>Tell him the whole truth, including the parts about Ogg and how it uses your curse as baseline

>>5357991
this anon makes a damn good point, better to get in front of this before they let there imaginations run wild and we get fucked

>>5357880
>>Tell him the whole truth, including the parts about Ogg and how it uses your curse as baseline
>>5358658
>>5357991
We might want to point out that we're on a quest to destroy her.

>>5357880
>Tell him the whole truth, including the parts about Ogg and how it uses your curse as baseline

>>5357880
>Tell him the whole truth, including the parts about Ogg and how it uses your curse as baseline
>point out that we're on a quest to destroy her.

"I went to the Archmage Ogg, looking to be rid of a dragon-curse. Instead, she replicated my curse and, becoming mad and wizardly, began afflicting others with it. I seek to destroy these fiends, and to end the threat of Ogg forever."

The captain a very fair dwarf, mercifully. As you go over the entire storyline as succintly yet accurately as you can, he just listens carefully and only asks the occasional question. A scribe in the corner is also keeping track of it all.
The questions are reasonable, besides.
"Were there any of these supposed "dragonborn" when you last saw her" he asked, and you can say that this wasn't the case... After which you also go into detail about the transformation itself. It should be going very slowly, but that dragonborn you fought was further along than even you are. The captain obviously glances at your wings as you say it, and you subconsciously readjust them. You're still not pleased at how independant those new parts of you are.
However, the captain doesn't ask anything in regards to you, not while you're telling the story. Most of his focus lies in Ogg.
When you reach the end of the story, the captain leans back in his chair, and strokes his beard.

"This is all highly disturbing, you understand... Sierra Madre won't be too far for a wizarding group, and we can't spare our alchemist's vehicle. We've only got one, and we'll have to kep it at the ready for other potential attacks."
The dwarf strokes his beard a little harder, and though it's hard to tell from how obscenely bushy his eyebrows are, you can tell he's frowning:
"Not to mention, those damned alchemists wouldn't want to share it. They own the rights to it. All the same, feel free to restock in town. Provisions and some basic weaponry will be provided to your party. Our smiths are always hard at word, so I'm sure we've got something for those kobolds, but..."
He stops stroking his beard, and leans forward:
"I must warn you. I've placed your kobolts in lock-up, for now."

You blink.

You blink again.

"For what purpose." You say, sharply, but the captain remains calm:
"This town has no love for kobolts, and even less so for dragons. The riches of our town summons those vile creatures quite often. The story of your escapades has spread enough that you could likely walk through the city without much trouble, but despite the kobolts' great efforts for the townspeople... well, they're small, they're hated, and most of my guard wouldn't care."
That... is not pleasing to hear. You tilt your head slightly, exhaling a little harder than needed. Even with the helmet, the captain can read your body language:
"Can't say I like kobolts myself... But it's been made clear that they saved a great deal of the townsfolk, so I've no ill will towards your bunch. I had my goblin squad "guard" them in the prison. They're not even locked up, but they are required to stay inside the building. For their own safety. Along with the... boy."
"William?" You ask, worried.
"He hissed at one of the guard when they included him in the kobolt roundup."

You sigh.

"The boy's cursed as well... to turn into a kobolt."
The captain leans back, pity clear on his face.
"That would explain it... Poor lad."
On that you agree... But there is one more question:
"What the Anna, the goblin in my group?"
"Ah, she went on a shopping trip, I've been told, mostly to get some proper armor, and to restring her crossbow. Your alchemist friend is headed to the alchemist's guild, predictably, to restock on her supplies."
Okay, so that's fine.

From here, you finish up the paperwork... and think.
The city's blacksmiths heavily favor heavier armor, and the city elected to give you some freebies.
Most of your kobolts would need a lot of training to make use of the heavier armor, so if you wish to merely upgrade their existing gear, you'll have to pay.

Guessing from people's attitude, in that you're *tolerated* rather than accepted, you might be paying extra, as well.

Anything you need in particular? Most of your fighters are already well-equipped, especially in the armor department, but this is a fine opportunity for weaponry or perhaps heavier armor.
Perhaps even some basic tools might also be useful.

>No need to buy anything, you're more than well-equipped.

>Look for...
something, I'm sure. Probably weaponry.

Inventory, for reference:
https://pastebin.com/zDk9q7Yv

(Also, in case you were wondering, leaving out the part where you were related to Ogg's Funny Wizard Plan would have led to a temporary arrest while they figure things out)

>>5359979
>Look for...
Explosives. Something that'll turn Ogg's insides into outsides. We should buy extra too, just in case.

>>5360008
Seconded. More dakka.
>>5359979
Do we need a new helmet yet? We could also get Celsie something like a cross between a hounscull bascinet and a plague mask as her own helmet.

>>5360008
support

>>5359979
>(Also, in case you were wondering, leaving out the part where you were related to Ogg's Funny Wizard Plan would have led to a temporary arrest while they figure things out)
Idunwannasay atoadaso, but atoadaso.

>>5360008
Support. Considering what we're gearing up to fight, we'll need heavy ordnance.

>>5359979
>Explosives
>New helmets for us and Sarah
>splurge on a magic (or enchantable) sword, if we can

>>5360737
Magic sword sounds cool, but what about also a slow burning oil? Should be cheap to coat the sword in and then ignite with our dragonfire. I dunno if it'll do anything versus dragonborn but if they've got lackeys or we run into anything susceptible, might be a good way to put in extra damage.

>>5360911
Wouldn't that simply weaken the steel? It sounds like a bad idea.

>>5361043
Yea, steel alloys do not like the heat generally, carbon loves to burn out of the metal if heated even by the normal fire, let alone dragon fire

File: Screenshot_20220803-16075(...).jpg (218 KB, 1080x1369)

218 KB JPG

>>5361223
That's why we gotta'go proper magic. Maybe we can visualize it as the glowing kobold who embodies our magic entering the sword Shaman King style?

>>5359979
>the pastebin
Chad should be wearing his metal armor or have it in his inventory space. I don't see it. He should in theory be able to wear it over his gamberson. Half-plate I think.


First off, go find Ann. We're only tolerated so people will price gouge us, but I think Anna is more or less safe from that. She will do the shopping in our stead.
>Look for...
I agree with >>5360008 regarding explosives.
We also need more guns. Can Anna find us more flintlock pistols? The more the merrier. Maybe even some shortbarreled flintlock rifles that are short enough for kobolts to use?
I just remembered that Reynauld is missing a full arm section of armor. It'd take too long to get a replacement, so can we just buy him a pre-made arm armor thing? You know like the one the gladiators wear to protect their arm? Or just an arm brace like what Snikt has?

>>5360212
I think we're fine.

>>5360737
>>5361374
spending money on enchanted swords sound like a money dump. Why not instead of doing that, we could get a dagger, coat it in melted gold, and try to enchanted ourselves?

>>5361817
>Why not instead of doing that, we could get a dagger, coat it in melted gold, and try to enchanted ourselves?
That's what I meant by "enchantable", but we also don't really know how to do that, and we don't know how long the gold coating would last or what would happen when it wears off. One anon was talking in a prior thread about a gold core or the like, to keep that soft-but-easily-enchanted bit out of harm's way. I don't know if even THAT'S viable, but it seems like it would be the safer bet if so.

>>5361943
The problem is that enchantments are random, so we could blow through 2000 munies and get a Sword of Slowness for all we know.

>>5361817
Well damn, i forgot to add it. Good catch, thank you.
--------------------

In the end, you elect to let Anna do most of the shopping for you, after you found her. It wasn't too hard, as she was looking for you, as well. You ended up finding eachother at the prison, where your kobolts are being kept.
"...Figured you'd be stuck shopping for a while, Reynauld. Heard they give quite a reward for the kind of heroics we did."
"You'd be correct, but I don't know if you've noticed, but people only trust me as far as they can throw me. And I'm very heavy in plate."
Anna looks around, and notices the dirty looks that you're getting... and how shiny your boots look, from all the spit. You've grown used to it, at this point. Once your arm transformed the way it did, you had already inherently accepted that this was going to be an issue, and when it actually happens...
Well, it's not the first time anymore. And you just have more important things to focus on.

"I'd like you do some shopping for me."
"...Alright, what's the goal and what's the budget?"
"Bombs and guns, mostly. Something to equip the kobolts with."
"Proper rifles, I'm guessing? Flintlocks are more specialized use."
"You read my mind. Your budget is about 1500 rosarians."
She chokes for a moment, and you're pretty sure she's grinning behind her half-mask. You can kind of hear it in her voice as she laughs:
"Yeah! Alright, sure; I'll go equip an army real quick!" She says, and you stop her just before she runs off:
"One more thing... Do you think you could get something for my exposed arm? Don't think it's worth it to get anything fitted, so a simple pauldron with an adjustable strap will do."

Anna nods, and then she runs off, while you head inside the prison.
Once there, you're warmly greeted by a group hug, with little Petrus sitting on top of your head, and you just keep the kobolts entertained for a while...
Though you do take one moment to speak to William;

He's getting worse. And fast.
He decided to remain in a cell, for now, and he's sitting in what is practically a fetal position, rocking back and forth... and clutching a rather large tail that he's grown. In fact, when you get close, and he turns around, you see that he's actively chewing on it. You've been told that newborn kobolts do this for a long time, though not for very long. As young as Petrus is, for instance, he stopped down it months ago.
William tries to speak, but it's labored and slow, not helped by his jaw being practically half-shattered as it begins to push out.
"W-what... d-does... Drra... Ddraagg.. hhhkk..."
He can't finish the sentence, but he tries again.
"Rey... nauld. I feel weiiiird." He warbles, and he's almost delirious.

...It's speeding up. Dramatically so, it seems. That said, you think it's mostly because of the sheer panic he's undergoing, and... guessing from how tightly he's hugging you, the fact he finds comfort in your presence.
It's a catch-22. There's no winning option, here.
(cont)

Paracelsus later comes in to check up on him, and she comes to the same conclusion as you. It's how he feels speeding things up, and the fact that the transformation is much, much less careful. The dragon transformation is slow to avoid melting the victim alive or outright killing them... but a kobolt is a much simpler organism.
The transformation, as such, takes much less time, especially if he's already similar to a kobolt. Being your squire...
Well.
You don't think he'll even be recognizable as a former human by the time you reach Mother Mountain. His hair is falling out in clumps, and the scales are rapidly overtaking his skin. But you can't leave him behind at this point, either. His change is going to happen irregardless of your presence.

Anyway, when Anna comes back she looks very pleased with herself.
"I've brought party favours! I've got about 20 sticks of dynamite, I got them in bulk at about 150 rosarians... and I had some frag grenades made over at the Dwarven Warrior's guild for 300. 15 of those. The dynamite isn't going to be that great for combat, but if you want to surprise someone, it'll do just fine. Of course, they're still pretty good for combat. I wasn't legally allowed to buy more... but I did get a couple rifles for you all! These are dwarven make, so they're adjusted for small people. I got you about 10 of those, for about 750 rosarians. Ammo cost me an additional 100, and before you ask: these guys are really big on the right to self-defence. I love dwarven shops."
Anna seems very pleased with herself, and you have to admit, she's already gone out of her way to get her own gear upgraded a bit. She's wearing some proper armor, for one, though she was wearing that before her shopping trip."

"All in all, that set you back about 1400 rosarians. It was an expensive little shopping trip, but these rifles are made to be easy to use, and they pack a punch. I think that was more than worth it, no?"

Alright.
You suppose you're ready to continue your journey. The town here isn't too welcoming, so you don't see much reasons to stick around... Or do you,

>Get moving, time is of the essence

>Stick around and look for...
You could probably get a refund, if you want to walk back on any purchases from Anna.

>>5362173
Hang on, that only adds up to 1300. Anna? Taking some serious liberties with all that rounding, are we?

>Spend the remaining budget on extra ammo
We need to train a regiment of kobolts to use the rifles by the time we get to Mother Mountain, and dry-firing drills won't be enough.

Also, since we can't stop William's transformation, the only thing we can do is try to make it as easy on him as possible. If moral support from " his dragon" isn't enough, we could put him in a medically induced sleep until he turns completely.

>>5362231
shid i changed the prices around but forgot to change her total. my bad.
assume she's shit at math.

>>5362234
I actually assumed she bought a lil' something for herself (or Chad) and hoped to sneak it past Reynauld.

>>5362173
Thank Anna for her help. It's nice to know she will be safe with her own set of Armor.
I don't think we can or should personally try to comfort William, as much as it breaks my heart. Lets ask Chad if he can help Will calm down and try to slow down the change. Will's a pretty above standard kobolts, so maybe he knows enough about what we mean to not accelerate Williams changes, and hopefully teach him how to fight against the magical kobolt entity in his mind.

>>5362231
+1 for additional ammo for practice. The sooner everyone is proficient with their weapons, the sooner we'll be strong enough to beat Ogg. They can practice every once in a while when we stop.

>>5362234
How much cash do we have left? Do we have enough to buy another horse to make travel time faster? Can we get horse sized gambersons to protect them from light arrows, shallow cuts, and rocks?

>>5362234
Would it be a good or bad idea to practice our magic as we travel? Can we teach the kobolts in the caravan wagon how to dry fire and load their guns?

>>5362173
I nearly forgot. Ask Chad to give Will a hug for us, but don't tell him we asked him to do it. Don't want to make his acceleration happen faster.

>>5362231
Support
>Talk with William about the hard facts and ask him if he wants us to mercy kill him if he goes full Kobold and his mind is lost.


My hate for Oggy grows by the post, William didn't deserve this, not an ounce of it. I doubt by the time he goes full Kobold anything will be left given the fact it is pretty clear that thrice-damned bitch left the mental corruption aspect in Wiliam...we need to mercy kill him, he will be as good as dead anyway mentally and I don't believe he would want his walking corpse to be puppeteered by the magical sentience controlling his transformation. Because I know if it was me that would want the same kindness done to me. Death is the preferable outcome to losing one's self in such a nightmarish way. Oggy isn't going to die clean, we are going to kill her painfully, slowly what we are going to do to her will have nothing to do with justice, no this is in the name of vengeance; for what she did to Paracelsus, for what she did to those innocent towns folk, and most importantly for what she did to William.

>>5362173
>ask Chad if he can help Will calm down and try to slow down the change
>Get moving, time is of the essence

>>5362616
William's corruption, like Dreygaun, is undoubtedly a part of him in many ways... And, hey, maybe we can force her to cast a kobold-to-human transformation to reverse it?

We failed to protect our ward once the least we can do is give him the dignity to die still himself. To make this call while he still can before everything that makes him William is lost. and his mind, body, and soul are consumed by this damn curse. Why am I so adamant in this view? because from everything that we have seen this curse works on a similar line of logic to a zombie rage virus, once infected the person begins to lose themself, their body succumbing to the infection before their mind is lost and they become just another screaming face in the feral hordes. Only our curse is so much more insidious, it not only takes the body and mind but the very soul of your being and perverts it. the moment that seed of corruption was planted in William a sentient magic was formed to force the changes on him, to turn his mind against him, to eventually subsume everything that made who William was into nothingness till all that remained was the Kobold. We have seen it, we lived it and, we have even talked to the thing that is slowly killing William to take his place. I said at the start of this we failed him once but I was wrong, we failed him the first time by not sending him home knowing full well how dangerous and cruel this world is, we failed him again when he allowed Oggy to curse him, and now if we allow him to go full Kobold we will fail him a final time, and allow that damned corruption inside him to puppeteer his still breathing corpse.

>>5362632
Let's run with your analogy, how much of William do you think will be left by then when his body has been fully corrupted and warped, and the curse can focus its full weight onto breaking his mind which is already cracking? William and the perverted magic-born intelligence within him are two distinct beings. yes like Dreygaun this other being was born of aspects of William but once it came into being it was its own distinct entity one that was wholly Kobold who wants nothing more than for the body it is in to be a kobold and for William to crumble and break under its assaults and corruptions on his body and mind. Once William's mind breaks and shatters that damned thing will be the only mind left and our William, the cowardly son of a farmer who failed at banditry, sought to be more by becoming our ward, and squire will die in every way that is important. Even if Oggy could undo the curse by then, turn that wretched thing wearing Williams skin human, it wouldn't be him. So please, back me up on at least speaking with OUR William to find out his wishes before it is too late, we owe him so much more but this is all that can be done now.

>>5362632
The way this has panned out breaks my fucking heart, but not acting, not giving William at least this dignity is wrong. we should also have him write letters to his mother and father as well, make sure any lingering unsaid words are said and given to them if we survive killing Oggy. I wish we could save him, I wish we could make this right, but christ look at the post anon, he is withering away before our eyes the William we know, the William we have seen grow as a person, is dying. And there is nothing we can do to save him. so please let's do this one thing, we can make things right as we should but we can make sure Willaim dies on his terms, and that anything he needs to be said to his mother and father while he is still alive get's said. Put yourself in Williams shoes really envision the nightmare he is going through his body is betraying him, his mind is betraying him, and with each passing day a little more of his soul dies and is replaced with the damn Kobold in his head. If you were in his position can you honestly say you wouldn't want someone to give you the chance to die on your terms to die as the person you are right now rather than letting the fucking thing that will kill you take over your still living corpse and assume your identity?

I wouldn't wish that fate on my worst enemy, No one deserves to die like that. no one.

one last thing I just thought of did that Dragonborn seem like the people they use to be? do you think they would have been completely happy and eager to slaughter men, women, and children because they were "lesser" than themselves and their "perfect ascended forms" or do you think they would recoil in horror and beg, beg to be put down before they could become those things? The simple facts of the matter are William is out of time he will go full Kobold by the time we make it to Oggy's layer. If there was any way to save him I would rail for it, and push for pursuing it to the end, but there isn't. All that is left to decide is do we give William the dignity to die a man on his terms and as himself or die when his mind finally crumbles under his curses assault.

>>5362640
>their mind is lost and they become just another screaming face in the feral hordes
That's not at all what we've seen, actually. We learned Dreygaun was a part of us, not a foreign entity, and could be fought and beaten back. We learned that removing that mind-warping part of the curse could allow us to live a life without ego-death and with persona intact regardless of eventual physical form.

>Even if Oggy could undo the curse by then, turn that wretched thing wearing Williams skin human, it wouldn't be him.
Big if true, but unprovable. That "wretched thing" would be no worse than our other kobold friends, and would have been rooted in William-the-Human. Creating a "human curse" based on a combination of two factors (these being human nature and a kobold BASED on William) seems likely, to me, to produce a re-humanized William.

>So please, back me up on at least speaking with OUR William [about committing suicide while in a vulnerable place]
No thanks. Let's at least TRY to cure him.

>>5362643
>Put yourself in Williams shoes really envision the nightmare he is going through his body is betraying him, his mind is betraying him, and with each passing day a little more of his soul dies and is replaced with the damn Kobold in his head.
Reynauld already lived that, and beat that. You're catastrophizing, and giving up too easily.

>If you were in his position can you honestly say you wouldn't want someone to give you the chance to die on your terms to die as the person you are right now rather than letting the fucking thing that will kill you take over your still living corpse and assume your identity?
I mean, if I was dying either way, and the "fucking thing" was a piece of me which isn't actually even a bad person but is just a bit too affectionate and subservient towards my mentor... Yeah, I wouldn't be super obsessed with taking it down with me.

Hell, the Kobold-William and Human-William are originally the same person. Unlike Dreyagun's dragoniness, there is no inherent will t dominate, supplant, and crush a rival in Kobold-William. Maybe we can convince them to coexist or re-merge to some degree, preserving the essence of their original self?

>>5362645
>id that Dragonborn seem like the people they use to be? do you think they would have been completely happy and eager to slaughter men, women, and children because they were "lesser" than themselves and their "perfect ascended forms" or do you think they would recoil in horror and beg, beg to be put down before they could become those things?

We have no idea what they were like before but, since we've already seen that good and noble-hearted people do not succumb so quickly to draker draconic desires, and we KNOW that many of Ogg's Dragonborn were volunteers... Yeah, I think the raiders may have been monstrous folks who just had their true natures revealed and violent fantasies enabled. Can't say for SURE< but... Seems likely to me

>>5362640
>>5362643
>>5362645

I'm gonna be completely real with you- the way you're dramatizing this and going to such lengths to try to convince us to do what you want isn't actually helping your case. It's making you sound paranoid and overly concerned, especially when we've had proof positive of events and facts that runs counter to your fatalistic and hyper negative perception of things. Your desperate defeats your purpose.

I'm not buying that 'William' as he is is dying as a person. It more strikes me as a general mental change that, by all respects, is only affecting him so badly because he's scared shitless of it, which is fucking up his psyche and accelerating things. We've seen everything, so it's slow on us, and even then we were even headed enough to not panic and just generally slap down the urges when they came regardless of our transformation. We set a goal, and focused on it.

Paracelsus thinks dragonization is fucking rad, and she's a scientist/doctor, so she can compartmentalize her mindset about it.

William is more in line with what you're doing- panicking about the worst possible thing, so you're GETTING the worst possible thing. It's something of a self-inflicted prophesy.

Basically, no. No, I'm not gonna back you up. >>5362649 makes far more sense than you are at the moment.

>>5362173

Backing >>5362231. Talk to him- but not to ask for a fucking mercy kill, no. Just to calm him down. Have Chad talk to him instead if the vote is tied or something.

>>5362649
>That's not at all what we've seen, actually. We learned Dreygaun was a part of us, not a foreign entity, and could be fought and beaten back. We learned that removing that mind-warping part of the curse could allow us to live a life without ego-death and with persona intact regardless of eventual physical form.

when Oggy killed Reynolds curse our MC was no worse for were, really think back and remember she didn't remerge him with us, she didn't make Retnold whole because there was nothing to make whole, yes the curse uses aspects of the person's mind to create the sentient curse, but that being is distinct from the original person unless you want to say Oggy Lombitomized a half of Reynolds mind and his is walking around no worse for were. To the part about removing the magic-born sentient curse before ego death happened you're absolutely right, it can be beaten the person can be saved, with the massive caveat of if you stop the progression before it is too late. And if we haven't already reach that point here, then by the take we get to the mountain we certainly will have think about what the post said compared to a dragon the change is much faster, meaning he will hit that point of no return much sooner.

>Big if true, but unprovable. That "wretched thing" would be no worse than our other kobold friends, and would have been rooted in William-the-Human. Creating a "human curse" based on a combination of two factors (these being human nature and a kobold BASED on William) seems likely, to me, to produce a re-humanized William.

that is just killing the thing that replaced William with extra steps, and the person we get at the end would not be William nor the damn thing that replaced him. and some of our Kobold friends are wretched things let's not forget about what they did to that child. this thing will have been born from the murder of William and deserves to die for killing him. As it is actively attempting to destroy his mind so that it can supplant him.

>No thanks. Let's at least TRY to cure him.
with what time? and cure who? by the time we reached someone who could even attempt to remove the mental curse by then that will be the only mind left in his body. we saw with Reynold how at every step the curse tried to undermine and erode Reynold's mind. and we are seeing the same thing with William happening at a breakneck pace. and he is fading fast.

1/?

>>5362649

>Reynauld already lived that, and beat that. You're catastrophizing, and giving up too easily.
Reynauld is a veteran of this world's crusades and did not allow his mind to shatter into splinters at having to purify his own family, the man is a pillar of willpower and determination. and even he had issues resisting the curse and the mental attacks from the dragon mind. William is none of these things he is a farm boy who ran away to be something more fell in with banits to save himself from starving. The boy is a follower not a leader. In short everything Reynold needed to hold on long enough to have his curse removed William does not have.

>I mean, if I was dying either way, and the "fucking thing" was a piece of me which isn't actually even a bad person but is just a bit too affectionate and subservient towards my mentor... Yeah, I wouldn't be super obsessed with taking it down with me.

you and I have no common ground on this point, and frankly, I find your view disgusting.

>Hell, the Kobold-William and Human-William are originally the same person. Unlike Dreyagun's dragoniness, there is no inherent will t dominate, supplant, and crush a rival in Kobold-William. Maybe we can convince them to coexist or re-merge to some degree, preserving the essence of their original self?

we have seen Williams's mind suppressed as the curse took control on several occasions, with each passing day we see the fruits of its efforts as it erodes William's mind day by day. and the one time we directly addressed it told is it can't stop hurting/transforming William. It is pure Hopium to think it can be reasoned with it didn't work with the curse in Reynold and it won't work here.

>We have no idea what they were like before but, since we've already seen that good and noble-hearted people do not succumb so quickly to draker draconic desires, and we KNOW that many of Ogg's Dragonborn were volunteers... Yeah, I think the raiders may have been monstrous folks who just had their true natures revealed and violent fantasies enabled. Can't say for SURE< but... Seems likely to me

Oggy promised her villagers a bright new age if they followed her and fully accepted her word. What reason would they have to do anything but embrace her message and throw themselves wholly into the curse accelerating it. but as you said yourself we can't be sure, but my view seems likely to me.

>>5362670
>>5362677

>that is just killing the thing that replaced William with extra steps, and the person we get at the end would not be William nor the damn thing that replaced him.
Citation needed. These are opinions, assumptions. They are not proven facts.

>some of our Kobold friends are wretched things let's not forget about what they did to that child
The thing we already came to understand was done out of a very-easy-to-empathzie-with desperation to live and keep their clan's last living child from being eaten by a tyrannical monster? Hence why we let them live, named, them , and recruited them?

>this thing will have been born from the murder of William and deserves to die for killing him. As it is actively attempting to destroy his mind so that it can supplant him.
I don't know, it seems fairly nice. I think it's just changing him by dint of occupying his brain and being a curse. I don't think Kobold-William seems to be actually an evil entity in the way Dreygaun was... And even DREYGAUN was willing to compromise with being a horny, greedy bimbo of a lizard-man who still did heroic Knight Things.

>you and I have no common ground on this point, and frankly, I find your view disgusting.
Cool, neat, very convincing.

>1/?
>?

Oh god, are going to post a manifesto? Please, please don't. I'll bow out and agree to disagree now. As you said, we're coming at this from opposite angles and, while I think your basic assumptions of how this all works are pretty bold and unproven, I will acknowledge that you COULD be right. Just PLEASE don't fill this thread with literal walls and walls of desperate appeals and lengthy lamentations. Whenever you are posting bigger walls of text than the QM in a quest... It's not good.

>>5362670
>>5362677

I was gonna write up a rebuttal myself but >>5362690 once again makes a good point and I will make the same plea. No more text walls please.

>>5362662
>I'm gonna be completely real with you- the way you're dramatizing this and going to such lengths to try to convince us to do what you want isn't actually helping your case. It's making you sound paranoid and overly concerned, especially when we've had proof positive of events and facts that runs counter to your fatalistic and hyper negative perception of things. Your desperate defeats your purpose.

I am being realistic about the situation and Williams willpower.

>I'm not buying that 'William' as he is is dying as a person. It more strikes me as a general mental change that, by all respects, is only affecting him so badly because he's scared shitless of it, which is fucking up his psyche and accelerating things. We've seen everything, so it's slow on us, and even then we were even headed enough to not panic and just generally slap down the urges when they came regardless of our transformation. We set a goal, and focused on it.

WIlliam is actively undergoing mental destruction, Oggy before we went mad made it clear to save our own mind she had to nullify the dragon curses mental aspect or eventually it would destroy who our MC is. That is a type of death one might even say the worst kind of death.

>Paracelsus thinks dragonization is fucking rad, and she's a scientist/doctor, so she can compartmentalize her mindset about it.

Paracelsus is doing so well because Oggy removed the mental sentient curse aspect of her transformation so she gets all the physical transformation but with none of the downsides of having a malevolent mind curse actively trying to destroy who she is.

>William is more in line with what you're doing- panicking about the worst possible thing, so you're GETTING the worst possible thing. It's something of a self-inflicted prophesy.

William is trying to battle the physical effects of the curse while also having to try and withstand the unending mental assault that the sentient magic curse is throwing at him.

you think I am fatalistic fine I doubt I will change your mind. But from my point of view, I am being realistic, and your are huffing hopeium and hoping something fantastical will happen that will allow us to save William.

>>5362693
>>5362690
didn't see the reasonable ask for no more text walls before posting my last reply sorry. I will try to par down my arguments, in fact I've made my point and you've made yours in fact all that is left is to rolls the dice and see were there chip fall.

Spine, am I on the money completely off or somewhat close, I think I have been reading the subtext right but maybe I haven't but judging on how you don't shy away from darker stuff I don't think I am. a response to clear this up would be fantastic.

>>5362699
William will be fine. He's an idiot. He can just as easily be an idiot as a Kobold as he can be an idiot as a human.

Chad and Pink both went in to try and calm William down... though it doesn't seem to be going very well, guessing from how you can hear William crying and screaming even from where you're standing, a distance away from the cellway halls. His cries are... haunting, and it's a mercy the goblin guardsmen here are sympathetic to his plight.
They likely would have asked you to shut him up, otherwise. After some time, Pink leaves the room, and you just give her a look.
She catches on that you want information, fortunately.

"Well... He's going to be a kobolt soon, and that's very scary to him. Things will be very different." Pink says, and she keeps talking: "If what I'm feeling and seeing is right, it's that fear that keeps speeding things up. The way he's trying to fight against his new instincts and thoughts."
Wait... that doesn't connect to what you've experienced:
"You mean to tell me that him fighting against that curse is... speeding it up, somehow?" you ask
Pink strokes her chin in thought a moment, and she keeps walking for a bit, towards the break room. You walk alongside her, obviously, as she continues to ruminate.
"Well... He's trying to fight against his very nature, and that feels horrible. Deep down, he knows that giving in and being a servant to a dragon is the quickest, easiest and most fun way to make it end."

You sharply inhale, but Pink stops you before you can rebuke her:
"Dragon! Before you misunderstand... you need to understand kobolts a little more. Please, let me explain."
She ushers you to a chair, opposite her. It looks like you're using a craps table to talk, but Pink doesn't waste time.
"So... there are four things that creatures need. The four F's. That's Feed, Flee, Fight and Reproduce. That's how evolution came to be. The taller, balder monkey was better at eating, running, killing and making more of itself, so the old monkeys were overtaken. Those four pillars are important to almost every creature. Kobolts are much the same, but!"
She raises her finger, here, and taps on the table for emphasis.
"Kobolts have FIVE. We need to eat, flee, fight and have sex like everything else, but we also need to serve."
You don't think that's entirely correct,
"But Snikt went off on her own, didn't she?"
"And she trusted the first lout that spoke to her with any semblance of authority. Some are better at ignoring the call than others, Reynauld, but we all need it. So... Consider William. He's a proud human, and he loves his individuality. It's what he mostly mocked us for, in the beginning... Now he's got something inside of him telling him to worship you. He can't accept that quite yet."

You remain silent... and Pink keeps talking, after the lull in talking turns almost awkward.
"So, when he called you Dragon, after staying away from you for days... It's like a drink of water after days in the desert. It must have felt really good, because... it feels right."
But this just... raises another question:
"How did this... fifth pillar even come to be, then? You don't need to worship anybody! That's not... you can decide not to serve somebody, and it won't kill you. The other four pillars would see you dead!"
"It's.... hmmm... Well, Kobolts are less than a millennium old, as a whole. We were created through magic. So, from the ground up, we must serve. It's not something we can walk away from, nor would we want to!"

...Hmmm. You should consider William again, for this. You ask:
"So... He won't exactly be William anymore, will he? It'll be... whatever that curse calls itself?"
Pink seems a little surprised, and then says:
"Oh, no! It'll be William... just... well, he has new instincts to worry about. There's no little spirit inside of him. Kobolts aren't as complicated as dragons, we're just... little lizard things, really. Dragons have powerful magic, great fiery might, and a colossal size. There's no need for some spirit to guide things... Hence why it's so painful for him, I think. Ogg was so mad when she cursed him."
"But the end result is the same. The William that was will be replaced, supplanted, even."
"Are you the same person you were two months ago?" Pink replies.

...

You like to believe you are, but...
"Is that a fair comparison?" You ask, and Pink nods fiercely.
"You overtook the spirit in dominance time and time again. You've changed, but you're still you. It's the same for William. Once this is all said and done, he'll still be William... Just a little more eager to please. And, between you and me?"
She whispers this next part, and she has a sad little smile as she says it:
"He was already not that far from a kobolt, deep down."

...Hmm.

Well, you'll have to think on it at a later point, but... you think a mercy kill would not be a needed, in this case.
You think.
You're just assuming Pink is entirely correct here.
"Thank you for telling me all this, Pink."
"Of course! Also, Anna came back a little bit ago, she's waiting behind you with a receipt."

Ah.

You turn, and look at what your goblin companion has gathered.
Seems she bought 50 rosarians worth in "training ammo". Those things are made in bulk, and generally not nearly as effective as proper rounds... but they're perfect for training. However, Anna also decided to buy something extra... albeit without your permission.
"Two necklaces?"
"P-pendants... I, uh... I found an artist that was related to one of the townspeople we saved and he o-offered me a cheap pair of lockets for me and Chad."
She's blushing up a storm, to the point you can see it despite the half-mask and her lack of cheeks. Her green skin means she turns a dark shade of reddish brown.
"They're... matching. Image of us both. They used a, uh, "camera" to get it done. Big flash, and a little later they show off a still image. It's a magical tool, I think."
It cost her five rosarians, which you know is exceedingly cheap for such a service, especially with how pretty the locket itself is.
"I'll... pay you back." She says, but you just pat the smitten little woman on the head:
"I insist that you don't.

You still have 300 rosarians left, but you have something better to spend it on. You looked around for some time, and eventually found a way to improve your cart. While it'll still require your trusty horse Tomatoes to pull, if you're willing to spend about 250 rosarians, you can make the cart itself help pull the weight. If you're reading this right, it'll make the cart require only a quarter of the effort.
It'll take half a day to install, however... But you think you'll make your time back.
Those last 50 rosarians are best kept in your pocket for when you're back on the road.
That should do it, really.

>Perform the upgrade and get back on the road.

>Don't have the upgrade done, get back on the road.

>Do something else in town, before you go.