A few moments after James’s dungeon warned Felipe’s group in the pocket canyon.
Despite the sudden warning, no one panicked, Karl took a quick look over the crenellations of the wall, shook his head and called back to us, “Nothing yet, maybe they just left the village. If so, they should be here in just over a candle mark.” I nodded, that meant that we still had some time before their arrival. I turned and called out, “Alesandro, let’s see if we can get a ceasefire agreement of some sort out of the kobolds before the rest of them show up.” He started on his way over to the kobolds near where I was and said, “won’t hurt to try Felipe.” We had managed to get a few items cleared up when Alesandro was translating yesterday, but the biggest thing that we got across was that we were not here to kill off the kobold tribe. Not that we could accomplish that with our numbers anyway, although we would put a serious dent in their numbers if we had no other choice.
The leader of the kobold trio, Ssylasss, he seemed to be called, was unusual for a kobold scout in that he was both literate, and quite intelligent. Most kobolds, I had encountered in my years of travel and delving were quite savage and shrewd, though none had showed a predilection for note taking or letter writing. Frankly I had thought that most kobold knowledge was passed down via oral tradition, meeting this kobold, proved my bias incorrect, at least in this case. Alesandro and I worked hard to get Ssylasss to agree to call off the tribe before they arrived at our walls, we were fortunate in that we found the one thing that could influence his decision to help us, the dungeon.
Unfortunately Alesandro and I were unable to get Ssylasss to agree to call off the kobold tribe in exchange for our help negotiating with the dungeon before they arrived outside our walls. On the other hand, they were still trying to determine the best way to attack our walls, when we came to an agreement with Ssylasss. It was with some trepidation that Alesandro and I set him loose with a parchment describing our agreement, there was a moment as Ssylasss walked past me where he paused glancing up at me and nodded, before he walked out from our walls to his tribe members, I am not entirely sure what he meant by the nod, but I hope it was for the best. As soon as he passed into the area of the spells effect, I made my way up the wall to Karl who was watching the tribe and our former guest from behind a crenellation. I stopped behind a neighboring crenellation and asked, “Well Karl, do you think my desperate gamble will bear any fruit?” After a moments thought he spat over the wall and replied, “we will find out one way or another by tomorrow.”
A few moments ago as Ssylasss walked beyond the fortifications in the pocket canyon.
I was somewhat surprised that the humans were trusting me to negotiate with the tribe on their behalf. Although, I don’t suppose they have much choice in the matter, the strength of their group is insufficient to deal with all of the tribe, it would still be disastrous to the tribe if we did clash. The parchment in my hand was much cleaner than the hides I had done most of my previous writing on, I wonder what the elders of the tribe will make of this. Assuming that the elves and their friends keep this agreement, the tribe will have a chance to get what we need, a mana rich environment suitable to raise our younglings. If we achieve that our tribe will flourish, but, given what the dungeon did to our village walls I am uncertain how the negotiations with the dungeon will go, but, with the human wizard’s ability to translate our words, there is at least a slim hope that we may succeed.
As I crossed out of the sorcerers barrier, I looked for any one of the tribe who might be in charge, fortunately I did not have to look long. Sselsdons called out to me as I approached the warriors just beyond the barrier, “Ssylasss, I see they let you go, where are the others?” I held up the parchment in my hand, and said, “Sselsdons, I need to see the elders, and you might want to move the warriors further back, you are in bow range.” It took about 30 breaths after Sselsdons gave the order for the tribe to back away enough from the sorcerers barrier that they wouldn’t be vulnerable to a sudden volley from the wall the elves had built. Sselsdons, ordered one of the tribe to escort me back to the village so I could talk to the elders. I managed to get him to hold off on attacking the elves until after the elders could make a decision following my discussion with them.
It was half way to midday when my escort and I entered the meadow that contained our village, I could see three of our tribesmen tending to the ogre, unlike yesterday he was sitting up and had a poultice on his wound. I stopped over by the ogre and his caregivers that he was doing much better and had awoken earlier today and despite his head still hurting, he was somewhat able to eat some porridge and move around a bit. Considering I thought he wouldn’t live through the night, it was a significant improvement in is his condition. Not wasting any more time, I made my way over to the main cook fire where three of the elders were discussing the possible fate of the village, appropriate considering the parchment in my hands.
As I approached the camp fire, the eldest of the elders, turned her gaze towards me, then tapped her can on the ground twice, hard enough that the other two elders paused in mid conversation and looked towards me as well. She gave an almost indignant snort, then asked “Well, Ssylasss, what do you have to say for yourself, showing up in the village without the rest of your scout team?” Despite out-weighing the eldest by several stones, she still intimidates me like I was still a hatchling, I gulped nervously, then started to tell the elders what had happened since my team and I were ambushed. Almost every other phrase invited more angry questions from the elders, and a story that should have only taken half a hand, lasted until midday.
Once my interrogation was complete to the dissatisfaction of the elders, the eldest, reached out her hand and demanded the parchment I had been holding on to since I left the elves earlier this morning. The eldest read over the parchment, harrumphed, then thrust it into the hands of the chief who had been on her right, saying as she did, “read this.” Then, to prove she hadn’t forgotten about me, said, “Ssylasss, send someone to tell Sselsdons to bring all but ten scout groups back to the village, he is to return too. We elders are going to discuss this, agreement. You are not to leave the village. We might have further questions.” As she said that, I felt a shiver in my tail, I bobbed a nod and scampered off like a youngling to fulfill the eldest’s order. This was going to be another long and trying day.
Dusk, had proved my midday predication, thoroughly. I had barely moved from my place across from the elders since I sent someone to Sselsdons at noon, the eldest and the other elders, including the chief asked me to go over what I had been thinking, if I had been thinking, when I assisted the human wizard in drafting the agreement on the parchment I had delivered to the elders. They asked about the size of the group of elves and their friends, their groups composition, their weapons. They asked about the method the human wizard used to talk to the dungeon, they asked me if I had seen them talk to the dungeon, and if it had responded. They asked me so many questions about every little thing I had experienced since my team was ambushed, that my head was throbbing and I was wishing that the fire and thunder weapon used by the dungeon had killed me.
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As some of the tribe were bringing out stew for dinner, the elders and the eldest made their decision. They would honor the agreement with the elves and their companions, despite much grumbling, the ability to negotiate with the dungeon that so far had been displeased with us was simply more than we could deny. The eldest would join me, and two teams of scouts, to visit the encampment of the elves to lead negotiations with both the elves and the dungeon in the morning. My fate after these negotiations were complete, so far was still undecided, and a source of much worry.
Half a candle mark after the kobold Ssylasss left the encampment of Felipe and his group.
I sighed as I left Karl to watch the kobolds who had backed out of bow range and were now at least partially hidden behind trees and shrubbery. I made my way back over to Alesandro and said to him, “Well, we managed to send off the kobold with an agreement to negotiate with the dungeon for them, now for the hard part. We need to tell the dungeon that we have done so.” Alesandro looked at me and swallowed hard, then replied quietly, “we might as well, hopefully the dungeon doesn’t get too angry with us, or outright refuse, because we won’t be able to hold out until reinforcements arrive.” I looked at him, agreeing with the sentiment, although I could have wished that he didn’t mention that last part out loud, then replied, “Well. Standing around here won’t get it done any sooner.”
We approached the back of the canyon where the dungeon had its display wall with a fair amount of trepidation. Serena backed out of the way so that she wouldn’t be as affected by Alesandro’s translation magic, I smiled weakly as she passed me by, it looked like she empathized with our plight but was glad it wasn’t her doing the telling. There was a phrase on the display waiting for us as we approached it, I could almost guess what it said despite my unfamiliarity with the script. It took Alesandro a few moments to confirm, yes, it did say “what is going on?” It took more time to get our point across to the dungeon than we would have liked as we hadn’t covered some of that vocabulary during his language lessons yesterday. Once he did understand what we had done, the phrase on the display changed to one that read “please wait.” It was about half a candle mark before that phrase left the display.
Once the wait message had been removed, the dungeon started a series of questions regarding what we had hoped to accomplish via these negotiations, the tone of the questions was significantly more incisive than its previous queries. However, it so far hadn’t made any outright displays of anger towards us, and that was a hopeful sign. After another half candle mark of questioning, the dungeon it seemed had calmed somewhat and started to ask more about the interactions between the civilized races and kobolds with their protector ogres. It asked what sort of interactions we would have with the dungeon and with the kobolds if the dungeon acceded to their demands because it wanted to maintain relations with us.
The dungeon also started asking about whether or not the civilized races would trade with the kobolds on a regular basis. Also whether or not we could coexist with kobolds like they did with their ogres and we did with the other civilized races. These questions were difficult and pointed, but all the questions and their answers seemed to be leading the dungeon to an answer of some kind. What that answer was, neither I nor Alesandro were able to answer just yet, but by the noon mark, we and the dungeon had a better idea what might happen with the upcoming negotiations, and so we stopped for lunch.
Karl and Alexio kept watch whilst the rest of us had yet another cold meal, this time it wasn’t because we didn’t want to inform the kobolds where we were, especially since they already knew, but due to the tension in the air, no one really felt like cooking. Unlike yesterday, I didn’t foist the briefing off on Alesandro, as everyone but Karl and Alexio gathered around to eat, I started telling everyone what we had accomplished today. First I told them about the agreement that we had sent off with the kobold Ssylasss, it was a surprise to everyone that we had managed to get as many concessions as we did in that agreement. Although, they were concerned with the reaction of the dungeon finding out that we had promised to negotiate with the dungeon on behalf of the kobolds.
Serena got up from where she was sitting and went over to feed the other two kobold captives, as I continued to tell everyone about our discussion with the dungeon this morning. The rest of the group was surprised at the restraint displayed by the dungeon, and that it hadn’t threatened us, or simply refused us, leaving us to our fates. The group was somewhat confused that the dungeon had asked some of the questions it had regarding trade with the kobolds and interacting with the kobolds. Frankly I wasn’t sure as to the purpose of those questions either, I could guess that the kobolds wanted at least a portion of the dungeon dedicated to them, and the dungeon was inquiring whether or not we would be actively or passively hostile.
Elis and Rhys, made a guess that the dungeon was going to try and civilize the kobolds, but neither I nor any of the other elves could believe that. Despite our interactions with Ssylasss and hearing about the limited trade done with kobolds by the gnomes, it was more than we could really believe. Perhaps a few kobolds could behave in a more than barbaric fashion, but we elves have never seen any large scale evidence of the possibility that they might become civilized in the future. Regardless of that guess, the other questions posed by the dungeon about ogres and their cohabitation with the kobolds, in addition to questions regarding the possibility of others entering a place that had kobolds in a non-hostile fashion, seemed to indicate that the idle guess of Elis and Rhys may hold at least some water.
I am aware of very few dungeons on Patria that have ever taken in inhabitants, and despite whatever the kobolds want, and whatever our expectations and guesses might be, the final decision is with the dungeon. The fact that we haven’t been able to evaluate the dungeon environs beyond our interactions with the display is somewhat disheartening. Some of the other members of the group, although they are glad they aren’t having to fight for their lives in the dungeon, wish that they could have at least seen some of the things described by Timoteo. The uncertainty of our fates and the upcoming negotiations with the kobolds and the dungeon, have us all anxious to a greater extent than we really would like, it almost feels like crossing a chasm on an old rope bridge, not knowing if or when it will give out.
After the briefing, I wandered around the camp talking to everyone briefly. Maxim, gave me another one of his toothy grins as I approached him, I managed to force a grin of my own as I sat down. We talked about the odds of how things would turn out, when Karl called down to us that most of the kobolds were leaving. I scrambled up to the wall, and watched for myself as almost one hundred kobolds made their way from where they had been standing back towards the village, leaving what looked to be about thirty or so kobolds behind to keep an eye on us. Whether or not this is a good thing for us in the long run, at the very least we are not under an unbreakable siege for now.
This day has been a busy one with many twists and turns, and to think that it isn’t even over yet, there are still two and a half candle marks worth of daylight left. Given the withdrawal of most of the kobolds, it is unlikely that we will see any movement regarding the negotiations today, but that doesn’t preclude anything where the kobolds are concerned. If I was still a whippersnapper of less than a hundred years, I might even be inclined to chewing my fingernails given the tension of this situation. I sighed, and made my way back down the wall, I called over to Diogo and told him to untie the captive kobolds to handle the necessities one at a time, and also to give them some ointment to treat the chaffing of the ropes. If we are to successfully complete negotiations with the kobolds, treating our prisoners well will certainly not be taken amiss.