Dicing with Death: Episode 218

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==Synopsis==
Einhard is with his dwarven cousins in a tavern when a griffon kills one person outside and takes another away. The elves, humans and dwarves have different solutions to this problem, but agree to allow the elves to attempt their peaceful solution first. After a second griffon attack, Einhard begins work on the first balista. The prototype kills a baby griffon, which enrages the mother griffon. The mother griffon kills and takes Jimmy the dwarf. A funeral is held for Jimmy, but inside the grave is his belongings since they don't have a body. Overnight the grave is robbed. Einhard suspects a human miner, Dehta, of the crime, but has no proof yet.
==Recap==
===Character Creation===
This episode of Dicing with Death is 5e, not 2e ADND.
* Movement Speed for Dwarves changed from 25 to 20
It is early on in the creation of The World, Einhard is among the first dwarfs created into existence. He was created with belongings, skills and a "family". Other dwarves created at the same time he considers his cousins.
Einhard is the master craftsman for his "family" of 5 dwarves. He is also a problem solver when his great strength is needed in the mine.
===Griffon Attack===
Einhard's family of cousin dwarves work in an iron mine near a town. The towns populations is 35% human, 25% dwarf, 20% halfling, 20% elf, 10% gnome (110% total).
After a day of working they travel over to the local tavern, "Rosetta's Stone Hall" and take a booth. Einhard and the other dwarves talk with Dehta, a human who runs another mine. Her mine hasn't dug as deep into the mountain as Einhard's mine. Einhard ends up treating the humans to a round of drinks, as the "winner" of mining.
Into the tavern a wounded human stumbles into the tavern and falls unconscious. There are claw marks on his back. Outside there are people are panicking at the sight of a eating a halfling. Einhard and his dwarven cousins don't have their armor or weapons, so stay inside the tavern.
After 10 minutes of eating, the griffon grabs small person (could be a halfling) in their talons, and flies away North-West
Once the danger is gone, the townsfolk talk with one-another about what to do about this threat. Griffons have been known to take people in the past, but this is the first time in the middle of town. The dwarves suggest moving their homes underground so they will be safe, or at the least to defend the town better. The humans want to go hunt down the griffon. The elves want to talk about the matter for a while before coming to a decision.
The dwarves return to their home. Over the next few days they work out a plan to make a tunnel from their home to the tavern. They make a written request to Rosetta the Elf regarding making a tunnel the basement of her tavern. Rosetta approves of the plan, as long as the tunnel is at least 20 feet deep, so not to interfere with the topsoil used by plants for growth. The plans for the tunnels expand to be under the whole of the town, but they aren't enacted.
Einhard and 4 other dwarves, paranoid and overly armoured, make their way to the tavern aboveground. There is laughter from the elves from humans at the sight of this. Dehta tells Einhard that herself and 20 humans have made a plan to send out a hunting part to take care of the griffon. Rosetta interrupts and says that the elves are discussing to just relocate the griffon nest to a more distant location. Dehta agrees to wait for the elves to try to do their plan. Einhard agrees to make some metal spears for the humans.
===The Second Attack===
It is near the time for the dwarves' usual trade run to a nearby larger town a couple days away to sell their metals.
Einhard says they will be delaying their trade run so they can give the humans some better weapons for their griffon hunt, even if they are making a loss. Also during this time they will be working on the tunnel to the tavern.
After five days the griffon returns to town with two fledglings. Einhard has made 4 spears so far.
The townsfolk go hide inside their homes. The mother griffon tears off a thatch of a gnomish house (Alphonso's house) and attack those inside. The griffons fly off with with three of Alphonso's seven children.
With the inaction of the humans with their 4 spears, Einhard decides to stop making spears and starts on the next project, making the first balista. Einhard approaches the gnomes in town to help fund the weapon.
Dehta offers to sell some of Einhard's wears at the next town over in exchange for a cut, but Einhard declines the offer since he wants upfront payment. Einhard's accountant says that Einhard's finances will hold for 2 months.
===The First Balista===
Plans start of making the Balista with the gnomes. Since one hasn't been made before, the planning and testing process is arduous.
The first balista prototype's limbs aren't flexible enough, and will have to be made thinner, and a larger winch is needed. But the frame is solid.
Dehta returns from the trade journey successfully after a week. The dwarves & gnomes decide to head over to the tavern to hear what happened. The humans managed to sell their goods at a higher price since there were less goods coming into town, so demand was higher. Dehta treats the dwarves and gnomes to free drinks. Einhard sells some goods to Dehta at a 10% discount, and the next day Dehta and her friends head off back to the other town to sell them there. Another week later Dehta and her group return again, now wearing jewellery. They sold the spears Einhard gave them for 20 gold each. Dehta orders several more spears from Einhard.
The griffons return again. The balista prototype is still very stiff and its range isn't that good. Einhard and his family prepare the weapon. One of the baby griffon dive towards the dwarves. Einhard fires the balista and it scores a hit. The baby griffon continues it charge and is hit by a dwarven axe to death.
Mother Griffon is enraged. With not enough time to reload the prototype balista, the dwarves go into a defensive formation with readied attacks. The Griffon knocks out of the dwarves (Jimmy) with her beak. The dwarves counter attack, wounding the beast. Mother Griffon retreats, with Jimmy still in her beak.
===Grave Robbery===
There is sadness over Jimmy's death, but accolades over the balista prototype working.
Alphonso, as a tanner, takes the griffon corpse. Einhard and the dwarfs soberly help carry the griffon corpse across down, singing a dirge. The humans happily cheer over the death. Rosetta says some words in elven in condolences towards the dead griffon, not knowing about Jimmy, along the way. Once the griffon is delivered, the dwarves leave it to the gnomes to deal with, and see to Jimmy's funeral.
Cousin Mort makes Jimmy a nice tombstone. A dwarven cleric of Voraci, Zelda, holds the death rites and holds the funeral. But there is no body to bury in the stone casket, but his belongings are placed inside instead. The humans gift some jewellery to Jimmy's funeral as well. THe stone casket is buried in the graveyard.
The next day, at dawn, the dwarven cleric, Zelda, returns with bad news. The casket has been dug up and robbed. Einhard, Zelda, and all the other 15 Dwarves march down to the cemetery at the north side of town. They find the stone casket open to the air and empty inside. The dwarves swear to not do burials this way again in the future.
The Loremaster Dwarf examines the crime scene and sees it was dug out by a human, elf, or half-elf, due to their size. Zelda says they didn't think to guard the graveyard from acts like this. Einhard and the dwarves ask the townsfolk who live nearby if they saw anything during the night. A five year old was woken at 3am (3 hours ago) by noises from the graveyard. A cobbler who was up at 1-2am saw a procession of lights going past. Alphonso saw 3 lanterns around midnight, but a few hours ago he heard curing coming from the streets in the common tongue, like something was dropped. After searching for something that was dropped nearby, a dwarf finds some of the beads that were gifted for Jimmy's Funeral, and next to it was a muddy bootprint.
The dwarves follow the bootprints, and find another bead a long the way. Eventually they lose the trail, so start asking townsfolk nearby. Old Man Willy says he heard a door slamming in the direction of Dehta's enclave.
The dwarven posse go to Dehta's door, but she says she heard nothing last night. Einhard suspects her still, and thinks she will try to sell the battleaxe from Jimmy's grave in the other town.
The dwarves leave for now, but decide to keep an eye out for new clues, but nothing turns up. Einhard and his group remain suspicious of Dehta's group.
==Experience==
No experience given this episode.
Category:Dicing with Death Episodes