RQG 138 - Lightning Boy and the Kobold Killers

## Content Warnings

Mass death (aftermath), death, eyeballs, surveillance, acid burning, intimidation. SFX: sustained tone, glooping

## Summary

After destroying the power source, the crew faces the carnage and heads down the tower.

## Synopsis

The party is at the top of the lighthouse, having just reassembled after Zolf destroyed the lightning rod on top of the glass dome. Azu asks Hamid what happened downstairs, and he explains that there was a group of people coming up to attack the party. Azu feels like Hamid could've used a different approach than exploding everyone, as the kobolds seemed harmless. Although Hamid agrees with her, he saw the kobolds were all holding syringe spears and were being directed upstairs and therefore he felt like he needed to act fast. Zolf seems fine with what Hamid did, but Azu is conflicted and upset. Cel is initially conflicted, but they turn their anger towards Shoin instead. Hamid is quite upset about what he did, and as he babbles on trying to rationalise it, Cel goes over to him and hugs him.

Hamid hears more people coming upstairs, and Azu goes over to the trapdoor to look. She sees nothing, and heads downstairs, and then sees a couple of kobolds standing among the remains of their friends. They shout at her when they see her, and then go running further downstairs. Azu calls the rest of the party down, and wants to chase the kobolds, but Hamid stops her and suggests to collapse the roof first. Cel analyses the roof, but figures out it would take way too long to bring it down, so the party gives up on the idea and goes downstairs.

The party comes across Hamid's massacre, with pieces of kobold everywhere. Hamid turns green and Zolf goes to check on the human bodies to see what they have on them. Cel, noticing Hamid's complexion, tries to steer him straight past all the bodies by picking him up and carrying him. They ask about Hamid's crossbow as a way to distract him, and Hamid is very happy about the distraction and they technobabble to each other about Cel's modified crossbow. Zolf notices that the humans were all carrying some type of metal punch card, which he takes. Cel recognises the humans as some of the brigands who have been causing problems on the island. All three of the humans carry a little kit with five bottles, which are labeled 'antidote', 'water breathing', 'water walk', 'mega juice', and 'run away'.

Zolf shows the punch cards to Cel, who believes they can be used to open doors, but they also realise that they have just managed to kill the power so probably those doors no longer work and have locked automatically. Azu, one floor lower in the dorm room, notices a metal barricade that has been created in the doorway, but she manages to push past it. Zolf shows the bottles he found to Cel, and Cel sniffs and tastes the mega juice, determining it does exactly what it says on the label, somehow boosting strength. Zolf gives one kit of potions to Cel, and also gives a 'water walk', a 'water breathing' and a 'mega juice' potion to Azu. He keeps the rest himself.

As the party discuss next steps, they hear something moving in the corner of the room, which turns out to be some kind of clockwork machinery shaped like a brass disc with a human eye in the middle. The eye is tracking the party. Hamid casts magic missile at it, and the clockwork eye-robot explodes into bits. The party heads downstairs, and they come across the storage landing and a freight elevator. Zolf ducks in the elevator and presses the bottom floor, and then ducks out, but nothing happens because the power is out. The party notice two more eye-robots, one above the lift and the other in a ceiling corner of the room. Hamid casts magic missile two more times and succeeds in destroying both robots.

The party heads further downstairs. The stairwell they are heading down is clearly in better shape and more used than the abandoned one they used before. All the doors they encounter are closed, and the stairs quickly become darker as they head down. Hamid casts dancing lights so he and Cel can see. At the second floor down, they notice another one of the eye-robots, and Zolf uses his glaive to attack it, but he misses, and the robot scuttles away up the wall on little mechanical legs. Zolf attacks again and manages to destroy it as it is trying to get away from him.

**BREAK**

As the party heads down, Cel notices a floor they pass which has a door that is ajar. Cel notifies the rest of the party, and Zolf suggests to rush whoever is behind the door. Cel pushes the door open. There is a white, pristine, tiled room behind it. In the middle of the room is some kind of tripod with something on top of it which resembles a light bulb with brass speakers. Suddenly, an incredibly loud alarm starts ringing from the speakers. Everyone involuntarily reaches up to cover their ears because the sound is too loud and overwhelming. Azu fails to cover her ears in time, and she is stunned, dropping to one knee.

Before anyone can respond, a load of spikes shoot out of the doorway, hitting Cel (2 hits; 16 damage). Zolf charges the siren and smashes it, stopping the alarm. Hamid walks over to Azu and asks if she's okay. Six kobolds charge up the stairs behind them and proceed to attack Hamid. The door on the far side of the room swings open, with a wall of blackness behind it, which turns out to be an ooze which slorps into the room. When Zolf slices the ooze with his glaive, it turns into two oozes which both attack him. Cel shoots three of the kobolds, and Azu attacks two of the kobolds non-lethally, accidentally exploding and killing one of the kobolds with a hard hit. Hamid turns his hands into claws and kills one of the kobolds, then turns to the remaining kobold and tells it in draconic to not follow them. The remaining kobold drops its weapon and drops to its knees, and addresses Hamid with "My liege!". Hamid turns his hands back to normal and smiles.

**EPISODE END**

## Quotes

**Azu**: "What happened downstairs?"
**Hamid**: "There was a- a group of people, coming up to... attack us."
**Zolf**: "Right."
**Cel**: "And they're...?"
**Azu**: "And now they're all dead?"
**Hamid**: "...Yeah."
―Hamid explains that he Fireballed a group of kobolds.

**Cel**: "Why though... the little buddies downstairs, they were not bad people, this... this... First this guy, he attacks my village. He attacks the nearby ones, and now he's getting all of these, these, these... people to do stuff that they *clearly* do not really understand or want to do! I am- I am going to *destroy* him!"
**Hamid**: "Yeah, he has to pay for turning these kobolds into violent people. Like, if I- I wish there had been a better way to deal with it, but they were armed and ready to come and attack us, they were being directed actively by people standing next to them. Like, there's no-- there's nothing else I could do!"
**Lydia**: "While Hamid is beginning to, like, babble on like this, Cel goes over and like, sits down and offers a hug."
**Bryn**: "Hamid hugs you!"
**Cel**: "It's all right, little guy."
―Cel hugs Hamid.

**Alex**: "Ok, are you trying to be stealthy?"
**Everyone**: "[brief pause followed by loud laughter]"
**Alex**: "*I have to ask certain questions. I will continue to ask certain questions. Do not presume that I am not aware how stupid the questions are!*"
―Alex asks if Azu is trying to be stealthy.

"All right, that one very much does what it says on the label. Like that is... That is, yeah, that'll make you mega. Like, it's a juice that makes you mega."
―**Cel, after the party finds 'mega joos'.**

**Bryn**: "Alex doesn't seem to want the natural 1 to potentially hit Hamid, who is in combat with these kobolds. Different approach to your normal..."
**Lydia**: "I genuinely expected that."
**Bryn**: "Yeah, I mean come on, there's been times where I have hit other party members, it's only fair one of them hits me!"
**Alex**: "There is something more fun I can do."
**Everyone**: "Nooooo!"
**Lydia**: "My beautiful sparky weapon!"
**Alex**: "I rolled a 17. It happened!"
**Lydia**: "Oh no! What?"
**Alex**: "Well, none of you can give me active Perception checks during a combat round, so who knows what happened?"
**Lydia**: "What?"
―[add context]

**Alex**: (*After Azu non-lethally hits a kobold with a 26 attack roll*) "It explodes."
**Helen**: (*high-pitched*) "Wha--what?"
**Alex**: "You hit it with the flat of the blade, and WHOMP, you leave its limbs behind."
**Everyone**: (*disgusted noises*)
**Alex**: "It tumbles down the gap in the stairwell, now as a warning to the others."
**Ben**: "Now one good thing, remember, with Gods: They care about the intent."
**Alex**: "It's true!"
**Ben**: "So Aphrodite is probably like: '...it's cool'."
**Bryn**: "You tried! That's what matters."
**Alex**: "I'm pretty certain that the phrase goes; 'The road to Aphrodite is paved in good intentions'."
**Helen**: "And dead kobolds."
**Alex**: "And dead, very dead kobolds."
―Azu accidentally obliterates a kobold.

**Hamid**: (*To the kobold in draconic*) "Do not come after us!"
**Kobold**: (*Dropping to its knees*) "My liege!"
**Bryn**: "....Now we have an alternative way to deal with kobolds! My hands turn back to normal, and I *smile.*"
**Helen**: "Oh no! [...]"
**Lydia**: "This is genuinely quite worrying."
**Helen**: "This is something that James would do."
**Ben**: "Yeah, this is where Hamid goes Bertie."
**Helen**: "Noooo!"
**Alex**: "Yeeeesss! Yeeesss!!"
**Ben**: "He tries to become a good person, but then the call of power has pulled him back."
**Bryn**: "Guys, guys, guys... it's gonna happen or not, it hasn't happened *yet.* We don't know which way it's gonna go."
**Helen**: "You do!"
**Bryn**: "He's got good friends around him with good morals. It's your job-"
**Helen**: "Yeah, but he mostly finds them annoying."
**Alex**: "-And an army of poison-wielding scientists!"
**Bryn**: "The way to stop someone going to do the dark side, is through love."
**Alex**: "Or surrounding them with an army of poison scientists!"
**Helen**: "No, it's through love, and it's going to happen."
―Everyone worries that Hamid is going to the dark side.

## Dice rolls and Mechanics

* Azu, Hamid, Zolf and Cel Perception check: 16 (Zolf), natural 1 (Hamid), 23 (Azu), 16 (Cel)
* Cel Knowledge (engineering) on collapsing the roof: 27
* Cel Knowledge (engineering) on the punch cards: 30
* Azu Perception check: 23
* Cel Craft (alchemy) check: 20
* Hamid, Azu, Zolf and Cel Perception check: 30 (Hamid), 14 (Azu), 14 (Zolf), 28 (Cel)
* Hamid, Azu, Zolf and Cel Perception check at the freight landing: 20 (Zolf), 28 (Hamid), 24 (Azu), 28 (Cel)
* Zolf attack roll on the eye-robot: ? (miss), 18
* Hamid, Azu, Zolf and Cel Perception check as they head downstairs: Natural 1 (Hamid), Natural 1 (Azu), Natural 20 (Cel), 21 (Zolf)
* Cel, Zolf, Azu and Hamid Fortitude Save against the alarm sound: 22 (Hamid), 25 (Cel), 21 (Zolf), 12 (Azu). (Zolf uses unity to allow his allies to use his Fortitude save instead of their own for this effect so everyone replaces their save bonus with +10.)

## Combat Breakdown

Ongoing effects:

* Hamid: +4 AC from mage armor.

**Initiative:** Zolf (20), Hamid (14), Kobolds, black ooze, Cel, Azu (5)

**Round 1**

* Zolf: Charges the siren, attacking it with his flaming glaive: 23 (16 damage). He smashes the siren and it stops transmitting sound.
* Hamid: Walks over to Azu and starts asking if she is okay.
* Kobolds: From the stairs below is the sound of a large amount of running feet, and a squad of kobolds make their way up the stairs. Six of them immediately charge Hamid, but all miss.
* Black Ooze: The door on the far side of the room opens and black ooze slorps into the room, provoking an attack of opportunity from Zolf: 24 (23 damage). The ooze is sliced and turns into two different ones. Both of them attack Zolf, one hits and deals 10 damage + 5 acid damage. It attempts to grab him but fails.
* Cel: Shoots at four of the kobolds: 23 (7 damage), 23 (9 damage), natural 1 (miss), 16 (12 damage). They manage to kill three kobolds.
* Azu: Attacks the kobolds around Hamid, trying to non-lethally cleave them: 16 (26 damage, it explodes the kobold), 14 (miss)

**Round 2**

* Zolf: Takes a 5 foot step backwards and casts prayer. The party gains +1 on attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saves, and skill checks, while their enemies take -1 on those rolls.
* Hamid: Turns his hands into claws, and he attacks one of the kobolds: 8 (miss), 22 (4 damage + 4 fire, the kobold dies). Hamid turns to remaining kobold and speaks to it in draconic: "Do not come after us."
* Kobold: The remaining kobold drops to his knees and says "My liege!" to Hamid.

## Trivia

* The ooze is most likely a black pudding.