Fantasy Cursed Island

[Fangs9090]

Erina nodded. "Whoever lives here takes pride in their territory. I suppose I can understand that much."

Niudisa huffed. "And I bet a fight wouldn't do this place any good."

 

[Darkling0096]

"It is than a web in a dark room, isn't it?" Joanne said with a smirk.

"Was that a joke?", Adran paused, "Did you guys hear that?" He looked at the paladin, "I didn't even know you knew what a joke was!" Some arguing broke out before the sound of wings flapping hit Emil's ears, and then Shuffle and Beri's. By the time the others could hear it, the trees were shaking under the wind generated by the flapping of the wings. Whatever it was, it was massive.

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil glanced up as he heard the sound. "Guys?" Before he could really get anyone's attention, the others could hear it as well, drawing heads to look up for the source.

 

[Darkling0096]

Joanne crammed her helmet on and assumed a defensive stance as a behemoth of a dragon slammed to the ground, making a dent in the grass with the impact. It was smaller than any dragon encountered so far, but still massive. It was humanoid, and at least fifteen feet in height, possibly twenty, with purple scales so dark they were almost black. On its head were two dark grey horns that curled to the front, aligning with its snout. Its claws were ebony, and in its hand was a crossbow so large it could very well have once been part of a ballista. Across its chest and between its wings was a billowing cloak with a pin that had five dragon heads in a spiked circle in the front. Red, blue, green, black, and white. All five were glowing slightly. Around its waist was a long loincloth with what was assumedly a beltbuckle in the shape of a roaring mouth, the laces of the thing chomped in its teeth. Down its throat and to the end of it's long thrashing tail were ivory scales in stark contrast with the almost ebony ones everywhere else. The right eye was scarred a cloudy white, with a claw mark over it. It was probably blind in that eye.

It roared something at the group in what sounded like the speech goblin used. Jerry could pick out a few words here and there, something about treasure, probably ordering them to pay the toll or die. Definitely male, from the sound of his voice.

When he didn't get what he wanted, he raised his crossbow and took aim at the group, the bolt glowing red. It repeated its command, this time in what some of them could recognize as Draconic from the encounter with the dragon turtle. "You will pay the tribute now, or you will perish, three handfuls of your valuables, now!"

"Jerry, I think this is your area," Adran hissed.

"There is no need for violence, Tollkeeper," Jerry called, "If you would, might you speak in Common? Of this group, only one can understand you as you currently speak."

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle went down on all fours as the tollkeeper appeared, taking a defensive stance. She was starting to dislike that language, as this was the second time she was threatened in it. At least, it sounded like a threat.

The rest of the group was likewise defensive, in their own way.

 

[Darkling0096]

The Tollkeeper narrowed his functioning eye as someone talked back. "Who thinks they can command me?", he demanded, but did switch to common. "Three handfuls of your valuables, or you will die," he repeated.

"We have nothing to pay your toll with," Joanne answered, "A dragon turtle has claimed our valuables just a short time ago."

"That is not my business," the Tollkeeper snarled.

"It should be," Adran replied, "She's blocking the route to your gate. No one who wants to come through here can do so without going through her, she's scalping everyone that passes through." He hoped the others could pick up the lie he was constructing.

"It is the right of dragons to claim a hoard," the Tollkeeper hissed.

"Is it the right of dragons to steal from other dragons?", Beri asked, not leaving his coiled up pouncing stance.

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina gave a nod. "A fair point. With her strategic location, she's claiming all the treasure that comes through before you can even see it."

 

[Darkling0096]

The tollkeeper thought about that for a moment. "Show me your faces, I wish to see who lies," he snarled, looking at everyone with a covered face. Joanne, Jerry, and whoever else had their face covered lowered hoods and removed helmets. The tollkeeper took a good look at the members of the party. He paused at Jerry and Shuffle, taking his finger off of the trigger of the crossbow and pointing it at the sky. "If I had known there were wyrmbloods amongst you, I would have been more courteous," it sounded like an attempt at an apology. "Tell me more about this dragon turtle."

"Only if you promise not to kill us," Emfa demanded.

"I am not beholden to you, cow," the Tollkeeper didn't even look at Emfa when he said that.

"That is the terms, I am afraid," Jerry replied, "We will tell you what we can, but only if you will let us pass unmolested."

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle nodded. "We're a team, so we stay with each other. If you molest one of us, you molest us all." Her understanding of the word was questionable.

Emil facepalmed.

 

[Darkling0096]

A round of facepalms followed Shuffle's misunderstanding of the usage and definition of molested. Jerry made a mental note to sit down later and explain to Shuffle that when adults are talking she needs to be quiet, because her ignorance could get them killed in these situations. Even the Tollkeeper facepalmed. "She is young, isn't she?", he asked.

"Quite," Jerry nodded. The tollkeeper sighed. It might have been a limitation of having only one working eye, but the Tollkeeper kept looking at Jerry and Shuffle.

"If you will tell me what you know of this turtle scalping my business," the Tollkeeper said slowly, "Then I will forgive your inability to pay my toll."

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle glanced over at the chorus of slaps, not quite understanding the reactions. She looked at the tollkeeper again. It sounded good to her, but it seemed like the others were making the decisions.

 

[Darkling0096]

"That is acceptable," Joanne agreed. The functioning eye rolled. Apparnetly, the Tollkeeper had no respect for anything that wasn't also a dragon.

"If it is acceptable to your leader," the Tollkeeper glanced at Jerry, apparently assuming Jerry to be in charge because she was visibly somewhat draconic, "Then you are welcome to stay in my home while you pay with information."

"We can do that," Jerry nodded.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle hesitated before relaxing her stance, since it seemed they wouldn’t fight after all.

 

[Darkling0096]

The tollkeeper nodded and turned to lead the group to his home, brushing the grass back up as he went with his tail. As the group started to move again, others could see Veo was holding Emfa back by her tail and the neck of her shirt. As soon as Emfa seemed to calm down some, Veo let go, and Emfa charged forward, inadverdently bringing a hoof down on Jerry's tail. "Ow! Emfa, you're on my tail!" Emfa didn't respond and just trooped on. As soon as Jerry could, she pulled her tail up, deciding it wasn't worth the risk to let the thing hang loose with feet on the ground. Considering the length of the appendage, that was a bit difficult. Damn dragon soul.

The closer they got to the Tollkeeper's camp, the more the grove looked like someone lived here. Oddly, that looked like that someone was much smaller than the tollkeeper, the outhouse was clearly intended for a medium sized humanoid, if a bit wide. There was a garden, some kind of orchard, even goats, somehow. How he'd gotten them down here wasn't clear at all. The shack built from the cave wall at the back was made of stone bricks, apparently carved from said stone, but the mortar holding them together wasn't mortar, rather a king's ransom of melted and polished gold, giving the dark stone a shiny contast. Jerry couldn't help turning her head to look at the shiny every few seconds.

"Er... make yourselves comfortable," the Tollkeeper apparently was not used to guests.

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil and Erina awkwardly remained standing. Something about this hospitality still felt just a bit tense, somehow. Shuffle and Fia, on the other hand, both found their own spots to plop down, also taking frequent glances towards the shiny. Niudisa opted to sit up on a branch where she could see a bit more of the group. Asta remained by Jerry's side.

 

[Darkling0096]

Joanne, like a statue, stood with her hand on her sword. The tollkeeper did not seem eager to fight, but the possibility did in fact exist, considering his introduction. Veo sat against a tree, her back to it. Involuntarily, her vines reached out of her back and investigated the local plants for seeds it did not already possess. Emfa dropped her axe into the ground, blade first handle up, easy to grab and swing. Beri sat down next to the little ones, but if one of them touched him his muscles were tensed to leap into action. Adran squatted under Niudisa, taking stock of the situation and quietly casting True Sight, taking a look at his surroundings to see what magical effects and hidden traps were around. There were no traps, and the only active magical effect seemed to be whatever was making this grove as bright as day, but he could see a large mana signature somewhere behind the shiny shack. Jerry wrapped her cloak around herself and curled her tail around her legs. She hadn't quite gotten the hang of the new appendage. It had finished growing in and gemlike blue scales shooting over its length in the last few hours, at least.

The tollkeeper turned to the shack, going up to the door that was clearly many times too small for him, and opening it. He reached up to the pin on his cloak and turned it. The dragon heads stopped glowing and the behemoth shrank down, dragonlike features retreating until the only hint of what he had just been being his massive wings, his long tail, his legs, forearms, the scales on parts of his face, and his horns, shaggy black hair growing back in as the scales on his head retreated. Even his clothing and weapon shrank down to match his size. A dragonewt, and a pretty sturdily build one at that. He was a few inches shorter than Joanne, but clearly if he wanted to he could give her a run for her money in the muscle department. He vanished into the shack, coming back out a few moments later with a book and quill.

"Now," he said, facing Jerry as he still believed her to be the one in charge, "Tell me of this turtle."

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle didn’t quite catch on that he was addressing Jerry specifically and spoke first. “She’s big and angry! Especially angry...”

 

[Darkling0096]

"I imagine so, little one," the Tollkeeper smiled at Shuffle and looked back at Jerry.

"Large and territorial, she has a full clutch of eggs, one of which the little one ignorantly stole. We returned it, and tried to negotiate for not being killed-"

"Dragon turtles are quite vengeful," the Tollkeeper nodded.

"Yes. In order to not be eaten, we had to give her every scrap of gold we had." The Tollkeeper scratched that down on the paper.

"And why do you still possess an egg?", he asked, referring to the bundle on the ground next to Joanne.

"That is the result of my succubus," Adran replied, "She likes to make trouble."

"You were not asked," the Tollkeeper again didn't look at Adran. The warlock suddenly looked a little pissed.

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina rested a hand on Adran's shoulder, hoping to calm him so he wouldn't do anything rash.

Shuffle spoke up. "He's right though. We did all that and she just went and stole it anyway for no reason." She seemed to realize she had some favor here, which meant she could speak a bit more freely.

 

[Darkling0096]

Adran did something, he was scratching something into his palm with that hand's fingers, but what wasn't visible. Considering his track record, probably a summoning circle for something nasty.

The larvis poked its head out of Shuffle's front to investigate the noise. It apparently sensed something the others didn't and dived back in immediately when the Tollkeeper looked at them. Or it was playing Peek-a-Boo. Considering who it hung out with, either was possible.

"And why did you not break the egg for the toll?", the Tollkeeper asked, now looking at Shuffle.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle blinked. "Well... It's an egg..." She tilted her head. She hadn't ever considered breaking the thing. It was important after all, wasn't it?

 

[Darkling0096]

"It is too close to hatching," Joanne added, "It is not young enough for the yolk to be edible even if we did break it. It would be a waste of resources." The tollkeeper raised an eyebrow as if to question Joanne speaking at all.

"What she said," Jerry was getting a little irritated about this tollkeeper's attitude towards the party as well.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle gave Joanne a confused look. She'd learned that young creatures came from eggs, but she didn't consider that food. To her, it made more sense to let it grow before eating it instead of eating it before it was born. She'd have to ask more about eggs later.

 

[Darkling0096]

The tollkeeper nodded, "That could make trouble for me... did this turtle have any unique breath weapons?"

"Ice."

"Ice and steam, interesting... that should be easy enough to deal with, however," the tollkeeper shook his head and closed his book. "Thank you for this information," he stood up and spread his arms, looking at Jerry again, "You and your companions may traverse my grove as you wish, so long as you do not damage anything."

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle gave a nod. "Thanks. We'll be careful."