apparently Sauriv is under the impression that pippy is just a very precocious Lizardfolk hatchling: Sauriv does not understand what a kobold is. There are Lizards and there are Not Lizards, pippy is clearly Smol Lizard so must be baby.
DM Notes: Here is the second party and storyline I am running simultaneously as the Tears of Sehanine. They are a very different set of players and a very different story style, so it’s been fun to do both stories at the same time! I’m hoping one day they will run into each other.
Diving into the story, we join our heroes on the continent of Makor around the same springtime timeframe as the Tears of Sehanine group almost 2,000 miles to the northwest. This group also travels through Osten, though in a very, very different sort of area. This is the Frelands, named so because of the Freland Forest that stretches from the Ranfus Sea, along the Straight of Osheth, and up to the mountains that separate the Frelands and the jungles of Kaspian. The Freland Forest is a fey-touched forest of unmapped depths that few have attempted to explore. About 150 years ago, the Osten Empire succeeded in a great undertaking and burned back the forest in order to build a city on the other side of the straight, and then a road connecting Athye Harbor and the New City, thereby completing the great trade road that circled the inland sea.
Travelers traverse this watchtower-studded road with caution, as only some meters separates the road from the depths of the forest, a forest which grows at an unnatural pace and attempts to reclaim land every year. The Osten Empire gives a bounty to any magic user who will devote time and magic to burn back the forest and maintain the buffer around city and road. Lately, the forest has reclaimed land at an alarming pace, coming within 20 meters of the road at some points. But travelers must take this road despite the forest, raiders from within, and wyverns that live in the Pillers of the Dragon just off the coast. Dragon turtles swarm the inland sea, making travel by boat an almost assured death sentence. The High Road, as it is called because of the hundreds of foot tall cliffs that line the Frelands from Athye Harbor to New City, is crowded this spring with travelers and merchants. Among these are our heroes.
Our heroes are only five of some hundreds who wait at Fort Kunan for passage down to Athye. Some enormous seismic activity resulted in not only the cliffs between the Frelands and the ocean, but also between the Frelands and Nonsu. Fort Kunan stands at the top of a cliff, below lays Athye Harbor and the Low Road across Nonsu’s rolling planes. The only way down is a carefully controlled path of switchbacks and manually lowering or raising over the worst of the cliff or the frequent collapses. As only a limited number can descend the cliff each day, there is a queue that travelers and merchants must wait in, and bribes abound for a better spot on the queue. Those too poor to pay the bribes, like our heroes, are stuck waiting for their turn, sometimes for weeks, even as they waste their supplies and coin on cutthroat merchants preying on those who must wait.
Our party is a group of five rather unusual individuals who by chance happened to group in this sprawling camp by virtue of luck (good or bad) or recognition of a fellow traveler too poor for the bribes and doomed to wait. There are Pipi and Sauriv, reptilian comrades. Pipi is a rare good natured kobold sorcerer of an electric dragon bloodline. He travels to bring his fellow reptilian species out from the shadows, to escape persecution and become successful members of the greater society. Sauriv was one of Pipi’s successes. Rescued from their yuan-ti master, Sauriv is a rogue who now travels with Pipi as a bodyguard, hanging on to Pipi’s every word and learning how to interact with the northern societies. Sauriv once served as a healer/poisoner for their yuan-ti masters, and does not linger over their old life.
We also have a cat and a bird to accompany the reptilian duo. Topaz, or Paz for short, is a tabaxi ranger, once from Nonsu, who now travels in search of ‘shinies’ and old religious symbols that look interesting (or anything else that catches her attention). She is a serval type tabaxi, with long, long legs and huge ears. The bird is Hiccup the kenku, a constantly-drunk rogue made of bad decisions, not the least of which was joining a secret society that he still knows nothing about. He is traveling to gain riches to prove his worth to the lady who holds his heart.
Lastly, we have the most experienced member of the group, a dwarf named Horace. Scarred by his experiences in the religious wars with the Tomeri Empire decades ago, Horace has not been home to Schauland in some years. The fighter is now attempting to return home, but is not in any real hurry. Steadfast, he is the anchor of the younger, flighty members of the group.
We join our party in Fort Kunan, as they try to figure out some way to occupy themselves and build their dwindling coin reserves as they wait for passage to the lowlands.
My sister’s Lizardman Rogue, Sauriv, and my kobold sorcerer, Pipiotzin (”Pippy”). Pipiotzin helped Sauriv escape from Yuan-ti slavers, and seeks to free all of lizardkind, as well as improve relations between the draconic races and the warmbloods.
(Pippy is the only character in the party so far who is either Good or Lawful. So that’ll be… interesting. (Party is largely neutral/chaotic))
Some Sauriv and Pippy sketches! Featuring the “Pippy pouch” (or ‘papoose’- it’s adjustable!) a custom-made bag created by Sauriv for storing their little friend. Not just for ease of transport, the pouch is also exceptional at keeping its resident kobold safe- sometimes against his own will! When Sauriv fears the situation is too unsafe, they will unceremoniously stuff Pippy in the pouch and seal it, requiring a tricky check for him to successfully escape.
