Sunday, Erastus 6

We slew Longtooth in a brief but fierce battle. Our intent was to meet the terms of our agreement, but to do so absolutely to the letter. No one was entirely satisfied with having to forge a deal with the beast that was responsible for so much death and destruction in Sandpoint, but at that time we knew so little about Mokmurian, and the priority was to neutralize his allies by any means possible. Bribing him to stay out of the fight was a reasonable solution, distasteful as it was.

Once we emerged victorious, however, more and more of us were beginning to have second thoughts about the deal that had been struck. We were of course obligated to follow through, and there was little debate about this, but there were those, myself included, that were itching for a fight because we knew we could take him. And because it felt wrong to leave him where he sat, free to come for us at some point when the advantages were his. All we needed was an excuse to do it, one that did not require us to break our word.

In a sense, we gambled on his nature. All of us were certain that, given the chance, he would try to weasel more from us and failing that would turn to intimidation. This is where I drew the line: any attempt to balk on his part would make it fair game.

And balk he did. I of course was not expecting members of our party to bait him further, but I doubt the taunts did more than speed the advance towards the inevitable. Once he saw that we were victorious, and had brought him what was clearly a sizable share of the loot (and, I might add, a painstakingly accurate share: as I said, to the letter), he realized that he could have and should have asked for more. And that is when he began to argue, and that is when I knew argument would turn to threats. Some of us just ensured that happened quickly.

After we were unimpressed by his display, Sabin moved quickly and tapped Avia and I on the shoulders. With only a short warning to prepare us, we found ourselves teleported right in front of the dragon, quite literally in his face. And we swung away, and he went down in a blur of steel, barely registering what had happened.

It was quite possibly the most brilliant tactical move I have seen. It’s one we should remember for the future.

Soon, we head to the tower for a quick exploration. We wanted to spend more time here, but we learned via sending that there is trouble in Sandpoint—which came as no surprise, for there is always trouble in Sandpoint—and we must return quickly. The tower, however, is here and we have an opportunity to deal with it now, and that is what we are going to do.