Talk:Mattiverse Next - Session 15

[9:19 PM] slitherrr: thoughts in no particular order (from the perspective of the Boys who still have no idea what a half-dragon is):
a) it would be weird for the orcs to kill their literal god
b) it would also be weird for orcs to be working with lizardfolk
c) it would also be weird for orcs working with lizardfolk to kill the golden goose that lizardfolk and orcs have been sustaining for centuries
d) it can obviously be subgroups of one or the other who have cross-purposes with other groups. complicating this is that the orcs we ran into, at least, seem to think all the orcs of the swamp are of one mind. we don't have any indication one way or the other for lizardfolk except that one plate armored thing we ran into
e) a lizardfolk in a swamp wearing plate armor would be weird. everything we've heard about them and seen w.r.t. the armor would indicate that it wasn't made by them and that they have no particular culture around using plate armor in general, and it would make zero sense for a swamp-dwelling hunter-gatherer to prioritize walking around in a set of swim-encumbering stuff that rusts. so i think bobwhite could piece together that, if that thing is a lizardfolk, maybe it's a lizardfolk from somewhere else
f) everything being "one clean slice" doesn't really make it look like it was a team effort. one "something" probably did the bulk of the work.
g) so  we're at (i) something other than orcs or lizardfolk killed the hydra and drained it, while one or the other groups tried (and failed) to resist. this seems unlikely because it doesn't seem like whatever it is would take the trouble of cleaning up all but one orc corpse and honestly whatever it is can afford to give zero fucks. clearly. (ii) one, the other, or both together of some subset of orcs and/or lizardfolk assisted whatever it was that did the job
[9:20 PM] slitherrr: if it's (ii), then the thing has some compelling narrative that sacrificing their literal god would make sense for some reason, so it's either dominating mind-fuckery like we've seen with demons (oh boy), or it's tapped into the same religious fervor with some other zeal-inducing attribute we don't have a handle on
[9:23 PM] slitherrr: the orcs we did see were all way into their jobs. not to the point where they were all willing to just throw their lives away for it, though. like it took getting them down to 10% capacity but they did eventually try to run
[9:25 PM] slitherrr: h) the orcs we ran into were kill-on-sight for a tiny group of halflings with no obvious treasure, so they are clearly aggressively defending their territory and probably not someone we can go up and talk to without some crazy leverage that we absolutely don't have at the moment, unless us taking out one of their scrub patrols is enough to get them to listen (but if we're working with the assumption that whatever killed the hydra is working with them, then it almost certainly is not). so the chances of going and finding some orcs to parley with seem slim to none
[9:26 PM] slitherrr: i) since the wydmoorians do trade with lizardfolk and don't trade with orcs, it might be safe to assume that if the orcs are working with lizardfolk, then it's a different group that isn't the ones who trade with wydmoor. so if we're interested in what a bunch of coldbloods have to say, we do have some reason to believe that we might be able to get them to talk rather than just try to roast us on spits
[9:27 PM] slitherrr: j) wandering the swamp aimlessly seems like a bad idea, especially in orc territory. so we either go somewhere else with a purpose or we fuck back off to town
[9:29 PM] slitherrr: k) plenty of people in town probably want to hear about some or all of this. whether we would care to pursue it further depends entirely on whether it gets us closer to that lance part, though
[9:29 PM] slitherrr: like it seems unlikely that we'll want to truck all the way back for a piddling payday and ???information of uncertain value??? just to be almost back at square one w.r.t. the lance
[9:30 PM] slitherrr: so my vote is as long as we're out here, we go try and find some lizards and get them to speak ubrekti somehow
[9:30 PM] slitherrr: and it's only a tiny bit influenced by a meta desire to talk to russ again
[9:31 PM] slitherrr: if anyone's going to have more context for this shit, it's going to be the people literally in control of the dragon turtles
[9:31 PM] slitherrr: oh yeah speaking of
[9:31 PM] slitherrr: l) a dead dragon turtle is another pretty good sign that lizardfolk and orcs aren't generally on speaking terms
[9:56 PM] slitherrr: and m) the fact that that area down there is still chilly is interesting but maybe not something we can turn into anything else, at least with the resources we have
[9:57 PM] slitherrr: i'm sure bobwhite's +8 arcana, if pressed, could come up with some magical bullshit reasons why it's either materially interesting to us, or materially uninteresting to us
[9:57 PM] slitherrr: but from a meta-perspective abs seemed to be indicating that it isn't
[10:00 PM] slitherrr: there's theoretically more temple to swim around in but the one reason we came here, we've found, so we have a history of fucking off when that happens and leaving the rest of the dungeon to its own devices