The remaining Dragonborn didn't get very far, falling into a pit trap in his desperation to get away from The Red Order. Our heroes helped him - his name being Gavil - out and explained that they were from the Outside World with a message for his leader. They glossed over the fact that they allowed one of the tieflings to escape.
The Dragonborn had much a much nicer settlement than the kobolds, living in an old Arkhosian municipal building, with properly appointed guards, a library of ancient texts and citizens dressed in finery.
Their leader sat on a throne of skulls.
Raskar Moonscale, high priest of Tiamat (puttup!) greeted The Red Order warmly at the thought that they had killed five tieflings. That made the loss of Gavil's patrol worthwhile! He listened intently to the stories of The Order's conquests (killing a thunder lizard was a bug deal to these guys), but it was the tiefling slave sitting at the foot of his throne that perked up at the mention of the defeat of primordials.
Raskar admitted that he did not know where the standard of Arkhosia was, but after The Red Order helped him stage one final attack to wipe out the tieflings his tribe would help them locate it and then venture out into the wider world to restore Dragonborn dominance. His underlings seemed overjoyed at the thought, but this mission wasn't turning out at all like The Order had hoped it would.
Escorted to a private room to rest and clean up in preparation of the feast that evening, The Red Order considered what they should do. Guards kept them within the chamber for their own safety. Arthur used a sending to message the tiefling, since she seemed like an interesting contact. She - being called Tala - messaged back that she would meet with the swordmage and Kawaii following the feast to talk further.
The feast came, and amongst the steaming delicacies were kobold meats. Omar didn't react too well to this, and amongst the laughter of the Dragonborn she was escorted back to The Order's chamber while everyone else talked. There didn't really seem any way of getting around the wholesale slaughter of the tieflings, as the Tiamatites demanded blood.
Once the food was finished, a more informal party ensued. Lenwe snuck back to the room to check that Omar had made it back safely, and comforted her despite the language barrier. He left his sending stone with her so that she could call for help if needed.
Once the ranger returned, Arthur and Kawaii snuck off with teleporting boots to search for Tala's room in the palace. The tielfing waited with tea and negligee on hand, and while Arthur refused the drink Kawaii smelt nothing wrong with it and drank deeply, also answering positively the slave's amorous advances.
Tala told them that she knew where the standard was located, and could help The Red Order to find it if they poisoned Raskar for her (she nonchalantly mentioned while handing said poisons to Arthur and Kawaii looked again at her drink). Invitations to help avoid the massacre of her people were rebuffed; they were all devil-worshipping cannibals,even worse than the Dragonborn. Arthur promised to think it over before returning to the party, but Kawaii insisted on staying behind with the tiefling. She didn't have long before the drink knocked her out however, blearily noting that Tala was laying her on a table with in-built manacles.
Back at the party, Raskar's lieutenant, the blackguard Torinth, approached The Red Order with another prospect: kill Tala for him, and the loyalty of his knights would be secured. Nothing like trust between worshippers of the god of greed, eh?
Kawaii had been missing for some time, so Arthur got himself escorted back to the room to talk with Omar (sharing the same language comes in handy) and use the sending stone to contact Kawaii. With no response, he returned to the party to give Lenwe the nod to stealth on over to Tala's room and rescue the avenger.
Getting there was easy, but after entering the ranger smelled the Dragonborn shortly before they droppedtheir invisibility and attacked.
Laurence J Sinclair
