You have been marching for over an hour, following the stream cautiously. The sun is now just starting to poke out and more of the local animal life seems to be waking up. Choruses of birds screech above the tree line as you descend deeper into the underbelly of the forest. Muggy and Thick, if your skin weren’t deadened and your lungs stopped, you would be very uncomfortable. But you hardly feel it, and the Goblins don’t seem to care. For such small creatures, they are miraculously durable.

Soon, you break through the trees and you stand at the foot of a massive pyramid. As you enter the clearing, you hear the sounds of fighting, metal clashing and arrows whizzing past. The whole area, hundreds of yards in a perfect circle around the base of the pyramid is smoking and black. Up at the pyramid, there are a group of roughly ten people of various races and professions fighting...something.

It looks like a dragon, except it is made out of stone. Animated rock given life and desperately curled around the top of the pyramid. Though it has wings, it doesn’t seem to be using them or it can’t. It has formed a barrier, and though you can see some of the Adventurers trying to scramble past it’s body, it refuses to allow anyone to get by.

Do you
>Go try to help the Adventurer defeat the Dragon
> Try to pick off Adventurers
>Stay hidden and do nothing

>>46116852
>Try to pick off Adventurers

>>46116852
>Try to pick off Adventurers

Picking off Adventurer's locked in. Writing now.

You tell the Goblins to take care of the adventurers, and to stay close to you. The nod and, with a war cry, you all go charging in. Dashing ahead of them, the first target, a Wizard, is too distracted. It seems like he is using some sort of protective magic on the rest of the party and himself. Sadly for him, the magic does little to stop you. You pass right through his barrier, the crackle of magic barely phasing you, though it does knock back your soldiers. It seems like only Magic from a Divine Source can really repel you in any meaningful way.

You grab the Wizard’s head and throw him down, shattering his concentration. You don’t have time to kill him yourself before your Goblins, now back on their feet, slit his throat and reduce his upper body to a bloody mess.

Without the protection of the Wizard, the rest of the Adventurers are losing ground quickly. Some outright abandon the fight all together and start to run. Your Goblins manage to pick off a few, though they get a bit singed from Dragon Fire they seem strangely unharmed.

Now everyone has either left or is dead. The Dragon now faces down on you, still curled on the top of the pyramid. It’s glowing eyes locked onto yours as it snarls and flaming liquid seeps from it’s mouth.

You aren’t sure if it’s sapient, or what it even reall is. But the fight with the adventurer’s did leave it wounded.

Do you
>Try to go reason with it
>Try to send a Goblin to Speak with it
>Try to fight it

>>46117673
>Try to go reason with it

>>46117673
>>Try to go reason with it
First we get an army of goblins, next we acquire our own personal dragon.

Going to reason with it locked in. Writing now.

You tell the Goblins to stand guard and make sure none of the other Adventurers come back.They salute and scamper off to check the perimeters as you ascend the staircase. You calmly walk up the stairs, made of some sort of glistening brown stone. As you go higher, you see the the stones and staircase get more polished. Like something had been taking care of this place.

You are about fifty feet from the top, and staring into the eyes of the dragon. It’s growling heavily, trying to threaten you. But you keep your eyes level and take another step forward. A tail lashes out at you, and you feel something sharp connect with your skin. Across your stomach and arms is a huge gash, your clothes torn and some of your innards exposed. You see for the first time that the same grey tint that is sinking into your skin has spread across your organs.

You almost go into shock at the sight, your vision starting to darken around the edges. It isn’t the pain, but just the sight of your intestines that starts to rattle you. But before you can fall, you feel an arm on your shoulders pushing you up.

“Now now. You aren’t going to falter now, are you?” Lera says, and though you can’t see the God you feel something supporting you. You know what you have to do.

You take a deep breath, jsut for the comfort of feeling your chest filled with air, and you keep walking. The dragon keeps trying to lash out, but no matter where it connects, you move forward. It doesn’t dare to stop, and though it roars out, it eventually has to part ways or threaten you touching it’s stony flesh.

Now you can see the small room at the top of the pyramid. Inside is a tiny statue, barely the size of your finger. It is made of a brilliant dark green material and it looks vaguely like a man sitting on a turtle. A small golden thread tied like a noose is wrapped around both the little man and the turtle.

Do you
>Try to remove the thread
>Take the statue and leave

>>46118219
>Try to remove the thread.

Howdy OP

>>46118219
>Try to remove the thread

>>46118219
>>Try to remove the thread

Removing the Thread Locked in. Writing now

You carefully remove the thread, and after a few failed attempts you manage to undo the knots and throw the thread down. As it falls, it shrivels up and vanished into dust before it hit the floor. As soon as the statue is free, you feel a rumbling deep beneath the earth. At first its small, but it begins to grow, shaking the dust and pebbles off of every surface.

In moments the rumbling has become a fully fledged earthquake. The dragon outside roars and takes to the sky, flapping above the pyramid and circling overhead, letting off bursts of smoke and more screeching calls that echo throughout the valley. You clutch onto a pillar, sliding down to your knees and trying not to get crushed by some of the falling stones from the cieling.

When you open your eyes, you aren’t in the pyramid anymore. The pillar you were holding on to is now a stalagmite, made of crystal and rock jutting out from a stony floor Across from you, you see a man sitting on a turtle, muttering to himself as he stares into a pool. You approach him carefully as you hear him muttering on about something.

“Damn kids. Think they can just lock me away. ‘ll put sticks in their eyes and feed ‘em to Gorey.” The turtle let’s out a small gutteral noise and the man pats it on the head. He is short, you imagine shorter than you if he were standing. His skin is like rich earth and his hair grey like mountain stone. He turns around and stared at you, and his eyes look like they are made from diamond, glistening in a thousand different colors.

“Eh. You’re the little chop that freed me, eh? I recognize one of Lera’s little Wight Knights. Specially if you’ve got that stitchy stich power.” The man pulls a pipe from underneath the rim of the turtle’s shell and a small stone. As he pressed it to the end of the pipe it bursts into flames before settling into a mellow glow.

½

“Ah. You mortals’ll never know what pipe-smoke is like from the old days. Everything feels so diluted, like you thinned the wine of the World with water. Weak little bastards you are. It's pretty pitiful.” He takes another long drag and blows it right in your face.

“So. What do you say. Want to be my prophet too? If Lera sent you to let me out, then she knew I’d owe you one. And right now that’s about the best thing I can offer.” He says with a bit of dull expectation in his voice. “Or, if you’re still around in a few hundred years I can try to come up with something neat. Name’s Tela, by the by. TRUE God of the Earth. Not like those damnable fucking...” He trails off, muttering words you don’t understand beneath his smokey breath.

Do you
>Accept being his prophet
>Decline his offer

>>46118980
>Accept being his prophet

What could wrong being the Messiah of the Old gods?

>>46118980
>Accept being his prophet
Messiah of the old gods is go, we shall have all the boons

>>46118980
>Accept being his prophet
Old gods are best gods

>>46118980
>>Accept being his prophet
Let's hope that Lera won't mind.

>>46119244
Well, as long as she's our main, i'm sure she won't mind that much.

Accepting the Prophet Life is locked. Writing now.

You get down on one knee, careful with your various cuts and wounds not to fall to pieces at a crucial time. You accept his prophethood...and he starts laughing.

“Oh hell, you don’t have to get so formal. I mean, Lera probably liked it, but you look like a fool. Listen, you’re my prophet. There, that’s good enough. If you need my help I’ll pop in, but Imma bit more hands off. What I can give you is a gift.” He shuffles to the edge of his turtle and looks down on you.

“I could give you a power.” His voice suddenly becomes serious and deep. The colored clarity of his eyes begins to fade as dark stretches of grey clouds seem to spew from the depths of the crystal orbs. “The power of stone. The power that sends flesh back to it’s source, back to all things in the darkened Earth…”

“Or you can get a dragon.” He pops back into his previous persona, giving you a bit of mental whiplash at the change. He grips the pipe in between his teeth and grins. “It’s not exactly my dragon, it was a collaborative project with my wife. The thing was more fond of her but, eh. What can you do. It should obey you as well as anything else. But if you want ‘complete’ control, you’ll have to find my wife. Though...if you were going to unseal her, I wouldn’t be opposed to you doing that later. I mean, I have a few ‘things’ to take care of, if you catch my drift.”

Which boon do you choose
>The power of stone
>Control of the Stone Dragon

>>46119588
Can the Dragon be destroyed? If so, is there any way to resurrect it?

>>46119588
>The power of stone
I like this one more. It's a bit more subtle i think.

>>46119588
>The power of stone

>>46119588
>Dragon

Army of goblins, Stone Dragon, We are Become the BBEG this world deserves

>>46119825
But then the adventurers will group up on us an we fail like everyone before us.

Power of Stone locked in. Writing Now

“Well, I guess you’re going to recieve the power. Probably for the best. The Dragon just flew away.” You wonder if that will lead to anything dangerous for you, but Tela just shrugs. “How should I know. I can’t see the future. Though that thing is actually pretty hard to kill, especially if it finds a marble quarry or something to roost in.”

When you next blink, you see three Goblins crowded around you, poking you with a spear. You notice it’s the sharp end, and if they weren’t so oblivious you’d think they might be trying to harm you After assuring them you’re fine, they tell you that the Dragon has indeed left. The statue is also gone too, though there is a very small turtle wandering around the pedestal now. It seems to be chewing on a small bag of something. When you pick it up and open it, you see it’s full of some kind of very strong smelling pipe tobacco. You place the small satchel into your bag and the turtle into one of your pockets. You get the feeling the turtle can take care of itself as long as you give it a ride

>Obtained Power of Stone: You can turn any flesh on your body into living stone. The stone is invulnerable to most slashing and stabbing weapons.
>Obtained Old World Smoke
>Obtained Gorey, Holy Turtle

Now you have a choice. From the list, the remaining treasure on this continent is weeks of traveling up north, into the Land of Witches. Other than that, there are other continents and countries with treasures, and you don’t even know if they all have Old Gods sealed inside or wre taken somewhere by the Churches of the New Gods.

For now, though, you have to think of where you will return to.

Do you
>Return to the Goblins. You are their leader now and need to organize them.
>Return home. Your parents are probably worried sick.

>>46120356
>>Return to the Goblins. You are their leader now and need to organize them.
Organize them and then go to our parents, we have an army to take care of.

>>46120356
>Return home. Your parents are probably worried sick.
This... Might get interesting.

>>46120356
>Return home.
Awesome. Family Drama, but we have an entourage and a new Turtle-bro

>>46120356
>Obtained Gorey, Holy Turtle
forgot to say, but this is pretty fucking amazing.

Just having a badass turtle around minding its own business.

Returning Home with a Turtle locked in. Writing now (I have to move, so it'll be a bit. Talk about a turtle until my return)

I want the turtle to record our tale for turtlekind.

I'm sorry to duck out like this, but something came up and I have to drive over to my girlfriend's house. I'm so sorry about this.

>>46121029
We're Jeb bush now

>>46121391
be safe OP.

>>46121391
It's fine, but don't expect me to stick around for long, it's getting pretty late at night here.