>>5309246“Is… Dead?” Ivno whispers, peering around you with dagger yet ready.
You nod affirmatively, as you feel the last of your dragon-vigor leaving you. Your skin itches a little, and you know you will soon need to remove your plate to peel away the drying second-skin produced by your now-failing transformation. However, unlike when you’ve used this ability previously, you feel… Unemptied, part-way full, as if your expanded mana reserves have another such transformation left in them… provided you do nothing else with that magical power in the meantime.
Ohle is in worse shape, though. He is conscious, but only sporadically. You can see one arm was broken in his struggle, and his bruising from the battery has turned his red-brown scaly skin to a swollen purple-green. He tries not to, but when Ivno touches him, the other kobold cries out. Bringing him back down the magma-melted shaft is an ordeal nearly equal to your slaying of his captor, even with Ivno’s help, and for none is it as arduous as for Ohle himself.
“While your victory was no-doubt glorious, is seems it was for naught, Superior One,” the Translator reflects with a sigh. “We now press on with an injured party, I suppose.”
“We should leave him,” the Cartographer says, without malice or mercy. “We cannot slow our progress or hamper our ability for a half-feral kobold.”
When you leave your advisors to inquire with the kobolds—who you hope didn’t hear that last exchange too clearly, for the sake of morale—Hapo provides an alternative.
“Ring-demon may know how to fix,” he suggests, pointing to your pack with his sole remaining hand. “Necklace… Demon said it did many things, including heal.”
You idly tape at the magical necklace you wear, but the properties of which remain unknown to you even now. It seems Hapo was holding out on you earlier, though his own knowledge DOES seem woefully incomplete… Assuming he’s not just lying to try to get you to release the demon for a quick consultation that could turn into a mutiny attempt. You don’t SENSE overt hostility in him… But you see a dark ambition in him which could easily be deceit.
What do you do?
>Carry on, having the other kobolds tend to Ohle until you can get him back to the surface>Leave Ohle hear and carry on without him for now>Try on the demon ring, and try to extract information on the necklace from it>Try using the necklace WITHOTU consultation—you have some magical skill yourself, after all!>Put Ohle out of his misery quickly and painlessly, with your blade>Write-in 