Sharday, 40 Brightday [continued]
Recovering from the attack by the phantom fireball-thrower, the
party presses on across the bleak landscape. Nicos leads the way
in case of ambush by more fire. The dragon-skull citadel does not
appear to be getting any closer, leading the group to believe that
it may be enchanted to prevent them from ever reaching it. Nicos
sends some flares into the air and watches where they fall to see
if they are making head-way. They do seem to be, and the cleric
is swiftly berrated by Ravenna and Arvan for giving away their position
to everyone in a ninety-mile radius. They decide to continue walking
along the top of the ridges and no descending into the valleys if
they can help, believing it best to keep the citadel in sight at
all times.
After an hour or so of travelling they come across a vast plain
that sretches as far as their eye can see. All the chasms,valleys
and waddies seem to run into this place and it is filled with the
skeletal remains of gigantic creatures. It is an enormous graveyard
of dragons. This puzzles the group somewhat as it is received wisdom
that dragons live forever – one of the main things that the
moon gods have against them. Nicos shrugs this off and starts rubbing
his hands together at the wealth that could be made robbing a dragon’s
graveyard. The party turn on him, particularly Elias who holds dragosn
very close to his heart. “Graves are graves!” announces
Ravenna. “You can’t just go around stealing things from
them.” Everyone looks at her. “That was different!”
she says.
As they continue to argue a large rent appears in the fabric of
space above the graveyard and an enormous golden dragon hurtles
through. It is fully seven times the size of Furnice, but it obviously
does not have a tenth of that dragon’s vigour. The creature
crashes heavily to the ground, tries to rise and then collapses
back again with the effort. Elias looks at his companions and the
six head off to see if they can render aid. Nicos, cannot shake
his belief that all dragons are inherently evil creatures that should
be instantly destroyed by the fires of Calafax and no suffered to
live. As they approach the gold dragon, Elias turns on him. He says
that this is a gold dragon, it is not evil it is good. Nicos takes
a good long look at the vast scaly repitle, with his huge teeth,
flaming nostrils and wagon-sized eyes. “I guess we just fear
scary big evil things,” he says at length. “You really
are quite a tit, aren’t you?” counters Elias.
The dragons enormous eye opens slowly and regards the party. “It
is you,” it says in a deep, rumbling voice. “I knew you
would come little kin-folk. I knew you’d be here to see me
on my final journey as was laid down in the Great Pact.” The
group looks at themselves puzzledly. There was a mention of the
great pact in the Theology of Dragons, but they haven’t a clue
what it is. The dragon introduces itself as Xanthusalar; Elias tries
to explain that he isn’t kin, but the dragon doesn’t seem
to notice. This lack of hearing is probably a blessing as the creature
also ignores Nicos’ attempts to draw it into a deep philosophical
discussion and prove that it is an evil bastard. Nicos soon loses
enthusiasm for his approach, however, as the dragon is a pathetic
sight, lying in the dirt so close to death. As if it could read
his thoughts, Xanthusalar says: “Look at me, so strong in life
and so weak in death. It is true what they say – that all those
who approach Io do so on their knees.”
Xanthusalar now looks at the party more intently. “This is
the end little kin-folk,” he says. “It’s been a long
time in coming. A long time. I would tell no other soul this, but
I am frightened. I know not what awaits me beyond the maw. Would
you wait with me until the end?” Before the rest of the party
can gainsay him, Elias commits them to staying, and despite the
urgency of their mission they sit and wait with the dragon until
the end. After an hour they hear a deep sigh from within the beast,
and it expels its last gout of flame as a death rattle consumes
it. Elias has obviously moved by the event and even Nicos is silent
as the party moves on toward the citadel.
Raza and Ravenna try to take Xanthusalar’s words literally
and start walking toward their destination on their knees. This
swiftly becomes too painful, and so they opt to walk. They now seem
to be making progress across the broken land, and within a little
while are but a quarter of a mile from their destination. It is
at this point that they catch sight of four figures walking on a
parallel course to the citadel. They are at some distance, but one
is definitely shorter than the others and could be a hobbit. The
party assumes that they are Deerkor, Josepp, Kismo and Whisper,
and prepare themselves for battle. They have obviously been noticed
by the four, as one disappears and the remaining three walk purposefully
toward our heroes.
Some distance away one of the figures lets fly with a fireball
that engulfs the party. Brack and Arvan are barely standing, and
Ravenna has been thrown down by the force of the blast and is unconscious.
Arvan moves forward and uses his magic to restore Ravenna to health,
sadly using the last of his power for the day. Ravenna gets groggily
to her feet as the rest of the party starts to cast protective magicks
on each other and to train their missile weapons on their opponents.
Elias puts an arrow straight between Deerkor’s eyes, but the
weapon merely bounces off the forehead of the mage. Changing targets,
he shoots Kismo enraging the hobbit. Suddenly their enemies are
upon them.
Josepp races into engage Brack passing Raza who runs out of the
group to land a heavy fist on Deerkor’s noggin. His blow is
surprisingly effective, although he is wounded by the warrior-wizard’s
sword. As Kismo charges at Elias, Arvan steps back out of combat
readying his sling, just in case he is needed. Brack doesn’t
appear to need, Arvan’s help despite his wounds. The dwarf
bravely deflects and dodges the attacks of his fellow ranger and
buries some stunningly telling blows against his foe. Elias is holding
Kismo at bay with some ease, but the hobbit’s sword is dripping
with poison, and the his foe seems almost completely insane. Ravenna
and her familiar, Snowy, concentrate their attacks on the halfling.
Nicos decides that it is time that he took a hand in things and
summons a flaming sphere in front of him that he sends off to attack
Deerkor. “Eat flame big mage dude!” he cries.
The flaming sphere comes barelling towards Deerkor. Unfortunately,
Deerkor sees it coming and Raza doesn’t. While the mage jumps
out of the way, the monk is completely flattened and left a broken,
half-conscious and smouldering figure on the floor. “Sorry!”
Nicos announces. Deerkor turns toward the fire cleric, sword in
hand and advances toward Nicos, oblivious of the battles being wages
around him. Soon Deerkor and Nicos are fighting sword-on-sword,
but to their right Josepp finally gets the best of Brack and puts
him down with one blow. Suddenly Nicos is fighting Deerkor and Josepp,
while everyone else is concentrating their attacks on an increasingly
frustrated (and ineffective) Kismo. Nicos does not consider this
the best division of labour given the circumstances.
From his position lying face down in the dirt, Raza can see the
figure of a woman running up behind Arvan. He can’t make out
the details, but assumes it is Whisper and tries to shout a warning
to the druid but goes unheard. Soon the figure is at Arvan’s
shoulder. She unswings a large satchel from her back and drops it
at the druid’s feet. Drawing a sword, she charges into the
fray and engages Josepp in battle, thus fundamentally saving Nicos’
bacon. It is not Whisper, but Drasha. Arvan bends down and looks
in the satchel to discover a small keg of the same type that Dralcarnus
keeps his healing potion in. He lifts it out and surveys the scene,
looking for who needs his help the most. There are many contenders,
but he chooses the one lying outside the combat and heads toward
Raza.
Drasha fights bravely against Josepp, but is hopelessly outclassed
by the ranger, but she is managing to hold him at bay. Nicos continues
to fight Deerkor with sword, flaming sphere and insults (or he is
until the sphere vanishes). Arvan stalks his way around the fight,
using the potion to revive Raza. This is not a moment too soon,
as Drasha falls to Josepp’s blades and Raza rushes in to engage
the ranger. Arvan follows him cautiously with a mind to restoring
Brack.
Eventually, things start to turn in the party’s favour. Nicos,
using his skill that he has been quite successfully hiding under
a bushel all these weeks, disarms Deerkor sending the wizard’s
sword spinning to the ground. Elias kills a very annoyed Kismo and
Raza lands a feeble blow on Josepp. Of course, without his sword,
Deerkor starts blazing his magic missiles at all and sundry making
him even more dangerous. Elias moves in against Deerkor, allowing
Nicos to jump into the fray against Josepp. With a flurry the fire
cleric disarms the ranger of first one sword and then the other.
Nicos is hot tonight! Josepp, looks shocked for a moment, then draws
a dagger and fights on.
Meanwhile, Elias, Ravenna and Snowy concentrate on Deerkor. Snowy
is trying to bite the wizard and discharge Ravenna’s chill
touch spell, but the mage’s magical defences are proving quite
resistant. Deerkor reaches out and vampiric touches Elias, draining
a little vitality to heal his own wounds. He then magic missiles
Ravenna and Snowy, putting the sorceress down and almost killing
the wolf. Elias fights alone.
Arvan uses the potion to revive Brack, who leaps to his feet and
launches himself a Josepp. The dwarf carves the other ranger mercilessly
doubling him over with a blow to the stomach and following through
with another shot to the head. Josepp falls to the ground. As he
lies dying, he looks up at Brack and says “Thank you.”
At that moment Josepp’s life-force is sucked out of his body,
dividing and inhabitating the two blades the ranger carries. The
short swords pulse with an ominous black light. No-one has the inclination
to touch the swords. Not in the slightest.
While Josepp was defeated, Deerkor magic missiled Elias into unconsciousness
and now turns on the rest of the party. Brack, Raza and Nicos pile
onto to him with alarming alacrity. Too much alacrity in Nicos’
case, as he sails past his target and lands heavily on the ground.
Deerkor looks at his attackers, dodges around them and retrieves
his sword from where it fell. He decides to stay and slog it out
with the party, believing that he can take them with little trouble.
This is an opinion he soon revives, however, after a painful pounding
from Brack and Raza and the near-loss of his sword at the hands
of the swipe-happy Nicos. He casts a spell upon himself and rises
into the air beyonf the reach of the party’s weapons. Nicos
calls him a coward, and Deerkor responds by shooting an acid arrow
into the cleric’s chest as a parting shot. Nicos falls.
Arvan, who has healed himself and Drasha in the meantime, dumps
a large amount of water over the cleric to neutralise the acid attacking
his system. He then uses the last of the potion to revive Elias.
Elias and Brack take pot-shots at Deerkor with their bows, but the
arrows bounce off their foe and the badly wounded wizard flees the
scene. Josepp and Kismo are dead. There was no sign of Whisper at
all. The group investigate the weapons left by Josepp. No-one touches
them, on the understanding that they are evil artefacts that had
corrupted the mind of the ranger. Raza cautiously prods them into
a bag and seals it shut.
Drasha is releived that everyone is still alive (even if Nicos
and Ravenna are unconscious). She says that after they left Ashardon,
all hell broken loose. Deerkor, Kismo, Josepp and Whisper broke
back into the place. Whisper killed Dralcarnus’ familiar, Jot.
Dralacarnus was beside himself with grief and pain. He and has familiar
had been together for 4000 years, after all. In the confuision the
four slipped past and through the portal. Misgon hid while Drasha
took one of Dralcarnus’ potions and followed the party believing
that they needed help. Obviously, she was right. Elias is shocked
that someone would resort to the murder of a familiar to get their
way. He can’t think of anything worse.
Anyone looking at the citadel, however, can easily imaging something
worse. Around the snarling open mouth of the citadel dozens of the
teeth are detaching themselves. As they fall to the ground they
unfurl vast wings of irridesence, becoming a swarm of prismatic
dragons each as large as Furnice. Within seconds the sky is black
with their bodies, and moments later the party is surrounded by
the creatures. The only thought to go through Elias’ mind is
to give thanks that Nicos is unconscious.
“Tresspassers….. tresspassers……tresspassers……”
is the whisper that reverberates between the surrounding dragons.
“Where they should not be. Kill them.” The dragons move
forward. Elias quickly raises his hand. “We’re not tresspassers!
we’re here on a quest!” There is silence for a moment.
“What quest?” the dragons demand. After some prompting
and much provarication, Elias tells the dragons why the party has
come to the Maw. He digresses slightly into his own religious beliefs
but eventually gets to the point, and tells them that the group
need one of the prismatic dragons to return with them to Iourn.
The dragons flatyly refuse, saying that they are bound to this
place and will not leave. Elias almost demands that one of them
come with him. He says that Narramac had told them to come here.
At the name of the old wizard the dragon’s fall silently. “Narramac?
We know of Narrmac,” says one. “He is not kin,” says
another, “but he is kin of kin.” A further dragon speaks
up, “This one has a little understanding of our ways,”
he is looking straight at Elias. “They sat with Xanthusalar
to the end,” says a fourth. The dragons carefully regard the
party. They fall silent for almost a quarter of an hour as if in
deep thought. Then, abruptly, one of their number speaks. “I
am Quenqurial,” it says. “I will accompany you to Narramac.
I would have words with the wizard.” At that the other dragons
leap into the air leaving Quenqurial and the party alone.
“Where is your portal?” Quenqurial asks. Elias tells
him and they begin to head off. Arvan and Brack carry Ravenna and
Nicos between them. Raza retrieves the body of Josepp. He believes
that he ranger was once a good man, and as a result Raza believes
he deserves a decent burial. They make good time back to the portal.
When it becomes obvious that Quenqurial cannot fit through, he reforms
himself into a humanoid shape made a shimmering metal. His new face
is completely featureless. Elias tells him that once on Iourn he
might want to where some clothes, otherwise he might stand out a
bit. Quenqurial sees wisdom in the idea and accepts one of Elias’
many sets of clothes. With that the party steps through the portal.
Arvan takes a good long look as they leave. There is no sign of
Deerkor or Whisper. It seems as though they are trapped in the Maw.
Morday, 41 Brightday 204
In a bright flash of light Elias, Nicos, Raza, Ravenna, Brack,
Arvan, Drasha and Quenqurial return to reality. They find themselves
in the Room of Preparation in Ashardon. Quenqurial snarls at the
place. This is a temple of unholy folly as far as he is concerned.
Elias and Ravenna argue to him that Dralcarnus has suffered enough
and should be released from his torment, but Quenqurial cannot agree.
The party are met by Misgon who says that Dralcarnus has fallen
into a stupor since Jot’s death. He is sitting on the large
throne in the Hall of Dragons and saying nothing.
Quickly, the party go to him and find a completely disconsolate
Dralcarnus. Ravenna goes and hugs his leg, but the guardian of Ashardon
is unmoved. Unmoved until he catches sight of Quenqurial. He looks
at the prismatic dragon carefully. “Is this the end?”
he asks. “Am I to be released?” Quenqurial shakes his
head. “No, Dralcarnus you are not,” Quenqurial’s
voice is dripping with venom. “You will remain here until the
earth cracks, and the sea boils and this world of Iourn is nothing
by dust floating in a void. Your punishment is forever.” Dralcarnus
nods, rises to his feet and returns to this sarcophagus. He bars
the passageway to his half of Ashardon. The party do not see him
again before they leave.
Misgon finds the party and tells them that he has found their horses,
and they aren’t too much worse for wear after spending so long
on the moor. The party are very tired, not having slept in about
42 hours and decide to rest at Ashardon tonight and leave the following
morning for Mount Kovast. They now have a wyvern egg (that they
need to inscribe), water from the bottom of the Great Sea, and Quenqurial
is a tooth from the maw of the oldest of dragons. All they need
to do is come up with a secret and they are finished! The party
use some of Dralcarnus’ healing potions to restore everyone
to full health and then settle down to a well-earned rest.
Sunday, 42 Brightday 204
The party and Quenqurial leave Ashardon just after dawn. Quenqurial
can easily keep pace with the horses when walking. The prismatic
dragon remains aloof and untalkative. Nicos is also relatively quiet.
It is only his friendship with Elias that stopping him from being
very rude and abusive to the dragon. He manages to tone down his
opinion to vaguely rude and abusive but still incites Quenqurial
to comment that the Moon Gods are pretenders and not real gods at
all. Elias is suitably smug in Nicos’ general direction.
The temper of the party has risen noticeably since returning to
Iourn. They believe that they have the best chance of getting to
Korvast in time and that they will be the only ones there with a
prismatic dragon. They think they are going to win. This new found
optimistic is cut horribly short when they spot the dragon Furnice
on the horizon swooping low over the tors. They quickly dive for
cover as the red dragon rushes overhead.
For the next two hours the party are dodging Furnice, terrified
that the red dragon will spot them. Furnice seems to be looking
for something. Quenqurial says that he does not want to meet Furnice
as that might incite conflict which he is strenuously hoping to
avoid. Around lunchtime the group hears the flutter of heavy wings
close by and a creature descends into the camp. It is not Furnice
but a giant eagle that introduces itself as Delaphay. Delaphay says
that they should not travel across the moor during dayligh hours
because of the dragon. He will show them to a tor where the ruins
of a Hadradan sun temple stand. The party can hide there until dark.
The group are not sure. It would have to be dark the following day
to avoid taxing the horses, which means they have lost their advantage
and would be rushing to reach Korvast. But, as the alternative is
certain death, they decide to follow the eagle’s advice.
Delaphay leads the group to the temple, but a mile from their destination
Furnice comes again. Delaphay launches into the air, flying around
the dragon’s head to distract it. He then flies off, with Furnice
in pursuit. The party had not met anyone genuinely selfless before
this point, and are grateful to Delaphay for the risks they have
taken. They find the tor-top temple, pause to listen to Elias’
rendition of how close this is to his own faith and then they settle
down for the rest of the day, and a night and a day.
Vítday, 43 Brightday 204
After resting the entire day, an overly refreshed group press on
after dark. The going is slower in the moonlight, but they do not
have to worry about Furnice, and all the other moorland predators
have been chased away by the dragon. Just before midnight the group
come upon six heavily armed soldiers flying the colours of Duke
Colharn. They demand that the party stop, and asks them about their
business. Raza quickly hides under his hood, and Elias uses a change
self spell to create the illusion he is a female half-orc.
Things don’t go too badly until they make the mistake of saying
that they have seen Furnice. The soldiers are part of one of the
many forces currently scouring the moors in search of the dragon.
The leader of the soldiers quickly snathces on this and demands
that they return to camp with him to report what they saw. He won’t
take their report, himself, believing that his superiors could think
of more question to ask than he would. He tells them to fall in
line, and he will take them to Captain Skellig and his adviser from
the Watchers. Images of Castle Northmeet wash through the minds
of the group and they wonder how they are going to get out of this
one.
Prodigal Wizard
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