Dalnor/Campaign1/session-8

Dragon Hunting

Session Date: December 20, 2008
It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him. - Bilbo

Harvest 10, 53

After defeating the quickling the party has a quick discussion: Secure the area where they are and rest or cut out across country and hope they do not get caught out in the open by another quickly. The party decides to start south toward the nearest town. During the trip back Elrohir sees that they are being tracked. The creature tracking them is very stealthy and quick. Elrohir only gets a brief glimpse of it before it disappears back into the shadows.

The party arrives in town and gets a room at the inn. Lucius decides he needs to pick up another sword and heads out to find the blacksmith. When he picks up the sword he notices something odd: The blacksmith seems to have taken his anvil and moved it closer to his forge. Upon further examination, it appears that the blacksmith had moved all of his equipment a bit closer to the coal forge leaving the work space a bit cramped.

The party heads up to bed and goes to sleep.

Harvest 11, 53

The party wakes up and heads down to the common room. Alex in a fit of charity pays for the meal. Throughout the meal Lucius inquiries after the health of the rest of the party: Are they each feeling okay, is your appetite okay? The rest of the party gives Lucius sort of a wierd look and responds "We are okay, thanks for asking". For the rest of the meal there is the undercurrent of "What does Lucius know that we don't?" even as Lucius tries to pass off his questions as an extension of his own upset stomach.

During the meal several of the local farmers shamble into the common room. They each pick up a large pool of porridge and start eating. Seeing the quality and lifestyle of the locals, Safiria states her intention of getting out of the town as quickly as possible.

Because Safiria is missing a horse it is decided that the party should get one so someone is not caught walking. Alex is nominated to purchase the horse on the grounds that since he is acting as party treasurer he will also act as its bursar. About an hour later Alex returns with the a horse and a couple of observations: For a town this size there are not a lot of horses in the corral. Varien goes back to ask some questions and the herd master states that a large Eladrin party recently came through and bought up many of his horses.

The party considers digging deeper into these apparent inconsistencies and decides that their current mission is of to much importance to delay.

They head out of town and by nightfall they make it to the ranger station. Lucius notices that their tail is keeping up with them.

Harvest 12, 53

The party heads out of the ranger station and by nightfall makes it to Mormoon. They enter with no fanfare to keep from getting anyone's attention. They stay in the house they had previously been assigned by Ruben. From the house they can see that the mortician's house has either collapsed or been torn down. In its place is a pit where a foul reek and vapors escape. The party goes to sleep.

Harvest 13, 53

The party wakes up and has breakfast in the manor house kitchen. Over breakfast Lucius announces that he knows what has been following the party for the last couple of days:

The night they stayed in the little one horse podunk town, Lucius was awoken by someone jabbing him multiple times up his side with a sharp blade (Lucius at this point lifts his shirt and shows off the neat row of holes running up his right side.) The rest of the party did not awaken for the meeting. It is surmised that the rest of the party was either drugged, enchanted or Lucius in someway hallucinated the entire affair.
In the room was Zurgint, Nimia's Chamberlin and Scarlin, a larger healthier quickling, who happened to be holding a bloody knife in his hands. Zurgint did all the talking. His message was simple: We have an on going interest in one of your compatriots. When the time comes, how about you step aside and let us do our work. If you step aside you will be well rewarded.

The discussion immediately breaks down into chaos, the immediate question being: Why didn't they kill Elrohir right there and then?
After several minutes of conversation, the party comes to a couple of conclusions and decisions:

Is Nimia trying to provoke Elrohir into someting rash?
Nimia may be trying to stay away from direct confrontation with Elrohir as long as he holds the smoke stone.
We (the party) shall deal with her at a time and place of our choosing and not hers.

Safiria writes a letter and commissions a messenger to deliver it to Nimia in the feywild looking for a peaceful resolution to the apparent conflict that has arisen between the group and Nimia.

The party packs up their goods and slips out of town without drawing anymore attention to themselves.
At the end of a long day of traveling north they end in a little shanty town. The immediate observation is that in comparison this group of shanties makes the podunk town from two days ago look like a mecca of civilization in comparison. The "town" consists of a pair of large shacks, a couple of dirt farmers and a couple of piers where people heading south can rent cargo barges. One of the shacks has a workshop attached to it. In the workshop there is a dwarf mending a horseshoe or some other minor work. Safiria stops and talks to the dwarf for a moment. She says "There may be someone following us. Please tell them to hurry up, I'm sick of waiting." To which the dwarf gives an upraised eyebrow and asks how he will know who is following them? Safiria says, "You will know"

The party decides to set up camp a good distance outside the town.

Harvest 14, 53

The party packs up and heads north. They find that The Road is exactly as advertised: wide, smooth, and climbs with a shallow but steady grade.
At about noon they pass a side road that leads up to the Shadowhold. The party makes a couple of cracks about 'getting Safiria trained up' so she can deal with Nimia. After the joking the party passes quickly on and away from its shadow.

Harvest 15, 53

The party continues up the road. A couple of hours into their trip they encounter a single figure shamling up the road. They quickly determine it is a zombie and dispatch it. Upon examining it they see it is similar in construction to the other zombies the mortician had previously animated. They can also see that the abdomen of the zombie is containing some solid object. The party has some initial concern about chopping into the zombie, fearing some trap within the corpse. At this point Safiria makes some comments about how some zombies are powered by valuable gems. Alex, hearing about within the corpse, cuts it open. Much to his chagrin he does not find any valuable gems, just a well crafted scroll tube. Within the tube is a note in the firm, strong, controlled handwriting they have seen before:

To be delivered to the adventuring company with the metal man in it.
It is to my dismay that my research notes and materials have been stolen by you. I would prefer to have my notes back. Please deliver them to the temple address below.
Note 12 of 50.

Alex says he has never heard of that temple but the address has paid its dues on time and in full.

The party burns the remains of the zombie and heads north. A couple of hours later they see the holdfast: What looks like a mountain but with the top sheared off.

Continuing on they see a caravan returning south and the party stops to talk to them for a couple of minutes. Both sides exchange some easy pleasantries. There is the observation that there are no bandits on the road, but there is something lairing in the holdfast. Safiria writes a letter, places it within the scroll tube and pays to have the scroll tube delivered to the temple that was in the mortician's note. Safiria's letter declines to return the written notes and includes several pointed jabs at the mortician.

Afterwards, both parties continue on their respective journeys.

Around noon the parry comes to the turn off to the holdfast. This road was obviously paved as an afterthought since the primary residents would fly when coming and going. After a long series of switchback stairs the party ascends into a large amphitheater. This amphitheater is several hundred feet long and two hundred feet wide. The floor of the rear half is paved in blue stone. The side walls start at the floor near the stairs where the party ascended and slowly rise along the sides until it forms the roof and rear wall of the amphitheater. There is a large tunnel leading down and away in the back of the amphitheater.
Alex performs a thorough search for traps and hidden devices and green dragon scales, starting with the outer section of the amphitheater first and then then area with the blue stone floor. When he gets to the rear of the amphitheater he calls the parry over because of the sign hung on the wall.

The party has a quick conference. Initially they prompt Elrohir to speak for them, but when he demures Safiria decides to beseech the dragon.

Discovering that the amphitheater has very good acoustics, Safira makes an impassioned speechabout how their cause is just and there is the life of a little girl at stake and how all they need is the single scale of a green dragon.

The party then waits ten minutes, fifteen minutes, half an hour.

After waiting almost an hour, the party senses a change in the air in the tunnel. Then they make out a large bulk in the tunnel that is preceeded by a pair of glowing blue points of light.

YOU HAVE COME TO ME ASKING FOR A FAVOR?

Safiria promptly attempts to sooth and placate the dragon offering it some future service. But we need to save this girl...

YES YES, SAVE THE GIRL, THE CITY, THE KINGDOM.

The dragon is sounding bored and apparently picking his nails or checking his wrist watch out of boredom.

YOU WANT ME TO DO YOU A FAVOR IN GIVING YOU A GREEN DRAGON SCALE TO SAVE SOME GIRL WHOM I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF AND WILL BE DEAD, BURIED, FORGOTTEN AND BUILT OVER BEFORE I WAKE FROM MY NEXT NAP?

Safiria offers that the party would be willing to perform some service for it in the future while at the same time still complimenting the dragon on its size, power, might etc etc etc.

THERE IS A YOUNG GREEN DRAGON THAT HAS BEEN NESTING NORTH OF HERE ON THE ROAD. YOU MAY GET YOUR GREEN DRAGON SCALE THERE. I HAVE DONE YOU MY FAVOR. YOU MAY GO.

The pair of blue lights in the tunnel are extinguished and there is the sound of a very large beast moving back down the tunnel. The party backs away from the tunnel, still praising the dragon. Once they get to the stairwell: they high-tail it out of there.

Near dusk, after traveling north, the party sees what they presume the green dragon's nesting area is. It is a section of a hill where the trees have apparently fallen under a blight or poison. Deciding that approaching the dragon or attempting to search for dragon scales in the darkness would be unwise, the party finds a cave for the evening and camps out.

It is noticed: that throughout the entire day no one has seen or heard from their little following friend (the quickling).

Harvest 16, 53

The party gets up and proceeds to scout out the region where the dragon is apparently nesting. It is an area several hundred feet on a side. The trees in the area are blighted and slowly dying. The party moves up to the edge of the blighted area and surveys it: Blighted tree, blighted tree, blighted tree, blighted tree with gigantic green lump in it, blighted tree. The party nominates Alex to investigate the tree with the giant green lump in it, surmising it is the dragon. The deal being: If Alex can slip in collect some dragon scales and get out, without disturbing the dragon, he can keep all the extra dragon scales that are recovered. Alex thinks about this for a moment and accepts.

Cautiously Alex creeps up the toward the dragon, while other members of the party spread out.

Once Alex gets about half way to the dragon, it snakes its head up and addresses him: That's an awfully brave thing you are doing, for someone who is a coward and trying to live a long life.

The party just stares at the dragon's glib tone for a moment even as it continues, taunting each in turn. All the while twisting the statements they had made while on the Path of the Rising Moon: Making Varien out to be faithless and about to wander off the moment he grows bored, Lucius no better than a simple man servent, Safiria able to be goaded into doing things because they are forbidden, Crash improving himself with a good "Buff and Polish".

The party just stunned at the dragon's knowledge at them simply replies: "I can smell the feywild on you, and between that and what he is carrying" pointing to Elrohir and the Smokestone he is carrying. The party also surmises he may be mildly telepathic to read the party so quickly and so thoroughly.

The party tries to respond, buttering the dragon up: He's an up and comer, the next best thing since sliced bread, not like that old blue dragon.

The green dragon responds that the party should be careful of a dragon's bargain: Didn't they realize that they had been contracted to kill the green dragon if they wanted a green dragon scale? Thus the blue dragon gets something at both ends of the bargain.

At this point negotiations break down and the party attacks the dragon.

The party scoops up the corpse in a floating disc and heads back to the shanty town.

Harvest 17, 53
Walking back to shanty town. No sign of their little following friend.

Harvest 18, 53
Walking back to shanty town. Hire a barge and load the dragon corpse. No sign of their little following friend.

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Previously: Trail Markers

Continued in: Unintended Consequences
Campaign 1 Index

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Note: The Dungeon Master almost used Sting and the Police as the subtitle for this session:
I'll send an s.o.s. to the world
I'll send an s.o.s. to the world
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle, yeah
Message in a bottle, yeah