After leaving the desert behind, the group vacations on the shores of the Moonsea while plotting their next moves. The druid and company take time to help the vineyards flourish and a fair amount of terraforming and construction is undertaken. It really cuts down on costs when the wizards can make huge piles of raw materials.
A month or so of domestic bliss ensues, along with a visit from a local vintner, who offers fermentation and casking services for a cut of the proceeds. Haggling ensues and a deal is struck. The first crop of grapes is still years away, but the lushness of the grain fields and the grass is noticeable. Having a druid on staff can be useful it seems.
After a while, the group decides that hunting liches is fine and all, but every time they disintegrate a mortal foe, they lose all the cool loot the critter was wearing. Perhaps they can go slay something that doesn’t carry all its treasure around with it…like a dragon! Yeah…that’s the ticket – a dragon!
Well…some investigation leads to the leads that lead them to Pearsay’s tower. Perasay passes along information he had recently acquired regarding the legend of the Crimson Sailor, a red dragon matriarch whose brood lives in a dormant volcano caldera. Lot sof treasure and a minimal risk awaits! Well, quite a bit of risk, probably, but still…
Off they go. They use the druid’s windwalking ability to sacoot the party along as a vaporous collection and cover much ground at high speeds. When the spell runs out, they teleport back to the manor house and rest in their nice beds. The next evening they return to repeat the process. In this way they are not present to be spotted by anyone or anything. Judicious use of the cleric’s ‘find the path’ spells makes sure they are taking the most direct route and before too long they are nar a cleft in the caldera wall. They creep along the partially filled lava tube and eventually arrive at a magical barrier. that seems to prevent any sort of teleportation. Woah, what?
Dither dither dither – and eventually windwalk the party past the barrier and up a chimney, emerging in the caldera, above a bubbling lava pit. No sign of an empty caldera, Most definitely not a dormant volcano. No sign of young dragons, nor scads of treasure. Hmmm? Wind walking along, the group passes a fire giant corpse that appears to have had part of its head bitten off. The group loot the lootables and move on. They find a large hall with an old trapped dragon statue – well, it used to be a trap. They find a carving or two and a dead end passage, but no sign of anything else. They cross a room whose floor is barely hardened lava crust by utilizing Malchor;s disc and his slippers of spider climbing. They set about investigating the somewhat cooler cavern that lies beyond when they are surprised by the dragon, who blasts part of the party with fiery breath. Luckily, they have a high druid who has equipped them with protection from elements and the damage is negated.
Thus begins a running battle with the dragon and the unexpected lich that appears to add a bit of threat to the situation. Though the party is able to repel most of the attacks or mitigate their ill effects, they begin to grow a bit alarmed – the lich will not fight them and the dragon routinely retreats below the lava, stymying any hope to close the do battle. The game of cat and mouse continues until the lich is seen fleeing into a corridor and the group pursues. WIthin seconds, both Mr. T and Cosmic are dead, victims of some foul sorcery. The lich has fled the scene and the dragon is flying up and out of the caldera, having apparently exhausted its fire breathing abilities for the moment. Mr. T is revived immediately and put to work hauling Cosmic’s (no shrunken) corpse around.
The corridor that the lich ran down is investigated and an archway reminiscent of the portals under the ruined city of Yulash is noted and remarked upon. The idea of pursuing a lich through a portal is not terribly appealing, even if they knew how to open said device – so they search for secret doors. They find not a door, but a lead lined depression with a sort of grating atop it. Removing the capstone triggers a trap but no one is injured, thanks to magical protections.The druid summons an earth elemental to remove the grating and it reveals three narrow tubes. An arcane eye traverses one and it leads them back toa room already explored. The other two are ‘probably’ used by a gaseous lich to move about her complex. Some more dicing and dithering ensues.
Eventually, Elulyn braves the tube as a gas and merges in a gallery below the floor they are on. As he wafts about, he is somewhat alarmed to find the lich and his dragon pal strolling around in the gallery. As he makes to escape, the lich uses a gust of wind to blow him off course and erects a wall of force to trap him. Uh oh. Elulyn wafts around the edge of a large slab of stone and waits to resolidify. As soon as he does, he uses his luck blade to wish the party back to the manor house.
Whew. WTH? That was some terrible information. It was almost like the lich was expecting them…and what was that the dragon yelled at them about ‘killing it’s brother’? And then there were the writings of the Dragon Cult on the walls of that one cave,,,,oh. Poop. The realization dawns that they were probably set up. They immediately teleport to Pearsay’s tower, only to find it in ruins. The roof is collapsed, the walls have large holes in them and the side of the stone tower has run like melted candlewax. There is no sign of Pearsay. Subsequent exploration reveals Pearsay’s escape tunnel (apparently unused) and a blind nearby that affords a good view of all who come to the tower. That blind has been very recently (last 5 minutes) vacated…ssssssoooooo we’rebeingwatched!
In the interests of paranoia they spend the next six weeks in Suzail, in densely populated areas or in the Spymaster’s abode. They scry for Pearsay, to no avail. Oh…snap. Pearsay the jovial, maker of fine sandwiches, keeper of a well stocked wine cellar and generally genial hookmaster is (probably) dead.The party generally lay low…make a few scrolls and try to figure out the next move. It would seem that a journey might be in order as staying in one place too long just lets folks home in on them, They fling some gold around and come up with a few interesting options…
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