The Harvest Festival continues around us unabated. The farmers celebrate to the sounds of fiddles and the taste of ale, and all are happy, except for Dessa and Cronen where gossip swirls. Despite our best efforts, the gossip grows in the small town like a new entertainment.
We are being highly celebrated – the drinks flow and the dragon slayer moniker sticks to us (independent of having slayed no dragons).
Wu has taken on a managerial role in the power vacuum as Cronen remains out of the public eye.
Liandan invites Gemma to join us at the table. Gemma joins with great pleasure in getting attention from Liadan. Rem’e and Rhun have been disagreeing about Habistaw’s mention of a tomb. Rhun thinks it’s the Urgathoan tomb. Rem’e thinks it’s something else. Rem’e turns to Gemma and asks: “What do you think?”
Gemma: “My family came here to look for gold .. but my uncle knew that there was a culture here once that worshiped Urgathoa which interested him.” Rhun asks why her uncle was interested in that. She doesn’t know, though the questioning makes her uncomfortable (we recall that her weakness is necromancy and conjuration, and we understand too that her uncle was not a necromancer). Ariza asks if he kept journals – Gemma notes that he didn’t seem to keep them but that she could point out some areas of interest if she had a map. Rem’e shows a map of the area, and Gemma points out a few spots that are within a day of the mine we cleaned. Her uncle notes that many of the tombs were buried deep. However, one may have been in a cave. (She’s not been there, and she’s not keen on going.)
We discuss our options and decide to gather our things and head to the tomb and then back to Amber. Ariza awaits her curved blade; Heminile continues to provide advice and even training about the blade. Ariza carries the Copperbell wood bracelet to Heminile.
“Thank you – this is going to be great for me. (Don’t tell anyone that.) Two, this is going to be a little sad, but we wanted you to have it.” She produces the Copperbell wood bracelet. Heminile’s eyes widen … “Where did you get this”. Ariza explains the wood elf of Norgorber who attacked her. Heminile: “You recieved this from an elf?” “yes. I’m sorry” “Don’t be sorry. People make their own choices. Thank you for delivering it.” They acknowledge each other with a look and a nod.
We spend the final days crafting scrolls, alchemist’s fire, and generally preparing to head out. Rem’e hangs out in the bar. The town learns that we’re getting ready to go. “The gnome gets real restless if way stay in one place too long. She might start shivving people if we don’t move on.” 🙂
The harvest festival is starting wind down. Habistaw comes in yelling from across the room, “Ariza! It’s finished.” He proudly holds the curved sword over his head. Ariza springs over to him. The sword is in a beautiful leather scabbard, tooled with steel. Lexera’s work is top notch, and Ariza can feel the aura — everything Ariza had been hoping for. The entire bar watches with great interest as she receives it.
The following day dawns cold, but with a beautiful blue sky and cloudless. We head out directly to the tomb that Gemma specified on the map. We have a three day journey without incident. It’s cold, but nothing troubles us.
We arrive at badlands, searching where we believe the tomb should be – but we find nothing and are forced to camp a fourth night. Liadan and Rem’e examine the geography but have no success. On the second day, after a tough search, we discover a hidden cleft that might not have seen until we came directly upon it. Significant amounts of potassium nitrate is crusted around the cave entrance, and Rem’e gathers a quantity of it.
Rhun notices that a path seems to be coming out of the cave. The cave is natural and heads down under a hill. Ariza takes a stealthy look inside; Rem’e backs her up. Ariza finds a large cavern that has three passages that extend from it. It’s warmer than expected. Ariza smells a whiff of offal from the northeast passage. She examines the northwest passage to find it extends into another large, empty cave. Clearly there is a motherlode of salt peter.
We all head in, following Ariza. The cave descends deeper to the north. We don’t know why it’s warm in the cave. The tunnel curves around and descends towards the southeast into a large cavern. It’s slightly warmer and we smell a bit of ozone.
To the north, we see an arch. It’s damaged: burned and blackened. It appears fragile, like it might cave in. There are bones scattered around the arch, burned to the point of being difficult to recognize, but Liadan sees that they are multiple humanoid bones that have been here for at least a few weeks. Rem’e holds his torch to the arch; Rhun reads, “Here lies the servants of Urgathoa. Trespassers will be slain.” Though it’s difficult to translate, he gets the gist of it.
Poking it’s head through the arch, we see the serpentine head of a dragon. It’s head is red. It hits a keystone with its head, knocking down a number of rocks, thought the arch stays. It speaks — Liadan translates, “How dare you come here so unfashionably?” Rem’e is slightly insulted by this.
Liadan: “Greetings red dragon we meant no offense we didn’t know you were here.” Ariza, nods emphatically.
The dragon: “Rats! Come to steal my treasure!” Liadan says, “Oh… treasure? We were not aware that you were here, and we were not aware of any treasure. We come here because this cave has salt peter that our friend uses.”
The dragon snarls, and rears up.
BATTLE:
- Rem’e steps behind Rhun and fires into the archway towards the dragon hurting it well.
- Ariza throws liquid ice at it stinging it well.
- Liadan casts MM and does damage
- The dragon blasts its breath weapon slamming into Rhun, Rem’e, and Liadan then rushes Ariza.
- Rhun channels healing energy and then flanks the dragon.
- Rem’e fires at the dragon and hits!
- Ariza draws her new blade and crits!
- Liadan casts mage armor on herself and moves into the relative safety of the tunnel in preparation to attack.
- Dragon turns towards Rhun and bites and rakes him with his claws. Rhun drops in a pool of pain and blood.
- Rem’e runs to Rhun and administers a potion of cure moderate wounds. Rhun wakes on the floor staring at the stalagmites and wondering why everything hurts.
- Ariza swings her curved blade against the dragon and it curves off its scaly hide.
- Liadan quickly flips through her spellbook, raises her arms, and casts a lightning bolt. The deafening roar of the skies open up pouring into the dragon; it doesn’t look healthy but it stays standing up. “It didn’t have to be this way!”
- The dragon bites and claws at Ariza, brutalizing her, but it doesn’t take her down! It then steps back towards Rhun and Rem’e.
- Rhun channels healing again and then crawls five feet away.
- Rem’e takes a shot (having rapid reloaded) – the dragon rears up, and falls down dead. Liadan walks by it and notes, “I told you it didn’t have to be this way.”
We gather ourselves and head north into a passageway which leads to a three small tombs. The contents have been ripped away, and a large dragon hoard has been piled in the middle of the room. Rhun detects no evil on the hoard or the room, and the tombs have been fire blasted.
The treasure hoard has gold, scrolls, statuary … Liadan and Rhun inventory the hoard. Rem’e and Ariza butcher the dragon.
Dragon hoard:
- 1200 GP
- 3000 SP
- numerous pieces of carved onyx, 50 x10gp each
- six carved ivory figurines – 100gp – each shows pustulent figures engaged in the act..
- gem: topaz – mutlifacited – 500 gp by itself
- a pair of rings:
- ring of hiding (+5 stealth) – Rhun will wear normally, can share.
- minor ring of lore (+1 on all knowledge checks)
- a wand of lightning, 5 charges
- two scroll cases:
- divine scrolls:
- align weapon
- shatter
- animate dead
- arcane scrolls
- false life
- levitate
- stinking cloud
- divine scrolls:
Arizan and Rem’e collect horns, teeth, and claws — also collect a fair number of scales — not enough for a suit of armor; Liadan also recognizes that the glands that help secrete the fire and has Ariza and Rem’e gather some of this into an empty potion bottle.
We clear the remains of the cave and decide to claim it for mining rights for Rem’e. We’ll need to speak to Cronen or Tuxel.
(1250 xp each)
We note that the cave is cooling quickly. We stay in the cave and heal up.