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Week of 07/21/10
After fighting the giants, the group headed back down into the woods for the evening. There was no campfire for fear that Cereth would lay down in it and blame the rest of the group for the pain he was dealing with.
Early the next morning, everyone figured out what spells would be used, what the tactical plan would be, etc. However, nobody was expecting any of the plans to actually be followed to the letter, as it could easily change once someone got punched in the face.
Moving into the cave, it was surprising to see that all the giants were stacked up on the side of the caves like cord wood. Through the hallway the group came across a number of rooms and open caverns that appeared to be the living quarters for all the things that died in the last 24 hours. There were also areas with things like wagons, coal, supplies, etc. Nothing was moving, nothing was threatening.
After quite a few minutes of following the biggest hallway deeper into the mountains, the group found a set of huge metal doors. The doors were being protected by a small group of five humans – evil, nasty, and what appeared to be one cleric and four fighters. The cleric made the obvious, predictable, and somewhat stupid statement, “If you leave now you will live”.
Cereth’s response seemed to sum up the thoughts of the entire group – “Thems a-fightin’ words right there” – at least that’s what everyone thought he said, but the last few syllables were hard to hear as he was already rushing in to fight.
Kalgeon also moved up closer to the evil, bad dudes with expectation that the rest of the group would follow. However, the other guys moved pretty quick, and two of their fighters charged Kalgeon and the others hit Cereth. That was the last offensive action they would take in their lives.
Bradrick launched a bevy of arrows at the evil cleric and hit with all five arrows after Correll blessed his weapon. The cleric lasted a few more seconds as Cereth finished him off after laying waste to one of the fighters with a critical hit. Correll rushed up and tagged one of the fighters with a shot that set him up for a kill shot from Kalgeon – a true convergence of the gods on the evil standing in our way.
The last fighters dropped pretty soon after – within 12 seconds all five guys that we going to “let you live” had nothing better for last words than, “OH CRAP!!!”.
During the battle, William was hit with a Dimensional Anchor that would prevent him from teleporting or jaunting about. He had to kick off a Dispel Magic to remove that, but it was sure worth the spell.
The group headed toward the door as soon as possible to ensure they could continue to utilize the buff spells. Bradrick swooped down and picked up the five magic arrows that he grouped into the cleric’s chest, but one was sunk in so deep it snapped off.
Once the group was in close enough, Cereth pushed open the doors, just to be met with a huge cone of nasty, fire breath. Everyone but Correll was able to avoid taking all the damage, and his protection reduced that to a lesser about.
The room was filled with smoke so badly that visibility was completely reduced to seeing only the hand in front of your face. As soon as anyone stepped into the smoke, they had to make a fortitude check or be extremely nauseous and weakened, as well as being smothered in the aroma of a cigar bar.
Correll kicked in an Aura of Justice in hopes that the group would be able to see the dragon in enough time to have it take effect. However, as the fighters, William’s summoned cat, and Bradrick headed into the room, the dragon was still not seen by anyone.
Suddenly, Bradrick had the urge to run as fast as he could, to go out to the forest and get a deer for the dragon. What a great idea that seemed to be, and he was excited enough about it that he decided it couldn’t wait.
Based on how one would view it, Correll was lucky enough, or unlucky enough, to come across the dragon first. He was led toward it by the sound of the cat howling and the sense evil that he was continually concentrating on since he entered the room. Neb brought Kaden into the back of the room with a dimension door and Cereth ran toward the commotion. William didn’t move in, but instead pulled out his handy, dandy abacus and figured out just how far he had to teleport in front of Bradrick to intercept him and break the charm that was obviously put on the merchant.
William also kicked in a wall of wind, which Cereth thought about putting his head in it, but he realized that he didn’t have protection from wind, so he opted to fight the dragon instead. He wasn’t able to do too much to the dragon on the attack as the think scales and constant moving/slithering/snapping/clawing make it hard to get a solid shot on the beast.
Correll opted to stand tall and take as much as the dragon could dish out in one round, and was thankful that Astwain was able to kick in with a healing surge to keep him from dying. Kalgeon finally made it up behind the dragon, which was a bit easier since the dragon’s tail was swinging around and hitting Cereth.
William had little or no chance of stopping Bradrick after teleporting in front of him, but he sure did try hard. The break enchantment failed and he couldn’t even attempt to tackle Bradrick as he had previously enlarged the merchant.
The fighters tried one more round of attacks on the dragon, but they did little good – Correll missed with his first swing and the dragon tripped him up enough to make him fumble with his second. Cereth tried to move closer to Correll and try and get the dragon to split attacks in an effort to start a retreat, but at the risk of grouping too close together and giving the dragon an advantage. However, once the djini that William summoned put up a little wind wall that gave enough visibility, Correll was able to do the Aura of Justice for him and Cereth. This allowed them to hit easier, do more damage, and be harder to hit. Rather than use that to stay and fight, they retreated knowing that they would most likely not be struck down while moving toward the door.
The group headed back down the path to the forest. After a briefing from the Mage, Cereth tracked down Bradrick in the woods and the group subdued him until the urge to present the dragon with a deer had passed.
And now the question of what to do next –
Look for the dragon. Gythyankee’s should be expected, which also have spell casters. – Ok, so the dragon was found and there are no Gythyankee’s to be expected. We have to protect the minds of the will-less to ensure that we can all stay and fight next time. We have to find a way to get rid of that smoke and see the dragon.
Other things left –
Collect the bone of the god from the cult of Bacon – necessary for the spell
Retrieve the Silver and Amber from the Silver Dragon
Keep an eye out for the drow (rhymes with throw) AGAIN!
Collect Mr. Horn’s body and provide decent burial.
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