Juma looks around.
"I'm guessing these aren't part of the auction? No? Okay then."
Juma walks up to the nearest monster and swings for the fences.
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Reacting quicker than his companions, Kaelic stands up and casts a spell, setting of a burst of light near the cluster of three creatures. All three shriek and cover their four eyes as they take damage and are blinded!
Juma stands and climbs the stage!
Dagon inpires his party and after studying them, thinks they are some sort monstrous humanoind from the dark spaces between the stars. Dubbing them grioths, as such, he believes they would be immune to cold, sensitive to light, and likely able to intrude upons one mind. Thinking of where they come from, he would also guess they might have blindsight.
The grioths swarm over Juma!
Though surrounded, Juma manages to fend off all, but one attack! He then swats one with his staff, taking it out.
"That blindness isn't doing much, Kaelic, but that damage hit the spot!"
Dagon maintains his encouragement, then hits a sharp note that explodes at his enemies.
Dagon casts a spell destroying two of the grioths, and then Juma finishes off the last one!
Right after you dispatch the grioths, acolytes of Abadar being tending the wounded, but the quiet proves to short lived as someone screams.
Looking up, you see a red and yellow scaled dragon with two legs swoop in and land on top of a small enclosure at the back of the stage!
"Oh, for crying out loud..."
Dagon loads his crossbow, maintains his performance, and casts a spell.
Dagon identifies the creature as a flame drake, degenerate cousins of red dragons.
He then casts a spell at the drake. It roars in anger, as its sight is robbed from it!
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Kaelic moves to the side of the stage and draws his crossbow. "Shoot her!" he cries as he fires a bolt.
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"Shooooot herrr!"
"Shooooot herrr!"
"Dragon! Talk to us! If your intentions don't threaten us, we could part ways peacefully, including the return of your sight."
Kaelic fires his crossbow, but the bolt bounces off the creature's tough hide.
Juma talks to the drake in its native language, but it merely growls, then responds.
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Juma throws a chakram at the drake's face, and hits!
The creature draws in a deep breath and spits out a ball of fire that detonates over the stage!
"Whoa! Fan out, fan out!"
Juma tries to circle away from other potential targets and surround the drake, pulling out a chakram as he goes and hurling it.
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"Hey-o!"
Dagon shields himself from the fire breath, then lets his performance linger in the air while he moves away from ground zero and fires his crossbow.
"Hey, that was cool! Teach me how!" Kaelic demands in spite of his burns.
,
The drake takes another chakram to the face, thrown by Juma!
Dagon fires his crossbow, but misses the blind drake!
Kaelic fires his crossbow, but misses as well! He thinks a fan of flames would not be very effective against a flame drake.
The sniffs the air and flies toward Dagon!
It manages to land without stumbling, then tries to bite Dagon!
Juma sprints forward, launching himself at the drake with a two-handed swing of his staff.
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Juma charges forward and lands a devastating blow to the blind drake's head!
The drake looks ragged, but still stands!
Dagon jumps back from the attack, reloads his crossbow, and fires.
Kaelic, having lost any angle for ranged attacks, hurries up on stage to get back into the action.
Dagon fires and misses again, while Kaelic edges closer!
Reeling from the blow to the head, the drakes head snakes out toward Juam, its teeth snapping at the man, but Juma's armor fends off the attack!
Kaelic moves up to Juma and casts a spell of healing. He decides not to make any pithy remarks, fearing he might provoke the dragon.
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Dagon reloads his crossbow and resumes his performance while stepping back.
Kaelic moves up and heals Juma!
Dagon reloads!
Juma slams his staff into the drake's head! The beaset staggers, then falls to the ground, unmoving, as Juam once again, almost singlehandedly destroys another foe!
As the drakes breathes it last breath, the baroness and her son come over. "Thank you for defending Belhaim and its citizens. Once again, you have proven yourselves valiant and able men!"
Before you have a chance to respond, a thunderous roar shatters the
night. Everyone around looks to the east in fear as a vast shape crawls up onto the roof of Otho Burr’s house, just east of the amphitheater. As it clambers up to the peak, you see it is an enormous black dragon, its scales are ragged and graying, its eyes are sightless, its muscles are exposed beneath torn flesh, and the smell of rot is nearly overpowering.
“I am Aeteperax, Lord of Dragonfen, and you have exhausted my patience. The wizard Hunclay promised me many things before his death, including five rare and ancient tomes. I made efforts to obtain these lawfully, but my representative, Clausyre, failed me. My forbearance is at an end."
“Now I require not only the books, including the tome entitled Secrets of the Dreaming Dark, but also an indemnity of 776,000 gold pieces—2,000 for each and every resident of this dunghill you call home. I give you two weeks to deliver these to the place you know as the Monastery of Saint Kyerixus across the Dragonfen."
“None are permitted to leave Belhaim—my minions blanket the countryside, and all who dare leave this town shall suffer for it. Only those chosen to deliver my ransom may travel, and then only into Dragonfen. Should you defy me or fail to satisfy my demands, I shall lay waste to little Belhaim and kill every living inhabitant, down to the last mewling infant.”
With that, the dragon rises up, casts a spell, and vanishes, apparently teleporting away. Silence reigns for a moment, then panic strikes and the survivors flee back to their homes.
"Yeah, a black dragon wouldn't be enough, it had to be a ZOMBIE dragon."
Juma sighs. "Dagon! Can't you do something about these panicked townspeople?"
"A zombie dragon? Aw man, I don't know if I can handle that..." Kaelic says, looking worried.
"Yeah, and that thing was old—which is dragon-lingo for 'powerful'. Pretty sure it'd wipe the floor with us in a direct confrontation. On the other hand, I have a feeling this town doesn't physically possess the amount of cash demanded, and we can't go out to get more. Which, come to think of it, seems like a flaw in the dragon's demand..."
"Well, being a zombie dragon, I imagine it just wants us to get all our stuff together for its convenience, and plans to kill us all anyway. On the plus side, for an old-equals-powerful dragon, it sure didn't look so good. I don't think death does any favors to dragons."
"Well, I can just swim along the bottom of the river. Not sure what your plans are, guys."
"Good idea; I'm sure he doesn't have any river drakes at his command," Juma quips sarcastically.
"Maybe that Shae will know what to do. Or maybe the Baroness. Or... I don't know, someone."
"Oh, speaking of Maffei: if nobody's allowed to leave town on pain of death, and she's living in the woods... Dang, maybe we should go fetch her before she gets eaten."
In the aftermath of the dragon’s appearance, the auction’s final sale is put on indefinite hold. Baroness Origena asks the three of you and several locals whose advice she values—Sheriff Benhovy, local stabler and former adventurer Lezara Dodgion, Abadaran priestess Eupaphenia Targas, and Bassy the historian—to return with her to her manor home for a meeting.
The meeting takes place in a cozy dining room at Devy Manor. The baroness doesn’t waste time, and asks Eupaphenia what Belhaim could scrape together by pooling all its resources. Her answer of approximately 20,000 gp doesn’t surprise the baroness. Even if every sale for the auction were immediately settled, it would be unlikely to bring the total up to even 100,000 gp. There’s just no way Belhaim can pay the dragon’s demand of 776,000 gp.
The baroness opens the meeting to suggestions. Sheriff Benhovy mutters that if they “send out a few of those Shelyn layabouts to distract the dragon for the good of the town, maybe he’ll lower the ransom,”—a suggestion met with derision and shock by the others at the meeting. Frustrated, he then suggests sending out messages via raven to several larger (but distant) towns for aid. Lezara pushes to have the town evacuated. Eupaphenia suggests sending a delegate to speak to the dragon about paying in installments. None of these suggestions appeases the group as a whole. Finally Bassy, the gnome who bought the scroll from Dagon, asks, “Why don’t we just kill it?”
The Baroness Origena’s visage grows stern. Her eyes fix on her folded hands before she looks up, directing her gaze at the three of you as she says. “I can’t offer a monetary reward sufficient to lure you into undertaking so deadly a mission. However, I must ask: Will you slay this dragon for Belhaim? If you succeed, I shall raise each of you to the rank of Knight of Taldor. Little Belhaim and its inhabitants are lost if you don’t prevail. What say you?”
All eyes turn to the intrepid trio...
"Well, considering it's a choice between that or dying, I guess it's up to us. Again."
Juma scans the room.
"We'll need support, though. Targas, we have an ally who can help us fight, but she's in need of restorative magic. Additionally, we could use some protective and assistive magic once we're ready to go; we'll discuss exactly what shortly. Bassy, same goes for you: what assistance can you offer? We won't expect you to necessarily go and fight, but do you know any spells that could give us an edge? We'll also need supplies: potions, scrolls, equipment, you name it. Lezara, Mayor, that's you two: anything to help us succeed is in investment in your own continued survival, so I don't recommend withholding anything. And anyone who knows the swamp needs to help us draw up our plan of attack."