The sheer level of terror Gallond can illicit with his new spear coupled with his dazzling displays of prowess is very impressive!
I for one vote they move all of these towns in jeoparody and dungeon delves closer to civilization..how is one supposed to properly protect themselves from the beasts and boggards without a respecatable smithy to improve their armor, we simply must invest in some traveling magic post haste !
I do however think you misremember our initial reaction to the massive mob of Ogres friend Havelock...We clearly had great trepidation before engaging the brutes! After all if they had been anywhere near as compitent as some of their bretheren using stumps to shield ourselves wouldnt have been nearly enough to save our hides.
Chapter 22. The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Hit.
Near the door guards was a smoky ash filled pit. We failed to convince Morgrum that there were shinies at the bottom.
Penetrating the mountain's interior we came to a junction of tunnels. Down one there was the sound of forges being worked, no doubt the source of all the ogre hooks we've collected. We needed to physically restrain Lehna when someone suggested extinguishing the forges.
Following one of the other tunnels we surprised a coven of Hags. After a messy, smoky, Force Cageed, half Invisible fight we finished them off.
Returning to the junction we chose another tunnel, this one an abandoned shrine of Lamashtu.
The final tunnel led to a cavernous throne room, illuminated by a cleft in the roof. At the far end a stone giant seated in a crude throne was arguing with another, while a third slouched against the wall. Charging down the center aisle Gallond took two boulders chunked by the standing giants, and the seated one cast Fly on himself. The battle began in ernest, and the two standing giants fell, one stunned by Lazurin and ganked by Morgrum, the other beaten almost to death by Asa then burned by Lazurin. The seated giant took longer, left Asa Blind and nearly finished Gallond with a wand of Enervation.
Seems I now have Hook Mountain as part of the territory controlled by Fort Rannick. This includes iron mines under the mountain and several tons of worked iron in the form of . . . well, quite a lot of ogre hooks.
Seems I now have Hook Mountain as part of the territory controlled by Fort Rannick. This includes iron mines under the mountain and several tons of worked iron in the form of . . . well, quite a lot of ogre hooks.
"I have no idea why ogres need so many boat anchors, I haven't seen a single ogre near the water EVER! You don't see dwarves making boat anchors... cuz we don't typically need boats! You could use them as large grappling hooks I suppose, but no one fights with one, that's just silly. I'm opening a 'pre-owned boat anchor - grappling hook' shop after this."
It is seriously begining to occur to me that repeatedly removing the enchantments a beast places upon its self aquires me a great deal of unwanted attention in the form of violent drubbings....seriously I am still picking little bits of my own ribs from the lining of my mithril shirt. Thank the gods we found a broker to take in those bloody boat anchors, it may have been a months journey to Magnimar...but my defenses will be strengthened I do swear it!
Edit :
Butterflies. Attract. Monsters.
A year has passed since our conquest of Hook Mountain. I spent the time we were locked in winter repairing Fort Rannick and Skulls Crossing, trying to reopen the mines and repeatedly saying "No," to door-to-door ogre hook sales... things. Winter finally broke.
Heading back down the river we arrived in Magnimar, reported to the Lord Mayor, sold as many ogre hooks as we could, refitted our gear, then set out for Sandpoint.
We were greeted as heros. The citizens held a pre-festival-festival in our honor. Apparently the Swallowtail Festival has been renamed the Goblin Festival, where goblin effigies are burned in a bonfire. Unable to get away I planned a pub crawl for the next day.
At breakfast I was rudely interrupted by a boulder slamming into the side of the inn. So much for seeing the town.
Yep, giants. Three of them. Lehna came out of the inn in her nightgown so I sent her up the cathedral to look for a secondary assault. As we were finishing off the giants, a dragon swooped down and breathed fire on the town. Allowing the surviving giants to flee we set out to face the dragon when Lehna emerged from the cathedral to say that there were giants attacking the other side of town.
Eventually I got off a Haste spell. Gallond stated that he had no real distance attack and set out for the giants, Lehna had no distance spells and went with him. Asa, Lazurin and I faced the dragon in the center of town.
And saw it off. We set out to deal with the giants.
So, like, Gallond and I went after the giants, y'know, and we, like, ran around a bit because I didn't have time to lay down an Ice Wall until just now. Then a giant hit me. Really hard. And it hurt. A lot.
I wish I had my armor on.
"Incoming Bears! OUTTA MUH WAY BEAR!"
"Didn't WORK! Follow me, back THIS way!"
"Stand behind me!"
"Ooooooooooh!! THAT had to hurt... NO, THE OTHER, BEHIND ME!"
Chapter 24. Moves Pretty Fast For A Big Guy
As Lazurin, Asa, Morgrum and myself moved to assist Gallond and Lehna we encountered yet more giants. I was rather dubious about how such large creatures could sneak up on a town until I saw one of them moving with purpose while we were killing his associates. I attempted to delay him with Hold Monster from a scroll, but he shook it off within seconds. Relying on the others to finish off the brutes I set off in pursuit of the lone giant.
Before I caught up to him I was passed by Asa carrying Morgrum like a backpack, then by Lazurin, who I recall had his boots enchanted for speed...
As I was passing a side street who should pop out but Lehna. She was being followed by a pair of giants, but as she'd cast Slipstream on herself she was easily out distancing them and caught up with the rest of the group...
Fortunately for me, I'd learned the trick of Hiding in Plain Sight. The giants charged Lehna, instead.
From my vantage point I saw the lone giant digging in the rubble around the base of the Old Lighthouse as Morgrum and Asa came up behind him. As Lehna, Lazurin and I were dealing with the pair who'd followed us the the lone giant felled Asa with rapid blows from paired pickaxes and looked fair to deal with the halfling. Lazurin looked to be sweating bullets as he focused on the lone giant, and the great brute fell at the halfling's feet. (A decidedly unsafe place considering Morgrum's uncanny ability with Coup-de-Grace.)
Lazruin Charmed one of the tagalongs and sent him to protect the lone giant while we finished off his companion.
The Charmed giant hoisted the lone giant onto his shoulder and begain to carry him away. When Lazurin tried to get him to stay he kept on moving, stating, "Got to protect the chief."
Suddenly Morgrum was on the chief and showed greater skill with the pickaxe than the chief had, killing him with one blow. When Lazurin stunned the remaining giant with an Eldrich Blast the halfling killed again.
After Lehna and I healed the injured we set about ascertaining the damage to the town. The giants we had not encountered made off with several villagers. Gallond had been shepherding people into the "Secret Lair" after he and Lehna got separated. I located Brodert Quink and tried to engage him to find out what the giant chieftain had been searching for. Lehna got her armor on. We mounted up and rode off in pursuit of the kidnappers.
After long ride and a night's rest we came upon a pair of giants sleeping by a fire. It was a trap, of course. After a brief rest for looting and healing we were on our way.
"That's ME! Gallond, Human Herder extrordinare! It's not a secret lair anymore, you were giving guided tours, more like a community wine cellar NOOOOOW."
"You got engaged to the old man? Holy cow, when did THAT happen?! Why was Lehna there putting on her armor when you mounted him? That's messed up, hopefully I wasn't there for THAT!"
"Filthy giants, they needed to get a room! That's just another reason we dwarves don't like 'em."
Chapter 25. The Game Is Afoot... Because they don't grow horses that big.
Tidying up from the fracas. Lazurin spoke to the local animals and determined that the giants left to ambush us were merely a distraction, the kidnapped humans were carried off in three different directions. Selecting the ones moving toward the northwest we set off after the giants.
Once the trail entered a mountain range I repeated lost the track. Stone giants, go figure. We would have done better to follow them through the forest.
Eventually the trail came down from the heights and into open grassland again, eventually leading to another giantish encampment. Following it further we came upon a band of ogres who, judging by the cows the had slung over their shoulders, had been looting farmsteads.
A few more days and the tracks were truly lost, even if the trail was not. It was fairly obvious that the giants had climbed the Storval Stairs, a literal gigantic stone staircase.
It was an agonizing decision, but we decided to release the horses as they could not be expected to make this climb. The top of the stairs were guarded by more stone giants. First they pelted us with rocks, then tipped their rock piles down the stairs. Once we attained the summit and dispatched half their number the remainder fled from Gallond's rather justified wrath.
Chapter 26: I Thought We Were Following Them
As we were cleaning up we heard a voice, "I hate giants, too! C'mon and we can catch 'em."
Not being one to simply chase off with strangers we took a few moments to examine the person speaking. A half-elf with a mithril breastplate, a longbow and a pair of swords. He said his name was Jamlemen, but before we could learn any more we noticed a group of giants climbing the stairs. As they had sacks, presumably full of people, we decided that they were more important than the ones who ran away. I'm sure we'll pay for letting some get away, but one must have priorities.
As it turns out Jamlemon not only hates giants, he is very good at killing them.
And we begin cleaning up again.
...I never did get the spelling.
Woah blackbetty jam-a-lam...
Seriously though, our new ranger friend appears quiet capable..and his tracking skills will come in very handy!
Chapter 26: Does Anyone Have Anything To Take Care Of Before We Go Into The Cinderlands?
The reason Jamlimen was so happy to find us is that he was spying on an army of giants massing at a place called Jorgenfist. Apparently there are hundreds of them.
I think it is likely that their raiding of the lowlands is the prelude to declaring a war of domination. Or perhaps they aren't going to bother declaring it, and just start dominating. Either way we set off into the Cinderlands toward Jorgenfist.
About half way on our trek we spotted a patrol of four stone giants, accompanied by four giant bears. After a short battle we reached the mountains surrounding the giant's army. There really were quite a lot of them. Even Gallond was reluctant to stage a frontal assault. Perhaps we should have brought one of the sacks that the giants were using to haul humans, climbed inside and... nah.
Choosing a more circuitous route we approached Jorgenfist from below the cliff it rests upon. Jamlimen had identified two caves that might lead into the fortress proper. No mention of what we'd do once we got into the fortress beyond "rescue the humans," but I believe we will likely have to kill the entity responsible for this giantish jamboree.
The former Black Arrow told us that the lower cave had wyverns flying in and out at night. Entering, we found them at home. Lazurin being poisoned by one of the lizardy-scorpion-bats was probably the most exciting thing about the fight. We don't seem to have any poison cures...
Chapter 26: Does Anyone Have Anything To Take Care Of Before We Go Into The Cinderlands?
Jamlimen had identified two caves that might lead into the fortress proper. No mention of what we'd do once we got into the fortress beyond "rescue the humans"...
If you have some sort of divine information about this fortress or maybe a map that you've been keeping hidden from the rest of us, now would be a good time to share. Otherwise the plan is to rescue the people and not die. Also, Sandpoint is multi-cultural, it's entirely possible the giants kidnapped more than just "humans", but I see where the rest of us stand now. *glares*
Seems to me Havelock would like to execute a full frontal assault rather than attempt to circumvent the hundreds of Giants outside the walls...
By all means Havelock lead us in the assault...we will be behind you.
Way behind you.....
Like back at home with feet up drinking cocoa by the fire behind.
If you have some sort of divine information about this fortress or maybe a map that you've been keeping hidden from the rest of us, now would be a good time to share. Otherwise the plan is to rescue the people and not die.
Just logic. We ran into a corrupted aasimar, then a llamia, then another llamia, then a spell casting stone giant. We chased off the dragon that attacked Sandpoint a little too easily for it to be in charge of a horde of giants. So what's worse than a spell casting giant?
TWO spell casting... yeah, yeah.
The point is that the giant's raids on the lowlands will continue unless someone does something. And I've never seen Gallond the Gallant not do something.
Also, Sandpoint is multi-cultural, it's entirely possible the giants kidnapped more than just "humans", but I see where the rest of us stand now. *glares*
Elf girls! Elf girls! Rah! Rah! Rah!
No heals for smelly humans!
Chapter 27: They got legs! They know how to use them!
From the wyvern cave we made our way up the cliff to the upper cave. The floor was covered with innumerable, tiny, vile, crawly things. Further in the back there were three, gigantic, vile, crawly things stuffed with innumerable, tiny, vile, crawly things. Deathwebs by name, undead balls of spider legs by appearance.
Searching the cave we found a secret door. It led into a warren of twisted passages. After traveling for what seemed like ages we were attacked by a type of fey known as Red Caps. Rather than stand around getting our shins kicked we opted to keep with out policy of moving upward whenever the passages allowed.
Eventually we emerged...
Hate...hate...haaaaate the red caps. Vile little shin kicking wretches!
Seemed to take an eternity to crawl out of that hive of frustration. Still was kind of funny though...death by nasty leg bruising.
Chapter 28: The Bigger They Are, Part 2 - Jotun Boogaloo.
We entered a chamber containing a single lit candle. And a kobold. Who Lazurin won over to our side. She informed us that the way to the surface was down the corridor she had just exited.
A brief period of questioning later and we discovered that the captured humans were down the other corridor. There were also captured dwarves. She was excited to learn that we had fought the Red Caps rather than negotiating for passage. After telling us to not touch her tapestry she went to look for corpses to snack on.
The giants guarding the prisoners proved less than equal to their task. The giants who came to investigate the work stoppage were somewhat more competent.
A further patrol of giants came up while we were resting in the tunnel leading to the Red Cap warren. They made the mistake of waking our kobold friend.
The extremely large giant who came later was very competent. This was only exacerbated by him being accompanied by four stone giants. Morgrim turned his back to hamburger and Gallond did the same to his front. The gigantic giant chose to focus his attention on the halfling. Once Gallond knocked him down we mopped up the regular sized giants.
Time once again to rest, because it's going to take some serious healing to get Morgrum, Gallond and Asa back to being fit for more fighting.
Chapter 29: Lamia down in silk
After straightening out the wrecking crew we went out looking for more people to rescue. We found three lamia preparing to sacrifice two humans on one really big altar dedicated to Lamashtu. (Beginning to see a pattern here. Should probably consult a professional divine servant.) As we began to explore the aftermath we were attacked by yet another lamia. This one had, rather evilly, watched her ... associates being slaughtered so that she could throw on all her protective spells. Not that they did any good in the end.
Lehna did learn a very important lesson about not casting negative energy on servants of Lamashtu. Criticals doubly so. Also letting lamia make a bed out of silk tends to leave the fabric somewhat... pungent.
Needing a rest to restore our spells we retreated to the tunnel where we had stashed the former prisoners.
During the night several giants passed through the area. One solitary giantess tried to wake the kobold without success.
Upon waking we set out to finish exploring the lamia's temple. After some defacement of the altar we went into the tunnel at the back. Turns out they had three large red dragons stashed back there. All of them had sihedron runes etched into their breast scales. Yeah, this again.
Special mention must be made of Gallond's killing one with a single swing of his ax, splitting its head from teeth to neck.
Distressingly, the dragons had no treasure. What is the world coming to?
Treating the burns and scrapes we exited the dragons' cave through the far tunnel, almost. The giantess who had been trying to waken the kobold was waiting in the next chamber, apparently standing guard. She darted across the chamber and waved for us to go back the way we had just come. She then began speaking to another giant, telling it that the intruders had gone top-side and were killing giants outside the wall.
Let not forget Gallond's EPIC destruction of one of the detestable Wyrm's...I could see his holy power radiating from his very being as he strode toward the beast an severed its vile head on one might blow!
Let not forget Gallond's EPIC destruction of one of the detestable Wyrm's...I could see his holy power radiating from his very being as he strode toward the beast an severed its vile head on one might blow!
Did. Third line from the bottom. Forgot to mention how he "spiked the ball" by flinging the axe at another dragon. Hit the thing to, IIR.
Chapter 30: Something here doesn't fit.
The giantess explained why she was wanted to help us. It was not so much that she wanted to help us, more that she wanted us to stop killing giants. Oh, and kill McMurrain, the magic using giant who killed her husband. As a way to motivate us she made it clear that McMurrain was the instigator of the raids against the low lands, and that he planned on leading the army of giants overhead in a war to conquer everything form the mountains to the sea.
Eventually she told us how to find him and gave us a map. I found it a struggle to get information about guards and hazards along the way. I am not sure we should trust her once we have dealt with McMurrain.
On the other hand, she informed us that the sihedron runes were placed on beings designated for sacrifice. It is now apparent that the rune is being used to channel the dying energies of the marked, but to what ends I do not know.
Setting off we ran into the four troll guards she mentioned. She neglected to mention that they were hiding behind walls where they could stab at us with large ranseurs. It was bloody. Fortunately we were well equipped with fire, acid and healing.
Coming to a fork Jamlimen and Morgrum began arguing about which path to take. The rolled dice for it and Jamlimen led us to a room trapped with a Reduce Person spell. The nausea was apparently due to poor architectural design. There was a Rune Giant in the room, and it tried to take advantage of the weakness of those of our party who entered the room. Fortunately Lazurin stunned the thing allowing him, Asa and Morgrum to obliterate it.
Point of note, remember the town up north where the damn was being tampered with...many of those towns folk where "marked" as well by the floating casino with the same greed rune. Seems they have been up to this for a while.
Chapter 31: Fight! Fight! Fight! Yay Team!
We entered a room containing a cauldron, a stone golem and instructions on how to use the cauldron to turn ordinary giants into Rune Giants. After disposing of the golem we set about defacing the instructions and Gallond took a swing at the cauldron with his adamantine axe. While we were moving to repair the axe some sort of earth elemental slid out of the wall and attacked. Dealing with that we made a note to come back and destroy the cauldron, then on moved to the next room.
This one was crammed full of the corpses of giants & ogres. Of course they were undead. One was a special sort that went after Gallond with negative energy attacks. It was touch and go for a moment there, but paladin trumps wraith giant. Or whatever it was, I didn't get a good look at it because another elemental slid out of the wall, this one enveloped in a Darkness field. Lazurin knocked down the Darkness and the thing retreated. When it came back Gallond gave it a seeing to. Then all that was left was a room full of zombie giants. Which took about a minute and a half to clear, even while we were hasted.
Lehna and I set about Mending the gear damaged by cauldron thumping and elemental nibbling.
Returning to the search for McMurrain we found a corridor inscribed with prayers dedicated to the "Peacock Sprit". (Some sort of Lawful Evil Monk type god. Dead now.) I shrugged off a spell that was likely to keep me reading forever. Leading off the side of the corridor was a double door that lead to another double door that lead to a large stone block (likely conjured by those annoying elementals we dealt with earlier.
At one end we found a double door sealed with a seven pointed lock. Morgrim pulled out a seven pointed key that he picked up during our investigation of the Skinsaw Murders and opened the door.
It opened into a library. I promptly sent the library golem to fetch all the books referring to Karzoug, Rune Lord of Greed. I had just settled down to a good read when I was enveloped in a Solid Fog! You can imagine how difficult it is to turn pages under those conditions. There was the sound of combat, and the green ray of a Disintigrate spell hit me in the face.
Barely remaining conscious I stood and cast Haste but as I could not see anything I had to cast it on myself and hope for the best. I heard what sounded like the growl of a deformed dog...
What you have missed so far is not very pleasant. Our little halfling friend is now statuary, and the rest of us are fading fast. Makmurian summoned some foul madness from the pitts of hell that we have dispatched...but the giant himself is proving a tougher nut to crack. Still with reinforcements comming in the form of our stout Paladin I have faith we can and will make it through.
|
The funny thing is that the door is a two way thing. It has been a huge help for him, but it has the potential to be a big problem for him to. So far he has the door though.
Calling it where I did served two purposes though. Not only does it give us another chance to add Gallond back in, but all of your dice (except the dispel magic's which you don't really need hot dice for) were cold. When Jamlamin said "I gotta go" I figured that not only could we possibly add the Paladin back in mid-fight, but it might also reset the luck factor which was not in the parties favor at that time.
Lehna healed me to where I could rejoin the fight. And Asa closed the door by taking the key out of the door, locking McMurrian out.
Using our respite we revived the halfling. After determining that the other door was jammed, probably by yet another collapsed tunnel, I led the way out the door we entered through. I caught three Scorching Rays and three Quickened Magic Missiles. While the others charged into battle again I retreated to heal, though not far enough to avoid the Horrid Wilting. To paraphrase the bard, Two Hit-points is no time to start chanting. So I cast Haste and started chanting.
McMurrian was trapped with Asa, Jamlimin and Lehna on one side and Gallond on the other. He overran the three to get to the door, then cast Force Wall to keep the melee fighters at bay... leaving me and Lazurin alone with him. We closed the door.
I healed myself a little more and opened it again so Lazurin could fire his Eldrich Blast. Lazurin then closed the door again. The next time we tried this I got clubbed in the face. A third time and McMurrian stole the wand I had gotten ready. The fourth time McMurrian charged into the library and caught a nearly lethal blast from the warlock. He charged back out of the room and Dimension Doored.
We retreated to the library to rest.
Sweet!
As we rested I realized that my shadow had become a Shadow, of sorts. I began calling it "Spooky".
After casting spells with the expectation that there would be a fight with as many giants as could squeeze into these tunnels we opened the door and beheld McMurrian's unpleasant countenance. Behind him the hall was full of giants, including Conna, the giantess who directed us here, and another giant we had seen leading a patrol. Conna seemed to be having an argument with the unnamed patrol leader.
The gang stalled (wasting a round and a half of Haste and being pelted with spells) waiting for McMurrian to be stupid enough to walk into and be flanked.
I sent out by Spooky and fired off an arrow. The others were finally motivated to attack. Gallond and Asa moved in. Morgurm circled McMurrian looking for a flank. He passed under the giant we had seen leading the patrol, and the giant did nothing to stop him. Conna must have won the argument they were having because they evacuated the area with remainder of the giants, leaving McMurrian alone with us.
With Lazurin, Lehna and myself pelting him with Dispel Magic he quickly found himself vulnerable to melee. He was still game for a fight until Murgurm & Spooky staggered him with strength damage. Only then did he Dimension Door.
Jamlamin raced down the corridor looking for our adversary. We pounded through another room and found the Giant Wizard recasting his defensive spells. Asa dashed across the room and lept up onto the platform to face him. Only slightly taken aback by our arrival McMurrian cast Force Wall, sealing himself off with Asa. ...and Spooky, who'd been sneaking up on him through the floor.
Upon realizing my shadow was in there with him he wasted no time in cutting lose with Disintegrate & Quickened Magic Missile Spooky was forced to retreat. He turned to deal with Asa, only to discover that Gallond, Jamlamin & Morgrum were using Adamant weapons to hack through his Force Wall while Lehna & I healed them.
We surged up to him and, after a few more spells & dispels were exchanged, dispatched him.
As McMurrian lay dying we were taunted by and entity claiming to be the Rune Lord Karzoug. Given that the speaker sounded exactly like the voice of the the illusion below Thistletop I am inclined to think it was truly that ancient entity.
Taking a few days to rest I investigated the library. I learned much about Ancient Thassilon.
Returning the kidnapped humans and dwarves to their respective villages & cities we took our booty to Magnimar, there to convert much over-sized, magical junk into shiny gold pieces... which we converted into properly sized magical junk.
Finally returning to Sandpoint we were surrounded by celebratory townsfolk. As the festivities reached full swing Sheriff Hemlock pulled us aside. It seems that Brodert Quink successfully excavated the blocked stairwell from the "secret underground base."
Strange noises have came out of the chamber they uncovered. Several people have disappeared from town. Several guards, and Gallond's cleric friend, went in to investigate. They have not returned.
The bottom of the stairs had been sealed off by a secret door. While Morgrum dealt with that I investigated the unusually thick spider webbing on the stairs. Consultation with Jamlamin & Lazurin revealed that the webbing was unnatural and caused by a spell. My own knowledge of the arcane led me to the conclusion that the area we were entering was covered by a spell known as Guards & Wards, or some variant there of.
Sure enough, the place was full of fog. Lazurin stepped up and dispelled the entry room so that we could enter safely.
An unseen speaker began to question us about our intent in entering this place. It was eventually determined that the questioner was the Scribbler, and enemy of the Rune Lord Karzoug. Before any more could be learned Gallond and I entered an area sacred to Lamashtu, antagonizing the guardians of that place. The Scribbler too, for that matter, cutting short any attempt to find out more about Kurzoug.
Perhaps, just this once, it would have been better to talk before smashing.
I at this point would like to state my all consuming hatred for enemies with high SR and immunity to acid..so stupid.
LOL...eh it happens. No worries. I will take it out on the bad guys.
I've always put spell resistance in the "bad idea" category. It's one of the reasons that power gamers kept pushing for drow to be a player race.
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0437.html
Chapter 35: After the High comes the Crash
Having cleared the way we set out to explore the rest of the complex, only to be attacked by two waves of Shadow Mastiffs. After I Removed Fear from Lehna and Asa The Scribbler decided to join the melee by attacking me. Lehna and I kept him busy until the others could join us, but our foe retreated into a narrow tunnel where only two people could engage him in melee. Lazurin began stripping away defensive spells and I cast Grease on his sword and had my Shadow carry it off.
The Scribbler was not amused. He was even less amused when Lazurin dispelled his Bear's Endurance, but as it was the only thing keeping him animated he was in no condition to comment.
Chapter 36: After the High comes the Crash, Part II
Searching the temple we found scribblings that told us where we could find the Runeforge. After informing the authorities about the hidden temple we set off for the Library beneath Jorgenfist to do some serious research. There we met the kobold barbarian from earlier. She seemed to have developed a fondness for Brodert Quink, so much so that she wants to wear his head like a hat. Distracting her with an illusion we entered the library and found enough information to continue on to the location of the Runeforge.
As we were dealing with the rather complicated lock & key system to access the Runeforge proper we were attacked by a huge White Dragon. First it picked up Lehna and did the seagull vs. clam trick. As it swooped around again Lazurin created a Wall of Force directly in front of it. Then it decided to take me for a ride. Curiously it did not chew on me or breathe frost like it had with Lehna. I was rather surprised when Lazurin threw one of his warlock blasts at me. The dragon was even more surprised because the blast put a sphere of force around me.
Now I've got ten minutes to search my Deep Pockets find a one-shot item that costs less than three hundred gold piece and will keep me from falling to my death.
I never realized it was impossible to bring down a flying creature like that. I do wish I had figured it out sooner, we were stupid for running around outside for so long. We should have listended to Gallond snatched all the keys and made swiftly for the cave...if the beast were to follow us in there at least our party could have brought their melee strength to bear.
The dragon retreated, allowing me to Levitate to a safe landing. We followed it to its lair and, after neutralizing several traps, found a pile of treasure we assumed belonged to the dragon. We baited the beast out of hiding with our professional looting skills and defeated it.