Using Wild Arcana i cast project image as far out the window as a I can see, in hte direction that the arrow came from.
The Steel Falcon's voice speaks calmly from the window.
"Azriel, I'm on the ground outside. You should be able to see me. I think the assassin is somewhere in the sky, I know where the shot came from but I can't see from here. If you have a way to send me or us up there, please do."
Fly my good ser the wingless falcon.
Azriel mutters and waves his hands a feather sizzles with arcane energies in his hand.
I don't think we need initiative. Outside the window is an empty side street, just a few old crates and barrels. The building in the other side is a one story home. You can see a decent way but it's all pretty standard cityscape. The arrows came down through the window at a pretty steep angle. There don't seem to be any buildings in that direction that are tall enough for the arrows to have been fired from.
Azriel gets a gleam in his eye, and purposely walks over to the corpse, putting one hand upon the body and the other on the shaft of the arrow he unceremoniously pulls it out of the corpse. Sits down crosslegged in the corner of the room focusing hard on the arrow.
Eloron pulls a flask out of his pouches and drinks deep before crushing the now empty flask in his bare hand, then leaps through the window his axe now in hand.
Eloron joins the steel falcon in the air but he too is unable to discern more than the direction the arrow cam from.
"Raghghghghghhhh where is she!!!!!!!!"
Brother! tell the others, Jezzara is about 2 miles away, and about half a mile above Rajashi. Right over near the wall! Hurry tell the others and slay her, if you can I shall provide what aid I can.
"This way follow me, to the walls 2 miles away!!! she is ours!!!!!"
Eloron start charging through the air moving as if skating on the very air itself, from his other hip he pulls another flask he drinks it draining it in one gulp before charging off faster than before.
Eloron skates quickly to the ground before charging of with a blinding speed his foot falls thundering out over the cobbled streets.
Eloron charges through the city, when he arrives at the wall he sees two figures floating away at a brisk pace. One a dark cloaked figure, flying on large bat-like wings. The other a drow woman dressed a simple cloth wrap around her chest and short cloth skirt over dark pants. The drow woman also carries a large black longbow.
As Eloron approaches they turn in unison, glance down, and then dissolve into nothing.
Azriel, and Zystra arrive shortly after.
The Steel Falcon becomes visible and begins descending from about a quarter mile up, sheathing his swords. He is further out past the city than the figures were.
He glides over to Eloron and touches down.
"Well done!" His voice is thick with sarcasm. "If you'd been any later I could have taken her out. Not all problems are solved by charging straight on with an axe."
He turns and looks back up into the sky.
"Now all we know is that things are more interesting than we thought."
"and that you think you can solve all the problems on your own"
The Steel Falcon stares at Eloron for a moment, but doesn't say anything else. He waits for Azriel and Zystra.
"Brother can you track them, follow their path by some spell? If so we should track them if not we should continue on to the dragon"
That is how I knew they were here dear brother. I suggest we ignore them for now. Neleroth is the more pressing concern, we can deal with this annoyance later.
Turning to the steel falcon.
My apologies after the attempted ambush, I should have shielded our room, such an oversight will not come to pass again.
The bird must ask for aid to fly, yet the giant soars of his own volition. Neither can catch his prey. Zystra shakes her head.
Turning to Azriel:
No more your fault that any of ours. It was amateurish of any of us to be caught out in such a manner. Such is the danger of weak foes, sloppiness is contagious.
I agree, though we need be more careful, we should press on with our task. We would do well however, to keep in mind that their seem to more players than merely us and the dragon in this game.
"The dragon then let us hunt it down"
"How should we move next? Do we hunt this dragon down and flush it out of it's lair or storm the beast's cave?"
Eloron looks at his companions expectantly.
The four heroes return to their inn, disappointed by their enemy's escape, but glad of the new information.
Your room is exactly how you left it. Shattered window, and two corpses. Azriel sits down on his bed with the dragon scale and pendant in front of him. He chants quietly to himself and as he does so the room seems to hum with his immense arcane power. Zystra takes her own approach, silently lying down on her own bed. She allows sleep to taker her and delves into the depths of her swirling, twisting prophetic dreams.
The four figures are
A short, slightly hunched figure, draped in a dark cloak and leaning on a black staff, tipped with a jagged red crystal.
A hulking orc, dressed in skins and a nasty spiked armor made of some sort of bone, a greatclub made from a large femur and wrapped in iron bands is strapped to his back.
A drow woman, wearing little more than black cloth wraps around her hands, chest, and thighs. A wicked looking black bow and quiver are slung over her shoulder.
And finally a tall figure clad head to toe in shining black full plate. A sword wrests in its scabbard at their side and they carry a massive black tower shield. The shield's front is clean and smooth except for a slobbering toothy maw.
As you observe the scene before you a raspy voice echoes through the room, a voice you recognize, Azerkai the life-shaper.
A wyrm stirs only when its master beckons. A hoard falls to ruin, forgotten by its collector. Heroes flock to their deaths like trained dogs. A puppet has no desire, but follows blindly when its master pulls its strings.
As Azerkai's voice silences the armored figure turns and brandishes the tower shield. The mouth opens wide and spews forth a torrent of shadow. As you are enveloped by the darkness you feel your flesh being torn and pierced.
Ans then as quickly as it started the pain disappears and you find yourself in your bed at the inn. Your brow is clammy with cold sweat.
Upon finishing the divination spell, Azriel stands up and places his hands upon the corpses.
Shall I dispose of these?
Azriel blinks out of existence and returns in a moment, with out the corpses.
Neleroth and Princess Adelaide are both deep down in a huge cavern system, far below Neleroth's lair on the dragon tail islands.
Zystra wakes suddenly, looking frightened and disoriented. She starts speaking to no one in particular.
Is a dragon a beast or pet? How powerful can a being become before it becomes its own master? Four faces arranged against us. Are they four, or are they five? Or one?
A ghost from a nightmare from which a girl has already awoken rears its head. A monster thrice-slain yet speaks.
The huntress, the dark knight, the crippled shadow, and the brute stand before the throne of darkness. Servants or pretenders? Loyal agents or figures in the cabal?
Let us rest, and in the morning, we should advance with caution, we have been a bit brash and careless thus far.
Azriel takes a big gulp from his tea, and upon emptying the flask pulls a stand and tea pot and starts to brew his foul smelling tea.
"sleep then, and in the morning we hunt"
You awake in the early morning. The city of Rajashi is already bustling and the sounds of the morning market flood in through your broken window. You can smell some sort of spiced meat being cooked downstairs.
"Well. I say we toss the innkeeper some coin for the window and head out. I am sure we have an interesting journey ahead of us."
As you leave the many corners Eloron drops a pouch of 5gp on the counter.
"We left a bit of mess, that should more than cover the window and your trouble."
The walk out of Rajashi is as uneventful as the walk in. You have to walk halfway around the middle ring as you aren't allowed entrance into the palace district. it is late morning by the time you arrive at the outer gate. Ahead of you lies the red waste of the reach. To the south you can see the gnarled grove of trees. to the west and north, nothing but red dirt and brush. The fastest route to Neleroth's lair (sans teleportation) is over the dragon's tail sound. By land the only way is to cross all the way through the reach.
Agree, but be wary. There are greater and more cunning dangers on our path than a mere dragon.
We would do well to plan a careful approach, to minimize the chances of detection. And whatever lair we find this dragon in, is as like to be a trap as the sun is to rise in the morning
Using the small library I carry with me in my bag, I research Neleroth's lair and the surrounding area attempting to find a suitable place to teleport us to, via greater teleport.
See what if any magical phenominons are in the area, also the best place to arrive, to achive a cautious balance of proximity and privacy.
See what I can learn about the lair.
See what I can learn about the lair.
See what I can learn about the lair and sournding area.
See what is writen about the area, specifically recent historical acounts going back aproximatly 1000 years.
See what is writen about the area, specifically recent acounts.
See what the local enviroment is like, e.g. temprature, vegitation etc, and type of natural hazards we should be prepaired for.
See if there are any known points of contact in the area with other planes, specifically the plane of fire or evil aligned planes.
As soon as we are out of the city, and out of sight I cast greater teleport, aiming for the close to the dragons lair.
Let us join hands and face this first challenge so that we may turn our combined might upon our more recently revealed foes.
There are no accounts of any magical phenomena besides those directly related to the dragon. No one has ever returned from the lair since Neleroth has lived there. The most recent expedition you have heard of was over 500 years ago. A small team of researchers and guards went to explore back when a young green dragon lived there but only two returned. They did manage to bring back a rough map and a few notes, but you don't have them on hand. From what you remember it is a large cave in a rocky outcropping in the center in the otherwise mostly barren center island. There is an underwater entrance somewhere but it hasn't been found. Any where on the central island would be a suitable drop point as there are no settlements of any kind. No known connection to other planes.
The princess and dragon are both still where they were. When you go to retrieve Jezzara's arrow you find nothing but a handful of black dust. You are still able to cast the spell though since you have seen her. She is at the peak of Kazzakrad.
As soon as everyone is linked Azriel speaks his words and the sands of the reach melt away, only to reform into the slightly darker red sands of father into the reach. You stand at the top of tall cliff, overlooking the sea. In front of you to a mile or so to the north east you can see the crags of a large jumble of stone.
Eloron: "Well brother, you seem to have brought us to an even more desolate wasteland then the one we left."
The Steel Falcon exhales as he looks at the surroundings.
"So, what is our cunning plan now? I am happy to scout ahead if we think it wise."
Ser Falcon, that would be of the greatest aid, allow me to offer some of my own...
Endure Elements, exist comfortably in conditions between -50 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit lasts 24 hours
Resist Energy, Fire resistance 30 lasts 150 minutes
let us wait to see what our bird friend returns to us with.
Azriel sits down on the ground, and takes a long drink of his tea reaching into his bag he offers his brother and
Zystra sweet rolls before taking one himself.
A large metal Tower springs up behind Azriel, who grins slightly, and then with the flick of his wrist is shimmers and disappears.
Shall we adjourn to my tower?
The Steel Falcon nods to Azriel as the magic is completed.
"I will learn what I can of our quarry and the terrain." He looks towards Eloron. "And I will be sure to leave plenty for the rest of you to do."
He vanishes.
"Brother, let us rest in the tower and remove you from this dust"
Eloron grabs a sweet roll and strolles into the tower.
To understand a Red dragons anatomy.
Debate the arcane practicality (ability to do so) of telephoning Eloron inside of said red dragon to mess him up from the inside...
Debating just how poor an idea this is.
The Tower Door opens and shuts quickly, and The Steel Falcon reappears. He appears completely unscathed.
"Right. That went fine, no trouble and I don't think they know I was in there. I didn't do a complete search of every room, but I learned quite a bit we didn't know. Two main points of interest: First, there are a lot of people in there, soldiers, mages, some laborers. I don't know why, but the place is set up to be habitable and it is indeed inhabited. Second, they had lookouts posted at the top of one of the spires, and one window looks directly out to here. It's possible they saw us as we approached, though the guard there was asleep when I saw him, but either way we will need to move carefully from here to avoid alerting them we're on our way. No sign of the wyrm itself, either, though I found the way to its hoard and huge door it might well be behind."
The Steel Falcon launches into a rapid description of the lair's layout.
"could we not send you to kill the lookouts first? I and Zystra can handle the guards, my brother the mages, the hoard we leave till the beast is dead."
The dragon is but a pawn in this game. Well, maybe a rook or a castle... but we still do not know the real players. Nor the purpose behind all this. We could go in hard, take the place and search it thoroughly for answers or we could set up here and observe. Perhaps the real question she should ask ourselves before we do anything drastic is ... wheres the princess?
"then we get the princess first, keep her with us or remove her to safety as we continue through to defeat the beast, either way the dragon must die."
The princess is deep in the bowels of this place with the beast we seek, I wonder how much aid a pawn of a pawn might be to us, but some finesse here would be advisable.
I say we go straight to the Dragon and fight our way out after, leave o stone unturned!"
We would do well to secure the princess before beginning the battle in earnest, once the real fighting starts it will be beyond any of us to ensure here safety
"Then I say we go and get her, waiting isn't helping to secure her.."
Eloron stops for a moment, considering, a rarity for him...
"... Brother, can you teleport us directly to the princess?"
Presumably he can teleport her out. If we can arrange a secure destination, the tower would probably do, we only have to get to her unseen, then we can let hell reign. Their defenses may struggle with an incursion from within. Although getting to her unseen will require some finesse. We are not all a little bird that may flit where it wills.