Qina chuckled at Brezik's joke as she followed behind Vivian. Crow landed on her shoulder as she walked, scaring her half to death. She tensed up and raised her hands in defense.
The statue turns and slashes at Brezik, closest to the canal and target of its programming.
With the dwarf's legs steady beneath him this time he is able to avoid the blow from the statue, though only just.
Sensing the end of the fight Brezik brings his axe around two more times in quick succession upon the statue.
Don't you know statues aint sposed ta move around on there own.
Brezik's final blow brings the statue down into another pile of gold-plated rubble and golden falchion.
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"I.. Wow." Vivian reluctantly drops her combat pose and scans the battle field that has become silent too soon. "I feel like Iramine is luring us in on false pride, trying to make us take a fatal step because of confidence. Sending the note on her minion.. stringing us along. I fear what is ahead of us even more."
She then looks to the broken weapons, the cracking steal echos in her mind. "Brezik, do you think we can fix these here?"
Al...Bel... let me see your weapons.
Brezik takes the weapons and examines them. It takes just a moment and a passing over the weapon with a bare hand for the damage to be repaired. Once fixed The dwarven smith pulls a steal rod off of his work belt and slides it down the blades of the weapons to hone them. A final wipe with a cloth appearing from his backpack and Brezik happily returns the weapons.
Nothing too bad. Shall we carry on?
Crow hops up and down on Qina's shoulder, trying to draw everyone's attention, but speaking specifically to the Halfling. "Qina! Qina! I flew up ahead like you said and I didn't see any people. But I did see something shiny! It was a whole pile of shiny bones, but they kept moving around like they were alive!
I didn't like the look it was giving me as I was floating overhead. It was planted right on top of a bridge leading further into the city, though I don't know why it was there. It's probably a dragon skeleton, it had huge skeletal wings and teeth as large as your arm! I'd rather not mess with it, there's plenty of shiny stuff out here that we can take instead." Crow looks visibly flustered, the skeleton must've been watching him very closely as he flew close to the bridge.
"A dragon? A golden Skeleton! That's highly...improbable? Is Crow sure? Could it have been a statue, or something else..."
At the moment Gad'larr seems a bit worried and shaken by this news.
Qina gulped nervously as she listened to Crow's report. Whispers began echoing in her head and she missed what was said next. The thought of shiny dragon bones was intriguing to something deep within Qina's subconscious. She had never longed for wealth or dragons but suddenly she wanted both.
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Once the battle ends, Allister looks with a broken heart at his cracked greatsword. Brightfang. It had been so long since he said that name, but his sword had been with him from the beginning. He trusted it as much as any of his friends, and now it was broken. He could have cried at the thought - until Brezik asked to see it.
Watching his friend repair his beloved blade filled the paladin with awe and thanks. When Brezik returned the blade, sharp and shining like new, he thought for a moment of hugging his friend. But the air was hot, and the dwarf who is already notoriously stinky had not bathed for days after sailing and camping near a molten river, so he pulls away and gives his friend a strong slap on the shoulder instead. "Thank you, friend. I felt naked without it."
don't have the right words to show how thankful I am."[/b]
He takes the blade, holds it out and checks that it is straight and true, then smiles.
Once Brightfang is back in its sheath, Allister's eye turns to the golden falchion. "Wow, a golden blade... Would anyone mind?" he asks as he picks up the blade off the floor.
As Crow warns the group of the dragon, Allister studies his new blade. It is beautiful, shining, and gold.
"Wait, did you say there was a dragon...? Like a real dragon? Here?"
"What do we know about undead dragons? By the gods...this one wears it's horde as gold-plated armor! I wonder if the beast can still fly under all that extra weight...?"
Worry suddenly furrows Gad's brow.
"Was there no sign of our enemy Crow: The Razmirans? That's oddly suspicious if not...the last thing we need is to be dealing with the dragon and have them come up behind us and attack our flanks!"
Crow shakes his head, "No people, and we are fairly close to the bridge. If there are any people ready to ambush you they can't be too comfortable in a cramped space."
Thinking back on general knowledge of the undead, and skeletons in particular Gad'larr realizes that it probably won't be able to fly and will instead have the old bones of the wings without the membranes between them.
Why do people always gotta go using magic to animate stuff that should stay put. Statues, human skeletons , piles of masks, now a dragon skeleton. No matter we'll smash this one like all the rest.
Brezik reaches into his bag and pulls out some dried meat. Tearing off a piece he tosses the bit to crow and then bites off a hunk for himself.
I wundr f hvng... "gulp"... if having the key to the city makes everything leave the Razmiran's alone. That would explain why they get to walk past everything and we get to fight it.
"Thank you Brezik, we could not have come this far without you... Without any of us. We can overcome anyone, anything, if we fight together...
Bel trails off after accepting his beautifully restored weapon from the dwarf
"A dragon is a new threat though."
Taking himself to one side Bel kneels in prayer to his goddess, waiting for the word.
"A gold dragon? Aren't they good dragons? He's probably friendly. I still have some more spells in case though."
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"If the dragon's undead, I've got some stuff up my sleeve. In fact, this is my kinda fight. Can't say the same for some of you, though... HA-HAH-HAH-HA!"
The paladin's laugh barely hides his anxiety. He had never seen a dragon before, except Qina, they always called her little dragon. He had only ever heard of dragons from childrens' stories that his mother used to read.
"Wonder if he's a gold dragon, or just a dragon covered in gold like everything else in this city," Allister says in a rare moment of clarity.
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"It's getting pretty low, maybe one more left in it." Vivian hefts the wands after tending to the wounded, looking at it slightly puzzled over the consistent weight despite the loss of magic. Looking back to Brezik, "If you don't mind, I would like to place a divine shield on you before going into this."
"If there was ever a moment, a test of faith if you will, it would be now." She begins affixing her mace and shield to her pack and drawing out her great sword. "A true Gorumite doesn't hide behind steel, not like this. We brandish it and don it as skin."
Touching her chest with a slightly glowing hand, Vivian blesses her armor with a few words of prayer.
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From the moment he met Captain Vivian, Allister had an immense respect for her confidence and inner strength. Now, as his friend drew her greatsword for the first time, his respect for her grew.
"Let's show this dragon what the Keepers of the Flame can do," he said while drawing his own blade.
Before the battle begins, Allister will run his hand up the blade of his greatsword, causing it to burst into light-radiating flame.
Plans made, weapons readied, everyone continues following the circle of the second ring, leading to the bridge between it and the third, highest ring of the city. The light from the canal increases as you draw nearer the bridge, Crow grows visibly more nervous, and you steel yourselves, casting your final preparations. The bridge you come upon, unlike all the rest, is coated in gold, and the heat does not disappear as it has for the others.
An enormous skeletal dragon, plated from head to tail in gold and sparkling in the greenish glow from above, stands guard on the bridge ahead. Upon sensing intruders, it flaps its skeletal wings and opens its large jaws, and begins stomping forward across the ground.
Miathynth, mighty gold dragon, youngest of our allies, has fallen. The words come to your mind unbidden, as well as the sinking dreadful feeling of having lost something precious to you. Across the battlefield, you see Miathynth, laying waste to swaths of the undead with his fearsome breathe. Your host of warriors has joined the others in a main push toward the Whispering Tyrant's forces, each forcing your way to a ranking officer in an effort to destroy them all.
This young gold has gotten separated from its flight of gold dragons, each moving in sync to destroy as much of the enemy as it can. A beam of necrotic energy springs out from the center of the line, where the Tyrant himself is, felling the lone dragon out in the distance, then another beam of energy dragging the enormous corpse to its position...
The dragon backs up a pace or two, allowing you to come at it as you please, tail whipping back and forth, ready for whatever you can send its way...
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Allister's eyes narrow when he sees their foe before him.
"I fear no dragon," yells the paladin as he runs forward, and it is true, though by all rights he should be afraid.
The soldier in him chides 'you are getting too far ahead of your group,' but the Dawnguard initiate in him believes 'this is the reason I am here, to destroy enemies like this one. I will not cower now.'
Brightfang glows like the golden everything as he rushes forward.
As Allister runs off Brezik turns to the rest of the company and shrugs.
Guess the plan just becam run in...
With that the Dwarf taked off at a full run following behind Allistr as best as he can.
Scowling at the undead dragon, Gad pounds his red and black dragon tattoo on his chest almost like an ape, in an attempt to get his mind and body straight for this fight. Then seeing Al and Brezik charge across the smoking hot bridge, Gad gnashes his filed teeth and immediately takes off with a growl. Determined to beat his friends to the abomination, he hopes to take some of the 'heat' off of them during this first round of blows!
Seeing its opponents rushing across the bridge the skeleton rears back, as though it were still alive and had to fill its lungs, before snapping forward and unleashing a torrent of flame, bathing the bridge in searing flame. Gad'larr is fast enough to cross the bridge before the flames hit, but Allister and Brezik get caught in the wash.
Annoyed with the speed of the half-orc the dragon takes the opportunity presented to chomp down at him with its massive maw, looking to bisect him before he can do anything.
Despite Gad's speed the jaws manage to crash around him, tearing him up, though he does slip out before the dragon increases the force enough to pin him down.
Standing in front of the enormous, gold-encrusted bone dragon was awe inspiring for Qina. Something deep within her connected with the beast in a way she had never considered. A conversation she doesn't remember being a part of echoed through her head again and again as she simply stood in place staring up. She was snapped back to reality as the others darted forward and were engulfed in fire and fang.
"NOOOOOOOOOO!" she screamed. Her hands went to her face in fear and her eyes began to water. As the fire cleared and her friends still stood, she remembered the spells of protection that she placed on them and she fought back against the tears.
A thought crossed her mind but again she was unsure of where it came from. Well done little one, but there is much more to come.
Pushing the thought from her head, she rushed forward after the others. She cursed herself for not staying more focused and getting her magic off sooner. There was still time, and hopefully she could buy them more, but she had to act soon.
Brezik instinctually dodges the flames from the dragon... but finds himself hampered enough by his armor that he isn't able to completely evade the flames. However he emerges just a touch singed thanks too Qina's magical protections.
How can that thing breathe fire without lungs?
"Oh my goodness Crow, you must be so hungry. I can't believe I forgot to feed you!" Following Brezik's lead, Qina pulled out a small piece of bread and laid it in her palm, offering it up to the bird perched on her shoulder. She took advantage of the distraction to slip a wand out of her belt and tap the bird with it. Magical force armor shimmered around the bird as it pecked at the bread.
"Crow, I want you to fly above and see if you can see anyone else in this place. We're looking to stop some bad people from doing bad stuff and we have to find them fast. As soon as you see someone other than us, I want you to come tell Gad and then me okay. Him and then me" she finished, pointing at Gad. And since you're going to be out for a while, this should help keep you safe too.
Qina recited the archaic words once, and then again and again, first touching Crow, and then moving over to touch Gad and finally Allister. That should help keep you guys safe.
[dice=Perception] 1d20+11
"Uhm...is it just me or are those golden column sword-thingies moving? Maybe it's just the heat. It makes things all hazey and blurry."
Feeling the creature's bite but not the anger anymore, Gad easily slips into his combat stance, ready for his next move as he sees his blood drip from the dragons fangs!
Bell runs forward to support his friends
The Dragon raises its head to the sky and lets out a mighty roar despite the lack of organs that would allow for such an action.
Taking a few protected steps along the dragon's flank, Gad begins to try and hurt the gold covered bones, his fists a blur of movement!
-Includes Dragon Style!
+ Flurry!
-Includes Dragon Style!
+ Iterative
-Includes Dragon Style!