Burning and quickly healing Bethany's body is very confused about what is going on. Still her blessing of her hammer is complete and it is time to go on the offensive. Hopping off the stage she follows and swings her hammer at the 'dragon'.
"Thought dragons were smart! Why not just tell us what you want you overgrown iguana."
Brynn nimbly dodges the dragon's bite then places a hand behind her onto the stage and vaults backwards up onto the stage.
But a dragon so close has made her clumsy!
Once she's up there and out of reach she dashes further back along the stage and fires an arrow that radiates a baleful black glow at the dragon.
As Brynn runs by the creature flips its tail at her.
Bethany gets a good crach on its hide, but the hammer seems to bounce off its tough hide. The beast turns to her, and chomps down! Then swings her tail at her.
Round 4
Brynn, Grilnik, Vors, Bethany <--Here
Monster
Despite her rage getting bit causes Bethany to mumble a small 'sorry Grilnik' for the pain she is causing him. Still Big Brother swings in an upward arch hoping to catch the dragon in the chin.
Ignoring the pain in her wounded leg, Brynn focuses on her longbow. She chants a few words of arcane power, and funnels it right into her weapon. Then she takes aim and fires an arrow that's trails ice and snow in its wake at the red dragon.
Grilnik casts Bless before he circles around by jumping off the stage and climbing the stairs.
"I'll flank him!"
Vors double moves to provide flank with the red scaled beast.
As Vors appraches the creature, getting a bit too close to it, the creature rears out and bites out at him.
Bethany's hammer just boucnes off the hide. And Brynn's arrow seems to hit a tough scale. Its armor is dense!
A quick flick of the tail at Vors then bites out at Bethany.
Round 5
Brynn, Grilnik, Vors, Bethany <--Here
Monster
Grilnik casts Cure Moderate Wounds on himself to stave off the tide of injuries transferred from Bethany to himself. Finally he moves into position, threatening the beast from behind.
Her rage enhanced by the pain she knows that Grilnik is being caused Bethany swings for the fences.
As her hammer flies she lets out a shriek of rage.
Round 5
Brynn, Grilnik, Vors, Bethany <--Here
Monster
S#|+. Thinks Vors. Talia. I'm sorry. Cayden! One more for the road!
Vors, quickly feeling his vitality and life essence fading, marshals his strength for one last stab of his trusty rapier. Sadly, the weapon does not break the monster's hide.
Ah, f#<k.
Brynn begins to chant again, funnelling more arcane power into her bow. Then she takes aim and fires an icy arrow at the red dragon.
--Back up--
Both Bethany's holy strike and Brynn's cold arrow seem to break through the creature's exterior injuring it greatly!
Brynn's second arrow flies out, striking a soft spot of the creature. Ice shards outward into the firely belly of the beast.
It still stands. Vor's gets one more desperate attack in, but afterwards falls down and goes unconscious
The beast rears up and strikes with all of its force down onto Bethany.
The beast seems to suddenly burst in flame for a second, speeding up its movement. It launches into the air.
The creature flies upward 60 feet straight into the air. Growling with fire billowing out of its mouth.
Round 6
Brynn, Grilnik, Vors, Bethany <--Here
Monster
As the dragon takes to the skies and begins to billow with flames, Brynn frowns.
Well, that doesn't look good!
She casts a quick spell to protect herself, then fires an of arrow up at the dragon. As Byrnn fires her arrow it looks like there are... ...five of her!
As the beast starts to build up another big fireball in its mouth, Brynn's arrow flies true. The beast bursts from the built fire. The arrow seems to finish it off.
The dragon like creature tries to flap in desperation, but seems to black out, eyes going blank, fire disapears from its mouth. It falls to the ground, hitting the bleachers of the ampatheatre. Though just out of the way of everyone else.
Everything goes quiet. You do hear the townsfolk seem to be aware of the death of the creature, watching it fall from the sky. For now you are alone in the theatre, but it seems people will be arriving soon.
Brynn hurries over to the creature she shot from the sky, to ensure it's dead. She climbs up onto it's chest and fires another arrow right into it's heart.
From her perch atop the dragon she casts her eyes to the sky, looking around for any other enemies.
tl;dr
I doubt any of those things apply vs this dragon unless he starts casting spells, in which case I want my +2 vs spells :P
Also HP: 16 for B and 14 for G, right?
that means G goes from 32 down to 18 xD
And beth is finally below 40 hp :P
I think 27?
Grilnik stands somewhat dumbstruck as the Dragon flies up too quick for him to react and falls back down almost as quickly.
Eventually he thinks of something to say "Good shot, Brynns."
He holds up his longhammer to get a better look at the corpse, the hammer still glowing as brightly as a torch.
After looking around, Grilnik finally notices Vors Orcblood lying on the ground. "Vors!"
Grilnik scrambles over the seats to get to him before casting Cure Light Wounds on him.
The half-orc regains consciousness, looking up into the face of his dwarven friend.
"Did we win..?" Vors groaned.
"Yeah, we got him." Grilnik answers with a smile.
He offers Vors a hand up.
"Well, the girls did most of the work, actually. I think we helped by distracting it, though."
Vors whinces as he rubs the shoulder that the draconic monster bit him. "Yeah", groaned the caydenite, "we're total heroes."
Panting and leaning on Big Brother Bethany shakes her head.
"First of all what in the name of the Accidental God was that about! I mean for gods sake what was that about?"
She sits down.
"Did we kill a dragon? Seemed... to easy actually."
"Close," Brynn says from her perch atop the 'dragon'. "It's was a flame drake. They're not as intelligent or powerful as dragons, but they are very similar." Eyes on the skies she adds, "I don't see any more."
"I hope that's the last of them. First bat-men wielding glass knives, then a drake with fire breath. What's next? Giants swinging trees?"
Grilnik hops up the stairs to the exit and peers outside, his still glowing hammer held high.
Please be no giants, please let there be no giants...
As the group of people come back into the theatre, you see both the Baroness and her son appraching, "Heros! You have saved the town. Thank you for your aid"
before you have a chance to respond all of you hear a thunderous roar that shatters the night. As everyone turns to the east, in the building next to the theatre, Otho Burr's house, a massive vast shape crawls onto the the top of the roof. This is surprising for all of you who where looking around, having not seen any sign of this creature.
It is an enormous black dragon, but it's scales are ragged and graying, its eyes are sightless, its mussles exposed beneath torn flesh, and the smell of rot seems to suddenly be nearly overpowering.
It opens its mouth, and a deep voice echos though the entire town.
"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 it raises up, hands gesture in the air and suddenly the beast is gone, as if it teleported away.
This is some form of undead black dragon. And by it size it is likely a great wyrm.
It seems like it was mocking a teleportation spell, but the words spoken and the gestures where complete gibberish. Yet it still disappeared like it would after a teleport.
The town goes calm... unknown of what to say. Stunned
Not that wounded and feeling misplaced confidence Bethany does not cower to the dragon. As it vanished she is speaking to herself but it doesnt really stop her.
"Well... I have more money then I have ever had and it aint two thousand gold."
She looks around and reads the mood which quiets her down.
Pausing for a moment to process the possibly-zombie-dragon that went poof, Grilnik looks around for other evil minions.
"Uh, how do we tell him who we choose to send?"
Grilnik looks to Beth, Brynn, and Vors.
Processing everything that just happened, Vors hazarded a guess.
"Well. If the whole town is surrounded by goons, one of us walks out to the borders, finds a goon, and tells them who we're sending."
"Good point. Now who wants to come with me?"
"Guys?" Grilnik looks at his teammates after half-way volunteering them.
He then turns to the baroness "By the way, there's no way to actually pay him, right? I'm not fond of treasure stealing dragons, and I'd love to find a way break the news to him." He swings his still glowing hammer to emphasis 'break'.
The Baroness seems to recover from the shock pretty fast. "Um.. Would you 4 be willing to meet me in my manor. I think we have some things to discuss." Looking into the crowed she points at a few people. "Sheriff, Dodgion, Eupaphenia, and Bassy.. Would you be willing to come too?"
The others seem to nod quietly and start heading that way. Almost in shock. Everyone seems to be a bit pale, from the experience. Well, except for Bassy, her color never seems to leave her gnomish face.
Dumbfounded for a few seconds, Vors then just shrugs, "What the hell! Mine was a short but epic life. And I'll have a good story to explain to Cayden Cailean on how I died when I get to his feasthalls!"
The half-orc then walks to stand next to Grilnik in support.
After a moment, Brynn remarks, "THAT was a black dragon. Some form of undead black. Judging by its size it's likely a great wyrm. That's... outside our capability to deal with. ...WELL outside our capabilities..."
After a moment she adds, "What's strange though, is it's magic. It was pretending to cast a teleportation spell, but the words and gestures were just gibberish. Yet, it seemed to actually teleport away..."
"If we're lucky some sort of trickery is at work..."
She climbs down from her perch atop the flame drake and moves to follow the Baroness. "We'd best attend the meeting before wandering blind into a dragon's lair, boys. Although I'm sure they appreciate your enthusiasm."
Grilnik becomes slightly less enthusiastic at the words 'great wyrm', but without any fuss, he follows after Brynn.
You are all eventually lead back to her Manor house. Directed to the Dining room. You have the Baroness, Your adventuring Party, as well as The sherif, an older woman you recognize as Lezara Dodgion, an Abadarian Priestess, and Bassy.
As everyone is in the room, the Baroness quickly speaks up, asking Eupaphenia, the priestess, "How much could Belhaim scrap together if we pooled all of our resources?"
The priestess, thinks for a second, then replies, "Liquid funds are about 20,000gp, that includes everyone's local savings. If we were to settle all of the auction's values immediatly it would be unlikely we could get over 100,000gp"
The baroness lowers her head for a second, "Well the likelyhood of us gathering 776,000gp seems impossible. Do we have any other suggestions"
The sherif speaks first, muttering, "We could send out a few of those Shelyn layabouts to distract the dragon for the good of the town, maybe he'll lower the ransom."
The room seems to be in shock at the response. He seems to back down "Sorry, just thinking out loud. We could send for aid from other towns.." and gestures to the group.
---Giving you guys time to chime in.. If not others in the room have more to say. Don't want to stop you all from talking if you wish--
"It would seem this dragon has given Belhaim an impossible price to pay," Vors said, thinking out loud. "So to save the town, the dragon needs to be either droven off or slain."
"Driven off or slain? The creature's a great wyrm. We're an annoyance to such a beast. Surely you don't mean to pit us against such a foe?"
Time to move.
Hearing Brynn's statment Bassy clears her throat and speaks up. Attention focused on the small woman. Pink hair with shocks of bright green.
"I've been around for a long, long time, and one thing I've learned is that inexperienced illusionists tend to rely on overwelming one's eyes and ears, but often forget the details. I was there. I saw the dragon. I heard it speak and roar.
But I didn't hear it breathe. I didn't hear its talons scraping stone. I didn't feel the air stir when its wings unfurled. Certainly whoever or whatever we face has great power - if that truly was just an illusion, it was still a powerful magical effect.
For all we know it could even be a dragon - that certainly fits with what you learned from the kobolds. The name Aeteperax is an old one, and the original Aeteperax's bones should still be out there in Dragonfen, coiled around the Crypt of Tula Belhaim. At the very least, if you can confirm those bones are still there, then it seems obvious that what you all saw tonight wasn't really Aeteperax risen from the dead."
Everyone looks to her. They were all squabbling over the technical part of what to do, no one really though deeper about the name given. Or looked into it form that angle.
Bassy speaks up again, "I think the easiest solution, as our half-orc friend just said, is to kill it. Whatever it might be"
The Baroness speaks up, looking very stern. "I can't offer a monetary rewared sufficient to lure you into undertaking so deadly a mission. However I must ask: Will you slay this dragon, or whatever it is, 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 do you say?"
"You have my hammer."
"And my rapier."
Bethanys eyes grow wide as grilnik and Vors volunteer so quickly.
"Wait... you guys just signed up to kill a dragon just like that? My hammer is not even magic and I don't think any of you are powerful knights or some other cliche. Checking out the crypt sound fine, once my friends heal up some, but I cannot commit to killing a dragon not knowing how to do it."
She pauses for a moment thinking.
I guess being a knight would be impressive but it doesn't to me much good if we don't complete the mission.
"Can someone take a note to my father, I.. he should know I am ok but trying something stupid I guess."