vs AC 30 Dragon (frickin really!)
vs AC 30 Quinn
Aladir, runs at full tilt, and using his mythic powers manages to get just far enough to get off a shot at the dragon, but he misses. Hyram adds another judgement to his swing, but he also misses. Quinn uses one of his paladin, laying on of hands on himself, and cures some of the damage done by the dragon a moment ago. He then swings twice with Radiance, but cannot seem to connect with the dragon. Alikia uses the inter dimensional spaces to move so where she can do something soon, but not now. Ezro runs at full tilt, and just manages to get around the corner, where he sees the monster and his comrades in a death battle.
The dragon sensing that the tiefling is about to go down, unleashes his full fury on Quinn and the paladin drops to the ground.
Hyram, distraught at seeing Quinn falter, misses!
Watching as Ezro and Aladir sprint past her, Alikia pulls out her trusty licorice stick, tapping into the strange abilities granted to her by the wardstone. With a well practice motion, Alikia utters the incantation for haste to help speed up her friends with hope that they can save Quinn in time.
Seeing Quinn get cut down by the dragon and drop to the floor, Ezro throws up his holy symbol, channeling healing energies into the paladin from a distance, and then taking a quick 5 foot step forward, illuminates the area with positive energy.
"We shall not fall! Iomedea shall see us through!"
Quinn spins back to his feet as an enormous sum of healing energies flow into his decimated body. He follows the spin through with a devastating swing against the woundwyrm. "You had your opportunity, wyrm. Now it is my turn."
"Nice to have you on your feet, Quinn!" Aladir calls to his companion as he leans back and calls on his mythic power to jet across the wyrm's lair, ending up near the wall to the east, and the first two arrows out of his quiver are his two remaining holy arrows!
And then he fires four more arrows, peppering the dragon with as many as he can!
vs AC 30 Quinn
Aladir, uses his mythic power to move across the cavern and fire five arrows at the dragon, hitting it three times, one with sneak damage and he wounds the beast. Hyram, seeing Quinn go down next to him, is so rattled that he misses the dragon with both swings. Alikia casts a mythic spell, allowing everyone to react to the creature at a much greater speed, while Ezro, uses the haste and his own mythic power to channel much needed healing to Quinn, and the group. Quinn stands, without the dragon being able to attack him, and swings at the creature with Radiance, also damaging it significantly.
The dragon, roars at the amount of damage the arrows and Radiance does to it, "you will taste just as good dead, as being swallowed alive" and it concentrates all its attacks on the paladin, not quite putting him down, but coming close, only missing once.
Hyram, roars in anger at the amount of hurt Quinn is receiving and delivers a well placed stab on the dragon.
+
Why not try me? I think I am tougher than you!
"Ha! Perhaps he cannot stomach anything as tough as you, Hyram!" Quinn staggers again as he takes another punishing round of intense damage. he screams. Golden light bursts from him as he drives Radiance into the dragon.
"Stay alert," Quinn barely manages to whisper. He nearly falls from injury and the explosive energy of the attack. "There's no telling what contingencies this beast may have readied..."
Aladir repeats his attack routine from the previous window of time, pouring another five arrows into there dragon's hide.
Approaching Aladir, Alikia places a hand on his shoulder. "I believe the dragon is dead; There is no sense in wasting more ammunition than necessary." Offering a worried glance as Quinn wobbles on his feet, Alikia scans the den.
"Strange, most dragons keep a hoard; I wonder where this ones was, if it is even a traditional hoard. I have heard stories o-" cutting herself off, Alikia clears her throat as she attempts to keep from rambling. "Anyway, the portal to here was interesting; I wonder why it did not throw us out in a predictable pattern?"
"Quinn please hold still while I tend your wounds." Ezro says, moving up to Quinn after the fight, seeing the paladin wobbling on his feet.
Reaching out his hand, he begins muttering prayers to Iomedea as he heals the man.
Aladir shoots at the dragon, tickling it with one arrow, and Quinn, close to dieing, lets loose all is powers and brings the dragon down.
In the after math, Ezro casts cures on Quinn, and channels Iomedae energy also, which heals everyone up, except Quinn, who is still hurting, but not as much.
Searching the cave, you find a hoard in the alcove behind the pile of rocks in the southern most area of the cave.
12,300 cp, 17,450 sp, 4,800 gp, 260 pp, five tourmaline gemstones worth 50 gp each, a platinum holy symbol of Iomedae in the form of a tiny longsword worth 500 gp, a wand of stoneskin with 22 charges, a suit of +4 mithral scale mail, a +3 cold iron evil-outsider-bane longsword, a belt of dwarvenkind, and a scroll tube trimmed in gold worth 250 gp that contains a scroll of restoration, a scroll of greater dispel magic, a scroll of heal, a scroll of spell resistance, and a bloodstained letter written in a hasty hand. The letter is addressed to Sosiel Vaenic; it’s a final message from his missing brother Trever that describes how his patrol was attacked by the woundwyrm and Trever managed to survive. The letter goes on to indicate that Trever intends to make his way to the creature’s lair to attempt a rescue of several fellow crusaders who were
taken alive
"Whew! That could've gone sideways a lot easier than I'd like to think about. I hope we can manage to cart all of this coin out with us. I'm sure the army could put very good use to it." Aladir remarks after the group has located the horde.
After reading the note, Aladir frowns. "Well...that's unfortunate. Very brave of Trever to try and rescue the crusaders on his own...we should definitely make sure that Sosiel gets that letter."
Yes, we will see his brother gets it even though a fool he was. That foul beast almost sent Quinn to Iomedae's embrace. What did this Trever hope to accomplish on his own?
Hyram then notices the sword.
"I am not covetous by nature," Quinn breathes as he stands dazzled before mountains of gold and silver. "But, a dragon's hoard could tempt the humblest of hearts."
The process of sorting through the piles is too enjoyable to be considered a chore. "That sword looks made for your hand," he nods encouragingly to Hyram. "Perhaps this armor for our cleric?"
When the letter is found, Quinn begins scanning the walls of the chamber. "This says there were crusaders alive! Do any yet live?"
And I think Hyram just said "Dibs!"
"This says there were crusaders alive! Do any yet live?"
That evil creature seemed fairly hungry, I doubt it but let's make sure.
Looking over the items of the Dragons hoard, Ezro notices the beautifully crafted pendant of Iomedea and holding it up to the others asks, "I hope you do not mind, but I would like to hang on to this item. I would prefer to keep using the symbol given me by my church but some blessings may require stronger material in the future. It would be good to have on hand."
As the rest of the items are examined, he takes ahold of the scrolls of Clerical spells to have on hand, "These could be of use later. Hyram, I also believe I can hold onto the other sword of yours, I seem to be finding myself in the thick of it more and more of late."
Finally Ezro looks at his armor and some of the armor now available and decided to trade up to the +4 Mithril Scale Mail and the Ring of Protection +2.
"As for the resting part. I am not as bad off as I may seem, we can continue on or return to Drezen as the rest deem fit."
Hyram reverently hands over Irabeth's longsword to Ezro. It has served me well. Promise me you will return it to Irabeth when you no longer have need of it.
"If you are ready to press forward then so am I. Though these packs begin to strain at the seams," Quinn says as he hefts the magical bags.
Glancing into the straining pack of gear, Alikia plucks the dagger and one of the wands from the mess. "I hope you don't mind, but I'd rather have a weapon for an emergency situation."
Loading up all the treasure you can carry, and dividing up the magical items to who can best use them, you leave the dragons lair, and find a nearby cave to rest for the day and night to regain spells.
Aladir's sleep was restless, unusual for him, and even though it's normal for him to be awake early, he has already gotten everything ready by the time the others are first waking.
"I had a dream last night. I was visited by a succubus, but...she didn't attack me. She was wearing a butterfly-shaped pendant around her neck and she spoke to me, knew me as a follower of Desna. She's in trouble and needs our help. Remember Staunton Vhane's journal, how he wrote about hunting down an abyssal heretic? Devil, what was her name...Aru-something...Arushesha...Arueshalae! That was it! The prison back in Drezen, with the butterfly symbols and the prayer carved into the wall. It has to be her. She's in trouble, and she needs our help. She told me where to find her, in a redoubt here." he says indicating an area near the western edge of their map.
Hyram blanches at the mention of succubus. They are crafty demons, those succubi. How do we know we are not being led into a trap. Did she say what kind of 'trouble' she is in?
"Her message said that her redoubt was being besieged by many demons and that she didn't think she'd be able to hold out for more than a few days. She's the one that Vhane was writing about in his journal, I just...I can feel it. She needs help, and I'm going to go help her."
Hyram looks unconvinced. Well I am always up for slaying demons whatever the reason. I don't mind going as long as I can 'question' the succubi later. Hyram says with a slight smile.
"I have to agree with Hyram on this one." Ezro says, nodding to Hyram.
"Succubi are well known for their scheming and lies. We can investigate, but be ready to fight this succubuss and her demons. I feel like we will be walking into a trap."
After walking northward on the west side of the crevice, in one days travel, you turn to due west, based on Aladir dream, and spend another day traveling. As you find a place to spend the night, you see the redoubt that Aladir saw in his dream. It is about 180 by 100 feet, with a tower in the southeast corner. There appear to be two ground level entrances to the redoubt. One on the south side, and one on the east side.
Aladir wills himself into invisibility once they get in sight of the redoubt, moving forward stealthily to try and determine if either of the entrances is in the corner of a wall rather than the middle of a wall. If one is, he will approach that door. If neither is or both are, he approaches the nearest.
If he is able to approach without being noticed, he will check to see if the door is locked before signalling to the others.
Returning to the others, Aladir gives his report.
"There're two stairways, one on the east and one on the south. The southern staircase has two portcullises barring entrance further in, but the eastern has nothing barring entrance further in."
I suppose your demon did not tell us which one to enter. Hyram says skeptically. Sounds like the eastern one is the way in.
"Certainly the easiest means of entry, and as I'm not sure how much time we have until she is overrun, I agree." Aladir answers, choosing to ignore the gruff warrior's remark.
The elf ascends the eastern stairway, careful to look out for any traps that they may come across.
Quinn arches a jagged eyebrow. "The succubus is a conniver. She will offer you something enticing..." he stops at the look of determination on Aladir's face. "On the other hand, this is a rather long con. And it's foundations are laid through Drezen. That's a fairly unlikely circumstance to build such a lie upon."
"I have no qualms about taking the direct path," Quinn replies to Aladir. Then, with a grin he continues, "Bruises, scars, and gashes? I have all of those from taking the direct path. But, 'qualms'? No sir."
Aladir stealthily climbs up the stairs on the eastern side. Getting to the top of the stairs, he looks out at the open courtyard and sees, that it is infested with four grimslakes, the scavengers coil and writhe about down here, keeping a watchful eye on all approaches. The grisly remains of several babaus, a rift drake, and a drake rider lie strewn about the courtyard. They do not seem to have seen you, yet.....
Shaking her head in exasperation at the others words, Alikia furrows her brows. "While there is wisdom in your approach, remember what the Lady of Valor told us; Help comes in all forms, and I suspect that the Starsong would not allow false words to reach Aladir in a dream." Watching as the elf vanishes above the eaves of the roof, Alikia watches with a worried expression.
Hyramm anxiously awaits Aladir's return and silently prays to Iomedea.