"A monster is one thing but we still need to find those bullies, maybe we should look around for them before we find the amulet," Meraina looks around in the surrounding area for signs of the boys looking towards the flower field first
Kiliuk nods at the dwarf. Still don't know if I like him, yet. But he's smart. "There could definitely be more clues there, let's check the fire."
A rusty metal pot sits over an extinguished campfire in this hastily prepared resting stop. Three logs are pulled near the fire, and in between are several marks scrawled in the dirt. They show a two-headed stick figure emerging from a cave and running toward some houses.
You move on to the brightbloom patch.
This patch of white and gold flowers presents a lovely scene marred by two jarring elements. Beside the flowers is a lopsided wooden cart with one wheel broken and no cargo. Near the cart are deep scuffle marks as well as a few drops of a dark liquid.
Perception:
Stealth:
Initiative:
Brialla, Killiuk, and Torgen see a human girl hiding behind a rock.
The girl shoots an arrow at Torgren.
It goes over his head.
A boy does the same at Killiuk]
His arrow gets stuck in a rock.
Brialla, Killiuk, and Torgren may act.
Brialla immediately reacts and runs forward drawing her bow.
She hesitates for a moment but decides to shoot an arrow at the boy as these kids are not playing nice.
Kiliuk feels instant rage upon being attacked by these youths, but works hard to suppress it. They're just kids!
He draws his mace and steps forward, but strikes at the boy in front of him only with his balled fist. It seems the mace is only there to add to the threat; he clearly intends to leave the boy alive. But he holds nothing back from his swing, letting the boy feel the pain of his poor choices!
Brialla's arrow hurts the boy significantly. Killiuk is trying so hard to hit hard that he doesn't hit at all.
The two teenagers throw down their weapons. As they do so, you notice a strangely pale man trying to circle around behind you.
The entire party is up, the teenagers have surrendered and so are out of combat.
It is quite obvious that the man only has your destruction on his mind.
Torgren's mighty blow almost fells the pale human, but not quite.
Kiliuk turns to the man sneaking up behind, and in this instance, he doesn't hold back. His rage rises to the surface in an uncontrollable fury; he circles around his companions and strikes out hard and fast.
The strange pale humanoid falls over. Looking over him and your prisoners, you find
You move on to the cave. This rock face towers nearly 30 feet and is punctuated in the middle with the dark opening of a cave mouth. As you enter, the dank scent of moss hangs heavy in the air as the gloom in the cave thickens. Some daylight filters in to the mouth of the cave , but the caverns receding deeper in on either side are completely dark.
Meraina doesn't even pay attention to the scuffle as she picks flowers and hums in the adjescent flower field. As bows twang and weapons swing she swats at a bothersome bee. she finally hears Kiliuk yell and turns to see what is happening.
"Oh Dear! are you guys okay?"
Seeing the unconscious teens on the ground she looks worried.
"oh no they passed out, we should probably patch them up so they don't die"
Detect magic on the potion and then the elixir
"They had healing potions on them, And that creepy guy had an elixir of hiding"
Meraina casts light on whoever is leading the way into the cave, she wishes to stay in the middle of the group.
Meraina would also like to take the thunderstones and at least one of the tanglefoot bags if nobody else wants them. She giggles at Brialla, "These are gonna be hilarious,"
You make your way into the cave, using one of your number as a torch.
These cramped corridors smell like fungus and rot.
"It's so dark, I can barely see"
"Thanks, Torval." Kiliuk has an uncomfortable look on his face, clearly not used to accepting a compliment from a dwarf. If he keeps that up, I'm going to have a hard time continuing to dislike him!
He enters the cave with the others, cautiously, and begins exploring.
Aaaargh, that light is so bright! At least if it were just the dwarf and I, we could explore in the comfortable darkness and not get blinded by that dang artificial sun!
With his natural darkvision undone by the magical light, he's unable to note anything unusual in the cave. He keeps exploring cautiously, approaching what appear to be a slope that leads further down into the cave.
"Let us be quite and go in with care!"
You carefully explore the caves. As you approach what is probably the final chamber, you hear the loud, metallic SNAP! of a chain breaking under tension, followed quickly by a furious and triumphant roar. and thudding footsteps. Coming quickly into view is a large, ugly creature with two heads, the remnants of the chain that had until recently restrained it still draped over its form. When it sees you, it roars and smashes its flail against the wall of the cavern!
Initiative:
bold may post:
Kuliuk
monster
Meraina
Brially
Torgren
Kiliuk can't quite place the monster, but doesn't need that knowledge to be able to rise up and defend himself and the others.
His form tenses briefly as his mind clouds, letting his instincts take over. Fury encompassing him. Kiliuk steps forward and braces himself to meet the monster in the middle, ready to swing his mace with power.
The creatures roars again (this time with its other head) and smacks at Kiliuk with a flail.
The creature's uncontrolled rage causes it to miss, and the flail passes over Kiliuk's head.
Entire party is up. I believe Torgen is unable to post, so one of you may bot him for this turn.
Brialla immediately reacts and shoots an arrow at the beast.
Magic missile on the monster
Brialla's arrow and Meraina's hard pellet of magic slam into the creature.
Torgren shoots his crossbow.
The bolt passes over the creature's head.
Kiliuk is up!
"Come at me!!!!" Kiliuk roars in frustration before he steps up and slams his mace into the raging creature in front of him.
The monster steps back a little and swings at Kiliuk again.
Torgren shoots at the creature again.
This bolt passes right next to the creature.
The rest of the party is up.
Brialla moves forward and shoots an arrow at the giant again!
"Fall you evil beast!!"
Meraina chants under her breath as arcane energy swells at her fingertips. She releases the bolt at the giant, a flash of red and magenta streaks into his chest.
Magic Missile
”Use the scroll next time!!“ Brialla shouts to her cousin.
"Hey at least I'm not flinging arrows at the darkness,"
Brialla, Meraina, and Killiuk all damage the monster, who falls over dead.
Wrapped around the fingers of one of the ettin’s filthy hands you find a beautiful, glittering golden pendant in the shape of dragon's head. A more leisurely search of the remaining cavern reveals little more than some soiled rags that served as a sort of bed for the beast, and the broken remains of the chain that until recently confined it.
Having defeated the ettin and recovered the golden pendant, you emerge from the cave to find yourselves face to face with Aurelliax in her true form. She is a magnificent mature adult gold dragon whose presence dwarfs your own. "Thank you, travelers, for protecting the people of Highdelve, and for recovering my amulet. Truly, you are the heroes these people needed. Let me commend you, as well, for sparing the lives of those miscreants. Please accept these as a token of my appreciation." She gives each of youa beautiful, glittering statuette of a gold dragon with diamonds for eyes.
"Furthermore, I believe each of you came here in search of information; perhaps I can help." She turns to Kiliuk first. "I believe your mother currently resides in Grayhaven, not far from here, where she crafts fine garments. The cargo you seek, Torgen" she says, turning her massive head toward the dwarf, "did indeed pass through Highdelve. It left here several days ago, however, destined also for Grayhaven." Looking back to Kiliuk, she adds "Perhaps your journey together is not yet at an end. As for the two of you," she says, turning to Brialla and Meraina, "I have spoken to Carth Garenth. Not only does he have the ring design you seek, but he wishes to make you a new one, free of charge, in thanks for your bravery."
"Now," she says, unfurling her magnificent wings. "would you care to ride on my back as I carry the cart of brightblooms, along with the prisoners, back to Highdelve?"
With the bullies and Feran locked up, the townspeople fete you as heroes, inviting you to hand out brightblooms during the most joyous Brightbloom Ball the town has ever seen—all thanks to your efforts as Heroes for Highdelve!
Brialla is very relieved when she sees that the beast falls and that the group really was able to end this threat!
”I just hate giants! I am going to tell this story for some while! Thanks to you all for helping out and for being such good companions!“ she says smiling.
* * *
”Ohh ... ohh ... you are a real Dragon! I have never seen something so intimidating and at the same time so amazing before! You do not need to thank us because we did this to end a dangerous giant and everybody would have done this! You should rather take care of these kids and be careful that they grow up to be upstanding citizens and that they work hard for their community Mrs Dragon!“ she says hoping she did not go too far.
Ah, now that I look at it again, I can see that it was perhaps not quite clear that 'the rest of the party' meant everyone other than Torgren who I botted at his request in that same post. My apologies for the mixup.
Aureliax gives Brialla a motherly smile and nod, without actually responding to what she says.