A few moments after final preparations have been made, the sound of heavy footsteps can be heard approaching from the tunnel. They stop before coming into view, and a familiar, menacing voice calls out, "Aaah. I see the trespassers have returned to trespass again. Here to make good on your 'threats?'"
Some words of magic can be heard as well.
Setsuna decides to do the smart thing and attack the unprepared dragon ASAP.
"Attack him now!" Desna's Oracle orders as she tosses a Blessing of Fervor on the entire group.
She then flares her wings and uses the Blessing's speed to reposition herself.
Before she forgets, Rilee also casts bull's strength on Olympus prior to the dragon's arrival.
Rilee casts animal growth on Olympus and sends him to attack. With a loud skree, the huge roc flies at the dragon, talons out.
Roc: "Olympus"
N Huge animal
Init +5, Perception +12, low-light vision
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DEFENSE
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AC 45, touch 14, flat-footed 33 (+5 armor, +5 dex, +1 dodge, +23 nat, -2 size, +1 haste, +2 bof)
hp 121 (11d8+66) 115/121
Fort +10, Ref +11, Will +6 (+2 bof)
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OFFENSE
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Spd 20 ft. Fly 80 ft.
Melee: 2 talons +20 (1d8+13 plus grab)
Melee: bite +19 (2d6+13)
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STATISTICS
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Ability Scores Str 36, Dex 20, Con 22, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 11
BAB +8, CMB +25 (+30 to grapple), CMD 40
The dragon roars at Setsuna's call to arms, and with a powerful flap of his wings, surges forward into his lair! As he lands in front of you, he opens his massive jaws and lets loose another blast of icy death!
Zoli manages to evade the breath weapon, but the rest of the group near the front are covered in its wrath! However, your protective wards shrug off almost the entirety of the attack! Arkrhyst glares at you all, expecting nothing but frozen husks, but is disappointed to see you all barely injured at all!
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As planned, Setsuna casts Wall of Stone to seal off Arkrhyst's escape route.
After letting the melee warriors get their licks in, Eugeni casts his most powerful spell.
Zoli tumbles out of the way of the dragon's icy breath, and continues straight toward her massive foe.
She swings with precision, cutting an artery on the dragon's leg that starts to spurt blood.
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Despite being grappled and battered, the dragon snaps its jaws onto Zoli as she tumbles in to attack.
The dragon struggles against Olympus' talons to free itself. Shocked at the strength of the birds hold, as well as at the sudden resilience of its foes, the dragon calls out, "Kill me, and you will NEVER find your key!"
"Your death was sealed when you attacked innocent villages. We'll manage without the key," Rilee responds.
She concentrates, causing a bolt of lightning to streak down from the sky and through the cave ceiling into the dragon.
Meanwhile, Olympus flaps his wings to keep his assault upon the dragon, attacking with beak and claw.
Seeing that the battle is well in hand (and lacking a way to verbally taunt the dragon), Setsuna does nothing.
Eugeni continues to blattering blast Arkrhyst.
Force Damage: 7d6 + 14 ⇒ (3, 2, 3, 6, 5, 4, 5) + 14 = 42 x 1.5 = 63.
Force Damage: 7d6 + 14 ⇒ (1, 2, 4, 6, 1, 1, 6) + 14 = 35 x 1.5 = 52.
Force Damage: 7d6 + 14 ⇒ (2, 1, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2) + 14 = 33 x 1.5 = 49.
Force Damage: 7d6 + 14 ⇒ (4, 2, 5, 3, 6, 1, 2) + 14 = 37 x 1.5 = 55.
The dragon roars as Eugeni's blasts rip through it, opening massive wounds into the dragons innards!
This massive pile of treasure consists of 39,500 cp, 9,410 sp, 3,500 gp, and 250 pp. Mixed in with the coins are tapestries, small items of furniture made of precious woods, delicate pieces of jewelry and fine works of art, silverware and candelabras, six everburning torches, and several decorative boxes spilling pieces of jewelry worth an additional 16,000 gp in all. Buried in the coins is a quiver of 14 masterwork arrows and two greater dragon slaying arrows, a belt of giant strength +4, a teak box holding a felt cushion with six round depressions each containing a thunderstone, an ivory set of lesser bracers of archery, a +3 darkwood buckler carved with the symbol of Kyonin on its face, a chime of opening (5 charges), a cloak of resistance +3, a flametongue, a masterwork suit of full plate decorated with onyx ravens perched on the shoulders (each raven is worth 200 gp), a suit of +3 half-plate with a wolf motif, 6 vials of frozen holy water, a pearl of power (1st-level spell), 17 potions of cure light wounds, 6 potions of cure moderate wounds, 3 potions of cure serious wounds, 2 potions of resist energy 20 (cold), two Small +1 mithral shirts, a scroll of globe of invulnerability, a scroll of heal, a scroll of remove blindness/ deafness, a wand of bear’s endurance (38 charges), a wand of cure light wounds (46 charges), a wand of magic missile (CL 5th, 8 charges), and a +1 adamantine warhammer.
After finding her lower jaw, Setsuna nabs the scroll of Heal and the awesome Kyoni buckler.
"...Of all the places this thing turns up," Setsuna murmurs as she examines the small shield.
"Whew!" Zoli sighs. "Pretty impressive, New-geni!"
As they go over the pickings, she says, "That cloak is just like something I was saving up for, if folks don't mind! And I'd be happy to carry a few of those healing potions.
"Speaking of which, that dragon roughed me up a touch there. Anyone have healing juice left, or should we break into this new wand?"
"Hmmm. I am quite pleased with this new form's magical acumen. I suspect it would have taken a good many arrows to down that beast. Perhaps we should recuperate here and then make another shopping trip to Riddleport before looking for the key? We could pick up a scroll of locate object while there. Otherwise we may spend the rest of our lives searching and never find the key, as the dragon warned."
The dragon's death is a huge relief, but the change in Eugeni still has Rilee concerned. But at his suggestion about how to find the key, she shakes her head. "I'll be able to track the beast through the air with some magic come morning. I'll be able to retrace his flight for the last several days, so learning where he stashed it should be no trouble. The dragon's arrogance did not factor in the powers of nature."
"If that fails, we can always ask the Quill for clues. And if that fails, then we can go to Riddleport and grab the supplies for a Commune spell. I'm sure that Mother Moon would be very willing to directly tell us exactly where the silly thing is. In the meantime, I suggest we grab the remaining keys."
Alongside anyone who wishes to accompany her, a cloaked Setsuna flares her wings and returns to the statues. She casts Shield of Faith (an abjuration spell) on Belimarius to get her key and then Paragon Surges Cause Fear (a necromancy spell) into her arsenal to get the key of Zutha.
"Tracking by air tomorrow sounds awesome, Rilee. So cool! In the meantime, I'm not ready to sleep or anything. Once we've got the keys we can get, let's go poking around some more...though maybe try to avoid those ginormous earth elementals Rilee warned us about.
"As far as shopping though...Riddleport hasn't really endeared itself to me. Eugeni, can you teleport us to Magnimar as easily? If so that's definitely my vote...especially since I have a ring waiting for me there."
After a pause, she adds, "Oh and, um...can I just say that it's crazy and amazing that I'm casually saying things like 'Eugeni, can you teleport us'?!?"
Before she leaves, Setsuna heals Zoli.
"Right. I suppose while we still have active magic protecting us, we should check the rest of this lair for threats. There's also the matter of the rock elementals guarding the steps. We can probably continue to avoid them, though it may be in our interests to see what we can learn from them. Also, I'd like to go back to the village to see if there were any survivors that are in need of assistance. We were so focused on our pursuit of the dragon, we didn't check to see how thorough he was in his destruction."
She Wild Shapes into a large earth elemental and heads out to the stairs leading to the dragon's lair. "The Master is dead. Your service is at an end," she announces in Terran.
Eugeni shrugs, seeming to accept his companions' ideas. He floats along silently behind them, ready for trouble.
The group separates, Setsuna headed to the statues, Rilee and Eugeni to speak with the elementals, and Zoli remaining with the hoard.
Eugeni shrugs, seeming to accept his companions' ideas. He floats along silently behind them, ready for trouble.
"They don't seem to be in the mood for discussion, and I'm not inclined to wait on them when there might be survivors clinging to life at Icefang." Taking note of the lateness of the day (even though they left Elysium in the morning), she doesn't favor a trip at dusk. "Eugeni, are you able to teleport us, now that you've been there?"
"Yes," Eugeni replies simply. When everyone is gathered and holding hands, Eugeni chants the spell and teleports the group back to the village at Icefang.
A search of what remains of the camp quickly reveals a horrid truth. That the dragon was very thorough in his wrath and destruction. Men, women, and children lie scattered in pieces both within and around the camp at distances up to forty yards.
Huts have been frozen, encased in ice. Within you can see families huddled together in terror, trapped and frozen to death in their icy tombs. The chieftain has been put on a grizzly display, his body flayed and posed in the center of the camp.
There are no survivors.
Setsuna wonders what would be the best to give these poor souls a proper funeral; just leaving the bodies to rot not only seems disrespectful, but it also seems to be asking for undeath too...
Tears fall as Rilee surveys the devastation. She goes from victim to victim, committing faces to memory since she doesn't have names. Then she spends some time summoning mephits to free the ice-entombed villagers and other First World allies to gently lay the bodies together into the biggest open area within the settlement.
Finally, after giving everyone a chance to speak and eulogize, she casts wall of stone around the bodies, coordinating with Setsuna if she's willing to assist in building the structure. When the cairn is built, she uses her staff to stone shape it, adding some simple designs and the epitaph, Here lie the people of Icefang, slain by the dragon Arkrhyst, known as Freezemaw. They were avenged by the Varisian Rangers. May their spirits rest for all eternity.
She, of course, takes suggestions on the proper words for the epitaph.
"Let's rest. Then in the morning I'll track the dragon's flights and hopefully find that last key."
In the morning, Rilee rises and prepares aerial tracks as one of her spells. She casts it and can instantly sense the faint ripples in the air that marked the dragon's flight.
"This way," she announces, then shifts into a keen-eyed falcon and begins following the trail back to Rimeskull. On the way back, she alters her flight path and turns east.
Once Rilee reaches the easternmost shore, she finds the scene of another devastated camp. This one was smaller, only about five huts total. The apparent chief there also put on the same gruesome display. Again, no survivors. Rilee notes they appear to have been dead longer, judging by the scavengers and carrion birds that have gathered.
The druid repeats her actions from the night before, gathering the remains into the center of the settlement and creating a stone cairn about them. This time, her simple epitaph does not have the name of the village, but she does her best to reproduce family sigils or crests found on the bodies.
Once Rilee's searches turn up somewhat empty handed, Setsuna decides to cast a Paragon Surged Commune spell paid for via Blood Money. After she gets her information, she says consults the Quill for even more details. Once all the clues fall in place, Setsuna tentatively examines the bodies of the Shoanti killed by Arkrhyst that he placed near his treasure hoard.
Thanks to magic and a surprisingly astute observation, Setsuna comes to a sickening conclusion. After using her sickle to carefully cut an incision near the heart of one of the corpses, Setsuna finds the missing key frozen in a block of ice.
She summons a fire elemental to cremate the bodies and then gently thaw out the final key.
"...Arkrhyst was truly a sick creature."
"Indeed. Luckily for the rest of the region, he met with the Rangers before getting worked up to a truly legendary rampage. Shall we return to Rimeskull, and prepare to continue with our quest?"
The seven pillars surrounding the central pillar are each marked with hundreds of Thassilonian runes—arcane formulae describing the basic tenets of one of the seven Thassilonian schools of magic. The seven pillars form the points of a huge Sihedron, each with a small keyhole hidden four feet off the ground on each pillar, facing the central monolith. Once the proper key from the Sihedron Circle outside is placed in the proper pillar’s keyhole and then turned in two complete revolutions, the pillar begins to hum and glow softly and its key vanishes.
Once all seven pillars are active, the central pillar begins glowing and ripples with a vortex of light that combines all seven of the surrounding colors. At the pillar’s base, the vortex whirls in on itself like a vertically aligned whirlpool, opening into a 7-foot- wide circular portal through which can be faintly seen a long tunnel...
Eugeni pauses to cast two spells before the group enters the tunnel, one on himself, and one on Zoli.
Zoli Ooooohs at the scintillating portal. As she takes a step toward it, she hears a squeaking sound coming toward her: a brown and white rat.
"What's that? Really?" Zoli asks, wide-eyed, as she realizes she can understand the squeaks. "Chaldira sent you To protect me? She send you herself?!?"
Turning to Rilee, Setsuna, and Eugeni, Zoli says, "Look! Look! Chaldira sent a new guardian for me. He says his name is Lion." As she remembers Grettela, a cloud of sadness drifts across her face...but then she glances down and begins to stroke the little rat, and her face lights up again. Zoli digs in her pack for a bit of cheese and breaks off a piece for her new companion.
"Awww, look at the way his cheeks puff up when he's chewing. Isn't that adorable!?"
Then, to her companions, "OK, well, Lion says he's ready to go in, and I am too."
You step through the portal into the dark hallway beyond. This domed chamber is nearly two hundred feet across. A large pool of bubbling prismatic liquid occupies the center of a raised dais in the middle of the chamber. The spiky angles of the seven-pointed Sihedron are engraved into the marble floor. Each tip of the enormous rune points at a twenty-five-foot-tall statue facing the pool with its back approximately ten feet from a partially concealed arched opening in the wall directly behind it. Each statue depicts a different figure, but all are imperious and finely detailed.
As you step into this chamber, a sense of power washes over you, and you feel your mind instantly expand with increased control and knowledge in your craft!
The seven statues are as follows...
KARZOUG: A towering man with gems set in his forehead and hands, dressed in robes and wielding a burning glaive.
KRUNE: A short smiling man with a hooked nose and beady eyes, wearing robes and wielding a spear.
BELIMARIUS: A heavyset woman with a sneering visage and an imperious stance, dressed in a flowing dress and wielding a halberd.
SORSHEN: A voluptuous woman with a seductive look, large eyes, and long flowing hair; this statue is nude and wields a double-headed guisarme.
XANDERGHUL: A strikingly handsome man adorned with a close-cropped beard and a charming expression; his form is dressed in extravagant clothes and wields a lucerne hammer.
ALAZNIST: A gothic beauty with wild hair and a somewhat insane expression, this woman wears a long flowing dress and wields a thorny ranseur.
ZUTHA: An obese man, his flesh rotten in places so that the bones show through, wearing a ragged robe and wielding a scythe.
"Wow, did anyone else feel that? It was a surge of power. I feel... augmented somehow," Rilee shares with the others.
Olympus as well flaps his wings once with a powerful beat and cranes his neck with a shake. "You too, big guy?" she asks him as she goes up to pet the side of his head.
She steps into the chamber, holding her staff up and ready. She looks carefully at the various statues, getting uncomfortable feelings when she looks at Sorshen and to a lesser extent, Xanderghul. "I take it these are the Runelords?"
"I felt a change as well, like my recent encounter with Desna's power, but different. I feel my arcane knowledge has grown once again..."
1st (6/7) - blood money, magic missile, mage armor, vanish, windy escape
2nd (4/6) - defending bone, false life, glitterdust, mirror image, web
3rd (4/6) - empowered battering blast, haste, heroism, slow
4th (6/6) - dazing magic missile, confusion, dimension door, stoneskin
5th (4/6) - life bubble, overland flight, teleport
6th (4/4) - dazing empowered battering blast, greater heroism
7th (3/3) - limited wish