Using fire, the Mighty Ones melt a breach in the wall of ice, where they discover the magically cryogenically frozen simulacrum of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, nude as a newborn babe!
Warding themselves with resistance to fire, the Mighty Ones pass through the walls of fire sealing off a cavern to the southwest. Herein, magically cryogenically frozen like the simulacrum of Humphrey lies the simulacrum of Phillip the Good of Burgundy, also naked as the day he was born!
A lowered portcullis of adamantine separates the cavern where Duke of Burgundy's simulacrum was found and a cavern that appears to be the fallen Antichrist's throne room , where a throne crafted from the bones and skulls of humanoids mortared with gold sits upon a raised dais of rough-hewn limestone... Lord Perpireen is able to slip through the bars and attach a rope to the lever that raises the portcullis, allowing his adventuring companions to pull the lever from the wrong side...
A wall of lightning separates the throne room of Nero from the outer cavern ...
From the central cavern , tunnels lead east and south to walls of thickly woven briers and vines bristling with thorns. These seal off the cavern where Nero hoarded treasure . Lady Ihrin with Tiger Fang and Ice Tusk, and Sir Alphonse with Foereaper, are able to carefully hack and slash a breach in the magically grown barrier, granting them entrance to the treasury.
Unfortunately, the moment the heroes laid Nero low, certain binding geases that ensured loyalty from various guardians were noticeably broken, resulting in several deserting minions absconding with His Malevolent Majesty's greatest treasures, leaving only some loose change and a few baubles for the party to loot:
217 platinum royals;
445 gold ducats;
708 silver florins;
832 copper shillings;
A garnet worth 120 gp;
A carnelian worth 100 gp;
A carbuncle worth 50 gp;
A hematite worth 50 gp;
2 tiger eyes worth 10 gp each;
And a lucky rabbit's paw, an unslotted wondrous item that bestows upon its bearer a +1 luck bonus on saving throws
In the cavern that serves as a sort of postern gate to the Underworld , a pair of great purple crystals, like giant shards of amethyst, one the size of a giant, the other the size of a dwarf, are linked by a constantly blazing and crackling violet energy! In the side of a limestone column that flanks the giant crystal with the dwarf crystal is inset a copper plate, engraved with dark runes around a keyhole!
When the copper key taken from Nero's corpse is inserted and turned clockwise, the dark runes encircling the keyhole begin to burn with a violet light! Having done this, the Mighty Ones have opened one-third of the magical locks locking the secret demiplane where Nero has hidden his phylactery! This brings them one step closer to their final victory...
It is just after midnight on Wednesday, 4th of September, 1437 when the Mighty Ones conclude their business in the Catacombs. They are wary and tired from their exertions, and knowing they must possibly contend with a huge ancient green dragon, the party fights their way out of the Catacombs, cutting down the last straggling few minions and guardians they encounter with swift efficiency.
They are unable to save the real Pope Eugenius IV, nor do they ever find out what has happened to his body (but the green slime knows)...
They also recover some sad relics of more friends:
The skin of Pusinboots the Cat Lord;
The head of Boga the Hussite;
The tattooed right arm of Wulfgar Ivansson;
The crushed skull of Bishop Vittelleschi of Renati
The Mighty Ones turn these relics over to Alphonse the Magnanimous and Cosimo D'Medici at Saint Peter's Church so attempts can be made for their resurrections.
Having earned a good rest, the party sleeps in the papal bedchambers at Sant'Angelos. Morning dawns on Wednesday the fourth of September 1437. After rising, the party meets in the castle hall to break fast together and discuss their mission that will bring them to the Lair of Grünerraver in the Black Forest.
The Hercynian Forest was an ancient and dense forest that stretched eastward from the Rhine River across southern Germany and formed the northern boundary of that part of Europe known to writers of antiquity. The ancient sources are equivocal about how far east it extended. All agree that the Black Forest, which extended east from the Rhine valley, formed the western side of the Hercynian.
Across the Rhine to the west extended the Silva Carbonaria and the forest of the Ardennes. All these old-growth forests of antiquity represented the original post-glacial temperate broadleaf forest ecosystem of Europe.
Relict tracts of this once-continuous forest exist with many local names: the Schwarzwald (Black Forest), Odenwald, Spessart Rhön, Thüringerwald (Thuringian Forest), Harz, Rauhe Alb, Steigerwald, Fichtelgebirge, Erzgebirge, Riesengebirge, the Bohemian Forest, and the forested Carpathians. The Mittelgebirge seem to correspond more or less to a stretch of the Hercynian mountains.
The Black Forest (German: Schwarzwald) is a large, forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany. It is bounded by the Rhine valley to the west and south. Its highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 metres (4,898 ft) above sea level. The region is roughly oblong in shape, with a length of 160 kilometres (100 miles) and breadth of up to 50 km (30 mi).
In ancient times, the Black Forest was known as Abnoba mons, after the Celtic deity, Abnoba. In Roman times (Late Antiquity), it was given the name Silva Marciana ("Marcynian Forest", from the Germanic word marka = "border"). The Black Forest probably represented the border area of the Marcomanni ("border people") who were settled east of the Roman limes. They, in turn, were part of the Germanic tribe of Suebi, who subsequently gave their name to the historic state of Swabia. With the exception of Roman settlements on the perimeter (e.g. the baths in Badenweiler, and mines near Badenweiler and Sulzburg) and the construction of the Roman road of Kinzigtalstraße, the colonization of the Black Forest was not carried out by the Romans, but by the Alemanni. They settled and first colonized the valleys, crossing the old settlement boundary, the so-called "red sandstone border", for example, from the region of Baar. Soon afterwards, increasingly higher areas and adjacent forests were colonized, so that by the end of the 10th century, the first settlements could be found in the red (bunter) sandstone region. These include, for example, Rötenbach, which was first mentioned in 819.
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"AHHHH!!! HOME AGAIN! SOON, FRIEND FOX, YOU SHALL HAVE THE PLEASURE OF COOLING YOURSELF IN THE ROOT BEER WATERFALLS AND SCALING THE CLIFFS OF PEANUT BRITTLE. WE SHALL VISIT THE GUMMY BEARS AND WRESTLE THE GUMMY DINOSAURS. BUT FIRST, LET'S GO TO MY HOME, SHALL WE? FAIR RAPUNZEL IS WAITING FOR ME THERE (I HOPE) AND FROM THERE WE CAN PLAN OUR SEARCH."
Out in the open again, and in familiar lands, Johann is back to his exuberant self. The Catacombs were a harrying dark trial, and seeing the remains of one of his best friends, Pusinboots, was a blow. Johann hopes strongly his resurrection went without issue and he leads the group toward Rapunzel's tower.
As the adventurers journey through the sprawling primordial forest, they are disheartened to see the desolation of Wormwood. Large swathes of the Black Forest have been reduced to smoking wasteland, where blackened trees have been scourged by the dragon's breath. Where rootbeer rivers once ran are dried, scorched riverbeds... rock candy mountains melted into gooey heaps of molten sugar... gingerbread houses blackened with soot and half eaten by the dragon...
Johann leads the group at an ever quicker pace, driven by growing rage and fear for his beloved Rapunzel and old friends...
Rapunzel's Tower still stands, much to Johann's relief, though the thatched roof has been burnt away, and the mortared stone walls are Black with soot. When Johann calls up to the darkened archway and balcony some fifty feet up the east side of the tower, there is a long moment of silence, doubt, and fear...
Finally, after an excruciating moment of fear and silence, the beautiful familiar face appears in the shadows of the upper archway. Seeing her beloved Johann among the travelers on the scorched lawn below, fair Rapunzel rejoices, and steps onto the balcony and into the sunlight.
Mein dear husband Johann! Du hast returned, Liebkin! Ah, how I have missed you! How I have feared for you! How I have longed for you big, strong arms around me again! Mein prayers have been answered, at long last!
Coiling up a fifty foot length of her glossy golden hair, woven into a sturdy braid, she tosses it down to the lawn and shouts, Bitte! Climb up, mein Liebkin! You and all of your fine friends are most welcome in mein tower! I will bake a batch of your favorite oatmeal-and-honey cookies for dessert! You are just in time for supper: leek soup, fresh-baked beer bread, cheese, and of course, plenty of giant bee's honey!
Rapunzel proves remarkably strong in spite of forever looking like a young maiden, and one by one, the Mighty Ones climb her magical braid of golden hair up into the tower, where the enticing aroma of fresh beer bread and hot leek soup fills the upper chamber...
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"MY LOVELY RAPZUNEL IS QUITE A CHEF, IS SHE NOT? ISN'T SHE THE MOST LOVELY THING ANY OF YOU HAVE EVER SEEN?"
Johann stares at them hard as if daring anyone to disagree.
"AND NOW, YES YES YES, IT WAS NICE FOR YOU TO SEE MY HOME, BUT NOW YOU MUST ALL LEAVE. GOODBYE! I'LL SEE YOU ALL TOMORROW MORNING. AND YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT WHEN THE TOWER IS ROCKING..."
Johann nearly drops everyone out the window and mere seconds later there are sounds emanating from the tower that have a good chance of permanently mentally scarring any within a half mile.
"MY LOVELY RAPZUNEL IS QUITE A CHEF, IS SHE NOT? ISN'T SHE THE MOST LOVELY THING ANY OF YOU HAVE EVER SEEN?"
Johann stares at them hard as if daring anyone to disagree.
"AND NOW, YES YES YES, IT WAS NICE FOR YOU TO SEE MY HOME, BUT NOW YOU MUST ALL LEAVE. GOODBYE! I'LL SEE YOU ALL TOMORROW MORNING. AND YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT WHEN THE TOWER IS ROCKING..."
Johann nearly drops everyone out the window and mere seconds later there are sounds emanating from the tower that have a good chance of permanently mentally scarring any within a half mile.
After Rapunzel can take no more of Johann's beastly lovemaking, she orders him to get started on a list of chores, which she has been compiling during his long absence: repair the burnt thatching, scrub the soot off the tower walls, change the rushes, empty the chamber pot, repair the rafters, etc. While he is busy with that stuff, she invites the friends he quickly chased off to come back inside the tower, lowering her magic hair once more for them to climb up.
She smiles and apologizes for Johann's rough manners, reminding the Mighty Ones (as if they'd forgotten) that he is, after all, known far and wide as the Werebeast of the Black Forest. She remembers Lord Perpireen, who'd visited the Black Forest often, even back when it was part of the great primordial Hycernian Forest of post Ice Age Europe. He had been a groomsman, (perhaps the best man in absence of Ogon Fox?) at her wedding to Johann a few moons ago, shortly before the two were strangely teleported to Mwikali's side in Africa.
So, do you still have zee magic talking rope made from mine hair? she asks...
Well, glad to be your travel guide once again, my friends. Thank you for your generous donation to my future Quinlan University! Lovely to meet you, Goodwife Kaltgeboren... Quinlan bows respectfully to Rapunzel and thanks her for her hospitality, having teleported the party to the Black Forest, and going with them as far as Rapunzel's Tower to look upon the legendary beauty of the Fey woman and her fabled magic hair... To Johann, he says with a wink: Now, ye best finish that honeydew list, Meister Johann! Don't want this pretty and charming young wife o' yorn to be upset with ye, ye wild galoot!
He then bows to the party and teleports to the nearby German city of Freiburg to do some research in the university libraries and spend some of whatever the party would pay for his services as a wayfarer in the fest halls.
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Johann says good bye to Quinlan and does indeed get started on his chore list, though he can't stand to be away from the group for too long, and constantly drifts back to give his unneeded input.
"THE STATE OF THE BLACK FOREST SADDENS ME GREATLY. ON THE MORROW, WE MUST GO IN SEARCH OF THIS GREEN DRAGON AND QUICKLY UNLOCK THIS NEXT KEYHOLE. IT MIGHT BE A LONG TREK, FRIENDS..."
Mwikali looks at Johann and chuckles.
"I knew you were loud but...You to together..Such passion. You even scared the birds" She says with a wink and giggle as she pats the Bearmans back.
"A dragon you say, seems a legitimate threat." she says looking at him and then she thinks.
"You know I could make some Poppets to help in fixing and guarding your beloved?" She says smiling."And make them like little bears that look like you!"
Ihrin just stares out having remained silent contemplating the reality of it all. She wasn't sure about what to do. The pope was safe but all those deaths were all to shake them. Which for her was deeper as she had begun to feel she was more than that wild 8-year-old girl who the Draculs found, no she was something more. She seemed to be related to Nero.
Johann, like all who grew up in the Black Forest of Germany in the last century, is well aware that no one dares to go near the lair of Grünerraver. Yes, he knows exactly where to find it.
The forested mountain peak at the northeast edge of the Black Forest is shaped, whether by nature or unnatural means, like a skull with jaws gaping in fear or rage. Down into the dark throat of the mountain skull lies the lair of Grünerraver. There, in the belly of the mountain skull lurks the Gasser of Paris, Scourge of The Black Forest, the ancient green dragon Grünerraver.
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"YES... I KNOW EXACTLY WHERE TO FIND THAT BLASTED DRAGON'S CAVE. TELL ME, ANYONE WHO KNOWS... LORD P, MAYBE...? WHAT DOES A GREEN DRAGON BREATHE?"
To Mwikali he says more quietly. "Any help you could provide Rapunzel would be most wonderful. I feel so bad about leaving her again. Little bear poppets? Genius!"
lord P long absent in his pocket realm pops out to see what wormwood has done.
"This above all things of late saddens me most"
Once he's been assured that nothing untoward is happening between Johann and Rapunzel, Alphonse sets down to rest.
His prayers before bed allow him new insight to his abilities, and when he awakens he is refreshed and ready for battle.
"This may be our most difficult challenge yet, but I believe we are more than able to step up to the challenge. Are there any particular preparations we should make before setting forth?"
As the Mighty Ones discuss what precautions they might need to take against the green wyrm Grünerraver, Rapunzel serves them fresh-baked oatmeal-and-honey cookies and mugs of fresh milk.
I hid inside mein tower during the rampage of Wormwood the fire wyrm... Of course, his was fire breath... When Grünerraver flew out of his skull-shaped cave to do battle with Wormwood, it is said that he filled the sky with his own deadly breath--a greenish-yellow vapor that dissolves whatever it touches like acid! But I did not see this firsthand, nein! As I said, I hid in my tower and prayed for salvation!
"What a pleasure it is to finally meet you, Rapunzel," the Ogon Fox says when they first arrive at the tower. "It does my heart good to see you and Johann so happy together."
When Johann begins ushering them all out, the Fox gives him a wink and says, "Have fun!" before swiftly descending the tower.
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"You speak wisely, my friend. Ah, but it will be good to speak German again, too! How far is it to Freiburg im Breisgau? I hope we'll find time to visit a good tavern," he finishes with a gleeful raise of the eyebrows.
"ACID? POISON CLOUDS, EH? TIME IS SHORT, BUT BETTER TO BE PREPARED THEN TO BE DEAD... PERHAPS FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS IS A SHOPPING TRIP TO FREIBURG IM BREISGAU..."
[dice=Arcana]1d20+22
"What a pleasure it is to finally meet you, Rapunzel," the Ogon Fox says when they first arrive at the tower. "It does my heart good to see you and Johann so happy together."
When Johann begins ushering them all out, the Fox gives him a wink and says, "Have fun!" before swiftly descending the tower.
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"You speak wisely, my friend. Ah, but it will be good to speak German again, too! How far is it to Freiburg im Breisgau? I hope we'll find time to visit a good tavern," he finishes with a gleeful raise of the eyebrows.
Blushing and smiling, Rapunzel curtseys before Ogon Fox. Ach! Mein dear Meister Fox! So much mein sweet Johann has told me of you and your adventures together! He speaks of you in the highest terms of endearment! Would you like another cookie, Meister Fox? You are so skinny compared to my plump Johann!... ACH! Es tut mir lied! Um... Freiburg im Breisgau ist about three leagues west of here...
Visiting the free town of Freiburg im Breisgau at the western edge of the Black Forest, some three leagues (9 miles) west of Rapunzel's Tower, the Mighty Ones do some research on Grünerraver and green dragons in general, shop for potions and wind fans, and enjoy the local fare, sampling the beer gardens, fest halls, and markets of the independent fortified town.
They watch a passion play, performed by a troupe of local players and accompanied by the lyrical melodies sang by traveling meistersingers from Nuremberg, who strum stirring chords on their lutes, and sing with the voices of angels.
They also enjoy roasted mutton chops and frothy beer while taking in a violent puppet show depicting the shenanigans of Till Eugenspiel, a famous German trickster.
By the time the Mighty Ones have finished their shopping and pulled themselves away from the many compelling distractions found in the charming forest town of Freiburg im Breisgau, it is dusk on Thursday evening, 5th of September, six days before Nero reincorporates.
Feeling the pressure of their inexorably approaching deadline, the Mighty Ones make haste for Grünerraver's lair in the forested mountains to the northeast. Woodland creatures of every kind are seen during their journey through the Black Forest: foxes, owls, badgers, wolves, deer, bear, hare, mountain lion, and boar are common, but furtive, scurrying and scrambling away at the well-armed party's approach. There are rarer creatures spotted in the shadowy dales and alpine meadows of the Schwartzwald as well: a unicorn drinking from a forest spring, a griffon stalking a panicked deer, a peryton that wisely avoids the Mighty Ones, and diverse Fey beings: sprites that bow before their Lord Perpireen, pixies, brownies, satyrs, nymphs, dryads, and spriggans... Some of these accept Lord Perpireen's offer of refuge in the Fablehavens, but some turn him down flatly, being too attached to their little patches of fairyland in the Material Plane world of Earth...
By dawn of Friday morning, 6th September, Johann has led his companions to the foothill of a wooded peak that soars to dizzying heights over the northeast corner of the Black Forest. This is the peak known as Skullberg, where a yawning cave mouth in a skull-like rock formation, shrouded in moss and ivy, forms the entrance to the lair of the dreaded green wyrm, Grünerraver...
Trudging up a mountain trail that switches back and wends it's way ever upward over the forested mountain slope, Johann at last leads his companions to the fearsome skull shaped cave mouth gaping in the upper southern face of the peak known as Skullberg.
The skeletal remains of some dozen past victims of the green wyrm litter the mountainside around the gaping cave mouth, some thirty feet in diameter, that gapes in a silent scream in the skull like formation.
A yellow-green haze hangs in the entrance and inside the cave...
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Johann buys 5 fans, the entire stock of protection from acid potions, and 12 of the resist energy potions (10 at 3rd, 1 7th, 1 8th caster level).
After a tiring journey and finally seeing the destination ahead, Johann considers the yellow-green haze. He speaks, his voice muted by an understanding of the powerful dragon that lays before them.
"Well, I wanted these fans to give us some wind. Let's see what happens, then, right?"
He pulls out one of the fans and activates it and waves it to hopefully dispel the fog.
Johann buys 5 fans, the entire stock of protection from acid potions, and 12 of the resist energy potions (10 at 3rd, 1 7th, 1 8th caster level).
After a tiring journey and finally seeing the destination ahead, Johann considers the yellow-green haze. He speaks, his voice muted by an understanding of the powerful dragon that lays before them.
"Well, I wanted these fans to give us some wind. Let's see what happens, then, right?"
He pulls out one of the fans and activates it and waves it to hopefully dispel the fog.
Johann's foresight in purchasing the wind fans pays off early; waving the magic fan creates a gust of wind that soon disperses the poisonous gas lingering in the entrance to the green wyrm's lair. It is now safe to enter...
Inside the vast entrance cavern, the floor is littered with the skeletal remains of hundreds of creatures, including some humanoids. All valuables have long been stripped from these skeletons, leaving nothing but acid-bleached bones and skulls...
The ceiling drips with stalactites, but all stalagmites have long ago been worn from the bone-littered cavern floor by the passage of the green dragon. Traces indicate that Grünerraver must be at least as big as a full grown elephant!
A twenty-foot-diameter tunnel bores deeper into the mountain at the back of the cave--the "throat" of Skullberg...
A curious shard of green crystal protrudes from the cave wall on the party's leftward side, and below it is affixed a copper plaque engraved with a riddle in German:
Ich bin groß, wenn ich jung bin, und klein, wenn ich alt bin. Was bin ich?
"A candle, I believe?"
"A candle, I believe?"
As soon as Alphonse speaks the words, the green crystal ignites, shining like a verdant beacon in the mouth of the Skullberg!
The westbound tunnel curves northward into a great cavern with a ceiling dripping with stalactites. More skeletal remains serve in the same way that rushes serve in humanoid dwellings, forming a covering over the cavern floor...
A yellow crystal protrudes from the back wall of this cavern. Another riddle or puzzle is graven on a copper plaque below the yellow crystal; one would think this was the lair of a copper dragon rather than a green one, with the riddles... This one reads (in English this time):
I run, but have no feet; I've a bed, but never sleep. What am I?
"A river, as I recall."
Perhaps all those times riddling with grandmother will finally pay off.