The drake soon finishes tidying up and flies away to probably catch its next meal. It soars east.
Lily looks to Nasar. Theres also the thought of an ambush on him while hes gone. But itll take like 15 minutes to get down there and we dont know when he will be back. Your choice.
Nasar does some quick math on his hand before looking at Lily "Little under 14 but you're right. This works just as well so we have to move now." Nasar waits on a greenlight from the rest before they commence the mad dash to the cave.
The team and their 2 new tag alongs head down the hillside and arrive at the front of the cave. As they near it there are many scraps of clothing or chunks of rotted meat from animals long gone. Gashes are on most trees and some are fallen.
Crazar and Pilwiz stay near the shrubery. We're staying here to see what you win from the den.
As the team heads down the caves entrance a foul smell fills the air of the poor souls whos last breaths were spent being dragged down here. Bones litter the wide area that is the dragons den. After a short narrow tunnel sits a open area with a very high ceiling (since its inside a cliffside) and water occasionally drips down the many rock formations. In the center of the room sits a hoard of different articles of clothing and spare weapons taken from the hunters and woodsman plus a few copper and solver coins scattered in there. The floor is caked with mud from the water falling.
Deract looks around. So whats the ambush plan? Got any idea?
”This mud business is a bit...not advantageous but can’t win ‘em all. Once that drake comes back Lily you use the pyrotechnics to weaken the dragon so we can move in somewhat safer.” Nasar takes out 2 of his tear gas smokesticks, handing one to Deract. ”Probably has a decently good sense of smell but if we can land this along with the pyrotechnics then that sense of smell could get worn down. I’ll throw mine first with the scroll being cast, save yours until afterwards once it recovers.”
Lily takes the scroll and opens it slightly checking it. She then looks around a little bewildered. Dosent this need a base flame. Should we set his hoard on fire?
"Oh right right I'm sorry..uhh yea I have this`" Nasar rummages in his back for a good old flint and steely boy "-I can set some of the clothes in the horde on fire for the source."
Lily nods, And uhh... Everyone should hide behind some rocks until I cast this or else your all gonna go blind and that wouldnt be good.
The caverns edge is lined with stalagmites that can be hid behind. Deract runs to one opposite the teams current location. Marissa runs to one on the left side of the team.
Nasar grabs some of the clothes that don't seem valuable and piles them up in an open area for the drake to see. He looks for a decent dry spot to get the fire going and waits for the group to be ready before starting the show.
The group gives the ok to start the flame. And not a moment too soon as large thumps can be heard from the entrance signaling the drakes return. Lily stands ready with the scroll.
Nasar does the click clack of the flint and steel like a damn caveman and once he gets some flamey bois he does a skidaddle to be opposite of Marrisa so they can flank once combat starts.
Lily waits behind her rock until the thumping gets too loud to mistake. The drake can be heard sniffing the crackling fibers of the enflamed cloths. It looks around before roaring loudly.
Lily walks out from behind her rock with the scroll open. The drake can be heard roaring once more before its wings flap and it rises into the air. Lily lets loose her spell and a gigantic curtain of light envelopes the walls of the cave.
As soon as the wings flap and the light shines another roar is heard as the dragon plummets to the ground with a gigantic crash and thud.
Marissa's clanging armor can be heard emerging from the shelter as she brandishes her sword. I dont know how to get angry enough to make this work! AGHHHHH
Nasar cracks his smokestick and throws it towards the drake, looking to engulf him while giving Marissa room to stand and strike safely.
The smoke stick sails through the air loosing the vile concoction and it plumes on the dragon engulfing him as he falls to the ground.
The drake can be heard through the green mist a roar that chokes up into a cough.
Deract jumps up on the stalagmite and prepares a barrage of energy bolts. His tail begins sucking in dark matter.
Lily runs up on the drain and tries her hand at her Vampiric Touch which lands almost without fail on the struggling dragon. She practically reaches into the drake and siphons him.
Marissa calls out while taking a wide swing at the drake and lets out a splash of blood. What was your backup for if I cant get mad? I think I need it!
The drake fumbles out of the smoke eyes watery with the irritation. It tries to move fully out of reache to reposition.
As it leaves the smoke Marissa takes another slash at its tail and scales go flying as she lands without fail. Lily also takes a slash at him and barely manages to scratch him. He gets 15 feet away before he trips up and dives nose first into the mud!
Nasar sloppily makes his way to the action whilst drawing his blades. "A plan goes nearly without fail until who f~&@s it up? Who else but you Marissa, the one they all used to laugh at for failing at most things and trying to make a magic weapon more magical. Maybe if you got your s!~# together..." Nasar trails off as he steps up to the fallen snake with wings, banking on that being enough before he drops the final roast.
Lily looks to Nasar passing her yelling profanities and shifts over to the drake. Woah Nasar what the hell? Thats really uncool?
Marissa stops for a breif second, her face not filled anymore with worry but now resentment. What did you just say? she puts her sword away and goes to meet Nasar by the drake. Say it again so I can push your teeth down your throat! and she steps up to Nasar and winds back her fist to wallop him one. Nasar can see the rage in her eyes explode as she runs up on him, her fist gray and stone like almost enlarges as it threatens to hit Nasar.
In the split second he hears Marissa respond he glances at her fist colliding right with his face. As Nasar reels back his whole body feels as if the wind had been knocked out of it.
Deract still charging energy looks at the retaliation and his eyes widen, Marissa holy s$&&!
The dragon hearing the commotion turns to swipe at Marissa.
But misses as she decks Nasar. It lets out a roar in frustration.
Lily throws a bomb at the drake that sends icy shards raining down on him.
Nasar pulls his mask down and spits out some blood, probably bit his tongue or something. Clearly working with a minor concussion he tries to get through to Marissa "I'm sorry you had to -spit- hear that from me but you wanted to get angry and here we are. You need to control this anger so we can kill this thing, then you can take out what's left on me."
Nasar takes one slash at the prone drake and as he wants to take the second, the pain of getting punched in the face catches up to him and he freezes up.
She growls angrily before a single, fine is followed by her turning to unload on this dragon. She holds her hands up clasped together and brings them down on the dragons back. The dragon spits blood as its sprawled even further out. A giant grey mark appears on the wound and looks to slowly spread. Lily fastballs a potion to Nasar that crashes against his back loosing the signature pink bubbles.
Deract at this point is beyond holding his strike as his tail looses its shape and instead opens like a mortar. About 9 energy bolts fly up into the air and rain down all over the dragon. The dragon now moving a bit slower attempts gets up and attempts to sting at Nasar.
He manages to sting Nasar in the leg as he gets up but Nasar shakes off the stings poison.
As the drake attempts to rise, Nasar brings his Kukri to body in revenge for getting stung.
After giving the drake a good ol' SLICE it's time for the second round of pain.
As Nasar finishes his signature dragon sushi making. The drake collapses, its eyes slightly open but watery and red. Its breaths are shallow as it clings onto life. Blood pouring from almost every part of its back and scales falling off every corner of this beast.
It lays on the ground at the edge of death unmoving. Deract runs up to it and whips out his talisman ready to steal its soul.
Marissa turns to Nasar with her fists clenched. She waits for him to speak before trying to wring his neck like a wet sponge.
Nasar puts his blades away, watching the dragon drift away from it's mortal coil. He speaks to it one last time before it perishes
Once his little prayer has been said he turns to Marissa, no weapons, and makes one last attempt at reaching through to the normal Marissa by pleading to her honor as a Paladin. "I understand if you still want to fight me, but I will not strike back. I fully surrender." With this last sentence, Nasar goes on full defense in case she still intends on attacking.
As the drake lets go he looks up with only his eyes and all he manages is a tiny thank... you... and his breathing soon stops.
Marissa stands there silently hands still clenched. After about a minute she turns to the now deceased Drake and winds back and punches it in the stomach. Grey marks are left behind on the area, just like its back. She wallops it again... and again... and again. Spreading the grey all around the drake. It begins to look more like a statue than a once living drake.
Lily holds up a hand to try and soothe Marissa, Hey maybe we should s- but shes stopped short as Marissa delivers the blow that shatters the statue into hundreds of pebbles. From the direction the statue exploded the team can now see Deract waiting right behind him. His mouth now agape he stands there in shock at the loss of his soul gem.
Nasar looks on at the now exploded remnants of their enemy. He is both impressed at the display of power and the brutality of what she did. "Huh...that's...quite the power you have in those hands." He goes to pick up a piece of the 'statue' to investigate if it was truly turned to stone.
The drake seems to have been petrified by the attacks by Marissa. Though the notable symptom of this was the grey patch, Nasars face doesn't seem to have such mark.
Nasar bags the small chunklet of the petrified lizard and looks at Marissa, without saying a word, to see how she is doing before they search the horde for intel and gear that may be of use.
She stands there motionless, her breathing begins to become regular again though she stays unmoving.
As they check the hoard they find only a few items of interest:
Masterwork Steel Greatax (160gp)
Potion of Virtue (cr, 25 gp)
Scroll of Inflict Light Wounds (cr, 25 gp)
Nasar keeps looking through the horde, getting a bit flustered. "Hey can I get a bit of help here, I've looked through a couple times but I'm not seeing anything that could lead us to the wyrm." Nasar looks extra hard this time, focusing on anything that could be in relation to their next target.
After a bit of sifting through the various mundane articles in the pole he rummages upon a scroll canister at the bottom. Bearing a very old and weathered symbol of a lighting bolt striking a sword. It seems to have something in it when shaken.
Deract slowly stands up and looks around at the rubble around him. Well thats just great... I don't get my soul gem and Lily dosen't get to study the dragon.
Lily inspects the greataxe and places it back down due to its immense size and weight. Its a drake and not a big deal to me Deract, I get experience from fighting it as well. Seeing how it reacts to certain situations. And I can take home a piece and see about maybe fixing its 'rough' situation. she picks up a few chunks.
Deract crosses his arms, Rough... that wasnt a funny pun. he is met with a petrified drake chunk pegging him in the dome.
"Take as much of the stone as you want, I'm sure we're the only ones that actually will find use of it at this point. Descalers probably don't want it. Does anyone want this greataxe?" Nasar waits on a reply before checking out this scroll.
They all nod no. Nasar opens the scroll to find a bill of sale for an estate located in the large ice city of Whitethrone. Its dated about a year and a half prior to today. Signed by 2 names that are almost indecipherable by first glance. A piece of mail also falls out the scroll container.
After a few moments of struggling to make out the names, Nasar puts the documents away along with the potion and scroll, leaving behind the axe. "I can't really make this out right now but let's just get out of here, I want to clean off my clothes and myself of this mud."
They all nod besides Marissa as they begin there way out. As they reach the outer world Pilwiz and Crazar wait for them. So what'd ya win? Did you prank him!
Nasar crouches down "Uhhhh a potion and a scroll, along with some information on someone we're looking for. We-uh...yea we pranked him I guess. Would you two be able to do me a favor? I might be sending some people out this way to the cave, would you be able to guide them there once you finish your pranks with them? There's some loser prizes in there for them that they should know about."
Crazar nods, For sure! As long as he doesn't eat them first! and he looks to his brother as they both hysterically laugh.
Pilwiz wipes a tear of hysterics from his eye. Ahhh dad was always such a stern fella. But when we get him with a real good prank hes gonna see the true meaning of being fun!
Were gonna head east see if we can't find more stuff for prank traps. See ya later! Nice meeting ya! and they begin to scamper off into the distance.
Lily stands there wide eyed and she looks at Nasar and thumbs backward into the cave. Was he... uhh she looks pale with concern.
"And I gave those two my name...well can't wait to deal with that problem later in life I guess. My concerns lie with you 3 first, not some almost dragons so can we move on before I feel something for them." If they agree to move on, Nasar waits for a moment to let everyone decompress before politely asking Deract and Lily for some privacy so he can have a heart to heart with Marissa.
Lily looks at Marissa still stolid expression before saying, Yea we can walk a few minutes ahead. and she grabs Deract by the tail and heaves him onward.
Nasar let's out a bit of a long breathe before looking on ahead "Marissa, I-I don't at all want you to think that I think of you as some sort of screw up or someone who doesn't pull your weight in this group. You are just as indispensable in my eyes as those two. And that was before the whole stone power thing you have going on. That's why I picked you myself to help out before, I see a lot of potential in you and I want to be close to someone like you. And even though my goal was to anger you, I had to emulate something that wasn't reflective of how I view you, and may have hurt you more than I should. I certainly felt that when you struck me before. I hope you understand that what I said, while hurtful, was not how I feel about you in actuality. It wasn't pleasant to say those things to you, I'm sorry."
Marissa stares at Nasar silently. Her eyes change from a grey color back to her usual brown. She exhales loudly through her nose. I don't know how I'm going to do this... if I have to get angry to make this work. I'm not an angry person! and a tear falls from her eye and she sniffles.
Nasar sees her start to cry somewhat and goes into damage control mode "I know you aren't, this is still very new to the both of us. We know so little beyond what we have seen the 2-3 times you've lost control. We only know of anger being one of the triggers, that could be some self preservation kicking in. I want to help you control this power, we can take time when we aren't on mission and work together on whatever this is. Don't get upset, this isn't a dead end for you Marissa."
She punches Nasar in the chest not intending to hurt him and then grabs him by the shoulders and shakes him. IM GONNA BE BETTER THAN ARTHUR I SWEAR! tears now falling from her face she looks him in the eyes. I'm not going to leave and I'm surely not going to give up!
At this point Nasar would feel weird to not hug her and let her cry this one out so he pulls her into him, letting her cry onto his shoulder. "Your damn right you'll be better, not just him but all of them. And I'll stick by your side for as long as you want me there."
Marissa sits in his shoulder crying for a brief second though all the armor is a little suffocating. She picks her head up and wipes her tears and lets Nasar go. We should head to the other 2
Nasar pats her on the shoulder before giving her a smile "Probably, I don't like the idea of leaving those two alone for too long. Lily might kill him on accident." As they close the distance, before they get too close for the other two to hear them, he says one last thing. "If something like that is ever bothering you or heck, if you just need to talk about whatever, my door back at the guild is usually open. Don't ever worry about thinking that you'll be bothering me with your troubles."
Marissa nods and gives a Thank you Nasar as they reach the two demons. To nobodies surprise Deract is fighting a wolf and Lily is perched in a tree waiting for Deract to kill it. Deract however is lossing this fight as he turns into the dogs chew toy and is shaken around in the dogs mouth.
It sees that it is now outnumbered however and spits Deract out and runs away. Deract wipes the slobber off his body and waves a fist Yeaaa run away before I finish you off... oh hey guys!
Lily drops from the tree and glides down gracefully with her wings.
As Deract cleans himself off, he is met with Nasar shaking his head. Not in disapproval, but more like disappointment. "I would say I'm surprised that this is what you two were up to while waiting for us, but then I would be lying. Hope you rested up cause we still have some ways to walk still before we reach the village."
Deract tries to convey that he was winning but to no avail, they head off back through the forest and soon enough find themselves at the clearing near the village. By this time the sun is setting and dusk is nearing. They enter the village and many lanterns are on and a few people commute through the village finishing up their daytime responsibilities.
”Let’s uhh find an inn for the night, we can rest and clean up then set sail in the morning. Sound good?”
They all nod as they head into the inn. As they enter the innkeeper lady recognizes Deracts human form and questions him. We saw you leave town, how did everything go with finding that dastardly serpent?
Deract smiles and plants his fists on his hips, Nothing less but success madam we slew the creature. Turned him to stone as if we were lurking basilisks. He won't be a problem anymore!
To which the lady rejoices the teams praises. She offers them a free night at the inn with complimentary meal arrangements for their efforts.
After the big free meal they partake in each head to their specific assigned rooms and head to bed without a problem.
Nasar however wakes up and... hes not in his bed anymore, hes lying in a black void with no light in sight. Though he can see his body as if light were reflecting from somewhere. This void is cold and quiet...
Ooze is next to him however, almost just as confused as Nasar is about their whereabouts. His topsludge oozes back and forth trying to figure out their location.
Nasar looks around the void, to his shadow and at himself. "This feels weirdly like home...heh...I hope I didn't die in my sleep and this is what the afterlife is like. " While trying to hold back his worries, Ooze can see that Nasar is growing more concerned at his predicament.
Ooze vibrates with worry and after about a minute of moving around a light breaks over the horizon. A brilliant white light gives the backdrop some vision as Nasar can now see Blank Grippli lying on the ground some 100 yards away. Diamondback Tortuga is sitting next to him seemingly waiting patiently. He looks up and turns to Llamrei also there before Llamrei gives a small head nod.
Nasar hears a voice in his head, almost like a young boy suffering from a sinus infection. Where in Abbadons name are we?
”Uhh I’m not sure disembodied voice. Who are you?”
This seems like the queue for the shadows, waiting to come out once they have proper users.