Kiley grimaces before moving up and jumping up on the table and firing an arrow at the werewolf Shagger is fighting.
Coughing from the fumes resulting from whatever the pale figure threw at her, Ari can feel the burns on her skin. The fact that it seemed to also catch the werewolf - and the man's casual disregard for his ally - is no consolation. With the appearance of a towering skeletal figure blocking off her escape, she curses softly.
She flashes a dagger out at as it passes, unsure what it may be able to do against solid bone, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Her stroke clatters off a thigh bone, doing - as far as she can tell - precisely nothing. If this is how it ends, it was nice knowing you all.
Ari grimaces and redoubles her efforts to at least drop the werewolf. Recklessness got her into this mess and caution is unlikely to help her here now. She throws an arm out wide in a feint, while punching the other dagger towards the creature's gut. As it sinks in, she rolls her first arm over to stab down at the werewolf's shoulder.
"A blessing from our goddess!" intones Sasha as she casts a spell to empower the adventurers. "Pheliks, flank!" she continues as Pheliks leaps over the table, risking attacks from both the werewolf fighting Shagger and the new undead monstrosity, and getting behind the werewolf to attack with the gnoll warrior. Sasha then moves near Shagger to heal him next round, if needed.
Phelik's Bite:
Ari takes out the wolf she was fighting thankfully (with the help of the splash from the alchemist bomb), two quick strikes gutting him as he falls to the floor. Shaggar hits and severely wounds blue wolf, but doesn't manage to finish it off. Pheliks and Kiley, however, are too overwhelmed by the situation at hand to focus their attacks.
The werewolf gets an attempt to strike at Pheliks as the tiger rushes past.
Gix, having remained somewhat muted and quiet this entire time (seemingly freaked out by the crypt below the house), suddenly bursts into violent laughter when he sees the werewolves.
"Burn, burn, burn!" he cries out crazily, rushing forward to throw his ball of fire at the werewolf. The ball engulfs the form of the beast, and consumes it entirely. Its corpse falls to the ground, covering the area in the disgusting scent of burning dirty fur.
"nice shot." Rutilux admits and moves forward as fast as his little legs can carry him to get the alchemist in sight. He stamps his foot and a sound like thunder spreads forward and shakes the alchemist... perhaps the Skeleton would be a better choice, but if he can delay the mastermind, so much the better
The giant skeleton amalgamation falls to its back under the assault of Rutilux's attack.
The alchemist cries out in frustration as the last werewolf falls, shaking his head. "Low quality help not doing me any favors, as per usual." With that, he draws another set of alchemical components and creates another bomb to toss at you. "I can do fire too!"
The skeleton stands up (provoking from Ari) and takes a swipe at her, but it's unsteady and its massive claw swings wide, missing.
Round 3
23- Ari
22- Rutilux
22- D
14- Sasha
11- Gix
10- Shaggar
9- Kiley
Round 4
23- Ari
22- Rutilux
22- D
14- Sasha
11- Gix
10- Shaggar
9- Kiley
[ooc]Party is up!
"HA, you missed!!" Glad for his mage armor...
then the 'miss' erupts into a splash of flame...
but he manages to jump clear of the worst of it!
And when he casts again, it's a rushed jolt of electricity.
Kiley manages to dodge the worst of the blast and goes after the alchemist as she draws her shorter sword.
Shaggar glances at the silver dragon and can’t help but wonder if this is Lady Silvermoon. It would certainly fit with the taunt of the dead werewolf in the front garden. But that was speculation for after the alchemist and his pet were on their way to Hell. The gnoll drops the handaxe and leaps over the table while drawing his headchopper. He wades into battle with the bone giant.
HP: 13 / 28 | AC:16 / T:11 / FF:15 | CMD:18/17
Arrows (20):
Arisen 3HP (1):
Effects:
Arisen - Die at -18 HP
Diehard
Gix laughs maniacally as the ball of fire engulfs the werewolf, but then is obviously disgusted by the smell of burning fur. "EW! I didn't think they'd smell THAT bad!"
He concentrates really really hard, his brow furrowing, and the flaming sphere moves over to touch the skeletons' leg. "Can bone burn?" he asks, before shrugging. "Bolt time!" he cries out, unleashing a missile of pure red force towards the skeleton.
The bone does indeed burn somehow, pieces blackening and crisping before falling off. Gix laughs even louder at the sight, obviously enamored. "IT DOES!" he calls out in glee. The force missile hits the skeleton in the head, chipping the face of multiple skulls that make up the things' head.
Rutilux's arc of lightning misses the alchemist, but Shaggar's axe takes a large chunk out of the skeleton's other leg made of legs even through the hardened texture of bone (DR/bludgeoning), and the thing looks like it is near to falling over.
Bone Boy does attack Kiley as she runs past, but the claw swipes over her head and her blade proves true, drawing blood against the alchemist. "Ah, get away!" he calls out angrily, staring her down with another vial in his hand already.
The alchemist cries out in frustration as the last werewolf falls, shaking his head. "Low quality help not doing me any favors, as per usual."
"And low quality decision making will get you everything you richly deserve," Ari mutters, though the words could equally refer to her own rash actions and desperate attacks. Straight truth, however, is that whoever this man was, she would take great pleasure in sinking a knife into his flesh the way she had to the werewolves. With the creatures down and Rutilux's spell knocking the giant skeleton over, she allows herself to hope that just maybe her luck wasn't going to run out.
A prayer plays on her lips. "Truth and lies, light and shade, Lady of Deception hide me so that I may continue to write my own path," she whispers. As the skeleton rises, she darts a blade in. This time she aims for the space between bones, testing the magic animating the creature and this time finding purchase against something at least.
She steps around to circle fully behind the unnatural creature, hearing the crunch of Shaggar's almighty swing and using it as a distraction. Now with the time to measure her strikes she cuts in again, once, twice, and with a grunt forces her knives into the gaps that are holding this parody of life together.
Ari's strikes somehow slice through the toughness of the skeleton, bringing it down with a clatter of bone against the stone floor. The skulls of the reptilian skeletons pile amongst the bones, presenting an odd sight.
"Ah, I put a lot of work into making that. A shame." the alchemist quips, looking dejected at the dismantlement of his skeleton friend.
Sasha hops over the flipped table as Pheliks moves to bite at the alchemist. Before he can attack, though, Sasha casts another spell, this time targeting the enemy alchemist. Shimmering moonlight seems to coalesce into spiked chains that lash at the man as the oracle intones, "Let the bite of the chains bring you low!"
The alchemist, seeing himself surrounded on all sides by enemies and his allies fallen left and right, takes a deep breath as if to calm himself before drawing yet another vial and preparing it. "I will not apologize for practicing my art! You just can't understand what I'm trying to do here." even as he says it, you can see that he knows you won't listen.
"Get your damn cat off me!" he cries out, tossing one more bomb, this time at Sasha.
Round 4
23- Ari
22- Rutilux
22- D
14- Sasha
11- Gix
10- Shaggar
9- Kiley
Round 5
23- Ari
22- Rutilux
22- D
14- Sasha
11- Gix
10- Shaggar
9- Kiley
Gix will move his sphere over to the alchemist, and the ball catches the edges of his clothing on fire.
The smoking gnoll steps forward. ”I don’t want an apology…” I want your screams. His axe swings and his jaws snap…
HP: 10 / 28 | AC:16 / T:11 / FF:15 | CMD:18/17
Arrows (20):
Arisen 3HP (1):
Effects:
Arisen - Die at -18 HP
Diehard
Rutilux mutters something about tables as he gets over the barrier, lands and then...
"I will not apologize for practicing my art! You just can't understand what I'm trying to do here." even as he says it, you can see that he knows you won't listen.
"You call this art? I once sold a painting of two cats playing Dragonchess to a Neverwinter noble woman at top price. Now that was art, or at least cute as the dickens. Yours? Not so much." And he lets loose another Ear Piercing Scream spell.
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"Another key difference is that it doesn't look to me much like that dragon is playing, chess or otherwise," Ari remarks, gesturing with a dagger hilt at the unconscious wyrm. "If you'd care to explain to us simpletons, then maybe we would understand, but it looks all too clear from where I'm standing." Where the tiefling is standing is now behind the alchemist, having circled round to stand opposite Shaggar once more. Hurt bodily, and perhaps also in pride, Ari is not feeling charitable enough to wait for a reply and she thrusts a blade towards the man's neck.
Kiley moves to put the alchemist between her and Pheliks before trying to drive her blade into his black heart.
Unfortunately for Kiley, Ari's blade to the neck catches the alchemist directly in a vein, ending his life rather quickly before Kiley can get in on the action. He sinks to the floor, gasping and wheezing before finally collapsing and expiring.
With him dead, any information he may have had disappears with him. At least you're free to explore the room without worrying about any of the previous occupants bothering you. Searching the werewolves turns up a few mundane weapons (three longswords), while the alchemist has a large collection of different vials that look to be potions and unguents and the like.
The alchemist workshop looks to contain enough equipment to make up at least two alchemy labs, with some extra. There are about two dozen different-sized vials full of the silvery liquid which you now know is actually the dragon's blood, as well as many more full of other various reagents. The larger apparatus in the water look mostly to be giant glass containers for withdrawing and filtering said blood, with the tubes ejecting through the dragon's skins connecting to multiple points in the apparatus.
The circle inscribed on the floor under the dragon is obviously of magical descent, the glowing blue runes clearly being some sort of entrapment circle similar to the one that held Verik in place earlier only in glowing blue this time.
Sasha gasps in pain as the alchemist's fiery bomb splashes over her. As she wheezes and tries to catch her breath the rest of the party swarms and kills the man, leaving her a moment to try and recover.
As the others look around, she immediately moves to the silver dragon with a look of concern on her face. "We have to free her! Quickly - look to the tubes and stuff while I get ready to use magic to heal her wounds. Someone start removing whatever is draining her and help me break the magic circle!" she exclaims as she rushes to the edge of the rune circle and begins inspecting it first.
Shaggar doesn’t know a lot about magic… but he’s fairly sure if you break an eldritch circle, the sorcery goes with it. To test that theory in a gnollish way, he hefts the body of a werewolf on his shoulder then throws the corpse down so that it crosses the magical lines.
If the magic fades, he makes a satisfied grunt. If it doesn’t, he hefts his axe… preparing to see if chipping the lines does anything. ”We need to search the alchemist and every page of notes we can find.”
Unfortunately, Shaggar's experiments with the corpses of werewolves and magic circles doesn't bear any fruit. Was certainly worth a shot!
Rutilux takes a look at the circle and can't quite figure out how to dismantle it. Gix is more than willing to take a look at another problem for his new friends, however, and comes up with a solution. "Breaking the circle by throwing corpses at it won't do anything you silly wolfman. Anyone got any acid? That'll burn the circle right up."
Entry 43, 23rd day of Uktar, 1492 DR
At last, after years of searching, I have captured her—the silver dragon of the moon, bound by the circle of my design. Her power will be the key to salvation from the plague festering beneath us. The curse that rots Brazenthrone's depths must be purged, and her blood is the final ingredient needed. The moon’s light holds the antidote, and she is that light made flesh.
I have begun the extraction—careful, delicate. The veins of a dragon pulse with arcane force, and to rush this would be disastrous. A small dose each day, just enough for testing. Already, the alchemical mixtures respond with promising results. But it is slow. The shadows of the plague are tenacious, resistant to most standard methods. I must push further.
Entry 44, 24th day of Uktar, 1492 DR
The silver radiance of her blood is magnificent. Even drained and weak, she fights—her dreams disturb the circle at times. I sense Selûne’s influence, but the wards hold fast. The plague samples brought up from the lake by our...acquaintances continue to resist complete neutralization. Perhaps the problem lies in dosage... more blood is needed. She will survive—dragons are hardy creatures, after all.
I’ve sent my associates to gather additional spider venom from the caverns. Combining it with her blood may accelerate the process. Their unnatural resilience to diseases should prove useful.
Entry 47, 27th day of Uktar, 1492 DR
Progress, though slow. I am near the breakthrough I seek. The antidote can finally hold back the plague for several hours in the samples. But it still cannot cleanse entirely. My patience wears thin, and so does she. Her body weakens faster than anticipated. I may need to increase the siphoning. If I take too much, she may perish, but it would be a small price to pay for the cure. After all, what's one life weighed against my goal?
Entry 49, 28th day of Uktar, 1492 DR
The silver dragon’s resistance is failing. Her heart beats faintly in the magical circle, her blood flowing into my apparatus like liquid moonlight. I am closer than ever now, but still... something is missing. It needs something more potent—perhaps a shard of moonstone? Or another source of celestial energy?
The werewolves are restless. They grow tired of waiting, but they don't understand the magnitude of this work. Soon, the shadowplague will be eradicated, and we will be hailed as gods!
Entry 50, 29th day of Uktar, 1492 DR
I am close—so close now. The antidote must be perfected, for it is the only means of survival in the depths of the Black Loch. The shadowplague that festers there is unlike any seen before. Even a moment’s exposure to the cursed waters could corrupt flesh beyond saving. Without a shield against the infection, I won’t survive the journey to the Temple of the Fractured Star.
The temple lies far beneath the surface, forgotten by time, yet it holds the power I need to complete my work. Legends speak of it as a source of celestial power, fractured when the stars themselves were torn apart. If I can reach it, we will tap into its latent energy, amplifying my discoveries tenfold. But we must first be able to make the descent without falling prey to the plague that has consumed everything in those waters.
The dragon’s blood is key. Her essence, infused with the light of Selûne, can resist the plague’s touch. I’ve already seen results in the lab—samples exposed to her blood show signs of cleansing, though they are not yet stable. More of her blood is needed to finish the process, to create enough antidote for the journey.
The werewolves grow even more impatient. They believe this is about the cure itself, but they are fools. The cure is merely a tool—a means to reach the temple. Once I am there, the true work begins. They will not understand, but they won’t need to. They will play their part, willingly or not.
Tomorrow, I will extract more blood. I've been told stories of a new band of interlopers spreading their taint all across the Glade, I must move quickly before she weakens too much or they arrive. If I wait any longer, the temple’s secrets may slip from my grasp, and I will not be denied my destiny.
Shaggar glares at the goblin. "You mean 'silly hyena-man'. Call me a wolf again and I will show you our unpleasant differences."
"Look at the ears," Kiley tells Gix. "Wolfmen have pointed ears, Shaggar's are more rounded." She winks at the goblin to let him know that it's all in jest, at least she's reasonably certain Shaggar is joking.
After sorting through the alchemist's belongings, she pulls out one of the acid vials and begins carefully breaking the circle with Gix's guidance.
"Well, Gix. I have to say you're a learned fellow. Here, let me help with that acid." And he does so. Normally his pride would be pricked being outdone by a goblin, but the dragon being TORTURED feels a might more important than his ego so he works quickly as he may.
As I recall alchemical elixirs only last like 24 hours, is that correct?
Her knife strikes true, severing something important in the man's neck and Ari watches with satisfaction as he slumps to the floor, his lifeblood flowing out of him. With the immediate danger over, she wipes both blades on the man's clothes before sheathing them, though she is breathing hard, not to mention hurt. She holds a hand up to indicate that she is ok, more or less, but just needs a little time to recover.
Now she has time to think, she takes a minute to steady herself, reflecting on the combat. Thinking is not something that she had done much of during it, simply acting, either instinctively or through desperation. Sure, her swordplay was good - and it had undeniably been good, probably better than it had ever been as she efficiently and effectively sliced through a pair of werewolves, the enormous skeleton and finally the corpse now lying at her feet. But she also recognises that she had got away with it. There was a moment when she thought she would be off to the Court of Illusion to see - or more likely, not see - Leira much earlier than planned. Had her strikes not been so good, had the others not been able to bail her out, things could easily have gone differently.
Thinking back to the summer, she remembers an orc attack on the players' caravan. Arrows alone may have driven the raiders off, but the greenskins clearly had not reckoned on Yruthgard. A Northman exile of the Uthgardt, this imposing warrior, six and a half feet of muscle and hefting a sword not far off his own size, had turned the tables and took the fight to the orcs, charging through them with bloody abandon and shrugging off blows that would have felled trees. Needless to say, such hits would have cut a slim tiefling in two. A brief smile plays across her lips as she remembers that he had also demonstrated ample stamina in other respects, before she brings her thoughts back to the present. Yeah, Tymora was smiling on you just there, Ari. Next time stlarning well think! However good your daggers are, your mind should always be your sharpest weapon.
As the beating of her heart returns to something more normal, Ari exhales deeply and prepares to join the investigation of the room. Before she gets the chance however, Kiley wordlessly passes her the diary and she reads it through a couple of times. "Turns out I understood what he was doing perfectly," she says lightly. "But I don't much like the sound of whatever it was he thought he was trying to stop. The shadowplague. The Black Loch. The Temple of the Fractured Star. Cheerful soul, it would appear." She taps the corpse at her feet with a boot. "How did he catch a dragon anyway? That magic presumably has some power to it so be careful. Even you, Gix." She tips the goblin a wink. "That fire spell was impressive," she adds grudgingly.
Have I heard of or do I know anything about any of those things, or Brazenthrone?
Shaggar glares at the goblin. "You mean 'silly hyena-man'. Call me a wolf again and I will show you our unpleasant differences."
Gix balks, freaking out a little bit about his mistake. "Yeah, yeah, sorry sorry. Won't happen again." he says, shirking away from Shaggar (and coincidentally towards Ari).
She tips the goblin a wink. "That fire spell was impressive," she adds grudgingly.
He grins from ear to ear at her compliment, revealing a wide mouth full of too-sharp teeth. "Thank you, lady. I knew it'd burn a hole in these rotten wolves!" he declares matter-of-factly. "Easiest fur roast of my life! And also the smelliest." he finishes, wrinkling his nose.
The magic circle quickly melts under the acid, just like Gix said it would. "See? Circle broken!" he exclaims, triumphantly.
As soon as the circle is broken the dragon stirs, slowly stretching her body out as if for the first time in quite a while. And perhaps it was just so. She struggles under the weight of invisible chains for a few moments more as you continue to damage the circle, and eventually she does pull herself out from whatever force was holding her down. Her voice (for it is immediately recognizable as a female) sounds strained and fragile, a far cry from its natural grandeur. Once clear and melodic, the dragon's voice now carries a trembling, hollow quality, as if the weight of exhaustion and despair has stripped away its former strength. There's a soft rasp underlying each word, its breath coming in shallow gasps, making even simple sentences sound laborious. The dragon’s usually confident tone is now laced with vulnerability, a faint quiver betraying the toll of its suffering. When it speaks, its voice falters, as though the effort to maintain coherence is slipping, but there remains a core of defiance — a lingering echo of its once noble and proud nature.
"Bring...drink...water..." the tortured dragon manages to squeeze out through its mouth.
Shapely white eyebrows rise up Ari's face in surprise that the dragon is still alive following its torture and the large amount of blood lost. Her understanding of anatomy and medical care is primarily based around where to effectively stab someone so she doesn't have a lot of expertise, but it seems like the dragon probably ought to be dead. Then again, it is a large, hardy magical creature so probably has a formidable constitution and who knows what other powers.
"Can you do anything for her?" she asks Sasha and Rutilux. "Conjure up some water or maybe clean up the pool or something? I could empty my waterskin but it would be like me sipping from a thimble."
While he waits for the circle to be broken, Shaggar takes a moment to admire the power, majesty, claws, and fangs of a living dragon. Most impressive! Once the runes stop glowing, he (perhaps foolishly) rushes right up the dragon’s head. He unstoppers his waterskin and begins to pour the contents carefully into the creature’s mouth. ”Here is water. We’ll get more and free you from this infernal machine. It may hurt, noble dragon. I’m sorry about that.”
Rutilux is glad Shaggar has water because he doesn't "Thanks, Shaggar."
He gapes at the dragon in awe, and worry for a moment, then thinks of something he CAN do.. he puts his detect magic to work and relates what is magical to the others. Then he reads the journal, "Shadowplague... warding of Selune?Oh my."
Even the small amount (comparatively) of the water inside Shaggar's waterskin is enough to at least let her speak more freely, although her voice is still dry and raspy.
"Thank you, strangers. I have been in so much pain lately, a little more will not hurt me anymore than I'm used to." she says, bristling under all of the tubes poking out of her thick hide.
"But do you think you could do me a more immediate favor and smash these accursed devices he has me attached to? They aren't actively draining my blood but I do not wish for them to start up again." she says, looking to either side of the massive glass beakers and jars Deridius had set up in the cavern.
"When I am free and safe, we can talk more."
"Let me pull out the tubes first... ma'am. We don't want fragments of glass or anything else going into your veins."
Shaggar quickly begins removing the invasive needles, crimping hoses of liquids being fed into the dragon, and staunching any bleeding. His goal is to do her no harm while quickly extricating her from the machinery.
Shaggar is relieved that he hasn't caused more problems. He looks to the team. "Who has more water? Ahd she could use some healing."
Taking a quick final swig for herself, Ari donates the remainder of the contents of her waterskin to the dragon. ”Does anything our dead friend here was making heal people?” she asks in reference to the collection of brews, mixtures and potions.
The halfling pauses to look over the items
Shaggar pours the soothe syrup into the dragon's mouth, hoping to at least alleviate some of her dry throat.
Sasha, appearing to be a bit paralyzed by the enormity of the situation, watches and appears deeply relieved when the dragon shows signs of life. She can't conjure water, but also provides what she can and explains, "I can purify any amount of water, given the time. Would you like me to clean the water in the pool?"
Without waiting for an answer Sasha begins to do that, repeatedly praying over the pool until the water is crystal clear and safe for the dragon to drink to her satisfaction.
As soon as the tubes are removed Sasha goes and provides healing magic, again praying over the wounds and watching them close at her ministrations. "I cannot heal the damage to your soul or constitution, but at least you won't bleed out..." she explains to the majestic creature.
Finally, Sasha steps back to look at the results of her efforts and marvel at the dragon. Even counting the torture and damage done to her, it is clear that this creature is something over which the oracle will marvel for some time in amazement.
It's only later, when the dragon is resting, that she will review the journal...
Kiley does what she can to help the others tend to the dragon. After they've done all they can and the dragon has recovered some of her strength, Kiley sits next to her.
"Are you Lady Silvermoon? Can you tell us what happened here," she asks.
The dragon doesn't answer Kiley right away, instead turning to the freshly cleansed pool and taking a large drink from it. Several gallons of water later, she finally climbs fully out of the pool.
"That is one of my many names. If you'll excuse my state of undress, I'd like to take on a form more appropriate for conversation and space." she says, not waiting on an answer before her form twists and reshapes itself into a fully naked moon elf. She walks over to the bed the alchemist had set up against one of the walls of the cavern, gently sifting through the various personal effects there.
"My name is Luxvoryna. I am the guardian of this glade, and of the lunar well. Didn't do that good of a job, it seems." she says, looking around at the corpses of the intruders upon her glade.
"The man, what was his name...Aldric I think it was? Came to me in the guise of a true worshiper and subdued me before I even knew what was happening. Had some dark magic far beyond the usual human, do you know anything of it?"
Satisfied the dragon was out of immediate danger, Shaggar moves off to check out the rest of the cave to avoid any unwelcome surprises.
Kiley, seeing that Luxvoryna doesn't have a stitch of clothing on her, pulls out a dress and a shirt that are a big on her, but might fit Luxvoryna, if they aren't small on her.
"Some. We've been trying to piece together what's happened and is happening here," she answers.
GM, Aldric and the alchemist we just killed are two different people, right?
Shaggar moves off to check out the rest of the cave to avoid any unwelcome surprises.
Shaggar passes through another small hallway with more broken open crypts before discovering a larger mausoleum room. Luckily the gnoll's vision is enough to see, for the room is shrouded in near complete darkness. A handful of crypts that still have their lids firmly in place sit along the walls here, undisturbed.
The most troubling part of the room, however, is what has been added: a large stone altar has obviously been dragged into the cavern and placed here reverently. It carries the appearance of an active shrine, with candles and scattered offerings about, and an effigy in the shape of the all-too-familiar spiral shape is wrought in iron and attached to the back of the altar, poking up and evoking the shape of a cross.
Kneeling on the ground before the altar is a skinless corpse covered in old dried blood, its form bent as if in prayer. A long metal spike set in the ground passes straight through the body's back, presumably keeping the corpse in place. The angles on the corpse are all wrong as if it was forced into the worshiping stance, not staked while in it.
"We met Aldric when we first came here. He invited us to talk to him about what was going on. I think that we may need to take him up on his offer," Kiley adds after a moment. The way she says the last sentence, though, makes it clear that talking is the last thing on her mind. She shakes the thought away and turns back to Luxvoryna and begins filling her in on everything that lead to them coming here and what's been going on.