I mean, that's most of the session, to be honest. They fight a dragon, and it is royally awesome and no one dies. Then they return to Song Hive and Mist Hive, aiding villagers and collecting a hefty reward from the queen of Mist Hive. Tahlarien is missing again, and has left no means of contacting her. Who does she even think she is?
Full Account[]
A wrinkle in time. Three trees, part of a building, a part of a dragon’s hoard. And a black dragon. Here we go.
“My hoard. My treasure. Where is it? Give me my shinies!” It frantically scrapes together the part that came with it through the rift, then assumes that The Party has taken the remainder.
Isaac tries to reason with the dragon. Unsuccessfully. The dragon moves to threaten us. Emilie chucks a javelin at it and misses. Vic casts bull strength on her in hope that that won’t happen again.
Kal attacks from the side using his kukri, and slashes across the dragon’s muzzle just as it is beginning to take flight.
Isaac and Namfoodle Scheppen are shaken by the dragon’s threatening appearance, but nevertheless, Isaac casts a web at its wings to prevent its flight, humiliating it as well as grounding it. He then renders himself invisible to roam the battlefield casting spells on his allies.
The dragon is not amused. It responds by releasing a stream of acid at Kal and Namfoodle.
(They take 19.)
Namfoodle takes shelter. Emilie misses again. Vic casts Prayer! Kal hits again, and injures the dragon’s shoulder! The dragon retaliates by injuring Emilie’s shoulder. Namfoodle scorches the dragon, but it seems to have some pretty hefty spell resistance.
Emilie rolls a 1.
Vic removes Isaac’s fear, restoring his stats to normal. Kal hits again! Isaac protects Emilie from evil so that she can stop taking damage. Coupled with her martial stance that gives the dragon’s attack -4 against all targets that aren’t her, this is a pretty good combo.
The dragon breaks free of the web!
Namfoodle continues to wait in his hiding spot for a good opportunity. Emilie misses. Vic inflicts serious wounds! Kal hits again! Isaac enchants Emilie’s sword. Maybe now she’ll hit something.
The dragon flies 20 feet into the air and uses its breath weapon again, against Emilie. She dodges, but still takes half damage. Namfoodle takes this moment as a good time to do something. He casts fireball at the dragon! Emilie lets loose her javelin into the dragon’s belly from below! Vic casts Searing Light to deal massive damage!
Kal pulls off a fantastic feat and pummels the ground so hard that a boulder shoots out from the dunes and hits the dragon in the sky. The dragon is understandably caught off guard by this attack. Isaac takes this moment of hesitation to modify his equipment, allowing him to cast inflict spells from his wand at range. The dragon falls out of the sky and blasts Kal and Vic with yet more acid. They have 9 HP between the two of them.
Emilie misses and her player becomes so discouraged that he ceases to document the events of the battle for a full round.
Whoa okay I’m paying attention now and Kal is inside the dragon? I’m confused.
Isaac inflicts wounds on Emilie to cure her. She regains 4 HP. Awesome.
Wait, no, Kal is ON the dragon’s BACK! The dragon thrashes to get him off and begins to roll over. Emilie jumps up to help Kal, and the two of them plunge their weapons into the dragon – severing its neck in two. The carcass crushes the two adventurers, damaging them. Worth it.
A bag of holding for because to hold all the coins (Thanks, DM!)
Nam detects magic on the cards, and he becomes very concerned. He asks Isaac to see if he can activate them. Isaac draws a card and nothing happens. Emilie says, “Okay. Cool. Can I have them?”
Namfoodle draws a card - the 8 of Hearts - and puts it on the ground, and steps away. A bugbear emerges from it. Namfoodle orders it to attack Kal. Emilie defends the wounded dwarf with her shield, but the bugbear turns out to just be an illusion. In his defense, Namfoodle had a pretty strong hunch this was the case. The card is now blank and has expended its magic.
Isaac decides to spend the rest of the day skinning the dragon to make druid-kosher armor to sell. Emilie complains that we aren’t doing anything with all these potions the party is finding. Kal agrees to sample some to try to determine their use. The spoils list above reflects the discoveries. The two potions from the hydra’s stomach are next. A bright lime green concoction seems to take the edge of the elements off for a moment. The other is pitch and tastes metallic. It proves to be a Hide from Undead potion, since Emilie suddenly couldn’t see Kal. It would have been interesting if this sampling session had occurred before Emilie’s reveal.
The party returns to Song Hive. One of the lizardfolk they passed before seems to be on his way to recovering from his extended experiences with the visions that the anomaly was causing. Life has started to return to the adobe city at the foot of the anthill, but no one is on the street, save for the starved corpse of the first lizardfolk the party passed. The formian child from before remains deeply disturbed. Emilie and Isaac decide to take her with the party back to Mist Hive to get her help. She sweetly and passively agrees to come. The party returns to the dogs, who are excited to see the adventurers again.
The party journeys through the sands with the formian girl through the breaking day, during which time they discuss next destinations. They decide on a red circle on the anomaly map off of Tendaji’s coast. They break for the night, and then continue the next morning, arriving at Mist Hive in the late afternoon. A crowd of the formians stand about Mist Hive in what appears to be a festival. The dog keeper is very happy to see the party and his loves back safe and sound. Many dogs have been released to play in the sand with the villagers. The queen has let the hive take three days off work because “things feel better.” The party is invited to meet with her, and they agree, with the young formian still in tow. The dog that bit Emilie licks the wound’s area apologetically. She pets it on its head.
The queen is grateful, and allows the young formian to stay at the hive. She sends the party off with gifts: a gemstone for each adventurer. Emilie takes the largest diamond she can find. Isaac and Kal follow suit, and take diamonds of their own. Nam takes a small ruby, and Vic takes a large sapphire. The party also receives parcels of food for their coming journey, and the queen tells them that they ar
e always welcome in Mist Hive. She invites the party to stay the night.
Back at the room they stayed in before, the guard recognizes them and tells them that their friend, Tahlarien, left two days previously. “It left. On a ship.”
“I love that he called her an ‘it,’” Emilie laughs.
“There is no difference between you that we see,” the formian replies, causing Emilie to scowl instead.
The party spends a night in Sangor before heading down to Mist Hive's port, where they hope to embark from towards Tendaji.
Notes[]
Vic's player just kind of didn't show up because he was at a party that he didn't tell anyone about and wasn't answering his phone, so Vic was controlled by the DM during combat.
