12 July 2019
Tying up Loose Ends
When we last left our brave adventurers, they had just been flamed by an angry red dragon's fire.
[Meta-game: The next section was a Skill Challenge. Players are given a situation and must decide which skill they will use to address it, and come up with a plausible way in which the skill they chose helps to solve the problem at hand. A player with proficiency in the skill must roll to try to make the challenge.]
It is suggested that our plan should be to try to get someone to help with the out-of-control dragon. We decide to split the party to get help from Errde and the giants. Ezri transforms into a horse to carry Bree and Jimjar to the giants. Bree casts invisibility to make them less of a target for the dragon (the horse is still visible). Kais, Caius, and Autun head for Errde's office. Kais recognizes a route out of the dragon's lair and directs the group out onto the street. A litter is passing by with a member of the Council of Savants. Bree casts Fey Presence (fear) and Ezri takes on the appearance of a charging nightmare, with a coal-black coat and flames streaming from her mane and tail. The derro scatter out of their path (and are probably found by the dragon shortly thereafter). Jimjar recognizes the way to the giants' cave, and they make good time. Meanwhile, Autun charges into the hold, diving past a group of guardsmen to reach Errde. He breathlessly tells her of the dragon's attack. She seems unimpressed - isn't that the [[Keepers of the Flame |Keepers] problem? Caius reminds her of the blood-curdling things a rampaging dragon can do to a city, and Errde decides she should probably raise some guardsmen to stop it. Meanwhile, Bree, Ezri, and Jimjar have reached the stone giants, and tell them of the problem. Hgraam feels the stone and confirms that the dragon is indeed destroying part of the city - the giants rush in to help. When the Stone Guard and giants arrive, the derro have been holding off the dragon, keeping it from breaking into the rest of the city. There are heavy losses among the derro and Stone Guard, and one giant dies, but by the time our group reconvenes and heads toward the fight, the dragon is killed.
Errde asks what happened. Kais explains to the best of his knowledge - the Keepers said they could not lie to the dragon, so we came up with a plan to confess their deception to the dragon in a way that might not be too unpalatable, and yet when speaking to the dragon the Keeper decided to lie anyway. She asks how we escaped the dragon - we explain that we barely survived, and only managed with the use of some healing potions gifted to us by the Myconids.
That night, Caius sings a rousing tale of the battle with the dragon, accompanied by illusionary visuals from Kais. At Autun's request, Caius manages to wedge in a few lines about "and the derro helped too". He ends with encouragement in standing united in the battle yet to come, against the insidious demons. Kais shows the warnings we've seen - figures with a sudden onset of extra fingers and women who appear different to different people.
Bree is weirdly quiet. Alone in her room, she prays for forgiveness - perhaps red dragons are an animal sacred to her patron.
We also do some shopping: 120gp of spell inks, 120 arrows, 100 gp to gift-wrap the surface black bear as a gift for the Deep King's menagerie.
Finally, we rest. The next day Jimjar, Kais and Autun go to rescue the cave bears. On the way in they encounter a xorn - Autun manages to distract it by throwing a 2gp gem at it. In the room with the bears they find the derro moving the surface bear. One of the cave bears has died. Cursory examination does not tell us what killed it. We ask the derro how they recommend moving the cave bears, and they suggest going via the Darklake. Kais suddenly realizes that the narrow passage into this tunnel *is* big enough to fit a cave bear after all. Autun casts Speak with Animals and convinces the bears to follow him. We proceed uneventfully out, with only a few salt fish as rewards and a small struggle to get the bears up the ladder. They reach the Darklake and swim off to freedom. "Well, I didn't think that would work," says Jimjar, with apparent satisfaction.
We meet with Errde to tell her all we've learned. She says that she has a gift for us from the Deep King, and a gift from the Stone Guard for Kais. The gift from the Deep King turns out to be a Folding Boat that will open with one command word and fold back into a small box with another. She advises to choose the command words carefully, as it's not picky about who says them. The gift for Kais is a pair of boots of elven make, which Kais will soon discover are Boots of Elvenkind. She also says she recommends leaving, as someone is likely to question how exactly we escaped the dragon.
Inventory
Gained
- A magic box that turns into a boat on command.
- Boots of Elven Kind (Kais)
- 450gp payment from Stone Guard
- 23gp for performance of Caius
Lost
- 15sp spent at market (Caius)
- 1gp gem thrown to distract Zorn
- 7 salted fish used as bear food
- 1sp for postage of message to Stone Guard
- 100gp paid for bear rescue
- 120gp used for magic inks to inscribe Gentle Repose
Party inventory
Prior: 5 July 2019, All: Play_Sessions, Next: 19 July 2019