The Dragon Hatchery

The group is approaching the cave near the back of the horseshoe valley where they believe the treasure was kept as well as the dragons eggs. There is movement just within the mouth of the darkened cave. The group strides confidently inside. The cave is cool, moist and deeper within becomes dark. They are not far inside when they encounter two humans dressed in black wearing dragon masks over their faces. It is not long before these two are dead.

Sure they look cool but they die just like the rest

The Cave Entrance and a Concealed Passageway
400 XP

As they move further into the cave they notice below them a dense forest of mushrooms growing in a cavern several feet below them. As they ponder the reasons for the mushroom field, Danifae notices a concealed passageway in a darkened corner of the cave. It is in a deeply shadowed corner hidden by a cleverly cut fold in the rock. They decide to go that route.

They come across a large empty cave. Empty except for a few scattered coins and a very drunk cultist. After searching his body, finding only a handful of corks belonging to the numerous empty wine bottles surrounding the man, they move on down another tunnel. Danifae scouts ahead and enters a cave. The cave is full of cultists who all turn to look at the drow standing in the entrance to their barracks.

Guard Barracks and an Empty Treasure Store
300 XP

Danifae quickly retreats throwing up magical web behind him blocking the path behind him. The others catch up to him and try to kill some of the enemies on the opposite site of the large web filling the tunnel. Both sides quickly realizes the stand-off occurring. Several of the cultists run off through a tunnel on their side while the adventurers concoct a plan.

They retreat to the drunk cultists cavern, readying themselves while Danifae releases the web spell while using prestidigitation sounds leading as many of the enemies off down the wrong path. It works fairly well and the group has no difficulties in killing off the remaining cultists, using Smallfang and T'an to block the path while the two wizards throw spells from behind.

Check before you eat this mushroom. May be poisonous

A Fungal Garden
200 XP

Deciding to pursue the other escaping enemies brings the party back to the cave at the entrance. There they find no one, so decide to press on through the mushroom fields. Arno, the grumpy old rock gnome surprisingly takes the lead climbing down the very large steps. Unfortunately for Arno, the last step collapses down turning into a slide while dumps the gnome into the field of mushrooms and lying prone at the base of several huge purple mushroom looking creatures which proceed to try and kill him.  They are doing a good job at it until the others who have witnessed the attack, jump down to come to Arno's aid. They soon find out the while the violet fungus may be easy to hit they are formidably strong. T'an is able to fell one of them by hacking through its stalk but soon enough it rises again and its tentacles leave necrotizing wounds on all of the characters.

As the group moves out of range of the violet fungus' tentacles they find that the creatures move incredibly slowly. Finding they are taking so much damage that they have run through a lot of their precious healing potions, they decide to run.

The Stirge Lair
250 XP

T'an's movement is so fast it takes him almost through the entire next cavern. It is not until he skids to a halt that he finds scattered across the room dozens of bats. All dead and drained of fluid. Not long dead but desicated nonetheless. He looks up and sees hundreds of bats all sleeping hanging from the ceiling. As the others finally enter the cavern he raises his finger to his mouth to keep them from making too much noise and waking the bats. Too late both Danifae who is still huffing and puffing from the previous battle and Smallfang clanking as he runs, wake the bats all at once.

MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: Here T'ans amazing move ability was killing me. The character kept running so far ahead that it would trigger the next encounter. At one time I had 3 encounters running at once. I had to pull out pencil and paper to keep track. (Yes I know it's a paper and pencil game...but I'm a computer nerd too, so I like my tablet. Perhaps the program could have done that but it would have taken time to figure out. Either way it was awesome and fun)

The room becomes a whirlwind of black bats and screeching noises. The group, following T'an's lead, moves to the wall of the cave to protect themselves as much as they can. Soon though each one feels a piercing pain stab into the back of their necks. Barely being able to see, T'an looks to Smallfang and screams through the cacophony that Smallfang has something attached to his neck. T'an grabs at it and pulls it off. In his hands he holds a squirming red creature, a cross between a giant mosquito and a bird of prey. Stirges! He throws it to the ground and stomps on it killing is with a blood spurting splat. The others try and remove the creatures from each other, but quickly as they can pull them off and kill them more attach themselves. Arno collapses to the ground from blood loss and is only revived with the aid of more healing potion. Try as he might the old gnome finds the small creatures large enough to him to pose a dire threat. Finally, the group has removed and killed the creatures attached to them but are unable to find T'an.

The Drake Nursery
1,500 XP

T'an, after removing and killing his stirge, moved to what he thought was the safety of the next cavern. There he encounters a group of kobolds in the midst of training. He is able to hack through most of them but he is injured from the stirges before and soon succumbs to the kobolds daggers. The group is able to kill off the remaining kobolds who come into the cavern where they have just finished killing the stirges. When the group rounds the corner they see the body of the unconscious T'an lying in the middle of the floor. Revived again using their quickly dwindling reserves of healing potions, T'an returns from the brink of death.

Scanning the room they find training weapons, straw dummies and animal restraints along one wall and a caged off lower section which Danifae proceeds to tell them contains creatures that are on the move. He sends a shower of dancing lights into the  lower part of the cavern and the group witnesses 3 guard drakes jump out of the shadows chasing the magical lights. The group stands at the safety of the ledge and rain down damage upon the drakes which results in the drakes howling in pain.

It is not long before their howls brings several kobolds as well as winged kobolds from an adjacent room. The group again finds it difficult to fend off yet another wave of enemies as they've had no time to rest and recuperate. T'an though is able to show his companions his skills at catching and redirecting the winged kobolds bolder attacks. One of the kobolds runs down and tries to open the cage and release the drakes to attack the party but Smallfang has already found and pocketed the key to the cage door. The kobold resorts to simply bashing at the lock and almost has is open when Danifae is able to kill him. The scene is soon quiet with bodies of several of the kobolds still slowly melting from Arno's acid attacks.

Able now to kill the drakes without interruption the group continues to send down damage into the pit with the drakes while Smallfang decides to throw the drakes a meal, consisting of kobold bodies. Unfortunately, as he throws the bodies down into the pit, the bodies create a nice ramp which one of the drakes decides to use to climb up and out of the pit to attack.

 After a few harrowing seconds of renewed battle the drakes are finally dead and the group turns to look at Smallfang. He apologizes. His bad.

Retreat!

The adventurers are hurt and have run out of most of their powers. They all debate as to where best to rest and regain at least some of their health and spell powers. They decide the darkness of the drake pit and behind a locked cage would be best. They all find a shadowy hiding spot and rest. It is not long though before a group, probably part of the group of unaccounted for cultists who were walked in on near the beginning of their cave adventure, comes through the cavern looking for the party. They use a bullseye lamp hanging on the wall to search the pit but the group is able to stay hidden. The only injury is to Arno's hand as he uses it to stop Smallfang's armor from loudly hitting the cavern wall behind him.

They finally emerge from the pit rested and, at least a little, ready again. Plus Smallfang thinks the bullseye lamp is a nifty contraption and tucks that away in his pack. The rest of the party may be able to see in the dark but he isn't. They decide a full on night's rest is what is called for. They retreat through the caves back to the entrance.

Back in the valley they find their horses and heavily modified, thanks to the tinker Arno, wagon still where they left it. They rest for the night while T'an meditates. T'an during the small hours of the morning notices moving torch light somewhere inside the caves entrance. Nothing comes of it so he lets the rest of the group sleep.

An Ambush Newly Made
500 XP

In the morning, the group fully revived proceeds back inside the cave to hopefully find the dragons eggs they were tasked with finding and destroying. They soon find out what the activity was here in the caves entrance last night. T'an and Smallfang come across a large part of the caves floor which seems different enough to warrant caution. After testing the floor with a spear attached to rope and then finally a thrown bolder, they find that kobolds have dug and buried spikes in the floor and covered it with parchment and hide camouflaged to look like cave floor. The trap discovered the kobolds and some cultitsts rush in to attack. The kobolds release from their slings several fire pots but most go wild and for one unlucky kobold T'ans arrow kills hits him before he can release it and it sets the kobold on fire.

The rest has done the party well and T'an proves himself to be a kobold killing machine. It is not long after that the group moves further on until they are at the ridge overlooking the fungal garden. After throwing a dead kobold down into the trap which Arno was surprised to find last time the violet fungus show themselves again. This time the group is prepared and send damage from the safety of the ridge. Arrows, spears, acid and fire eventually bring down the fungal giants.

MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: After the groups unexpected retreat I had to figure what would the residents of the cave do, since they obviously know that they have potential intruders. I figured the cultits would instruct the kobolds to make a new trap during the night, since that's what kobolds do. I thought it would go a little more dangerously but the group just sliced through them like they were hardly there.

Kobold Barracks
400 XP

Moving quickly and quietly through the caves they have moved through before they retrace their steps back to the drake training cavern. From here they climb up the stairs that leads to the next cavern. They had captured a cultists in the last battle and questioned him. He had warned that the kobolds had been busy setting up more traps. So no the party is cautious about every turn and step. Smallfang carefully inspects the way as he moves along but discovers that the last step on the stairway is trapped by stepping on it and hearing a loud rocky click.

Smallfang looks back at the group only to witness them look up in horror as a large collection of boulders and rocks, which have been collected and place above the stairwell, are now released and drop  on the group below. Most of them are able to jump to
relative safety taking only a fraction of the damage they would have.

Making their way to the top of the stairs and into the next cavern they find the kobolds barracks from which the kobolds had attacked while the group was trying to pick off the drakes in their pit. The room empty now contains only the kobolds extremely filthy living quarters and various supplies. Smelly straw beds, pots of rotting food and small bags of pilfered treasure.

The Dragon Shrine
2,000 XP

Moving extremely cautions over a narrow land bridge which looks down on previous entered caverns the group finds itself in a dark cavern where the rock formations have been smoothed to a molten glassy finish. There in the room knelt in prayer before an shrine to Tiamat is the blue half-dragon, Langdedrosa Cyanwrath. The group does not hesitate. They release as much damage as they can before the half-dragon is aware of them.

He casually stands up, holds his two guards,  and addresses the group belittling them for such un-honorable actions and  challenges them to a more honorable one on one fight. To everyone's surprise Smallfang speaks up and accepts the challenge. Half-dragon and dragonborne face off and Smallfang is quickly dropped by a couple of swings from Langdedrosa's greatsword. The rest of the group jumps back in the fight and eventually defeat the half-dragon as well as his 2 berserker guards.

After defeating the 3 strong enemies the group inspects the cavern. They find a shrine to Tiamat with carvings of 5 dragon heads emerging from a volcano. T'an notices that each mouth of a dragon is a deep hole. After inspecting a treasure chest which seems to be connected somehow he asks Arno for the wine corks that they had found from the drunk cultist in another cave. He plugs each of the mouths with the corks making sure of a good seal. He then picks the lock expertly.

MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: Full credit goes to T'an for an ingenious way to disable the Acid trap that was the Tiamat shrine. There wasn't even any corks in my original planning. It's just when they searched the drunkard, I figured what would he have one him?....wine corks. Good on you T'an!

There is a loud liquid gurgling and the sounds of pressure from behind the dragon shrine but nothing further happens. Potential disaster is avoided. They find a nice small treasure that was obviously withheld from the rest of the hoard.

Is this the worst the caves has for the group?


MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: Also for additional XP for disabling or bypassing 2 traps, 200 XP. Giving a grand total 5,800 XP.

Infiltrating The Enemies Camp

Tracking The Raiders

The group awakens the next day in Greenest's keep. They are surrounded by a multitude of townspeople who are injured, scared and dying from last nights attack. Governor Nighthill is doing his best to restore order in his town. He approaches the group with a mission.

Nighthill is bewildered by last nights raid. He wishes to know more about the group that perpetrated this atrocity. He tasks the group with tracking the retreating army and find out as much as they can about them. Where are they now? Who are they? Why did they attack and raid the town?  Who are their leaders? Will they strike again, and where?

Harbek the dwarf is busy helping repair the town but he has come across his nephew in town and sent him over to the group as his replacement. The group is introduced to a six foot tall blue dragonborn named Smallfang.

MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: Smallfang is the child of Fluffy the kobold. Fluffy, one of the founding members of The Order Of The Obsidian Dagger!

There is not much money left in the town but what small amount he can scrounge from the town coffers he offers them in compensation. 200 gold pieces per person is what they can afford. He gives them over to a clerc, Pippa Hillbelly, who will give the group what they need for their endeavour. The group asks for a few items such as travelling cloaks, a quarterstaff, horses and cart.  Smallfang asks for healing potions. Pippa informs him that it would be near impossible to find healing potions after last night's attack but she is able to scrounge 4 vials for the group.

The day is gray, cold and the air turns repeatedly between mist and rain making the trail of the retreating army a muddy mess. Danifae and T'an mount the strongest looking steeds while Arno mounts the cart and grabs the reins. Smallfang climbs aboard the cart. The cart's wooden structure moans and creaks in complaint but holds together but the carts thin wooden wheels sink several inches deep in the mud forcing the dragonborn to dismount, lift the cart out of the muck and walk beside the riders.

They travel through rolling countryside following the deep scattered tracks of the large raiding party of last night until the land begins to grow rocky outcroppings. T'an is riding ahead standing in the stirrups scouting the landscape. He notices a smoking column coming from behind a rise in a rocky hill ahead. The party halts as he crawls along up to the crest of the hill. Below him within a large depression between hills is a collection of 4 humans and 8 kobolds arguing over whether or not to cook some prairie chickens. The humans are obviously the leaders of the group as they have taken to roasting the chickens over a fire while the larger group of kobolds looks on and grumbles and complains. A couple of the human raiders are removing their outer robes with the sigil of the Zhentarim faction of the shoulders. The same sigil that was on the monks that had decimated T'an's village just a few days ago. Were these raiders and the ones that killed T'an's family the same?

Stragglers
300 XP

The adventurers group together hiding just at the precipice above the arguing raiders below. The party decide to hit first and hit hard. T'an runs down the steep slope and slashes through two of the humans by the fire and is able to return back to the top of the precipice all in a flash. Smallfang rises up from behind the rocks and is able to skewer one of the humans right through the chest with his spear. Arno and Danifae lob spells in from above to devastating effect. This all happens before the raiders even realize they are under attack. Once the group raiders are able to come to their senses and weapons, the adventurers are able to move in again and kill. T'an runs at one of the humans and performs a bicycle kick crushing the skull of the human.

Arno, the little rock gnome, is not pulling any punches. He lobs several magic missles through the kobolds littering the hollow with bodies. It is not long before the field is quiet with only the adventurers standing. Smallfang captures the last kobold by the neck and asks him who they are and what they are doing. The kobold is quick to disavow himself from the raiders. He hates the humans, He is not with them. He is sorry.
Smallfang snaps his neck with a simple squeeze.

T'an moves to the human which he has kept alive and moves his feet to the fire while positioning himself above the human, knife at the throat. The human awakes at the burning pain to find T'an above him. T'an and Danifae question him and find that he is only a hire mercenary. He has been paid to raid several towns, including Greenest, along with the rest of the assembled army. The human decides that he has said enough and spits at the feet of the group and says that he will not speak as they will probably kill him anyway. With threats of pain worse than death from T'an and a roasting stick thrust into the ground beside his head from Smallfang he changes his mind. He says that there is a dedicated group ahead which is supposed to be waiting to ambush any unwise townsfolk who may be following the raiding party in hopes of revenge or recovering treasure.

Danifae asks him his name. He is Lei.......gurgle.
T'an has opened his throat.

Arno says, "That was easy". It is then that the rock gnome realizes that he has used up much of his powerful spells only to find that there is a possible ambush that they will have to deal with.

After searching the area and bodies they come up with a few copper pieces and a few pieces of silverware that the group has obviously held back from the treasure hoard collected from the raid. The horses are able to come up the rise and down the slope easily enough but the cart is another matter. Smallfang simply turns the cart backwards, picks up the cart's shafts and proceeds to push it up the hill to the top of the precipice. Unfortunately the slope is too steep and the dragonborn looses his grip on the cart and it tumbles uncontrolled to the floor of the valley below. The axle and wheels are broken. They proceed without.

The Rearguard
275 XP

It is dusk now as they move to what they know to be an ambush site. They are wary and stop a few hundred yards away from an obvious ambush area as it had been described by the tortured human. Danifae, feeling now more in her element of approaching darkness, scouts forward trying to flank the ambushers. She moves steathly up to rocky slops, but not stealthily enough. Two acolytes who are waiting unleash their Sacred Flame. A large column of fire descends upon the drow. Unable to escape in time she is injured badly. That is until the second column of flame descends dropping the drow and leaving her lying unconscious.

T'an who was following closely behind Danifae is able to seek cover and releasing an arrow at the attackers kills one instantly. T'an is torn between keeping cover and trying to reach Danifae to keep her from dying. He is able to feint behind the rocky outcrops just enough to escape the same fiery column of death that had laid Danifae low.

Smallfang seeing the fiery spell decides to approach the site from the other flank but only to encounter several scimitar wielding cultists. They are quick to surround him as he tries to take cover behind rocks.  Arno seeing this, sighs, and follows as quick as the gnomes little legs will carry him.

As Smallfang deals with being surrounded by scimitar swinging cultists, two remaining cultists notice the little gnome and move in to attack. Arno's anger provoked, he yells and charges at the humans. Spraying acid from his fingertips he leaves bodies melting on the ground in his wake.

T'an has dealt with the stronger spell wielding acolytes on his side of the rocky outcrop and has poured a potion of healing down the throat of Danifae who quickly comes around. T'an runs to the edge of the outcrop which is separated by the other side by a 25 foot wide crevice below which was the path the cultists had hoped to ambush unwary travels in. T'an uses his arrows to fell a couple of humans on the other side which are harrying the others. Soon enough they are standing looking for more attackers and find none.

From their vantage point atop the rocks they see in the distance a vast swath of faint camp fire light. They have discovered the raiders camp. Moving more stealthily this time T'an and Danifae approach the site. Lying low among tall grasses they view a large horseshoe canyon below which is busy with activity. People are arriving carrying large carried bundles and carts filled with stolen goods from raids. The camp is distinctly divided into the kobold's area, human's area and finally the command center at the most protected area in the back.

After great debate, the group decides to enter the camp as fellow raiders. Slipping in among the returning raiders they pass guards who give them only a cursory glance. Smallfang, a dragonborn, seems to have no problem, either in spite of...or because of the fact that he is carrying a gnome by the head as he walks into the camp. T'an flashes his silver candlesticks which seems to bring looks of contempt at the paltry amount of treasure being brought in. Danifae who has donned the cultists robes found back at the ambush site, walks in but brings glances of suspicion, which is to foreshadow the rest of the encounter.

The Camp
2,100 XP

Moving through the camp the group tries to listen to conversations in order to collect information about the raiders. They easily see that the kobolds and humans do not mix together. Some of the humans here are simply hired mercenaries. But some of the humans are devout cultists of various rank. They befriend one of the mercenaries, by way of Danifae's spell Charm Person. They bring him back to his tent and there find out that one of the lead cultists is named Frulam Mondath, a female high ranking officer. The cave is being used as a store house for all the treasure as well as a place to try and raise dragon eggs as well as other dragon creatures. Hunters are used to bring in meat to feed these creatures in the cave. Greenest was only one of the nearby raids used to amass treasure in order to raise a dragon. The cave is guarded though day and night.

After killing him and cleaning up the mess they are barely able to escape notice of one of the higher ranking officers as he commands Danifae to go clean out the cesspools that the raiding camp has produced from the latrines. Danifae is fortunately able to pawn this horrible duty off on a junior acolyte....barely.

The soon come across an area guarded by four dragonclaws. It is a cage with several prisoners in it. T'an whispers "Leosin?" which results in a half-elf turning his head to face the group. T'an is able to jump across to the top of the cage and unshackle Leosin but T'an is surprised to hear Leosin reply that he does not want saving. He is here of his own accord to collect information. He feels that he can escape anytime he needs to. Smallfang intervenes by pointing out to the half-elf that the rest of the prisoners in the cage are in fact dead. This changes Leosin's mind. T'and simply picks the lock and jumps back to safety while Smallfang tosses a rope to Leosin and instructs him to tie himself to the rope and he will quickly pull him to safety past the guards who are on chains. Leosin, wary but wanting to escape, ties himself on. The quick and forceful pull from Smallfang is enough to pull him to the group but not without inflicting considerable damage. T'an tosses him a healing potion.

With that Leosin straightens his clothes and simply strides forth, passing several guards and walks right on out of the camp. The others seeing this stride in behind and do the same. All leave quite easily except Danifae who has to explain to one of the guards why he is carrying gold. But a bit of false accusations towards the kobolds fixes the problem.

Finally arriving back at Greenest's Keep, minus a couple of horses, the group rests and regroups.

The next morning, they are informed that Leosin is being called away to the city of Elturel. He and the governor implore the group to re-infiltrate the camp and somehow destroy the dragon's eggs that the cult is trying to hatch. Any treasure they may find is theirs. T'an says that they will need to be carrying treasure to get back in. With that Leosin's faction produces sacks of small treasure, worth about 150 gold pieces each as treasure that my get them back into the camp.

The spend the day preparing while Arno tries to rig up some sort of cart that will be able to withstand the weight of the dragonborn and still be able to move. The next day he reveals a weird contraption that is part tank and part wagon. It's not his best work but it will have to do. Once loaded up they depart back towards the raider's camp.

Returning To Camp

Once back near the camp, at a vantage point above the camp they see a camp much changed. Most of the tents are either gone or dismanted. No movement is seen in the remains except for a couple of humans near a camp fire near the mouth of the horseshoe valley.

Approaching them they are introduced to Kerner and Verner, brothers who have been hired to hunt and provide meat to the creatures within the cave. It seems that not everyone has departed the camp. The party learns that once Leosin's escape had been discovered as well as suspicions that a group had infiltrated the camp it was ordered the camp be disassembled and the treasure removed to an unknown location. What remains is the dragon's eggs and a few to guard them.

The group decides to approach the cave.

There is movement that they can see within.

Are they ready?

Greenest, A Town Of Failed Promises

Approaching The Town Of Greenest

Today finds 4 travelers on the road to the prosperous town of Greenest. Each are travelling to the town for different reasons but soon find themselves road companions and begin to share their stories as they walk along.

T'an Kina is a woodelf monk who has just come from his home town which was decimated by a rival clan of monks. He has is now on the trail of the enemy monks which has led him to Greenest. He tries to believe the best in everyone, but the rival clan must pay for their actions.

Arno Hacket is a rock gnome wizard, a surly creature who prefers his little inventions than the company of idiots. He considers most people idiots. He has had, with increasing frequency, apocalyptic dreams of the world destroyed by cold, choking fumes, lightning storms, waves of acids and horrible fires. He seeks the riddle of his dreams in the town of Greenest.

A stout hill dwarf cleric named Harbek, with a small squirrel with strange markings on its head, which rides on his shoulder. He has come out of self imposed seclusion of meditation to try to right the wrongs of his father. He learned that his father was part of a group called The Cult Of The Dragon. They paid him to smuggle goods across the Sword Coast. He on his deathbed urged Harbek to investigate the cult and try to undo any potential evil he may have helped foster.

And finally Danifae, a drow wizard who is cold and seemingly unfeeling tells of his childhood friend, a half-elf named Talis who has been taken by a strange group of dragon worshiping cultists. He has been on her trail for some time now and it has led to the town of Greenest.

As the crest a rise in the road, they look down on the prosperous town of Greenest at sundown. Normally a peaceful and tranquil town nestled in a slight valley along a lazily meandering river, it now presents itself to the journeyers as a town under pillage. Several houses are on fire. People are running from houses being chased by an odd collection of human bandits and kobolds. As they take in the horrible sights of murder and thievery from a distance, they notice in the dying light a large winged creature swooping down, again and again, over the large stone keep at the center of town.

Several of the road companions rush to the besieged town, while Arno deeply sighs, puts away his trinket he was currently working on and trudges on to keep up.

Seeking The Keep
525 XP

As the adventurers travel into the town they soon come across a series of burning small houses. Emerging from one of the houses is a small family. The father badly wounded with an arrow protruding from the front of his shoulder and limping badly. A mother attempting to protect her two young sons behind her wielding a broken sword. They are pursuded by several human bandits and kobolds. The humans are carrying the small amount of goods they have collected from the home while the kobolds laugh and titter at the fun of harassing the family.

The group hesitantly steps up to protect the family. It all happens quickly.

T'an moves to the shadows while the wizards call upon spell after spell which soon decimates the humans. T'an and the cleric Harbek move among the kobolds delivering fatal blows to them. When all the enemies are defeated and their bodies relieved of their ill gotten loot, the mother urges them all to the safety of the Keep at the centre of town.

As they approach the Keep they see their way blocked by more bandits and more kobolds. This time they are aware of the large blue dragon that is attacking the Keep. As the party moves towards the keep they have to work their way through several of the bandits and kobolds. The kobolds stay a small distance away and hurl rocks from slings while the humans use their scimitars to devastating effect. The group is also surprised to find a winged kobold which drops a large boulder onto Danifae. Finally, the group, beaten to near death helps the injured family towards the keep only to find that above the door is a large blue dragon looking down from atop the Keep waiting slyly for them to make a run for the closed gate entrance.

The woman with her children does not hesitate. She runs headlong towards the closed gate. Harbek, close behind, uses a thaumaturgy spell to whip open the doors to the date. The rest of the group sees this and runs to the gate. All except T'an who holds back.

The mother with her children in tow and Harbek with the injured father over his should rush inside the safety of the Keep. Arno and Danifae approach the gate at a sprint but look up to see the dragon above smile and take a deep breath. The air around them crackles with static electricity and a whiff of ozone fills the air. The dragon releases his breath of lightning down upon the two running creatures. Only their momentum carries their limp and lifeless bodies into the keep. Arno and Danifae's crisply burned bodies lie at the feet of Harbek who reaches down and heals their wounds bringing them back to life.

T'an seeing the horror of the dragon but still needing the safety of the Keep, runs serpentine. The elf monk runs randomly all over the place but always heading towards the Keep. The dragon fills his lungs but is unable to unleash his power before the monk achieves safety inside.


MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: This was going to be such a Total Party Kill that I put a cleric along with Healing Potions into this episode of the adventure because I could see clearly on that death was very imminent. Not that I'm against character death, but while it's fun to know that your life is precious and can easily be snuffed out in this edition but it's another to feel that the campaign is way to hard for your level.

Save The Mill
300 XP

Once inside they discover many have had the same idea of refuge. The area inside is litter with the injured and dying. They meet Kara a cleric who is able to further heal their injuries. They also meet Governor Nighthill. Tarbaw Nighthill is an elderly human who is badly injured himself. His head and one eye are bandaged and his arm is in a sling. He thanks the group for helping to save the Taran family.  He is apologetic but he believes the group can further help the town.

Scouts have informed him that the towns mill is under threat of fire. If the mill burns the town will potentially starve from lack of flour during the winter. It is imperative that the mill survive this siege.

The group is hesitant. They have just faced two small bands of marauders and have been badly bloodied. Nevermind that there is a dragon out there that can instantly kill them. He quietly asks Kara, the resident cleric, for potions of healing. She is reluctant. There are many that need healing and many more that may be arriving that are mortally wounded. She eventually gives in and hand the group 3 phials of precious health.

The group debates hard about how to exit the Keep and carry out the mission until an old dwarf, Castellan Escobert taps Harbek on the shoulder and informs him that there are other ways out of the Keep. He leads them down into the belly of the Keep. There they are shown a secret old tunnel. It was constructed to allow escape if the Keep were to ever fall to an enemy. The gate to it is old and rusty but Escobert hands Harbek the key and tells him that there is a similar gate at the other end.

Descending into the tunnel T'an is the first to discover that a swarm of rats has made the tunnel their home. They bite to defend against the intrusion and T'an is wounded badly. He runs from the unexpected attack and leaves the rest of the group to fend off the rats. When each of the rest of the group attacks the rats and each in turn run through the swarm they all end up meeting T'an at the end of the tunnel.

Harbek unlocks the gate at this end of the tunnel. The gate is old and rusted from years of neglect. It opens but Harbek tries his best to minimize the gates rusty noise. Once outside they find themselves at the banks of the river. Staying in the mist from the river for cover they find the mill. The choose to stay concealed and simply observe the group of humans and kobolds that are starting a fire at the door of the mill. The group is about to move out to attack when Arno holds them back and tells them to watch closer. The band of enemies is making the motions of starting a fire but is not actually lighting the fire. There is something else going on here. Quickly and quietly the move to take out each one of the enemies taking minimal damage to themselves.

Once cleared Harbek and T'an approach the mill. Harbek passes by unlit windows and opens the door with T'an close behind. Inside the mill the gears are still engaged and the mill stone still noisily turning. Harbek tries to figure out how to shut down the mill but with little success. Arno from the door sighs and slowly, as though speaking to an idiot, points out the large levers on the other side of the building that will shut down the stone. Moving across the room and grabbing the levers one by one shuts them down with a large thunking noise. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Arrrgggghh.

The noisy pulling of the levers was in fact 3 spears hitting the wall beside Harbek but the fourth finds its target in the back of the dwarf. This has been an ambush.

It is a battle in close quarters but the group finally is able to overcome the enemies. They are hurt but still alive. An accomplishment not to be taken lightly. When only one human is left, T'an shouts, "Keep him alive!". Arno is able to poison the bandit within an inch of his life but keep him alive. They question him.

They find out that he is simply a sword for hire. He was recruited to help with the collection of loot from this town. A cult, the Cult Of The Dragon is collecting as much coinage, gems and other valuables for some purpose he doesn't know of. They have also convinced kobolds to their cause as well as a dragon. T'an finishes what was left of his life.

With the noise of battle done with and the noise of the mill silenced. They can now hear screams for help from outside coming from the direction of the church.


MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: I made sure to say at least 4 times that they were walking past a window but no one looked in. There was at least a chance to spot the ambush but no one took it. I was hoping they would be more wary since one of the characters had deduced that the whole fire thing was a ruse....but for what? Yup....an ambush

Sanctuary
400 XP

The group uses the river bed and its mist to move concealed up to the church. There they find that several townspeople have taken refuge or were caught at the time of the siege within the church. Three large bands of humans, kobolds and drakes have taken to assaulting the church. Presumably for its riches within.

One group is busy at the front doors with a makeshift battering ram trying to gain entrance. Another group is patrolling around the church, It is a large group of at least 10 kobolds skipping, tumbling and horsing around while 3 humans try to keep them on task. Two of the kobolds have a drake each on a leash. The last group is a smaller group which is trying to build a blazing fire at the back of the church to smoke out the people within in hopes that they will exit the building.

After cautiously watching the 3 groups the adventurers come up with a plan. They will wait for the circling group to pass. This group takes several minutes to make the round trip. They hope they can take down the group at the back door using the heavy smoke for concealment. The plan goes well with T'an moving from enemy to enemy taking them down moving from within the obscuring smoke. Danifae smashes in a large stained glass window and tells the people to come out. It takes a bit of convincing for the people within to trust the black skinned drow but the fire and the continual battering ram convinces them. They move a pew up to the window and begin their escape. Harbek opens the back door and tells them to exit via the back as well. They tell the people to keep within the smoke as much as  they can and make their way to the mill, which has been cleared of enemies.

It is then that the front doors give way to the battering ram and the kobolds and a large half-dragon enter the church. The kobolds run and try to collect as much loot as they can while one kobold sees the fleeing church patrons and kills two during their escape. Arno and Danifae lob spells into the church trying to start a fire but this only attracts the attention of the half-dragon who makes his way to the window but is eventually killed before he can inflict much damage.

Fleeing the now burning church the group collects up the survivors from the mill and heads back to the tunnel which will lead them back into the safety of the Keep. Their the governor is pleased that the group has saved the mill, learned of who is behind this atrocity and saved dozens of his townsfolk.

He dares not ask them to do anymore.

Champions Challenge

But just then someone approaches the governor and whispers something to him. He turns to the group and he says, "You may want to see this.". He leads them to the top of the Keep's wall in time to see a large half-dragon dressed in purple robes.

The creatures calls himself Langdedrosa Cyanwrath. He has a female at her knees with kobolds holding her with a knife to her throat. He calls out for the towns champion as he will face this champion one on one. If he wins the people will know that Langdedrosa is a sword master of great strength. If the town's champion wins, he and his group will leave the town. They will take their loot but cease the killing.

Beside the group a man badly hurt gasps as it is his wife that the half-dragon holds prisoner. The group debates what to do. They are badly hurt and cannot face such a foe as this one on one. They already have done much for the town. This is too much. As they turn to tell the governor, they see below them the woman prisoner's husband approach Langdedrosa, limping but boldy going to save his wife.

The group, from the safety atop the wall, witness the half-dragon wield his sword and with one blow drop the man to the ground. Once fallen, Langdedrosa stabs the man through the head and raises his sword in victory.

He turns and the group of humans, kobolds and drakes turn to leave with him. Their acquired loot in tow and lit by the burning houses around them.

There is nothing the newly formed group can do further.


MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: I was so glad that no one said they wanted to be the towns champion! Also.....we leveled up!!!