The Cavern Of The Clockwork Dragon

Captain Araxie flies the her ship towards the location she had noted when she had swam down and discovered a hidden underwater tunnel among numerous shipwrecks. She is sure that there is something worthwhile down there.

Making Your Own Entertainment

They fly for a few days searching. The monotony broken only by Absinthe's morbid entertainment of dosing individuals with various drugs and watch the ensuing hilarity. Vall became smitten with and even rescued someone from certain death after they had fallen overboard, only to find out it was a mop. It was then discovered that the reason the ship lurched sending people rolling and a mop to be tossed overboard, was that Droop, the goblin, had found the ship's wheel unattended during an evening of revelry, and decided to grab a hold of it. He blamed it on one of the other goblins.

She flies to the location but is unable to see the shipwrecks so she heads off to a nearby island which she has spotted. Once they have landed the group along with most of the sailors disembark. Shore leave is an unexpected treat. Captain Araxie gives orders for new supplies to be brought aboard as they have gone through more than half of their provisions.

The Seablood Inn

Once ashore, the group finds themselves at the largest building upon this small island, The Seablood Inn. The group finds the inn noisy and full of life. But as they move about and watch the patrons two halfling brothers stand out as merciless bullies. So Absinthe decides to have some fun. She doses the brother's drinks and the entire tavern roars with laughter as the two go from standing on tables thinking they're flying to cowering under the table thinking that some demon is pursuing them.

Absinthe then spends her time entertaining the tavern with music and magic, accompanied by the dancing of Vall and his automaton. They earn more than a few coins selling their merchandise to a island full of patrons who have lacked in entertainment for too long.

The Cavern Of The Clockwork Dragon
12,000 XP

The next day, once the ship, now christened The Flying Dragon, has been re-supplied and the crew assembled back on board. They take off back in search of the wreckage location. Eventually, they find it and through Deshani's water breathing spell the group jumps into the sea and descends down until they find the tunnel which Araxie had found before.

Soon the group emerges up into a hidden pocket of air which holds a vast chamber with tunnels and caves within. They move through the dark tunnels until they find a cave holding supplies, such that one might find aboard a ship. They then discover a pool of water. Obviously supplied from the ocean above the pool churns and flows down through the caver at an incredible rate. Vall, using detect magic, looks into the pool and sees a massive form which is quite clearly magical.

The rest of the group moves through the cave and finds that it holds no treasure or supplies. Nothing except a woven tapestry. The tapestry depicts a devil sitting atop a massive treasure trove. Gold coins, jewels, and items wonderous are piled high in the picture. The devil looking greedily down upon his hoard.  While they look at the tapestry, Deshani and Araxie both notice that they are missing items. Deshani, who is never apart from one of her prized tomes finds it missing. She soon notices that the treasure pile in the picture now has lying upon it a picture of her book.

The group attacks the tapestry. Once it is damaged the entire treasure hoard that was in the picture now dumps onto the cavern floor. The noise of the clattering treasure is not quite enough to overcome the noise coming from within the pool of water. Vall, calls everyone to notice that rising amount of water coming from the center of the pool. Emerging tens of feet high from the pool is a huge dragon. The dragon though is made of a mixture of wood and metal. Gears clack and whir as the dragon moves.

Absinthe immediately smiles and casts heat metal. The metal begins to glow and the noises change as the dragon struggles to move and attack as it normally should. It breaths a fiery tar substance and Araxie and Vall are on fire and stuck to the cavern floor. Deshani too is hurt by the fiery blast.

Then there is the sound of massive rocks falling. Several large boulders have fallen and have blocked the entrances/exits from this cavern. The pool of water which flows at an incredible rate now is blocked and the water begins to rise.

Meanwhile the dragon continues to attack using its claws and wings. The group attacks as it can but the rising water is starting to hamper their attacks.

Asbsinthe finds herself on the other side of a fallen boulder. She uses Bones of the Earth to create stone columns which lift the boulder enough to let her through to the other side where the group is fending off the dragon. As she moves through the water, the dragon targets her and several sailors with poison gas it breaths out and they all fall asleep falling into the water.

Eventually, Deshani is able to strike a killing blow to the dragon and it falls down into the water. But who ever has built the dragon has a sense of revenge, as the clockwork dragon begins to click and whir at an ever increasing pace until the entire dragon explodes in a shower of metal gears, splintered wood and magic. Several of the group are seriously hurt by the explosion.

This though pales in comparison to their excitement as they move through the now flooded cavern and collect up as much of the treasure as possible.

Much scheming and planning is invested into how to move the entire treasure trove back up to their ship.