AKA “The Dragon Eggs”

Adventures in Taggeriell

Session 27 (Date: 22th July 2017)





Players Present:

- Rob (Known as “Oloma”) Human Female.

- Bob (Known as “Sir Krondor”) Dwarf Male.

- Travis (Known as “Trenchant”) Human Male.

- Paul (Known as “Labarett”) Elf Male.





Absent Players

- Phil (Known as “Nac”) Half-elf Male. <Played by Rob>

- Arthur (Known as “Gim”) Dwarf Male. <Played by Bob>





NPC

- (Known as “Naillae”) Elf Female. <Controlled by DM>

- (Known as “Valder”) Elf Male. <Controlled by DM>





Summary

- Starday, 19th of Neth in the year 814 (Second Era). Winter.

- The party begin this session, in the hour before midnight, in a large cavern in the caves of the Hatchery, having just survived a cave in caused by a fight with a group of Kobold Alchemists.

- The party, who are all badly injured decide to take a short rest, as both Sir Krondor and Gim believe that the chances of anyone hearing or feeling the cave in from the upper levels is very remote.

- Trenchant spends a little time searching around the cave in area but soon realises that most of the fallen rocks are too big to move and thus he can not find anything. The three dead Kobold Alchemist bodies are searched, the other two Kobold bodies are under the fallen rock and gone forever, but nothing of value is found. Labarett spends the time pulling bits of dried glue off his body and trying to comb down his hair to cover the missing patch of hair from his run in with the exploding alchemical bombs.

- During this short rest Nac appears to be trying to pray but does not seem to get the response he would like.

- Valder, seeing the expression on Nac’s face asks, “Something wrong?”

- Nac replies with a tired voice, “No. Yes. I don’t know. I am trying to pray to my Goddess, Tahakisis, but I am getting confusing images I can not understand.”

- Valder replies, “Don’t force it Nac. Keep trying and it will come.”

- After an hour passes, the party stop their short rest, thankful for the break and get to their feet. (Most of the party spend Hit Die to recover much needed Hit Points)

- Deciding that they need to go to the lower section of the cavern, Trenchant comes up with a plan to deal with the six Guard Drakes that are down below. Nac starts to cut one one of the dead kobolds into edible chunks of meat and bone. Naillae pours the entire contents of the poison vial she took from a previous killed Kobold Alchemist they dispatched back at the Temple of Chauntea in Anwich, to poison all the meat. The meat is then thrown down into the lower section where all six Drakes race towards and begin to devour the poisoned meat.

- It takes a few minutes for the Drakes to eat the meat, the occasional sickly crunch of bone heard along with the snapping of the Drakes powerful jaws. After all the meat is devoured the six contented Drakes lay down. A minute later the six beasts start to cough and vomit as the poison takes effect, the Drakes are visibly shaken and weaker from the poison.

- Taking advantaged of the weakened state of the Drakes all the party launches an attack at the Drakes in the lower section, except Naillae who is at the base of the entry stairs guarding against wandering patrols. Along the wooden railing on the upper section stands Oloma, Sir Krondor, Labarett, Valder, Gim, Trenchant and finally Nac who stands closest to the collapsed section of the cavern.

- The party’s attack catches the poisoned Drakes by surprise. Spell, arrow, bolt, psionics and hand axes are hurled at the Drakes. Trenchant makes a particularly good shot with his crossbow and fires off two quick bolts in succession (Critical Hit - Maximum damage and Another follow up attack).

- Some of the Drakes, already badly injured from poison, are dropped dead by the sudden attack and a few others are badly wounded. The enraged beasts leap towards the lower wooden gate and start to claw and bite at it, desperate to make their way up to the party. It would appear that there will not be enough time for the injured Drakes to break their way through the gate before they all get killed.

- Nac smiling as he sends his Chill Touch hand to claw at a couple of Drakes shouts, “This is like taking a rattle from a new born baby. This is easy!”

- The smile from Nac’s face quickly disappears when the closest rock column in the lower section suddenly starts to move. One large orange eye snaps open in centre of the column and then a mouth larger than a grown adult opens up. The mouth is filled with 6” long teeth. Suddenly four tentacles shoot out from the thing and fly towards the nearest members of the party. Gim, Valder, Labarett and Sir Krondor all start to duck and dive as the tentacles try to grab them.

- Nac shouts out, “What is that thing!”

- Oloma shouts, “It is a Roper! A dreaded creature of the underdark. Do not let the tentacles grab you, else it will drag you into its mouth to eat you!”

- Valder dives to the ground, the tentacles barely missing him, and then continues to run all the way back to the far wall to try to stay out of the range of the tentacles. Sir Krondor and Gim soon find they each have a long, hard tentacle that has wrapped around their waist with considerable strength. Quickly before the pair can be dragged away they both drop their weapons and use their hands to pry themselves free from the tentacles (Successful Strength checks).

- Labarett hurls one of his javelins at the Roper and hits it dead centre but the weapon bounces off.

- Oloma shouts, “Their skin is very hard. You’ll need to hit it harder than that!” (Roper’s AC is 20 from natural armour).

- The combat becomes frantic now and what was a simple battle has turned into a life and death struggle. Most of the party are trying to either attack the tentacles directly or hurl attacks at the large body of the Roper itself. Naillae abandons the stairway and comes over to help throw daggers too. Each time someone in the party gets a tentacle wrapped around them and manages to free themselves, they soon find themselves attacked and grappled again. Each time the rough tentacles rip open their skin and cause bleeding wounds.

- Nac concentrates his attacks at the Drakes as they continue to try to break through the gate which is now only half hanging up.

- Trenchant is shouting encouragement at the party (he gives one Bardic Inspiration die to both Sir Krondor and Labarett who are trying to attack the tentacles directly).

- Sir Krondor decides to change tactics and rather than using his strength to force himself out of the tentacles, smashes his silver war hammer into one of the tentacles and breaks it in half. The removed section of tentacle drops to the ground motionless whilst the other remaining half, retracts into the body of the Roper. The large orange eye swivels towards Sir Krondor and the large mouth opens wide with a roar.

- Sir Krondor shouts, “I think I’ve pissed it off!”

- Labarett swings his Masterwork long sword at another tentacle but his grip is wrong and he accidentally lets the weapon fly out of his grip and it lands 10’ away and below in the lower section near the Roper. (Fumble) The Elf barbarian pulls out his second Masterwork long sword.

- Another of the Drakes falls dead, leaving only two now, but the gate is now torn off. Before the Drakes can rush up the stairs the party hurl attacks down at the pair, killing one of the Drakes off and injuring the other. Labarett races down the stairs and charges directly at the last Drake and kills it with a single swing of his weapon.

- Gim, finding himself once again wrapped in a tentacle, swings his lion battle axe and cleaves the tentacle in two (Critical Hit - Max damage and sunder) and then cuts another tentacle down. The Roper’s eye turns immediately to Gim and the beast howls.

- Gim looks worried, “Bugger. It’s looking at me now!”

- Suddenly two more new tentacles shoot out from the Roper and now Gim has three tentacles trying to attack and grab him. The Dwarf manages to duck under one tentacle but he soon finds himself with two tentacles wrapped around him. Gim and Trenchant desperately start to swing their weapons at the tentacles and manage to cut both the tentacles off before they can pull the Dwarf in.

- The rest of the party are throwing everything they have at the Roper. Arrows, bolts, daggers, javelins, hand axes, spells and psionic thrusts all take chucks off the large beast.

- With only one tentacle left near the trio of Gim, Trenchant and Labarett, the last tentacle is cut down.

- Sir Krondor fires an arrow at the Roper and the arrow manages to lodge in the mouth of the beast as it was closed. (Critical Hit - “In The Kisser”). The mouth is now stuck shut until it can break the arrow.

- Labarett seeing the mouth is now shut charges at the body of the Roper, his weapon pointed directly ahead. The Roper is trying to force its mouth open, the wooden arrow is starting to break apart but before it can release itself, under the combined effort of all the party attacking from the upper section and Labarett bravely fighting it in close melee, the Roper suddenly stops moving and begins to topple over. With a loud crash the large heavy beast hits the ground.

- The party are victorious but with many injuries again. Thanks to some luck they managed to survive the Roper and Drakes.

- As Labarett bends down to retrieve his Masterwork long sword he notices that the ground in this lower section, which is soft black sand, has small slightly raised mounds all around it. Some of the party come down to search the lower area, and to retrieve their thrown weapons, and all up they count twenty small raised mounds around the lower section.

- Oloma scrapes the cold black dirt from one mound and finds a hard round object about an inch under the surface. She continues to dig and pulls out a large egg, about 10” high, that is very hard and has a scaly surface.

- Valder looks at the egg, “Unless I’m mistaken, that is a Dragon Egg.”

- Quickly the rest of the party get to work to dig out the twenty Dragon Eggs. Once all the eggs are out Valder looks them over. He thinks they are of different Dragon types but he can’t be sure which are which.

- Trenchant checks his Bag Of Sharing but it still has the notes he placed in it before. The Bard looks up, “It appears that Valthrun has not checked the Bag on his end yet. We’re on our own.”

- The party divide the Dragon Eggs up and each member takes two eggs, except Labarett and Nac who take three eggs, and places them into their backpacks. Trenchant places four of the eggs into his Bag of Sharing.

- As the party are now injured from the battle with the Roper they decide to take another short rest. Naillae sits near the stair way to listen out for possible patrols. Everyone else takes the time to simply rest. Nac once again sits down, eyes closed, and prays to his Goddess.

- The hour passes and luckily for the party they are not disturbed (Once again some of the party spend Hit Die to recover Hit Points. The party are getting close to the point of running out of Hit Die, Healing Potions and Healing Spells).

- At the end of the short rest, Nac’s eyes snap open from his prayer, “My prayer is not strong enough! The images, they are stronger now but still eluding me. I saw the statue of Tahakisis in the Dragon Shrine with the silver chest. I believe if I were to pray in that room I will have a stronger connection to my Goddess.”

- As the Dragon Shrine room is just near by the party leave the Dragon Egg Chamber and return to the where the statue of the Dragon Goddess looms tall in the room. The silver chest, engraved with dragons, stands just before the statue.

- Nac states that he will need to perform a prayer ritual for ten minutes and the Cleric of Tahakisis goes over to kneel in the front of the statue.

- Sir Krondor and Gim move over to the long 100’ stairs to guard it. Valder and Labarett look over the carved and engraved wall of Dragon motifs. Naillae crouches near the silver chest, looking carefully over it but not daring to touch it.

- Meanwhile Trenchant, Valder and Oloma move over to the dead end section to look at the tall vertical natural shaft that extends beyond sight. The rope hanging down from the shaft is thick and sturdy with regular knots tied into it to make climbing with it easier. Valder summons his owl familiar and sends it to fly upwards in the shaft and concentrates to see through his familiar’s eyes. Valder reports that the shaft extends about 80’ up and then stops. There is a rug or mat covering the top of the shaft, little specks of light shine through the covering, and the rope continues all the way to the top.

- After ten minutes, the rest of the party move over to see Nac has finished his prayer. Standing up, rubbing his tired eyes, he speaks, “My goddess has spoken to me. I asked her more information about the Dragon Mask that would summon her into this world. She warned me that once a mortal places the Dragon Mask on they can not take it off. Only their death would release the Mask and in doing so The Dragon Goddess would be returned to the Nine Hells, until someone else placed the mask on.”

- Valder asks, “Is that everything?”

- Nac replies, “Yes, I have told you everything you need know.”

- The party now take some time to discuss what to do. Sir Krondor is very eager to see what lays inside the silver chest. Trenchant believes they should just leave now with the Dragon Eggs and not risk setting off the trap they know is there. The party take a vote and most want to try to open the chest.

- Naillae suggests that she could make a visual examination of the chest to discover the nature of the trap. She spends a few minutes to carefully look over the chest, avoiding touching it. She then informs the party that she can see a small wire inside the key look and another small wire underneath the chest. She believes that the trap is set to go off if the lid were to be forced open, or the chest moved, or if the wrong key was turned in the lock or if the lock was picked opened. The only way to open the chest safely would be to use the right key or Naillae could attempt to disarm the trap and bypass the wire to the key lock. She states that the wire underneath the chest is not accessible and she could not disarm it.

- Most of the party decide to have Naillae attempt to disarm the key lock trap. Trenchant follows the lead of the party, and then offers advice and encouragement to Naillae in her disarm attempt (Bardic Inspiration gives plus d8). So too does Nac who casts a Guidance spell upon Naillae to help guide her hands in the attempt (Guidance spell gives plus d4). After a rope is tied around the waist of Naillae, in case she sets the trap off and they have to drag her out, the rest of the party leave the room and wait on the main stairs in.

- Naillae begins to work her Thief’s tools on the complicated key lock wire. She begins to sweat as she realises that this trap is perhaps beyond her ability and she is about to set the trap off. (As this is an important roll, the DM suggests that he should not roll for the NPCs disarm attempt. So after a bit of discussion, the roll is done by Bob (Sir Krondor), and he rolls a 4 so even with the extra d8 and d4 the attempt will fail and the trap will be set off. However, Rob (Oloma) uses his Inspiration to allow a reroll. This time Travis (Trenchant) decides to make the roll and he rolls very high, and that along with the extra d4 and d8, gives a final result of 23.)

- As just Naillae is sure she is about to fail, she cuts the wire, and nothing happens. She slowly pulls her tiny tools out of the key hole and looks up with a smile, “I’ve disabled the trap.”

- She then goes about picking the lock and with a satisfying click, the lid pops up half a centimetre, “The chest is unlocked. Who wants to open it?”

- The party, still unsure the chest is safe, ask Naillae to examine the partially open lid for further traps. She does so and states she can’t be sure but she can’t see any wires or other mechanisms and thinks it safe.

- Oloma strides over to the chest, whilst everyone else tries to come up with a way to open the lid remotely, and the Mystic boldly opens the lid.

- Inside the chest is a string of pearls, a gold and sapphire ring, and a small open leather pouch containing half a dozen well cut gems, a larger leather pouch with writing on it that is tied shut, four lightning rune stones, and a 3” wide silver heart shaped jewellery box sitting atop a folded note.

- Trenchant speaks whilst pulling out a small note, “I think those are the items referred to in that note we found in Frulam’s command tent.”

- Trenchant then reads out the note again, “Everything must be freighted north, through Singbury, and around Asalea, towards Naerytar. Avoid attention. Use the roads only and do not use river barges. Rezmir allowed us to keep some pearls, a ring, and a handful of stones.”

- The Bard points to the items in the chest, “There is the pearls, the ring and stones. They must be part of the stolen goods from Anwich.”

- The items are taken out. The lightning rune stones are three Tier 1 stones and one Tier 2 stone, which is divided out to the party. The larger leather pouch is opened and inside is ground up rose petals which gives a strong sweet smell. Written on the outside of the pouch in rough common is, “Throw some of this up into the air when entering the lower section to check on the Dragon Eggs. The Roper is trained not to attack when this scent is used.”

- Sir Krondor speaks, “Well, that would have been handy to have BEFORE we went into that dam cavern!”

- Next the party examine the small 3” wide silver heart shaped jewellery box. On the lid is a masterfully engraved scene with such detail as to be almost life like. A brave knight stands, his broken long sword lays on the ground, so too does his shattered shield. He stands in front of and protecting a cowering maiden, whom he holds in his arms, shielding her from the view of a dragon. To the side is a large pile of treasure. Looming over the pair is a massive dragon, with one broken horn, the other half of the horn lays on the ground. The beasts jaws are open with flames flickering and it is obvious the beast is about to kill the pair in its fiery breath.

- The lid of the jewellery box is unlocked so the party open it. The inside of box is lined in plush red velvet. A small, egg sized object, dark red and with rough sides is the only object inside.

- Valder looks at the odd object, “I think that is a shrunken, dried heart. Looks like a human heart.”

- The note that was under the jewellery box is opened and read out by Oloma, it is in common, “Langdedrosa, Keep this heart secure until we can figure out how to make it work. There must be a way that is alluding us.”

- Trenchant the Bard of Valour then speaks (Successful History Check), “I remember an old song taught to me long ago. It was the tale of Sir Gillan. He was a brave and noble Knight and performed many great deeds but the song was not about his many quests but about his end. Sir Gillan, single handedly went to a cave in a tall mountain, as a Dragon there was attacking a near by village and they had asked for the Knights help. This Dragon however proved more of a match than Sir Gillan anticipated. Sir Gillan managed to inflict a serious wound on the Dragon and cut off one of its horns but the battle went badly for the Knight and when his long sword and shield lay smashed on the floor he had no choice but to turn and retreat. The Dragon did not follow and Sir Gillan could have left to save his life but then he heard a faint, desperate cry of help from a female voice back inside with the Dragon. Sir Gillan, with no weapon, went back inside and saw that the Dragon had not only a hoard of gold and treasure but a prisoner too, a young maiden in tears sat in the shadows at the back of the cavern. Sir Gillan ran over to the maiden and stood in front of her. With no weapon and no shield the Knight knew he could not save her nor himself but he would not stand aside. Not even as the jaws of the Dragon opened with flames visible, did the Knight falter, and as the Knight held onto the maiden to speak calming and reassuring words to her that he knew where a lie, the Dragon engulfed the pair in flames. Sir Gillan lost his life that day, to save a girl he did not know, in a noble and selfless sacrifice befitting a hero. The Dragon, after eating the burnt maiden, grabbed the burnt body of the Knight and flew to the near by village where the Dragon dropped the body as a warning. The villagers took the body and gave it proper burial. The song does not tell what happened to his body.”

- Naillae looked over to Oloma whilst the tale of Sir Gillan was being recounted by Trenchant. She noticed that Oloma appeared to be talking silently to herself. Concerned Naillae quietly asks, “You ok?”

- Oloma replies softly, “Yes, I was just giving a silent prayer about the tale. Do not concern yourself.”

- The party then move over to the far vertical shaft and get Naillae to use her expertise as a thief and burglar to climb the rope. She does so easily and quickly. She climbs up about 80 feet and finds the exit to the hole is covered with a rug. Little speckles of light can be seen from the rug, so a light source must be on the other side. She can hear the sound of someone writing on paper with a quill, and also the sounds of near by snoring.

- Naillae climbs down and tells the party what she has seen and heard. The party decide it is now time to take on Frulam and her guards. The party guess that the covered hole must come out somewhere around where they know Frulam must be. They get Naillae to climb back up and cut the rope about 10’ down from the exit. They have her wait near the upper exit, hanging onto the rocky walls of the shaft, hidden, to wait for sounds of combat. When she hears the battle start she is to come out from the rear and start to sneak attack. Naillae says she’ll do this but if she doesn’t hear anything she’ll wait for 2 hours and then she’ll go back down to see what has happened.

- The rest of the party now leave Naillae behind, walk through the Dragon Shrine Room, up the 100’ long stairs, through the Kobold Sleeping Chamber and then through the Drake Hatchery cavern where they left the tied up and gagged Kobold Chieftain hanging on the wall; the Daylight spell of Nac has long since ceased to work in this cavern. As they walk past they see that the Chieftain is dead, a single small wound on his chest, as if someone slipped a dagger into his heart.

- The party look at each other and finally Trenchant speaks, “Ok, who is responsible for this?”

- Everyone looks at Nac and the Cleric responds with a smile, “Don’t look at me. I was with you guys.”

- As no one takes responsibility for the killing the party move on. They move into the large cavern with the bat filled ceiling. They once again ignore the descending stairs that smell of blood and death. They move over to the far side of the cavern where the unexplored ledge going down is. With the benefit of light and dark vision now, the party can see the ledge goes down 10’ to another smaller section of the cavern before it descends again into a very low section of the cavern that is filled with rubbish and garbage. There is a smell of rotting food here. There is the occasional glint of metal in the large pile of rubbish but as the pile and cavern is so large, they can not even see the far side of the cavern, they decide not to go down to search it and instead carry on to where Frulam is as per the plan.

- The party proceed on through the cavern filled with fungus and over the trapped stairs to return to the large entry cavern of the Hatchery. They start to search the area where the now dead Kobold Chieftain had indicated there was a secret door.

- They search for ten minutes but come up empty handed even knowing the rough spot the door should be (Advantage on Roll thanks to the information gained by the Chieftain).

- Trenchant huffs, “You know what would have been handy? If the Chieftain was still alive we could have grabbed him to show us exactly where the dam secret door is!”

- No one responds to the comment. Again the party spend about ten minutes to search the area desperately looking for the door but can not find it.

- Sir Krondor now speaks, “Dam it! Surely someone in the party is skilled at finding secret doors!”

- Nac speaks, “Yes and she is currently hanging in a vertical shaft waiting for us to get through and start a battle from this side.”

- With no other choice the party search for the secret door for a third time. Taking another ten minutes to search, this time Nac casts Guidance on himself (+ d4 bonus) and Trenchant gives him some verbal encouragement too (+ d8 bonus) and with that, along with the knowledge gained from the Chieftain (giving advantage on the roll), Nac does indeed find the very well hidden secret door (required a DC 23 check to find).

- Prying open the secret door can be seen a corridor that goes forth. About 30’ away a dark side passage goes off to the right but the main corridor continues around in a slight bend to end at an opening, about 60’ away, to a lit chamber.

- Trenchant pulls up his Elven Cloak and walks forward to investigate. He reaches the side passage and enters it. Ahead is a dark chamber, he can just make out some coins and a broken box on the floor at the entry way, but the human Bard can not see well enough in the darkness to see the rest of the room. From the dark room he can hear snoring. From the lit chamber he can also hear the sound of snoring, a lot of it, and the sound of rolling dice too.

- Trenchant goes back and tells the party what he saw and heard. The party decide to send up Oloma, Labarett and Gim to the dark side room to investigate. Labarett and Gim take the lead as their dark vision makes moving about easy where as Oloma has to use the dim light coming from the lit room to navigate the corridor. Labarett steps on a piece of broken wood on the floor that breaks with a snap.

- Oloma hangs back at the junction as she can still see well enough there and Labarett and Gim move over to the entrance of the dark room to see that it is a large chamber with broken wooden boxes and broken bits of wood are all over the floor, a handful of coins are on the floor, and a body in the corner to the far right is asleep under some blankets. The figure is snoring and has not apparently heard the approach of the party.

- Just then Oloma hears the sound of walking footsteps coming from the direction of the lit room. She leans out to take a look and is confronted by the sight of two surprised guards who look directly at the face of Oloma which is only a few feet away. Both guards are in armour and hold a shield and spear loosely at their sides.

- Oloma quickly and quietly springs into action before the guards can react. (Initiative won by Oloma). She calls forth the twin Soul Knives of light from her hands and bounds around the corner to slice one Soul Knife across the throat of one guard, who silently falls backwards clutching his open bleeding throat, and plunges her other Soul Knife into the heart of the other guard. Both guards lay dead on the floor.

- Labarett silently moves over to the sleeping figure and plunges his long sword twice into the chest of the reclining figure. With a gurgle the figure stops breathing and lays dead. Two empty wine bottles near the body and the reek of liquor would suggest the male was quite drunk.

- Labarett and Gim search the dark room with the darkvision and only find 20 silver coins, 4 gold coins and 10 small gems.

- A voice yells out from the lit room, “Eron, hurry up and come back, it’s your turn!”

- Another voice, sounding sleepy and angry, shouts, “Shut ya dirty mouth! We’re trying to sleep!”

- The party quickly come up with a plan. Nac and Valder will hang back at the open secret door to wait in ambush and to provide covering fire with spells. Gim and Sir Krondor will move to the dark side passage to wait in ambush with their melee weapons. Trenchant along with Oloma and Labarett will boldly walk into the lit room to try to convince them they are Dragon Cult reinforcements sent to ask for a small number to go back to help with a task; at which point the other party members waiting in ambush will attack the split up forces.

- Trenchant, still disguised as a cultist, walks into view into the lit chamber. It is a large chamber with a few lit torches on the walls. About twenty sleeping bodies lay in bed rolls all around the chamber. To the left is a side passage leading to somewhere else. Trenchant quickly scans the room but can not see any rug or mat, this is not the room where Naillae is waiting. To the right on the far wall, seated around a round table are six figures gambling with dice. One of the figures, dressed in impressive armour, stands up, “Who the fuck are you?”

- The other figures start to grab the nearby shields and spears.

- Trenchant speaks calmly, “We’re reinforcements. I need some of your men to come with me to help Lord Frulam with a task.” (Failed Deception check)

- The tall and solid looking man bellows, “Like fuck you are! I’ve never seen you before. UP YOU DOGS! TO ARMS!”

- The bodies on the ground start to stir but before most can do anything, Oloma pushes past Trenchant to move to the side of the entryway and concentrates her mind. A Physic Blast races towards the line of bodies on the ground and in an instant elven of the guards stop breathing as their minds are torn asunder.

- One of the bodies of the far wall, sits up and points a heavy crossbow at the party, releasing a crossbow bolt. At the same time, the standing veteran soldier races across and starts to swing his sword at Oloma. The first swing misses, thanks to Oloma’s cloak that makes her appear just off to the side of where she actually is (disadvantage on combat rolls) but the second back swing swings true directly where she is. Just before the veteran’s blade strikes her Oloma suddenly vanishes and teleports 10’ away.

- Trenchant tries to swing back at the veteran but he times his swing poorly and hits himself in the jaw (Fumble). The Bard will not be able to speak for a short time, thus can not use any of his Bardic abilities or talents!

- Sir Krondor and Gim come running up together, still in corridor. Sir Krondor yells out, “Hold them all here. Langdedrosa is killed and our other group is taking the Dragon Eggs now!”

- Gim shouts too, “Yes we should have all the Dragon Eggs soon!”

- The veteran soldier hears this exchange. (Sir Krondor failed his Deception check but Gim was successful in his Deception roll). Quickly the veteran soldier snaps, “Warn Frulam the eggs are being stolen NOW!”

- One of the guards closest to the left passageway sprints down and out of sight yelling, “The eggs! The eggs are being stolen!”

- Meanwhile the five guards, in full armour, that were at the round table, sprint towards Trenchant and surround him; their spears lunging at him.

- Trenchant realises he is alone at the entry way surrounded by guards but the Bard can’t use any of his special abilities due to his injured jaw preventing him from talking.

- Valder though sees the danger the Bard is in and sends forth the Fireball that he has been saving all this time. The small orange speck flies over the party and lands in the middle of chamber. The speck explodes into a ranging fireball of intense heat. The flames go around the Bard, thanks to Valder’s special evocation mastery of shaping, and kills all five guards around the Bard, and another three guards around the room. The flames have also badly burnt the veteran soldier near Trenchant and the other soldier across the room with the heavy cross bow.

- As the flames die down, Labarett runs in and engages the veteran soldier in armour.

- Just as the party are thinking they have the battle in hand, two robed figures appear from the side passage, Cult Fanatics. One of the Fanatics points at Labarett and the Elf barbarian feels his muscles start to stiffen; he is now Held by magic (Failed save roll). The other Fanatic points at Trenchant but has no effect on the Bard (Successful save roll).

- From the side passage a loud female scream is heard, that quickly fades away and then suddenly stops.

- “That better not be Naillae,” shouts Nac as he fires off a spell.

- “No, that wasn’t her voice,” shouts back Trenchant, as he lunges with his rapier.

- The soldier on the far wall drops his heavy crossbow, and as he lifts himself up, dressed only in a loose undershirt, he grabs a long sword and approaches the immobilised Labarett. The Elf barbarian is helpless against the attack and the large soldier carves two deep wounds into Labarett’s torso. Instantly the barbarian falls over, unconscious and bleeding to death.

- The rest of the party see Labarett drop and rush into gear to save him. Gim, Oloma, Sir Krondor, and Trenchant all move forward engaging foes. Sir Krondor and Gim smash lightning runes onto the their weapons, causing lightning to erupt along each of their weapons.

- The two Fanatics again cast spells and suddenly floating spectral weapons appear next to Gim and Sir Krondor, swinging at them. The combat is frantic now as the party know they have to get to Labarett before he bleeds to death and the remaining foes are fighting to the death too.

- Nac points at the two Fanatics and sends forth his Chill Hand at both and the spectral ghost hand grabs each of their throats bringing the pair to the ground dead (Spell Critical Hit). As the two Fanatics hit the ground dead both of the spectral weapons they had conjured disappear into mist.

- The rest of the party press the attack at remaining foes, giving enough room for Sir Krondor, who takes a swing at a foe on the way through, to rush over to the downed figure of Labarett.

- The Dwarf Knight grabs his backpack hurriedly and opens it searching for his Healing Kit to stop the bleeding on the barbarian. As the battle rages around him the Dwarf Knight starts to apply salves and bandages to Labarett, Sir Krondor has stopped the bleeding and saved Labarett.

- The final foes drop one by one, just as Naillae comes walking into the room from the side passage, casually wiping the blood of her rapier, “What took you so long?”

- Naillae informs the party that when she was waiting in the shaft, Frulam has raced over, pulled aside the rug covering the hole, and started to climb down. When Frulam got 10’ down and noticed that the rope had been cut off, Naillae left her hiding spot in the shadows, grabbed Frulam and pulled her off the rope before she even knew what was happening. Naillae watched the Cult Commander, fall screaming to her death, and hit the ground hard; her limbs and head bent back at weird angles that could only mean she had meet her death.

- Then Naillae saw a guard leaning over the hole to look down, so Naillae who was still hidden in the dark shadows of the shaft, threw a single dagger at the guard. The blade struck him straight in the left eye and the guard fall over onto the floor dead.

- After that Naillae climbed up out of the shaft, retrieved her dagger and came over to the party who had pretty much just dispatched the lost of the foes.

- Whilst Naillae is explaining what happened, Nac and Trenchant are casting healing spells onto the unconscious but stable Labarett. Soon the Elf barbarian sits up coughing, he is alive. Seeing Sir Krondor crouched next to him, putting away his Healing Kit and supplies, the Elf barbarian thanks the Dwarf Knight solemnly, “You risked your life to save mine friend. Thankyou.”

- Sir Krondor smiling, just slaps the Elf barbarian good-naturedly on the back.

- The party move straight into the side passage and into Frulam’s room. This large room is sparsely furnished and has no decorations of any sort. There is a wooden table near one wall with a single seat, a large and nicely made bed in a corner with a nearby open chest (filled with clothes), a rug has been thrown to the side of the room revealing a large hole in one corner of the room and a sturdy rope attached to a metal ring in a wall going into the pit, and a small side room to the north where two rough sleeping bedrolls are which are presumably where the two Cult Fanatics slept to guard Frulam.

- The writing desk is searched on the table is found a solid silver key with a small black dragon on the end of the key made of black onyx.

- Sir Krondor bows his head down and moans, “The key for the silver chest! I think we’ve pretty much done this cave in the wrong order.”

- Most of the letters and notes on the desk are mundane, simple accounting or inventory requirements of the camp or books with bad dragon poetry. However, one note gets the party’s attention:

“Lord Galvan The Blue Wyrmspeaker.

The camp is running well. Raiders from the Anwich attack have returned with suitable treasure. It has been counted and sent forth. Solana Venrel needs to learn her place and duties; her lack of respect for my position and orders are interfering with our plans. We had some issues with a group lead by a Dwarven Knight Of The Anvil and Solana was not up to the task of dealing with them; resulting in her Dragon, Lennithon, taking a grievous wound. To salvage the situation she caused, I sent forth my second in charge, Langdedrosa Cyanwrath, Dragonfang, and he has killed the meddling Knight.

Rezmir The Black, along with one of the fool Red Wizards, came to ensure the tribute was sent. Curse Rezmir the arrogant fool. He along with Severin The Red think they are the most important of the Wyrmspeakers! Ha! I shall bind my time, as you request, and humour him. His time will come soon enough, he and all the other Wyrmspeakers will bow down before you my great and wise Lord, the one who truly speaks for Tiamat.

Interrogations with that dam Harper have revealed little. I will kill him soon.

The Hatchery is running smoothly and the Dragon Eggs are safe.

Your humble servant, Frulam Mondath, DragonSoul

Tiamat, Our Mother and Strength"









<And as the party stand in the private room of Frulam, within “The Hatchery”, and wondering how they are going to get out alive, past the hundreds of troops outside, that is the end of the session.>





XP Allocation

Group - Combined (This is equally divided by the number of players who were involved)

Quests (Only quests that are completed or rendered undoable, during this session, are shown here)

- Locate The Dragon Eggs = 500 XP

- Open The Dragon Chest = 200 XP

- “Cut Off The Head” - Remove Frulam from Command = 300 XP





Creatures Overcome

- Guard Drakes = 2700 XP

- Roper = 1800 XP

- Guards / Cultists = 550 XP

- Veteran Guards = 1400 XP

- Cult Fanatics = 900 XP

- Frulam Mondath = 450 XP





Individual (This is only given to that person and is not divided amongst all players)

Special Bonus (Outstanding Role Playing)

Nil





XP Levels and Player Allocations

Player : Start + Received = Total (Notes)

Phil : 20709 + 825 = 21534

Rob : 24902 + 1375 = 26277

Arthur : 17774 + 825 = 18599

Bob : 13846 + 1375 = 15221 (Level up to Level 6)

Travis : 14749 + 1100 = 15849

Paul : 11920 + 1100 = 13020

NPC (Valder) : ??? + 550 = ???

NPC (Naillae) : ??? + 550 = ???