Tyranny of Dragons - Session 13

Sorry for the delay, things have been a bit busy lately. I have this and one more session to write up and then we'll be caught up... When we last left our adventurers, they had just encountered a wood elf druid by the name of Alexa of Waterville. With her help, the party slaughtered a big group of black kobolds and had a hard fought battle with Langdedrosa and his barbarians. After the battle, the group decided to rest and look around the room.

Now that you have some time to look around, you see that this chamber has been has been enlarged and reshaped from its original form. The floor and three of the walls are smooth, and stalactites and stalagmites have been polished into gleaming columns. Every surface glistens with moisture, and the air is warm and humid. The flat walls of the chamber are decorated with shallow abstract carvings of dragons. Dragons' tails coil into intricate patterns and knots that flow across the walls. The creature portrayed in the northwest corner stands out: a five-headed dragon rising from an erupting volcano. Other dragons, which seem dwarfed by the five-headed monstrosity, flock to its side. A small, wooden chest with silver and mother-of-pearl inlays sits on the floor in the corner, in front of the monstrous dragon carving.

Many of the characters immediately recognized the five-headed monstrosity as Tiamat. Lou, recognized the ten eyes from his dreams that haunted him weeks earlier.

Avoiding opening the chest immediately, the group found that black dragons were overrepresented in the dragon carvings on the walls. Additionally, Duckie found that many of the black dragons had small openings in their mouths. Putting two and two together, along with Gwen's helpful find traps spell, the group strongly suspected that the chest was trapped and some sort of acid would spray out of these dragon mouths.

Deciding to leave the chest for now, the party looted the bodies of Langdedrosa and the barbarians, taking Langdedrosa's great sword, spear, ring, and purple robes. Thamior then proceeded downward into the next room, scouting ahead.

The chamber that opens at the bottom of the stairs is immense. A wide ledge runs along the left wall and drops away to a pit on the right. Many stalactites descend from the ceiling and the sound of dripping water echoes continuously. The lower portion of the room is 15 feet below the ledge. Wooden steps have been built down to the floor, and they are enclosed in a stout iron cage with a gate at the bottom. The key to the gate hangs on a wall peg opposite the top of the stairs. From the ledge, you can just make out the shapes of two large eggs (each is nearly 3 feet tall) in the darkness below. The cavern continues and extends into darkness beyond your vision. At the edge of the ledge to your right, you can see many large, dark stains on the rough floor that spill over to the base of the ledge.

Advancing to the wooden staircase, Thamior was ambushed. Six projectiles flew toward Thamior, some splashing a sticky substance all around him, others causing explosions and sweeps of fire through the area. A short battle ensued where the projectiles being hurled at the party were suddenly not the biggest problem. Thick, rocky tendrils curled out of the darkness to their right, and a gravely voice said, "Who disturbs my lair with these loud noises!?"

The party was able to diffuse the situation and blame the noise on the kobolds that had hidden themselves below another ledge. Their new acquaintance, Thraxx, sent his tendrils after the kobolds and one by one munched on them.

The party agreed to go get him some meat from the meat locker room and he agreed to allow them access to the pit below. The party also convinced Thraxx that is was ok to eat the guard drakes that were guarding the dragon eggs in Thraxx's pit. Descending into the pit, the party broke open the two black dragon eggs and found an additional blue dragon egg that they also broke, killing the nearly hatched dragons inside.

Thraxx also dropped the name of Mondath and implied she was here in the cave. Duckie immediately took interest as Mondath is on her hit list. The group agreed to do a bit more looking around for her before leaving the cave. Bidding Thraxx farewell, the group decided it was time to open the chest from the previous room. Adolphus took one for the team and opened it while the rest of the group hid up on the stairs. Acid did indeed spill forth from the dragon, but Adolphus managed to shrug off most the damage. Inside the chest, Adolphus found a string of pearls, a gold and sapphire ring, and a small pouch containing 6 masterfully cut and polished precious stones.

Continuing down the back passage in this cave, the group found a rope ladder ascending 30 feet upward in a dead-end. Duckie, scouting ahead, found that the hole at the top was covered by a rug. Managing to peek through it, she saw a single human female with short cropped, raven black hair working at a table. Climbing back down and alerting her friends, the group organized an ambush. In a single surprise round, the group was able to kill Frulam Mondath outright.

Looting her chamber, they took her halberd and purple robes from a chest in the chamber. On the table, they found a map.

Spread open on one of the tables is a simple map of the Greenfields area showing the villages the cult attacked and looted. An arrow is sketched in from the Greenfields toward the west and the town of Beregost on the Trade Way, where the arrow turns north. A separate sheet of paper that is covered with numerals in columns contains the note, "Everything must be freighted north to Naerytar. Rezmir allowed us to keep some pearls, a ring, and a handful of small stones." Other papers are of less interest; most of them have bad poetry about dragons.

Duckie took interest in these letters to and from Rezmir, another name on her hitlist. The mystery was unfolding nicely for her.

Deciding to backtrack their way through the cave and not go through the connected guard barracks that they had left alone earlier, the party exited the cave and returned to Greenest. They returned the small pouch of gems to Governor Nighthill, who promised to return them to their rightful owners in the town, but said he didn't recognize the pearls or the ring. "As far as I'm concerned, you've earned them as payment for a job more than well done," he explained. Leosin had already left for Elturel. The group decided to stay the night in Greenest and leave the next day.

The group leveled up to level four as we ended Episode 3! Episode 4 is coming next!