This Might Not Be Our Dragon - 6/24 session recap

Thoric started a theological discussion with Kylian, and the party relocated to a tavern called O'Connors on the south side of town. Instead of burgers and grits, Xakoraki was able to get lamb schwerma and some sort of rice cous-cous. Boreas performed a Sending to Vrisana to tell her that they were ready for this evening.

As twilight approached, Ander changed clothes and slipped out of town. He was the first to see the distraction. A red dragon flying low from the south swooped upon some wagons straggling into town before sundown. They were about a half mile away, but Ander could see the wagons engulfed, and running human figures on fire. The dragon picked one up and bit it in half as it was fleeing. Ander ran up close to the wall and made his way to the side of town opposite the spectacle.

After a couple of close calls, Ander snuck into the keep and found Caelebhan's quarters. He uttered the magic password, and stepped into the room. Minutes passed as he scanned for the journal, and he was starting to get worried when he finally spotted it on a low shelf. It looked as if it hadn't been touched in weeks, so he carefully lifted it and substituted the fake without disturbing the dust too much. He then made it out on the heels of two guards who stepped outside briefly to catch a glimpse of the dragon attack. Soon he was over the wall and making his way to the rendezvous at the teleportation circle.

In town, the rest of the party heard the roar of a dragon overhead and the screams of people on the street. Figuring that they'd be able to slip outside with the fleeing crowds, they began to move down the road towards the south gate. They were somewhat surprised, then, to find that the gates had been shut, and that no one was trying to get out of town. After a few minutes of discussion, Kylian rode up to the gates with the rest of the party behind him, and he demanded that they let him out to fight the dragon. The guards asked if he was suicidal, but eventually relented. The gates were open just long enough to let them out, and then it was barred behind them.

As they moved away from the wall, the party was able to see the dragon in the field of boulders to their north. A couple of guardsmen were running out from the walls of the town, apparently attacking the dragon head on. This definitely seemed curious and suicidal. The dragon blasted them with flame, and devoured one.

Xakoraki said, "Oh, shit. This might not be our dragon." The dragon turned and noticed them, whereupon it beat it's massive wings and started to circle for altitude. "Run for the river!" Thoric took up the cry as well, and Kylian followed through with it. He lifted Thoric by the scruff of his neck and deposited him on his horse before spurring it towards the river. Xakoraki was left to run behind. Boreas, seeing the futility of running at this point, stood his ground and prepared to teleport to one side if the dragon attacked him. Sure enough, the dragon dropped, gained speed, and then leveled out on a direct course for Boreas.

As it drew alarmingly close, Boreas saw it wink at him. The blast of air almost knocked him over as the dragon passed overhead, and flames erupted all around him. He was not harmed however, and he held his staff up high in a warding gesture. He then used prestidigitation to simulate minor charring of his clothes, and he mimed patting out small flames on his sleeves and shoulders. The dragon rose out of it's low pass and flew steadily off to the southeast.

After reaching the river, Kylian looked back, and seeing the dragon flying away, turned his horse and headed for the teleportation circle south of town. Boreas and Xakoraki joined up a little way down the road and followed after them. The sun set, and a little while later everyone regrouped at the circle.

Ander pretended that he had forgotten to get the journal, but then showed them that he had been successful. The party almost decided to teleport to Vrisana's tower or the cursed mesa before someone realized that her distraction would be taking place in one or both of those locations. Rather than make things more complicated, they opted to teleport back to Orvalion's den. He met them with sword drawn, but after seeing who it was, he sheathed his blade.

Orvalion took a couple of hours to read the journal, and he eventually found what he had been looking for. To harness the destructive power of water, he would have to construct a combination warding and teleportation circle that would be powered by crushing pressure. Casmet mentioned the construction of such a device in his journal. Orvalion said that he would start creating one, and that afterwards, the party was welcome to join him in his trip to the southwest. He planned to teleport close to the coastline, then hire a ship to take them out into deep water. The party said that they were prepared to accompany him.

The Inn's on Fire - 6/17 session recap

Thoric and Boreas made it down to their Inn (Molly's Bed and Banquet) without being attacked. They did get a few interested looks, however. When they went to get rooms from Ian the innkeeper, he asked them if they had coin. Thoric said they definitely did. Ian eyed the chest meaningfully, and Thoric said no, that was just linens and things. Then he winked conspiratorially. Thoric paid for five rooms, and described his other three companions :
- A halfling, harmless fellow
- A beautiful woman
- A man of the road, an elf

Naturally, Ian was only slightly confused when Ander, Xakoraki, and Kylian came in from their shopping trip. Once reunited, the party decided to go ahead and divvy up the gold. Ander went to scout the walls and defenses while everyone else counted coins. A few hours later, each player had an extra 40 lbs of loot in their backpacks. They went down to a nice dinner while Ander remained out scouting.

After dinner, Thoric excused himself and went to the temple of Linitheriva to pay his respects and meditate over a sculpture of a rose. Boreas, Kylian, and Xakoraki lingered in the dining room over a few mugs of an excellent stout from down south.

Perhaps an hour later, someone came running into the inn yelling, "Fire! Fire next door!" Most of the patrons leaped to their feet and ran out to look, including the innkeeper. A few stayed, including Boreas and Xakoraki. Kylian left his backpack with Xak and went to go help put out the fire. He joined the bucket brigade as it slowly formed, and started tossing water on the flames.

Boreas and Xak decided to check on their rooms, and as they were heading up the stairs a man from the common room said, "Excuse me, but I think you dropped something." He was holding a gold coin. Boreas stopped for a moment to interact with the man, and Xakoraki continued up the stairs. As she rounded the corner, she saw a man fiddling with her door. He was wearing mostly black, and had a dark bandana over the lower part of his face. His eyes went wide, and he immediately dashed to the end of the hallway and smashed through the window to escape.

Meanwhile, Boreas was looking as the man pointed to a spot on the floor where he supposedly found the coin. Boreas knew something was not right, and sure enough, Xakoraki came bounding down the stairs yelling about thieves. She grabbed the guy, and Boreas incapacitated him with a well-placed blast of cold. Xak started to tie up the frozen man.

Boreas then went back upstairs to check the rooms, and found all of the doors locked. He came back downstairs, and Xakoraki told him to check all of the rooms to make sure no one was inside, or that anything was missing. He went to do this, all while the building next door was burning. Kylian was helping as much as possible, but the flames were still spreading. Thoric returned from his visit to the temple to find chaos in the streets. He then immediately went to check on the rooms and treasure with Boreas and Xakoraki. A few minutes later they were finally satisfied that nothing had been stolen, and they wandered back downstairs and outside. Thoric tried to get a guardsman in the bucket brigade to attend to the attempted theft, but was turned away in the face of the immediate danger.

By this time, the fire had spread to the roof of their inn. Boreas, with a bored sigh, unleashed a freezing fog which dampened the flames considerably, and kept the inn from burning down too. After another 15-20 minutes, the flames were finally extinguished by the bucket brigade.

The guardsman was then willing to listen to the party's story about the attempted theft, and took the restrained man into custody.

While all of this was going on, Ander was completing his survey of the defenses. He determined a couple of likely spots to scale the walls, and got a feel for the habits of the guardsmen on top.

Bigby's Happy Ending - 6/10 session recap

After two full sessions of planning, we finally had... another session of planning, some roleplaying for a character whose player was absent, and a single die roll.

As the party stood on the snow-covered mountainside, a gleaming silver dragon descended near them. It was perhaps 100-150 feet long, nose to tail, and could not be viewed directly for long. Orvalion thanked her for answering his call, and he referred to her by name : Niathramyina (nye-ath-rah-mye-ee-na)

She asked if the party wanted her to provide a diversion. When Ander began to describe possible ways for her to distract the town she merely asked for how long she needed to distract them. Ander said for about ten minutes at twilight. He said that in such conditions it might be harder for the people of Shandrapur to determine her true color. She replied that it shouldn't be a problem, and in an instant of swirling snow appeared as a red dragon. She changed back to her true form a moment later and then gave her terms.

Niathramyina stated that each of the party would have to swear a binding oath to help Orvalion destroy the dragonstone. Everyone gave their assent, and as they did so they felt a tingling pass over them briefly. She said that they must all pledge a single service to her in the future as well. When asked, Orvalion said that he thought that it was a fair exchange, since she was risking her own safety. It was only fair that she ask the party to do the same for her in return. The party agreed.

She said that it would take her about a day and a half to fly there, and that she would linger in the vicinity for a week. If she had not received a sending before then, she would go about her business. And with that, she took to the air. She had gone only about a quarter of a mile when she suddenly disappeared from sight.

Thoric spent the next two days manufacturing a replica of the journal with the help of Orvalion's recollections about it. The party then teleported to Shandrapur and got a room at the inn. Thoric and Boreas went up to the keep to speak with Caelebhan, and were granted an audience. Matt roleplayed Thoric's diplomacy with a little coaching from Sean and Jen, and then he rolled a 17 on the die. Caelebhan seemed to accept their reasoning without any question, and he asked a little about what they found at the cursed mesa. He agreed to give them the painting back, and also paid them 10,000 gold (5,000 apiece) for bringing back hard information about Orvalion's whereabouts.

Thoric and Boreas left the keep toting a two hundred pound chest full of gold and a leather case with the painting in it.

Next week we'll see whether they can make it to the inn unmolested.