Rolling down the river - session recaps through 1/27/2010

The first encounter on the river was with giant crocodiles. The monstrous beasts tried to climb on board the barges and eat crewmembers, and they succeeded in eating one of the regular crew on the other craft. Thoric was nearly devoured, but Xakoraki pulled him free, risking her own life to do so. Eventually, the crocs were repelled. There was some sort of crocodile orgy going on across the river, and the barges rolled over them without further incident.

On the morning of the second day, they entered the relatively still waters of a swampy lake. The sun had not yet burned off the mist when two black dragons ambushed the barges from below the surface. They savaged the crew of the other barge, and did some serious damage to the party. But Ander was able to jump onto the dragon and stab it repeatedly while hanging under its wing, and the other characters also landed some pretty serious blows. Xakoraki was able to keep the dragon from fleeing, and well-timed spell from Boreas kept the dragon from absconding with Kiosi.

The other dragon joined the fight, and landed on the roof of the cabin where Boreas was standing. Two more characters jumped up to join the fight, and then Boreas let loose with a thunderwave that collapsed the cabin beneath them. Djim was trapped in the wreckage, and cargo started sliding off the side. The dragon smelled the platinum, and started digging in the debris for it. Then both of the dragons consipired to tip the boat and dump the platinum overboard so that they could collect it. The party got off a parting shot before the barge drifted away from the site of sunken treasure, but the dragons managed to take wing with a small chest of platinum apiece.

The collapsing cabin disrupted the binding for the elemental that drove the barge. It took everyone working the poles, but they were able to steer the barge into the other one and lash them together. They revived three crew members, but were unable to save the rest. They steered towards the bank and started salvaging what they could.

While they were working, three canoes with black dragonborn approached. They halted at a polite distance and hailed the dragonborn in the party as brothers, asking if they could provide assistance. The party accepted, and the dragonborn drew alongside the barge. The leader introduced himself as Kojex, and said that his hunting party was on it's way to slay the dragons that attacked the party. He said that two days ago the dragons had killed a foraging party and taken some crates of gold.

The party entered into an agreement with the dragonborn - They would hunt the dragons together and retrieve their treasure, and anything else that the dragons had would be split evenly among all members of the combined hunting party. Djim, Kiosi, Orvalion, Vrisana, and the three crew members would stay at the dragonborn village while the rest of the party went with Kojex and his eight hunters. Kojex also extended an invitation to Orvalion and Xakoraki, telling them they were welcome to join the village whenever they were ready to settle down.