Session 12

=Session 12 - March 29th, 2018 - Death and Birth=

The session began in the dragon hatchery chamber deep in the cave at the raider’s camp. Having agreed to let Thia hatch one for herself, she had the party move the two smaller eggs outside of the incubation cavern. Doing so, she said would make it so not all of them would hatch together and eat one another. Lachlan confirmed that chromatic dragon breeds follow this practice, with the parent returning to care for the strongest surviving hatchling. They rested the eggs in the nearby shrine room.

Unknowing how long until the egg began to hatch, the party took a short one hour rest in the shrine room while Thia remained alone in the hatchery. Afterwards, while it was certainly evening most in the party did not feel comfortable sleeping in this cave they had not fully explored. Thus, Rachen, Rufus, and Marcus decided to go exploring the last few chambers while the rest of the group remained in the shrine room, guarding Thia. The three retraced their steps back towards the large central cavern with Marcus in the lead carrying a torch.

Previously, they passed through this large cavern quietly; however, this time Rachen slipped and made a loud echoing sound. Marcus lifted his torch just in time to see the swarm of bats carpeting the ceiling descend into a whirling storm of dark flesh. In between the circling bat-storm were a number of larger red blood sucking stirges that attacked. Before they could act, Marcus and Rufus had fallen to the ground unconscious and Rachen frantically tried to swat away at the storm. Yelling for help, Rachen backed out of the cavern watching the bat-storm slowly flood out towards the front of the cave as the red stirges continued to swarm around his friends.

Rachen knelt down and grabbed the still burning torch, lit the glue bomb he got from the kobolds body earlier and tossed it above the stirges. The ones that weren’t restrained by the resulting mass of hot glue fled the chamber with the rest of the bats. As the rest of the party caught up only seconds had elapsed. Lachlan arrived first, and went to the barely-breathing body of Rufus and used his medical kit to stabilize him. The others arrived to see Rachen kneeling over the still body of Marcus, as he said, “Marcus is dead.” Cadmus cast cure wounds on Rufus, waking him, before he saw to Sobek’s last rites for their monk friend.

After carrying Marcus’ body back to the dragon shrine the group found that the egg Thia had been tending began hatching while they were away. The party waited a few more hours for the hatchling to break out of its egg, and eat the dead kobolds they dragged into the hatchery. During that time, Rufus explored the rope ladder in the chute near the shrine. Quietly going to the top, he realized what covered the top was merely thick rugs, and dim lamplight could be seen around the edges. He returned to the shrine to find Thia named the black hatchling Elysian, and it was finished eating.

With the party ready to leave the cave, Rufus wanted to first explore the final chamber at the top of the chute. After a quick discussion, Rufus and Barlo returned up the rope ladder and waited for the rest of the group to circle back through the cavern. Rachen, Cadmus, and Barlo each carried between them one of the two dragon eggs, or the body of Marcus. Passing through the fungus chamber again they told the still hanging naked halfling to ‘hang around’ for a few more minutes. The prisoner they tied up in this area of the cavern was gone, and the barricade of cots they set up was strewn about the nearby barracks room.

Whoever had been in the final chamber was gone. Rufus and Barlo climbed up and found the entire floor covered with rugs. The party quickly searched this bedchamber and found a trunk of female clothes, and a second trunk with the robes of the Wearer of Purple - Frulam Mondath. They did still find the passed out cultist they had hogtied in the empty treasure room, and decided to let him sleep. Finally, the group cut down the Tom Haverford and Rufus was so kind as to clothe him with one of Frulam’s dresses.

In the process of freeing Tom, Lachlan decided to use the empty vials from Marcus’ herbalism kit to gather up fungus spores. He quickly hallucinated a fiery scene that caused him to go running into the cold night air outside the cave. The party decided to leave the cave and camp area instead of sleeping there, and so Cadmus and Rufus worked to repair one of the wagons in the camp. After about another hour in the chill of night the two dragon eggs and body of Marcus were being pulled along in the cart by Cadmus and Rachen. They pulled the cart over the next hill to the forested cave of Barlo’s bear spirit, making camp for the night.

The next morning, they began their journey using two horses to draw the wagon while they trotted along and a couple took turns walking. The Greenfields were easy travelling and when they passed Greenest by midday they continued onward, but Tom Haverford went to find the nearest tavern. The party continued north along the Greenriver, making camp by the path at night, for six more full days. At normal pace, that trip by horseback would generally take an entire tenday. They were able to get more speed by pairing up on horses and pushing them, knowing they would take them no further than Elturiel. Where the north south Greenriver meets the east west Black Channel and forms the Black Lake, the small city-state of Elturiel rests.

Not wanting to enter the city openly with two dragon eggs and a live dragon hatchling on a leash, Thia and most of the group stayed out of the walls in the woods nearby. It was Rachen and Lachlan, who were the only others to have been to Elturiel before, who went in to meet with the monks. It was late morning when they entered. Outside the monastery they were approached by a few monks and Lachlan told them of Marcus’ loss, how they were to meet Leosin, and their unique cargo. Leosin was summoned and came out to meet them with a group of eight more monks to escort them through the cities side sally gate - with the blessing of the city guard.

They returned to the waiting group outside and went around the far side of the city, entering in a discreet entrance, and travelling by cramped side streets. Even doing this, there were a number of gasps, stares, and points at the dog sized black dragon on a leash. Back in the safety of the monastery, the monks began burial arrangements for Marcus as Leosin spoke with the group. Leosin listened to what they learned in the camp, and reinforced the idea of sailing down the Black Channel to ensure they arrived at Black Landing first. To do that they would need to enlist the help of one of Leosin’s friends in the paladin order that protects Elturiel, one that is also aware of the trouble with the cult.

This paladin was named Ontharr Frume, and they agreed to go meet him at his ‘headquarters’, the tavern named “A Pair of Black Antlers”, later in the evening. First, they would rest and spend the day shopping around town. Thia would stay in the monastery with Elysian and her eggs, and Leosin assured her the monks and the Dominion would support her decision to raise the whelp. Although, they were not sure what to do with the other two eggs at this point. She gave the group her shopping list, and they split up.

Rufus went to another tavern, “The Bee and Barb”, looking for rumors, but the best he heard was of a huddled wagon spiriting along a live dragonling in the city. The group went about shopping and the session ended here, before reconvening later that night at “A Pair of Black Antlers” tavern.

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