Feb 21, 2016
Back in the Dwarven Kingdom – Solo Session 2
The companions had decided to take a day for rest before heading out to look for the silver dragon in the mountains. Gulduron decided to go for a walk to clear his head. All this staying underground had brought out some great ideas about creating magical darkness…
Strolling perhaps further than he intended, Gulduron’s dragon spirit and Percival (his owl) both suddenly went on alert. “Beavers and ducks,” thought Gulduron. “This is always when things go bad real fast.” However, on this occasion he was wrong. His familiars’ emotions quickly went to recognition and joy as two huge dragons (one gold and one silver) came into sight flying around the nearest peak.
Gulduron’s dragon spirit (who really needs a name now) again left his shoulder to meet with Drix in the air (“Why does the dragon spirit familiar of the NPC have a name, but the PC’s doesn’t?” wondered Gulduron’s companion as it mingled with Drix in greeting.) as the silver dragon and Brawn (in dragon form, of course) landed on the snow.
Bree jumped off her silver companion and waved to Gulduron in greeting. “Aye, Drix thought he sensed you nearby, so we went a’lookin’ for ye.”
The gold dragon hurrumphed and said in that deep-chested dragony voice, “Ach, ye durn fool. What are ye doin’ out on yer own in yer wee lil’ faerie form? There be nasties about in these parts.”
“I happen to like my ‘wee lil faerie form’ as you put it. I find it liberating. In fact, you’d be surprised at how well you can…” Gulduron began.
“Don’t let the grumpy beast of a brother get ye down. Keeping a faerie form is smart-like just like he keeps his big ole goldy form. However, there is more pressing news if ye would like to ken it,” interrupted Bree.
“Lay it on me,” replied Gulduron.
“Avaleru says there be a big bad white dragon up yonder in the mountain tops. She sent us to deal with it,” explained Brawn. “You wants to be a goin’ with us? You could fly around the white beastie all fancy like. I’m sure it’d be a’real scared,” added Brawn.
“Who’s Avaleru? Never mind, I’ll go. Why not? Should I go back and get my friends?”
“Nah, we saw the evil thing taking a kill back to it’s lair just a bit ago. We needs strike while it’s in a food stupor,” Bree pointed out. And so off they went with Gulduron hopping up behind Bree for a ride. (It wasn’t that he needed a ride because after all, his wee faerie wings let him fly. He just really wanted to ride on a dragon even if it was a summoned and conjured dragon rather than the real deal.)
It should be pointed out that Gulduron did feel slightly guilty for leaving his friends out of an adventure like this, but it seemed that time was of the essence. On the way there, Bree told him about Avaleru being the silver dragon that they were looking for (which explains why their visit later was directly to the point) and that there were some yetis working with the white dragon.
Flying over the mountains, Bree pointed to a dark smudge on the side. “That’s the beastie’s cave!” she yelled over the wind. As they got closer, several guttural howls erupted into the sky. The yetis had spotted them.
“So much for surprise. We gots to get down and knock ’em out right quick!” yelled Brawn as he dove to the ground.
The yetis (being only CR 4’s) really had no chance. The two dragons, spear wielding warrior, and wee faerie boy made quick work of the first two before the white dragon (CR 10) had even emerged from his cave. While the white dragon made a stand of it, it was only one large dragon versus two huge dragons (and the wee faerie boy!). Despite blasting its icy breath weapon on all the heroes (who passed their reflex saves), they were able to take down the white dragon to a decimated level rather quickly. At the end of the battle, the white dragon tried to fly away only to have the larger dragons give chase and end the battle in the air.
Brawn was a little bloody but looked like he had enjoyed himself. (You never can tell with dragons. The facial expressions are so hard to read.). “Well, that twernt so bad,” he said.
The heroes decided to check out the cave for more information. What they found was a little alarming. It looked like the white dragon had been cut from the rocks inside the cave much like the blue wyvern Gulduron and his friends had seen, and symbols of the eye had been scrawled into the cave wall; however, it was what was on the floor near the dragon’s apparent bed that was most shocking: three cracked and now empty dragon eggs. Next to the shells was a letter that said:
“You will wait until the appointed which I will give you. Remember the consequences of disobedience. Do not act before I allow it. To tide you over, I send you a few morsels which do not agree with our cause. Do with them as you will but make sure they are dead. — Dulan”
“Beavers and ducks!” exclaimed Gulduron. “I knew that fool sent us here for a reason! Oh, he’ll get his just desserts, or deserts, whatever…”
“We must take this news back to Avaleru. I don’t ken what the egg shells can mean, but I’d wager more than a pint it’s not good. Go back and gather your friends, then head to Avaleru,” said Bree briskly.
Did the egg shells mean there were more evils dragons on the loose? If so, how quickly do dragons grow? What if the eggs were how Dulan was “controlling” the chromatic dragons? What if this poor white dragon was merely mourning the loss of its children and Gulduron had come in to blast the grieving parent into OblivAeon? A dark mood settled over Gulduron as the dragons dropped him off a goodly little distance away from the Dwarven city.