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- Aros – Lightfoot Halfling, Rogue
- Galiena Erenaeth – Half Elf, Celestial Warlock / Druid
- Baldur – Human, Pack Chain Warlock (Spear) / Paladin
- Hellina Kaitlyn Deramu – Human NPC, Wererat
When the party arrives at the Drunken Dragon Inn, they’re greeted by Eric Crowfeather (who, if you don’t remember – was a wereraven who helped the party against the demon attack in Green Haven, where they are now, back in Session 08). He explains that the “job” has been complete, and that Crescent’s people would like to see them. (Crescent was the Moonstone Dragon the party met back in Session 13).
Galiena is glad to hear that the armor has been completed; but she wonders if they should check on the status of the alcoholic apple cider than they’ve been making in the orchard. Baldur has the solution – they get some apple cider and try it on the way to Crescent’s mountain. That way if the … job (armor) is done and it looks great, they celebrate with apple cider; if it looks horrible, they commiserate with their apple cider.
They explain that they want to check the apple cider – and ask Eric if he’s ever killed a Catoblepas – and Eric explains that he tries to stay away from them, but had heard that there had been some recently spotted in the Swamp of Despair, according to rumors. The party escorts Sam back to Dean’s place, and the two brothers are reunited. Dean pays them each 50 gold, which in truth – doesn’t matter too much to the party, because they’d found a considerable amount of gold in the Catoblepas’ den.
The tavern keeper, Gogert Wayfair of the Drunken Dragon, is quite happy to see that the party had found and rescued Sam – and heard the deal that had been arranged with the kobolds in the Swamp of Despair. The tavern keeper gives them each a glass of cider, wondering how it goes – and quickly Galiena and Aros quickly feel the alcoholic effects of the powerful cider which is 11% alcohol. He then asks the party what they would like to call this purple drink; and they eventually settle on Hazy Purple Rain (or better yet, HPR). In her drunken state, she looks at Eric Crowfeather and comments how much she loves his eyes; which inadvertently causes psychic damage to Kavium (though he only took 1 damage, it was enough to put him at a bloodied state again). Brandon Crowfeather smiles, barely able to understand Galiena’s slurred speech, but her look says everything. He helps Kavium get a hold of Galiena, since Brandon Crowfeather has a wife (who the party met in Session 9).
Brandon takes them to Crescent caves and the party (Galiena, Baldur, Aros, and Kavium) are given the Dragon Scale Mail (Moonstone) armor.
Dragon scale mail is made of the scales of one kind of dragon. Sometimes dragons collect their cast-off scales and gift them to humanoids. Other times, hunters carefully skin and preserve the hide of a dead dragon. In either case, dragon scale mail is highly valued.
While wearing this armor, you gain a +1 bonus to AC, you have advantage on saving throws against the Frightful Presence and breath weapons of dragons, and you have resistance to fire damage.
Additionally, you can focus your senses as an action to magically discern the distance and direction to the closest Moonstone dragon within 30 miles of you. This special action can’t be used again until the next dawn.
This armor consists of a coat and leggings (and perhaps a separate skirt) of leather covered with overlapping pieces of metal, much like the scales of a fish. The suit includes gauntlets.
The party spends time, adjusting to the armor (spending time for attunement). They also give clothing to the party to help hide the armor.
Galiena learns that the people of Green Haven have no idea about Crescent living in the mountain. Brandon Crowfeather explains that Lord Brenmoon is doing something with dragon eggs; and Crescent – while still in an egg – had been rescued by Brandon and the other wereravens, who have been at war with Lord Brenmoon. They managed to hatch and raise Crescent in secrecy – and that through magic, they mountain has a anti-magic scrying detection – which is why Crescent does not leave the mountain. Crescent has been critical in helping the rebellion in other ways – with their magic, despite their youth. The idea is that once Crescent hits adulthood – like every other person and animal on the island – Crescent will cease aging – and perhaps at that time, will help lead a strike against Lord Brenmoon, and see if we can put an end to him and his forces, once and for all.
Crescent looks at them adorned in their armor and says, “Now that you’ve been given your armor, do you think you can now help me with my problem? Perhaps, you can finally take care of the perytons along the mountain path. Their numbers have grown exponentially, and now a danger to the wereravens, and the people of Green Haven – the people of Eaglerock, in general since they will fly and look for food. Brandon and the wereravens have spotted humanoids along the path – so there may be creatures working with the perytons.”
Brandon leads them to a small path that leads up the mountain side. “Head up this trail, and you will encounter humanoids. It’s unclear if the humanoids are working with the perytons, or if they’re simply brigands who have set up a small establishment in the cavern that’s up there. We’ve heard sounds of wildlife up there too; so it may simply be brigands who use the cave as a base… or if the wildlife is to appease the perytons. This brigands could be using the perytons to eat the hearts of humanoids, and the loot the bodies. The relationship is unclear.”
The party begins to ascend the path, and it’s not long – even at the slight incline – the still slightly intoxicated Aros and Galiena are quickly winded – and keep bumping into Baldur, wearing him out – Kavium, who is still wounded by Galiena flirting with Brandon is storming ahead.
As the party progresses; they begin to realize that the trek is much more difficult in scalemale armor – and eventually Aros and Galiena sober up and everyone is climbing up successfully. The party eventually reaches an area where the plateau evens out and they spot a cave. Galiena tries concentrate and see what’s inside the cave – but still, slightly intoxicated, she peers into the cave. Her elven eyes, however, fail her…
A cave fisher spits out webbing and barely misses Aros.
Aros looks to see where the webbing came from and spots a creature about twenty feet up on a ledge, shooting the webbing. Aros moves behind Baldur and fires an arrow – but the arrow gets stuck inside some webbing. Galiena manages to see the general direction Aros was firing at – and she attempts to Eldritch Blast it, but also strikes webbing. She then quickly pulls Darko out of the bag and says, “We can use your help with this thing.”
Darko emerges out of the bag and growls, “One of those citizens I overheard has to be a good candidate for possession!”
Kavium throws his javelin – which also manages to get stuck in the creature’s webbing. Baldur shouts, “It’s a white headed cave spitter!”
Galiena asks, “What are its weakness?”
“You need to choke it out,” Baldur shouts. “We may need to work as a team!”
Kavium snarls, “You mean to tell me, that we need to choke it out until it can’t spit out white webbing?”
“Don’t let it shoot you in the face,” Baldur adds, as a caution.
Galiena shouts, “You’re a master at being bait! Go in there and lure it down!”
Kor’Shar, the dragon’s voice in the spear speaks in Baldur’s head, “Do not throw me.”
Baldur says, “Don’t worry.”
Kor’Shar growls, “Seriously. Do not throw me.”
Baldur says, “I got a plan. Trust me.”
Kor’Shar growls, “No, do not throw me.”
Baldur ties a rope around the base of the spear.
DM Note – I had Baldur roll a Survival check to see how secure this rope is to his spear that he’s tying in the heat of battle…
The spear flies – and manages to strike the cave spider creature – but as Baldur yanks on the rope to bring it back – the knot slides right off of the back of the spear, and Baldur hears Kor’Shar‘s voice, “I told you not to throw me.”
The furious cave spider descends from its perch and decides to attack Aros – landing a critical hit – but Aros is able to use his reaction, as a Rogue – to half the critical damage! The creature’s claws scrape against the brand new dragonscale armor, unable to penetrate it.
Galiena brings down Witch Bolt upon the creature – purple energy crackling down with purple bolts striking the cave spider creature repeatedly. Darko strikes the beast with a fire blast; and manages to hit the creature – and the creature’s body begins to bubble slightly and the temperature within the cavern rises. Baldur tries to grab his spear now that the creature is on the ground – but critical fails – and has the back of his spear hit him directly in the eye (doing 6 damage) and creating a massive welt. The cave spider creature turns its attention on Baldur and attacks him – but Baldur manages to cast Shield to prevent both hits from striking Baldur. Aros manages to strike the spider, and Galiena’s Witch Bolt lands some maximum damage – and the temperature in the room rapidly rises – and the creature explodes.
Everyone manages to avoid the splashing searing damage, except for Aros who gets burned on the arm as he tries to protect his face, taking some trivial damage. The party enters the cave, and sticks to the left side of the cave, as Brandon had told them to do – but Baldur grabs his spear out of the creature’s searching corpse. Aros decides that the armor is beautiful, but it’s too heavy and takes the time to swap out the armor – putting the armor inside the backpack and switching back to his familiar leathers.
The cavern eventually leads back out onto the path – and the party continues the march up the path, where they are greeted – just as Brandon had warned – by several humanoids who seem to have been made aware of their approach due to the sounds of combat against the unusual cave spider. The four human figures, slightly hunched – very stout – as if a human had dwarven like features – stare down at the approaching party, “What’s your business up here in these mountains?” one of the humanoid snorts.
Aros steps back into the shadows and stealths and whispers, “The code word is Murder.” He moves up the path slightly, and sees that there’s four humanoids – and inside the cave are several crude tables and beds, and he overhears them, “I wonder -snort- if they’re going to -snort- pay us this time. We can’t -snort- just be guards back -snort-.”
The party decides to approach – with Aros stealthing up ahead, Dearbhán leaps on Aros’ head and turns himself invisible. One of the humanoids excitedly shouts, “Again! What -snort- is your business!”
“We’re cave explorers,” Baldur shouts. “Are you cave explorers too?”
The human growls back, “You need to -snort- go back to the cave and -snort- stick to the right.” One of them spots Kavium and shouts, “One of them is a follower of Prenah!” And the humans begin drawing their weapons.
“You know Prenah,” Baldur asks.
“Prenah is an enemy,” one growls.
“That’s what I figured,” Baldur sighed, “Murder!”
And with that, Aros leaps out of the shadows attempting to use his assassination skill and hits one, landing critical damage. And Dearbhán launches his breath – and two of the humans fail to get out of the surprise breath attack – putting them into a state of euphoria. However, the others change their form and reveal what they truly are – wereboars.
Combat erupts – and Galiena is gouged with one of the creature’s tusks – and feels an infection coursing through her veins – a sensation she has felt before (Galiena was previously infected with Lycanthropy from a wererat – Kaitlyn who now travels with them – back in Session 2). Another one strikes her from the side, and again she feels the infection spread through her body. She calls out, “Aros! Do not lose Lycan Blade! I am going to need it! I can feel it.”
One of the dazed Wereboars wanders aimlessly inside the cavern, as combat with the other three continues. One of them lands a critical hit on Baldur with its tusks, but Baldur is able to avoid the Lycanthropy effects. By the end, the three near the party are taken down – but the one who had been hit with the euphoria breath and wandered in the cave – comes to, and suddenly bolts deeper into the cave – and the sound of a stone door slams shut.
The party, fairly beaten – especially Galiena takes a moment to take a breath…
TO BE CONTINUED.